Decrypted

by Lindsay Buroker

  “I don’t know if you heard Mee Nar,” Rias said, “but he apologized for not sensing the bird’s approach until too late. He said he was focused on the water and the cliffs above us, and the hawk barely registered.”

  “I understand. It’s fine.”

  “He’s also been trying to find where the practitioners are hiding to launch these attacks. If he locates them...” Rias set his jaw. “I’ll visit them personally.”

  Tikaya pulled the blanket tighter. “Better to find what they’re hiding rather than risk a confrontation where people could be injured.”

  “After all this, injuries aren’t what I had in mind.”

  Tikaya couldn’t blame him. Still, she’d prefer to avoid bloodshed. If there was any chance that, after this was all over, she’d be allowed to step foot on the island again, killing people would crush it. “If we dig out their secret, it might take the fight out of them.”

  “Or it might convince them to increase their efforts to kill us to permanently silence us,” Rias said.

  “Turgonians are a pessimistic sort, aren’t they?”

  “I believe paranoid is the word you’ve used previously.” Rias nodded to the paper clenched in her hand. “Was there anything useful?”

  Tikaya brightened. “Oh, yes. Nothing explains exactly what led our three-hundred-year-old treasure hunters to the Kyatt Islands, but they were convinced they’d find signs of their lost colony here. I got the impression that they’d gone back to study the logbooks that remained from the other colony ships, found dates for the storm that took them off course, and compared them to the departure dates and prevailing winds and currents to figure out...” She caught Rias eyeing the hatch of the submarine, and blushed. “Sorry, you’re probably not interested in that part.”

  “Oh, no, I like it when you include all the details,” Rias said. “It makes me feel less bad about babbling about my own interests. I was listening and being impressed that these treasure-hunters went to such lengths. They must have had...”

  “Someone like you on board?” Tikaya smiled.

  “Sounds more like a research specialist.” He nodded at her.

  “Regardless of the how, they found evidence of a single wrecked ship that they believed had been attempting to sail away from the island.”

  “Away? That suggests some likely routes.” Rias gazed toward the cave mouth. Darkness had fallen outside, but he was probably picturing the topographical and bathymetric layouts in his head. “No longitude or latitude recordings, I suppose?”

  “I don’t think they were that precise back then. I know my people were navigating by the stars. Wayfinding, they called it. But...” Tikaya tapped the last paragraph of her notes. “The captain wanted others to find the wreck, so he left very precise descriptions of the landmarks in sight and the sunken ship’s distance from the cliffs. It’s supposedly a half a league due east of a butte with a fissure splitting it in the middle.”

  “He wanted others to find it?” Rias asked. “Why would a treasure hunter share the location of his find?”

  “The short answer is that his crew couldn’t reach it. With utter luck—ropes and hooks—they pulled up a few pieces of the old ship, but they estimated it to be two hundred meters down. They didn’t have diving suits back then—and I don’t think there are even any diving suits today that allow people to go that deep, are there?”

  “Not even close,” Rias said. “My people have suits that require a sea-to-surface connection, a tube through which air is pumped down. I’ve heard the Nurians have used magic to create self-contained suits, but nothing that can withstand the pressures at that depth.”

  “Can the Freedom go that deep?”

  Rias blew out a slow breath. “If it’s two hundred meters, yes. If it’s much more than that...” He lifted a shoulder. “When I started all this, I was simply thinking of a vessel that could sail a couple of dozen meters below the surface and avoid the prying eyes of Nurians in their crow’s nests. I figured most wrecks we’d want to investigate would be in coastal waters and not too deep.” Rias stuck his hands in his pockets and eyed the submarine glumly.

  Tikaya gripped his forearm. “It’s a wonderful craft, Rias. I’d certainly prefer to spend more time on the surface than below it. Sunsets and starlit skies are far more romantic than the dark depths of the ocean.”

