Conspiracy

Chapter 18

After an hour of digging and prying at the rocks with the axe, Amaranthe returned to the cab. New gashes adorned her knuckles, and the shoulder wound she’d taken earlier burned like a furnace. Even her back and neck ached as a result of trying to dig from such an awkward position.

Unfortunately, the others had made little progress, unless she could count the dented lanterns someone had found and lit. Sicarius wasn’t back yet, so maybe he’d discovered something, though she didn’t find it encouraging that he’d been heading toward the end of the coal car instead of the tunnel exit.

With shoulders slumped and weary expressions on their faces, Maldynado, Basilard, Sespian, and Yara looked as tired as she felt.

“This could take days,” Maldynado said, leaning on his shovel.

“Unless we run out of air before then,” Yara said.

Amaranthe groped for something optimistic to say. “Books and Akstyr will have missed us by now. Maybe they’ve flown back down the mountain, found the landslide, assumed we were in it, and are seeking a way to help us escape.”

Unless they tangled with that nightmare craft and are now dead, Basilard signed.

So much for optimism.

“Is there any food?” Sespian asked. “Or should I attempt to look particularly unappealing in case your team resorts to cannibalism?”

That earned him a round of surprised stares.

Sespian cleared his throat. “It was a joke. I hope.”

“We have plenty of food, Sire,” Amaranthe said.

Maldynado lifted a hand to his mouth and leaned close to her. “You’re not going to feed the emperor those awful Sicarius bars, are you?”

He wasn’t quiet enough with his whisper, for Sespian asked, “Sicarius bars?”

At that moment, Sicarius appeared out of the darkness and climbed into the cab. So much dust covered him that none of his clothing remained black.

“One bar,” he said, “provides all the fuel you need to perform adequately for the day.”

“But they taste awful,” Maldynado said.

“That is irrelevant.”

“They’re made with brains,” Maldynado said.

“Yes, and liver and hearts,” Sicarius said. “Organ meat is nutrient-dense and rich in fats that can sustain you for long periods of time. The Zeyzar, a tribal people in Moratt, regularly feast on raw tripe, brain, and heart, and they-”

Amaranthe placed a hand on his arm. “If we’re going convince the emperor to try them, you might want to stop talking now.” She pointed a finger at Maldynado. “And you, shush.”

Maldynado lifted his hands and blinked innocently.

“Not… human brains, right?” Sespian asked.

“Of course not,” Sicarius said. “The average human has an abysmal diet. I wouldn’t wish to fuel my body with meat from such an impure source.”

Yara gaped at Sicarius. Maldynado lifted a finger and opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of commenting, for he shut it again. Sespian looked… horrified. Amaranthe realized it hadn’t been exactly clear that Sicarius objected to cannibalism for more than dietary reasons.

She gripped his arm before he could say anything else, grabbed one of the lanterns, and pointed him toward the gap he’d been investigating. “Why don’t you show me what you found out there?”

Sicarius gave her a curious backward glance but let her push him out of the cab. On their way out, Amaranthe heard Sespian mutter, “That man is a ghoul.”

She winced because she knew Sicarius would hear the comment too. When he paused, Amaranthe waved him toward the crevice. A vaguely puzzled expression put a dent in his usual mask, but he led the way into the narrow passage.

“I didn’t find anything useful,” Sicarius said. “There’s an area that survived the cave-in, but it’s blocked beyond that.”

“Just keep walking.”

That earned Amaranthe another backward glance, but he continued deeper, alternately turning sideways and ducking to maneuver past boulders and jagged slabs of cement.

“I take it back,” Amaranthe said when they came out into an open area-and when she deemed they were out of earshot. “Don’t try to bond with him. You’re too…” She groped for a tactful way to say he was too inhuman for most people to relate to, but failed to find one. “You’re too you,” she finally said with a sigh.

“I see,” Sicarius said.

She might have imagined the stiffness in his tone, but she gave him a quick hug anyway, just in case he thought him being… him bothered her.

“Just stand at his side protectively,” Amaranthe said. “With the way this night has gone, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a chance to save his life sometime soon. That might do more to endear you to him than words.” Especially words that could be misconstrued as an interest in cannibalism, she thought. “It’s hard not to come to appreciate someone who saves your life.”

