Forgotten Ages (The Complete Series)

by Lindsay Buroker

  Tikaya yanked again, but her find wouldn’t budge. Remembering the second tool, she swung the saw in, hacking into the hull, creating a wider hole.

  A thump and a grunt came from navigation. “Starcrest, get us out of here!”

  “Calm down, Nar.”

  Tikaya finished cutting and thumped on the new cutout with the saw. There was no time to worry about whether bumps would rattle the sphere on the railing free, not when dozens more were plummeting down. Cutting the wider hole let her find a better angle, and she was able to pull her prize free. Though gray with grime, it looked like a chest. Praying that she’d found something worth risking themselves for, she worked the claw through a thick metal—or was that stone?—ring on one end. She closed the pinchers, hoping they could pull it up with them without the contents being dumped on the—

  “Starcrest, it’s falling!”

  Before the words were out, the submarine was moving. It lurched forward so fast, Tikaya fell into her seat. She almost lost her grip on the controls, but, not knowing if she’d entirely secured the ring, she refused to let go.

  “Look out,” Mee Nar called. “It’s—”

  Tikaya held her breath. They must have knocked the sphere on the railing free. Had it struck the ocean floor? It couldn’t have exploded or she would have felt it.

  The submarine pulled away from the wreck, turning as it went, and she caught a glimpse of it. The glowing orb had dropped into the mud beneath the ship. And it hadn’t exploded. Tikaya released the breath she’d been holding. More might be coming, but at least they’d evaded—

  A flash of crimson light assailed her eyes. Tikaya stumbled backward, tripping on the chair, and going down. Before she hit the deck, a wave of force slammed into the Freedom. It flung Tikaya into the bulkhead, her head cracking against the solid metal. Dazed, she was barely aware of sliding down the wall to the deck. The interior lighting went out, and blackness invaded the cabin.

  Shouts erupted from elsewhere in the boat, but a loud snap echoed from the hull, drowning out the men’s words. Tikaya had a vague sense that she needed to get up, to help somehow, but the boat continued to rock, as if they were in a storm on the surface, and she struggled to find her knees. Dampness covered her hand. Blood? She blinked and lifted it, as if she could see through the blackness to identify it. Wetness found her knees too.

  “Not blood, you dolt—water.” The ramifications washed over her. Any second, the rest of the hull might snap, or it’d collapse in on them, crushing them. “Rias, leak!”

  Tikaya scrambled to her feet, blood surging through her veins and pushing away the fog in her head. For all she knew, Rias was already busy with a leak, or he was injured. Or dead. “No,” she whispered and groped her way to the hatch. Maybe if it was just in that compartment, she could—

  Something bumped against her torso. A hand?

  Before she could identify it for certain, it gripped her and yanked her out of the cabin. Metal clanked, announcing the hatch being shut. A soft squeal sounded as the wheel was turned. A thunderous crack came from the other side of the hatch.

  “You all right?” Rias asked, his voice brusque but concerned.

  “Yes, but—”

  He released her and pounded away, boots ringing on the metal decking. “I have to get us up,” he called back, already in the navigation chamber.

  In the utter darkness, Tikaya couldn’t move as quickly, but she patted her way to the front. Heavy breathing came from a corner. Mee Nar.

  “Should I close this door too?” Tikaya tapped the hatch leading to navigation.

  “If anything besides the science station floods, it won’t matter.” From the sound of Rias’s voice, he was sitting at the navigation chair. Not an iota of light seeped in from outside. He wouldn’t be able to see the gauges, his instruments, or anything. “As it is, we’re rising slowly. I’ve pumped as much air into the ballast tanks as we have, but when there’s water inside…”

  “I get it,” Tikaya said. Her ears popped. At least they were rising. For now. “Does the lighting being out mean the power source is dead?”

  “Dead or disconnected. That was quite a jolt. Mee Nar, I’ve still got some steering capability. Can you let me know if any more of those explosives are dropping around us?”

  A rapid chain of Nurian curse words flowed from Mee Nar’s lips, punctuated by orders for Starcrest to shove his sword up his butt and laments for his choice to answer the door that morning.