  He smiled faintly, though still seemed disappointed in himself. “We may be able to reach it. We’ll see how exact those old measurements were. So the captain sent word to Turgonia to ask for help in recovering the wreck?” His eyes shifted upward thoughtfully. “I’m not sure we had salvage ships capable of pulling craft up from such depths back then—even today, they usually use divers to set the hooks—but the captain might simply have been hoping.”

  “The treasure hunters were also pressed for time. They were having trouble with my government, due to the months they spent sailing around our waters. It was done in secret in the beginning, though my people eventually figured out they were out there and objected to their presence. According to the letter, the captain made up a story about how they were pursuing pirates that had sailed into Kyattese waters and disappeared, but he feared the Kyattese had stopped believing the ruse and that he had limited time. He specifically states that they seemed agitated about the explorations.”

  “And these letters were never mailed,” Rias said, “suggesting the entire crew might have disappeared shortly after. Our lovelorn sailor may have fallen to one of your irate ancestors, but what of the rest? Attacked by a giant octopus? Or, I suppose for a ship their size, a kraken might have been more likely.”

  Tikaya had a hard time believing her people had simply made an entire ship of treasure hunters disappear, but admitted, “Animal mastery has long been a skill my people have had.” She thought about the fact that the hawk’s attack meant someone knew exactly where she and Rias—and the Freedom—were now. “There’s one more thing. The last lines of the last letter read, ‘The Kyattese are hiding more than a wrecked ship. I suggest you bring the fleet for a full investigation.’”

  Rias gazed into her eyes. “Are you sure you should be sharing your findings so openly with me?”

  The question surprised Tikaya. At this point, they were surely in this together. “Why do you ask? Are you planning to send an encrypted letter to someone back in Turgonia?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what we find and how it affects the empire.”

  “I can’t imagine it’d be anything that would endanger anyone, not after all this time.”

  “Hm,” Rias said neutrally.

  Tikaya chewed on her lip, wishing he hadn’t raised the issue. Now she wouldn’t be able to put it out of her mind. He might not have any loyalty to his emperor any more, but he’d admitted more than once that he still cared for Turgonia—his family and countless old friends lived there. What if whatever they found forced them to choose sides? And her side ended up being different from Rias’s?

  “I’m going down there,” he said. “Are you certain you still wish to accompany me? Even if it means... we may have a tough decision to make?” He must have been thinking thoughts similar to hers. “You may be seen as someone who’s betraying your people if you reveal these long-held secrets.”

  “I’ve been made aware of that repeatedly, yes,” Tikaya said, “but whatever group is protecting these secrets has come close to killing me right along with you, so I don’t think they deserve my loyalty. I wouldn’t do anything to harm my people, but... after all this, I have to know what’s down there. I don’t know that backing away at this point would protect me or make me any less of a traitor in these people’s eyes. And if they are blackmailing my father or threatening my family...”

  Rias pulled her into a hug. “Let’s see what’s down there before we worry about this further. A few more hours, and I’ll be finished with—”

  “Something approaches,” Mee Nar called from the cave entrance.

  “Or maybe I’m finished now,” Rias s
aid.

  A high-pitched animal squeal raised the hairs on Tikaya’s arms. She’d gone with her brothers on hunts often enough to recognize it, and, by the time Mee Nar jumped into the air, leaping over something, she’d grabbed her bow.

  Rias had his weapons out too, the sword in one hand, the pistol in the other. He fired before she caught sight of the javelina. The first javelina. Others stampeded into the cave, racing through the shadows, straight toward Rias and Tikaya.

  The darkness made it hard to pick out more than blurry bodies with glimpses of dark, bristly fur, beady eyes, and sharp yellow tusks. Tikaya nocked an arrow with hands steadier than she expected. She’d faced wild pigs before, at least. Albeit not in such tight quarters.

  A gunshot rang out, the noise deafening as it echoed from the cave walls. One animal flopped over, but the rest of the herd continued toward them, eight, no ten powerful javelinas.

  “Get on the boat,” Rias said.

