Page 261 of Scorched Earth
Meant to take this risk herself.
Because the timing required holding the cask until the second before it detonated, or the force of the explosion wouldn’t be drawn into the xenthier. “Polin, no!”
The man who had been like a father to her turned his head to grin—
And then everything turned white.
Teriana was flung across the open space, the impact driving the air from her chest. The ground bucked beneath her, the walls surrounding the courtyard collapsing as Reath herself writhed. As though the destruction of the xenthier had inflicted pain upon the land itself.
Catching hold of Yedda’s arms, Teriana dragged her aunt away from the falling blocks of stone. By some miracle, Polin was alive, his hair singed off and his skin marked with burns, but breathing. The three of them clung to each other as the ground shuddered and rippled, and then, after what felt like an eternity, fell still.
“The Six are merciful!” Polin gasped. “We did it!”
Because the xenthier was gone. Nothing remained but a gaping hole in the ground. The path between Padria and Emrant was destroyed.
“I thought you were dead, you great blundering idiot,” Yedda sobbed, clinging to Polin. “Thank the gods, you’re safe.”
No one was safe. A roar filled Teriana’s ears, and she had but a second to realize that Bait’s hold on the tide had been broken by the earthquake before water exploded over the rubble and slammed into her.
It flipped her over, spinning her around, debris, bodies, and other people swimming for their lives slamming into her.
Teriana clawed her way to the surface as the tidal wave dragged her inland, her body screaming in pain from the onslaught. It took her over the ruins of the town to the base of the hills.
And then it reversed course.
Teriana screamed, trying to swim against the current, but it was relentless. Sucking her toward the storm-tossed sea and certain death. Though she’d gone into this prepared to meet her end, Teriana did not want to die. Did not want this to be her last fight. She howled, fighting the current and the pain.
Fighting against defeat.
And then the water went still.
Steady as a glass pane but for the ripples caused by her swimming crew around her. Teriana turned her head, and relief flooded her as she saw Bait sitting on Magnius’s back, Baird perched behind him. TheQuincensesat in the water in the distance, the rest of the ships as well.
“Swim!” Bait shouted as Baird pulled Polin onto Magnius’s back. “Get back aboard! I can’t hold the waters like this for long.”
All around her, bodies floated on the still water. Legionnaires and civilians and Maarin alike, dead from battle, from debris, from drowning.
Casualties of war.
“Teriana!” Yedda swam toward her. “Are you all right?”
She’d never again beall right. But maybe that was as it should be.
“You did it, girl,” Yedda caught hold of her arms. “You did it! There is no chance they’ll try to expand their reach now—they’ll have to retrench!”
She’d done it, and that meant the legion that had never known defeat was about to discover its bitter taste.
Teriana waited for elation to fill her, but it did not come. She stared dully at the bodies of the innocent civilians of Padria that she’d sacrificed for this victory, their eyes glassy and lifeless.
Please let it be worth it.
Magnius’s voice filled her head.Lysander sends word. The legions have abandoned Revat.
They’ve retreated?she demanded, only for realization to strike like a blow to the gut.
It was too soon.
Word of the destruction of the xenthier paths would not have yet reached Marcus to drive him to retreat. This was something else.
