Conspiracy (51 page)

Sicarius grabbed her arm and shoved her back
into the crevice. He stepped in front of her, a throwing knife
appearing in his hand.

Sandwiched between him and Maldynado,
Amaranthe couldn’t see anything, but she heard rocks shift and
pebbles clatter up ahead.

“
Am—” The male speaker
broke into a spatter of coughs before finishing her
name.

“
Is that Books?” Amaranthe
asked, not certain from the single syllable but figuring Forge
minions wouldn’t call out to her by first name.

The coughs ended, followed by a raspy,
“Amaranthe, is that you? Unwisely blowing up tunnels from within
them? I hope you studied the structural stability of the passage
before—” The voice broke into another bout of coughing.

Amaranthe grinned. “That’s Books.”

She nudged Sicarius, and he stepped aside,
though he did not sheathe his throwing knife. More rubble shifted,
and Books’s head appeared over the lip of the pile. Sicarius left
Amaranthe’s side to jog, then climb toward him. She thought he
might offer Books a hand, but he skimmed past without a word and
disappeared down the other side.

“
Good to see you as well,”
Books called over his shoulder.

“
He’s scouting.” Amaranthe
scrambled up the rubble pile. Rocks shifted and slipped beneath her
feet, sending a cascade down behind her. “We ran into a strange
flying craft.”

“
Yes, we opted to hide from
it.” Books eyed the buried locomotive. “Wisely, I
believe.”

“
Booksie, how’ve you been?”
Maldynado called. “How’s the dirigible? Lush and luxurious as is
fitting for an emperor? And weary mercenaries who’ve been severely
mistreated of late?”

“
Your dirigible came
infested with thugs who attacked us in the middle of the mission,”
Books growled at him. “And then more thugs jumped Akstyr when he
was setting the charges at the pass, and—did you say emperor? Did
you succeed in getting him?”

Sespian and Yara stepped out of the crevice
behind Maldynado and Basilard.

“
Sire!” Books blurted and
attempted to bow from where he knelt at the top of the rubble pile.
He almost pitched face-first down the slope.

“
Charges at the pass?”
Sespian asked mildly.

“
Er, did I not mention
that, Sire?” Amaranthe had reached the top of the rubble pile and
could see out to the forest beyond the destroyed tunnel. She turned
around to give Sespian a sheepish smile. “I must apologize for the
destruction of a section of railway, especially when we didn’t need
that particular distraction.”

“
She’s rather cavalier
about destroying imperial property, isn’t she?” Sespian
said.

“
She has single-minded
focus,” Maldynado said. “She’ll stop Forge and help the empire,
even if she has to blow up the entire continent in the
process.”

Amaranthe decided it’d be better not to
comment. Besides, if that craft was still around, they needed to
get out of there quickly, as soon as she made sure her men were
well.

“
Is Akstyr all right?”
Amaranthe peered more closely at Books and touched his arm. Dark
bags lurked under his eyes, and a swollen bruise rose from the side
of his jaw. He must have had a grueling night too. “Are
you
all
right?”

“
His injuries are graver
than mine, and he had to do some draining magical mumbo jumbo to
keep that aircraft from noticing us. I left him on watch in
navigation. If everyone here can climb, we can get back on board,
and I can tell you the rest.”

The grim set to Books’s face told Amaranthe
she might not want to hear “the rest,” but she nodded and said,
“Agreed.”

Akstyr removed his nose from the navigation
cabin window and sat back in the chair. Books was walking out of
the crumbled tunnel entrance with the others. That was good, Akstyr
supposed, though apprehension stirred anew in him when he saw
Amaranthe and Sicarius. Books would tell them what Akstyr’s role
had been in this mess. Amaranthe would forgive him, he figured, but
Sicarius? After all the times he’d thought about betraying Sicarius
for that bounty, it’d be pitiful if confiding in his mother was
what earned Akstyr a throwing knife in the back.

