Page 20 of Scorched Earth

“Protocol would have demanded they ensure the safety of all who might travel through,” an engineer had grumbled, to which Teriana had laughed. “We won’t be in the Empire anymore, my friend, so be wary of leaning on protocol. We’re just as likely to find a bed of spikes as scaffolding.”

The boys had all shifted uneasily, then turned to the discussion of mitigation. She’d suggested they shove a wagon-load of pillows through the stem to cushion the potential hard landing, and while they’d dismissed her suggestion as lunacy, she had heard some muttering about her idea after her back was turned.

Now the moment to take the step through was upon them.

“This is not how it’s done,” Pullo groused. “Paid path-hunters are supposed to go back and forth several times to ensure the terminus is safe and secure before legion transport.”

“You know as well as I do that such a thing is not yet possible,” Nic said. “Until the lake in Atlia is drained, the only mapped path back suitable for human travel has a terminus in Sibern, and it’s the dead of winter.”

For all the path from Arinoquia to Atlia was stymied by a large body of water, Teriana’s skin still crawled with the certainty that it was not a matter of if but when that the Empire wouldmakeit viable. Even if such a thing were not possible, it was still a route of communication. For the Empire, information was power.

Nic continued, “You think the Senate is going to allow us to sit on our laurels while we wait for certainty that this path is safe? No. We’ll be back under Hostus’s command, and I, for one, would rather dive headfirst into the unknown than salute that prick.”

Teriana could hardly blame him, for the memory of her last conversation with Hostus made her shiver. “This isn’t over, little girl,” he’d said to her before she’d left to go with the Fifty-First. “There is no place in the world that I can’t find you—remind your lover of that when you see him, if he’s still alive. I have a new dining set that I had made specifically for serving him up rare.”

She’d been so bloody terrified that she’d nearly thrown up on his feet, but had managed, “I’ll pass on the message,” before scuttling into Nic’s care, his face as green around the gills over Hostus’s words as her own.

But now Hostus was a distant fear, whereas the very real threat of an uncertain xenthier loomed right in front of her. There was no turning back, though. She’d made a deal with the enemy, and if shebacked out of it, there were still five hundred of her people locked in his prison to pay the price.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked Nic, just to say something, because Terianaknewthe plan. Had watched how they’d methodically gone through the first path on their journey. Knew that Pullo, as primus, would go through first with a dozen of his men, secure the ground; then the rest of the legion would slowly filter through, along with their supplies. All very regulated and orderly and so very,veryCel.

“I could be leading them to their deaths.” Nic pulled off his helmet to wipe sweat from his brow. “We’ve no certainty of what is on the other side. None.”

“Marcus is there, now,” she reminded him. “If nothing else, it will have motivated them to ensure the terminus is fit to receive travelers.”

“Right.” Nic strode forward and closed his hand over the xenthier, winking out of sight.

“Shit!” Teriana shouted, the sentiment echoed by his bodyguard. Not thinking, she raced after him, grasping hold of the cold crystal.

Everything turned white, her mind feeling as though it disconnected from her body, and then she was gasping in a mouthful of warm, humid air. She stumbled, her feet thudding against stone, and then a hand closed on her arm to steady her.

Nic.

They stood together on a stone platform, but Teriana took nothing in because she was too busy screeching, “That was not the—”

Her words cut off with a muffledooofas someone slammed into her back, knocking her forward. Then another and another, Nic’s bodyguard coming through the xenthier to land in a tangled dogpile on top of the platform. Which wasn’t very Cel-like at all.

“Stand down!” Nic barked as she disentangled herself from the boys, grumbling that a better order would have been to stand up. But then she heard the distinct sound of a gladius being drawn, then another and another.

Nic had his weapon in hand, as did Pullo and the others, their bodies tight with tension.

And that was when the smell hit her.

Rot.

Shaking her head to clear the lingering dizziness, Teriana tried to climb to her feet but Pullo’s hand forced her down with surprising strength. “Stay low,” he hissed. “The terminus isn’t secure.”

Fear thrummed through her veins as Teriana peered through their legs, her breath catching as her eyes fixed on the body of a legionnaire sprawled across the ground, flies buzzing above his still form. “No.”

A scream tore from her lips, and Teriana shoved between the boys, stumbling down the ramp to the ground and falling to her knees next to the body. It was bloated and grey, the stink beyond words, and with shaking hands, Teriana rolled him over.

The legionnaire’s face was ruined beyond recognition, but the 41 embossed on his breastplate was clear as day.

It wasn’t Marcus.

But there were other bodies. A dozen corpses sprawled within eyesight. Once the Fifty-First saw them, their remaining innocence would be destroyed. “Stop!”

The boys all froze, and Teriana scrambled between them and the corpses. “Stay back! Don’t look!”