Defiance (The Aeternum Chronicles Book 3) by H.G. Chambers

Author:H.G. Chambers [Chambers, H.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-14T22:00:00+00:00

At the Gates

Anzien took a drink from her canteen, and surveyed the cloudless skies. Eleven-thousand soldiers stretched out before her, like a great lake of black, gray, and green, surrounded by reddish-brown sand. Sweat beaded on her brow. She’d forgotten how hot the Miralaja could be, even this close to the gulf. Had it been summer time, the march would have taken twice as long. As it were, they had been able to march nearly half the day, before stopping here for a respite.

New Arcadia had just come into view. It looked small from so far away. Anzien shaded her brow, peering toward it. At that moment, a thin vertical strip climbed skyward from the left side of the colony. It looked like someone had taken a black pen and drawn a line straight up into the sky.

“Legion Commander.” A young woman’s voice drew Anzien’s attention.

The female recruit saluted, and handed her a note, before running off.

Anzien turned her attention back to New Arcadia, but the strange line had faded.

She turned the folded note over in her hands.

Why would a recruit be delivering messages and not a runner?

She unfolded it, and read the inside.

Furrowing her brow, she shaded her eyes and looked out to the low butte at the western edge of the army. A figure stood atop it, waving his arms.

Is that…Taybor?

The hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. She stood, and jogged toward the butte, nodding to the soldiers who stood and saluted along the way. She reached the butte after several minutes, but there was no sign of the blond-haired farm boy.

She glanced back to the nearest group of soldiers. They appeared to be caught up in their own conversation, paying no attention to her.

Anzien breathed a laugh. There was something very familiar about all of this. She walked around the side of the butte, and found an unexpected, but wholly welcomed sight.

“Anzien!” Obasi’s baritone voice rang out as he grinned and waved her over. He was sitting in a circle with Taybor, Dulari, Sheif, and Pria.

Just like old times, she thought with a pang of sadness that her brother could not be there alongside them.

Taybor stood and met her as she approached, holding out his hand with a grin. Anzien smiled and grasped his wrist. Her eyes widened in surprise when he pulled her in for a firm embrace. “Good to see you, Commander.”

“You too, Taybor,” she said, her voice straining. “How’s the leg?”

He released her, still smiling. “Oh much better, thanks. The menders who looked after me were”—he paused for a moment, and a slight flush climbed up his neck—“very skilled,” he finished.

Anzien’s smile grew less reserved. “So I’ve heard,” she said knowingly.

Pria had mentioned his romance with one of the menders who’d been caring for him after the battle in the Southern Shield.

Taybor put a hand to the back of his head and looked away sheepishly. “I uh—”

“Aleya, is it?”

He nodded.

“If we make it out of this mess alive, you’ll have to introduce me to her.

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