Page 22 of Scorched Earth (Dark Shores #4)
“How did you come to return to Mudamora, Lydia?” Malahi asked. “Was it accidental or purposeful?”
“I suppose that’s a matter of perspective.
” It felt strange to discuss her history in such a forthright manner, as it had always felt like something that needed to be secret.
Which perhaps was true, but… “I was not considered marriageable to anyone of good breeding given that I was not Cel by blood, so when a senator named Lucius Cassius offered to wed me, my father accepted, despite my protests. Cassius used my father’s influence to win the consulship.
That’s… I suppose it’s the same power as a king, though it’s elected by citizens and is limited to two terms in office…
” She trailed off, suspecting that no one was tremendously interested in the political structure of Celendor.
“After he’d won, I no longer held value to him, so he arranged for the Thirty-Seventh’s legatus—commander, that is—to murder me. ”
“Marcus is dead?” The first hint of emotion since this conversation had begun filled Agrippa’s voice. Shock and… grief ?
“No. He’s alive.” A sneaking suspicion that what she was about to say next would be a blow caused Lydia to hesitate before she said, “He tried to kill me, and no doubt thinks I’m dead since—”
“Bull fucking shit!” Agrippa shouted, on his feet in a flash, not even seeming to hear Baird’s cautioning words that shouting was not advisable. “Marcus wouldn’t do that. You’re lying.”
Killian was on his feet as well, and Lydia noted his shadowed arm had his sword half drawn.
“I wish I were,” she responded. “I was put down the drain in Cassius’s new baths, which led to an underground river that dead-ended in a xenthier stem. My choices were to risk an unknown path or die down there.”
“Marcus would not drown some girl because the consul didn’t feel like marrying her,” Agrippa snapped. “You’re mistaken.”
“I’m not. I was introduced to him personally at the elections. My height, golden brown hair, blue-grey eyes, scar across his cheek.”
At the last, Agrippa stiffened.
“If it helps, he took no joy in it,” she said.
“I believe Cassius was blackmailing him in some way, although in truth, since the conquest of Chersome, the Thirty-Seventh’s reputation has been…
dark. The Senate holds several Maarin ships and their crew as prisoners, and the Thirty-Seventh have my best friend in their care , forcing her to aid them. ”
“Triumvir Tesya’s daughter,” Killian said.
“Teriana?” Malahi gasped. “Oh, gods. This…” Her voice hardened. “All this has been going on, and you both knew and said nothing? Why has Celendor crossed the Endless Seas? What is their goal?”
“Conquest,” Agrippa answered. “Chersome was the last nation in the East not under the Senate’s thumb, and with it defeated, they have set their eyes across the seas. The Empire is as bad as the blight for turning things into its own.”
“Arinoquia, perhaps, but they can’t think to stand against Gamdesh,” Malahi said. “The Sultan has a standing army of twenty thousand soldiers, led by Princess Kaira herself. They’ll crush them.”
Agrippa began to laugh, quietly at first and then louder until Baird cursed and punched him in the side to shut him up.
“What precisely is it that you find so humorous about this?” Malahi demanded.
“My numbers are old, but you probably have fresh information, Lydia. One hundred forty thousand in active service?”
“One hundred fifty thousand.” She drew her legs up, resting her chin on her knees. “And Cassius was of a mind to expand the ranks training in Lescendor.”
“Right.” Agrippa exhaled a shaky breath.
“One hundred fifty thousand trained soldiers. For clarity, I don’t mean the pathetic excuses for soldiers that fill the ranks of most standing armies, but men who have been living and breathing the art of war.
All under command of one of the most gifted commanders to ever live.
If Marcus was the legatus I once knew, there might be hope, but if what Lydia says is true and he’s lost himself, then may the gods have mercy on every soul on the Southern Continent. ”
No one spoke. No one even seemed to breathe, the only sound the whistle of wind through the trees and a deimos screaming its frustration in the distant skies.
“I’ll ask since we’re all wondering,” Killian eventually said. “What is your intent, Agrippa? Are you planning to return to your brothers in arms?”
“Well, it would be pretty stupid for me to admit so if I were,” Agrippa replied. “Because I can only assume you’d stab me with that half-drawn sword rather than allow that to happen.”
