The Iron Way: Volume 2 (The Sarmatian Trilogy)
175 AD Vindolanda, Britannia. Sarmatian warrior Kai has paid for his people’s defeat on the Danube by pledging his arms to Rome. At the edge of the empire, the Sarmatians fight to keep their world alive. At the milecastle near the centre of the Wall, the sentry nods; below, the raiders move silently. Kai shares a campfire with Lucius, the Roman commander. He searches in the shadows for Arite. Perhaps she is in the women’s camp. Also, in the shadows, her husband Bahadur is looking for her. The signal fires are lit, the horns blown; it is time to fight, to die for Rome. Kai picks 20 riders to lead the advance. Twenty-five more years, after fulfilling their oath, and they can go home; Kai will see his daughter Tomyris.
From among the enemy dead, Kai rescues a boy. One of the raiders has escaped, the man on the tall horse. Kai and his sister Gaevani ride out beyond the Wall on a quest for justice, but they’ve got it wrong. When freedom is on the agenda, existing alliances, even oaths by the sword, may be threatened. ‘Something is stirring, north of the Wall,’ the Votadini chief tells Lucius, ‘something that your Empire cannot stop.’
This masterpiece is a tale of a conquered people and their tentative truce with invading imperialists, affording each other a portion of mutual respect, yet tinged with distrust. A great story from a fascinating period, superbly written, this is Book 2 in the Sarmatian Trilogy. It is masterfully written with beautiful language, and yet it still has a Roman province sense of place and an antique feel. It must have been quite a feat digging out such historical verisimilitude.
