A Shot Rolling Ship (28 page)

The Sword of Revenge is the second book in the Republic trilogy by Jack Ludlow.

Lucius Falerius is dead, and Rome in its entirety mourns the passing of its most powerful senator. It falls to his young son Marcellus to carry out his father’s legacy and restore the rights promised to the defeated Sicilian slaves, yet there are those who will not see the honour of Rome compromised and the slaves assuaged.

On the Roman border provinces there is trouble, and the legions move north to neutralise the threat posed by the Celts. The confederation of Celtic tribes is united under one Chieftain, the formidable and unpredictable Brennos, yet there is a plot to see him dead and the confederation broken. For Brennos, the treachery comes from within his own family, for which he will exact a brutal and bloody revenge.

1033, the Norman/French border. Six brothers, the sons of Tancred de Hauteville, prepare to experience their first taste of battle. They have been trained since birth to become great warriors, following in their father’s footsteps. As knights, they have but one true purpose: to fight. Nothing matters more to a Norman of noble birth than the ability to engage in battle; nothing has greater importance than skilful swordsmanship and winning a fight – and the de Hautevilles are used to winning.

Denied service with their duke, they are forced to take employment as mercenaries: the de Hautevilles have pledged no direct allegiance; their unequaled battle skills are for hire to the highest bidder. Through their position as a band of warriors, they are able to turn events to their advantage, eventually claiming victory and lands of their own.

Victory and defeat, betrayal and revenge combine as the desperation to rule becomes an intense battle, testing even the strongest of ties. But through it all shines the loyalty of blood that binds families – and warriors – together.

The Byzantine Empire rules in Southern Italy, but the indigenous populations are restless. The Lombards are no exception – unwilling subjects to an overwhelming military empire – yet they have been too divided to threaten the hegemony of Constantinople.

One of their number, Arduin of Fassano, is appointed by the young Byzantine general, Michael Doukeianos, to hold the key to Apulia, the vital castle of Melfi, unaware that Arduin intends to join his Lombard brethren and rise up in revolt, hiring to aid him the most-feared of all the soldiers in Christendom: the Norman mercenaries of Campania.

Led by William de Hauteville, known as Bras de Fer, the eldest of five mercenary brothers, the Normans cross into Apulia intent on more than aiding revolt: they are seeking land and titles for themselves.

Will the might of the Byzantine Empire crush Arduin’s Lombard revolt? Will his ambitious plan succeed with the help of those great warriors, the de Hauteville brothers? Or will the treachery that stalks the land favour the Normans?

Jack Ludlow’s sequel to Mercenaries is a thrilling journey with the de Hauteville family and the medieval world they inhabit.

In twenty years the de Hauteville brothers have gone from penniless obscurity to become the most potent warrior family in Christendom: depended on by the Pope, feared by Byzantium and respected by the Holy Roman Emperor. Now, at the head of the tribe stands Robert, who has only one aim: to expand his power by military conquest. Yet his equal has yet to make his presence felt.

Roger, the youngest of the brothers, is a giant in build and a great fighter. In company – and sometimes in conflict – with Robert, he will seek to raise the family to the pinnacle of influence, not as vassals beholden to a greater power, but as rulers in their own right. Their chosen enemies are the mighty Saracen Emirs of Sicily, and conquest comes before all, even if the path is not easy. The Saracens are like a hydra-headed monster. There are enemies at Roger’s back as well as before him, battles to fight and defeats to be reversed, and treacheries both secret and transparent to circumvent in a long and bloody campaign.

Yet the loyalty of blood that binds this family of warriors together is still present and it is that, above everything, which will in the end be the catalyst that propels the name de Hauteville to the pinnacle of power, as they undertake, with papal blessing, the first true crusade of the 11th century.

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D
AVID
D
ONACHIE
was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well as the Roman Republic, and, under the pen-name of Jack Ludlow, has published a number of historical adventure novels. David lives in Deal with his partner, the novelist Sarah Grazebrook.

T
HE
J
OHN
P
EARCE SERIES

By the Mast Divided

A Shot Rolling Ship

An Awkward Commission

A Flag of Truce

The Admirals’ Game

An Ill Wind

Blown Off Course

Enemies at Every Turn

A Sea of Troubles

Written as Jack Ludlow

T
HE
R
EPUBLIC SERIES

The Pillars of Rome

The Sword of Revenge

The Gods of War

T
HE
C
ONQUEST SERIES

Mercenaries

Warriors

Conquest

T
HE
R
OADS TO
W
AR SERIES

The Burning Sky

A Broken Land

A Bitter Field

T
HE
C
RUSADES SERIES

Son of Blood

Soldier of Crusade