Page 309 of Scorched Earth
Lydia knew thehewho Felix referred to wasn’t Cassius.
“Marcus told me himself what he did to you, Lydia, and I was there for the rest. So I’m not going to stand here and say that he’s not at fault. But so are the rest of us, because we all did as we were told. If there were justice in the world, every legionnaire who stepped into the West would be on the gallows. Every legionnaire alive, if I’m honest, because we didn’t do anything in Arinoquia, Gamdesh, or Mudamora that hasn’t been done in the provinces a thousand times over. Yet Marcus is the one who will take the fall, and while that may be justice to some, it doesn’t seem fair given he was the one who was blackmailed.”
Lydia glanced to Killian, but he only leaned against the wall, seeming content to remain silent through this exchange.
Clearing her throat, she asked, “What does Marcus have to say about that?”
“That justifications don’t change outcomes.” Felix shook his head. “And in less than an hour, he’ll be dead for them.”
The door abruptly swung open, and a large legionnaire stepped into the room. “Felix—” He broke off at the sight of Lydia, then shook his head. “Why am I not surprised?”
“Has something happened?” Felix asked, stepping away from the window. “A stay?”
The big legionnaire shook his head. “No. Teriana is in Celendrial. Valerius pulled strings and he’s taking her to see him.”
A sudden stab of pain hit Lydia in the heart, because she knew Teriana down to her toes. Had known exactly how her friend would feel when she learned Marcus’s intentions. Had known that Teriana would come to Celendrial to try to stop it.
This war kepttaking.
Taking and taking, and even though the side of right was victorious and would have its justice, Lydia couldn’t help but feel that, at the end of it, their hearts would be hollow.
Felix exhaled a long breath, his eyes on the water clock on the table. “I wish she’d come sooner. We’re to bring him to the Forum on the hour, and Marcus won’t be happy if we make him late.”
He started toward the door, but Lydia caught hold of his arm, pulling him back. “I think we need to give them more time. While we wait, could you please arrange for my father to join us?”
123TERIANA
“There is not much time,” Valerius said to Teriana as he led her down the corridor. “And I suggest you leave the city as soon as you say your piece. Riots are likely, and it will not go well for you if you are caught up in them.”
Teriana gave a small nod, then swiftly adjusted her scarf so that more of her face was concealed. Her heart was hammering, and though logically she knew that her life was very much in danger, given the building was full of legionnaires, the twist of terror in her belly had nothing to do with threat to her own life.
A legionnaire came down the corridor, and Teriana lowered her face because there was a 37 on his breastplate. “Legatus wishes to speak to you, Senator. He says it’s urgent.”
Valerius made an aggrieved noise. “Where is he?”
“Down one level.”
“Tell him I’ll be along shortly.”
One of his guards, the retired centurion who’d been with Teriana when Hostus had killed her mother, had gone ahead and was speaking to the two legionnaires standing guard outside a door. Both stiffened, their eyes jumping down the corridor to her, but then they nodded.
“You will give her no trouble, understood?” Valerius said to the men as they drew up before them. “She was never here.”
“Yes, sir,” one replied, but the other said, “We know we’re home because of you, Teriana. Alive because of you. The Senate will do their best to erase what you did from the history books, but the Thirty-Seventh will remember.”
She lifted her face to meet his gaze, lost for words because she’d been so certain they’d hate her. “Libertas.”
The legionnaires inclined their heads. “Libertas.”
They opened the door, and Valerius placed a hand on her back and pushed her through. It shut firmly behind her, the bolt clunking into place, but Teriana barely noticed, her eyes all for the familiar figure standing at the window. Marcus’s back was to her, his elbows resting on the sill of the window she’d once climbed out of in a bid to rescue her mother. He wore only undergarments, likely in deference to the extreme heat plaguing Celendrial, the 1519 stark and black on his bare shoulders.
“Felix, they won’t take you seriously as legatus if you keep coming to me for instructions,” he said. “You need—”
“It’s not Felix,” she blurted out. “It’s me.”
Marcus stiffened, then slowly turned. “Teriana?”
His eyes were no longer the voids she’d seen in Revat, but blue-grey. She’d known that to have come here and done all that he had done, Marcus had to have fought his way out from under the Corrupter’s influence, but seeing him once again as the man she’d fallen in love with was such a relief that Teriana nearly dropped to her knees.