  “He says no,” Tikaya said.

  “Yes, I got the gist.”

  “Just doing my job as team linguist.” Tikaya snapped her mouth shut. Her words were coming out almost as quickly as Mee Nar’s. She probably sounded hysterical.

  “I’ll try to bring us up as far away from the Kyattese ship as possible,” Rias said.

  In the aftermath of the explosion, Tikaya couldn’t imagine how he had any idea of which direction they were pointing.

  “Did you get anything more out of the wreck before we left?” Rias asked quietly, as if he was afraid of the answer, afraid to find out that this had all been a waste of time.

  “A chest, but I doubt we still have it. If we do have it, I doubt it’s still shut with anything inside. I had the claw wrapped around a ring on one end.” Tikaya imagined them pulling up an empty chest, its secrets spilled all over the ocean floor, the depths too great for them to descend to again. If the submarine was even salvageable after this.

  Rias sighed.

  Tikaya thought she could see his outline in the shadows. Yes, shadows. There was a hint of light coming from the viewport. Her ears popped again. “Are we close to the surface?”

  “I’m guessing fifty meters.”

  “It must still be night,” Tikaya said. Otherwise, the water would be brighter, even that deep.

  “Yes.”

  Hard to believe they hadn’t been underwater longer. A great weariness weighed down Tikaya’s limbs, and she leaned against the hatchway. It seemed like they’d been down for days.

  “I didn’t see any weapons on the Kyattese ship,” Rias announced a moment later, “but I suppose they could have more magical ordinance to throw at us. Tikaya can you man the controls? I need to see if the power supply is dead or can be brought back to life.” He sighed again, the sigh of a man who doubted it mattered either way.

  Tikaya caught his arm as he stood. “We’re still alive. That’s something to be thankful for.”

  “Yes.” Rias hugged her, but pulled away too soon. “But we’ve gained nothing and lost a chance to do it again.”

  “You don’t know that. We could fix—”

  “I saw two of those spheres drop on the wreck as we were pulling away. It’s gone.”

  “Oh.” Tikaya stared at the deck. “Maybe we’ll have managed to retain that chest, and it’ll contain what we sought.”

  “Maybe.” Rias didn’t sound optimistic.

  CHAPTER 20

  The Freedom bobbed on the surface, the stars telling Tikaya that dawn wasn’t that far off. Mee Nar hadn’t said anything since they’d come up, but she imagined he was thinking of opening the exit hatch and swimming to shore. It might not be a bad idea. The Kyattese ship wasn’t visible at the moment, but Mee Nar had nodded when she’d asked if it was out there. The dark sky and darker sea might hide the gray of the submarine for the moment, but it’d be easy to see once dawn came. They were about a mile out from the black cliffs and dead in the water unless Rias could get power flowing to the engine again. If the engine were the problem, she’d have faith that he could, but he wouldn’t have any experience fixing Kyattese energy sources.

  “I wonder if he’d mind if I swam out and took a look at that claw,” Tikaya mused. She’d been musing upon the idea for a while, but hadn’t gotten further than that. As long as she didn’t go outside and check, she could hope they’d managed to pull up something. If she went out and found nothing there…

  Rias appeared in the hatchway, holding a lantern turned to its lowest setting
. “Something struck the power supply and there’s a hole in the exterior. I could patch it, but somehow I doubt that would fix it.” He shrugged.

  “No,” Tikaya agreed. “You’d need to Make a patch with your mind.”

  “If you have a technical manual that explains how to do that, I’ll give it a try, but I’m guessing such things aren’t taught in such a manner.”

  Mee Nar snorted.

  “They’re not,” Tikaya said. “Are we dead in the water, then?”

  “There’s some energy stored in the battery. We may be able to make it to shore.”

  May be able to make it. That didn’t sound promising. Where would they go that was safe anyway?

  “I’m hoping the practitioners won’t be able to track us as easily with the energy source inoperable,” Rias said.

  “They’ll see us floating on the surface as soon as it gets light,” Mee Nar pointed out.

  “We’ll leave soon,” Rias said.

