“I see,” Sicarius said.
She might have imagined the stiffness in his tone, but she gave him a quick hug anyway, just in case he thought him being… him bothered her.
“Just stand at his side protectively,” Amaranthe said. “With the way this night has gone, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a chance to save his life sometime soon. That might do more to endear you to him than words.” Especially words that could be misconstrued as an interest in cannibalism, she thought. “It’s hard not to come to appreciate someone who saves your life.”
Sicarius folded his arms across his chest. Just because he had asked for her advice earlier that night didn’t mean he wanted it all the time now.
Amaranthe lifted a hand to let him know she was done and inspected the chamber. Here, the tunnel walls remained intact, though spider webs of cracks and fissures left her suspecting they were none too stable. She took the lantern and walked a ways, but found Sicarius was correct. A solid wall of rubble blocked the passage from floor to ceiling. For all she knew, it might extend all the way to the far end of the tunnel. There were a few crevices wide enough that she could slip into them-if she turned sideways and was willing to mash important female protrusions-but they didn’t look like they went anywhere.
“You checked these?” Amaranthe asked.
“Yes.”
“And they dead end?”
“Yes.”
Amaranthe walked back to the center of the chamber and lifted the lantern to study the ceiling. Cracks streaked across the cement up there as well. Another blast from the enemy craft might send the entire tunnel crumbling down upon their heads. Uneasy thought that, but she hadn’t heard anything of the sort since the initial cave-in.
“We have a steam engine at our disposal,” Amaranthe mused, “if we can dig it out. I wonder if we could somehow use it to build a drill and go up. No, even if we had the tools to create something like that, there’s probably a hundred feet of rock above us, maybe more. It’d take months, and tons of explosives, which leads me to wonder what that craft could have possibly been tossing at the cliff to bring down the tunnel.”
She leaned toward Sicarius and raised her eyebrows. Before, he’d been focused on getting the train into the tunnel, so she could understand him not answering her questions, but surely they had nothing better to do right now than discuss this new enemy.
“I’ve saved your life several times,” Sicarius said.
“Uh… yes, you have.” That was not what she’d been hinting for him to bring up with her ascending eyebrows.
“Is that why you… appreciate me?”
Ah, her advice. “Well, we know it’s not your tongue that’s won me over.” Amaranthe meant the comment to be flippant or teasing, but tongue had perhaps not been the best word, because it brought to mind the night he’d kissed her in the Imperial Garden. A flush heated her cheeks. She hoped the poor light hid it. “I mean, the way you talk. Or don’t talk. It’s just… a lot of things, all right? A girl appreciates it when…” A handsome man with muscles honed like a steel blade takes her in his arms and… No, no, Amaranthe told herself, concentrate on the current predicament. “We’ll discuss it later. Right now, I need to know everything you know about that craft. You’re obviously familiar with the technology. Why all the secrecy?” There, that was much safer than discussing tongues and appreciation. And more pertinent to the matter at hand as well.
Sicarius watched as she fumbled through her response, one of his eyebrows elevating slightly. From him, it was a lot of expression, but she could only wonder at his thoughts. He probably read hers all too well.
“I was sworn to silence on the matter,” Sicarius finally said.
“By whom?”
“Hollowcrest, Raumesys, and Lord Artokian, the Imperial Historian.”
Amaranthe was ready to brush off the first two names-after all, Sicarius had killed Hollowcrest; how much loyalty could he feel to the man’s memory? — but the last one made her pause. “Because whatever you found was so strange, it’d shock the general public if people learned of it?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Sespian must know about it, though, right?”
“Unknown,” Sicarius said. “The artifacts the marines brought back from the expedition to the Northern Frontier ought to be in the Imperial Barracks somewhere, but Sespian, despite having seen my knife before, seemed startled by its capabilities when I lodged it in the floor.”
“What happened in the Northern Frontier? And why were you along on an ‘expedition’ up there?”
“A team of archaeologist pirates was attempting to uncover ancient advanced technology to use against the empire. I was sent to make sure they did not succeed.”
“ Ancient advanced technology?” Amaranthe asked. “How would that be possible? I know there are some lost civilizations out there, but technology is at its peak now, isn’t it? If there’d been a time when humanity had greater means than we have today, I’m sure I would have heard about it in school. Or Books would have brought it up in one of his unsolicited lectures.”
“Humanity is at its peak, yes,” Sicarius said. “This wasn’t human technology.”
“Er, what?”
“The archaeologist working on deciphering the foreign language wasn’t there willingly and didn’t share all of her findings, but, based on the artifacts we returned with and the details the marines and I reported, the Imperial Historian judged that the technology was derived from one of two possible sources. The first suggestion was that the work came from a race that lived in the world so long ago that almost all sign of them has been lost.”
“Huh. And the second possibility?”
“Extraterrestrial beings.”
Amaranthe snorted. “When I told you to start making jokes, I meant for you to do it in front of Sespian, so he could see that you have a sense of humor.”
Sicarius’s face was the epitome of seriousness.
“Truly? You’re telling me aliens from outer space brought that knife here-” Amaranthe waved toward his sheathed blade, “-and gave it to you?”
“Whichever theory is true, the creators of the technology disappeared from our world long ago. Some of their artifacts remain, and they are extremely dangerous. Floating boxes this large-” Sicarius outlined a one-foot square with his hands, “-killed numerous marines by incinerating them.”
“You saw this with your own eyes?”
“They tried to incinerate me as well.”
“Oh,” Amaranthe said.
“I heard the archaeologist talking with Starcrest, and-”
“Wait, Starcrest? Fleet Admiral Starcrest? The legendary naval strategist?”
“Yes,” Sicarius said.
“Who was the archaeologist?”
“A professor from Kyatt,” Sicarius said. “Tikaya Komitopis.”
The name was familiar, and Amaranthe wriggled her fingers in the air as she tried to place it. “The cryptanalyst who cracked all our encryption codes during the Western Sea Conflict?”
“Yes. She believed these boxes were simple cleaning machines designed to eliminate trash.”
Amaranthe blew out a slow breath. It wasn’t that she hadn’t believed Sicarius exactly, but having two such significant historical figures contributing to the research did seem to lend more credence to the story.
“This flying craft,” Amaranthe said, “is something that was brought back from the expedition?”
“No. We went to a remote area only accessible by dog sled. Nothing large was retrieved.”
“Then someone got it later.”
“The marine captain in charge of the expedition blew up the entrances to the tunnels afterward. Regardless, everything was in the middle of a mountain. Even if such a large craft had been inside, it never could have been flown out.”
“So where did that thing come from?” Amaranthe asked.
“Unknown. Perhaps an archaeological expedition unearthed another site with ruins from the ancient civilization, and Forge learned of it.”