With the spyglass to her eye, Amaranthe searched for the source of the smoke. Three black vehicles rolled along the waterfront road, winding in and out of the trees. Enforcer vehicles. After spotting Sicarius, the local headquarters must have called for backup. Or maybe this had something to do with the stolen steamboat.
“This could be a problem,” Amaranthe said. “Sire, I don’t suppose you’d like to abandon your incognito ways and give a few orders to the lieutenant or captain in charge over there? Something like, ‘These aren’t the outlaws you’re looking for, so you can all go home now.’?”
“I would,” Sespian said, “but the enforcers we’ve encountered lately have been under the impression that I’m an emperor-look-a-like leading a band of riverboat pirates.”
Amaranthe lowered the spyglass. “You didn’t mention that when you were sharing the week’s events, Sire.”
“Didn’t I?”
“There are numerous people around the research warehouse.” Sicarius had his head craned over his shoulder again. His tone held a hint of reproach, as if to say he’d given Amaranthe the spyglass so she could scan the shoreline, not chat with Sespian.
Abashed, she lifted it again. “Enforcers. There’s a vehicle parked out front, and there’s our friend, Pabov, talking with them.”
“ Our friend?” Sicarius asked.
“Ah, yes, he was more attached to me than you, I think.” Amaranthe lowered the spyglass again. “Maybe we should turn around and forget the underwater vehicle. We won’t be able to get it anyway, not with all those people around the warehouse.”
“Too late.” Sespian pointed toward the research facility. The enforcers had stopped their conversation and were running out to the dock. “I think they’ve already seen us.”
• • •
Rain splattered on the brim of Maldynado’s hat with an enthusiasm that would have impressed a faucet. Or a waterfall. He and Akstyr strode down a sandy beach on the east side of the island, eyeing the hillside for cave entrances or anything that might indicate a secret passage. Maldynado had explored the beaches and forest thoroughly as a boy, so any such features would have to be new additions.
“How long do we have to search?” Akstyr shook his head like a dog, flinging water out of his hair. The boy needed a decent hat.
“Until we find something,” Maldynado said. “Or someone rings the dinner bell.” The rain had grown harder in the last few minutes, and he caught himself casting longing gazes at the log home. Yara and Basilard were already up there, searching for passages and preparing a meal. Maldynado had yet to escape the drizzle. He and Akstyr had stuffed the captured enforcers into the steamboat’s cramped brig, then headed out to circle the island. They’d left Books to guard the prisoners, though he’d shown more interest in salvaging his research materials from the soot-covered engine room.
“There’s something.” Akstyr pointed to the beach ahead.
An egret standing in the shallows flapped away at Maldynado and Akstyr’s approach. They stopped before a set of fresh tracks in the gray sand. This side of the island hadn’t seen any action during the steamboat fight-and crash-so the sand ought to have been undisturbed. Maldynado set his own foot next to one of the prints.
“That’s either a woman or a child,” he said, though he already had an idea as to whom the tracks belonged.
“Brynia?” Akstyr asked.
“That’s my guess.”
The sand made the prints easy to follow. They started at the waterline and led to a log where it looked like Brynia had sat down. Maldynado expected the tracks to head into the trees above the beach, but they veered back toward the water.
Akstyr scratched his head. “She climbed out of the water, rested, and decided to take another swim?”
“It seems that way.”
“It’s a long swim back to the mainland. I would have hidden here until I could steal a boat, but woman are funny.”
Maldynado grunted, but he was busy thinking that Brynia might not have had any intention of returning to the mainland. Maybe she was looking for something beneath Marblecrest Island, like the entrance to her colleagues’ secret underwater hideout.
“Should we keep looking?” Akstyr pointed up the beach.
“No, I don’t think we’re going to find anything on the island. We better hope that Amaranthe really does know somebody with an underwater vehicle and that she gets back soon.”
• • •
Shouts echoed through the trees and drifted across the lake. Amaranthe, Sespian, and Sicarius hunkered in a thicket, being stabbed and scraped from all sides by thorny vines, as they waited for a pair of enforcers to jog past. If the enthusiastic shouts were anything to go on, someone had found the recently abandoned rowboat.
“We’ll be shot if we try to cross back to the island in anything but an underwater vehicle,” Amaranthe whispered.
“They might not shoot us,” Sespian whispered back. “They might follow us to the island so they can shoot everybody.”
“Everybody on our team anyway. They wouldn’t bother the Forge people. I doubt they’re doing anything that’s technically illegal at that meeting. In the law’s eyes, those people are stalwart citizens, while we’re… ”
“Outlaws and steamboat pirates?” Sespian suggested.
“So it seems.”
“A plan, Lokdon,” Sicarius said, in a tone that implied that if she didn’t come up with one, he would. “We did not have time to hide our tracks well. They will find us.”
Though the closest pair of enforcers had disappeared from sight, snapping foliage promised many more remained in the area.
“I know where Pabov keeps the keys to the vehicle,” Amaranthe said. “If you can provide a diversion that lures the enforcers away from the warehouse… ”
“Very well.” Sicarius parted the leaves.
“No killing,” Sespian said.
“And no lighting the entire town on fire,” Amaranthe said, remembering the incendiary nature of some of Sicarius’s past diversions.
He paused, eyeing each of them in turn, and she could only guess at his thoughts. Maybe that his job would be twice as difficult now that he’d be nagged on two fronts.
“Not even the pickle establishment?” Sicarius asked.
Amaranthe blinked and almost asked him if that had been meant as “levity.” Sespian must not have seen it that way, for he scowled.
“While the shopkeeper’s manner was almost deplorable enough to warrant such misfortune,” Amaranthe said, “I think she’s suffered enough, due to the decimation of her shelf system and inventory.”
“I will seek alternatives,” Sicarius said, then, after checking for enforcers, slipped out of the brambles.
Amaranthe planned to follow promptly, but a belligerent voice bellowed from the nearby shoreline.
“I don’t care, just find him!”
Branches broke and leaves shook as enforcers pounded through the woods to try and obey the order. Amaranthe sank lower into the thicket. Two new men ran past, this time heading in the opposite direction.
“I wonder if that ‘him’ refers to me or the assassin,” Sespian murmured.
“It’s usually Sicarius. The whole world wants him dead.”
“Understandable,” Sespian said, then, as if anticipating a frown-or a lecture-from her, lifted an apologetic hand. “If it matters, I have a similar problem.”
“You two share something in common then. Perhaps you should chat about it sometime.”
Sespian snorted. At least she’d gotten the apologetic wave.
When the uproar died down, Amaranthe whispered, “Let’s go.”
They eased out of the brambles. She led the way before she realized she was leading the way. Was it presumptuous to take charge when one had an emperor in one’s party? Sespian said nothing, though, merely following in her wake as she eased past trees, around boulders, and between bushes. They had to stop several times to avoid searching enforcers, and Amaranthe worried Sicarius would put his diversion into action before she and Sespian reached the warehouse.