Page 48 of Scorched Earth

“You know damn well why.”

“No, I don’t.” Her eyes prickled. “Explain it to me. And don’t give me the shitty reason that we are enemies when you know that from day one we’ve been allies against the common threat that is Cassius. Something happened in Celendrial that changed everything for you, so tell me what it is. The Seventh take my soul, but maybe whatever it is will change everything for me.”

Marcus blanched, then looked away. The muscles in his jaw flexed as though he were warring with his thoughts, then he said, “I spoke to my sister. She was disgusted with my choice to take up with you. Called it immoral. She was right. I’m a grown man, the commander of legions, and you’re a seventeen-year-old girl who is also my prisoner.”

A tear slipped down her cheek because it was all starting to make sense. She knew his sister had influence over him. That he cared what Cordelia thought about him. “Eighteen.”

His eyes shot to hers. “Pardon?”

“I turned eighteen while we were in Sibern,” she murmured. “I didn’t think about it because we were running from wolves.”

Marcus’s brow furrowed. “I… I didn’t know that.”

Quintus snorted in disgust. “You don’t even know your own girl’s birthday?”

Rounding on Quintus, Marcus leveled a finger at him. “I changed my mind. Wait outside.”

“All right.” Quintus got to his feet. “But if I hear any funny business, I’m coming back in.”

When they were alone, Marcus reached for her, then seemed to realize what he was doing and took a quick step back. “I’m sorry. I know I hurt you, but it’s for the best. This will get violent and ugly, and if you remain with us, people will blame you. Whereas if you stayed away, you’d just be another of the Empire’s—”

“Victims?” she supplied, then wiped tears from her face.

Marcus only exhaled, seeming to dislike the word as much as she did.

“Teriana, this is my life. My hands…” He trailed off, staring down at his crimson-stained palms. “The blood on them is beyond what you can ever comprehend. I’m already hated. Already reviled by nations of people. Already the villain. I could have mapped enough stems to see your people freed and been the one everyone blamed when the Empire poured across the seas, but now you’ve gotten yourself tangled up in it again. And for what? What do you bring to this campaign that is worth the destruction of your reputation?”

“I know where the stems are.” She stared at the 37 inked in black on his muscled chest. “Or at least, I have some strong guesses. Now that you have more men, you can secure them.” She swallowed hard. “My promise to deliver that information to you secured the freedom of one hundred of my imprisoned people, including all the children. Cassius allowed them to take one of our ships and set sail. I did that, not you.”

Silence.

Marcus cleared his throat. “What was the catch?”

“A deadline.” Teriana swallowed the lump in her throat. “We have six months to find viable stems, after which time, Cassius will hang one hundred of my people for each month that passes.”

Marcus went very still, and his reaction made Teriana feel like an idiot. Like she’d made the biggest of mistakes. But her people’s children were free. That was worth it, wasn’t it?

“Six months?”

“Yes.”

Marcus scrubbed a hand over his hair, heedless of the blood. “Where are these stems?”

“The nearest is in Emrant.” She knew Marcus had memorized the maps of the Southern Continent. Yet still she said, “On the coast near the border between Gamdesh and Arinoquia.”

“I know where it is.” Stepping backward, he sat down heavily on a bench, resting his elbows on his blood-smeared knees. “It’s a major port city. The Gamdeshians won’t give it up without a fight.”

Her hands turned clammy. “We can negotiate. They might give us access to it rather than go to war. You have fifteen thousand legionnaires—that’s a lot of men.”

“A third of whom are children I’m expected to finish training, not fodder for Gamdeshian catapults. As to the Gamdeshians giving it up without a fight, that’s madness, Teriana. If it’s a good path, I’ll be able to use it as a supply line straight back to the Empire. Food. Weapons. Gold. Legions. Every resource I could possibly want, and the only way to cut the line would be at the genesis. I’ve heard a fair bit about Princess Kaira of Gamdesh. Once she learns I’m after that stem, she’ll march her armies in defense of that city. To take it within six months means it will be a bloodbath, and we won’t even know if it’s worth it until it’s over.”

It had to be worth it. It had to be.

“You saidstems. Plural. Where are the others?”

Her tongue felt dry and thick as she told him the locations, his slow exhale telling her what she already knew. That they were evenmoredifficult targets. The compulsion to apologize nearly overwhelmed her. Instead, she said, “They were keeping my people in Celendrial’s prison. Children,babies,locked in cages, all under guard by the Twenty-Ninth. Agreeing to the deadline was the only way to get the hundred most vulnerable free.”

Silence.