“And your solution was to bring us the greenest legion in the Empire’s arsenal? The Fifty-First arechildren.They need two years more training before they see real combat.”
She shrugged. “If you’re trying to make a power play, you don’t bring in people who outrank you. Plus, if I didn’t bring them, Cassius was going to give them to Hostus to finish their training, which means they aregratefulto be here, and that is to your advantage.”
Felix was quiet, then he said, “All well and good, Teriana. But answer me this: why did Marcus leave you in Celendrial?”
A question she’d asked herself a thousand times over. “What reason did he give you?”
He regarded her in silence, refusing to bite, so it was her who caved first.
“He said it was because he loved me.” The words sounded as though they were dragged over sandpaper as they exited her lips. “But that it needed to be over between us. That it had been a mistake. That we were enemies, and that one day I would come to remember that, and I’d hate him. That he didn’t want to see it happen.”
“He’s undoubtedly right. Yet here you are.”
“Here I am,” she agreed, feeling impossibly hollow and alone.
“Why? Why didn’t you remain in Celendrial with Valerius? You could have provided the information to the Fifty-First and accomplished the same result. Is it because you won’t accept that it’s over between you? Did you chase him across the world to try to get him back?”
Her face burned hot with humiliation. “No! I… It’s…” Teriana bit down on her stammering because the truth was so very complicated. “In exchange for the freedom of one hundred of my people, I had to commit to a deadline for finding the paths. Six months for success, or Cassius will start executing the rest. This is my responsibility to see through. That’s why I’m here.”
When she’d said those words in the heat of the moment the night Marcus had fled Celendrial, they’d felt just and powerful. Yet saying them now, Teriana felt childish. Foolish. Because what exactly would she contribute other than information she could have written in a letter?
But rather than mocking her, Felix only scrubbed his hands over his head. “Six months?”
She nodded, his reaction confirming Hostus’s opinion on the aggressive deadline. That it might well be impossible to make.
Panic rushed into her like a rising tide, and Teriana drew in a steadying breath, only to nearly jump out of her skin as a fist pounded on the door.
“What?” Felix demanded, and a heartbeat later, it flung open to reveal Quintus’s panicked face.
“We have a problem.”
17MARCUS
Marcus fixed his eyes on Austornic. The boy was yet another issue needing to be addressed, but he didn’t have the energy for it when all he wanted to do was collapse on a bedroll and sleep for a week. “We’ll talk,” he said. “But I have to get this camp in order first. Have your men stay out of the way of trouble or they’ll have cause to regret it.”
You sound like Hostus,his conscience whispered, and Marcus pressed fingers to his throbbing temples.
“Yes, sir. But—”
“It can wait.”
Rising to his feet, Marcus pulled off the filthy civilian clothes he still wore, but as he reached for the red tunic that Amarin had brought, Austornic said, “It can’t wait. There’s more information about the attack on the terminus camp that you need to know. I didn’t want to say anything about it with the others present, because Teriana indicated that aspects of what she told me were… confidential.”
Marcus went still, hand resting on the clean garment. “What information?”
“About the nature of the attack.” Austornic quickly described the scene as the Fifty-First had found it. “Teriana believes the attack was perpetrated by one of the individuals known asthe corrupted.I… Well, obviously it goes against all of my training and beliefs to accept the existence of gods, much less individuals who are granted special powers by them, but I can provide no other explanation for why we discovered men who appeared well into their eighties bearing the mark of the Forty-First tattooed on their chests. She also mentioned the name Ashok.”
Anger filled Marcus’s chest like cold fire.
Was Titus’s desire for power great enough that he’d make another deal with Ashok that included killing his own men to silence them? “She was certain?”
“Yes, though you can ask her yourself if you doubt me.”
Marcus wasn’t ready to talk to Teriana. Wasn’t ready to be in the same room with her. That was why he’d left her in Celendrial, and with every breath he took, Marcus was aware she was now in this very camp. “I don’t doubt you.”
“Did you see who took you from the terminus camp?”
“I remember coming through the stem. The next thing I knew, I was in Titus’s tent barely able to think from xenthier sickness.”
