“ Those were Ravido’s men,” Maldynado said. He sounded numb. “I recognized the insignia. That’s his battalion, people he brought down especially for…”
Evrial avoided his eyes. Would Maldynado forgive her if his comrades didn’t make it? When she’d been the one to stop him from climbing aboard? She was surprised Amaranthe hadn’t given the order to jump overboard long ago. Just how deadly were those magical weapons?
Maldynado thumped his fist on his thigh. “I’m about five seconds from ramming this craft into one of those marine boats. Maybe both if I can manage it.”
“ What would that do?” Evrial asked. “Besides irk a lot of marines with guns.”
“ Cause a distraction. An explosion maybe. Give the others time to escape.”
“ And would we survive this explosion?”
“ We could jump out before the boat struck.” Maldynado’s hand left his thigh, inching toward the control panel.
“ Give it a couple more minutes. I can’t believe Lokdon would get herself into a situation she couldn’t handle.”
“ You can’t? Really? ”
“ Not with Sicarius with her. For all we know, this is all part of some plan of hers. If they jump overboard, they may appreciate an escape vessel rather than the charred, inoperable remains of an enforcer boat.”
Maldynado lowered his hand. “One more minute.”
CHAPTER 12
Amaranthe stared at the cement-encased weapons sitting on the cut out piece of hull. “We’ll go down with it,” she said in a fit of inspiration. Whether it was good inspiration or not, she didn’t know. “And try to slow it so it lands lightly.”
Books’s wild-eyed gaze latched onto hers. “Yes. It’ll be heavier than an anchor, but maybe if we’re all kicking against gravity, we can slow it.”
“ Whatever,” Akstyr said.
Basilard stared at the oblong block, and Amaranthe could see the moment when he figured out what exactly concerned Books. He swallowed, then squared his shoulders and nodded at her.
Something squealed above them. The marines were back to tearing into the stage and searching for the team. She hoped that meant Sicarius had escaped.
Amaranthe gripped one corner of the cutout, her shoulder pressed against Akstyr’s. There was no room for Sespian to wriggle through and grab an edge, but he waited behind her like a sprinter ready for a race. She knew he’d dive in after them and help slow the load.
Before giving the order to move the planks and let the hull drop, Amaranthe met everyone’s eyes in turn. “I want to take this moment to tell you that I care about all of you, and my life would have been extremely bland and unfulfilling if I’d never met you.” That sounded like a doomsday salute, so she smiled and added, “Also, I’m terribly concerned about all of your mental states. I can’t imagine any sane person who would engage in such a ludicrous plan.”
That drew a round of snorts. Better than tears.
Amaranthe nodded once. “Drop it.”
At the same time, Books and Akstyr removed the planks supporting the cutout. Even with four people gripping the corners, the weight yanked at Amaranthe’s fingers, almost tearing free of her grip. Fighting the force would have been futile, and that wasn’t the goal anyway. She let it pull her through the hole.
Icy water swallowed her, frigid as it tunneled into her ears. The burden swept her downward rapidly. She twisted her body, turning upright, and kicked, using the powerful circular kick Sicarius had once taught her for holding a brick above her head.
Night had come to the river valley and no light filtered through the water, so she couldn’t see the others. She sensed them, though, through the cutout they all held. The descent slowed, and she knew everyone was kicking. They weren’t able to slow the heavy load as much as she’d hoped though, and they plunged ever deeper. The depth surprised her-she’d expected the bottom to be no more than twenty or thirty feet down. Pressure built in her sinuses, and pain arose behind her eardrums. She worried that she hadn’t inhaled a large enough gulp of air to last her for this plunge.
She was on the verge of trying to signal the others to let go when her foot slammed into the bottom, her boot sinking into deep mud. Her back bent under the weight of the cutout, and soon mud squished beneath her fingers as well. She couldn’t see a thing, but let go of the load, trusting the others to do the same.
When she pushed off the bottom, mud oozed over the lip of her boots and under her trousers, coating her leg with cold slickness. Her enthusiastic kicks were as much to try and rid herself of the gunk as to reach the surface. The pressure in her sinuses lessened. She hoped that meant the surface was close, because her lungs burned for air. Only the fear of coming up under the boat-or the churning paddlewheel-slowed her ascent. She kept kicking but held her arms above her head, fingers spread, ready to catch herself if she struck something.
A horn blasted, its deep undulations coursing through the water. It wasn’t one short blast, but a series, an alarm being sounded. Because of… Sicarius? Or the giant hole cut in the hull of the steamboat? Had enough water poured in to affect the craft?
Amaranthe kicked harder. Where was the cursed surface?
Evrial could feel Maldynado glowering at her, a silent accusation hanging between them. Maybe she’d been wrong to delay him, but what could crashing the boat do? It was a third of the size of the marine vessels.
She made a show of watching the steamboat and cupping her hands over her ears to defend against the blasts from the horn. If anybody lived in the forest surrounding this stretch of the river valley, they had to be wondering about the ancestors-cursed noise. Lokdon and the others must have done something. Maldynado had been keeping pace with the steamboat, and he was forced to slow down. People were scrambling all over the lower deck, but Evrial couldn’t tell what they were doing. It looked like chaos.
“ I’m taking us in closer,” Maldynado said, hand fastening onto a control lever.
“ Wait.” Evrial lunged to her feet. She thought she’d seen something pop up in the water between them and the boat.
She squinted at the river’s surface. Though she and Maldynado were maneuvering in the dark, the steamboat’s running lights created shimmering yellow reflections on the black water. The wake from the churning paddlewheel broke up the surface, though, and she couldn’t be sure… Yes, there it was-there he was. Someone’s head. Another one popped up nearby.
Evrial extended her arm grandly toward the spot, as if she’d expected the team to arise thusly all along. “I believe those are the people we’ve been waiting for.”
“ Well, I’ll be the emperor’s personal chamber pot polisher, that’s Basilard,” Maldynado said.
“ I’m fairly certain the Imperial Barracks has plumbing these days.”
As Maldynado guided the boat closer, three more heads popped up, one with a mop of long hair dripping into her eyes and spreading around her shoulders. Amaranthe must have lost her hair tie. Evrial found herself particularly relieved to see her, maybe because she mattered most to Maldynado. Or maybe she herself was coming to care for the other woman. She didn’t see a blond head though. Had Sicarius not been with them?
When the team spotted the enforcer boat gliding toward them, they started swimming toward the closest bank.
“ Oops,” Maldynado said. “They won’t know it’s us.”
Evrial raced onto the deck. “Wait!” she called as loudly as she dared. With the alarm still blasting from the steamboat, she didn’t think anyone on board would hear her, but at least some of those marines would be on watch, scanning the dark river and shoreline around them.
One of the men had a clumsy head-above-water crawl stroke, and he paused, apparently hearing her.