Page 55 of Scorched Earth

He shoved away his mind’s suggestion. Shoved away all thoughts of Teriana because he needed to focus.

Except his heart cared nothing for focus, plaguing his vision with images of Teriana’s face as he’d pushed her away, her eyes dark storms of hurt at his words.

“He’s right that we have everything sorted,” Servius said. “I don’t think anyone will question if you choose not to attend the funeral.”

“I’ll attend,” Marcus muttered. “Give me an hour.”

Felix waited until their friend had left, shutting the door behind him before he said, “Nic says that just before he left, he learned that one of the stems Titus sent hunters through terminates in Atlia, albeit at the bottom of a lake. Not viable for travel until the engineers can drain it, which is a good year’s worth of work, but we can send messages through it in the meantime. I’d suggest that we inform the Senate you are back in command and request additional reinforcements by way of the Bardeen stem. If we’re going to do this, then we need to do it right.”

Marcus took a mouthful of water, disliking not being the best informed. “Let me think on it.”

Felix shifted his weight from heel to toe and back again, his unease obvious. “It’s good to have you back in command, Marcus. I know you like the politics, but for me, it’s the purest form of misery. That said, Racker’s right. Better you rest now so that you can do the heavy lifting when you’re needed.”

There was no one he trusted more than Felix, yet the lie still slipped from his lips. “I’m fine.” Partially to keep his friend from pressing and partially because he was desperate for answers, he asked, “Did the centurions’ search turn up any evidence as to whom Titus was paying to spy on me?”

“Not enough to make accusations,” Felix answered. “I spent last night going through reports on the contraband they found on their men. More than a few had Cel coinage on them, but it was mostly silver and copper. A handful had dragons, but none with Cassius’s face on the back. And before you ask, I personally inspected all the officers, and the results were the same.” He cleared his throat. “Titus had a small chest of gold in his tent, which I confiscated without argument from the Forty-First. They… are taking my interim leadership better than I’d anticipated.”

“I suspected they might. So whoever was on the take either spent the coins or had the wherewithal to hide them outside of camp.” Not entirely surprising. “I’ve set Gibzen the task of hunting down information. He always seems to know everyone’s dirt.”

Felix tensed. “You’re willing to trust him? In case you’ve forgotten, he was leading the charge to beat you to a pulp for desertion. I was anticipating that you’d request a demotion for his behavior. A demotion, for the record, that I’d support.”

Felix had never supported Gibzen’s promotion to primus in the first place, so this was no revelation. “That’s one of the reasons I trust him for this. He volunteered for punishment, but instead, I gave him an opportunity to make it up to me. You know how his brain works—doesn’t like owing anything to anyone. He’ll feel compelled to deliver. Doesn’t hurt that it was his men who were killed and injured as a result of the traitor’s actions.”

“Agrippa’s men.”

Marcus blinked, then looked to Felix askance. “Pardon?”

“The men Gibzen had watching over Teriana the day she was kidnapped were the last of the men in Gibzen’s century who were chosen by Agrippa,” Felix said. “Probably because they were the only ones you could reasonably trust around her. Now his hundred men are fully of his selection. The nastiest dogs in the Thirty-Seventh, and every one of them was behind Gibzen with stones in their hands, eager to cave in your skull. That’s your bodyguard.”

That fact should have alarmed Marcus, but it didn’t. Instead, the idea that his back was guarded by men who cared so much about loyalty to the Thirty-Seventh that they’d been willing to kill anyonewho betrayed it made Marcus feel not only safer but validated in his choice to put Gibzen on the hunt. “Have they been out of line?”

“No.”

“Have they been doing their duties?”

Felix sighed. “Yes.”

“Then we have our answer,” Marcus said. “I’m not punishing them. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Marcus—”

He cast a sideways look at his friend, cutting him off. “I know what Gibzen is, Felix. He might be a mad dog, but he’smymad dog and has been since we were in Lescendor. He knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him.” Then, because he didn’t want to be at odds with Felix, he added, “If he steps out of line, we’ll revisit this conversation. But not today.”

“Fine.”

Amarin chose that moment to return, sparing Marcus any further arguments as he set to eating food he had no appetite for while listening to Felix’s update on less confidential matters, which was a mixture of good and decidedly bad. Titus had carried on the negotiations Marcus had started with Katamarca, securing an alliance with the nation’s queen. Except he’d also gotten greedy and broken Marcus’s carefully forged alliance with Ereni. The Arinoquian imperatrix was now allied with the inlanders she’d once fought against. The combined force was what had cost so many legion lives when Titus had pressed inland. There was more information, endless information, and his head began to pound as he mentally compiled a list of things that would require his attention.

But first Titus needed to be put to rest.

“I wanteveryonenot on duty assembled for the funeral.” Marcus took his weapons belt from Amarin and buckled it on himself, using the opportunity to secret the vial of narcotics into his belt pouch so Amarin wouldn’t find it. “Titus will be treated with every respect. He was an ass and none of us liked him, but he was no traitor.”

“Understood.” Felix stepped outside, his mutters ofmandatoryandwill have their asses whippedfiltering through the doors as he gave the orders. When he returned, he asked, “What are your plans for Teriana?”

Her face flashed into his mind, passionate and beautiful, making his heart feel like a weight in his chest.

“I gave her the choice of remaining in the camp as our guest or sailing to the island where her crew is staying to be with them. She chose to stay.”

“In a tent with Quintus?”