Beneath the Surface (12 page)

On the middle deck, Amaranthe and Sicarius stood guard by an interior door while Akstyr crept through yet another cabin. Bunks stacked three high lined the two longest walls, and snoring figures occupied half of them. She doubted they’d find any signs of Science use in there, but she certainly couldn’t track magic on her own, so she had to follow Akstyr’s lead. After a few moments, he slipped back out into the narrow corridor, its lamps dimmed for the night, the tiny flames barely providing enough illumination for one to navigate the passageway. The evening’s dinner and show had long since completed, and only those people necessary to keep the boat traveling after dark remained awake.

“
It feels like we’re farther away on this deck,” Akstyr whispered.

“
The circus troupe is housed below,” Amaranthe said. “If they’re smuggling contraband into the empire, they’d probably keep it close so they can keep an eye on it.”

“
I already hunted all over that deck. I even pawed through people’s closets.”

Amaranthe tried to catch Sicarius’s gaze, but his thoughts seemed to be turned inward. Maybe he was worried about Sespian. He hadn’t been in his cabin when they’d gone to collect him for the search. After the news she’d given Sespian earlier in the day, Amaranthe also worried, but there weren’t many places he could go on a boat. He probably just needed private time to think.

She touched Sicarius’s arm. “Any ideas?” He knew more about the Science than anyone else on the team, save Akstyr. Actually, she wasn’t positive Akstyr truly knew more, despite all his studies.

“
Under the deck,” Sicarius said.

Amaranthe had long since grown accustomed to decrypting his terse statements and guessed, “You think there’s storage down there?”

“
Oh!” Akstyr blurted. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t get to it.” He lowered his voice to mutter, “Knew my skill wasn’t the problem.”

“
The boat doesn’t have a deep draw,” Sicarius said. “It’d be a couple of feet at most.”

“
Enough room to house artifacts though, right?” Amaranthe asked. “If they’re not too big.”

“
There may be schematics in engineering,” Sicarius said.

“
Let’s go.” Akstyr bounced on his toes, then launched himself down the corridor. Not much enthused him, but artifacts surely did. He nearly crashed into a woman in ship’s whites entering the hatchway as he tried to exit.

“
Who’re you?” She frowned at his rumpled, baggy clothes. “This area is for crew only.”

“
I know. Wrong door!” Akstyr pushed past her, nearly knocking her into the wall, and disappeared into the night.

Amaranthe and Sicarius had to exit through that hatchway as well, but she worried that two more people using Akstyr’s tactic would cause the woman to raise an alarm. Not wanting to give Sicarius a reason to throw anyone overboard, Amaranthe stepped in front of him to approach the exit first. He’d be more recognizable than she, especially since he never bothered changing out of his familiar black. Or his knives. With luck, the shadows would make recognition difficult.

The woman, young and prim and wearing an ensign’s rank pin next to a bar that declared her a navigation officer, jammed her fists onto her hips and stepped into Amaranthe’s path, blocking the exit. “You choose the wrong door too?”

“
Not us,” Amaranthe said, then lifted a hand and whispered around it conspiratorially. “We both have roommates upstairs, so we were looking for a quiet, dark place for amorous activities, if you get my meaning.” Amaranthe threw in liberal winks to ensure it couldn’t be missed.

“
Here?” The woman scowled. “You came
here
for
that
?”

“
Yes.” In her mind, Amaranthe ran through the rooms they’d searched. A couple of the larger ones had possessed two bunks instead of three, such as a young officer might rate, and one of those cabins had sported an empty sleeping area. “The door was open at the end of the hall, and the person in the other bed was sleeping so hard, she didn’t even notice—”

“
The end of the hall?” The woman dropped her hands. “That’s
my
room. You—that’s disgusting!” She sprinted down the corridor and would have caromed off Sicarius, but he glided out of the way. She never glanced at his face.

As soon as the officer disappeared around the corner, Amaranthe stepped outside. Akstyr had already disappeared. The boy
was
like a hound on the trail when he sensed magic. She headed for a set of stairs, assuming he’d gone down to engineering to check on schematics.

Sicarius fell into step beside her. “You have a singular sense of humor.”

Amaranthe paused at the top of the stairs. “Singular as in remarkable or singular as in unique?”

“
Yes.”

Amaranthe snorted. “We better catch up to Akstyr before enforcers show up to throw us overboard. Those trailing after him don’t seem to fare well.”

Sicarius led the way down the steps. As soon as they reached the bottom, he gripped her arm and pulled her into the shadows beneath the staircase.

“
Are we avoiding someone’s notice?” Amaranthe whispered. At this late hour, there was only one other person outside on their side of the boat, a cloaked man leaning against the railing with his hood pulled up. “Or did my words to the officer stir thoughts of amorous activities in your mind?”

A finger came to rest on her lips. Two security guards in ship’s whites strode into view. That answered her question.

Though they bore lanterns and swords, one yawned widely, and neither appeared alert. They had the miens of men stuck on the night shift, simply doing their rounds. Neither glanced toward the shadows underneath the stairs.

“
I hope those enforcers don’t talk the captain into doing a full search,” one man said as he drew even with Amaranthe and Sicarius.

“
What do you care?” his partner asked.

“
The enforcers only have one squad of men on board, so you can guess who’ll end up doing the searching. At dawn probably. That’s when we’re supposed to get off and go to bed. Besides, if it
is
those outlaws, I don’t want to walk in on Sicarius. I want to live. I...” His voice drifted out of earshot as they kept walking.

