Sicarius stepped into view on the dock. He lowered a hand toward her. Amaranthe accepted it, letting him pull her up beside him. Akstyr was sticking halfway out of their vehicle, staring at the downed men on the ledge.
He turned his stare to Sicarius. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Without comment, Sicarius jogged off the dock and circled around to check the men. No, not to “check” them. To verify that they were dead and to pull his throwing knives out of their chests.
“He popped up and threw all four at once,” Akstyr said. “Two in each hand. I didn’t know that was possible.”
Sicarius gave Amaranthe a look, like he might be concerned that she’d chastise him for the deaths, but how could she? He’d likely saved her life-as usual-and he’d even kept the men from firing. She had no idea how far away this meeting place was, but she doubted it was so distant that people there wouldn’t hear gunshots fired in the parking pool.
“See if there’s anyone else nearby that we need to worry about, please,” Amaranthe told Sicarius.
He continued along the ledge toward a pair of tunnels. The underwater cavern had a twelve-or fifteen-foot ceiling, all chipped and hewn by tools rather than by nature. Gold-gilded lamps burned on the walls and in holders on the dock, spreading light about the chamber. At least twenty other submarines, or other types of underwater conveyances, were tied up in the wide pool, a variety of hatch styles and paint jobs on display in the portions that peeped above the water.
Someone jostled Akstyr from below.
“As much as we appreciate the view of your scrawny backside,” Maldynado called up, “we’d like to get out.”
Akstyr scrambled onto the dock.
“Be careful climbing up here,” Amaranthe said. “Whatever that thing in the water is, it finds humans tasty.”
“Joy,” Books said.
As the men were climbing out, a creak sounded behind Amaranthe. A hatch lifted, and a pair of eyes came into view. She dropped to a knee and aimed the pistol between those eyes.
“Nothing going on out here, friend,” she said, guessing this was someone’s servant or pilot left behind to watch the craft. “I suggest you lower that hatch and forget you saw us.”
The eyes sank out of view. Clanks drifted from within the man’s craft, as he not only shut himself in but bolted a lock or two.
“I have to say you’re looking particularly grim and serious today, boss,” Maldynado said.
He and the others were lined up on the dock behind her. Everyone carried weapons, Sespian included. Her team looked ready for a fight.
“It’s been a grim couple of weeks,” Amaranthe said. “Sire, any orders? Is there a way you have planned to go about this?”
“Planned?” Sespian pushed a hand through his pale brown hair. “My plans fell over a cliff more than a week ago. I’m still hoping to learn what Forge is up to-besides attempting to kill me and replace me with a warrior-caste puppet-but I don’t know how plausible that is at this point.”
Amaranthe lifted a shoulder. “They didn’t seem to know we were coming. Not these guards anyway. It might be useful to question someone.” She pointed toward the open hatch of their vehicle. “Is the first man still…?”
“He’s alive,” Maldynado said. “Not entirely conscious though. Questioning might be hard.”
“Well, there are only two tunnels.” As long as those two didn’t branch into fifty more, Amaranthe figured they had decent odds of picking one that would lead them to the Forge people. Sicarius had already disappeared into one. “Let’s see what we can find.”
She led the team off the dock. She was about to ask if anyone had seen which tunnel Sicarius had gone down when he emerged from the closest one.
“Lodging, baths, and kitchens are in that direction,” he said.
“Not tents and campfire pits, I’m guessing,” Amaranthe said.
“Forty separate domiciles carved into the stone walls, each with room for servants.”
“Under my family’s island?” Maldynado asked.
“Some of it is under the lake,” Sicarius said.
“It must have taken them years to hollow all of this out. I can’t believe my parents didn’t know. Or, if they knew all along… that’s hard to believe too. How long have these people been scheming?”
“It’s been ten years since I studied under Ms. Worgavic,” Amaranthe said, “and, if she recruited one of my classmates to learn the ancient technology, she must have known about it for at least that long.” At the round of blank looks the men gave her, Amaranthe remembered that she’d spoken of her old teacher only to Sicarius. “I’ll explain later. Forge has been a number of years in the making.”
“I’ll scout ahead,” Sicarius said.
He disappeared into the second tunnel without waiting for an acknowledgment.
“Was that a stay-here order or an invitation to follow?” Sespian asked.
Amaranthe eyed the submarine-filled pool. “Either way, we shouldn’t linger here. Since the guards didn’t shoot us as soon as we popped up, they must have been expecting at least one more party to arrive.”
“Good point.”
Amaranthe led the team into the tunnel Sicarius had chosen. It angled downward. More gold-gilded lamps lined the chiseled black walls, each one worth more than an enforcer’s annual salary. The display of wealth couldn’t take away from the fact that the team was walking through a dank, underground-no, under lake — passage. Dampness clung to the walls, and a musty smell floated in the air. At least the tunnel was tall and broad with an even floor one could have driven a truck over.
As they rounded a bend, Books touched the porous black stone. “You said they’d acquired the mining rights? I haven’t noticed any promising veins.”
“Or promising anything,” Maldynado said. “This place is dreary.”
Up ahead, Sicarius glided out from behind another bend.
“The tunnel slopes steeply downward and ends at two closed double doors,” he said. “There are forty people waiting in a chamber outside, servants, I believe.”
“ Forty?” Amaranthe asked. How were they supposed to sneak past forty people to spy on the meeting? “Any other tunnels that branch off along the way?”
“Many.”
Ugh. Many tunnels was as bad as forty people. Unless there was a handy map somewhere that proclaimed, “Spying Balcony this way,” Amaranthe feared they’d either get lost or spend so much time wandering that someone would notice the missing dock security men.
Sicarius tilted his head, indicating the team should follow. They soon reached the first of the tunnel branches he’d mentioned, and he paused in front of it. “There are four more before the doors. This is the only one that is unlit.”
Amaranthe peered into the darkness. The passage might lead to a secret nobody was meant to explore, or it might lead to a storage closet. Though she didn’t care for the idea of splitting up her team, especially when she had no idea how long these side tunnels might extend, all they needed was for one person to make it within earshot of this meeting.
“Let’s split up,” Amaranthe said. “Maldynado and Yara-”
Sicarius jerked up a hand. Voices drifted down the passage from somewhere ahead, voices that were drawing nearer.
Amaranthe pointed at the tunnel. Never mind. We’ll all check this one.
She hustled into the passage, but Sicarius, before they’d gone beyond the influence of the light, waved the others onward and drew Amaranthe aside.
Do you want me to keep them from reaching the dock?
By tying and gagging them? Amaranthe asked, well aware that these might simply be servants with little to do with their employers’ schemes.
Yes. I will find a dark nook in which to store them.
Only Sicarius would think of a person as something to “store.” So long as he didn’t kill anyone.
Do it, Amaranthe signed.
More aware than ever of the limited time, Amaranthe hurried into the darkness to catch up with the others. After groping around a couple of bends, the walls disappeared on both sides. A draft caressed her cheek. They must have entered a larger space.