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

Marcus’s throat moved as he swallowed, his eyes on the river before them. “People say things they regret when they’re angry, Teriana. She’s had a lot of time to think, and she may see your choices differently having spent so many months a prisoner.”

“You don’t know her. She’s stubborn.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.”

Teriana frowned, never having considered herself anything like her mother except in appearance. Captain Tesya was rigid and married to their people’s ways, whereas Teriana had always felt drawn beyond the confines of her ship. To people who were different than she was. It had caused endless conflict between them over the years, and some days, she wondered if her mother had the right of it. If Teriana had never befriended Lydia, none of this would be happening.

And I’d never have met Marcus.

It was a selfish thought, and she shoved it away. “With my luck, I’ll have gone through all this to get my people free, and they’ll cast me out for it.”

“You didn’t do it because you thought they’d appreciate you for it,” Marcus said. “You did it because you believed it the right choice. Because you wanted to protect them.”

“Or because I couldn’t stomach having my fingernails ripped off.”

He flinched, then shook his head. “I think if you’d believed your mother’s path the right one, you’d have stomached far worse than that. It’s easier to suffer for something you believe in.”

She opened her mouth to ask when the last time was that he’d been tortured but paused.

Marcus had suffered tremendously as part of the Empire’s desire for power and domination. Yet she knew that he didn’t believe in it. Did he endure it simply because he had no other choice, or was there another reason? Not for the first time, she wished she could see inside his head because every instinct told her that there were secrets that he kept, and not just from her. “When they send you back with more legions and more resources, what will you do?”

“What I’m told.” His jaw tightened. “If I don’t, the Senate will execute me, and someone equally qualified will take command. My defiance changes nothing.”

She remembered what Amarin had told her in the command tent. About not striking a blow against one senator but against the Empire itself. Was such a thing even possible? “Have you ever wondered,” she asked, “what you might achieve if you fought for something you believed in?”

Marcus didn’t answer for a long time, then finally said, “I don’t know what I believe in anymore.” He pulled on the rudder, sending the boat drifting into one of the endless tributaries of the Savio. “It’s starting to get dark. We should find somewhere to make camp.”

 88LYDIA

The rest of the journey through the mountains had been mostly uneventful, the greatest threat the rapids of the river, but even those eased after that night. And it wasn’t long until they were into the foothills, the forests dense and full of wildlife that had been nearly absent from the mountains themselves.

Baird eased the boat against shore, and Agrippa and Killian climbed out to drag the battered vessel up onto the gravel, holding it in place while the survivors climbed out.

Lydia climbed up the bank, taking a seat in the thick grass covering the slope and resting her head on her knees, silently telling herself if she ever saw a boat again, it would be too soon.

“Thanks again for traveling with us,” Agrippa said loudly to the backs of his passengers as they wearily climbed the bank, faces drawn as they walked past Lydia with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And their lives. “Do recommend our services to your friends!”

“Don’t get many repeat customers, do you?” Killian asked, helping Baird drag the boat farther out of the water.

“Not a one.” Agrippa scowled at the boat. “And after this last trip, I think it’s time I passed this business opportunity on to someone else. Gold in the pocket does me little good if I’m floating facedown with wildmen arrows in my back.”

“I’ve been saying that for a month, you skinny little shit,” Baird said. “’Bout time you saw reason.”

Agrippa shrugged. “Was good while it lasted.”

“No,” the giant replied. “It was not.”

Lydia was inclined to agree. No amount of gold would entice her to take another journey through the Liratoras, although it wasn’t lost on her that if they were successful in retrieving Malahi, they were going to need to find a way out of Derin.

“What will you do now?” Killian asked, trying, and failing, in Lydia’s opinion, to look disinterested.

“Go see if Rufina is ready to put me back on her payroll, I suppose,” Agrippa answered. “Commanding an army is easier work.”

“So you’re going to head to Helatha, then?”

“Yeah.”

Killian’s gaze flicked to Baird. “You?”

The giant shrugged. “I go where the little man goes.”

“I am not little.” Agrippa glowered. “You are merely profoundly large.”

The pair bickered back and forth, then Killian said, “Gertrude and I are heading that way as well.”

Lydia struggled not to scowl at him. Agrippa and Baird had seen too much for them to not be suspicious of her and Killian. They needed to part ways with them now, not venture into the underworld with the commander of its armies. What was he thinking?

“You could travel with us,” Agrippa said. “Rufina could use a man with your talents.”

“He’s not looking for a job soldiering,” Lydia said loudly, glaring at Killian. “He’s going to take up farming. Or become a merchant.”

“Honorable, safe professions.” Agrippa smirked. “But don’t sit there and pretend that’s what you’re interested in, Gertrude. You like the excitement. Admit it.”

“You are mistaken.” She injected as much frost into her voice as she could.

He held up his hands. “So sorry, beautiful. Farming is a wonderful profession, and I’m certain you will both have a fulfilling life growing potatoes together.”

Killian laughed, and Lydia glowered at him.

“Either way,” Agrippa said, “the road to Helatha is far from a safe one,