Sicarius folded his arms across his chest. Just because he had asked for her advice earlier that night didn’t mean he wanted it all the time now.

Amaranthe lifted a hand to let him know she was done and inspected the chamber. Here, the tunnel walls remained intact, though spider webs of cracks and fissures left her suspecting they were none too stable. She took the lantern and walked a ways, but found Sicarius was correct. A solid wall of rubble blocked the passage from floor to ceiling. For all she knew, it might extend all the way to the far end of the tunnel. There were a few crevices wide enough that she could slip into them-if she turned sideways and was willing to mash important female protrusions-but they didn’t look like they went anywhere.

“You checked these?” Amaranthe asked.

“Yes.”

“And they dead end?”

“Yes.”

Amaranthe walked back to the center of the chamber and lifted the lantern to study the ceiling. Cracks streaked across the cement up there as well. Another blast from the enemy craft might send the entire tunnel crumbling down upon their heads. Uneasy thought that, but she hadn’t heard anything of the sort since the initial cave-in.

“We have a steam engine at our disposal,” Amaranthe mused, “if we can dig it out. I wonder if we could somehow use it to build a drill and go up. No, even if we had the tools to create something like that, there’s probably a hundred feet of rock above us, maybe more. It’d take months, and tons of explosives, which leads me to wonder what that craft could have possibly been tossing at the cliff to bring down the tunnel.”

She leaned toward Sicarius and raised her eyebrows. Before, he’d been focused on getting the train into the tunnel, so she could understand him not answering her questions, but surely they had nothing better to do right now than discuss this new enemy.

“I’ve saved your life several times,” Sicarius said.

“Uh… yes, you have.” That was not what she’d been hinting for him to bring up with her ascending eyebrows.

“Is that why you… appreciate me?”

Ah, her advice. “Well, we know it’s not your tongue that’s won me over.” Amaranthe meant the comment to be flippant or teasing, but tongue had perhaps not been the best word, because it brought to mind the night he’d kissed her in the Imperial Garden. A flush heated her cheeks. She hoped the poor light hid it. “I mean, the way you talk. Or don’t talk. It’s just… a lot of things, all right? A girl appreciates it when…” A handsome man with muscles honed like a steel blade takes her in his arms and… No, no, Amaranthe told herself, concentrate on the current predicament. “We’ll discuss it later. Right now, I need to know everything you know about that craft. You’re obviously familiar with the technology. Why all the secrecy?” There, that was much safer than discussing tongues and appreciation. And more pertinent to the matter at hand as well.

Sicarius watched as she fumbled through her response, one of his eyebrows elevating slightly. From him, it was a lot of expression, but she could only wonder at his thoughts. He probably read hers all too well.

“I was sworn to silence on the matter,” Sicarius finally said.

“By whom?”

“Hollowcrest, Raumesys, and Lord Artokian, the Imperial Historian.”

Amaranthe was ready to brush off the first two names-after all, Sicarius had killed Hollowcrest; how much loyalty could he feel to the man’s memory? — but the last one made her pause. “Because whatever you found was so strange, it’d shock the general public if people learned of it?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Sespian must know about it, though, right?”

“Unknown,” Sicarius said. “The artifacts the marines brought back from the expedition to the Northern Frontier ought to be in the Imperial Barracks somewhere, but Sespian, despite having seen my knife before, seemed startled by its capabilities when I lodged it in the floor.”

“What happened in the Northern Frontier? And why were you along on an ‘expedition’ up there?”

“A team of archaeologist pirates was attempting to uncover ancient advanced technology to use against the empire. I was sent to make sure they did not succeed.”

“ Ancient advanced technology?” Amaranthe asked. “How would that be possible? I know there are some lost civilizations out there, but technology is at its peak now, isn’t it? If there’d been a time when humanity had greater means than we have today, I’m sure I would have heard about it in school. Or Books would have brought it up in one of his unsolicited lectures.”

“Humanity is at its peak, yes,” Sicarius said. “This wasn’t human technology.”

“Er, what?”

