Seconds after she had the thought, a boom echoed across the lake. A flurry of wing flaps came from a bush next to Amaranthe, and a flock of birds took to the sky.
“What was that?” Sespian asked.
“Our diversion, Sire.” Amaranthe tugged on his sleeve. “We need to hurry.”
Two more booms and a crash sounded before Amaranthe and Sespian reached the warehouse. They stopped behind trees at the edge of the clearing. The air stank of scorched metal and burning wood. She had a feeling the enforcers would be walking back home. The wagon that had been parked in front of the warehouse was gone, and Amaranthe didn’t see anyone, not outside anyway. Good.
“Do you want to wait here while I run in and get the keys?” Amaranthe whispered.
“That seems… cowardly,” Sespian said.
“Not if I get captured and you charge in and rescue me.”
Sespian considered her for a moment. “Do you truly deem that a possibility, or are you trying to protect me by keeping me out of trouble?”
“Yes,” Amaranthe said with a smile.
She made a gesture for Sespian to remain behind the trees and jogged toward the warehouse. She doubted anyone would see her approaching through the dirt-crusted windows, but she stayed low anyway, hugging the building’s shadow.
When she reached the front entrance, before her fingers could brush the latch, the door opened. An enforcer on his way out almost tripped over her. A crossbow dangled by his side, but he paused to look at her face, probably not expecting an outlaw to be wearing a hat birthed in the pastel section of a yarn basket. Amaranthe, on the other hand, did not hesitate.
She launched the heel of her palm toward the man’s nose. He reacted, pulling his head back, but not quickly enough. Her strike caught him under the chin, which proved equally effective. As he stumbled back, Amaranthe kneed him in the groin and tore the crossbow from his startled grip. She shoved him into the building, using his body as a shield in case more armed men waited within.
Only one other person stood inside though. Pabov. He’d yanked a knife out as soon as the enforcer stumbled backward. Amaranthe pointed the crossbow in his direction to discourage him from using it. She pushed the enforcer, who’d bent over, one hand to his groin, toward Pabov, so she could target either man.
Pabov opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He gaped past Amaranthe’s shoulder. Hoping it was Sespian and not a squad of enforcers, she stepped aside so she could check without turning away from the men.
Sespian stood on the threshold. He gave her… hm, she hoped that was an appreciative smile, not an adoring one, and said, “Nicely done. You’re a very capable woman, Am-, Ms. Lokdon.”
Amaranthe couldn’t manage a return smile for him. All she’d done was kick a man in the groin whereas Sicarius was out there dodging enforcers and risking his life blowing up boilers to buy them their requested manslaughter-free diversion.
“Is that…?” the enforcer wondered, lifting the hand that had been gripping his groin toward his chest, as if to give a salute. Confusion crinkled his features, and he turned Pabov.
“I think so.” Pabov had been studying Sespian for several seconds, and he gave a firm nod, then thumped his fist to his chest and bowed. “Sire, we are honored by your presence.”
Only Amaranthe was close enough to hear the relieved sigh that Sespian exuded.
“How may we help you?” Pabov asked.
“I understand you have a unique vehicle that we may be able to borrow,” Sespian said.
Chapter 21
Guided by Sicarius’s hands, the UWMTV crunched over the bumpy rocks and swaying seaweed of the lake bottom, scaring up schools of fish that flitted away posthaste. Amaranthe sat next to Sicarius in the only other seat, peering into the gloom beyond the glass shield bulging from the front of the globe-shaped vehicle. During the slow, underwater trek from Markworth back to Marblecrest island, she hadn’t spotted anything stranger than an eel with two tails, but they’d picked up the rest of the team and were heading for the boundaries of Forge’s “mining rights” territory now. Who knew what they might see? She hoped they had the time they needed to explore. Pabov had sworn not to mention the team’s visit to the enforcers when they returned, but the promise of the man Amaranthe had bruised had been less heartfelt.
A soft clunk came from behind her chair.
“This is intolerable,” Books said. “Someone’s ludicrous pink hat feather keeps jabbing me in the nose.”
“This isn’t a pleasant experience for me either,” Maldynado said. “When was the last time you washed that armpit you have thrust in my face?”
“My armpit wouldn’t be so close if you weren’t taking up so much room. Did you have to eat three servings of Basilard’s meal?”
“Yes, those were the most excellent eel filets I’ve ever had. And I don’t know what those dumpling things were, but they were also fabulous.”
Though the men had insisted on it, Amaranthe felt guilty sitting in a seat while Yara, Sespian, and the rest of the team crowded the specimen-storage area behind her. Shoulder-to-shoulder and backs bent, they were constantly clunking body parts against the exposed pipes and the overhead hatch. Weapons and rucksacks full of lanterns, rope, and other gear they’d salvaged from the steamboat further cluttered the space. Only Basilard had arm-room, but he’d had to volunteer for the task of cranking the human-powered engine to receive it. Interestingly, Sergeant Yara, who stood on Maldynado’s other side, hadn’t voiced any complaints about “touching.”
“The dumplings were good,” Sespian said, speaking for the first time since everyone had crammed into the vessel.
Basilard paused his cranking for long enough to offer a half bow to his peers.
Though he could barely move his arms in the limited space, Sespian hesitantly signed, You good chef.
Basilard’s eyes widened. That must have been the first time Sespian signed something to him. It tickled Amaranthe to see that he’d been paying attention and trying to learn some of the hand code. After Basilard’s surprise wore off, he offered another half-bow, this time to Sespian alone.
“We’re entering the trapezoidal area,” Sicarius said.
Amaranthe faced front again though she hoped Sicarius had seen the exchange-in particular that Sespian was willing to get to know even the most brutish-looking member of the group. Granted, Basilard had a gentle soul beneath the scars, but the fledging camaraderie ought to give Sicarius hope.
Sicarius nudged the vehicle to the left, toward a wide, dark area in the lake floor.
“How well do you know these waters, Maldynado?” Amaranthe asked.
“I swam and fished out here as a kid, but, as far as I know, nobody in the family has been down since I was twelve or thirteen. More than fifteen years.”
“You never explored beneath the surface?” Amaranthe leaned forward as their vehicle’s treads rolled closer to the dark area. Fish and eels swam through the light seeping down from above.
“No diving suits in the boathouse,” Maldynado said.
“You mean you didn’t go spelunking in any caves down here?” Akstyr snickered.
When more snickers answered his, Amaranthe peered over her shoulder at the tightly packed men. Books and Basilard wore identical smirks. Maldynado rolled his eyes upward while a blush colored Yara’s cheeks.
“I think we missed a joke,” Amaranthe told Sicarius.
Without bothering to glance at the men, Sicarius lifted a hand from the throttle. “We can’t go farther in this craft.”
They had crawled to the lip of a drop-off. A sharp drop-off. Utter blackness lay below. The bottom might be dozens of feet down or hundreds. It reminded Amaranthe of the area in the lake back home that had hidden that underwater laboratory.
“No chance of exploring down there?” Amaranthe asked.
“This is pure imperial technology,” Books said, “with no magical enhancements. It appears to have been designed for operation in the lake’s littoral zone. The increased water pressure beyond more than fifty or one hundred feet down could result in leaks.”