Page 124 of Scorched Earth

Nic trotted his horse along the ranks of men, his bodyguard keeping tight ranks around him. “Nic!” she called out. “Come here.”

His mouth twisted, and Teriana could see the boy was thinking of ignoring her.

“My how things have changed since the prodigy decided to give him the time of day,” Quintus said with a chuckle, but then fell silent as Nic reined his horse next to theirs.

“Don’t ask me anything you know I can’t tell you.”

She gave Nic a long look. “Hello, Austornic. How is the march treating you?”

The sigh he gave her was world-weary. “Well enough. Is there something you need?”

Teriana wanted to press him for information. To dig Marcus’s plan out of him. But instead she asked, “Are you worried?”

“Why would I be?”

Quintus gave a soft snort of amusement and Teriana punched him in the side, then cursed as her fingers clanked against steel. “It’s your first real battle, and I assume you have no idea what the plan is.”

The muscles in Nic’s jaw flexed, but his tone was bland as he said, “I know what I need to know.” He dug his heels into his horse and continued up the line of men.

“He doesn’t know shit,” Quintus cackled. “But I see that Marcus is already starting to rub off on him. Poker face and nonanswers. I wonder how much longer until we find the puppy disappearing for solo jaunts where he stares broodingly off into the distance.”

Teriana watched Nic straighten his cloak and square his posture as he rode up next to Marcus’s golden mare. “I don’t want Nic to get hurt trying to impress him. He’s just a boy.”

“Don’t worry,” Quintus said. “Marcus will keep them out of the thick of it.”

“How could that possibly go wrong given that we allknow what we need to know.” Teriana couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Her friend laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Welcome to the life of an Empire legionnaire, Teriana. Go where you’re told to go. Do what you’re told to do. Try not to die while doing it. It doesn’t matter how terrifying the enemy is, because the senate looking down from their hill is far,farworse.”

Sighing, Teriana rested her forehead against Quintus’s back. Theuncertainty exhausted her. Made her want to lie down and curl in on herself, allowing sleep to take her away from all the troubles of this world. As if sensing her thoughts, Quintus took hold of her interlocked hands where they rested against his armored stomach. “Have a nap,” he said. “I won’t let you fall, and when you wake, we should be there. Then the interesting part will begin.”

“Interesting isn’t the word I’d use.” Yet the swaying motion of the horse lulled her, and she slipped into a shallow sleep.

Lydia sat on a bench next to her, the Valerius gardens a riot of green and color, dappled light drifting through the trees that shaded them. “How long will you be here?” Lydia asked.

The question felt more important than it should have been, but Teriana didn’t know why. So she only said, “I don’t know.”

“It feels as though your visits grow shorter and shorter.” Lydia sipped at her lemonade, green eyes unfocused behind her spectacles, as though she were seeing something that Teriana did not.

“My mother’s decision.” She pressed fingers to her temples, the reason for her mother’s behavior lurking just beyond reach. “Or maybe your father’s. I… I can’t remember.”

Footsteps thudded down a path in the distance, an angry voice filling her ears.

Curious, Teriana rose and went to the wall that divided the property from the neighbors. As she rested her elbows on the ancient stone, the world abruptly fell dark, and Marcus stood before her.

“I knew her,” he said. “When I was a small child. I used to play with her in her father’s library. She was kind.”

“Teriana?”

It brightened to daylight again, Lydia leaning against the wall. “That’s Gaius Domitius,” she said, and Teriana’s eyes tracked to the young man storming through the shaded gardens.

Marcus.

Except no… It wasn’t. This young man had longer hair and the soft arms of one who did no labor, the petulant expression on his face not an expression Marcus ever wore.

“We were playmates as children,” Lydia said. “He’d read books to me in my father’s library, as I didn’t yet know how. Then he went away for a time, and when he came back, he’d grown cruel.”

Teriana frowned. “You’re mistaken. It was Marcus you knew, not Gaius. He told me.”