Rias grunted and held out his hand for another tool. The kit of precision implements they had found ranged from knives and scalpels to repair gizmos, most of which she could only guess at. Some were too large for human hands, but all were well-made, the craftsmanship amazingly sturdy for such fine tools. A pair of black knives, in particular, had caught Rias’s eye, and he had stuck them into his belt.
“There,” Rias whispered. “I think I got it.”
“Is there a way to test it?”
“Not here.” He started replacing the innards. “We’ll have to get into the tunnels on the other side of the cavern. That’s where I found the panel to cut off the lights. I’m guessing that whatever powers them powers these cubes and that’s why they’re inert.”
Tikaya realized how lucky she had been when the blasts brought down all that rubble. If power had been running to the cube, it might have cut her down after all.
The door hissed open.
They spat silent curses at the same time.
“Distract him,” Rias mouthed, waving at the mess still on the table. If Sicarius caught them with the cube, he would figure out their plan right away.
Tikaya grabbed the sphere and her notes and sprinted to the top of the stairs. Sicarius was halfway up. No bag of guano dangled from his grip.
Though her instinct was to keep space between her and him, she jogged down several steps so she could stop him before he could see Rias.
“We figured out the code,” she said, waving the pages. “It’s a puzzle with numbers.”
“Where is the admiral?” Sicarius asked.
“We made smoke bombs, and he’s packing them. We did find some potassium nitrate, so we won’t need the guano after all. Which is good, since you seem not to have gotten any.” She winced at her inane babbling. “What’s going on outside?”
Sicarius watched her, impassive eyes betraying nothing of his thoughts. He knew they had sent him on a useless errand. He had to. And he probably knew they were not on his side. They were going to have to kill him or incapacitate him somehow.
“Cat and mouse,” Sicarius said. “I killed one of the wizards. Some of Colonel Lancecrest’s men are proving elusive, and they’ve set traps. Captain Bocrest’s team has split them up, brought a few down, and taken others prisoner.”
Down. Dead. “Parkonis?”
“What?” Sicarius asked.
“The man who...kidnapped me against my wishes. Do you know if he’s alive?”
“He dropped to his knees and begged for his life when we came upon him. He bore no weapon, so the captain took him prisoner.”
Tikaya closed her eyes, thankful Parkonis was not the heroic type. He had no weapons training, and bravery only would have gotten him killed. Being a prisoner was no guarantee of safety, but there was still a chance she could help him.
“Where is the admiral?” Sicarius asked again.
“Here.”
Rias appeared at the top of the stairs, rucksack on his back, and what looked like ceramic globes with fuses in his hands. She had been busy with the translations and had not watched him assemble the smoke bombs. She thought of the vast cavern and hoped four would be enough.
He did not give her a wink or nod, not with the assassin watching, but she thought Rias’s rucksack appeared lumpier than before. He slipped two globes into pockets and handed the other two to Sicarius.
Tikaya wondered how they would detour to the lighting panel with Sicarius tagging along. And would the cube fly up to the weapons room of its own accord, or did they need to get it up there and lock it in somehow? For that matter, would their modifications even work?
Footfalls sounded in the corridor, and gear jingled.
Rias reached for his pistol, but Sicarius’s hand blurred, landing on his wrist in a firm grip.
Rias twitched an eyebrow, the only indication he felt things might not be going according to plan.
“The captain sent reinforcements.” The steely gaze Sicarius leveled at Rias was far too knowing for comfort. “To watch you and guard our backs while we retrieve some rockets.”
“Watch us?” Tikaya asked innocently. “Why?”
Sicarius did not bother to look at her.
Agarik strode through the door, and Tikaya lifted her head. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Then Ottotark and Bones clomped in. She tried not to let her chagrin show. Even before Ottotark spotted her, he wore a self-satisfied smirk. Bruises from his fight with Rias still mottled his face, and a bandage wrapped his head, but he appeared delighted at this new turn. Bones ignored Sicarius and Rias in favor of glaring at Tikaya, an angry jaw-clenched glare. No delight there. She guessed Ottotark had buzzed in his ear, letting him know who killed his brother.
