Title: Scorched Earth
Author: Danielle L. Jensen
Genre: Historical Fantasy, Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Marcus finds himself in a tent and overhears Titus talking to another man, a Gamdeshian named Zaide, who tells him that he will live to see revenge exacted to him. Marcus tells Titus that he was in Celendrial, but Titus does not believe him because he is wearing civilian clothing and there is no letter from Celendrial to prove that Marcus was there. Titus tells him instead that he will face justice for deserting the Thirty-Seventh Legion, and he’s trying to keep Marcus alive long enough to make sure that he sees that justice given. They are in a camp, when they are attacked, and Marcus fades in and out of consciousness. The next time that Marcus awakes, Zaide tells him that he will survive, and gives him a disgusting tasting tonic, just before they arrive to the new camp, and Titus tells Felix that he brought him a gift. Felix quickly recognizes who it is, but the whole Thirty-Seventh Legion goes feral when they realize that it is Marcus, and they’re ready to stone him for desertion. Felix tells them that justice will be exacted, and then throws Marcus in a cell not too far from Quintus who is also in prison for claiming that he did not believe that Marcus and Teriana would have left them. Felix comes to see Marcus a few minutes later, and sitting back to back through the cells of the jail, Marcus tells Felix all that has come to transpire. When Servius returns to tell them that Gibzen is rounding up everyone in the Thirty-Seventh and screaming for justice to the point that they will not be able to hold them back any longer, Felix tells him that he can’t go through with killing Marcus for Desertion because Marcus didn’t really desert. But Marcus has enough logic to realize that not punishing him for something that the legion perceives he did, will expose Felix as a legion commander—so he gives Felix the order to punish him for desertion. As a result, Felix brings him out in front of the crowd once he tells Gibzen that justice will be exacted, and tells the legion to get out of the jail. He brings Marcus out onto the platform, and treats him as a guilty man, telling everyone that Marcus is a deserter—while silently apologizing to Marcus for what is about to happen. They are interrupted by horns.

Teriana is extremely hurt by Marcus’s decision to leave her behind and run. She stays with Senator Valerius, and they do a lot of reading along with Austornic, the legatus of the Fifty-First legion, around how to get to the Reath, where Marcus is. They believe that Marcus wouldn’t have been able to survive multiple jumps through the Xenither stems as no one previously had without their brains going to mush, but Valerius tells her that maybe Marcus might have figured it out as he was good at these types of puzzles. Knowing that Marcus is in danger and that the Fifty-First Legion doesn’t want to serve under Hostius, she meets with Cassius to make a deal with him. They ultimately do reach one—she will get 100 Maarin lives, including the children, to be set free now in exchange for getting Xenither routes between the Dark Shores and Cel within 6 months. Cassius does not budge on the time frame, and tells her that if she does not deliver, it will mean that 100 of her people die. Teriana agrees, and also asks about Lydia, to which Cassius tells her that she had gone to the baths and was killed by a legatus, and her body flushed through the drains to never be found again. She relays this information to Valerius, who had been wondering what had happened to Lydia and had suspicions that she had been killed but could never find a body. Valerius then reveals that the story Teriana was always told—that he had found a woman dead with a baby on his doorstep and he adopted her was not true. Instead, the reality is that he had met Camilla, who was from Mudamora when she accidentally made her way through a Xenither stem to Celendrial, and he fell in love with her, but she never felt the same way. Since he knew Teriana’s mother, he convinced her to take Camilla back to Mudamora, and she wrote letters to him that he never responded to. That is how he found out that she got married to the King, and had a child, and when something went wrong, she showed up at his doorstep with the baby asking her to protect the child, so he adopted Lydia as his own, and Teriana’s mother knew. Teriana realizes that she had always been right; that Lydia is from Mudamora, but then realizes that she is really Kitariya Falorn.

Teriana goes to the jail with Hostius and Austornic, and Hostius threatens the Maarin that if they speak, they will be placed in solitary confinement, so the Maarin find a different way of communicating who gets to leave on the ship as part of the 100 that Teriana gets to choose. Amongst them, she chooses mothers with children that include her cousin and her two children, the elderly, and a couple of men who know how to fight to protect them all. They are all placed on a ship, and when they are sent off to go to the Reath, Teriana leaves with Austornic’s Legion to the Xenither Stem in Bardeen that connects them into the Reath. They find out at Bardeen that Marcus had indeed come through but that he had been off, sounding slurred. The Fifty-First legion covers it up as urgent business, and they push through into the Reath. They arrive on the other side of the Xenither stem and find themselves in a camp that has been torn apart and destroyed—many of the men in their eighties wearing the number of the Forty-First, as well as a log book containing information that Marcus had arrived along with the letter from Celendrial. As a result, Teriana has to explain to Austornic about the Corrupters.

