Beneath the Surface

CHAPTER 11

The cracks of breaking boards and the squeals of nails torn free from wood assaulted Amaranthe’s ears. She hunkered next to the hole the enforcers had cut, ready to defend the entrance, though she feared there’d soon be too many holes to guard. The enforcers-or maybe it was the marines-were tearing into the stage with crowbars and axes. Light flowed through numerous punctures. They must have guessed Amaranthe and Sicarius didn’t have crossbows or a way to shoot projectiles, for they hacked away with impunity.

Someone tapped Amaranthe on the shoulder. “I have an update,” Books said from the darkness behind her.

“ An update I’ll like or one I won’t?”

“ We’ve built a framework, mixed the cement, slathered it all around the rockets.”

Slathered didn’t sound as good as totally buried.

“ Enough, to smother the light and, I hope, add a layer of protection and make the weapons difficult to access in the future. But the cement won’t harden for…” Somewhere nearby, a board was torn free with a nerve-wrenching crack. “For more time than we have,” Books went on. “We did get a marine mix that’s capable of hardening underwater. I’m hoping that it’s set enough that even if we drop it…” Books might have shrugged, but Amaranthe couldn’t see the gesture in the gloom. “I’m also hoping that the impact of the weapons striking the bottom of the river won’t be hard enough to… I’m hoping for mud down there.”

That was a lot of hoping. What if all their effort resulted in them doing the very thing they’d been trying to stop others from doing? Detonating the weapons?

“ If not, better the poison is unleashed here, between towns, than in the capital,” Books said.

Better not to unleash it at all, Amaranthe wanted to cry, then grab his shirt and shake a better plan out of him. Stay calm, she thought, reminding herself that she was in charge and people in charge weren’t supposed to lose their minds.

“ Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” she said. “I’ll… think of something.” Right. Sure, she would. No problem.

“ Oh?” Books sounded encouraged. At least one of them was. “We’re heating up the blow lamp to cut a hole in the hull.”

“ Good. Tell Sicarius. We’ll-”

Someone thrust a smoke bomb through a newly opened gap, and an acrid scent flooded the tight space. Cursing, Amaranthe yanked her shirt over her nose and crawled toward it. She intended to grab it and throw it back out, but she paused. It was a sphere, rather than the cylindrical cans the enforcers had been tossing in earlier. New weapons the marines had brought?

“ Get back,” she told Books, reversing her momentum.

Before she’d gone more than two steps, light flashed and a boom rattled the stage. A concussive force pounded her, flinging her several feet. Her back slammed into something hard, blasting the air from her lungs. All around her, shards of wood flew into the air. A crash sounded, part of the stage structure collapsing. She tried to suck in a breath and roll to her hands and knees, but the blow had stunned her. Her rigid muscles wouldn’t relax, wouldn’t move.

Hands caught her shirt by the shoulders. Books dragged her backward. Amaranthe wanted to stay and defend the hole she’d assigned herself, but it was too late anyway. There were too many gaps to defend. Dark figures moved about in the smoke, and the marines tore away broken boards. They’d pick their way inside soon enough. Or simply throw more explosives.

By the time Books pulled her back to the grate, a second explosion had gone off, this one at the other end of the stage. Sicarius’s end.

Amaranthe found the wherewithal to rise up to her hands and knees. Something warm trickled into her eye. Blood. Smoke clogged the air, and her first attempt at speaking launched nothing but coughs. She threw her arm across her mouth, trying to stifle the sound. Telling the marines their exact location wasn’t a good plan.

“ Hurry,” Sespian whispered, his upper body sticking out of the entrance. “Join us down here. We’ll cover the grate, buy another minute.”

Without hesitation, Books climbed over the edge, jostling Sespian as he passed.

“ Sicarius,” Amaranthe rasped, her voice rougher than a saw blade. “Have you seen him?”

“ No, but he can take care of himself.”

Not if a grenade had taken him by surprise the way it had her.

“ Cut the hole in the hull.” Amaranthe smothered her mouth to still more coughs. The cursed smoke was everywhere. “I’ll get him.”

She crawled past the grate, but Sespian caught her calf, fingers tight and unrelenting.

“ Don’t get yourself killed,” he whispered. “This is our only way out.”

Amaranthe yanked her leg away. “I’m not leaving him.”

