Page 219 of Scorched Earth
Killian carried on to his brother’s manor in the middle of Serlania. The guards at the gates opened them for him without question, and Killian handed off his horse to a stable hand.
Finn was sitting on the steps.
“Why aren’t you at Teradale,” he asked the boy, who had a bandage wrapped around his arm.
“Adra and Seldrid brought me back to Serlania with them,” Finn said. “After your dog bit me.”
“Socks bit you?” Killian blinked in surprise, because the dog didn’t have a mean bone in his body. “Are you all right?”
“Was nothing. We were just scrapping and it got out of hand, but Adra likes to mother me.” Finn shrugged. “I like Serlania better, anyway. My subjects are all here and it’s easier to keep them in line.”
It wasn’t safe in the streets of Serlania. Not with food scarce and the city bursting with refugees from the north. “Stay in the manor, Finn. It’s not safe in the streets.”
“Safer now than it was. I heard you killed the blighters that were coming toward Serlania,” his young friend said. “Then burned half of Rufina’s army alive.”
“They aren’t alive,” Killian muttered, his mouth turning sour as he remembered the smell. “Just walking corpses puppeted by the Seventh.”
“Still, you single-handedly killed half her army. That’s a victory.”
Does this feel like victory, Killian Calorian? Does this feel like a battle won?
“Finn, I’m not interested in reliving that moment,” Killian snapped. “I need to find Malahi. Please stay within the manor’s walls.”
Leaving the boy on the steps, he went inside, a servant directing him where to find Malahi. With every step Killian took, his temper grew worse. At Finn, for celebrating one of the worst atrocities of this war. At Malahi, for leaving Lydia in Revat to be captured by the Cel. But most of all at himself, because he’d been given every power to protect those he loved and yet all he left in his wake was death.
Malahi sat in the manor’s small library with Adra and Agrippa. “Killian!” She rose to her feet. “Gods, we heard—”
“Why did you leave her!” he shouted.
Agrippa was on his feet in a flash, stepping between Killian and Malahi. “Watch your tone, Killian. We tried to make Lydia leave, but she was having none of it. Short of trussing her up and dragging her onto the ship—”
“You should have. You should have made her go, but as usual, Malahi only thinks of herself and thekingdom. You had the information you needed, so of course you cut and run.”
Malahi blanched, but swiftly recovered. “We did find the answers to destroying the blight, but I can’t do it without Lydia. I didn’t want to leave her, but she was dead set on hunting down a solution for the infected. And though she never admitted it, a way to bring back the blighters themselves.”
Killian’s stomach dropped. “What? That’s… that’s impossible. You can’t cure death and it’s—”
“Death to the healer who tries, I know.” Malahi rested a calming hand on Agrippa’s arm. “But you know how Lydia is.”
Gods help him, Killian knew better than anyone. And while Lydia had been risking her life to find a way to save the Mudamorian blighters, he’d been busy burning them to ash. Endless thousands now beyond salvation no matter what Lydia had discovered.
Heedless that he was filthy, he sat on one of the sofas, shaking his head when Adra offered him a drink. “I need to find her.”
Adra set the whiskey down on the table, then knelt before him. “I know you had a vision of Revat falling, Killian, but we have heard no confirmation that it has come to pass. Lydia might well be on theKairenseand nearly in the harbor. Or Kaira might be successfully holding off the Cel.”
He lifted his head to meet Agrippa’s gaze, and his friend shook his head. “Marcus has close to forty thousand legionnaires in his main force. I counted thirty catapults bombarding the walls, a dozen siege towers, and they blocked off the river that flows through the city. But worst of all, they have a good-sized fleet that looked like it was making ready to enter the harbor. It was just a matter of when, not if.”
Killian’s chest clenched, it suddenly so very hard to breathe.
“But we found the answers,” Malahi said. “A very old manuscript that detailed how the tenders cured Anukastre. They all died, but if Lydia is with me, she has the power to keep me alive. We can win this.”
He didn’t care. Without Lydia, nothing mattered, and in his heart, Killianknewthat Lydia had been in Revat when the god towers fell.
I’ll get her back,he swore.I will kill them all if I have to, but I will free her.
Then a commotion caught his attention. Sounds of alarm.
Rising, Killian drew his sword and made his way through the manor. Only to discover the servants surrounding a naked Gamdeshian woman who was sprawled on the floor.