The horns sound in camp, and everyone freezes from killing Marcus, with some of the men yelling that the horns are Legion horns. Someone comes to tell them that the banners are for the 51st legion, and when the doors open, Austornic and Teriana come up to the platform where Austornic reveals that he has updates to the orders that Marcus had received the week prior in Celendrial. This causes everyone in the Thirty-Seventh legion to question what they had just been about to do, repeating the words to themselves. Marcus gets hauled up by Felix, and tells everyone to get back to work, while calling Austornic, Titus, Felix and a couple of other men in line of command to go to the commander’s tent. When they’re all there, Austornic reveals that he found the logbook of the Forty-First, along with the letter that Marcus had from Celendrial found within the logbook. This puts Titus in a rage as he did not know about this, and he runs out of the Commander’s room in fury. Teriana manages to get inside and Felix talks to her about Marcus and why she came back—whether she is here because of love. Ultimately, she talks to Marcus who tells her to leave him alone and stay far away from him but that she is free to either go on the ship or stay in camp, and she chooses to stay inside the camp with Quintus. A separate incident happens in which Titus dies at the hand of Zaide, who really was Ashok—Teriana had called him out when she came into the room where they were meeting with Marcus. On his deathbed, because there is nothing else to be done to Titus, Titus reveals that he had never betrayed Marcus—he never received the money from Cassius because even though he is Cassius’s son, he still hates his father.

Teriana continues to wonder what is going on and why Marcus has suddenly decided to be distant from her, while Austornic is not happy with Marcus and his leadership because Marcus has been telling them nothing while simultaneously telling them not to talk to Teriana after finding out that he has six months to find a viable stem and free up Teriana’s people from the empire. At first Marcus is not able to come up with anything, and seems to be losing it, which Austornic tells Teriana using the ruse of falling into her tent during a game of ball. So Teriana goes to talk to Marcus, wearing the outfit from Cassius that was gifted to her, and finds him drunk. He gives her a gift—a bead in the shape of the Quincense, which he had commissioned a few days prior at Aracam—and tells her that he loves her; that she doesn’t have to dress up in the outfit of the Empire as it is a way for them to control her and she shouldn’t be controlled. They do make out as she is naked, but then he begs her to not go through with it further, and tells her that he will do what he can to figure out how to save her people—the six month timeline is important to Cassius, so he would have found a way to make it Marcus’s problem regardless of whether or not Teriana was involved. He just wishes that she wasn’t here.

The next day, Marcus wakes up with a headache, but comes up with a plan quickly—because Kaira, the general of the Gamdeshian army had told him to go kiss her ass. He only tells Felix, and his engineer, who tells him that it’s possible to carry it out. But he doesn’t tell anyone else. Instead, he has the thirty-seventh legion march and meet up in front of the city, where he gives a speech to get the men to mentor the Fifty-First Legion. And while Austornic complains to Teriana that Marcus isn’t doing anything for them, Marcus comes up to them and tells them that he has something for them. He basically has the Fifty-First Legion in a mock battle where they are surrounded, and has the Thirty-Seventh Legion run at full force at them, to teach the Fifty-First not to lose their nerves. He also has Teriana be in this as well to get her to learn to not lose her nerves, because what he knows is that there are many battles ahead of them and if they lose their nerve, they will fail their mission. He also tells Austornic that he has to earn his trust in order to be part of the circle of information

The Thirty First legion also arrive at Marcus’s request that he sent through the stem to Bardeen. And Marcus puts them to work at the port with Katamarcan ships -as Titus had made friends with Katamarca and Marcus continued that alliance. But everything seems to be a mix of signals and confusion, so when Astara—the woman who spies for Kaira as she can change forms into a Giant Hawk and who has spoken with Teriana once since their return to the Dark Shores—shows up, it looks like they’re disorganized. Astara squawks and flies away, at which point, Marcus has his Legions running towards the border with Gamdesh. They make it there, and Teriana watches as Marcus maneuvers the Legions in such a way that no one dies on the Legionnaire side or on the Gamdeshian side, and he even sends healers to tend to the wounded in the little camp outside of the city that they had just taken over. While they are waiting, Astara shows up and attacks Teriana, with Quintus throwing himself over her just in time to make sure that she’s safe. Marcus is furious and even more furious when he finds out that Teriana has been labeled a Traitor by not just Gamdesh but also by the Maarin, something that Teriana tells him as an answer for why Astara had attacked her. She’s labeled a Traitor all because she is not willing to give up on the 500 lives that she left behind in Celendrial even though her people and all of the other nations believe them to be the cost of war. The legions then begin their march up towards the city that they want to capture, which also has the Xenither stem. Felix breaks off from the Thirty-Seventh legion with the Forty-First legion, as he had been instated as the Legatus of the Forty-First after Titus’s death and the 2nd in command of the Forty-First stating that he’s not a fit for the role himself because he doesn’t want it. They continue to march through land and cities that are burnt by the Gamdeshian villagers leaving nothing behind beyond poisoned water and scorched earth. Austornic asks Marcus a lot of questions, and at one point when Marcus tells him that something isn’t his business, he falls back to his legion, at which point Gibzen comes up to him and plants the seed in Marcus’s mind that Austornic might be trying to get his glory and usurp Marcus, leading to some voices in Marcus’s head that rear from jealousy against the younger legatus. Teriana in the meantime has a strange dream where she sees Marcus as a boy in the garden when she’s hanging out with Lydia, but it doesn’t make much sense to her.

