Children of Jade by Morgan Cole

Author:Morgan Cole
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: lesbian, revenge, vengeance, tragic romance, battle fantasy, lgbtq romance, battle and war, twin rivalry, siblings fight
Publisher: Morgan Cole

Chapter Twenty-Four

Marilia left two thousand men to guard Naxos and keep the city’s besieged legion trapped within the walls. The rest had marched south to face the usurper’s army.

Her scouts combed the countryside, searching for the perfect place to give battle. She found it; a hill near the banks of the River of Stallions overlooking a plain of rolling gold grass. It was there the fate of Navessea would be decided.

She stood at the top of the hill, looking out over the countryside as the sun rose in the east and brushed the tips of the grass with early-morning light. It was the perfect vantage point from which to direct the coming battle.

Narinia would have frowned at that; she would have said that a Strategos Supreme ought to lead not from atop a hill, but from the front. That was the way of Svartennos.

Marilia’s lip curled.

Narinia wasn’t here. Neither were Leondos, or Konos. The rest of the strategoi weren’t about to question her. Fuck tradition, she thought. She had finally come to a place where she didn’t have to care what Narinia or the Elders or the old Svartennan strategoi thought. She’d paid service to the worst parts of Svartennan law long enough.

Maybe Ben Espeleos enjoyed throwing himself into the fray, risking everything for the chance to win glory at the point of a sword, but she wasn’t here for glory, and she wasn’t about to risk anything she didn’t have to. She wasn’t about to let some chance spear thrust or arrow-wound steal her victory.

She surveyed her chosen battlefield, readying herself for what was to come.

To her left, the ground fell away sharply, a steep drop-off into the River of Stallions—the river’s current swift and eager. Ahead and to the right, the ground sloped more gradually (but still steeply) down. The slope was dotted with eucalyptus trees, whose branches provided some relief from the sun. Beyond that hill was an empty plain, the expanse broken only by a few gnarled trees, wandering yoba, and a small herd of antelopes that stirred up dust as they bounded through the grass. Farther to the right was a second river—the River of Colts. The grass at the edge of the River of Colts, fed by the water, grew taller and greener than the yellow grass of the field.

There was something familiar about the battlefield. It was a place between two rivers—not a valley, but close to one in the sense that at least one flank was well-guarded by natural defenses, allowing Marilia to put almost all her cavalry on the right (with some light cavalry held in reserve). It was a layout not dissimilar to that of Chrysathamere Pass.

She had come full circle.

The army she now faced was bigger than the one that had confronted her on Svartennos, bigger than the one she had bested on a hill in Surennis. Half the forces of the empire were arrayed against her. She had to break them and force them to surrender.

Not an easy task.

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