“The archaeologist working on deciphering the foreign language wasn’t there willingly and didn’t share all of her findings, but, based on the artifacts we returned with and the details the marines and I reported, the Imperial Historian judged that the technology was derived from one of two possible sources. The first suggestion was that the work came from a race that lived in the world so long ago that almost all sign of them has been lost.”

“Huh. And the second possibility?”

“Extraterrestrial beings.”

Amaranthe snorted. “When I told you to start making jokes, I meant for you to do it in front of Sespian, so he could see that you have a sense of humor.”

Sicarius’s face was the epitome of seriousness.

“Truly? You’re telling me aliens from outer space brought that knife here-” Amaranthe waved toward his sheathed blade, “-and gave it to you?”

“Whichever theory is true, the creators of the technology disappeared from our world long ago. Some of their artifacts remain, and they are extremely dangerous. Floating boxes this large-” Sicarius outlined a one-foot square with his hands, “-killed numerous marines by incinerating them.”

“You saw this with your own eyes?”

“They tried to incinerate me as well.”

“Oh,” Amaranthe said.

“I heard the archaeologist talking with Starcrest, and-”

“Wait, Starcrest? Fleet Admiral Starcrest? The legendary naval strategist?”

“Yes,” Sicarius said.

“Who was the archaeologist?”

“A professor from Kyatt,” Sicarius said. “Tikaya Komitopis.”

The name was familiar, and Amaranthe wriggled her fingers in the air as she tried to place it. “The cryptanalyst who cracked all our encryption codes during the Western Sea Conflict?”

“Yes. She believed these boxes were simple cleaning machines designed to eliminate trash.”

Amaranthe blew out a slow breath. It wasn’t that she hadn’t believed Sicarius exactly, but having two such significant historical figures contributing to the research did seem to lend more credence to the story.

“This flying craft,” Amaranthe said, “is something that was brought back from the expedition?”

“No. We went to a remote area only accessible by dog sled. Nothing large was retrieved.”

“Then someone got it later.”

“The marine captain in charge of the expedition blew up the entrances to the tunnels afterward. Regardless, everything was in the middle of a mountain. Even if such a large craft had been inside, it never could have been flown out.”

“So where did that thing come from?” Amaranthe asked.

“Unknown. Perhaps an archaeological expedition unearthed another site with ruins from the ancient civilization, and Forge learned of it.”

“Are you sure this craft is made from the same technology?”

“I would need a closer look under better lighting conditions to be positive,” Sicarius said, “but I deem it highly likely.” His gaze flicked upward, reminding her of the power it must have taken to collapse so much of the tunnel, a tunnel set deep in what had been a very old and stable cliff.

“Suppose you’re right. Are we sure those were Forge people up there, piloting that thing?”

“Who else would want us dead and know where we are?”

Sicarius had a long list of people who wouldn’t mind taking a shot at him, but… “Even Forge shouldn’t have known where we were,” Amaranthe said.

“Sergeant Yara may have informed someone.”

“And then come along so she could put herself in danger? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Akstyr then,” Sicarius said.

Amaranthe grew still. She hadn’t told Sicarius about Rockjaw’s tip, and she was positive Books didn’t regularly confide in Sicarius either. Had he found out another way? And, if so, did he know that she knew and hadn’t said anything? Surely he’d see something like that as a betrayal, even if her only intent had been to keep Akstyr from getting killed.

“What makes you suggest him?” Amaranthe asked carefully.

“He’s not as deeply under your spell as the others.”

“Maybe it’s because he avoids eye contact,” she said, referring to his comment that her eyes had some persuasive quality. “Anyway, how those people figured out where we were is something to dwell on later. For now, we need to escape.”

Sicarius looked toward the crevice leading back to the locomotive. A long moment passed before someone came out of it covered with dust. Sespian.

He paused at the entrance, glancing between Amaranthe and Sicarius with an uncertain expression on his face. When nobody else followed him out, Amaranthe wondered if he might have been concerned at the idea of her wandering off alone with Sicarius.

Amaranthe lifted an inviting hand. “Any thoughts, Sire?”

“I was curious as to whether you’d found a way out.”

“Not yet,” Amaranthe said.

