Page 203 of Scorched Earth

At their center rode Kaira. Guiding her big black horse with her knees, she held a torch, as did several others in the company.

Instantly Marcus knew that Kaira intended to turn his own threat against him. She was going to ignite the explosives and blow the dam. With his entire army on the floodplain, thousands of men would die, dashed against the walls by the force of the water or drowned by the weight of their armor.

Terror shattered the walls in his mind, and Marcus screamed, “Stop her!”

The men closest to the riverbed were already moving, ranks pivoting, arrows and spears flying. The Gamdeshians and their horses were dying in droves, either to weapons or to falls on the treacherous rocks, but the faces of the men and women showed no fear as they pressed in around Kaira, bodies shielding her. Dying to keep her alive to strike the ultimate blow against Marcus’s army, even though it would come at the cost of the city.

Felix shouted orders, reinforcements that had been guarding their rear moving to intercept, but they’d never make it in time.

The Thirty-Seventh were going to die. Were going to drown because of a mistake he’d made.

“Gibzen!” Marcus shouted. “Stop her!”

The Thirty-Seventh’s primus and his men didn’t hesitate. Flinging themselves onto their horses, they rode at a dead gallop to intercept Kaira.

“They aren’t going to reach her in time!” Drusus shouted. “She’s going to destroy the dam while our entire army is on the field. We’ll lose hundreds of men! Thousands!”

Marcus barely heard him because he was already running toward his horse. He vaulted onto the mare’s back and drove her into a gallop. His cloak whipped out behind him, and he pulled the catch to allow it to fall away, leaning over the mare for more speed.

Kaira and what remained of her soldiers burst past the last of the legion lines, horses stumbling on the slick rocks of the riverbed as they raced up the riverbed toward the dam. Toward the explosives carefully placed by Rastag at its base. Every one of them rode with the desperate determination of those who knew this was their only chance to strike a final blow in a lost war.

Faster,he willed the golden mare, and seeming to hear him, she put on a burst of speed and gained ground on Gibzen and his men.

Behind him, horns bellowed. Someone, likely Felix, ordering the men on the field away from the riverbed. Out of the path of destruction.

But thousands of men could only move so quickly, and Kaira had almost reached the dam.

Faster.

Kaira and Gibzen both broke ahead of their men, moving at a perpendicular course of interception, smoke from her torch trailing in the Gamdeshian princess’s wake.

Her horse stumbled and nearly fell, and she reined it up the side of the bank for better ground and dug in her heels.

Only for Gibzen to ride his horse into the side of her mount.

Both went down in a tangle of limbs, the horses screaming. The torch fell to roll a distance away, where it came to rest against a pile of dirt, still burning. One of Kaira’s soldiers leapt off his horse, reaching for it—

And a gladius separated his hand from his wrist, courtesy of one of Gibzen’s men.

Marcus’s bodyguards collided with Kaira’s in a scream of men and horses.

But the Gamdeshian princess was proving all the rumors about her were true.

Sword in hand, she cut down one, two, three of Gibzen’s men like they were untrained boys, moving faster than any person should, her blade a blur of steel. They tried to back off, regrouping to attack her as one, but Kaira didn’t give them the opportunity, throwing herself at the men.

More legion reinforcements arrived, the ground thick with men and glittering steel all intent on killing her.

But Kaira was the heart of this city, of this nation. Their spirit andmotivation, and if she died, she would become a martyr to fuel the anger of generations.

“Don’t kill her!” Marcus screamed. “Kill the others, but not the woman!”

His men obeyed without hesitation and hurled spears at her soldiers, steel lengths punching through leather and armor.

Kaira fought on.

More men dropped, the ground littered with dying legionnaires. Yet within heartbeats Kaira stood alone, facing a bristling wall of shields and spears on all sides. Marcus saw the rage on his men’s faces over their fallen comrades. Their need for revenge.

Kill her,the voice ordered.She is your enemy.