Page 14 of Scorched Earth

“For your sake, and that of your people, you should hope he does as he’s told.”

Her teeth were chattering, but Teriana managed to say, “Alliances are formed when mutually desired goals need to be achieved, but also when shared obstacles need to be overcome. You know I have influence over Marcus. I know that the Senate dances to your drum. Give me what I want, and I’ll return the favor in kind.”

Cassius’s face revealed little, but his choice of silence rather than an immediate repartee told her that he, at least, believed Marcus was a threat. A threat that she had the power to mitigate.

“I’m not giving up my leverage over you,” he finally said. “I’ll free fifty of your people, plus you’ll travel through the Bardeen stem with the Fifty-First legion. They are convenient and the least valuable by virtue of their age.”

“One hundred of my people, which must include all the children, loaded onto a Maarin ship before I leave. I want to watch them sail away.”

“One hundred, including all the children, on one of your ships before you depart.” Cassius downed the rest of his expensive wine. “But only if you agree to a timeline. I want viable paths capable of transporting legions with acceptable levels of risk within six months.”

Her heart skipped, then sped. “And if I don’t meet your deadline?”

“Then I execute ten of your people for each month of delay.”

Six months.

Teriana’s eyes moved to the map, latching on to the port city of Emrant along the border of Arinoquia and Gamdesh. It wasn’t sovery far from the legion camp in Aracam, but would fifteen thousand legionnaires, a third of which were onlythirteen years old, be enough? “He’ll need a fourth legion.”

Cassius shrugged, and it was not lost on her that there was no other ruler in the world who could shrug about five thousand trained soldiers. “Easily done… for a cost. Let’s see… fifty executions for every month of delay?”

They were bartering with lives, but what else could she do? Teriana stared at the map, calculating what she knew about Gamdesh’s Imperial Army. The legions had ships. Chests of gold. Alliances with the Arinoquians, and likely one forthcoming with Katamarca. They had Marcus, who everyone said was the greatest military strategist alive. “A year. And I choose my hundred.AndI want them to set sail today.”

“I’m happy to allow you to choose. All six hundred, including the children, are in Celendrial’s prison; their ships are in the harbor. But I cannot concede on the timeframe. Elections, and all that.”

“You are keeping the children in prison?” Bile burned her throat, but Cassius only shrugged again and said, “I suggested Lescendor for the young ones, but you weren’t amenable. Disappointing given that we prefer to see our ranks representing every province under Celendor’s control.”

“The Maarin people aren’t one of yourprovinces.”

He refilled his glass and took a long mouthful. “Soon enough.”

Six months wasn’t enough time, not with the stakes so high. Yet to refuse would mean her people languishing in Celendrial’s prison for who knew how long. The adults could endure, but the children… “I need to see my people. Then I’ll decide.”

Cassius smiled. “I thought you might say that.”

8TERIANA

Teriana waited until they were back in Valerius’s villa, in the library filled with books and scrolls that would be the envy of any collector in the world. In the library that had been Lydia’s domain, where she was ever to be found hunched over an obscure passage with ink staining her fingers. But never again. “She’s dead. I’m so sorry.”

Senator Valerius sat down heavily on a chair, elbows resting on his knees, eyes blindly staring. “I knew. In my heart, I knew, but…” A sob tore from his throat, and Lydia’s father buried his face in his hands.

Teriana’s face remained dry, as though all the tears she had in this life had been used up, leaving dry wells in her eyes even as her heart fractured with grief.

“How?”

“Drowned,” she said softly. “Apparently the baths have an outtake tunnel that leads underground.”

“Oh, my sweet girl.” The words sounded ripped from his throat, like the truth had shattered him entirely, and Teriana knelt next to Lydia’s father to take one of his hands.

“We’ll have vengeance,” she whispered. “Maybe not today or tomorrow, but the day will come when there will be a reckoning.”

“It will not bring my girl back.”

It wouldn’t. Not doing her level best to strangle Cassius had been one of the harder things she’d ever had to do, but there was no room for impulsiveness. Only cold strategy. It made her understand why Marcus was the way he was.

Valerius squeezed her hand, then, to her shock, slid off the chair to sit on the floor next to her. She’d known him all her life, for he and her mother had been friends, of a sort. But Appius Valerius was a Cel Senator. As rich and powerful as any king or queen. More so, in a way, given Celendor’s might. It had meant that no matter how close she’d been with Lydia, the respect her father had commanded had demanded a certain distance. Certainly not sitting on the floor of a library hand in hand.

“There is something I need to tell you, Teriana,” he said. “Pieces of information that both your mother and I chose to keep from you, and from Lydia, that you should know. Secrets that… no longer need to be kept.”