Page 8 of Scorched Earth

Killian dragged himself to his feet, helping Lydia upright. Only to stagger as Tremon pounded him on the back. “You’ve done good work, boy. Far cry from the smart-ass little brat who fell off his pony.” As Killian met the god’s fathomless eyes, Tremon grinned and drew his finger through the air, parting it like shears through fabric to create a slash of brilliant white. Tremon reached into it and extracted a familiar sword, handing it to him. “Your father is proud of you, Killian.”

Then he disappeared.

Killian stared at his father’s sword, which he’d left with his lieutenant, Sonia, for safekeeping before he’d left for Derin. He was sooverwhelmed he couldn’t speak. His father’s last words to him had been that he was a disappointment, and the weight of that had sat on his conscience ever since. To know that his father was watching, that he was proud, meant more than Killian could ever begin to explain.

“It is far from over,” Hegeria said. “Enemies approach from all sides, for even in the lands where we have been forgotten, there are many who reach into the darkness. And my brother always reaches back.” Gripping Lydia’s shoulders, the goddess gave her a tight smile. “You will never lose the temptation, dear one. All we’ve done is given you the freedom to fight it.”

A battle won. But not the war.

Hegeria rounded on Killian. “You cannot fight the enemy alone. Your companions flee south toward Anukastre. Find them.”

Then she was gone.

5TERIANA

“This is utter madness, Teriana.” Valerius tossed Cassius’s note onto the table. “Might as well walk into a dragon’s den and bare your throat. Your mother would gut me like a fish if she knew I’d allowed it.”

“I don’t need your permission or your protection,” Teriana snapped, but in truth her bravado was false. Every part of her wanted to fall to her knees and scream at what she’d been told.You can’t help him,logic tried to whisper.Focus on those you can save.

Lydia’s father pulled a white cloth from the folds of his toga and wiped away the sweat that had formed on his brow. He’d lost the awful jaundice that had plagued him before she’d taken the legions west, but he still did not look healthy. “Perhaps you might share what you aim to achieve by meeting with Cassius. Because if it’s to gain the freedom of your people, you are wasting your breath. Cassius wants them as leverage, not only against you but against Marcus. For, rest assured, Cassius will assume he’s alive until he has concrete proof otherwise.”

Her eyes welled with tears, but Teriana swallowed her grief. “Leverage only works if you have the ability to employ it. With the paths we found deemed nonviable by the Senate, Cassius has no way to control what Marcus does or doesn’t do in the West. Nothing’s changed.”

A lie, because nothing was the same and might never be again.

Valerius gave a grim shake of his head. “Cassius leaned on semantics to get out of being held to the agreement with you. The fact of the matter is that while the terminus in Sibern is most certainly nonviable midwinter due to the extreme cold, the genesis stem in Bardeencouldbe made safe. It’s just a matter of quashing the latest rebel leader and her forces and bringing Bardeen back to heel. That could be accomplished by spring, at which time the Sibern terminus can be accessed. And Cassius will, once again, be able to use his leverage.”

Gods but Teriana hated that she was a weapon to be used against Marcus by their enemies.

“You speak of quelling Bardeen as though it were a simple thing,” Wex said. “Once the rebels learn where the stem at Hydrilla goes and who is on the end of it, they will make our lives very difficult indeed.”

“It was the Thirty-Seventh that broke the back of the last Bardenese rebellion,” Austornic murmured to Teriana. “It’s said that the Bardenese still curse Marcus’s name, for it was he who captured Hydrilla.”

Judging from his dark hair and the light brown hue of his skin, Austornic was Bardenese by heritage, but she heard nothing of the nation in his accent. If she closed her eyes, the boy would have sounded as patrician as Valerius himself. Yet she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt anything for the nation that gave him his blood.

“Marcus’s list of enemies is long and dangerous.” Valerius took a long drink of water.

Teriana’s pulse quickened even as her throat tightened.We are enemies, Teriana, Marcus’s voice whispered in her head.And while you might think you love me today, one day soon you are going to come to hate me.

Teriana didn’tthinkshe loved him. She knew she did. But she was also furious at him for leaving her behind. Yet the anger was not enough to drown her fear of the future Marcus foresaw, in which he believed her love would turn to hate.

Realizing the trio was watching her, she said, “I know Cassius isn’t just going to hand over my people. Which is why I’m going to negotiate with him.”

When they all frowned as though she’d spoken gibberish, Teriana added, “I have leverage of my own.”

“This is too dangerous by far.” Valerius again wiped away the sweat, reminding Teriana that his health was not good. “I’ve already lost Lydia. I won’t lose you to Cassius as well.”

“Be wary of making accusations, my old friend,” Wex said. “Whilewe all know that Cassius is the culprit in your daughter’s disappearance, there is no proof. No witnesses. No…”

He trailed off, but they all knew the word the commandant had avoided.Body.

Grief swelled in Teriana’s stomach. “I spoke to Marcus before the assassins attacked. I asked him if he knew anything about what had happened to Lydia. If Cassius had harmed her. He said that all he knew was that Cassius had been using Lydia to win the elections. That Cassius didn’t trust him with details, so…” She tried and failed to remember Marcus’s exact words. “If something happened to her, he didn’t know anything about it.”

“Of no great surprise,” Valerius said. “Using legion resources for a personal assassination is not the sort of risk Cassius would take.” For all his voice was steady, Teriana felt the weight of his disappointment. During the endless months that she’d believed Lydia had betrayed her, Valerius had been burdened with growing certainty that Lydia hadn’t run away, but rather had been murdered. Worse still, he’d been powerless to do anything to strike back at the man who’d killed her.

But Teriana was not powerless. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Cassius needed her. If he wanted to keep her, he was going to have to pay for it.

6LYDIA