Encrypted (32 page)

Two beams lanced toward his chest, but he
anticipated the attack and dove, rolling beneath the cubes. They
rotated to target him. This time he jumped to avoid the shots.
Next, the mechanical assailants teamed up, showing a disquieting
ability to work together. They tried to surround him, but the youth
proved too quick. He darted away, keeping both cubes to one side of
him.

“
If I get killed,” Rias
said to Tikaya, “get the jar and finish them. It’s an acid, so
don’t let
any
of
the liquid touch your skin.”

Before she could say how little she thought
of his get-killed option, he left. Tikaya nocked an arrow. The bow
might not do damage, but perhaps it would help distract the cubes.
Though the boy was doing a good job of that on his own. He dodged,
darted, jumped, and rolled with the fluid ease of a well-trained
natural athlete. Who was this ally who had shown up just in time to
help? Even when a beam washed the floor inches from him, his face
held no expression, though the intensity of his dark eyes promised
nothing would break his focus.

Rias neared the closest cube, keeping its
backside toward him. Tikaya fired at it. The arrow clanged off, and
the cracked head clattered to the floor. Despite the distractions,
the cube somehow sensed Rias’ approach. It rotated toward him.

He flung some of the liquid and dodged just
before the beam struck. Red smoke fumes plagued the air. The second
cube remained focused on the youth who led it around columns and
over lab stations. Rias zigzagged back to a column adjacent to
Tikaya’s with the tagged cube shooting after him. Smoke drifted
from its surface, and the corrosive liquid burned through the
casing.

“
What is that stuff?”
Tikaya asked, shifting to keep the column between her and the cube
as it approached.

“
A variation on royal
water,” Rias said. “The black metal is particularly susceptible to
it. We were trapped in a room with all sorts of chemicals, and I
tried several things last time. I couldn’t read any of the labels,
and I’m lucky I didn’t kill myself. It took too long, though. A lot
of men died before I figured it out.”

The smoke thickened, inflicting the air with
an acrid tang. It was nothing like the scent of burning wood or
coal or anything else Tikaya had ever smelled. Before the cube
reached them, it ground to a halt, then plummeted to the floor,
innards exposed.

“
Next.” Rias headed toward
the gunfire and shouts in the rear of the huge lab. “We lost ten
men to these things last time. We have to hurry.”

“
Shouldn’t we get the one
attacking the boy first?” Tikaya asked.

“
He’s the last one who
needs to be rescued.”

They ran through the aisles toward the
chaos. When they passed the spot where they had killed the
creatures, there was no sign of the remains, not even a blood stain
on the floor. The corpse of the marine was gone too.

Rias picked an aisle parallel to the gunfire
and shouts of Bocrest’s squad. He jumped, caught the edge of a
counter, and pulled himself to the top of a lab station. He knelt,
his jar poised to pour when the mechanical assailant came into
range.

Tikaya thought to wait on the floor, but the
youth came into their aisle from the other end. His cube sailed in
a few seconds later. Tikaya tossed her bow up, then climbed to
Rias’s side, hoping to avoid the path of fire.

“
Admiral,” the youth said
as he ran past.

Tikaya blinked, almost as shocked at the
calmness of the boy’s voice as the fact that he knew who Rias was.
Rias leaned over, prepared to pour his concoction on the cube
following the young man. It seemed to detect the trap, for it
slowed several paces back. Its glowing orifice rotated up, toward
Rias and Tikaya.

“
Rust,” he muttered and
prepared to jump.

“
Wait.” Tikaya jabbed the
tip of an arrow into his jar, nocked it, and fired. The dripping
missile spun into the red hole. A flash later, a beam incinerated
the arrow. The cube floated closer.

“
Double rust,” Tikaya
said.

“
It was a good idea,” Rias
said.

They crouched to jump down into the aisle
behind, but the cube slowed, then halted. Smoke wafted from the
beam hole. The cube sputtered and thunked to the ground.

