Emperor's Edge Republic (6 page)

She touched his arm. “I’ll be on that dock over there. If you still have time, those drawings would help.” She lifted a hand toward the others. “Good day.”

Though she told herself not to, she glanced over her shoulder to see if Sespian would follow or if he looked aggrieved that he had to go off with her instead of staying with them. His face didn’t suggest that, though he was probably politically minded enough to mask his thoughts. He shared a few more words with his comrades, received another solid thump on the shoulder from Maldynado, and strode after her.

Mahliki plucked a specimen collection kit of out the satchel she carried, though most of the tools were inadequate for such a large plant. The wooden dock, though broad and of recent construction, creaked and groaned as she walked down it. Not due to her presence, but because the vines wrapping the pilings and boards were applying pressure as they grew at an alarming rate. She paused near a clump of tendrils sticking out of the water like grass—albeit grass with inch-thick stems. Their tips wavered in the breeze, and one had a bulbous tip. She had observed those bulbs on her last trip, but none of them had been near enough for collection. She had a hunch that bud might produce a flower eventually, and she would love a chance to dissect the pistol, stamen, and ovule, or whatever organs it ended up having in there.

“Be careful.” Sespian eyed the bulb. “Sergeant Yara said people
have
gone missing down here the last two nights. She’s not ready to blame the plant, but everyone on the force talks about the oddity of it. An, ah, magical oddity. I know you Kyattese think us primitive for calling it that, but—” He shrugged and opened his sketch pad.

“You’re not primitive. It’s just strange that the mental sciences aren’t practiced here at all, and that so many people don’t even believe people can do things with their minds.”

Sespian had started sketching, but he stopped to point a pencil at the tendrils. “Can you tell if these were a result of ma— the Science?”

“I’m not the expert to ask. My brother and sister would be if they hadn’t gone home. I can sometimes sense the presence of artifacts or of people tinkering with the elements, but this just feels like a plant to me. My mother said the same thing when I brought her down to see it, and she’s more of a Sensitive than I am. Still, a practitioner could have created the seeds in a laboratory, then planted them, and what grew up wouldn’t necessarily feel Made, if that makes sense.”

“Hm.” Sespian set the pad on top of a piling and dropped to his belly. He peered under the dock. “Do you think this started as seeds? As in a lot of seeds?”

“It could have started as one plant and spread laterally via rhizomes. I haven’t dug around in the soil down there to see yet. Someone said the water is fifteen or twenty feet deep around the docks here, and, at the risk of sounding like a weak-blooded foreigner, the lake seems cold for swimming at this time of year. I checked on the beach to the south and north of the city, but there’s nothing growing around there yet, so I couldn’t simply wade in and pull up some roots. I tried to pull on one of these tendrils, but it didn’t budge.”

Sespian slithered halfway off the dock to dip a finger into the water. “Very cold,” he agreed, “but I imagine I could survive a thirty-second immersion to pull up a root for you.”

Mahliki hadn’t expected such an offer and beamed at the back of his head. “Thank you, but there’s more than water to be concerned about down there. I wouldn’t want you to become entangled and not be able to get back up.”

She was on the verge of explaining how the plant could wrap its vines around anything—or anyone—quite quickly in its bid to grow up into the sunlight, but Sespian lifted his head first, his face fixed in an expression between repugnance and horror. A tendril from under the dock had fastened to his arm, wrapping twice about his wrist. The tip wavered toward his sleeve, as if it meant to slither into his shirt and take over his body.

“I see what you mean,” Sespian said. “I don’t suppose I could use your knife? Now that nobody has any good reason to assassinate me, I’ve been wandering the city armed with little more than pencils and sketch pads.”

“Of course.” Mahliki slid a hand into her collection kit and pulled out a scalpel with a sharper blade than her utility knife. “I have all manner of tools and weapons. My father wouldn’t let me out of the hotel if I didn’t carry something sharp and pointy. He’s not particularly trusting of young men, at least when it comes to his daughters.”

Sespian tried to wedge the tip of the scalpel under the tendril, but it tightened before their eyes. His hand grew a few shades darker than the rest of his arm.

