Encrypted (21 page)

Rias held an empty, one-inch cube of glass,
or what appeared to be glass, on the palm of his gloved hand. One
corner was broken, though the evenness of the cut suggested the
hole planned rather than accidental. He flexed his fingers upon the
cube. Though the thin sides appeared fragile, they did not bend or
crack under pressure.

“
It glinted in the sun and
caught my eye,” Rias said.

“
It looks like someone’s
trash,” Bocrest said.

A dark shape loped across the tundra, and
the two marines lifted rifles. A black wolf, so gaunt its ribs
showed even at a distance. After her encounter with the berserk
animals in town, Tikaya hoped the men shot it quickly, before it
could attack.

“
Hold,” Bocrest said.
“Why’s it so scrawny when there are dead birds
everywhere?”

She glanced at him, surprised by the
perspicacious comment. He was right, though. It was odd. And this
wolf, unlike the ones in town, gave no indication of aggressive
behavior. Indeed, it did not seem concerned about the humans at
all.

“
It
is
the end of winter, sir,” a marine
said. “Maybe it was a rough one for the animals.”

“
That wouldn’t explain why
it’s not eating those free meals,” Bocrest said.

The wolf loped parallel to the squad, then
paused at the corpse of a jaeger. It sniffed and pawed at the bird,
and Tikaya expect it to take a chomp. Instead it lifted its muzzle
and howled. The oscillating mournful sound made her shiver. Another
wolf answered from the foothills, its howl just as forlorn.

“
He seems to find the fowl
unpalatable,” Rias mused.

He turned his attention back to the cube,
lifting it so the sun shone through the glass. Tikaya sucked in a
startled breath. A familiar symbol etched one side.

She took it from Rias. “I recognize that.
“It’s one of the symbols repeated often in the rubbings the captain
gave me.” She nodded toward Bocrest. “Know anything?”

“
Shit,” he
said.

“
Very elucidating, thank
you,” Tikaya said.

“
Where’d those runes come
from, Bocrest?” Rias asked in a tone of command.

“
That’s top
secret.”

“
If you want Tikaya to
translate this for you, she needs to know everything about the
symbols.”

Bocrest ground his jaw. Tikaya had made that
argument before, and the captain had ignored it, but he waved the
marines to go back to the squad. When he, Rias, and Tikaya were
alone, he spoke.

“
Last month, a black box
covered with those runes was delivered to the research department
of the biggest university in the capital. No name, no
identification. They should have buried it somewhere and forgotten
about it, but scientists being scientists...they fiddled with it,
let out some kind of airborne poison. It killed everybody on
campus. It was late in the evening, so not as bad as it could have
been, but hundreds still died.”

Tikaya dropped the cube and stepped back. In
her haste, she almost tripped over her snowshoes again. Rias’s lips
flattened, and he rubbed the fingers of his glove together, as if
he could wipe off any taint from the cube.

“
It’s not the same thing,
though,” Bocrest said. “The bodies on campus were horribly
mutilated, and these birds barely look dead. Maybe our people at
the fort are fine.”

“
Those are carrion birds,”
Rias said.

Tikaya swallowed with grim understanding.
“Not as bright as the wolves then, eh?”

“
It seems not.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Bocrest asked.

“
We’re just guessing at
this point,” Rias said, “but it’s possible our people
are
dead by the means
you’re familiar with, and the poison was toxic enough that even the
carrion beasts that tried to feed off them died.”

Bocrest scowled at the dead bird. “Oh.”

“
Will it still be toxic if
we get close?” Tikaya asked. “That cube wasn’t covered by snow, so
this couldn’t have happened that many days ago.”

“
I don’t know,” Rias said.
“It depends on whether we’re looking at an area denial weapon or
something short-lived, designed simply to kill.” He faced Bocrest.
“The scouting party. How far ahead are they?”

Bocrest’s face froze, and a long moment
passed before he said, “They’ll be there by now.”

