Page 85 of Scorched Earth (Dark Shores #4)

TERIANA

“What is happening?” Teriana demanded of Felix as he gave the order for the legions to withdraw and march north. “Where are we going? Who were those prisoners?”

“The Forty-First captured Imresh,” Felix answered, and Nic slapped his hand against his saddle and whooped with delight.

“Those prisoners were the skeleton guard and serving staff that she’d left behind,” Felix continued, giving the boy an amused glance. “As to why, you’ll have to ask Marcus.”

Who was trotting his horse up the slope toward them.

“Let’s go see if this gambit was worth it,” was all Marcus said as he rode past them, forcing Teriana to scramble up behind Quintus on their horse. With uncharacteristic urgency, Marcus wove through the ranks of marching men, then heeled his mount into a gallop down the road.

“Bring the ranks to Imresh and watch our heels,” Felix snapped at Nic, then he broke into a gallop after Marcus, as did Gibzen.

“Go!” Teriana shouted at Quintus, thumping her heels against their horse. “Catch them!”

They galloped down the road, and what terror Teriana might have felt at the speed was eclipsed by a desperate need to discover why Marcus had done this. To learn what his strategy was to have marched so far, to have pushed his men so hard, only to have taken a location other than their target.

Crimson and gold Cel banners were already draped from the walls of the forbidding grey fortress of Imresh as they approached, legionnaires patrolling the ramparts and manning the gates as though this stronghold had been theirs for months rather than hours.

Marcus disappeared beneath the portcullis just as she and Quintus reached the drawbridge over the moat.

How Felix and the Forty-First had taken Imresh so easily she couldn’t have said, for the murky waters below were filled with wooden spikes with no evidence of casualties.

The horse’s hooves clattered over the cobbles as they entered the courtyard. Marcus was already dismounted, and she heard him bark, “Please tell me that someone has found something of worth in this place?”

“Yes, sir,” one of the Forty-First answered. “It’s this way, sir.”

Slipping off the side of her horse, Teriana hurried after them, ignoring Gibzen’s glower.

They wove through the interior of the fortress, which, unlike its austere exterior, was painted in vibrant colors, the walls decorated with elaborate wooden carvings and woven tapestries.

It smelled heavily of the incense that the Gamdeshians burned.

“In here, sir,” she heard someone say, then Marcus’s cloak disappeared into a room, a shattered wooden door propped against the wall.

“I knew it!” Marcus shouted, and Teriana broke into a run, ignoring Quintus’s protests as she spun into the room.

To find Marcus staring at a glittering stem of xenthier.

“Is that—” She broke off, needing to swallow down the tightness that had formed in her throat.

“A genesis? Yes. Yes, it is.” Marcus turned away from the stem of crystal, and pulling off his helmet, he tossed it aside before crossing the room to grip Teriana’s shoulders. “I knew they were hiding something in here. Something important, else Kaira would have been in Emrant itself.”

His eyes were almost manic, a combination of exhaustion and euphoria and… something Teriana couldn’t put a name to.

“I couldn’t get a spy into the bloody place, but then I remembered a conversation I had with Agrippa in Bardeen about farts.”

“Farts?” She stared at Marcus in bewilderment, feeling a slight shake in his arms that filled her with fear, because he wasn’t talking straight. “I don’t understand.”

Marcus shook his head. “That doesn’t matter.

What matters is that I had my spies burn pitch and sulfur upwind of this fortress.

The smell is distinct, and the fires are hard to put out.

Wex had trusted men sitting next to unmapped terminuses all across the Empire, smelling the drafts that came out of them, and this?

This path leads to a stem in Celendor itself.

And that”—he jabbed his finger in the direction of Emrant—“is its gods-damned mate. There are always two, Teriana. Always two; that’s what keeps things in balance. ”

“All right.” She hated how pale he was, eyes so dilated she could barely see the iris around them. “Do you know the location of the Emrant path’s genesis?”

“Yes, because of the firecrackers. At least, we think so.” He looked around wildly. “I need to confirm it. I just need to—”

Firecrackers?

He spun away from her, digging in his belt pouch.

“I have the instructions ready. I wrote them just in case.” Pulling a packet of paper free, he sent other objects flying, including a familiar glass vial.

She didn’t have the chance to think about why he was carrying around narcotics, because Marcus was walking toward the xenthier, hand outstretched. “No!”

She flung herself at him, grabbing hold of his cloak and wrenching him back even as Gibzen and Felix caught his arms.