She could feel Sespian’s gaze upon her as she crawled away, moving as fast as her battered limbs would carry her. The smoke made her dizzy-or maybe she’d hit her head too many times-and she struggled to navigate the maze of gear, much of it charred and destroyed by the explosions. When she neared Sicarius’s side of the stage, she found a huge gaping hole in the top. She couldn’t believe marines weren’t leaping through it, but the hackings of the crowbars had stopped. The shouts outside had changed as well, no longer the calm back and forth of orders being given and acknowledged, but frenzied shouts of distress. And pain.

An inkling of Sicarius’s whereabouts came to her. Instead of continuing to the side entrance, she lifted her head past the smoking edges of the hole and peered into the dining hall. A sea of black and gray uniforms surged about, the crowd trying to pin something- someone — in a corner. She glimpsed short, blond hair.

“ Get him!” someone in the back cried. “Finally. This is our chance!”

“ Ten thousand ranmyas to the man who brings him down,” an officer cried from the doorway.

There had to be forty men in the room, and more waited outside, bearing crossbows.

“ Sicarius,” Amaranthe groaned to herself-nobody was looking her way, “ what are you doing?”

Buying you time, her mind answered. What else?

As good as he was, the situation appeared inescapable. Only the officers’ dead ancestors knew how many men they’d sacrifice for a chance to bring down Sicarius.

Though she knew he’d want her to get out of there, to make his distraction-she couldn’t bring herself to think of it as a sacrifice-worthwhile, Amaranthe looked for a way to help. Axes and crowbars littered the deck in front of the decimated stage, the tools cast aside in favor of swords. Little good they’d do her. Then she spotted something better. A bulky rucksack with numerous protrusions pressing against the fabric. Some of the explosives the marines had brought in?

Afraid the men at the door would spot her immediately if she crawled out of the top of the stage, she dropped back below and hustled to the side entrance. She burst out and scrambled around the corner. Using the discarded gear for cover, she dove for the rucksack and tore the flap open. Thick padding protected metal spheres and cans nestled within. She dug past several with fuses and grabbed two with pull-tab ignition mechanisms.

“ One’s by the stage!” someone yelled from the doorway.

“ Shoot her!”

Amaranthe yanked the tabs and threw the cans to the floor behind the mass of men. She flattened herself to the deck, anticipating fire. Crossbow bolts thudded into the front of the stage, one grazing her hair on its way past. The backpack offered little cover, and she had a sudden image of a bolt hitting one of the canisters, causing it to explode…

Her own explosions came first. The booms weren’t as ear-splitting as they’d been in the confines of the stage, but they served their purpose, hurling the back row of attackers to the deck. Smoke billowed into the air. It was as much cover as she’d get. Forgoing the long route, Amaranthe vaulted onto the stage, her injured back clenching in a protest of pain. Without any grace, she scrambled to the hole. Not until she dropped out of sight did she pause to grab her battered muscles and suck in a deep, bracing breath. Even then, her pause was short. She had to join the others and hope she’d given Sicarius the help he needed to escape the dining hall.

When she reached the grate, Sespian was still there, waiting for her. Relief washed across his face. He looked like he might have been thinking of running after her.

“ Are you…?” He grabbed her arm and helped her into the cubby.

The cramped space, its bottom lumpy with cement and cold with inches of water, was not the oasis she would have preferred to slide into, but at least she could lie on her back and rest for a second. Sespian dragged a dented and charred box over the entrance before closing the grate.

“ We’re through,” Books said, his voice strained.

Amaranthe forced herself to roll over. Basilard and Books lay on the far side of the wood-framed lumpy gray mass that encompassed the rockets. Water was entering through the charred, perforated line cut around the mess. The oblong cutout looked like it could drop away at any second, but the men had wedged boards beneath the edges in a couple of spots. Lying on his belly, Akstyr supported his end of the cutout from the side nearest Amaranthe and Sespian. Basilard lay shoulder-to-shoulder with Books on the far side. A wildness haunted Books’s eyes. He alone seemed to realize what might happen if just one of the rockets broke open when the load hit the bottom of the river.

Two security men in ship’s whites approached the railing as soon as the stolen enforcer boat approached. So much for sneaking aboard.

“ You better go up top and do the talking,” Maldynado said. “They might recognize me.”

“ No faith in your enforcer costume?” Evrial asked.

“ It’s just that my blindingly handsome face draws people’s eyes and sticks in their minds, no matter what I wear.”

“ Those are men. Somehow I doubt your face has the same effect.”