At the same time, Killian is fighting with a corrupted Lydia to get her to land and safety away from the deimos. She’s broken out several times, and he had to re-tie her bonds to ensure she’s not going to harm either of them. They make their way to a swamp, where they come up across as hut, in which there is no other person than Hegeria, the goddess of healing. She gets them in and when Lydia loosens her bonds enough to attempt to attack Hegeria, Hegeria grabs her by the throat and expels the Corrupter from Lydia’s body. She tells her that she has a long and hard road ahead of her, and then faces the black clouds that have formed from the Corrupter’s influence in Lydia. Hegeria goes down but doesn’t die, and the remaining five of the Six gods show up to her aid. They manage to defeat the Corrupter, and Hegeria tells her that she needs to head south to meet with her friends. Lydia asks Madoria after Teriana, to which Madoria tells her that Teriana is where she needs to be. Killian and Lydia make their way south, avoiding the corrupted army and the deimos, until they find their friends surrounded. As a result, Lydia snaps and draws the magic into her, using it to fight against Rufina, who at some point rides off on the Deimos, and has to be restrained by Killian and Agrippa. The group, consisting of Killian, Agrippa, Malahi, Baird and Lydia, travel further south trying to avoid Rufina, and as they go along, Lydia asks Agrippa to keep tying her to the trees because she is afraid for her own safety and the safety of others—she does not trust herself with the corrupter’s influence. Eventually, Killian sits down next to her, back to back after a conversation with Agrippa in which Agrippa told him that Lydia will only be able to make it through with someone who has her back. Malahi also frees Killian from his engagement to her and his oath to her, leaving him free to pursue Lydia, while she spends time with Agrippa. They make their way further south, avoiding the Corrupted army which is really the dead that have been arisen again. Agrippa also learns through them that the thirty-seventh legion is in the Dark Shores, and Lydia tells them that Marcus had attempted to kill her in the baths at the hand of Cassius, who had been betrothed to her as a way to get her father’s vote.

They make their way until the edge of the country they are in, and they tunnel underground because the army of the dead is blocking their path. As a result, they are forced to use a bucket to go down, and unfortunately, it causes them to go crashing, resulting in Killian and Lydia getting separated from the group. The two find themselves in a cavelike crevice where they start making out and undressing only to be found by Agrippa. The group then makes their way out into the sands, only to be caught by Xadrian, the prince of the Anukastre. Xadrian forces them across the desert and while Agrippa tries to run twice, he can’t really leave Malahi, so he stays silent. The group gets taken to the city in the desert, where they meet the Queen of the Anukastre. It is there that Agrippa tries to attack the Queen and ask them to free them only for the Queen to take the life out of Agrippa and age him. As the fight kind of breaks out, with Malahi using her powers to stop and pin people in place with her vines, Lydia makes her way over to Agrippa and puts the life back to him, returning him to his 20 year old self. Killian is so confused by what had occurred, as it was a split second while he was trying to get Malahi under control, though Agrippa was the one who was able to stop her. The queen then takes them beneath the throne room to show them paintings of the corrupted land and to show them that Malahi is the one that can heal them. Baird tells them that they won’t be leaving any time soon because there is a sandstorm coming.

They get shown to their rooms, and Lydia takes a bath and then goes to see the Queen in order to learn how she managed to withdraw the life out of Agrippa but not keep it to herself. The Queen asks her questions, and when Lydia finally tells her the truth—that she wants to be able to protect herself and fight without being corrupted, the Queen agrees to help her during their ride to the coast. That happens soon enough, and the Queen teaches Lydia every day during the ride—how to find the magic in the air to heal, how to see the magic, how to heal this and that, and also to push the magic out of the body. She ultimately forces Lydia to heal Killian, by giving him a very nasty cut on his arm that causes him to lose a lot of blood quickly. Lydia is able to do it despite her own fears, but she also sees a sandstorm of magic flowing very quickly to her. They make it to the port town, where they see the Maarin ship, and get on board. Kilian speaks to the Queen, and she tells him that Lydia did not only use the immediate magic in the air to heal him, but for miles, which is something that she has never seen before. And she tells him that it might be because Lydia was twice touched by Hegeria, but also that he needs to be her stabilizing force as someone who loves her.

