not wanting to be here, but there are better places. Gamdesh, for instance.”
It was time to tell the rest of the story. The part that haunted her night and day.
“Because I have to go back.” Her hand shook, and Lydia labeled provinces in order to hide the tremor. “I made a mistake. I was careless, and it has cost people their lives. Will cost more people their lives if I don’t get back to rectify it.”
A single tear landed on the map, and she brushed it away with irritation. “As I’m sure you’ve surmised, the Maarin travel within the Empire—they have a treaty with the Senate that allows them autonomy, although they are beholden to the Empire’s laws whenever they are within a port. As religion is outlawed they, by necessity, kept their worship of the Six a secret.” Biting her lip, she said, “My best friend is Maarin. She confided in me her people’s secrets, and when her mother refused to help me escape my betrothal to Lucius she gave me a book. Treatise—”
“—of the Seven,” Killian finished. “I’m quite familiar with it. Why would she give you that?”
“I don’t know. But I was careless and didn’t hide it as well as I’d thought. Vibius found it, knew who’d given it to me, and he gave it to Lucius, who used it as grounds to search Maarin ships in port. What they found on the ships was … damning. The crews were detained, questioned about the maps detailing the Dark Shores, and tortured when they refused to reveal their route across the Endless Seas. Eventually they were executed.
“Once Lucius won the consulship, he used his power to send the navy after dozens of Maarin ships, including my friend’s ship, the Quincense. It was towed into Celendrial’s port the morning he tried to murder me, and I know he has Teriana and her crew and if I don’t get back—”
“Wait.” Killian held up his hand, interrupting her. “The Quincense? This Lucius Cassius is holding Teriana prisoner? And her mother? Triumvir Tesya?”
She blinked. “You know who they are?”
“That’s akin to asking if I know who the gods-damned Sultan of Gamdesh is. Of course I know who they are. Never mind that they’ve sat at my family’s dinner table more times than I can count.” He was on his feet, pacing back and forth. “This is why you believe the Maarin will take you back?”
Lydia had known Teriana and her mother were important, but from the way Killian was talking, they sounded almost like … royalty? Shaking away the thought, she answered, “For the sake of so many of their people, I have to believe they’ll bend their rules and take me as a passenger.”
“They need to bloody well do more than that. They need to rise up. Fight to get them back.”
A strangled laugh tore from Lydia’s throat. “I think I’ve not conveyed the magnitude of the threat.”
His eyes narrowed. “Convey it, then.”
“This”—she darkened the border and then labeled the area—“is Celendor. It’s the controlling nation of the Empire. The heart of it, if you will.” It wasn’t large. Smaller than Mudamora was, by contrast.
Killian stopped his pacing. “And what is the extent of this nation’s control? Of the … Empire?”
She gestured at the map. “All of it.”
His gaze lifted from the map. “The entire eastern half of Reath is controlled by one man?”
“One man with his eyes set on the West,” she said. “One man with an army of over two hundred thousand strong. And if he can force the Maarin to bring the legions across, I assure you, the threat will be very real. Which is why I need to get back. Not only to save Teriana, who is like a sister to me, but because I can prove Lucius has broken the law. He will be stripped of the consulship and of power, and maybe it will be enough to stop the Empire’s progress west before it even begins.”
“And what will happen to you?”
Nothing good. “It doesn’t matter. Don’t you see? All of this began because of me. I have to stop it.”
Killian’s eyes were distant, as was his voice when he muttered, “There are no coincidences.” Then his gaze focused on her. “A month feels too long for you to wait. We need to get you back sooner.”
“If there is a xenthier stem—”
He gave a rapid shake of his head. “No. For one, there isn’t a genesis stem within a day’s ride of Mudaire. Two, if there