Gilded Serpent by Danielle Jensen (top 10 novels txt) 📕

they will. There’s a reason I wouldn’t do a run with just me and Baird.” Agrippa shifted his pack on his shoulder. “But the river’s fast and long stretches of it run through ravines with sheer cliffs, so there is no way for them to get at us.”

“And at night when you make camp?”

“At night they hide behind fire to protect themselves from the mimics, just as we will be.” Agrippa glanced up at him. “The journey is brutal. Don’t expect to get much in the way of sleep.”

“Good to know.” Moving closer to the boat, Killian looked inside, eyes running over the four rows of benches and two sets of oars. The supplies were sitting at the far end, along with several quivers stuffed with black-fletched arrows the Derin army had used.

“You a good shot?” Agrippa asked, reaching up to touch the bow strapped to Killian’s pack.

“Not bad.” Knocking his knuckles against the thick wood of the boat, he asked, “How do you get back to Deadground?”

“The river runs past the xenthier genesis that leads to Deadground’s terminus. Rufina, bless her black heart, hasn’t asked Baird to blow that one up yet. Still needs it to bring across the new army she’s rallying.”

Another army. Killian’s chest tightened.

“Though it will be about as piss-poor as her last,” Agrippa added, his voice sour. “Farmers with swords are not soldiers. It’s no way to build an army and certainly no way to win the war. My homeland has its ugly side, but at least we train our soldiers before sending them to fight.”

“You’re not from Derin?”

Agrippa made a face. “Do I look like I’m from Derin? No, I’m from a place called Celendor. Heard of it?”

Yes. “No.”

“No one ever has.” Agrippa laughed. “It’s on the far side of the world. Only the Maarin know anything about it, but the few I’ve chanced to encounter since my arrival took one look at my Cel self and tried to slit my throat. Some sort of nonsense about how East must not meet West. Unfortunately for them, I’m not so easy to kill.”

Apparently the lengths the Maarin went through to keep the halves of the world secret from each other were greater than either he or Lydia had realized. “How did you end up here?”

“An unplanned tumble into a stream resulted in me encountering a xenthier stem. It tossed me out in the Uncharted Lands along the border of Arinoquia. I was half-dead when a band of warriors found me and saved my life.”

Arinoquia. Killian’s heart skipped, then raced, his trepidation building. That’s where the Cel army was now with Teriana. “How did you come from there to Derin?”

“Same as everyone else. All who walk a dark path find themselves in Derin.” Agrippa snorted at whatever expression he saw on Killian’s face. “I spent two years hunting for a xenthier stem to take me home. Did a stint in the Gamdeshian fighting pits, but I was winning too much, so the bet-masters put a price on my head and I had to run. Traveled up the coast of Anukastre and figured I’d have a look around Derin to see if I could find a stem that would take me back east. No luck on that count, and by then, my winnings had run dry, so when Rufina started recruiting, I enlisted. Worst decision of my life, which is saying something. You?”

“I prefer fighting to farming.”

Agrippa grinned. “Until you met Gertrude.”

“Something like that. Isn’t Rufina taking issue with you depleting her army with your little side business here?”

“If she does, it’s her own damn fault.” His voice took on a falsetto. “‘I’m not paying you to gamble and whore, Agrippa. Do what you want, but be there when I need you to resume command or I’ll hunt you down and make you beg for death.’”

Agrippa had been in command of Rufina’s army?

Killian stared at the ground in front of him, it taking all his self-control not to react. Not to pull his sword and run the bastard through, because this young man had commanded the army that had killed thousands of Mudamorians. Had used the skills taught to him by the Empire to serve the Seventh. And in one blow, Killian could prevent him from ever doing so again.

Except he needed Agrippa to get to the other side of the Liratoras. Given what Lydia had seen of the corrupted tenders, any delay would be to Malahi’s detriment. “You’re a brave man to risk crossing her.”

Agrippa made a noncommittal grunt. “I’m scared shitless of her. But as it is, she’s got bigger issues to consume her fanatical mind than us and our boat.”

“Do you know what she’s planning?”

“Nope.” Agrippa pulled the waterskin loose from his belt and took a swig. “All she told me was to be prepared, because when next she marched, it would be with an army unlike the world has ever seen.”

An army of the dead.

They had traveled for several hours, rising higher and higher into the mountains, and the mules were beginning to drag their feet when, finally, they crested the slope to find a glacier spread out through the valley. They led the mules and the boat down the edge of it, heading to where a small, partially frozen river flowed from its base.

“Here we are,” said Agrippa. “We can have a spot of lunch while we wait for Baird to finish his performance.”

Most of the customers sat down on rocks, but Killian approached Agrippa. “What do you want me to do?”

“Get a fire going,” he answered, and gestured to the pile of wood. “Baird will take a bit of time.”

“What precisely does he plan to do?”

“You can ask him if you can watch, if you want.” Agrippa shrugged. “It’s not as exciting as you might think, but maybe I’ve just seen it too many times.”

Curious, Killian quickly built a fire, and leaving Lydia talking with the other women, he ventured down the frozen river in search of the giant.

Baird had