Gilded Serpent Danielle Jensen (i can read with my eyes shut .TXT) 📖

from fully enjoying themselves. “Already we’re on their lands. If we push farther west, they’ll see it as an invasion and potentially retaliate. And I’m in no mood to pick a fight with an enemy we know nothing about.”

Gibzen shrugged. “Maybe they’re all dead. It’s been close to two decades since the clans invaded and drove them inland, and they’ve had no contact with anyone outside the Uncharted Lands since. Hard to keep a civilization alive out here.”

“Do you think they’re all dead?” Marcus’s eyes went to Teriana, who had been conversing with Quintus, though now they were swimming toward the falls.

The primus huffed out a breath, then looked up at the canopy. “No,” he finally admitted. “I feel watched.”

As did Marcus. But given the inlanders had shown no signs of aggression to his men, he had no intention of provoking them. “We have our hands full with the situation in Aracam. Secure the xenthier stem, but otherwise, don’t go farther than the city. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Loud shouts caught Marcus’s attention, and his eyes snapped to where Teriana and Quintus had been moments ago. They were gone.

“Where—” He caught sight of motion farther up the cliff. “What is she doing?”

“Climbing,” Gibzen answered, as though that much wasn’t obvious.

Quintus was known for his skill at climbing, and the heavy muscles in his arms and shoulders bunched as he hauled himself higher at reckless speed.

Teriana was better.

She scampered upward, and though logically Marcus knew to do so took strength, she made it look effortless in her grace. Passing Quintus, she rose higher up the towering cliff, mist from the waterfall gusting over her and making her seem ephemeral. She took no time to test her handholds, seemingly fearless of falling.

Then she was at the top, rolling over only to stand and hold her hands skyward in victory.

“What’s up there?” Marcus asked. “Do we have anyone on lookout?”

Gibzen shrugged. “More of the same. Forest as far as the eye can see. I’ve got a man up there watching our rear.”

“Come up here!” Teriana’s faint voice reached him. “The view is incredible!”

Gibzen chortled, and Marcus fought the urge to shove him into the pool, instead crossing his arms and glaring upward. Trying to contain his fear as she announced her intention to jump.

She swayed over the edge, and he took an involuntary step forward, but she only laughed, her and Quintus backtracking. Then they raced forward and leapt.

His heart stopped as she fell through the air, braids flying above her head and her face full of delight. She pointed her toes, lifting her arms skyward, and then she hit the water, disappearing beneath its churning depths, with Quintus landing a second later.

Marcus’s feet took him to the edge of the pool, and he stared at the place she’d gone under. Quintus rose to the surface, pumping his fist in the air to the delight of the other men. But there was no sign of Teriana.

What if she’d hit a rock? Been caught in the waterfall’s undertow? What if she were being dragged unconscious downstream where the rapids grew wild?

“Where is she?” he demanded, searching the water for the glint of the gold in her braids. The men grew silent, their eyes searching, and Quintus dived under the water.

Then a snort of amusement caught his attention. Looking down, he saw Teriana resting her elbows on the rocks below him. “Help me out?”

She reached up, and he dutifully took her hand, readying to haul her out of the water and then give her a lecture on risks. But the second their fingers latched, Teriana braced her feet against the side and pulled. Yelping, Marcus toppled forward, and the water closed over him.

Spluttering to the surface, he was greeted with laughter and Teriana’s grinning face. “There’s going to be retribution for this,” he said to her, struggling to stay afloat with the weight of his armor and gear pulling him down.

“First you have to catch me,” she sang, then somersaulted and disappeared into the depths.

Everything he was demanded that he get out of the water. That he not compromise his image of authority for any reason. That he never allow his men to see him as anything other than their commander.

But he was tired of it. Tired of holding himself above them, because above always meant apart.

“Gibzen,” he said.

“Yes, sir.”

“Establish a rotating watch, but otherwise, the men are at liberty to do what they wish.”

A liberty that, for once, he intended to take advantage of himself.

 34LYDIA

The snow-dusted streets were loud with angry voices as the temple soldiers escorted Lydia through Mudaire, civilians shouting and throwing trash in their direction from windows and doors. Broken furniture and belongings littered the ground, looters moving through empty homes to steal anything of value, plumes of smoke rising from at least six locations suggesting they were burning the rest.

But worse were the bodies. Some were nothing more than charred remains—blighters that had been decapitated and then burned—but many more lay rotting among the debris, legs sticking from alleyways and splashes of blood marring the pristine white of the snow.

“They’re starting to fight back,” one of the soldiers said, obviously seeing her horror. “To defend the blighters when we come for them.”

Lydia had known this would happen. Had known that hunting them down and murdering them in front of their families was the worst possible strategy. Yet despite days of searching, she still hadn’t come up with a viable alternative. Her research in the temple’s library had yielded nothing of use, and although Lena and Gwen had had some success integrating themselves with the civilians, they’d yet to find someone sick with blight who was willing to risk meeting her. And seeing what she was seeing on the streets, Lydia couldn’t blame them.

A barefoot woman chose that moment to sprint past them, tears flooding down her cheeks. In hot pursuit were a group of soldiers, naked blades gripped in their hands, but she was fast enough that there was a chance she might