  Tikaya loosed an arrow, then leaped onto the Freedom. The top of the submarine wasn’t meant for walking on, not like the deck had been, and she almost slipped into the water on the far side. Being up there might not protect them anyway. A three-foot gap stretched between the craft and the ledge, but, as far as she knew, javelinas had no trouble swimming.

  As if to reinforce her thoughts, a squeal rent the air right behind her. Tikaya spun back toward the ledge. She hadn’t had time to nock another arrow yet. Rias leaped the gap, stabbing down into a swimming pig’s back while he was midair. The creature squealed and disappeared beneath the surface as Rias landed beside her. Other javelinas surged toward them. Tikaya shot another arrow, taking a swimming pig between the eyes.

  She glanced about, trying to find Mee Nar, but full night had fallen, leaving more shadows than light. One of the creatures kicked over one of the lanterns as it raced off the ledge and into the water, further dimming the cave. Tikaya hoped the rest of them weren’t smart enough to figure that out. Fighting them in the dark would be impossible.

  Beside her, Rias’s sword sliced down, hacking into a brawny javelina’s neck as it tried to climb the slick side of the submarine to reach the top. The sword stuck, and he had to kick the creature free with his boot. Two more animals climbed over the sinking pig, eager to take its place.

  “How many are there?” Tikaya yelled, struggling to pick out another target in the poor illumination.

  Light flared, almost blinding in its intensity. A gout of flame burst across the ledge, angling into the water at Tikaya’s feet. A bevy of squeals assailed her ears, even as the smell of singed flesh invaded her nostrils. Not stopping to question the help, she used the light of the conflagration to pick out new targets, firing three arrows in rapid succession. Rias put his sword to quick work, ending the lives of the creatures writhing in pain from the fire.

  The flames died out, leaving dead javelinas on the ledge and more blackened bodies floating in the water. None of the creatures moved.

  Tikaya checked her quiver to avoid looking at the carnage. She was beginning to share Rias’s desire to find the practitioner, or practitioners, responsible for this and end the battle in a more direct manner.

  “Just a retired sailor, eh?” Rias asked Mee Nar who was picking his way around bodies toward the Freedom.

  “One acquires a few skills when one isn’t busy swabbing the deck and trimming the sails.” Mee Nar pointed toward the sea beyond the cave mouth. “There are lights out there. A ship I’m assuming.”

  Tikaya lowered her bow. “Were the javelinas just a distraction? To give the ship time to find us?”

  “They’re not approaching the cave,” Mee Nar said. “They’re waiting out there.”

  “North of here? About a half a league offshore, straight out from the butte with the split in the middle?” Rias asked, giving Tikaya a significant look.

  “It’s hard to tell at night, but that sounds about right,” Mee Nar said.

  Rias fished a spyglass out of his pocket. “Wait here.” He hopped onto the ledge and trotted out of the cave.

  “Will he use his underwater boat to attack them?” Mee Nar asked.

  Tikaya had been about to jump back to the ledge herself, but she froze, alarmed at the thought of Rias’s torpedoes slamming into the side of a Kyattese ship. “I don’t think so. I...”

  “I saw he has a lot of ordinance in there,” Mee Nar said.

  Thus far, Rias had been acting defensively, but what if they’d pushed him too far? Could she blame him if he chose to attack the people who had tried to blow his craft—and him—into a countless pieces?

  “We’ve had to fight some underwater creatures,” Tikaya said. “It might simply be for them.” Though... if Rias had added a switch to more easily run an electrical charge through the hull, that ought to be all the submarine needed to defend against enthusiastic aquatic huggers.

  Mee Nar waved at the cave entrance. “I’ll have to leave if he chooses to attack. As much as I’d like to deliver those schematics to my superiors, I wouldn’t be able to continue to operate here if I openly sided with Starcrest.” He grimaced. “I’m not even sure my people would let me come home if they learned I’d openly sided with Starcrest.”

  “He’s not going to attack anyone,” Tikaya said. She hoped the statement was true.