“ You’d be surprised.”

Evrial climbed onto the deck, her head filling with visions of men propositioning Maldynado. She supposed he was pretty enough that it happened.

Their craft bumped against the side of the steamboat. Maldynado matched the larger vessel’s speed-their propeller scarcely stirred the water in comparison to the giant paddlewheel. This close, droplets of water spattered everywhere. Evrial wiped moisture from her cheek, thinking of the last time she and Maldynado had been so close to a paddlewheel. It’d been while fighting piles of enforcers. This situation was far too similar for her liking.

The security men leaned over the railing. “What are you-”

Evrial tossed them a rope. “Tie us, will you? Those marines are taking up all the space up front.” Not to mention that she didn’t want to be noticed by said marines. At the moment, the steamboat blocked her and Maldynado from their view.

One of the men caught the damp rope, shrugged, and bent over a metal cleat. His comrade wasn’t so quick to accept the arrival of strangers.

“ Who are you? Where’d you come from?”

“ Town.” Evrial waved back downriver, chagrinned to realize she’d forgotten the name of the little port. “My captain said he saw some criminals stowing away as you left dock. We’re here to collect them, though…” Evrial gazed up at the deck-smoke was wafting out of the dining hall entrance. “You look like you need more help than we brought. Are they in there? Causing trouble?”

“ Trouble.” The man tying the rope snorted. “You don’t know the-”

“ You look familiar.” The second man scrutinized Evrial. “Take off your hat.”

Uh oh. Maybe this was one of the security men who’d investigated the cabin the “maids” had infiltrated. None of them had seen her face though, had they?

“ Listen…” Evrial climbed up the railing, keeping her head down. “I don’t take orders from security grunts.” She swung her leg over. “I need to see the captain or the officer of the watch.”

Her feet had barely touched the deck when the suspicious man grabbed her arm. He reached for her hat. “I said-”

Evrial planted her weight, then threw her body into a straight punch to the man’s nose. She was two inches taller than he and, despite his wariness, caught him by surprise. He staggered back, almost tripping over his comrade. Evrial lunged after him, grabbed his uniform front, and sank low so she could spring up, using her momentum to hoist him over the railing. He landed on the enforcer boat and bounced into the water.

The second man dropped the rope he’d finished tying and reached for a baton hanging from his belt. Evrial kicked his hand away before he could unclip it. She stepped in, slipped a dagger from his sheath and pressed the blade to his throat.

“ Join your colleague in his evening swim,” she said.

The man groaned. “You’re with those cursed outlaws, aren’t you?”

“ Apparently.” Evrial leaned into the blade, threatening to draw blood.

“ The marines will chop you all down like dead wood.” Spitting out that line was the extent of the man’s bravery, for he jumped over the side after that.

He twisted in the air, however, and landed on the enforcer boat. He yanked another knife out of a boot sheath and lunged into the cabin.

“ Maldynado, look out!” Evrial barked, horrified that she’d done so poor a job of subduing the man.

She leaped over the railing, landing in a crouch on the deck. She took a running step toward the cabin, but halted, arms spinning for balance, when Maldynado appeared in the doorway. He held the stray security guard by the back of the neck. Blood streamed from the man’s nose, and he gaped at Evrial with crossed eyes.

“ Lose something?” Maldynado asked.

The man stumbled, almost falling at Evrial’s feet. Maldynado tossed him over the side. The other security man had already fallen behind and was swimming toward a riverbank.

“ I didn’t want to treat him poorly since he was kind enough to tie up our boat,” Evrial said.

“ Ah, quite thoughtful of you.”

“ Also, I’m not as unrecognizable as we’d hoped.”

Clangs came from the deck above. Men in black marine uniforms were jogging along the lower deck, their arms laden with weapons. They were scurrying about on the top deck as well, and even on the roof. A squad raced into the dining hall.

“ I’m not certain we’re going to be able to get in to help the team,” Evrial said.

Maldynado opened his mouth, but a boom drowned out his response. It had come from the middle of the boat-the dining hall?

“ Think that’s Lokdon blowing things up?” Evrial asked. “Or the marines trying to flush them out?”

“ I don’t know, but we are going to help them.” Maldynado pushed past Evrial and headed for the railing.

“ Wait.” Evrial grabbed his arm. A second boom roared. Someone was going to sink the boat at this rate. “What if they don’t need help? What if they need a way to escape?” She waved at their enforcer craft. “We have it.”