“
I guess that means we need to move our belongings out of the cabins soon,” Amaranthe whispered.

“
Yes,” Sicarius said.

“
We’ll have to find a hiding place until we reach the next port.” She’d planned to disembark there anyway, so long as they could find these artifacts and deal with them by then. “Think these theoretical below-deck storage cubbies of yours are warm and cozy?”

Sicarius said nothing. He was watching the security team as it slowed down to approach the cloaked man. It was late for stargazing, so Amaranthe could understand why they might be suspicious.

“
That’s Sespian,” Sicarius said.

She stiffened. “What? How can you tell?”

One of the enforcers tapped the figure on the shoulder. Sicarius stepped out of the shadows. Amaranthe tried to catch his arm, wanting to tell him to give Sespian a chance to handle the problem on his own, but Sicarius moved too quickly. Cursing under her breath, Amaranthe ran after him. Amazing how the man could glide across the deck like a wraith, seemingly not in a hurry at all, but covering the distance as if he were sprinting. His feet didn’t make a sound as he closed on the three men.

“
Don’t kill anyone,” Amaranthe whispered after him, trying to pitch her voice so the security men wouldn’t hear it and Sicarius would.

“
...remove your hood,” one of the enforcers was saying when Amaranthe came into hearing range.

“
It’s cold out here.” That
was
Sespian. He turned to face the men, but he didn’t reach for the hood. The darkness and the beard
might
disguise him, but they might not. “I’m out here getting some air. I couldn’t sleep.” His gaze shifted over the men’s shoulders.

Sicarius stood behind them, not bothering to hide his face as the breeze rifled through his short blond hair. He hadn’t drawn a weapon yet, and Amaranthe hurried to catch up, to keep him from doing so.

First one security man glanced over his shoulder and jumped, then the second emulated the move.

Sespian lifted a hand. “Don’t hurt—”

One of the men pointed to the side of Sicarius, cried, “Look, enforcers!” and hurled himself past Sespian and into the river. The second man squeaked, scuttled backward until his shoulders rammed against the railing, then grabbed it and also propelled himself into the water. His lantern caught and dropped to the deck instead of falling overboard. It clanked and highlighted a dubious puddle before tipping over and winking out. Amaranthe had forgotten how much Sicarius’s reputation affected the average person.

By the time she reached his side, there was little left to worry about, except Sespian’s reaction. Not everybody appreciated protective looming the way Amaranthe did. The two men stared at each other, their profiles like mirror images, each unreadable.

“
Hello,” she said cheerfully. “Everything all right, here?”

“
It is unwise to stand with your back to the deck,” Sicarius told Sespian.

Oh, good. Lecturing. That’d be sure to warm Sespian’s heart.

Sespian lifted the flap of his cloak to reveal a small crossbow in his hand. Amaranthe recognized it as an enforcer-issue weapon, one that often had poison on the tip, making it ideal for subduing dangerous criminals during undercover missions. Had he already tangled with an enforcer to acquire it? Sespian kept it pointed at the deck, but he held it out for a long moment, as if to make sure Sicarius saw it, before dropping the flap. Letting his father know he could take care of himself?

Sicarius did not amend his statement.

“
We’re searching for contraband,” Amaranthe said. “Do you want to join us? We checked your cabin earlier, but you weren’t there.”

“
Is that what Akstyr’s doing?” Sespian asked. “He went by a moment ago. He was peering into every vent and grate he passed.”

Amaranthe nodded, pleased that, whatever thoughts had been going through Sespian’s head, he’d remained observant. Sicarius would notice that too, she knew.

“
Yes, we suspect magical weapons or something of the sort are being smuggled to the capital by the circus troupe.”

“
For Ravido?” Sespian asked.

“
Forge, we imagine, but Ravido will surely benefit.”

“
So it’d behoove us to find them and destroy them.” Sespian took a deep breath and blew it out, like a man bracing himself. Or perhaps acknowledging that whatever he’d been thinking about was less important than this new mission.

“
Or acquire them for ourselves.” Amaranthe smiled.

For the first time since identifying Sespian, Sicarius looked at her. A rather sharp look that implied the thought lacked prudence.

“
Let’s find them before worrying about what to do with them.” Amaranthe waved toward the nearby engineering room hatch. Faint light escaped from a porthole beside it. “Think you can find those schematics without being seen by the night shift?” she asked Sicarius.

“
Yes.”

A long moment passed, with Sicarius eyeing Sespian and Amaranthe in turn, before he walked away. He disappeared into the shadows long before he reached the hatch. She waited, expecting to see it open, but it didn’t. Perhaps he intended to go in another way.

“
Are you all right?” Amaranthe asked.

“
I’m fine,” Sespian said.

“
You’re sure? I didn’t share that particular tidbit in the most judicious manner this evening.” Maybe she shouldn’t be bothering him. She’d aligned herself with the enemy, more so than ever, as far as he was concerned. Maybe she was the last person he wanted to confide in or even talk to. If not for the limitations of the boat, he might have walked much farther away to think. “I apologize for that. And for continuing to bug you. I’m not good at simply letting sleeping grimbals stay in their dens. Just ask...” She was going to say ask Sicarius, but bringing him up might not be wise. “Ask anyone who’s known me for more than a month.”