“
It
was
a good idea.” Rias clapped
Tikaya on the shoulder and gave her an appreciative smile that
warmed her soul, despite the dire situation.

Enemy of the islands, she reminded herself.
She was not supposed to be pleased by his compliments anymore.

“
Think you can hit that
target again to help these men?” Rias pointed to the marines
scrambling in the other aisle. They were so busy dodging beams of a
cube in their midst they had lost their usual cohesiveness. Every
man was busy trying to stay alive. “Make it quick, though,” Rias
added. “The acid will eat away your arrowheads.”

Tikaya waited until the orifice faced her
before dipping into his jar. Her shot flew true and made short work
of the remaining cubes.

The relieved party met in the open area
before the stairs. Tikaya picked up one of the mostly intact cubes
so she could work on translating the writing.

Bocrest counted heads and scowled at the
loss of two men and injuries of several others. He glowered at
Rias. “Why didn’t you tell me you had something to battle them
with?”

“
You didn’t give me a
chance,” Rias said.

“
We had to act quickly,
and you were digging around in your gear. If you want to override
my orders, you need to give me a reason for doing so. Fast. You
don’t have the right to make decisions and keep the reasons to
your...” Bocrest gaped as the youth stepped out of the shadows to
join them.

He was smaller than many of the big marines,
standing only an inch taller than Tikaya, but, after seeing his
grace in evading the beams, she doubted he lost many fights.

His dark-eyed gaze pinned Bocrest. “Admiral
Starcrest is giving orders?”

He had short blond hair, a color unusual for
a Turgonian, but he did have the olive skin, and he sounded like a
native speaker. From the dialect, Tikaya guessed he came from one
of the satrapies around the capital. When her gaze fell on the
throwing knives on his forearm, she realized he was the one who had
killed the creature chasing her earlier. Where had he come
from?

“
I...uhm...” Bocrest
noticed his men watching him—they seemed as confused by the young
man’s appearance as Tikaya—and straightened, lifting his chin.
“Given his helpfulness thus far on the mission, and his familiarity
with these tunnels, I deemed it wise to listen to him. I am aware
of the emperor’s wishes for him, and they will be complied with in
the end.”

“
I see,” the young man
said, voice cool.

Bocrest shifted uncomfortably under that
steady gaze. His men murmured to each other, surprised at their
blustery captain’s deference.

“
What are you all looking
at?” Bocrest barked. “Let’s get the wounded patched up and set up a
camp. And for the emperor’s sake, someone figure out where in this
blasted maze a man is supposed to piss and drop cannon
balls.”

The marines scurried off to do his bidding.
The youth produced a small sealed envelope and handed it to
Bocrest, who accepted it and walked away to read the message.

Tikaya edged closer to Rias. “I’m perplexed.
Who is this boy?”

“
That is Sicarius, the
emperor’s personal assassin.”

Rias’s voice was low, for her only, but the
young man looked at them, as if aware of their discussion.

“
Is he as young as he
looks?” Tikaya asked even as she wondered why he was there. Why had
he not traveled with Bocrest from the beginning if he meant to help
the captain accomplish his mission? Her eyes widened. Could he be
the one responsible for the tortured men?

“
I believe he was fifteen
when I met him two years ago,” Rias said. “He smashed my face into
the deck and held a knife to my throat.”

Tikaya stared at Rias. “Did he catch you by
surprise?”

“
No. As I recall, I was
trying to catch
him
by surprise.”

“
Why? What happened?” She
frowned, wondering why the emperor would send his assassin to
harass his star fleet admiral. Something to do with Rias’s reasons
for ending up in exile? She tried to read his eyes.

He opened his mouth, but he shut it again
and shook his head. “No, I fear you’d suspect my motives if I told
you the story.”

“
Suspect your...” She
scowled at him. Now what was he hiding? “I suspect your motives
in
not
telling
me.”