“I was also wondering if you knew who those people were and if they were trying to kill you… or me.” Sespian grimaced, perhaps worried that this mess was his fault.

“We don’t know anything for certain yet,” Amaranthe said, “but Forge is always at the top of my list of conniving misfits determined to make my days bad.”

“Why,” Sicarius said, “is it ‘conniving’ when the enemy does it and ‘planning’ when you do it?”

Sespian’s eyes flickered with surprise at the joke. Amaranthe bit down on her lip to keep a grin from spreading across her face, though she was ridiculously proud of Sicarius for managing the line with a witness-this witness in particular-around.

“Because our motives are noble,” Amaranthe said, “and we’re not simply trying to add gold to our bank vaults. We don’t even have bank vaults. Or accounts for that matter.”

“Most imperial citizens don’t,” Sespian said. “Though that’ll change if those bankers have anything to do with it.”

“Oh?” Amaranthe put on her most attentive and earnest expression, hoping he might explain further.

Sespian glanced at Sicarius and shook his head once. Amaranthe wanted to shout out that Sicarius was his father and that Sespian could trust him more than anyone in the world, but she was afraid-no, she was certain — that statement would only drive Sespian away and raise his suspicions against the group. He’d think it some kind of trick instead of the truth. No, she had to get Sespian and Sicarius to spend some time together before anyone sprang that little fact upon him.

“Anyway, Sire, I don’t think they were after you,” Amaranthe said. “Or at least you weren’t the priority. After all, they’ve been keeping you alive for these last nine months, so why would they try to crush you with a rockfall now?”

“They may be prepared to make their move,” Sespian said grimly.

“Possibly, but we’ve… irked them a few times of late.” She winced, knowing ‘irked them’ might describe her team’s meddling over the water-poisoning and baby-creating projects, but wasn’t an appropriate way to talk about thirty assassinations. She had no wish to take responsibility for that, but she doubted Forge would separate her from “her assassin” as so many people liked to label Sicarius.

“Oh,” Sespian said in a way that suggested he hadn’t considered the possibility.

That probably meant he hadn’t seen recent newspapers or didn’t know Sicarius was responsible for those deaths. If that was the case, she wasn’t going to bring it up.

“Either way, it’s time to get out of here,” Amaranthe said. “I imagine they’ve moved on by now.”

“You have a plan?” Sicarius asked.

“The digging hasn’t been terribly productive so far,” Sespian said.

“I wouldn’t have suggested digging if I’d know about this big sturdy chamber.” Amaranthe strolled over and patted one of the walls, blocking the view of a particularly substantial crack.

“Sturdy,” Sicarius said in a flat monotone.

He must already have an inkling of what she wanted to try.

“You might want to stay here, Sire,” Amaranthe said, then jogged for the crevice. She didn’t want to explain her idea, and handle objections, more than once.

She wasn’t surprised when both Sicarius and Sespian slipped through the dark passage after her. She found Basilard, Maldynado, and Yara sitting inside the cab, digging tools discarded. Given how little progress anyone had made, Amaranthe couldn’t blame them for giving up.

“The secret,” Maldynado was saying, “is to hold your nose while you chew so you don’t taste it. He pulps up the meat pretty good and glues it together with bone marrow fat or something, so the texture isn’t as horrific as you’d think, though sometimes you do get these chewy bits…” Maldynado pointed to Yara’s hand; she was holding one of Sicarius’s meat bars. “Then you’ve just got to swallow quick without thinking too much about it,” Maldynado finished.

Basilard was halfway through one of his own bars, and he merely shook his head as Maldynado went on about them. They’re fine, he signed. Sufficient for the purpose.

“I can’t believe you’d say that, Bas,” Maldynado said, “you being a fair to excellent chef and all.”

You are too used to city food. My people make something similar for travel. We usually add spices and dried berries to give it flavor.

“Flavor, a completely foreign idea to that inhuman-er, hullo boss.” Maldynado noticed Sicarius as he hopped into the cab behind Amaranthe. “And… others.”

Amaranthe plopped down on the coal box next to Basilard and fought back a yawn. The clock on the wall was broken, and she didn’t know how late it was, but she knew they had long since missed meeting with the others at midnight.

