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.