Page 64 of Scorched Earth

“Marcus broke things off while you were still in Celendrial, Teriana. So whatever his reasons are, they predate his jaunt through all those xenthier paths.” Reaching over, Quintus took her hand. “This is just a baby legatus trying to flex his muscles and gain control he hasn’t earned. Marcus wasjust like thisat that age, although I’m only now appreciating how obnoxious it was for our minders. Do you want me to tell Felix that Nic is meddling?”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want him punished.”

“We might be doing him a favor in the long run,” Quintus said. “If he reaches a little too far in his ambitions, it could cause us all a fair bit of pain.”

She stared down at Cassius’s crumpled note. “Not yet.”

“More rum?” he offered, holding out the bottle.

Teriana shook her head. “I need to visit the latrines, and then I’m going to sleep.”

He winced. “You sure you don’t want to use the trench this time? Your shed is looking awfully foul.”

“Better filth than hanging my ass out in the open for everyone to see.”

“I can chase them all off, but it’s your call.” Belting on his weapon, Quintus led her out of the tent, the light rain turning heavier as they wove toward the rear of the camp. Darkness had fallen, the Fifty-First seeming to have finally settled their antics, and the only sound was the faint boom of thunder and chatter around campfires.

The stink of the latrines greeted her long before her eyes picked out the trench in the darkness. Ignoring the handful of men standing before it doing their business, she stalked toward the small shed that had once been allocated for her personal use.

“I’ll wait here,” Quintus said. “If you start to succumb to the stink, shout and I’ll rescue you.”

“Thanks.” She unhooked the lantern hanging outside the shed, then pulled open the door, bracing herself for the filth.

Instead, she was greeted by a naked woman perched on the disgusting bench.

“Hello, Teriana,” Astara said softly in Gamdeshian, pushing long dark hair back over her shoulder. “We thought that you were dead.”

“I’m surprisedyou’renot dead, lurking in this mess.” Teriana wrinkled her nose at the disaster the legionnaires had made of her outhouse during her absence, though her comment was mostly to cover her shock. Though this wasn’t the first time the shifter had approached her, Teriana had not realized Astara was still watching the camp. “Why are men so revolting?”

“Shut the door.”

Teriana pulled it shut behind her, flipping the latch before turning to face the shifter. The prior time they’d met, Teriana had not had a lamp, so this was the first time she’d seen the other woman clearly. In her early twenties, Astara was pretty, with large brown eyes framed with lush lashes, soft brown skin, and a figure that would make anyone look twice. Skulking about was hardly necessary, because Teriana had no doubt the legionnaires would have happily allowed her into camp. “How much do you know about where I’ve been?”

“I’ve heard the chatter,” Astara answered. “They know I see well, but they don’t seem aware that my hearing is also excellent. Especially in the dark.”

An unexpected sense of resentment made Teriana clench her teeth, for it was yet another piece of information she’d have to choose whether to keep secret or not. The endless dilemma of being on both sides of a conflict, and she hated it. Hated the way it ate at her soul and kept her perpetually on edge. “Then I won’t waste my breath. Why are you here?”

“To find out the Cel commander’s intentions.”

“We aren’t precisely on speaking terms right now, so you would be better off eavesdropping on his men.”

“Ah, yes. Lover’s quarrel.” Astara’s tone was full of condemnation that made Teriana want to shove the woman down the hole in the bench into the shit below.

“Whose side are you on, Teriana? Because, I confess, it’s difficult to tell. First you beg help of Gamdesh in defeating this incursion, but then you fall into bed with the Cel commander, disappear with him for many long weeks, only to return with yet another legion. Albeit a legion of children.” Her pretty face twisted with disgust.

Teriana felt her temper snap. “You want to know whose side I’m on, Astara?Neither.I’m stuck in the gods-damned middle is what I am. Five hundred of my people are locked in a prison under the control of the cruelest man I’ve ever encountered, and if the Empire doesn’t get what it wants within six months, they will start executing them. I’m my people’s only hope, so it’stheirside that I’m on.”

“Given that necessitates aiding your blackmailer, it amounts to you being on his side.” There was no sympathy in the woman’s voice. “What are five hundred lives compared to the millions in Gamdesh?”

Teriana squeezed her eyes shut, seeing the faces of her people shackled in the prison, Hostus’s laugh filling her ears. “They areeverythingto me. Gamdesh has Kaira, and you, and an enormous army with a fleet to rival any in the world. All my people have isme.”

“No good ruler puts the few over the many.”

“I never said I’m a good ruler,” Teriana retorted. “But I do try to be a good person, and my peoples’ deaths are certain if I don’t act. Whereas what fate might befall Gamdesh is unknown. I won’t condemn my people for an unknown, and if you have a problem with that, you can kiss my ass.”

Astara tensed, and Teriana cursed herself for locking the door latch, because the shifter was nothing if not dangerous. Then a thought occurred to her. “Why are you so certain that Gamdesh is where the Empire’s eyes will turn? Katamarca is a far easier mark.”

The woman didn’t answer, and Teriana didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this silent confirmation of her theory about the terminuses in Gamdesh. “You hold the key to my people’s salvation, don’t you,” she said softly. “You hold it in your hands, the ability to save those innocent lives, yet you will do nothing.”