Aboard the ship, Lydia runs into Bait, and they learn that Teriana has been labeled a traitor to the people. They get given the letter that she had sent to Killian asking for aid, and Agrippa is in shock because he doesn’t believe that Marcus would be in love with someone much less a prisoner under his control as he is suck a stickler for the rules. Lydia is convinced that Teriana is not a traitor, and Killian tells them that until he hears Teriana’s side of the story, he’s not going to label her as a traitor either. The group takes off in the ship, and Lydia gives Bait a job—to go find Teriana and tell her the truth about Marcus, as well as find out what is going on. Killian is adamant that Bait has to leave as soon as possible, so that is what he does, letting Lydia and Killian take over his room in the ship. The two of them have sex for the first time and continue having sex as they make their way back to Mudamora. They arrive at Mudamora, and it turns out that Agrippa and Malahi had gotten married the night before because Malahi wants to choose something for herself for once. When they get to land, Seldrid is waiting for them. Seldrid is Killian’s middle brother and the one that he likes quite a lot. Seldrid tells them that Ria Rowenes had come with a letter from Serrick disinheriting Malahi and revealing that she is godmarked by Yara, and had pleaded to him to keep her hidden, and making Ria the High Lady. They go to the city to meet with the rest of the High Ladies and High Lords, where it does come out that indeed Ria has that letter, and an argument ensues. Malahi is not going to be chosen as the queen of Mudamora, because she had married Agrippa and even Killian’s mother has told them before they entered the Calorian house, that she has lost the vote. Instead, Malahi reveals that they have another option that is not Ria and Hacken, Killian’s oldest brother who wants power and has engaged himself to Ria to get that power. She reveals that Lydia is Kitariya Falorn and when Dareena shows up, she gets Lydia to agree to shave part of her head to see if she is indeed tattooed. Lydia is indeed Kitariya, and so everyone bends the knee, including Lady Helene who had been against Lydia in the beginning because of a ring, which Lydia hands over to Lady Helene without further protest when Helene asks for it. She then is swept into her own room, and they all discuss. One thing that she doesn’t want to do is be betrothed to Hacken, and chooses Killian, but they realize that they might have to play the long game and keep the betrothal as an option to get what they need since the Calorian estate is the richest one right now as the only one that has been untouched by the Blight.

Killian’s mom makes him leave the room, and when he is in the ballroom, he is surly, but then the new Queen of Mudamora comes out and he recognizes Dareena dressed up as Lydia. He later speaks to Lydia and finds out that she intends to leave the city for Revat to help Malahi and Agrippa find information on how to cure the blight. Lydia convinces Killian to stay with Dareena because there is no way the High Lords and Ladies will believe that Killian left the Queen he was meant to serve in the city while he himself went to Revat. She also tells him that she is going to be going on a different ship than Malahi and Agrippa to separate them and make it less obvious, and that Seldrid had already helped her plan it out. Lydia arrives in Revat and is astounded by the city and how it looks, but she makes her way to the library, where she finds Malahi and Agrippa looking at books. Part of the information they are able to discern, and Lydia is able to read an older version of Cel enough to learn that saving the tenders from the blight means that Malahi will have to die. Killian, on the other hand, does his job in protecting Dareena as Lydia, with no one being any wiser. At some point, however, the ruse is up, as Ria Rowenes starts to be ill and it turns out that she had been poisoned by the blight, and Lydia does not do anything to save her, revealing that she is really Dareena. Killian tells them that Lydia is in Revat trying to figure out how to save lives of the blighters, but he is unnerved by the fact that the corrupter is in the house, and he also talks briefly to Finn to make sure that the boy is okay, but doesn’t really take him under his wing, pushing him aside. Killian and Dareena also make it to the border of the Calorian estate to check on things, and they see that the Blight is coming closer, but the soldiers are able to help fight it off and have been engineering on the wall in order to keep the blight away. At some point, Killian had Baird come with him to set the blight-ridden people on fire, essentially killing them, and at a different time he reintroduces Baird to Bercola, who is furious with him. He had asked her to help get the Giants from her Isle on their side of the War as they really do need help.

Teriana and the legions make it to Emrant, where Marcus tells Kaira that she has to surrender and gives her his terms, then they make their way back to Imresh, where Teriana moves into Kaira’s quarters, and changes into one of her outfits because she wanted to be clean. It’s not long before Kaira surrenders Emrant to Marcus in order to save her people, and moves to Revant. Marcus tells Teriana that he had gambled based on his knowledge of Kaira that she has something or someone to protect, and reveals that he knew that Kaira was protecting something in Imresh, which is why he made the push to Emrant. The item that she was protecting was actually the Xenither stems in both cities, and when people started to come through the one in Emrant, she realized she had no chance. So he now was able to get Teriana her people’s freedom, as he had secured a viable path for Cassius to free her people. They wait until Senator Plotius comes through and signs off on it, with Marcus giving her the documents and telling her to leave. As he listens to Plotius talk about expanding their reach and taking over more territory, as well as the control that the man will have, he gets enraged because he had wanted freedom from the Senate and to have control for once on his own. As a result, he forces Plotius to choke on olives, killing him, and then has the Ninth legion, which had arrived with the Senator, take his body back to Celendrial. Then, Marcus and Teriana have a bath together, and are making out when they are interrupted by Bait, who tells them that the rumors are all true, and then reveals that Marcus killed Teriana’s best friend, Lydia. Teriana asks him if it’s true, and he doesn’t deny it, so she runs out of the bathroom, and all the way to the ship. Bait, in the interim, tells Marcus that Lydia is alive, and Marcus begins to shut down, and turn cold. Felix takes Bait out of the rooms, on Marcus’s behest, and tells another soldier that Teriana has been approved to go on the Quincense. She leaves with her crew, only for Yada, her aunt, to see right through her, and explain to her that Bait didn’t even tell her the best part: Lydia is alive and is on this side of the ocean.