Tikaya’s gut twisted. Agarik. She had not
even had a chance to apologize to him. She prayed it wasn’t too
late.

CHAPTER 11

The walled army fort squatted in the
foothills, small and insignificant compared to the towering white
mountains plunging it into shadow. Tikaya stamped her feet to keep
warm and wondered if she was crazy for wanting to travel the last
half mile to the gate. No soldiers manned the massive guns perched
atop the ramparts, nor did any smoke waft from the chimneys inside.
Rias’s guess that everyone was dead seemed likely, but perhaps
whatever weapon had done it waited within those walls. And such a
weapon might be inscribed with language clues like those on the
Wolfhump artifact. Now that she had made a little progress, the
prospect of more tantalized her.

Rias meandered across the foothills, pausing
to pick up something here and there. More of those cubes, she
feared, not sure whether they were safe to touch or not. He carried
a small notepad and scribbled something in it whenever he found
one. He still wore his shackles, and two guards trailed dutifully
behind him. Did Bocrest not know they were superfluous at this
point? Rias had shown no interest in escaping since he learned what
was at stake.

She hoped that loyalty to the empire would
not result in his death. Or hers. She would much prefer to see him
strolling on one of her island’s beaches, picking up agates and
sand dollars instead of vials that might have housed lethal poison.
And in this vision, she saw him with less clothing on. She grinned.
Or none. She thought of the scar that bisected his eyebrow and
wondered what other battle wounds stamped his olive skin. He had
filled out since she first saw him in rags in his cell, and she
imagined broad shoulders and powerful muscles beneath that
parka.

A guilty pang ended her thoughts. She
believed Parkonis would have wanted her to go on and find love
again—though not with a Turgonian, no matter how academically
inclined—so it was not that. It was that she had never daydreamed
about him with his shirt off. Parkonis had been boyishly cute with
freckles and a mop of red-blond curls, but not the type to inspire
women’s fantasies. Of course, she was hardly the type to inspire
men’s fantasies. She hated to dwell on it, but feared she would not
be able to compete with others if she and Rias survived to return
to a world where she was no longer the only woman for hundreds of
miles.

Snow crunched behind her.

A pair of privates approached, and she
braced herself for insults or crude comments. Acne scarred one’s
face, and neither appeared older than twenty, though like most of
the men here they were taller than she and no doubt dangerous.

“
Ma’am, we’re, ah...” The
speaker glanced at his comrade, who gave an encouraging nod. “We’re
having rations.”

Er, what did that have to do with her?
“Yes?”

Behind them, marines sat in groups of four
or five and shared lunch while the officers conferred in a cluster.
More than one man snoozed against his rucksack, oblivious to the
frosty environs.

“
You could join our mess
if you wanted.” The speaker nodded to a knot of young men busy
chatting, laughing, and stuffing crackers into their mouths. One
waved. “We’ve got extra tooth dullers and—”

“
Tooth, what?” Tikaya
asked.

“
Tooth dullers. You know,
hardtack. It’s right awful stuff, but Private Ankars has some taffy
his mum gave him—his mum always posts him the
best
sweets—and anyway if you wanted
you could come share with us.”

“
Oh, I...” After so much
hostility from the marines, this kindness stunned her. The privates
must know some of what had happened with the device, that she and
Rias had been the ones to render it innocuous. “Thank you. It’s
considerate of you to invite me.”

Rias strode their direction, brow wrinkled.
The privates blanched when they spotted him.

“
You’re welcome any time,
ma’am.” The speaker waved to Tikaya, and he and his comrade
scurried away.

“
They bothering you?” Rias
asked.

“
No. They invited me to
lunch.”

“
Ah?” His brow smoothed
and a smile plucked at his lips. “That’s an
improvement.”

“
Yes.” She nodded toward
the pockets of men. “It’s amazing they can sleep and laugh in the
face of death and inexplicable alien horrors.” As soon as she said
it, she blushed. What about her? Fantasizing about Rias on a beach
a few minutes earlier?

