Page 185 of Scorched Earth
Anger boiled in her chest, and she snapped, “A high price has been paid for your freedom. Don’t squander it.”
“Where is it we should go?” Elyanna’s husband asked. “For it seems we have not been freed from Cel control, as they now rule all of Reath.”
“Not yet they don’t,” she retorted. “Get on your ships.”
Turning on her heels, she left the building to find Cassius waiting for her outside. “It’s so quiet,” he said. “I expected shouts of ‘liberty!’ Were they overwhelmed with the unexpected euphoria of their newfound freedom?”
She didn’t answer him, only sat on a curb, watching as her people trickled out of the building.
“Congratulations!” Cassius declared to each new group that emerged. “Liberty!”
None of them responded, only gave her glances containing a mix of emotions before starting their trek down to the harbor where the ships waited.
“That was anticlimactic,” Cassius said once they were gone. “I’d rather anticipated that they’d be cheering the name of their liberator.”
“No, you didn’t.”
He gave a soft laugh. “That’s true, I didn’t. But you did, didn’t you, Teriana?”
Not cheering, no, but…
“Gratitude would have validated your actions,” Cassius said. “Instead, you are left questioning whether you made the right choice. Perhaps even fighting the growing certainty that you have erred.”
“I hate you,” she whispered.
“Hate me? Why? Because I didn’t leave them to languish in Hostus’s care so that they would cry out your name asliberatorwhen you delivered them from the dungeons? Is that what you would have preferred?” Cassius shook his head. “I had not believed you so vainglorious, Teriana.”
A tear trickled down her cheek.
“That is the nature of humanity, you know,” he said. “When people are put into the worst circumstances, very few of them can think beyond their own suffering and their desire to escape it, no matter the consequences. Whereas when they are treated well and live without fear, they have the privilege of imagining themselves as strong enough to endure the worst to prevent those same consequences. Most are not, but we are all guilty of seeing ourselves as altruistic warriors who will suffer for the sake of being in the right.”
She wiped away the tear, but it was replaced by another.
“Every one of them owes you their lives. Yet right now, every one of them is blaming you for the burden you’ve rested on their shoulders.” Cassius smiled. “Congratulations on your freedom, Teriana. I hope you will use it well.”
Without another word, the Dictator of Celendor strolled down the street, disappearing around the corner.
Burying her face in her hands, Teriana wept.
68MARCUS
He stood on the fortress ramparts, staring out over a sea of men standing in organized ranks. Nine legions. Over forty-five thousand trained legionnaires, all experienced. All hardened by combat in nearly every province of the East.
All his to command.
Felix and Zimo stood with him, both men silent.
“These stems are our lifeline to the Empire,” he said to Zimo, whose legion would remain. “At all costs, the Thirty-First will keep the Emrant, Imresh, and the Arinoquian stems secure, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Zimo answered, watching Astara circle overhead. “Thoughin truth, you’re the one who has the fight ahead of you. Kaira is in Revat marshaling all of Gamdesh’s forces. Her numbers are significant. But there is also the force she left behind to watch us.”
“I’ve read the reports.”
“It’s too early to move on Revat.” Felix crossed his arms. “Even with this many men, we put ourselves at incredible risk having our supply chain extended across such a long stretch of land. We should entrench. Secure the support from those living in the region. Establish solid trade arrangements between merchants on both sides of the Endless Seas. Do things the way we always do rather than byforce. Force means lives lost. Force means starving civilians who hate us and try to kill us whenever our backs are turned. Cassius would have us turn Gamdesh into another Bardeen, into another Chersome, and you seem content to do it.”
For days, Marcus had felt numb. The towering black walls that had formed in his mind held back emotions he did not care to feel. Yet Felix’s words reached across the walls, drawing up fear and guilt and doubt, and threatened to unleash them.
Marcus’s heart started to race, thundering in his chest like he was fighting for his very life. Felix wasn’t wrong. Doing this put the lives of all the men arrayed before him in danger, whereas if they moved more slowly—