Teriana makes her way with her crew to Celendrial, where she brings the letter to Cassius, who says that he’s impressed by the fact that she had done it in less than 6 months. He also tells her that she can go get her crew, but that they haven’t been in prison during the whole time that she had been gone; rather, he had them moved from the prison into basically a beautiful villa, and when she goes in to tell her people that they have been freed, there are no cheers of joy because they have been treated well and were doing well. She comes out, and he asks her if she was hoping for those cheers of joy, which puts her out—and she sits on the steps by herself for some time. She watches as the Maarin ships disappear with her people, and later speaks to Cordelia—Marcus’s sister, who tells her the truth about Marcus’s past. Cordelia reveals that he’s actually the first born son but that he had been really sick as a child, so the parents made a switch to make Marcus the 2nd born son and send him to Lescendor, going around the sacred second-son laws of the country, which would mean the death of her father, and both brothers, as well as stripping her mother and all the daughters of their wealth. That’s what Cassius had been holding over Marcus, because Marcus would do anything to protect his family and Cordelia has a lot of regret over all of this. She asks Teriana if she could send a message to Marcus—asking for him to use his legions to throw off Cassius, who is the Dictator now, having consolidated power—and she cannot send it through typical means which is why she is asking Teriana to do it. Teriana agrees. Later, Teriana talks to Valerius and reveals that Lydia is alive, having made her way through the stem in the baths to the other side of the world. He takes her to the docks, where she meets with her mom, Tesaya. Tesaya apologizes to Teriana for how she had treated her and tells her that she is where she is meant to be; that Madoria told her so. Hostius surprises them all by appearing out of nowhere, and killing Tesaya. As Tesaya dies in her arms, Teriana throws a dagger, which goes straight into Hostius’s skull and kills him. She then leaves with her crew for the other side of the world.

Marcus in the interim receives messages from Cassius that he needs to invade Revat, so he goes ahead and does that, but he really doesn’t want to kill people, so he’s trying to get Kaira to surrender the city to him. But he is being hot and cold throughout the march there, and also in making his decisions on what to do. Gibzen tries to get him to destroy the city and kill the army, but he only destroys the city walls and also the towers. He has this strong need to destroy the library in Revat, thinking that Lydia is there. Marcus also had his engineers create a dam around the river, and unfortunately Kaira decides to make a ride for it to destroy it and flood the city, which would have killed a lot of his soldiers. He manages to get a group of them to take down Kaira’s contingent, and kill Kaira, but then as he’s on his knees, wheezing from the pain that he has in his head—the wall had come down for a moment and overflowed him with grief about Teriana, which caused him to be in pain—he watches as Gibzen goes up to the black powder, and ignites it, flooding the city and the plain.

Lydia has been in Revat, researching with her friends, including Sonia. She encouraged Sonia to make amends with Kaira fro whatever they fought about because nothing is Guaranteed, and she continues to review and read through many old tomes. At one point, she has been told to evacuate, but she continues to read an ancient text that is falling apart as it’s so old that the oxygen is damaging it. Sonia comes in to argue with her to leave, and then Kaira shows up, ordering them both to leave. Kaira tells Sonia good bye and that she wishes that they had more time. She leaves, and suddenly chaos ensues, as the towers around the library start to fall. One falls onto the dome, and blocks them in, but Lydia manages to get them out with some fire and crawling. They unfortunately have to leave the book she had been reading behind as it was thrown by one of them out of Lydia’s way, and they make their way to where the Maarin ship was waiting for them. Unfortunately, the flooding takes the ship out, and the sea monster that is assigned to the ship, Asparisana, is killed while trying to protect the ship from hitting the sea wall in the flooding. This news makes it way to Magnius and Teriana’s ship, leaving them all in shock. All Magnius tells Teriana is that now what used to be three, will be two. Lydia makes her way back to the Calorian estate.

Killian had returned from the border, and found his way to the ship, where he meets Malahi and Agrippa, who tell him that Lydia was in Revat, having refused to evacuate. This angers him, but they go into Seldrid’s estate. While they’re talking, Killian’s mom arrives and tells them that the High Lords and Ladies have hung Hacken for what they believe was his part in Ria’s death, and that they are now selecting a new Queen since they believe that Lydia had defected and is not around. Lydia arrives by ship and Killian, Malahi, and Agrippa tell her the situation about her status, as well as the fact that there are blighted amongst them. Lydia is able to see some children, but she tells them to not kill the kids because most families believe that they are still their kids and it will not help them at all to kill them—rather it looks like they are killing innocent people. One of those kids turns out to be Finn, and Lydia uses her magic to draw the corrupter’s influence out of him, then return him to life. Finn later tells them that he had always been present in his body so he watched as the other corrupter part did what it did, but sometimes it felt like he was pushed out. He also reveals that the corrupter knows a lot about things, and that Rufina was able to communicate with the blighted through that part of them, almost as if it was a beehive.