  “Back to the cave?” Tikaya yawned. Back home to her bedroom sounded better. But would that ever be an option again? After she’d sabotaged a Kyattese ship and put her family in danger with her choices?

  “We’ll see.” Rias eyed the sky outside. “Let’s see if we pulled anything up first. It’s doubtful the grasper kept its grip in the face of that explosion, but…”

  “Yes, I was thinking about that too.” Tikaya rose from her seat and swung her arms to encourage blood flow—and to wake herself up. “It was my project. I’ll go check on it.”

  “I’ll do it,” Rias said.

  “You better stay in here in case there are more mechanical problems. Besides you’ve done enough.”

  “I don’t know why you two are arguing,” Mee Nar muttered. “There are probably still sharks out there.” He’d lost his hysterical edge and didn’t seem to retain any of his animosity from earlier. He just sounded… defeated. Maybe he suspected he, too, would not be allowed to remain on the island—and with his family—because of his choice that night.

  Tikaya hoped she didn’t sound that way. Rias was watching her.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I want you to stay in here while I take a look,” he said, his eyes intent, like he wanted to pass some secret message to her.

  What couldn’t he say out loud? There was little left that Mee Nar didn’t know. Without waiting for her agreement, Rias tugged off his shirt and sandals, opened the upper hatch, and climbed out of the submarine.

  “Are you sure he’s entirely on your people’s side?” Mee Nar asked.

  “I’m entirely sure he’s on my side,” Tikaya said. “As for unswerving loyalty to groups of people en masse, I don’t think he feels that toward any nation any more. Akahe knows, my people haven’t welcomed him.” She lowered her voice and added, “Idiots.”

  “Can you blame them? My people would have shot him full of arrows the moment he set foot on one of our docks.”

  “I doubt that,” Tikaya said. “I think the Nurians are smart enough to see the value in a high-ranking officer who’s forsaken his emperor.”

  “The Great Chief perhaps, but it’d only be luck if someone on the citizen protection force had that sort of foresight and didn’t shoot him on sight.”

  The sound of water dripping interrupted Tikaya’s response. Her first thought was of the sealed science station, that it might be leaking somehow, but then a soggy Rias dropped through the open hatchway. Wet hair plastered his brow, and his trousers clung to his legs. He was empty-handed.

  Tikaya’s hopes sank, but he immediately jogged into the rear, an intent expression on his face. Maybe he had found something.

  “Need help?” Tikaya called.

  Clunks and clanks answered her. A moment later, Rias reappeared, unwinding a coil of rope as he went. “Can you two turn the winch back there? This is heavy.”

  Without further explanation, he climbed back outside. A splash announced his descent into the water again. Tikaya waved Mee Nar to follow the rope to its source, but she paused to stick her head outside. Either the moon had set or clouds covered it, for there was little illumination. The only light came from the Kyattese ship, a mix of mundane firelight in lanterns and green-glowing Made lamps.

  The craft didn’t seem to have moved from the area over the wreck. Didn’t they know they’d completed their mission? Maybe they were out there with spyglasses, searching for the submarine even now.

  A clank sounded as something struck the hull. The rope had gone taut. Rias’s head popped out of the water.

  Curiosity hummed inside of Tikaya, but she dropped back below. If they had pulled up something heavy, it might take two people to operate that winch.

  She joined Mee Nar, who was indeed straining to operate the hand-cranked machine. He shifted to the side, so she had room to grip the lever. A lantern on the floor cast his face in shadow and light, illuminating the sweat moistening his skin.

  “Still regretting that you answered the door this morning?” Tikaya asked.

  “Technically, I think that’s yesterday morning, now,” Mee Nar said. “And yes and no. The Kyattese won’t be pleased if they learn I had a role in this, but we made it back up. If this boat starts to sink now, I can swim to shore. Having spent time in here, and taken a look at everything, I’m sure I could create detailed drawings should anything befall Starcrest before he can sketch the blueprints for me.”

  Tikaya supposed she couldn’t be surprised that Mee Nar was more interested in relaying information to his people than finding out what they’d pulled from the wreck.