“I’ll do it.” Felix pulled the letter from Marcus’s hand. “I just need something heavy.” Spotting a candlestick on the lone table in the room, he secured the letter to it with a piece of twine. Taking a deep breath, he cautiously lobbed it at the xenthier.

It disappeared.

No one spoke. No one moved. No one seemed to even breathe, then Marcus abruptly pulled out of the grip of his men and raced toward the door.

“Shit,” Felix hissed, bolting after him, and Teriana was forced to wait while his anxious bodyguards fell into pursuit before following.

“Something’s not right with him,” she said to Quintus. “Someone should get Racker.”

“He’s with the Thirty-Seventh,” he said. “And I don’t think Marcus is going to let a medic near him. He’s manic.”

She followed the clatter of steel tread back into the courtyard, then up the stairs leading to the ramparts. Marcus was leaning on the stone, staring fixedly in the direction of Emrant. “Come on,” he muttered. “This should be quick. Red smoke.”

“Sir?” Gibzen came up next to him. “What are we looking for?”

“An explosion with red smoke,” Marcus said, his nails scratching at the stone of the battlements.

“Wex is sending just enough black powder to crack open the casement they’ve put around the stem without doing irreparable damage.

Once we’ve confirmed it, we’ll send a messenger to Kaira telling her that she’s got a day to remove her forces from the city or Wex will send through a wagonload of explosives. ”

“Shit,” Gibzen mumbled, and the look on his face turned Teriana’s blood cold. “I’d like to see that.”

“Obviously the hope is that it doesn’t come to that.

The whole point of all this was to secure the paths without casualties, and using explosives with xenthier is risky at the best of times!

” Felix snapped, though Teriana could tell from his expression that even he hadn’t known this part of the plan.

No one had known more than what was required to do their part, it seemed.

“Yeah, our casualties,” the primus said. “This will make a point. Will put that bitch they call a general in her place. She’ll be kissing our asses at the end of the day, begging us not to do it.”

Though Teriana knew there was a lot that wasn’t right in Gibzen’s head, horror still filled her chest at the primus’s total lack of empathy for those in the ill-fated city.

It seemed she was not the only one to feel that way, because Felix shoved Gibzen with such force that the other man nearly fell.

“You are relieved from duty until I say otherwise!” Felix snarled.

“Take a walk until you learn to keep your opinions to yourself.”

“You can’t relieve me!” Gibzen shouted. “Only Marcus can do that!”

Except Marcus seemed oblivious to what was going on behind him, his eyes fixed on the city, mouth moving as he silently repeated, red smoke red smoke.

“And yet I just did.” Felix took a step closer to Gibzen, mouth twisted with disgust. “Walk of your own accord or I’ll have your corpse tossed over the wall to feed the carrion. Your. Choice.”

Gibzen’s hands balled into fists, and Teriana held her breath, certain it was going to turn violent. Then the primus shrugged. “Fine. I could use a break.”

Giving Felix a sarcastic salute, he turned on his heel and strode away, passing Racker as he came up the stairs.

The surgeon stepped sideways, expression wary, but Gibzen ignored him as he disappeared from sight.

“What’s wrong?” Racker asked as he approached, eyes narrowing on Marcus. “How long has he been like this?”

“Since he spoke to the Gamdeshians,” Felix said. “It’s getting worse. Did she do something to him? Everyone was watching but…”

“Kaira didn’t do anything to him.” Teriana held out the vial she’d picked up off the floor. As Racker plucked it from her hand, she moved beside Marcus, riffling in his belt pouch until she found another, which she handed to the surgeon.

Racker opened the bottle, sniffed it, and then swore. Giving it to Felix, he grasped Marcus’s shoulders. “Sir, I need you to look at me!”

Marcus didn’t even seem to hear.

“What is it?” Teriana demanded. “I know the first one is for pain, but what is the other?”

Felix sniffed the contents, then in one violent motion, smashed the bottle on the stone.

“It’s a potion cooked up by chemists in Celendrial.

Men use it to stay awake on guard duty, but it’s banned because it’s dangerous.

Some of the Thirty-First must have brought it over with them because I doubt the Fifty-First has yet crossed paths with it. ”

Something to make him sleep.

Something to keep him awake.

It was no wonder he wasn’t making any sense, and sickness pooled in Teriana’s stomach because how long had this been going on? How long had he been poisoning himself for the sake of bearing the full weight of this mad strategy?