Teriana returns to the Dark Shores, showing up in Revat, where she attempts to speak to Marcus with the letter from his sister. But as Felix had warned her—Marcus is not himself; he is colder than ice, and Teriana realizes that he has been under the Corrupter’s influence, and is not the same man that she loved. She leaves him the ship charm that he had made for her upon, and this stirs some feelings in him, but upon her departure, Gibzen comes in and takes away the ship while telling him that he will feel better without it. Sure enough the pain goes away, although he feels like there is a part of him that is pounding against a wall. Teriana in the meantime returns to her ship and they head out to Seldrid’s estate on the ship, where they run into some guards who are refusing to let Teriana through. Killian comes out and tells them that it’s okay; that he recognizes her, and then takes her in to see Lydia. The two make up and talk for some hours, catching up, and Lydia tells Teriana that Madoria has told her that Teriana is where she needs to be; that Marcus needs to fight his own battle against the corrupter, not Teriana.

Teriana ends up talking to Lydia, Killian, Agrippa, and Malahi—they know that Marcus had sent a letter to the Queen requesting that Lydia Valerius be turned over and the golden mines of Rotahn be turned over, in exchange for Marcus’s aid against the Queen of Derin. During the conversation, Killian keeps pressing Teriana to see if she knows anything that would help them get Marcus’s legions out of the continent, and at first she claims she doesn’t know, until she realizes that Killian is, in fact, correct—Marcus had told her exactly how to destroy the Xenither stems that would put the supply lines out of commission for them. So together, the group makes a plan—Lydia, Killian, Agrippa and Malahi will stay in Mudamora and work on pretending to give Lydia over, basically acquiescing to Marcus’s demands, while Teriana goes to round up her people and they go to disrupt the supply lines.

Helene gets selected as the Queen of Mudamora and comes to Lydia to go quietly or she will have her arrested and given over anyway, but Lydia agrees to do it. When the High Lords and Ladies meet, Malahi, of course, disagrees to the plan under the guise of not wanting to let go of her friend for something like this. They send the letter to Marcus, and through that information, he finds out that Lydia and Kitariya are one and the same. The negotiations keep going, with them coming to an agreement to meet on a beach in order to do the handover and finalize the details. The purpose of this from Killian’s side is to give Teriana more time to start disrupting the Xenither stems, but they have no idea where she is on that front because there hasn’t been contact with her since they received the confirmation from Finn that Teriana had gotten her people united under one banner. While they had been waiting for the negotiations to go through, Lydia had also been sneaking out with Killian and Finn to help the people that have been under the influence of the blight—saving many but a few had never come back to life, which was gutting for her. Marcus also has put together contingencies in place for the meeting, including talking to Rufina via letters about their potential alliance.

The day comes where Marcus is to meet with Queen Helene to get Lydia in exchange for their assurances of alliance. One of the ships stays in the water, and a second ship unloads its Legions onto the beach. They very much sense there’s a threat but are unable to tell where it’s coming from, because Killian is by far the most dangerous on that beach, but he doesn’t appear to be armed or even threatening in any way. The legion is surprised when Xadrien’s fighters and the Eoten Island giants spring up out of the depths of the sand and the sea, and overwhelm their fighters both on Land and Sea. Killian joins the fighting as well, but unfortunately, there is a third ship that they were not aware of that comes close enough to see the situation and sail away. Queen Helene freaks out that they have been doing this behind their backs, and Killian agrees that they did, but then speaks to all of the soldiers and guards that are there and asks them if they would want to serve a queen and high lords and ladies who are doing anything to make their lives comfortable and safe, without caring about the families of these guards and the other citizens. He reveals that Lydia on the other hand has been taking great risks to herself and saving the people sick from the blight, healing them and working on keeping the population safe, so would they rather serve her? Many of the guards agree that they would prefer to have a queen who serves their people and interests, rather than a queen who serves herself, so they decide to follow Lydia and Killian into battle.

Qian reports to Marcus upon his arrival in Revat, and reveals that the meeting with Queen Helene had been an ambush—he describes to Marcus what he saw happen, and Marcus is glad that he had come up with another plan that would get them what they want, which is Lydia and the Gold Mine as per Cassius’s request. He realizes that this whole negotiation was a plan to buy time, which is something that he discusses with those closest to him—Felix, and some of the others. He thinks of Teriana in the moment because of what she had said to him when they last saw each other—that they are now enemies on two different sides of the fight.

After their deep discussions at the estate with Lydia, Killian, Agrippa, and Malahi, Teriana rounded up the Maarin under the guise of Tesaya—her mom—wanting to speak with them. She reveals herself once everyone is gathered, and watches as the Sultan of Gamdesh shows up to listen as well, with Finn. She explains that her mother was killed, and she makes an impassioned speech to the crowd that they need to fight back and she knows how to help take the empire down. The Maarin agree to follow her, and so they return to the Celendrial empire, where Teriana talks to Silvara, based on Agrippa’s recommendation. He had claimed that they will need help from those who want freedom from Celendrial, and so Teriana speaks with her, revealing to Silvara that Agrippa is alive and married. Silvara is glad, though she is also not interested in returning to him as she is pregnant after having found someone else to love. She agrees to help, and many of the rebels across all of the regions that Celendrial had captured rise against the legions. In the meantime, Teriana’s ship and another Maarin ship take down a Cel ship after grabbing some of that black powder—she realizes that they were only able to grab one, because the remainder went onto the other ship that had capsized. The Quincense then goes to the port town, and destroys the Xenither stem there, which creates a massive tidal wave, but she is able to get out with most of her crew.