Tikaya looked at Agarik, but he avoided her eyes.
“Evening, Admiral,” Ottotark drawled. “We’ll relieve you of your weapons now.” The smirk widened. “Captain says you’re back to prisoner status.” He ambled up to the step below Rias and held out his hand.
Rias neither moved nor spoke.
Ottotark launched a punch at his belly. Rias blocked it and slammed his knee into the sergeant’s diaphragm. Ottotark’s heel slipped off the step, and he nearly tumbled to the landing, but he caught himself on the railing. Tikaya started to back away, to give Rias room to fight, but Sicarius stepped in. He held a knife she had not seen him draw in one hand and splayed the other against Rias’s chest. His eyes were icy in warning.
Rias froze.
Ottotark found his balance. Fury contorted his face, and he snarled as he snatched Rias’s weapons. He lifted the musket, as if he might slam the butt of it into Rias’s head. Tikaya stepped down with a vague notion of grabbing the weapon, but Sicarius stopped Ottotark with a word.
“Enough.”
The men dropped their arms. While punching Ottotark had won Rias nothing, it concerned Tikaya that none of that defiant spirit came out against the assassin. Had his last meeting with Sicarius disillusioned him so much that he would not move against the youth again? If so, that did not bode well for their success.
“Lead on, Admiral,” Sicarius said. “You two will get us into the weapons cache.”
And then what?
* * *
The pair of kerosene lanterns the marines carried did little to push back the darkness in tunnels that had fallen silent. Eerily so. Tikaya began to feel as if their tiny group represented the only people left alive in the stygian passageways.
She and Rias walked side by side, leading the others. Ottotark and Bones kept their pistols trained on their backs. Agarik walked behind them, and Sicarius ghosted along in the shadows, rarely seen, rarely heard, always felt.
Tikaya checked symbols and peered down dark cross tunnels, hoping for inspiration. As soon as the marines had the weapons, they would likely shoot her. She wondered if Rias was expendable at this point too. At best, he could expect a trip back to Krychek. He would probably prefer death.
Rias caught her eye. “Sorry.” He spoke in Kyattese, which she had not realized he knew, though the words that followed proved he was far from fluent. “I was engineer. Picked where explosives go. Had chance.”
The slowness with which his words came out gave her time to puzzle over the meaning behind his choice of language. Bones, Agarik, and Ottotark probably knew no Kyattese, but hadn’t Rias warned her that Sicarius did? He had certainly seemed to be reading that journal.
“No talking in codes.” Ottotark jabbed Rias in the arm.
“Had chance,” Rias repeated, brow furrowed as he groped for words. “To drop roof on my people. End it all. Could not.” He shook his head and sighed.
Tikaya glanced between Ottotark and Bones, probing the shadows for Sicarius. Yes, he was there and close enough to hear. Maybe Rias wanted Sicarius to know he had spared the team. Tikaya could not imagine that or anything else winning sympathy from the stony assassin. Maybe Rias just wanted her to know without opening himself for sneering commentary from Ottotark.
>
Tikaya gripped Rias’s forearm. She could not condemn him for being unable to murder his own people, though it would have been convenient if he had arranged an accident for Sicarius when the men were catapulting over the chasm.
In the darkness ahead, four sets of symbols glowed, marking corners of an intersection. Rias tried to walk straight through it.
“Right,” Sicarius said, voice cold.
“I can turn the lighting back on if we go this way,” Rias said.
“Darkness is tactically preferable.”
Tikaya shook her head; the kid didn’t even sound human. She and Rias had no chance if they couldn’t get the cube powered.
“What if the door on the weapons room won’t open without the same power that operates the lighting?” Tikaya asked.
“The lab doors are opening,” Sicarius said.
Good point. She sighed.
“But it’ll be easier to see what we’re doing in that weapons room if it’s lit.” Rias turned to face Sicarius. “You were in Fort Deadend. You saw what happened to those people. Do you want to risk dropping something? A single broken vial could kill everyone in the cavern.”
