Page 164 of Scorched Earth
A knock sounded, then the door to the room opened with a click, and Marcus said, “Teriana?”
Her heart immediately accelerated, because for better or worse, the next part of her journey would begin now. “Come in. I’m in the bath.”
There was silence for a long, painful moment, and Teriana squeezed her eyes shut, abruptly afraid that everything had already fallen apart. Then Marcus’s familiar tread filled her ears, moving through the expansive room, and onto the balcony that held one half of the pool.
“Beautiful view,” he said softly. She opened her eyes, expecting to see him admiring the sea. Instead, Marcus’s eyes were on her.
Teriana’s cheeks warmed. “You’re looking the wrong direction.”
“I’m not.”
His tone made her breath catch, but she managed to say, “Is everything all right? Grypus—”
“Don’t worry about Grypus,” Marcus replied. “He’s not going to be a problem.”
How that could possibly be, Teriana wasn’t sure, but before she could ask, Marcus said, “TheQuincenseshould reach the harbor soon.”
She sat upright in the pool, splashing herself in the face. “What? How?”
“I knew what our timing would be for taking Emrant,” he said. “I left orders for them to be allowed to set sail to join us, along with our injured.”
“Miki?”
“He’ll be aboard,” Marcus answered. “I haven’t figured out how I’m going to do it, but I’ll honor the agreement I made with Quintus. Hopefully he’ll agree to go with you and your escort through the xenthier path back to Celendor before he goes his own way.” He hesitated. “I would go with you myself, but—”
“You need to stay here,” she said. “There is no question of that. Our position is too fragile, and the last thing we need is Grypus making decisions in your absence.”
Marcus grimaced, and not wanting to hear him argue, Teriana added, “Let’s be realistic; if it comes to a violence, Quintus is better able to fight me out of a bad situation alive than you are.”
“If it comes to a fight, one man isn’t going to do much good.”
Teriana sighed. “Perhaps. But I haven’t forgotten that Cassius tried to kill you. He’s had plenty of opportunity to kill me but has never lifted a finger against me.”
Marcus’s silence was the closest he’d ever get to admitting she was right.
“I still wish there was a way I could go with you.” He scrubbed a hand over his hair, which had grown longer during the march from Arinoquia. “I don’t trust that Cassius won’t find a way to twist circumstances to get out of freeing your people.”
“He has no argument,” she said. “There is no safer route than this, and it isn’t as though he’s an emperor to change his mind on a whim. He is still beholden to the Senate and—”
“A senate he controls by blackmail and bribery.”
“And to the citizens,” she finished, raising an eyebrow at the interruption. “The Cel are a political people, and while they know every man in the Senate is at least a little bit crooked, they won’t accept a consul so overtly breaking his word. At worst, they won’t vote him in again. At best, they’ll riot.”
“Would you riot against the Twenty-Ninth?”
“There are more than a million people in Celendrial,” she said. “If Hostus starts killing them, every man in that legion will be strung up in the Forum. I’ve been to very nearly every major city on Reath, and I can tell you with confidence that no one riots like the Cel.Do not stand there and attempt to argue that keeping five hundred Maarin in prison to maintain a leash on me is worth that risk.”
“But it might be worth it to leashme.”
Teriana bit the insides of her cheeks. “You just gave Cassius exactly what he wanted. There’s no reason for him to suspect that you won’t continue to do so.”
Marcus didn’t answer.
“Even if he suspects there might be a risk you won’t be compliant, is keeping my people in prison really how he’d choose to manage you?” she asked. “Would he really risk riots and losing the election for such a tenuous method of control?”
“It’s not tenuous.” Marcus’s tone was clipped. “It’s proven to be incredibly effective because he knows I’ll do anything for you.”
Her chest tightened as emotion swelled within her, and Teriana waded to the end of the pool where he stood, resting her elbows on the edge. “Cassius is extremely intelligent, Marcus. Until now, using me has cost him nothing, but all of Celendrial knows that we delivered on our promise. What we really need to worry about is what new form of leverage he’s got up his sleeve.”