“Not that pencils can’t be turned into weapons,” Mahliki said, edging closer and thinking of taking a pencil to the vine herself. “Stab a boy in the eye a few times, and he’ll stop trying to touch your backside. Or, uhm, other parts.” She knelt beside Sespian—the tip of that vine had grown an inch as she had been watching; she was sure of it.

“I’ll keep that advice in mind, should groping boys ever accost my nether regions.” Sespian gave up on delicately removing the vine from his wrist and hacked at a lower section instead. The scalpel cut through the finger-thick tendril, but it did take several tries. Sespian’s face remained calm, though he did tear the vine free and fling it to the deck with feeling. “I ought to forgo steel in my design for the president’s residence and have the walls constructed from that stuff.”

“That would be a unique look. In the meantime...” Mahliki nudged the severed vine toward him. “Would you mind drawing that?”

Sespian’s lip curled. “It’s still twitching.”

“Yes, from my prior observations, I believe that’ll eventually start growing a new plant.”

“How... practical.” He looked up and down the waterfront, at the number of docks and boats being violated by the vines. Then his gaze drifted inland. “Is it strictly a water plant? Or can it grow out of plain dirt? Or... cobblestones?”

“I’m not sure yet. Thus far, it’s keeping its roots under the water.” Mahliki pulled out a ball of thick twine and made a lasso. “I should have a bud to dissect in a moment. That’ll give you more interesting material to draw. Assuming those
are
buds and not pods or some such. I haven’t seen a flower yet. Or cone. Or spore.”

“I look forward to it.” Sespian started to sit on the deck, but peered through the boards, at more tendrils wavering below, and decided to stand and draw with his pad laid in the crook of his arm. The snipped piece of vine kept wriggling about, so he used a sturdy pen to stab it, pinning it to the nearest piling. “If you still need those roots, I do recall Amaranthe and her men finding diving suits somewhere in the city. One of the naval vessels might even have some with... tools built in.”

Mahliki had a feeling “weapons” was the first word that came to his mind, not tools. Maybe he had changed it out of concern that she would think Turgonians all warmongers. If so, that meant what she thought mattered to him. Oh, that was progress. She smiled cheerfully, refusing to believe she might have read too much into his slight pause. “These suits would allow us to go down there, properly insulated against the cold and armed against groping plants, so we could collect root samples?”

Sespian looked up from his drawing. “We?”

“You
did
volunteer to dive into the frigid water for me. This should be an improvement, no?”

“I, ah... Hm. If Amaranthe hadn’t been out of town for the last couple of months, I’d suspect you’d been spending time with her.”

Mahliki didn’t know whether that was a compliment or not. Did he prefer timid girls to those who... took the initiative? Or maybe he felt she was wheedling to persuade him into doing something unappealing? No man liked a wheedling woman, she supposed.

“You don’t have to come.” She tossed her lasso, trying to land the loop around the vine holding the bud. It stretched up higher than their heads. She bumped it, but the twine fell into the water. “I just thought you might be as fascinated by this plant as I am, now that you’ve bonded with it.” As she reeled her lasso back in, she nodded at the cut vine hanging from the piling.

“Bonded, huh?” Sespian rubbed a patch of hives that had arisen around his wrist. An allergic reaction? Drat. He would be even less interested in studying it further.

“It seemed to like you anyway.” Mahliki tossed the lasso again, this time succeeding in looping it around the top of the vine. “I’ll find a diving suit on my own and go down. This is my project.”

Sespian’s attention had turned to the fire brigade approach the waterfront in a couple of steam lorries, both towing cylindrical tanks behind them. The sides read KEROSENE in large letters alongside stamps of danger, some textual and some pictorial. Only in Turgonia would an image of a man with flames spouting from his clothes be considered an appropriate way to warn someone away from a flammable liquid. The firemen started unloading blowlamps. If she had been keeping track as well as she thought, this represented Serious Attempt Number Three at destroying the invasive plant.

“No,” Sespian sighed. “I think this is going to be
everyone’s
project. I’ll go with you to collect the samples, if you can wait until after tomorrow when I turn in my contest entry. It’s doubtful that someone with so little experience and no formal training in architecture will have a chance, but... what a way to be remembered, by leaving a building that can stand for centuries hence. If nothing else, it could help my career.”