But he ought to be safe for
the moment. He’d memorized the schematics and dissected one of the
tiny metal balls from the shaman’s box. If the emperor was truly
implanted with one of the spheres, the team would need him to help
with the operation. That meant Sicarius couldn’t kill him. Akstyr
grimaced. Until five seconds
after
the surgery.

Light winked somewhere outside, and Akstyr
lurched to his feet. He was supposed to be keeping watch, not
simply sitting around. He and Books had followed the black craft
out of the mountains at a distance, though they couldn’t have kept
up if they’d tried. For all of its size, that thing skimmed through
the air effortlessly. From miles back, they’d watched it shoot
narrow white beams into the top of the cliff, caving in the tunnel.
The craft had loitered, its red searchlight probing the rubble, for
a long time before drifting south along the railway. Books had
waited longer than Akstyr thought they should before flying close
to the destroyed train tunnel. Once there, they’d shouted for
survivors and tried to pull rubble away but had had no luck. Books
had been in the process of calculating how to use blasting sticks
on the blocked entrance when the explosion had come from
within.

Akstyr scoured the horizon, searching for
the light he’d seen out of the corner of his eye. Dawn might only
be an hour or two off, but it was still dark outside. It didn’t
take him long to find the light. A small, blue circle pulsed on and
off on top of the cliff. Something the black craft had left behind
on accident? Or on purpose?

Akstyr closed his eyes and stretched his
mind in that direction, but once again he did not sense anything
otherworldly about the device. “Can’t be good, whatever it is.”

He jumped to his feet, and, reminded of his
wound with a stabbing pang, hobbled toward the door, intending to
warn the others. He almost crashed into Sicarius, who was striding
into the navigation cabin ahead of Books and Amaranthe.

“
Uh,” Akstyr said
eloquently.

The icy stare Sicarius
leveled at him made Akstyr stumble back, wound forgotten. The man
was
always
icy,
but there was an extra edge to his glare today. Had Books already
spoken to him?

When Amaranthe came in, she patted Akstyr on
the shoulder. “Keeping us afloat?” She waved at the controls, then
noticed him favoring his leg, and added, “And keeping yourself
alive?”

“
Yes.” Until Sicarius gets
me alone, Akstyr thought. He pointed toward the glowing object on
the cliff. “I was going to tell you about—”

“
I see it,” Sicarius
said.

Amaranthe leaned on the console and peered
outside. “What is it?”

“
I could only
guess.”

“
That’s permitted, you
know,” Amaranthe said. “Especially considering there’s more
knowledge behind your guesses than the rest of us have put
together.”

Books huffed at that
comment. Akstyr caught his eye, pointed to Sicarius’s back, and
signed,
Did you tell them? About...
He tapped his chest.

Books opened his mouth, but Akstyr stopped
him with a shushing wave, then wriggled his fingers.

Not yet, but I told Amaranthe there was
something she’d have to know. I can’t keep this a secret. It
threatens the group.

I know
, Akstyr signed,
but please don’t
tell her when he’s around.

He pointed to Sicarius only to realize
Sicarius’s head had rotated in his direction. Akstyr gulped. If
he’d seen all of the signs...

“
My guess,” Sicarius said,
“would be that it’s a monitoring device.”

Amaranthe tore her gaze
from the blinking light. “Monitoring...
us
? The cave-in? To see if we make
it out?”

“
Yes.”

“
And would it then be able
to send that information back to the enemy craft?”

“
Yes,” Sicarius
said.

Books raised a finger. “How do you know what
it’s capable of? Akstyr says it’s not magical, and even if it
is—”

“
We’ll do explanations
later,” Amaranthe said.

“
We need to get this craft
moving,” Sicarius said. “The emperor’s destination is Sunders
City.”

“
Can’t you even tell me
if—”

“
Now.” Some of Sicarius’s
icy glare hit Books.

Books quailed under it and slunk to the
controls. “Very well.”

Sicarius and Amaranthe headed back down the
corridor, and Akstyr overheard her asking, “Our craft won’t be
anywhere near as fast as theirs, will it?” and Sicarius responding,
“No,” before their conversation was too far away to hear.