“Got any new plans?” Maldynado asked.

“As a matter of fact… yes.” She paused to pick grit out of her eyes, or maybe simply because she had a flair for the dramatic. “Who wants to disable the safety valves and blow up the boiler?”

“What?” Yara asked at the same time as Sespian did. He and Sicarius remained near the doorway behind Amaranthe.

Maldynado leaned toward Amaranthe and peered into her eyes. “I thought you got shot in the shoulder, not the head.”

“We’re close enough to the exit, that blowing up the boiler might clear the rubble for us,” Amaranthe said. “Like using blasting sticks.” She smiled and tried to appear confident, though she wished Books was there to do some calculations. She didn’t know if the explosive power of an overheated boiler could move that many tons of rock, but it ought to at least shift some of the rubble around. Given how close they were to the exit, that might be enough. “There’s a chamber a little ways back where we can hunker down. There should be enough rock between it and the engine that we’ll be protected.”

“Unless the reverberations in the rock cause the ceiling over that chamber to collapse,” Sicarius said.

“If it held off that bombardment, maybe it’s sturdy enough to survive our little explosion,” Amaranthe said.

“ Maybe?” Maldynado asked.

“Does anyone have a pen and paper?” Sicarius asked.

Sespian unbuttoned a pocket and pulled out a small, leather-bound notebook with a pen clipped to the spine. He flipped past a few pages with sketches on them-Amaranthe was glad he still made time to pursue that passion, if only in hurried spare moments-and opened the book to a blank page before handing it to Sicarius.

Sicarius stalked to the controls and wrote down a few numbers.

“What’s he doing?” Yara asked.

“Calculating the likelihood that the boss has gone insane?” Maldynado suggested.

Sicarius bent his head over the notebook. From what Amaranthe could see, he was solving equations, and she figured she should be considerate and leave him alone to finish. She managed to do that for almost an entire minute until her curiosity undermined her power for consideration. She strolled over, hands clasped behind her back.

He gave her a dark look and she froze. He rarely gave her his icy stare any more, and she’d forgotten how chilling it was.

“You don’t approve of my idea?” Amaranthe asked.

Sicarius’s gaze flickered toward Sespian before settling onto the paper again. Ah, Sespian’s presence changed his willingness to take risks. Foolhardy ones anyway.

Sicarius finished writing and stared hard at the paper.

“Some sort of blast wave calculations?” Amaranthe guessed. “What’s your conclusion?”

“That your idea might work to free the front of the train.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“There’s no guarantee that the chamber you want to hide in won’t collapse or that we won’t simply end up trapped back there. New detritus might block the return route.”

“Any way to figure out the odds of that nook collapsing?” Sespian asked.

“Not when we have no way to determine how much it was damaged in the previous cave-in,” Sicarius said.

It’d be safer to dig out, Basilard signed.

“We could cause more rock to fall simply by moving rocks aside,” Amaranthe said. “And that might squish everyone too.”

“It would take a week to dig out by hand,” Sespian said. “I… don’t have a week. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, I was going to try and escape at Sunders City. I didn’t have much hope of it working, but I figured I had to try. I need to get there sooner rather than later.”

“If you’re crushed by rock, you won’t get there either way,” Sicarius told him.

“All right,” Amaranthe said, “we’ll vote. Who wants to dig out and who wants to risk an explosion?”

“Vote?” Sespian asked.

“He’s the emperor,” Yara pointed out. “Shouldn’t he be making the decisions?”

About our lives? Basilard frowned. He’s not my emperor. And he’s eighteen.

“Nineteen,” Amaranthe said.

Sespian’s eyes narrowed. “What did he say?”

“You’re very wise for such a young man,” Amaranthe said.

Now Basilard’s eyes narrowed.

“Vote time,” Amaranthe said. “Who wants to dig out?”

Yara, Basilard, and Sicarius lifted hands.

“And who wants to blow this engine up, and see if we can be out by dawn?”

Amaranthe and Sespian raised their hands. Maldynado sighed deeply, then raised his as well.