“Turn right,” Sicarius said.
“Why are you so against turning the lights on?” Tikaya asked.
“Because you two wish it.” Sicarius jerked his chin to the right. “Lead.”
In other words, he did not trust them. No news there.
A long moment passed before Rias headed right. Even as a prisoner with everything going wrong, he remained outwardly calm, and Tikaya reminded herself there was still time.
Lantern light played over piled rock ahead. This was a different tunnel than she had fled the cavern from, but it, too, had been partially blocked. They clambered over the waist-high rubble. When Agarik hopped down from the pile, Tikaya tried to catch his eye again. But he seemed to be deliberately avoiding them. In plotting to betray the marines, had Rias lost Agarik’s respect?
Boulders and shattered stalactites cluttered the cracked and uneven cavern floor. The illusion hiding the camp was gone, revealing a mess of smashed gear and broken crates. A pair of legs stuck out from a boulder, and Tikaya tore her gaze away. Above, darkness sheathed the rockets, though the number panel glowed, faintly illuminating the door area.
Sicarius detoured into the camp and grabbed a coil of rope and a bow. He plundered quivers, some still strapped to dead people, for arrows.
Tikaya waited to the side, not in a hurry to be helpful. Rias too, wandered into camp, though he looked less certain about what he sought. Inspiration, probably. Ottotark and Bones followed him, pistols cocked. The expression on Ottotark’s bruised face promised he would love to use his.
Agarik bumped Tikaya’s shoulder as he came up to stand by her. He pointed his pistol at her, though his finger did not touch the trigger. While Sicarius collected arrows and the other two men guarded Rias, Agarik chanced a whisper.
“Ottotark and Bones are planning to kill you as soon as you open the door.”
It wasn’t unexpected, but hearing how little time she had unsettled her nonetheless.
“Does Rias have a plan?” Agarik murmured.
Sicarius glanced their way. Fortunately, Agarik still had the pistol aimed at her.
Rias bent to pick something up. “Ah, these might help.”
Sicarius turned back to him as Rias hefted Lancecrest’s goggles.
“We had a plan,” Tikaya whispered back to Agarik. “You people weren’t a part of it.”
“Rias will have a backup one,” he said. “If I act against the others to help you, I can’t go back, or it’s the end of my career, probably my life.”
She feared they needed his help, but this was their cause, not his. As far as the marines were concerned, getting those weapons was a good thing. How could she ask Agarik to risk his life when it meant betraying everyone dear to him?
But he had already made his choice: “Just wanted to be sure your offer is still good.”
She wished she could hug him, but all she dared was a slight nod. “Beach house,” she whispered. “As long as you want it.”
A slight smile stretched Agarik’s lips. “Surfer with the talented tongue?”
“I’ll do my best.”
A rifle boomed in a nearby tunnel.
“It’s time, Admiral.” Sicarius pinned Tikaya with his gaze as he strode to the base of the butte beneath the door. “Bring the ordering for the numbers.”
Tikaya wanted to bring a dagger to stick in his gut, but she kept the thought to herself and the sneer from her face as she walked over. Best not to give him any warning that she would make trouble.
Rias joined her, deliberately turning his back on Ottotark and Bones. “What’s your plan, Sicarius? There are only a few of us and a lot of weaponry up there. Getting it out will be a challenge.”
“We don’t need that many rockets to satisfy the emperor’s needs,” Sicarius said. “If your smoke reveals a safe path, I’ll climb up with one other person. We’ll press in the correct code and lower several of the weapons to the floor. Once the captain has cleaned up the raiders, he’ll be here, and we’ll have plenty of men to transport the weapons out.”
“Over the chasm?” Rias asked.
“There are other ways out.”
He sounded certain. An image came to mind: Sicarius gathering information by torturing captured raiders—Parkonis. She winced.
“Who’s going up with you?” she asked. If Sicarius climbed to the top with Ottotark or Bones, that would leave her, Rias, and Agarik with only one hostile man to deal with.
“Starcrest,” Sicarius said.