He closed his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“
Why are you so elusive
about these things?” Her throat tightened. Now that she knew who he
was and that she could have no future with him, his choice to keep
things from her should not hurt, but it did. “Afraid to share
imperial secrets with the enemy?”

She clutched the cube to her chest and
stalked toward the lab stations, intending to find some nook where
she could be alone to study the language.

“
Tikaya...” Rias
said.

“
Stuff an apple core up
it, Admiral Starcrest.”

She caught the boy assassin watching, and
almost snapped at him too, but the dark impassive gaze stole the
heat from her ire and left her chilled. She stalked by without
comment.

Several marines sniggered behind her back.
Cheeks flushed, Tikaya slipped into the aisles, glad for the
concealment.

CHAPTER 16

Few runes adorned the cube, and it did not
take Tikaya long to translate them. Automatic cleaning machine. She
could have laughed if not for the unsettling realization that the
people who created this place had considered human beings something
to be incinerated to keep the labs tidy.

With that mystery solved, she itched to work
on the next. Weariness plagued her body, and probably would for
days in the aftermath of the poisoning, but her mind churned, so
she could not think of sleep yet. There was so much to study.

She wished she had Lancecrest’s journal, but
she would have to return to her gear to grab it, and she did not
want to face Rias or the snickering marines. Instead, she explored
the back half of the lab. Most of the finds were
innocuous—alchemical liquids and powders, equipment and
containers—but others were as disturbing as the bones that had
scattered when the beast fell. The human organs sealed in jars and
slides with blood samples made her wonder if the race who had
created this place had come for the distinct purpose of
experimenting on people. But, if so, to what end?

She probably should have been horrified by
her discoveries, but the labels on the identifiable substances
helped her resolve new nouns, and that kept her too busy for
squeamishness. A few days wandering this place and she would have
an impressive dictionary. If the marines gave her time.

Agarik rounded the corner and approached,
his rifle crooked in his arms. He quirked an eyebrow at the rows of
open cabinets in her wake.

“
Exploring?”

“
Yes, this place is
perfect. If I had a few weeks here, I bet I could decipher the
whole language. Or the science aspects, at least. Of course, this
entire language seems to revolve around science and mathematics. I
keep wondering who these people were, what happened to them. Where
could such an advanced civilization—”

He was frowning, so she stopped.

“
Problem?” Tikaya
asked.

“
No. Yes. I don’t know.
We’ve lost so many men out here. Your enthusiasm for such a deadly
place is... Well, I can’t share it.”

“
But don’t you see?
Everything here is labeled. If I can learn how to read it all, this
place won’t be deadly. We’re bumbling into things. Those cubes,
they’re the maids. Not some malicious security system, a cleaning
device to take care of messes in the labs.”

“
And the poison rockets,”
Agarik said. “Are they also not malicious if only you know the
words? And the gas that twisted our minds in Wolfhump? Was that not
malicious?”

The sobering words squelched her enthusiasm.
He was right. It was very likely this place had been created, at
least in part, to build weapons. Weapons far deadlier, and
ghastlier, than anything humanity currently knew.

Agarik sighed at the expression on her face.
“Forgive me, I don’t mean to judge. Besides you’re not the only one
fascinated with the place.”

“
Oh, what’s Rias doing?”
Tikaya asked, certain of her guess.

“
He’s taking apart one of
the boxes.”

“
Figures.”

“
Uhm, about him...” Agarik
watched her, and she had a hunch he had brought up Rias to gauge
her reaction.

“
Did he send you over to
talk to me?”

Agarik’s head shake did not surprise her.
Tikaya had a hard time imagining Rias sending a minion—or
admirer—off to solve problems for him. No, he would likely suffer
in silence.

“
No, ma’am. He, ah...”
Agarik set the butt of his rifle on the floor and polished a smudge
on the barrel. “He forbade me from bothering you.”

“
Oh? And you’re going to
disobey your boyhood hero?”