The rest of the marines on the lower deck veered into the dining hall, except for four men who split off and ran toward the rear of the steamboat, toward Maldynado and Evrial. Uh oh. Had they seen Evrial hurl the security guards over the side? Or maybe they recognized Maldynado’s face.

Each marine carried a rifle diagonally in front of his chest, and more weapons dangled from their belts. The men picked up speed as they closed on the enforcer boat.

“ We have to go,” Evrial said. The well-trained marines would be harder to subdue than security officers.

Maldynado glanced from Evrial’s hand on his arm to the approaching marines. He looked like he wanted to leap onto the deck and charge those men. And they looked like they’d be ready.

He shook off Evrial’s hand and grabbed the bottom rung of the railing. The four men halted, the two in front dropping to one knee. All four lifted their rifles.

“ Get down, you fool.” Evrial tried to yank Maldynado toward the protected navigation cabin, but he weighed more than a lorry full of pig iron.

Fortunately, he saw the danger and ducked out of sight in time. Four rifles fired, balls whistling through the air. One clanged against the metal railing, throwing a spark in the air.

Evrial sliced through the rope tying their craft to the steamboat. “Get us out of here.”

“ Sicarius!” came a distant cry. “He’s back.”

“ Get him!”

Maldynado hesitated.

Evrial shoved him in the back. “We can’t do them any good if we’re dead.”

Growling, Maldynado stomped down the steps and into the cabin. Evrial shoved the steamboat’s hull with her foot. The marines had reloaded and were racing toward them again. She scrambled into the cabin after Maldynado. She was no coward, but picking a fight with marines was never a good idea. Better to escape and regroup.

Their boat drifted toward the churning paddles.

“ Maldynado,” Evrial said, struggling to keep her voice calm. “You didn’t cut off the engine did you?”

“ No, I’m trying to figure out how to reverse us.”

The marines reached the railing. One flung a leg up, preparing to vault it. Evrial cursed. They’d have to fight the men after all. Assuming their little boat didn’t get smashed into bits by the paddlewheel.

“ All men to the lower deck, mid-deck,” someone cried through a megaphone. “All available men report for the slaying of the most notorious criminal in the empire!”

That didn’t sound promising for Maldynado’s friends, but it made the four marines pause. They argued for a moment, then the one perched on the railing dropped back to the deck, and the team ran to the dining hall.

“ Got it,” Maldynado said.

The power of the engine thrummed through the boat. It pulled away from the hull, though not without clipping the wheel. Wooden paddles drummed against the bow, battering the frame.

“ Careful,” Evrial said, “you’ll wreck our boat.”

A paddle flew off the wheel and sailed into the river.

“ Or theirs,” she added.

Two more booms sounded, one right after the other. “Somehow I doubt we’re that boat’s main problem,” Maldynado said as he steered them clear of the wheel.

He guided their craft into the center of the river, where they had a good view of the steamboat-and the two marine vessels secured to the port side. The men that had been running all over the decks had descended on the dining hall like ants on a dropped lamb skewer at a picnic. Evrial couldn’t help but feel daunted on Amaranthe’s behalf over the number of uniformed men. Even Sicarius couldn’t defend himself against that many.

“ Those were Ravido’s men,” Maldynado said. He sounded numb. “I recognized the insignia. That’s his battalion, people he brought down especially for…”

Evrial avoided his eyes. Would Maldynado forgive her if his comrades didn’t make it? When she’d been the one to stop him from climbing aboard? She was surprised Amaranthe hadn’t given the order to jump overboard long ago. Just how deadly were those magical weapons?

Maldynado thumped his fist on his thigh. “I’m about five seconds from ramming this craft into one of those marine boats. Maybe both if I can manage it.”

“ What would that do?” Evrial asked. “Besides irk a lot of marines with guns.”

“ Cause a distraction. An explosion maybe. Give the others time to escape.”

“ And would we survive this explosion?”

“ We could jump out before the boat struck.” Maldynado’s hand left his thigh, inching toward the control panel.

“ Give it a couple more minutes. I can’t believe Lokdon would get herself into a situation she couldn’t handle.”

“ You can’t? Really? ”

“ Not with Sicarius with her. For all we know, this is all part of some plan of hers. If they jump overboard, they may appreciate an escape vessel rather than the charred, inoperable remains of an enforcer boat.”

Maldynado lowered his hand. “One more minute.”