Tikaya fought back a curse. She was beginning to wonder if the assassin had telepathy training, Turgonian or not. Or maybe he just wanted Rias up there because he was expendable at that point. Her hackles rose. “I’m not certain we have the puzzle right. You’re not making Rias push the numbers for you. Have you seen what happens if someone gets it wrong? Instant incineration.”
Sicarius lifted his stuffed quiver of arrows, and she blushed. Wrong conclusion. Of course, he intended to test it from below or he would not have bothered gathering the arrows.
Rias touched his index finger to his lips. To silence her? Or warn her not to irritate the assassin? She scowled at him. Somebody had to do something, and he was just going along with these brutes. He gazed back at her, steady and imperturbable.
Above their heads, the door panel pulsed three times.
“What does that mean?” Bones asked.
“The numbers are about to change.” Tikaya had no idea if that was true, but it sounded plausible, and if the marines feared they would need another translation, they might keep her alive a little longer.
“Give me the solution,” Sicarius said.
Tikaya showed him the order of the numbers. He stared at it a moment, nodded, and nocked an arrow. Rias handed him the goggles. She expected Sicarius to regard them with suspicion, but he looked them over, then tried them. He lifted the bow and shot, untroubled by the bulky eyewear. The first arrow passed through one of the invisible beams and sizzled to ashes before it reached the target.
“Shit,” Ottotark announced.
Unflappable, Sicarius took a step to the side and loosed a second arrow. This one found the target, bumping one of the symbols a slot to the left. The arrow did no damage to the durable alien technology. It bounced away, where another beam incinerated it.
“No need to worry about trash collection here,” Bones muttered.
While Sicarius continued moving the numbers around, she gauged the distance to the corridor they had exited, the corridor that eventually led to that panel Rias wanted to visit. She would not consider running with Sicarius on the ground, but if he was busy climbing, the odds improved. Ottotark and Bones were no doubt proficient with their firearms, but she judged them far more fallible than the assassin. If she just had a distraction....
A final arrow clattered off the panel after shifting the las
t number into place. A chime sounded and the door slid open. It was hard to feel triumphant given the circumstances.
Sicarius removed the goggles and returned them to Rias with a single nod.
“Light a smoke bomb,” Sicarius said, apparently unwilling to trust the ones Rias had given him until he had seen them used.
Rias held out the goggles, glancing around as if looking for a place to put them, then shrugged and strapped them around his head. He pushed the lenses above his eyes so they were not in the way as he lit one of the globes. He laid it on the floor at the base of the butte. Soon, plumes of grayish blue smoke wafted into the air. They diffused quickly, spreading over a greater area than the haze from a pistol firing. As Tikaya had seen before, an asymmetrical pattern of white beams grew visible in the smoke.
“Those kill you if they touch you?” Ottotark asked.
“Yes,” Tikaya said.
“Glad I’m not trying to climb past them.”
Sicarius gave him a cool stare, then laid down the bow and jogged to the bottom. Tikaya eyed the weapon. It would not take many steps to reach it.
“Come, Admiral,” Sicarius said.
Rias strode to Tikaya first. He gripped her hands. “Whatever happens, you’ve been the light that’s driven away the darkness in my life.” He did nothing so obvious as putting special emphasis on the word light, but she understood anyway: he wanted her to try for the panel.
She squeezed his hands. “I love you too. Be careful.”
Ottotark groaned. “Can we shoot them now?”
“Wait until we have the weapons out. If the symbols change, we’ll need her again.” Sicarius handed his two globes to Bones. “Light one of these if the smoke dies out before we reach the top.”
Rias widened his eyes slightly before releasing Tikaya’s hands and heading for the base of the butte. Tikaya tried to guess at the meaning in that look; had he done something with the other smoke bombs? The current haze tickled her nose and teared her eyes a bit, but had no significant side effects.
Overhead, the door slid shut. It had only stayed open a couple minutes before locking again. She wondered what happened if someone was on the inside when it closed.
Beginnings: Five Heroic Fantasy Adventure Novels Page 45
