Maldynado fell in beside Amaranthe and, as they ran, said, “I’ve got a steamroller running back there.”
“Why?” Amaranthe asked.
“In case we need to roll our way out of here. Over a few corpses of Forge people who stand in our way.”
“That’s macabre.”
“I thought you’d appreciate it given your recent experiences with them.”
Amaranthe hadn’t explained her recent experiences and didn’t want to, but she supposed the men could infer much from her bruises and bandages. “Let’s hope we don’t need-”
“Dead shriveled donkey balls!” came Akstyr’s voice from ahead. “Back, back!”
A scream of surprise-and pain-followed the order. Dread filled Amaranthe’s heart. Yara and Sespian were in front of her, and she tried to push past them, to get to Akstyr, or at least see what was attacking him. But at the same time, Basilard pushed her backward. He had Akstyr slung over his shoulder, and Amaranthe’s feeling of dread increased.
Reading the warning in Basilard’s eyes, she scurried backward. On her way by, she grabbed Maldynado’s arm and propelled him around. “I think it’s time to visit your steamroller.”
“It’s the cubes,” Sespian said, his voice calm despite the chaos. “They shoot out rays of… fire,” he said, though his head shake suggested that wasn’t the right word. There probably wasn’t a right word to explain the technology.
Everyone was running now, save for Akstyr, who bumped and flopped on Basilard’s shoulder. His eyes were open, but pain contorted his face. His shoulder was smoking.
Tending to his wound would have to wait. Amaranthe urged the men to run faster and hoped they wouldn’t end up trapped in a dead-end. Sicarius’s terse warning about the black cubes raced through her head, and she feared that a steam-powered rolling machine wouldn’t be enough of a tool to harm them.
As the team rounded a bend, a flash of crimson streaked out of the darkness. Fortunately, it struck the rock wall instead of hitting one of the men. Amaranthe hunched her shoulders, expecting a spray of shrapnel. But the beam burned into the wall and, instead of blowing away rock, it melted it somehow. When the crimson ray winked out, a gaping black hole remained.
Someone gave her a not-so-gentle shove from behind. Yes, not a good idea to stand and stare while the floating artillery boxes caught up with them.
Maldynado was leading the way now, and Amaranthe sprinted to catch up with him. When they passed the vent they’d used, she sent a scowl at the entrance, one meant for Sicarius, not only for disobeying Sespian’s order, but also for leaving them to deal with these ancestors-cursed cubes by themselves.
Up ahead, the tunnel opened into a chamber, and Maldynado veered to the left. Amaranthe ran in on his heels, the others pounding in after her. Maldynado climbed into the cabin of the steamroller and seemed surprised when Amaranthe popped in right after him.
“Scoot.” She shoved him to the side. There was a control wheel instead of levers. Good, that’d be easy. And the engine and boiler were in front, between the cab and the roller. Also good. So long as she and Maldynado could get out fast enough.
Amaranthe shoved the throttle lever and grabbed the wheel. The steamroller lurched forward more quickly than she expected.
“Emperor’s warts, boss,” Maldynado blurted. “What’re you doing?”
“Driving.” Amaranthe yanked the wheel as far left as it would go and cursed under her breath at how slowly the vehicle lumbered in the desired direction. “Clear the way,” she yelled to the others, though, given the wide-eyed way they were backing up, it might not have been necessary.
If she could reach the entrance with the steamroller before those cubes entered the chamber…
“They’re coming,” Akstyr yelled. “Where’s the back door?”
“There is no back door,” Yara said.
“Maldynado, you dolt,” Books yelled. “You led us into a dead-end!”
In front of the cab, gray plumes of steam escaped the stack. The vehicle picked up speed.
“If this works, be ready to jump out fast,” Amaranthe said.
“If what works?” Maldynado demanded, his hand clenched on the bar supporting the cab roof.
With her eyes focused on the tunnel entrance, Amaranthe didn’t answer. She held her breath, hoping…
They reached the tunnel and turned into it only to smack right into one of those cubes. Amaranthe flinched in surprise but didn’t release the wheel. The cube bounced off the massive roller without being harmed. It leveled itself, and a red hole on its nearest side flared with light. Four more cubes were lined up in the air behind it. Their holes burned with crimson energy as well.
“Get out,” Amaranthe cried. “Now!”
She coiled to jump out the side of the cab, but Maldynado grabbed her, throwing her under his arm like a toddler, and leaped over the seats and out the back of the vehicle.
Crimson beams lanced through the air. Before Maldynado’s feet hit the ground, one of the fiery rays struck the steamroller’s boiler. Even expecting it, Amaranthe was caught off guard by the power of the explosion. The shock wave hammered into her and Maldynado, tearing her away from his grip. She flew through the air and smashed into someone, taking the other person down with her. Locked in a tangle of limbs, they rolled several feet. She came out on top and grimaced when she realized Sespian was the one flattened beneath her.
“Apologies, Sire.” Amaranthe rolled off, hoping he’d spent enough time with the team now that he’d be used to being manhandled by commoners.
“Do many weeks pass without you blowing something up?” Sespian’s tone was light, though the joke didn’t reach his eyes. He was either worried about those cubes or what he’d heard in the meeting. Or both.
“Not many,” Books said, offering both Sespian and Amaranthe a hand up.
Amaranthe checked the tunnel entrance before accepting his help. Dust and smoke clogged the air, and the steamroller had disappeared beneath a pile of rubble. There was no sign of the cubes, but, given the hole she’d seen one incinerate in pure rock, she doubted it would take long for them to burn a way through.
Maldynado pointed at the blocked tunnel. “That was the only way out.”
A drop of water splashed onto Amaranthe’s nose. As she lifted her eyes toward the source, an ominous snap emanated from within the rock above them. A jagged crack ran across the chiseled ceiling from wall to wall. Beads of moisture kissed that jagged line.
Amaranthe could only stare. In the back of her mind, she calculated that, based on the height of that window-ceiling above the crater and the length of the vent they’d crawled down, there had to be thirty or forty feet of rock above them. She hadn’t been thinking of the roof when she’d blocked the tunnel-there hadn’t been time for that.
“Dear ancestors,” Books whispered. He’d noticed the drip and the crack too.
Everyone had noticed, and everyone was staring at the ceiling in as dumbfounded a manner as Amaranthe. More beads were forming and dripping now. No escape, her mind whispered. After all they’d survived, after all her crazy schemes, this was going to be the one that killed them all.
“Get in the vehicles,” Amaranthe said. It was stupid advice. As if the metal roof of some steam wagon could protect them from thousands of tons of rock caving in on their heads.
“In or under?” Maldynado asked.
“It’s not going to matter,” Books said, but, like everyone else, he ran to jump into one of the cabs.
Another crack sounded in the earth above them. The drips turned to a steady stream pouring onto the stone floor.
“Maybe the cave-in will take out our enemies too,” Yara said.
She, Amaranthe, Sespian, and Basilard had climbed into one lorry while the others had leaped into the second. Nobody responded to her comment. It wasn’t much of a consolation. Even if they buried Forge with them, they’d be taking out Sespian too. Who’d be left to spearhead the next iteration of the empire? Some backstabbing relative of Maldynado’s? Amaranthe shook her head. What had she done?