“
So good to have him back,”
Books muttered.

“
I’ll say.”

“
Wait,” came Amaranthe’s
voice from the corridor.

Akstyr winced in anticipation of more
trouble when she hustled back in, dragging Sicarius behind her.

“
Were you able to get
through to the shaman’s workshop?” Amaranthe asked. “Did you find
anything?”

“
Yes,” Akstyr blurted,
relieved to have a chance to remind that he could help with the
implant. He hustled down the corridor to the cabin he’d claimed for
himself, grabbed the box and the schematic, and rejoined the
others. “These are the implants. I’ve studied them. With some help,
I think I could remove one.”

“
Oh!” Amaranthe startled
Akstyr by grabbing him by the shoulders and kissing him on the
cheek. “That’s more than I dared hope for. Wonderful.”

Books cleared his throat.
“
I
helped
retrieve them.”

Amaranthe stood on tiptoes to kiss him on
the cheek too. For a moment, Akstyr thought she might try the same
move on Sicarius—he was standing there, face utterly expressionless
as usual—but she merely smiled at him and said, “The emperor will
want to know about this.”

“
Likely,” Sicarius said and
walked out.

Akstyr doubted if he cared a whit if the
emperor’s neck exploded or not.

“
Akstyr,” Amaranthe said,
“gather whatever materials you think we might need to remove the
device and... I assume the surgery will be dangerous?”

“
Oh, hugely dangerous. To
him and me and anyone in the room.” Akstyr tapped the box. “These
things can jump like crickets.”

“
Grab a couple of hours of
sleep then. I want you rested. In the meantime, I’ll be busy
convincing the emperor to trust you with his life.”

Amaranthe walked out, and
Akstyr watched her go in silence. When he’d been studying the
spheres, he’d been focused on figuring out how they worked—and how
to make them
not
work. Only now, at the mention of lives, did he realize the
enormity of the responsibility in his lap. He’d have to perform, or
at least help perform, surgery on the emperor over all of Turgonia.
What if he messed up and Sespian died?

* * * * *

Amaranthe strode down the corridor toward
the suite they had assigned Sespian. She was relieved that Akstyr
and Books had found the devices and had a plan of action, but she
worried her skills of persuasion might not be up to convincing the
emperor to undergo the surgery. He had no reason to trust Akstyr
with his life.

Maldynado and Yara’s voices drifted up from
the cargo area. Maybe Amaranthe and Sicarius could snatch a moment
to talk to Sespian alone, though they probably didn’t have time for
big revelations. That blinking light worried her.

Before she reached the suite, a door to one
of the smaller cabins opened. Sicarius stood on the threshold.

“
A moment.” He stepped
back, gesturing for Amaranthe to step past him and go
inside.

Not certain what concern he
might voice, Amaranthe tried to find a clue in his eyes, but, as
always, he gave away nothing. As she walked into the cabin, she
tried not to feel like a student being taken aside by a teacher for
a lecture on her failings. Things were going as well as could be
expected, and they had a potential solution to Sespian’s most
pressing problem. Sicarius
ought
to be pleased.

No lanterns burned in the room, and
Amaranthe had only a glimpse of two empty bunks before Sicarius
shut the door. Blackness swallowed them.

“
If this is going to be a
private admonishment, I wouldn’t mind a light,” Amaranthe said. “I
need to see your face so I can know when my attempts at levity have
crossed from amusing you to irking you.” Not that his face ever
gave away much, but sometimes she could decipher his mood through
the degrees of hardness.

Before Amaranthe could turn toward him, or
start patting around for a lantern, Sicarius wrapped his arms
around her from behind. It was so uncharacteristic that her first
thought was that he was launching some sort of training exercise
and expected her to defend herself. But she’d already be on her
back with a dagger at her throat if that were the case.

Arms around her waist, Sicarius stepped
close, his chest pressing against her back. Something—his
chin?—came to rest on her shoulder.