When the Eagle Hunts

When the Eagle Hunts is a 2002 novel by Simon Scarrow, set in 44 AD during the Roman invasion of Britain. It is the third book in the Eagle Series.

Plot summary

It is the winter of AD 44 and after a series of bloody battles, Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester) has fallen to the invading Roman army.

As General Vespasian, legate (Legatus legionis) of the Second Legion, helps plan their next campaign, General Plautius's wife and children are shipwrecked in a storm. They fall into the hands of a dark sect of Druids who now demand the return of their brotherhood taken prisoner by the Romans. Durotrigan tribesmen raid several towns near Camulodunum and the legion is sent to repel them. They stumble upon a village pillaged with its population massacred. Loot is found as then raiding party intend to return. Hence the legion ambushes the returning raiders. The local merchant laison Diomedes secretly executes the survivors of the ambush and sets off to a vendetta to avenge his lost family. After the attack Macro and Cato are summoned to General Plautius' tent.

Two soldiers (Centurion Macro and Optio Cato) volunteer from the Second Legion of Legate Vespasian to venture deep into hostile territory in an attempt to rescue the prisoners before they are sacrificed to the Druid's dark gods. Cato and Macro are sent to locate the General's missing family with only the help of two British guides; Boudica and her cousin Prasutagus. It is revealed that Prasutagus was once a druid and with his help Macro and Cato infiltrate a village holding prisoners, but Plautius' family is nowhere to be found.

The group then raids a druid lodge site, but find only a Greek merchant liaison impaled on a spit. The merchant informs the group of a druid headquarters in his dying moments. The group then heads over to the headquarters and encounters a prisoner transfer revealed to have Plautius' family aboard. In a daring ambush Macro is injured and they are unable to rescue the prisoners. The Roman army arrive soon enough as they continue their campaign against the Durotrigans. Cato is dressed up like a woad in nude and is sent to investigate a secret entry point. After returning Cato leads a small ban of Romans to infiltrate the stronghold and rescue the General's family whilst it is under siege. The attack goes without a hitch and there is desperate fighting to save the General's family. The book ends with Cato taking a serious sickle wound after taking out the Head Druid and saving the general's family from a funeral pyre.

External links

• The author's web page for this book may be found here