“Or maybe…” Em ran down, which relieved Tej of the urge to slap her silent. But for a snap decision on Dada’s part, it would have been Em out there with their youngest brother, Tej reminded herself.
Ivan Xav hesitated, then said, “Couldn’t you use the Mycoborer to tunnel out?”
Tej was briefly thrilled with her Barrayaran husband’s simple genius, but Grandmama frowned; she said, “It consumes oxygen as well…at a rate of…hm.”
“Don’t bother trying to calculate it,” sighed Amiri. “The box is back at the entryway with the rest of our supplies.”
A sickly silence. All around.
“How many cold lights do we have?” asked Pearl, patting her pockets. She came up with a single spare.
This triggered a general inventory. Most of the Arquas were carrying one or two extras; Ivan Xav harbored a double-dozen, plus a couple he quietly palmed to an inside pocket when almost no one else was looking.
“Rather a lot,” the Baronne concluded. “But space them out. Don’t start any others till the ones we have run down.”
The eight cold lights presently providing their bright chemical glow made the lab seem a well-lit workspace. Tej imagined it with only one or two, and the word that rose in her mind was haunted. And not just with all the history.
“Water?” said Pidge, and gestured inarticulately when Tej gave her a look. “I mean water that’s safe to drink.”
“I might find something to filter some,” said Grandmama. “Boil…no, likely not.”
“We brought plenty of food to keep everyone going all night,” said Pearl glumly. “Too bad it’s all back at the entrance with everything else.”
Em swallowed, and said, “Air…? These walls are pretty tightly sealed.”
Perfectly sealed, as Tej understood it, except for their new door and maybe the old one, filled with rubble.
“The rooms are rather large,” said Amiri, his voice thin with a worry that undercut the actual sense of his words. “And there are two of them.”
“And the tunnel,” said Tej. “And…there might be some oxygen exchange through the surface of the water out there?”
“Works till we have to seal the door on it,” said Pidge. “But there are twelve of us in here breathing.”
Quite a few Arqua gazes swiveled to Imola, still sitting on the floor beside his unconscious hirelings and listening in growing horror.
“Nine would last longer,” said Pearl, tentatively.
“Premature,” growled Dada, “though tempting. Very tempting.”
“Yes, but if we were going to do it at all, sooner is better than later,” argued Pidge, in a tone that attempted to simulate lawyerly reason. Tej was almost glad that she quavered a little.
“Nevertheless,” said the Baronne. Her tone was cool; her gaze calculating; her word mollifying; yet Imola shrank from her more than he had Pidge. No quaver there.
“Those two,” choked Imola, with an abrupt gesture at his snoring followers. “You could have those two.” He contemplated the inert forms, then offered, as if by way of a selling point, “They’d never know…”
“I’ll be sure to mention you said so,” purred Dada, “when they wake up.” He strolled away to look over the contents of the chamber some more; scouting for ideas, Tej suspected, rather than treasure. Dada had never run short of ideas that she knew of; he merely made more.
Ivan Xav looked at Imola and just shook his head. He leaned over and murmured to the man, “Look on the bright side. With all these other constraints, it’s unlikely we’ll have time to work around to the cannibalism.” He bared his teeth in an unfriendly smile.
Imola flinched.
“Still, probably better not to indulge in, um, too much heavy exercise,” Amiri offered. “Just…sit or move quietly.”
“Mm,” said Pearl. She and Pidge moved off to poke, quietly, though a few more boxes. Opening presents seemed a lot less riveting now than it had been at first.
Tej was watching Ivan Xav running his fingers along the side of a bin, lips moving as he estimated the number of papers packed inside, when a sharp scrape, a loud pop, a dull yellow flash of light, and a yelp rising to a screech whipped her head around.
Pearl had pried open the top of some ornately-enameled bottle that she’d unearthed, which had exploded. Whatever liquid it contained had splashed upon her black jacket, dancing with blue and yellow flames. She recoiled, flung the bottle away, and leaped aside.
“Pearl, don’t run, don’t run!” Ivan Xav bellowed. Pearl, mouth open and astonished, only had three steps to do just that before Ivan Xav brought her down. “Drop and roll, roll!”
His cry pierced Pearl’s shock; she overcame her flight reflex as he shoved her to the floor and pressed her flat, smothering the acrid conflagration before it could do more than lick her face. Tej jerked toward them, her world gone slow-motion and fast-forward all at once.
Momentarily unwatched, Imola shot to his feet, ripped off the lid from another bin of papers, flung them toward the spreading oil-or-chemical fire, and pelted out the door.
Ivan Xav lurched to his knees and took in this new hazard with eyes sprung wide as Grandmama hastened toward Pearl, sweeping off her coat. The narrow-necked bottle had not broken, but it had spun, trailing the lethal liquid it contained in a flammable spiral. He lunged, grabbed the emptied bin, and upended it hastily over the wobbling bottle, the scribble of oil, and a few fluttering papers that had just reached it. With an ugly flicker, the flames trapped underneath sank and died.
Tej took her second breath. By the time the flush of adrenaline racing through her blood threatened to blow off the top of her head, it was all over.
Ivan Xav, holding the bin down as if it would fight him, shoved himself up, wheezing. He climbed to the top of this new pedestal and stood glaring around the room at the various Arquas, frozen with surprise or hurrying. Grandmama wrapped her coat around Pearl, finishing the job of containment, and a frightened Amiri knelt at her side, checking for damages.
Ivan Xav drew a long breath, and-goodness, he could yell. “Could you people stop trying to come up with novel ways to kill me for just one hour? Or maybe the rest of the night? I would so like that. Just the rest of the night. Just sit down. Just stop doing anything. Sit down and wait sensibly. Earth, water, air, fire-you’re running out of elements, here!”
Amiri looked very impressed by this ringing baritone rant. Grandmama…looked less impressed, if perhaps sympathetic. Rising from Pearl’s side and helping her up, she observed, “In some Old Earth mythologies there was imagined to be a fifth element-metal, as I recall.”
Ivan Xav said through his teeth, “That was a rhetorical remark, not a bloody suggestion.” But he stepped down off his podium and his ire into Tej’s frantic clutch, nonetheless. None of the horrific stuff seemed to have splashed onto him, her shaking fingers found. His hand covered hers, closing it to his chest and stilling the shakes. His jaw unclenched, and he buried his face in her hair.
Dada and the Baronne had clambered through the obstacle course of boxes and crates from the other end of the room. The Baronne’s face was gray; Dada’s, more greenish. The Baronne went to Pearl, and Dada to the aperture to stare out angrily into the utter darkness where his enemy had vanished. Ivan Xav and Tej came over to his side.
Dada ground his teeth, muscles jumping in his jaw. “You were down there. Dead end, you said. Should we chase him?” he inquired of Ivan Xav.
“I wouldn’t bother,” said Ivan Xav, mouth almost equally stiff. “Either he’ll come back on his own, in which case we may as well save our breaths, or he’ll drown himself trying to get out. Thus saving the exertion of cutting his throat, or whatever. I’m for damn sure not willing to sacrifice any more oxygen for his sake.”
“Well, if he doesn’t come back before we have to put the door up, I vote we don’t go look for him,” growled Amiri. Tej could only nod in dark agreement.
Dada gave Ivan Xav a sideways look. “You were very quick, there. And…correct.”