Marcus had his legions march to Mudamora through the Xenither stem closest to them, and he puts up camp right across from the Camp in which Lydia, Killian, Agrippa and Malahi are in, to try to intimidate them. Agrippa calls it out as an intimidation tactic, and the group talks about whether or not they should send someone to speak with Marcus. Ultimately, they decide on sending out Agrippa, as he would be the biggest shock to their system and would most likely be someone that may negotiate on their behalf. So Agrippa goes out with a white flag, and sure enough, the 37th legion is surprised that he is there, though he talks to them as if he was with them the whole time. He makes his way up to the Command tent, where he surprises Marcus and Felix. They talk, and he reveals that he was pushed into the water by Silvara, while being watched by Carina, and then he had no choice but to go through the Xenither stem because there was no way out, though he had never deserted and he is not returning to the Legions. Agrippa and Marcus talk about logistics, and Marcus’s walls start to shake as he realizes some truths. As Agrippa leaves, Quintus comes out and says that he has always known that Agrippa didn’t desert but left because he had no choice. Marcus has Gibzen brought over, and he questions Gibzen a bit further, especially as Gibzen claims that they need to kill Agrippa for being a deserter and that he is giving their enemies the information. It becomes increasingly clear that Gibzen had schemed to get Agrippa out of the way, then also been behind the attack on Teriana because she was protected by Agrippa’s men, not Gibzen’s men, and he had been trying to systematically get rid of the men in his unit that were loyal to Agrippa by basically giving out information to Hostius, Ashok and others, in exchange for promotions into higher positions. The Legion stones Gibzen to death as Agrippa returns to camp, and when Agrippa is asked about the noise by Killian, Lydia, and Malahi, he tells them that it is Legion justice without providing more information.

News comes to Marcus that Xenither stems have been destroyed including the ones in Imresh and Emrant, and that the Sultan of Gamdesh had returned to take back Revat, meaning that their legions have not held up the locations against the onslaught. Marcus realizes that their supply line is gone, and that Teriana is behind it, which makes him proud. But he also knows that she had left him a way out, so they’re not really stranded, just that they are only able to make their way to Celendrial. He goes to speak with Agrippa, Lydia, Killian, and Malahi, and they come up with a plan that will give them a chance to get into Derin, in exchange for information on the Xenither stem in Mudaire that will take them to Celendrial, as he realizes that the city needs to have a reckoning and he will use his legions to bring freedom to the people. As part of that plan, he speaks to Rufina, and she ends up sending him the Fifty-First legion as a gift to his ranks. He realizes that they are all blighted and dead, but lets the legion into his ranks to keep up the appearance, and when the group puts the plan into motion, he makes it appear as if they are indeed about to kill Killian, Lydia, Agrippa, and Malahi along with their guards, but then at the last minute, he has the legions separate out, giving them a passage through the legion in safety. Unfortunately, the Fifty-First legion is not part of the plan, and the 37th end up having to kill them or get killed. This breaks their hearts because the Fifty-First was the legions that they meant to mentor, and they had treated as brothers. But he realizes that it is Cassius’s fault for sending them, knowingly, into Mudaire and the corrupted area alone to Rufina.

Rufina of course is furious, but Marcus doesn’t care, and takes his Legions back to Mudaire. He also gives them a speech about who they actually work for—the people—not the man that they had been working for. He has Quintus go through the Xenither stems, telling him where to find each one to get back, in exchange for listing Quintus and Miki as deceased in the books. They have to wait a few hours, but Felix does come through with the news that Marcus’s golden horse was stolen and Miki had disappeared. Marcus writes deceased next to Quintus’s and Miki’s names, but also crosses out Deserter next to Agrippa’s name, and writes deceased as well, freeing his friends from the life in the legions. He then has the legions march through the Xenither at the bottom of the castle in Mudaire, and has them interspersed across the outskirts of Celendrial. Once the sun rises, and the legions who are on the walls realize what is happening, it is too late, as the people inside Celendrial rise, and the senators are taken out of their homes by the legions and into the senate. Marcus’s legions arrest Hostius’s legion and put them in jail. As this is happening, Marcus rides to see Tiberius, his brother-in-law, and tells him that Agrippa never deserted the Legions, and he’s put him down as deceased but that he’s flourishing, and that they will never speak of it again. Eventually, he makes his way to where the senate meets, and one of the legions drags Cassius into the center. Marcus reveals everything—the fact that he is the first-born son (after his father gives him the approval) and that Cassius has been using that information to try to blackmail Marcus into doing whatever Cassius wants, including attempting to kill Lydia, though she survived. That gets Marcus arrested, but he gives command of his legion to Felix and tells him to just do whatever it takes.