Mahliki had reeled in her bud and was concentrating on sawing it from its vine, but she spared an amused thought for a man who’d been
emperor
worrying about being remembered. True, it had been a short reign, but he had been the last emperor, so surely he wouldn’t be forgotten.

The vine drooped down and touched her shoulder. She flinched and flung it away. It was like some creature’s live tentacle rather than a plant’s appendage. “I’m sure you have a good chance at the contest, though my understanding is that Mother will be judging the entries without looking at the names of the architects. She’s fond of fairness.”

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

“Ugh, it’s like these things are made from rubber.” Mahliki finally sawed the bud free, but not without cutting her own hand in the process. It was as if the vine had known what she intended and kept getting in the way on purpose.

“Yes,” Sespian said. “I can’t help but think it was sent here to trouble our fledging republic.”

“I’ve had that thought too.”

“In the old days, people just tried to assassinate the fellow in charge. Or drug him.” Sespian grimaced.

“That happened to you?” Mahliki knelt on the dock and prodded at the bud with her scalpel, trying to find a seam or weak spot.

“Drugging, manipulation, attempted assassinations. I’m relieved to be nobody special anymore.”

“Truly?” Mahliki looked into his eyes. Though the Kyattese didn’t have a government that ran on bloodlines, she was fortunate enough to have been born into a family with land and money, so that she never had to worry about feeding herself or having clothing to wear—or books to read. It would be difficult to give up even that much privilege, much less power over an entire nation.

“Truly,” Sespian said, meeting her eyes.

His were brown with golden flecks, warm and friendly. Nothing in their conversation should have made her blush, but Mahliki suddenly felt the need to return her attention to her work. “Even though being nobody special means that you don’t have the power to delegate underwater specimen collection to someone else?”

He smiled. “Even so.”

“The day after tomorrow will be fine. I’ll have to figure out how to get some of those suits.”

Sespian tilted his head. “Can’t you ask your father for a favor?
He
can delegate things to other people now.”

“He’s so busy, it’s hard to find him. You’d be shocked if you heard about half of the uprisings he’s put down, squabbles he’s had to mediate, and—I’m not supposed to know about this, so don’t say anything—assassination attempts he’s dodged. Well, I guess you’re perhaps the one person who
wouldn’t
be shocked, but it’s been difficult for the family to digest. Favors. I’m not sure
Mother
is even getting favors, right now.”

“Ah.” Sespian tapped his sketchpad. “I’m ready for the next subject.”

“Yes, one moment.” Mahliki gave up on finding a tidy way to slice the bud open and hacked it in half. She peeled back the exterior and frowned at the dark green rounded cube inside. “That doesn’t look like any pistil I’ve ever seen. How odd.” She was debating whether to try and slice it open to see if it housed reproductive organs, but the cube opened of its own accord, the top peeling back, and something black bulging from within. She froze, torn between wanting to see what happened and wanting to back away in case it was something unpleasant. “That’s...”

The bulging thing—it vaguely reminded her of someone’s tonsil—pulsed twice, and—

Sespian grabbed her shoulder, and yanked her away as a fine black mist sprang into the air. Her butt bounced across several planks before he hefted her to her feet, pulling her back against him. From several feet away, Mahliki watched the mist spread, then dissipate.

“I apologize,” Sespian said, though he didn’t yet release her. “I thought that looked... ominous.”

Mahliki thought about joking that she didn’t mind a handsome man wrapping her in his arms, but couldn’t bring herself to flirt so brazenly with him. She had a feeling he would give her a shocked look if she tried. Besides, they had more important matters to deal with.

“Perfectly fine,” she said. “I thought it looked ominous, too, but I had to see what happened. Scientific curiosity, you understand.”

“Hm, do your people have any phrases about curiosity and cats?”

Your people? She almost told him that she was half Turgonian, but supposed she couldn’t lay much claim to the nationality when she’d never set foot on the continent until this past winter. “Yes, but it’s about monkeys and shiny objects in logs. We... uh. What is happening to that wood?”