  Rias ran back inside, bounding over javelina bodies so quickly that Tikaya slid out an arrow, her gaze darting toward the entrance. She expected some rabid animal to race in on his heels, but nothing came.

  “If you’re coming with me, get in,” Rias barked. “We’re going down.” He untied the Freedom, leaped onto its hull, and spun the wheel to open the hatch.

  “What’s happening?” Tikaya scrambled toward him.

  “Do you intend to attack that ship?” Mee Nar asked.

  “I haven’t decided yet. They’re dropping glowing orbs over the side. Explosives is my guess.”

  “To destroy the evidence?” Tikaya asked. “Or do they think we’re already down there and want to hit us?”

  “Both goals are likely.” Rias hopped through the hatchway.

  “Why do I have a feeling this isn’t going to go well?” Tikaya muttered.

  CHAPTER 18

  Tikaya dropped her bow and quiver into the submarine, though she couldn’t imagine having a use for them inside, then climbed down herself. A dozen questions threatened to spill from her lips. Like Mee Nar, she couldn’t see being a part of this if Rias meant to take actions that could result in deaths. But she couldn’t pass up the chance to see what was down there either, not after weeks of digging into this mystery. For the moment, she kept her mouth shut. She’d stop Rias if he intended to do more than scare the people out there with warning shots.

  She lifted a hand, intending to pull the hatch shut, but Mee Nar dropped in beside her.

  “I’m sure I’ll regret this,” he said. “No, I’m already regretting this.”

  Tikaya wouldn’t have minded if he’d stayed behind—her people might be even more distressed to find out that Nurians as well as Turgonians were snooping into their past—but she and Rias might need Mee Nar’s help. She doubted mundane Kyattese technology could produce an explosive device that would drop hundreds of meters into the water and detonate. No, they’d be facing some practitioner’s deadly work down there.

  “Close the hatch,” Rias ordered from navigation. He’d already started the engine.

  Tikaya secured the hatch, then perched on the seat next to his. Mee Nar, wandering through the craft and muttering to himself in Nurian, was slower to join them. By the time he reached navigation, Rias had already steered them out of the cave. He flipped the switches to fill the ballast tanks with water.

  “We’re going under?” Mee Nar squeaked. He cleared his throat and said, in a more normal register, “I mean, don’t you want to get a close up look at that ship first?”

  “We’ll get a look soon enough,” Rias said.

  Outside the front porthole, dark water replaced the view of the waves.r />
  “Oh.” Mee Nar clenched an overhead beam with a firmer grip than the ride required.

  Tikaya admitted a bit of pleasure, or at least mollification, that a Nurian warrior and practitioner who had spent countless years at sea was more nervous than she had been when it came to diving beneath the surface in a submarine. Of course, he might simply know more about what they were about to face. That thought was sobering.

  “What are you planning?” Tikaya asked, concerned about the grim expression on Rias’s face.

  “To get close enough to determine if they are dropping explosives.”

  “And if they are?” she asked.

  “Disable their ship to encourage them to stop.”

  Already on the edge of her chair, Tikaya shifted uneasily. “By shooting at them? Is there a way to disable them without causing casualties?”

  “It’s a wooden sailing ship, so not likely. There’s no engine I can target, so I may have to inflict substantial damage to incapacitate them.”

  “Rias... we can’t do this. We don’t even know for sure what’s down there and if it’s worth this.”

  “One torpedo may be enough to make them hesitate, giving us a chance to go down. They won’t have a target if they’re of a mind to shoot back, and they won’t know if we’re near or far with more weapons.”

  “Rias,” Tikaya repeated. “We need to know what we’re protecting before we take action that could kill people.”

  He turned in his seat, seeming calm and reasonable, but determined as well. “I don’t want to attack your people any more than you do, but we’re not going down there to investigate if someone’s dropping charges all around us. Octopuses and water pressure, we can withstand, but not explosives dropped on our heads.”

  Mee Nar cleared his throat. “If they are Made devices, I should be able to sense them as they approach. I can give you directions so you can avoid them.”