“Are you on our side because you have faith in me,” Amaranthe asked him, “or because you don’t want to dig?”

“Oh, I have faith in you,” Maldynado said, “ and I don’t want to dig. My main reason for hesitating was that I fear this story might get twisted around at some future date, and I’ll be blamed for blowing up the train.”

“Why would you get blamed?”

“Nobody ever blames the woman for blowing things up, such as garbage vehicles, even when the explosions clearly happened as a result of her crazy schemes.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Amaranthe smiled until she considered the split votes. She might be the leader of the team, but there was so much of a risk of failure-of death — that she didn’t feel like she could order them into this. Even if she tried it, she might bump up against the boundaries of her leadership. If Sicarius didn’t agree to blow up the locomotive, nobody there would be able to go through him to do it.

“If I issue an imperial mandate that says we will blow up the engine,” Sespian said, “would that affect any of your votes?”

Amaranthe met Sicarius’s eyes. If he wanted to win favor with Sespian, this might be a good opportunity for him to switch sides and join him. Sicarius stared mulishly back at her. It was Yara who sighed and lowered her hand.

“Four to two,” Sespian told Amaranthe. “Will that do it?”

Basilard caught Sicarius’s eye and signed, Will it be at all comforting to know we were right as we lie dying?

If we’re right, our deaths will be too swift for thoughts, Sicarius signed back.

“I can tell I need to learn this language,” Sespian said.

“Basilard will be happy to teach you.” Amaranthe patted him on the back.

Basilard didn’t quite glare at her, but she could tell he wasn’t interested in “bonding” just then. She gave him a smile anyway. Someone had to be encouraging, after all.

“Who wants to handle the blowing up of the train?” Amaranthe asked. “I’ll stay, but I wouldn’t mind some manly strength in case it’s needed. I assume the steam will need to build to the failure point, and there should be time for us to get back to join the others.”

“I’ll handle it,” Sicarius said.

The others grabbed their gear, filed out of the cab, and squeezed into the crevice winding back toward the chamber. Amaranthe picked up the coal shovel, intending to help Sicarius.

He took the tool from her and pointed for her to follow the others. “Go.”

“Sicarius…”

He turned his back to her, kneeling to rekindle the fire in the furnace. His displeasure made her doubt her decision. Maybe she should be listening to him. Maybe they should simply take their time and dig their way out. If the emperor and her team died in that tunnel, Forge would have its way, with no one to oppose the organization. Her contributions to the empire would be forgotten, she’d have no place in the history books, and Maldynado would never get a statue. Dying would be irritating on its own merits as well.

“Maybe you’re right,” Amaranthe said. “We should just work on digging out. If we’re here long enough, Books and Akstyr might find us.” If they hadn’t had a run-in with the enemy aircraft.

“It’s too late now,” Sicarius said, his back still to her. “This is what Sespian wants.”

Thanks to her. “I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned my idea.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.”

“Maybe I can make him decide he wants something else,” Amaranthe said.

Finally Sicarius stood and faced her. “Perhaps you could.”

“I will.” Amaranthe nodded and turned for the door.

She had her foot in the air and was about to hop down when Sicarius stopped her with a, “No.”

“No?” she asked.

“I wish to protect him.”

“Yes…”

Sicarius inhaled and exhaled slowly. “He would not appreciate it. He has a mission of his own that is his priority.”

A thread of guilt squirmed through Amaranthe’s belly-Sespian wouldn’t have a notion that it was possible to expedite their escape if she hadn’t brought up the idea. “I think you’re right,” was all she said.

“Go join the others.” Sicarius flipped a thumb toward the crevice.

Amaranthe thought of saying “Be careful,” but it seemed too little for the moment. She stepped back into the cab and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. He didn’t return the embrace, but at least he no longer seemed rigid and angry.

“Good luck,” she said, pulling back. “Remember, don’t do anything foolish up here to get yourself blown up. The plan is for you to run back and join us before the explosion. So you can get squished in the cave-in like the rest of us.”

Sicarius snorted. “A superior death, no doubt.”

