Page 127 of Scorched Earth

On the northern bank, the Gamdeshians were a flurry of activity. Smoke from fires rose into the air, great vats steaming above them, and piles of stones rested next to fifteen catapults, all armed and ready to deploy when the boats came into range.

“They’re going to die.” Horror built in her stomach. “Quintus, he needs to stop this. This is wrong, they’re all going to burn or drown, and he’s just sitting there”—she wheeled around to look at Marcus—“eating a fucking apple!”

The last came out more shrilly than she’d intended, and all eyesin the pavilion went to her. “You can’t do this. You can’t let hundreds of men die just to gain a riverbank.”

“Thousands of men have died for less,” Marcus responded around a mouthful of apple. “But thousands of men won’t die today. Felix, are they in position?”

“They’re approaching the Gamdeshians’ range, sir,” Felix said, and Teriana’s stomach plummeted as she realized the boats were well past the halfway point, rowing hard.

“Good.” Marcus abandoned his apple core on Amarin’s tray. “Rastag, shall we see what fruits your efforts yield?”

The engineer was clutching his papers in the corner, sweat beading on his brow. “I should perhaps accompany it, sir. To ensure the calibrations are correct.”

“The Gamdeshians are deploying their catapults, sir,” Felix said.

“Range?”

“As anticipated.”

“Good. Signal to hold position.” Marcus grasped Rastag’s elbow and led him out of the pavilion. “You’re too important to risk,” he said to the engineer, giving Teriana a look she couldn’t parse as he passed her. “You selected the men yourself, and theywillfollow your instructions.”

“If it’s the slightest bit off—”

“It won’t be.”

All the officers moved out of the tent, and Teriana stood frozen, not wanting to watch. Not wanting the horror of witnessing so many deaths under a storm of rock and fire, their bodies left to float down the river to the sea. But she made herself walk back to the ridge to stand next to Quintus.

Below her, the ranks remained still and unchanged where they were arrayed on the slope, but on the water… there were dozens upon dozens of boats, the legionnaires in them rowing hard to keep in position just out of reach of the Gamdeshian catapults. There was a loudcrackas one deployed, a stone the size of a man’s skull soaring through the air. It exploded into the water, spraying the men in the nearest boat, having barely missed.

Yet that wasn’t what held Marcus’s attention.

Teriana frowned, following his line of sight. A group of legionnaires was carefully moving a catapult down the hill, the war machine larger than she’d ever seen. Even so… “What are they going to do with the catapult?” The river was too wide to fling rocks across.

“Trebuchet,” Quintus corrected, then whistled between his teeth.“See that big block of stone waiting at the end of the bridge? That’s not building material, it’s a counterweight.”

Teriana watched in silence as the war machine was pulled down the length of the bridge, which brought them just outside the range of the Gamdeshian catapults.

Her concern for the legions had been misplaced.

Lives would be lost.

But it wouldn’t be theirs.

You did this,her conscience accused.You brought them here because your few mattered more than Gamdesh’s many.

The Gamdeshians saw the threat and turned their own catapults on the Cel trebuchet, but the rocks fell short.

Just as had been intended.

Out of the corner of her eye, Marcus nodded once, then a horn blasted. A heartbeat later, a deafeningcracksplit the air, the monstrous war machine hurling a stone at the northern banks with deadly aim.

It slammed into one of the Gamdeshian catapults, wood flying every direction.

It was not the only victim.

Teriana hugged her arms around her body, unable to look away from the writhing forms of those who’d been injured. Or the still ones on the ground next to them.

Yet the others didn’t run, choosing to hold their ground.