It was Malahi’s turn to stiffen, and Lydia heard the queen’s intake of breath to speak but Agrippa beat her to it.
“No, it’s not my plan. For starters, they think I deserted, which means if I walk into camp, they’ll beat me into a pulp with rocks and fists, and never stop to wonder if perhaps there’s more to the story.
Two… I’ve been on the wrong side for too long.
Fought for the wrong reasons, to achieve the wrong things.
Even though it’s starting to look like doing so will mean almost certain death, I’m of a mind to die fighting for something right. ”
“Same,” Baird said. “For what it’s worth.”
Agrippa gave his friend a nod.
“Does that mean you’re our resource?” Killian pressed. “If it comes to it, and the Empire pursues conquest in earnest, will you advise us on how to defeat them knowing that your advice will mean the deaths of those you once called friends?”
“My advice would be that you can’t defeat them so we should all get very drunk and do debauched things until the bitter end.
” Agrippa sighed. “But in lieu of that, yes. I’ll tell you what I know.
Though I did as much for those in Arinoquia while they nursed me back to health and it doesn’t seem to have done them much good. ”
In the darkness, Lydia watched Malahi’s shadow reach out and rest her hand on his arm.
How Lydia wished she could take such easy comfort from touch, for the conversation had turned an already grim situation so much grimmer.
“It’s not a coincidence, is it? That Rufina’s armies marched at the same time the Senate set its sights on the West?
” She hesitated, then added, “Rufina said that you’d told her about Celendor. ”
Agrippa huffed out a breath. “I told her any number of things so that she’d continue to think I was too valuable to kill, but as far as I know, she wasn’t conspiring with the Cel Senate. She merely liked the way they did things.”
“She said that you opened her master’s eyes to a world of opportunity, for her master looks back at those who gaze into the darkness, whether they know his name or not.
” Then, lest it seem as though she were casting blame, she added, “Hegeria seemed well aware of the Celendor Empire, so I cannot think the Corrupter was unaware of its nature, but it does suggest to me that perhaps—”
“The Corrupter has influence in the Empire?” Agrippa snorted. “Seems a stretch given that paganism is a crime in Celendor. We erase it everywhere we go, so you can best bet they are pulling down god towers and silencing any reference to the Six in Arinoquia.”
We. Lydia tensed at the proof Agrippa had not entirely disassociated himself from the Empire.
“Urcon, the ruler of Arinoquia, sold all the Arinoquian healers to my father,” Malahi abruptly said. “Quindor told me it was so, and if he bought healers, it’s possible he bought other marked. Which means…”
“Most of them are dead.” Lydia thought of the tenders in Deadground, who might as well have been.
“I think it no coincidence that Arinoquia was stripped of its marked just before the Cel legions arrived,” Killian muttered.
“Still care to claim the Corrupter isn’t influencing actions in Celendor, Agrippa?
Because it seems to me that your old legion is just another one of the Corrupter’s weapons. ”
“They’re not—” Agrippa sucked in an audible breath, then was silent for a moment.
“Don’t get it in your head that they’re some sort of monsters set on chaos and destruction.
They’re just men who have been given no other path in life but war.
They won’t have chosen this because they don’t get choices.
Even Marcus is beholden to the whim of the Senate. ”
“Much like the majority of Rufina’s army had no choice but to fight,” Baird said, expression cloaked in darkness. “Doesn’t mean they won’t work to achieve dark ends, if only to protect their own necks.”
“Shit.” Agrippa jumped to his feet, kicking rocks so that they went sailing into trees. “ Shit shit shit !”
“As alarming as this development is,” Malahi said over the sound of his cursing, “the threat of this invading Empire is not our most pressing concern, for they are not the threat closest to hand. We need to put our minds to escaping Derin and making it back to Mudamora, where we can rally our forces. We should give all due warning to Gamdesh, but I can’t help but think that the Maarin will have already done so.
For all we know, the collective armies of the Southern Continent may have already driven the Empire’s legions back across the seas. ”
“You only think that because you don’t know them,” Agrippa growled. “You only think that because you don’t know him. The only way the Thirty-Seventh won’t win any fight they choose to pick is if Marcus is dead .”