Page 313 of Scorched Earth

Gaius shrieked and thrashed, then twisted to look at Marcus. “This is your fault!” he screamed. “You were supposed to die! Why didn’t you die?”

“Soon enough,” Marcus replied, the ship digging into his palm as the platform dropped.

Crack.

He flinched as his brother’s neck snapped, then the Forum was silent again.

“Gnaeus Domitius, you have been found guilty of treason. In accordance with the laws of Celendor, your punishment is the forfeiture of your life.”

His father looked at him, and said, “I’m sorry. I was a fool to have given you up.”

You can do this.

The platform dropped.

Crack.

“I told you.”

Cassius’s voice filled his ears, and Marcus turned to meet the man’s eyes, feeling a rush of cold as he stared into dark voids. Vaguely, he heard Tiberius sentencing Cassius, the crowd no longer quiet but screaming for blood. It all seemed distant as Cassius said, “I told you that if you crossed me, I’d take away everything you cared about. That I’d destroy everything you loved.”

Marcus stared back, blood trickling down his fingers as the metal cut his palm under the force of his grip. “You did not choose this.I did.”

Cassius dropped.

Crack.

Marcus stared at the dangling corpse of the man who’d caused him such grief and pain. Cassius’s eyes were now blue and unseeing, and urine dripped from the Dictator’s sandaled foot to splatter the ground below.

It’s over. The worst is over. The rest will be quick and easy, and then you can rest.

“Legionnaire 37–1519, you have been found guilty of treason against the Empire. In accordance with the laws of Celendor, your punishment is the forfeiture of your life,” Tiberius said, then he looked to Valerius, who nodded once. “Do you have final words, Legatus?”

He didn’t want to speak, but as he looked out over his legion, Marcus knew that he owed it to them, so he cleared his throat.

You can do this.

The rope of the noose was rough against his throat as Marcus swallowed hard, taking in the legion standing before him. The Thirty-Seventh. Men he’d led through countless battles, their expressions a mixture of grief and anger, but their eyes held loyalty that not even the shadow of his crimes could extinguish. “At ease.”

The Thirty-Seventh all relaxed their postures, many removing their helmets, and the senators watching on all shifted nervously as though it were just occurring to them that he still held the power here. And though that power would soon come to an end, it was by his decision, not theirs.

Marcus took a deep breath, then spoke, his voice carrying over the silent forum. “It was nearly fourteen years ago that we were delivered to Campus Lescendor. Taken from the only families we had known and delivered into halls filled with strangers. Into a life of hardship and suffering and violence that many did not survive butwhich bound us into a brotherhood. They call us a legion, but what we are is a family that was forged with our blood, our sweat, and our tears, and it has been the greatest honor and privilege of my life to lead the Thirty-Seventh. You have all put your lives in my hands, followed my orders without question, and gifted me your loyalty. Even in the moments when I did not deserve it.”

His voice cracked on the last, and Marcus squeezed Teriana’s hair ornament tightly even as his composure wavered. “The Senate has convicted me of treason against the Empire, and I will not deny my guilt. Yet it is not for breaking those laws that I choose to stand here with this noose around my neck, because those crimes are paltry in comparison to the crimes I have committed against Reath.”

He paused, running his thumb over theQuincense’ssails. “From the moment we left Lescendor, we have been conquerors. Subjugators. Killers. From Bardeen to Chersome. From Arinoquia to Gamdesh to Mudamora, we have left misery and ruin in our wake all in the name of the Empire. All so the men on those steps”—he jerked his chin to the Curia—“could grow their power and fill their coffers.”

The Thirty-Seventh shifted restlessly, and on the steps of the Curia, the senators all wore scowls. But from the corner of his eye, Marcus saw his sister give a sad smile.

“We say we do their bidding because we must. Because we have no choice but to obey. But that is a lie: the reason isnotthat we have no choice but that the choice to resist, the choice to say ‘I will not do this,’ carries with it a cost higher than we wished to pay. Higher than whatIwished to pay, and I descended so deeply into the belief that there was no other path for me that I became no better than these Senators. Worse, in many ways, because the blood of all who have fallen beneath the Empire’s heels is on my hands. Too much blood to ever atone for, so all I have left is to accept the punishment for what I have done so that Reath may at least have justice.”

He drew in a steadying breath. “I will be held to account for what I have done, but so, too, must the Empire herself be held to account for what it has done. And the Empire isnotthe patricians on the Hill that looms above us, it is the people. It isyou!” he shouted, allowing his eyes to drift over the civilians watching on, his words repeated back through the thousands upon thousands who massed in the streets. “You are all accountable for what the Empire has done in your name, and it is past time to risk the consequences that come with sayingenough.The Empire’s war machine is not faceless men birthed froma golden dragon butyoursons. The sons of every province—the sons of Celendor herself. You do not get to give them up and then wash your hands of them, nor do you get to wash your hands of what the Empire uses them for. You are culpable.”

The noose again scratched at his neck as Marcus turned his head, scanning the crowd. A visceral reminder of what was to come.

“You, the people, are what will prevent bloody conquest from happening again. You, the people, are what will prevent men like Lucius Cassius from rising again. You, the people, are who will tear down this institution of tyranny, and from its ashes, raise up a nation that is worth these legions fighting for!”

A roar of legion voices filled the Forum to be taken up by the civilians in the streets until it felt as though all of Celendrial had lifted their voices. Marcus stood until it fell silent before turning his gaze back to his legion.