Page 128 of Scorched Earth

Crack!

Another rock hurled through the air at a catapult, and tears trickled down her cheeks as it struck true.

“Surrender,” she whispered. “Put down your weapons.”

But as the legions carefully destroyed the catapults one by one, the Gamdeshians only pulled their weapons, staff and bow and sword, all held at the ready.

Marcus nodded again, and the cursed horn blew a series of notes. The legionnaires in the boats began to row hard for shore, those without oars lifting shields overhead as sheets of arrows fell.

Teriana’s body shook with tension, breath coming in rapid pants. “Surrender,” she pleaded, willing her words across the massive river. “Please.”

“They may not,” Quintus said, then, softly enough that only she could hear, he added, “You don’t need to watch, Teriana.”

She realized now thatthishad been the point of Marcus’s demonstration with the Fifty-First’s test of nerve. To show her what it would be like.

But this time, she refused to run. “I have to watch.”

Teriana clenched her teeth as the first boats neared the banks. But just before they hit the shore, another horn sounded from the north.

“Oh gods,” she whispered. “Kaira didn’t fall for the trick.”

Horns from the north meant Kaira had arrived with reinforcements, and the outcome of the battle suddenly became much less certain. Teriana’s heart threatened to tear out of her chest, the war of emotion in her making it very clear that she didn’t know whose side she was on.

Lifting her spyglass, she sucked in a deep breath andlooked.

Only for her breath to catch, because it was not Gamdesh’s familiar banners moving to reinforce their countrymen, but the crimson and gold dragon. Legionnaires with a 37 on their breastplates. Only a hundred men, a pittance compared to the numbers on the field, and yet at the sight of them, it was as though the flames of the Gamdeshians’ defiance had been doused with water.

They went still, looking between the dozens of boats hitting the bank and the deadly lines that had come up from their rear, the centurion leading the Thirty-Seventh shouting something at them.

The Gamdeshians lowered their weapons.

“Felix, have centurion Qian accept their surrender and ensure they are secured. Then have our medics brought over to see to their injured.” Marcus turned back to the pavilion. “Rastag, I want the floating bridge in place within the hour and the fortress drained within two.”

“Yes, sir.” Felix motioned to signalmen and gave them orders that Teriana barely heard.

It was over. The Cel had won.

Shehad won.

Unspent adrenaline still surged in Teriana’s veins, and with no outlet, it left the world spinning. One minute she was standing, the next she was on her ass, forehead pressed to her knees.

Quintus flopped down next to her, silently watching masses of men moving to follow orders in the river valley below. “You all right?”

Teriana shook her head.

“We couldn’t have asked for a much better outcome,” he said. “It could have been a lot worse, trust me on that.”

She stared blankly at the dirt.

“It’s one step closer to securing the xenthier stems and freeing your people.” He bumped her elbow with his. “In a few weeks, theQuincensewill be sailing to retrieve you and Cassius will have no choice but to liberate your imprisoned people.”

“And then what?” The question sounded like it had been dragged over gravel.

Quintus didn’t answer.

Gods help her, she’d tried. Tried to get help from Kaira. From Ereni. From her own people. No one had been willing to risk saving her five hundred.

And for the first time ever, Teriana thought perhaps they’d been right.