Lydia, Killian, Agrippa, and Malahi make their way through the Xenither stems, leaving behind the giants to hold off the corrupted army from getting through. They also leave two guards to protect the fort from the corrupted, and they make their way to the mound. Killian and Agrippa fight with Rufina, while giving Lydia and Malahi the chance to make it into the mound. Unfortunately, Malahi has to join the other tenders in order to bring back the blight from the lands, and while Lydia tries to give her health to keep her alive, it doesn’t work. She passes out in Agrippa’s arms, though he is gutted. Lydia then is faced with Rufina, and she fights her, until she manages to punch through Rufina’s chest and into her corrupted heart, which she heals. This turns Rufina into Cynthia, and releases all of the corrupted army back into their normal selves. Of course many die, but many surive. This gives Killian just enough time to chop Cynthia’s head off, and make sure that she does not go on living. He also realizes that Lydia was right—the corrupted could be saved, and he feels guilty for all of those that he had burnt. Lydia speaks to them all and tells them that even though there were horrible things that happened, they can still work together to make things right, and she then turns her crown over to Malahi, telling Malahi that she is the better queen because she cares about the people and knows how to manage the politics. Lydia would much prefer to walk amongst them than lead them. They return to Mudaire, where they run into Quintus, who asks for help healing Miki and after Lydia has healed him, Quintus tells her that Marcus would never admit to his feelings for Teriana and reveals what he is most likely going to do. As a result, Lydia sends a message through the water to Teriana, and later still, she and Killian use the Xenither stem beyond the castle to make it into Celendrial, where they request to speak with Valerius, and are taken to the prison where they find Felix and Valerius.

In the meantime, Teriana and her people have finished destroying their Xenither stems, and celebrate on some island. One of the Truimvirs asks her if she will take up Tesaya’s place, and Teriana tells him that no, they should find someone else. The truth is her heart is split, between her people and Marcus, and she’s a big disgusted that they will not go beyond to trying to understand the legionnaire boys to try to help them. She receives the message from Lydia, and then decides to take the Quincense back to Celendrial with her crew. There, she finds that the thirty-seventh legion has taken over the city. She speaks to Valerius, who takes her to the prison, where Felix intercepts them and tells her that she should not be here because she’s considered a criminal for killing Hostius and the destruction of Xenither stems. But, the thirty-seventh legion and some of the others turn the other way and let her through. Felix takes her down to see Marcus, who is inside a cell, looking out the window, and holding onto the Quincense charm that he had given her. They talk, and she asks him to leave with her so that he will not be hung for the crimes that he had committed according to the laws of Celendrial, but he refuses to go and tells her that this is the price he has to pay. Felix shows up, ties up his hands, and walks him out into the gallows, where he is fitted into a noose alongside with his brother, his father, and Cassius. His brother is screaming at Marcus for revealing the secret, but Marcus ignores him, and watches as the judges strip his mother of her clothing, forcing her to walk naked across the streets—but at least his sisters are safe because they are married. Both his father and his brother go first, and when it’s his turn, Marcus gives a speech to his men, thanking them for walking alongside him, and more. He is then hung, and dies. Teriana runs through the crowd, and tries to get to Marcus but is too late, and Felix basically takes his body once Marcus is dead. Although Tiberus tries to get him to leave Marcus behind, Felix tells him off that he will be taken by the thirty seventh legion and not left behind, and reminds him that the Thirty-Seventh Legion is the one that is holding the square. Tiberius lets it go, and the group takes Marcus’s body with them, while Teriana looks at the space where Marcus used to be and finds the Quincense charm that he had made for her, which he had held in his hands before his death, and it fell out of his hand. She cries, heartbroken, and also looks over to Cassius who is dead but notices that he had urinated himself and his eyes turned blue again, rather than the dark color they had been, indicating the corrupter’s influence.

Teriana returns to the Quincense after finding Lydia and Killian in Celendrial, and they get onboard the ship. She decides to go to her room to wallow, only to find Marcus there—he had been revived by Lydia and healed to have a second chance, as part of a plan that Lydia hatched with Valerius, and Felix’s help. He tells her that he doesn’t know anything else but Legion life, though he is willing to try. Lydia and Killian also talk about Marcus, with Lydia telling Killian that he’ll grow to like Marcus. Both Teriana and Lydia speak in the end, revealing that neither one of them became leaders or queens of their people as they would much rather either work on healing them, or to take some time and explore the world on their own terms, as Teriana wants to do with Marcus.

My Thoughts: This was an intense ending to the series and it was also a bit heartbreaking in the end. I’m much more enamored with Teriana’s and Marcus’s story than Killian’s and Lydia’s, and there does feel to be a bit of a disconnect at the end—how did Lydia know that by healing Cynthia, she’d also heal the corrupted? This part seems to be a bit rushed for me and doesn’t make much logical sense, but again this is fantasy, so it wouldn’t make a lot of logical sense in some respects. I also wish that in the end, Marcus’s facade cracked and he told Teriana more of his feelings and his truth, and that maybe the Senate would have freed all the legions from there service except those that wanted to volunteer to be a part of it. It seems like there is a lot that can be done in the cleanup after the destruction of the empire, because I assume that with all the attacks on all fronts it was a destruction, that would give happier endings to people like Felix. Overall, a wonderful story and a wonderful ending to the series—it’ll take me a little while to heal my bruised heart from all the trauma the characters went through and saying goodbye to Teriana and Marcus.