Page 115 of Scorched Earth

“Lydia, hurry!” Malahi screamed. “Don’t let him die!”

All around her was the chaos of her friends threatening Ceenah and the Anuk drawing blades, but Lydia tuned them out as she drew in more power.

Keep it! It’s yours!

“No,” she told the voice, then she exhaled and poured every drop into Killian.

The wound knit beneath her hand just as his heart began to stutter.

Her own heart caught with the certainty that she’d been too late, but then Killian’s eyes met hers. “You won the battle.”

Lydia didn’t trust herself to speak as she looked down at their interlocked fingers and all that they promised before meeting his gaze again.

Killian gave her a lopsided grin. “If almost dying was all it took, I’d have fallen on my own sword a long time ago.”

“You’re mad.” Tears rushed down her cheeks, but Lydia was smiling as she turned to look at Ceenah, whose eyes were wide, lips slightly parted as though Lydia had not done what she’d expected. Ignoring the woman’s expression, Lydia said, “Now I’m ready.”

42KILLIAN

The rest of what Ceenah had to teach Lydia came to her easily. While Killian sparred with Xadrian, they sat on the sand to rest, one growing older only to grow young again. It never seemed less miraculous than the first time Killian had witnessed it.

Except each time Lydia walked away from the lesson with a smile on her face, Killian saw something that she did not. An uneasiness in Ceenah’s eyes that made him nervous despite it seeming as though he’d been given that which his heart most desired.

Every night since Lydia had won her inner battle and healed him, she’d slept in his arms. Her hands were free of the gloves she’d worn for so long, the feel of her fingers on his skin driving him to a different form of madness, for there was no gods-damned privacy to be found on the endless dunes. So it was no small amount of relief when he finally scented the sea on the air, his eyes searching the horizon until he finally caught sight of the small port town that sat on the coastline of a white-capped ocean.

Killian had heard that the desert ran straight down to the sea along the western edge of Anukastre, yet the lack of plant life still felt strange to him, having grown up on the verdant southern tip of Mudamora. Baird muttered various explanations that attributed this to the weather, but Killian couldn’t help but wonder if there was some truth to what Ceenah claimed: that the blight had wreaked such havoc on these lands that life had never been able to carve its way back.

A thought that vanished from his head the moment Killian saw the blue sails on the ship docked at the town. “The Maarin are here.”

“We trade with them a great deal,” Ceenah replied. “They respect our laws and keep our secrets, especially given that it gives them a near monopoly on our business.”

“I recognize that ship,” Lydia said, shading her eyes. “It’s theKairense. They rescued Dareena and me from Mudaire and took us south.”

“A good omen given this is where we part.” Ceenah lowered her hand, which she’d been using to shade her eyes. “May the Six be with you in your travels and in the war to come.”

They all said their good-byes, Agrippa, Malahi, and Baird moving ahead toward the port town. “Go with them,” Killian said to Lydia. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She hesitated, then followed their friends. Killian waited until she was out of earshot, then rounded on Ceenah. “She did something when she healed me. Something unexpected, and you’re withholding that information. She’s overcome enough obstacles, and if there is another forthcoming, I’d prefer to be prepared for it.”

The Queen of Anukastre eyed him for a long moment, then lowered her scarf so her face was revealed. “You know how a lodestone can draw nearby pieces of iron to it?” When he nodded, she said, “Hegeria’s marked are like lodestones for the essence of life, drawing that which is nearby into them whenever they have a need for it. When Lydia healed you, she didn’t just draw the essence that you’d lost, she drew it from leagues around. I could see it racing toward her like clouds on a storm wind, and in all my life, I’ve never seen such a thing done. Never heard of it. It was as though her need was so great that she called for all life on Reath to aid her.”

Killian’s skin prickled. “What does that mean?”

Ceenah lifted one shoulder. “Only the Six can say for sure, but…”

“But…?”

“She told me of what occurred when you escaped Rufina. How the Six stepped onto the mortal plain to stymie their brother’s meddling. Hegeria herself laid hands on Lydia, yes?”

Killian nodded, his pulse roaring.

“That makes her twice touched by a god,” Ceenah said. “Who can say what power that would bring, but I think what I saw when she healed you was just a taste.”

“Given what we face, that seems a good thing,” he said. “But that is not the sense you’re giving me, Your Majesty.”

“Because I feel it makes the Corrupter covet her all the more,” Ceenah replied. “He cannot force her to misuse her mark, but he will sense any moment of weakness and dangle temptation before her. I think it not your blade that you’ll use most to protect her, Lord Calorian. I think it will be your heart.”

Without another word, she wrapped her scarf around her face and retreated back into the desert. Xadrian swayed on his feet, seeming torn between holding his ground and following his mother, but then he said to his soldiers, “Stay with her. Those in the town may not take favorably to Mudamorian faces, so I will escort them to their ship.” Then he flicked his fingers at Killian. “Come.”