“
That’s a trait shared by
soldiers everywhere. The officers handle the worrying.” The
grimness returned to his expression, and he held out his hand. A
glass cube identical to the first rested on the palm. “I’ve found
several now. The radial pattern and the distance from Fort Deadend
implies...” He sighed. “I better see what’s inside before jumping
to conclusions.”

“
Are we going
in?”

“
Yes, good news there. The
scouts are alive. The lookout has a spyglass and spotted them
moving around inside.”

Tikaya exhaled with relief. “Good.”

Rias nodded. “Though you might want to wait
until later for lunch.”

“
Why? Are there better
rations inside?” Even as she finished the question, the meaning of
his comment washed over her. They anticipated more dead bodies,
right. She waved a glove to let him know she understood.

“
Fort Deadend isn’t known
for its cuisine, no, but if I can escape Bocrest’s guards, maybe we
can share a meal?” He arched his eyebrows.

And another, less abbreviated, kiss? She
smiled at the thought but couldn’t resist the urge to tease him. “I
don’t know.... Those privates over there have taffy. Can you top
that?”

“
Ah, perhaps not.” His
expression grew wistful. “I fear I am a man with few resources
these days.”

She patted his arm. “You’ll have to regale
me with stories then. Such as why this place is called Fort
Deadend. Are there more reasons than the obvious?”

“
Not really. You’ve
generally pissed in some general’s tea cup if you get stationed out
here. There’s a pass through the mountains south of here, and the
theoretical purpose of the installation is to guard against
invasion from the north. But the route is as hospitable as an
avalanche, so the likelihood of someone marching an army through it
is close to nil. There’s a lot of gold in the hills, though, and
foreigners trespass to set up mining operations. Patrols watch for
that, and I imagine the fort commander has orders to keep an eye on
the canyon where the tunnels were discovered as well.”

Tikaya thought of the invisible Nurian
assassins. She was beginning to think they had transported back to
their own ship the night of the attack, but that did not mean
others with their skills were not out here. “Practitioners wouldn’t
have much trouble sneaking by this fort to get inside.”

“
They would have had to
know about the place first, though I suppose after twenty years
secrets are bound to get out. The Nurians obviously
know.”

Voices sounded ahead—the scouting group
returning. Agarik came at the end, head bowed, shoulders drooped,
though he kept his rifle crooked in his arms, ready to use. The
leader headed straight for Bocrest and his officers, but she caught
Agarik’s eye and he tramped up the hill toward her and Rias.

A livid red gash dotted with black stitches
ran from the side of his cheek to his nose, and the stiffness of
his movement hinted at injuries beneath his clothing.

Tears pricked her eyes. She never should
have sent him off alone.

Before he could speak, she stepped forward
and hugged him. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault you were hurt.”

He seemed startled by the embrace, but
rearranged his rifle to return it. “No, don’t think that. I’m the
idiot who let himself get ambushed.”

His words did nothing to assuage her guilt.
When she stepped back, she could not look away from that cut. It
would be a permanent scar.

“
Is there anything I can
do?” Tikaya asked.

“
Hugs are good.” Agarik
gave Rias a hesitant smile. “From anyone who wants to share
them.”

Tikaya glanced at Rias in time to spot a
neutral expression shift to bewilderment.

“
What?”

The word sounded harsh, and, though Tikaya
suspected the tone more a result of surprise than anything else,
Agarik’s smile fell.

“
Sorry, sir,” he said. “I
didn’t mean, uhm.”

“
What’d you find at the
fort, corporal?” Rias asked.

Agarik straightened, face composed.
“Everyone’s dead, sir. Ugly dead. Their skin and muscles were
melted off like wax on a candle. You couldn’t even tell who was who
if they weren’t wearing uniforms with name patches.”

Tikaya shared that’s-what-we-were-afraid-of
glances with Rias.

“
And there’s something
you’ll want to see,” Agarik said. “Both of you.”