  “I will also remember that throwing explosives into the water is a possible way to damage one of these boats,” Mee Nar added.

  “If you get lucky. We could have easily avoided them if my people hadn’t known exactly where we needed to go down there.”

  “Yes, I know.” Mee Nar paused to wipe his brow, and the effort required to move the lever doubled. “Imagining the empire with a fleet of these boats is terrifying. Especially after what he said about…”

  “What?” Being back in the science station, Tikaya had missed quite a few conversations between the two men.

  “These torpedoes of his. He said he’s working on a clockwork mechanism that would cause them to explode a specific number of seconds after leaving their launch tubes. They travel at a specific knots-per-hour so he could gauge the distance to an enemy ship, so they’d explode precisely underneath it.”

  It chilled Tikaya to think of Rias designing such weapons. Given how easily the submarine could slip beneath the waves, why did it need weapons? For their purposes, it could simply evade those who might wish them ill intent. Though she didn’t want to doubt Rias, or question his word that he’d broken ties with the empire, she couldn’t keep away the niggling doubt that tugged at a sleeve in the back of her mind.

  A clank sounded against the hull behind them.

  “We’re almost there,” Rias said, lowering his head through the hatchway for a moment. “Keep pulling. Thank you.”

  Mee Nar grumbled and joined Tikaya at the lever again.

  “An explosion underneath a ship is apparently even more powerful than one that strikes it,” Mee Nar said. “Or so he explained to me. That explosion forms a sphere of gas, and the gas rises with such force that it hurls the ship into the air and breaks it in half.”

  “That’s… disturbing.”

  “More so if you’re an innocent Nurian sailor on that ship.” Mee Nar gave her a significant look. “Or a Kyattese one.”

  “He’s not going after my people,” Tikaya said.

  “Their successful resistance is the only blemish on his otherwise perfect naval record.”

  “He doesn’t care about his record, and I don’t care to discuss this further.” Tikaya stared at the winch, avoiding eye contact with Mee Nar as she focused on turning the crank.

  More scrapes and clunks sounded outside as something was dragged across the hull. The chest. It couldn’t be anything else. And from the weight, it mus
t still have something in it.

  “You can stop pulling,” Rias called.

  He hopped inside again and lowered the chest with his bare hands, though he staggered under the weight before dropping it to the deck with a thump. “There. Much easier to move when you’re not in the water or trying to clamber up the side of a submarine.”

  Given its weight, Tikaya was surprised the chest had fit through the hatchway, but it was only about two feet long and a foot-and-a-half wide. Maybe less once one removed all the grime crusted to it. Prying open the lid would be challenging.

  “Too bad all the tools are in the flooded science cabin,” Tikaya said.

  “I’ll handle it,” Rias said. “Can you climb up top and keep an eye on the other ship?”

  “What?” How could he think she didn’t want to be here, helping him pry that lid open?

  “I imagine they’ll start looking for us as soon as they confirm that the wreck has been destroyed and that we’re not down there.”

  “Mee Nar can keep watch.”

  “Mee Nar will be busy concentrating to see if any magical attacks are being readied,” Rias said.

  Mee Nar leaned against the hull, his arms crossed, and his eyebrows raised as they discussed him.

  “Let’s find a way to get the Freedom someplace safe, where we don’t need to worry about the other ship,” Tikaya said, “and then we can all open the chest together.”

  “When practitioners are involved, I don’t believe there are any safe places to hide. At least on or around this island.”

  “Rias,” Tikaya said, “I want to see what’s in the box too.” She knew she sounded whiney, but what was he doing? Her curiosity was as great as his. He had to know that.

  “Yes, I understand, and I’ll show you when it’s open. I want to open it by myself, though, in case it’s booby-trapped.”

  “Booby-trapped?”

  “These are my ancestors we’re dealing with,” Rias said dryly.

  Tikaya wasn’t amused. If those amphoras were any indication, his ancestors had been too besotted to think of anything as clever as booby-trapping. “I’m sure seven hundred years at the bottom of the ocean will have eroded any security measures they might have employed.”