“Just make sure to get back there. If we’re going to get squished, I want time to plan something significant. Like dying holding your hand, so we’ll be together for all eternity.” Amaranthe winked and hopped out of the train before he could scoff or roll his eyes. She’d never actually seen him do either, but that suggestion might warrant an emotional outburst.

Amaranthe paced about the cavern. It would take time for the water in the boiler to heat up and more time for the steam pressure to reach dangerous levels, but she felt as if she’d been waiting for hours already. She tried to nibble at a fingernail before remembering she’d decimated them all.

The others sat or stood near the wall of rubble farthest from the train. Sespian and Yara looked like they were contemplating fingernail chewing as well. Basilard and Maldynado were engaged in Last Soldier, a strategy game one could play with marbles, or in this case small pebbles scavenged from the cavern. Though Amaranthe knew they had to be as nervous as she, their blase demeanors made her envious.

A lantern sat on a railway tie next to Basilard and Maldynado, its flame straight and steady. No hint of wind or a draft down here, she thought.

She stopped beside their game, thinking she should at least pretend she wasn’t nervous. Leaders were supposed to display confidence about their plans, weren’t they? At the very least, chatting might make her less aware of time creeping past.-and help avoid the thought that something might have happened to Sicarius while he was building up the fire. What if, with no place for the smokestack fumes to escape to, they’d filled the tiny space and asphyxiated him?

“Who’s winning?” Amaranthe blurted. Distraction, she needed a distraction.

“Basilard, but he’s cheating,” Maldynado said.

Basilard signed, Now, how am I cheating?

“If I knew how you were doing it, I’d stop you.”

I don’t know why I play with you.

“Because I’m fun,” Maldynado said, “and I buy you a drink after you win, even though you cheat so often.”

You buy drinks no matter who wins.

Maldynado smiled. “See? That’s why I’m fun.”

Their conversation didn’t do as much to distract Amaranthe as she’d hoped, and she nearly fell over in relief when Sicarius burst out of the crevice on the far side of the chamber.

Before she could say anything, he pointed at the floor in the center of the chamber and barked, “Down.”

Amaranthe hustled onto the railway, waving for the others to join her. Being next to the walls of rock when a new explosion went off might not be a good idea. She sank to her knees and buried her face in her lap, her arms protecting her head. Soon, bodies pressed against her on all sides.

When the explosion came, its boom was so muted that Amaranthe questioned whether it truly came from the locomotive. It sounded so distant that it might have occurred outside. A faint tremor shook the earth, and dust drizzled to the floor in places, but the cave-in they had worried about didn’t materialize.

“Is that it?” Maldynado asked. “Are you sure you blew up the boiler correctly?”

Sicarius gave him a cool stare.

Sespian’s shoulders slumped. “We’re going to be stuck here for days.”

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, Amaranthe thought. It would give her a chance to wheedle details out of Sespian, and Sicarius could find opportunities to spend time with him. She walked over to the lantern, intending to pick it up and lead the way to the locomotive for an inspection, but she paused, her hand hovering over the handle. The flame was flickering.

“Draft?” she wondered.

Amaranthe grabbed the lantern and hustled for the crevice.

“Wait for us,” Maldynado hollered. “That’s our only light.”

Amaranthe barely heard him. She scraped past boulders, clunking her head more than once in her haste to reach the locomotive. A breeze whispered across her cheeks. Yes, they’d definitely poked through somewhere, but would it be enough to allow them to escape?

When she burst out of the cramped passage, she stumbled over rubble and almost sprawled to the ground. She gripped a newly deposited boulder to catch herself. Rubble had completely buried the locomotive, and she couldn’t see the boiler at all. But it didn’t matter. Cold flakes of snow drifted through the top half of the tunnel exit and landed on Amaranthe’s nose.

“Huh,” came Sicarius’s familiar monotone from behind her.

“I guess there won’t be any hand-holding today,” Amaranthe said, a smile on her face as she turned around.

Maldynado and Sespian were in the passage behind Sicarius, and she blushed at her silly statement, hoping they hadn’t heard it.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Maldynado drawled. “This looks like an occasion for celebratory touching.” He looked over his shoulder, probably seeing if Yara had joined them. “I’m always available for such activities.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Amaranthe said. “Shall we-”

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.”