“Don’t worry,” Akstyr said. “With Books’s help, I figured that I could stun them with a… uhm, are you squirrelly about the mental sciences?”
“ Sire,” Books whispered.
“Are you squirrelly, Sire?” Akstyr asked.
“Though I don’t have much experience in such matters, I’ve read many of the files in the Imperial Intelligence Office, and I’m aware of reports suggesting the human brain is capable of more than Turgonians officially believe and acknowledge.”
Akstyr gave him a blank look.
“Not squirrelly, no,” Sespian said.
“Good.” Akstyr held a tiger-striped sphere up to one of several lanterns placed around the bed, adding to the light that flowed in through a pair of portholes. “I’ve been practicing on the ones we filched from the shaman’s cave.”
Sespian leaned close to study the details of the small but intricate sphere. “Hard to believe such an insignificant-looking device could kill a person.”
A tiny barb sprang from the surface, and Sespian jerked backward. Sicarius stirred at Amaranthe’s side, and she imagined him springing to Sespian’s defense, should the need arise. It seemed Akstyr was merely showing off a… feature though.
“Slicker than a greased prick, isn’t it?” Akstyr asked.
Books leaned out of his chair to cuff him. “Don’t say things like that in front of the emperor.”
Akstyr rolled his eyes.
“And say Sire,” Books whispered, as if Sespian weren’t right there, watching their exchange. Fortunately, a hint of a smile touched the emperor’s lips.
“Slick, isn’t it, Sire?” Akstyr asked.
“I’ve translated the shaman’s notes to determine how they work,” Books said, launching into his best lecturing professor tone. “There are four of these prongs in each sphere. If someone tries to remove the device from the victim’s flesh-”
“Me,” Sespian said.
“Ah, yes, you. If someone tries to remove it prematurely, the device attaches to the jugular, and the barbs spring out like that.” Books pointed to the protrusion on the sphere. “The barbs pierce your vein, and poison flows into your bloodstream. It’s a near-instantaneous process. The poison induces a seizure, and the victim dies within seconds.”
Sespian was staring, transfixed, at the barb.
“Why don’t you skip to telling him how we’re going to remove it?” Amaranthe suggested.
Sespian tore his gaze from the sphere. “A splendid idea.”
“I couldn’t figure out how to destroy them or turn one off,” Akstyr said, “but I have managed to stun some of them for several seconds.”
“ Some?” Sespian asked.
“Four out of five.” Akstyr shrugged. “Those’re good odds, aren’t they? Each one is a little different. They’re machines but individual hand-Made artifacts too.”
“Magical,” Sespian said for clarification.
“If you insist on using that ignorant Turgonian word, I suppose.”
“ Sire,” Books hissed. “And don’t question the emperor’s education, which I’m certain is far superior to yours.”
Sespian lifted a hand. “It’s all right. I prefer straight talk here. Akstyr, what happens after you stun it?”
“I’ll have to keep concentrating to make sure it doesn’t wake up, so someone else will cut open your neck, dig around in there, and pry it out.”
Amaranthe winced at Akstyr’s bluntness. Surely that had to be straighter talk than anyone would want.
“I see,” Sespian said. “And who will be wielding the knife?” He didn’t look at Sicarius. In fact, he seemed to be making a point of not looking at Sicarius, as if he feared that someone might have already chosen him, but by pretending he wasn’t there, Sespian could change the outcome.
“You’ll want our swiftest, most agile person with a blade, Sire,” Amaranthe said and tilted her head toward Sicarius.
“I’ll try to stun it real fast, so it doesn’t start moving around,” Akstyr said, “but it has this reflex to burrow deeper when there’s a chance it’ll be discovered.”
Sespian lay back on the bed, and Amaranthe wondered if he was thinking it’d be better to take his chances and leave the implant in there. If he decided that, she’d have to try and talk him out of it. With the shaman gone, there wasn’t likely anyone better around than her team for this surgery.
“All right,” Sespian said. “Let’s do it. I’m going after Forge people, so it’d be better if they didn’t have this control over me, or the ability to see me coming.”
That hint of what his mission was made Amaranthe want to grab his arm and wheedle details out of him, but the surgery had to be the first priority. Afterward, she could-
“Company’s coming,” Maldynado bellowed from the cargo hold.
Amaranthe groaned. What was he doing in there? Maldynado should be in the navigation room with Yara. Books, after grudgingly acknowledging that his expertise might be needed for translations during the surgery, had given them a flying lesson.
When Amaranthe opened the door, Sicarius lifted his head, a question in his eyes.
“You, Akstyr, and Books have a job to do,” Amaranthe told him. “Stay here. The rest of us will buy you the time you need.” She hoped that sounded half as confident as she meant for it to sound.
“Understood,” Sicarius said.
Amaranthe slipped into the corridor and trotted to the cargo hold. Maldynado had both hands pressed against the exterior hatch, his face close to the porthole in the center. When he saw Amaranthe, he stepped back and pointed. A dark dome was flying above the mountains behind them. Though daylight had come, it did nothing to alleviate the inky blackness of the craft.
“How far until we get out of the mountains?” Amaranthe asked.
“We’ve been cruising along to the northwest all night,” Maldynado said, “and we’re almost out, but we have sixty miles of lakes and wetlands to cross before we reach Sunders City.”
“If we can make it to the populated areas on the outskirts of town, they might veer off. You’d think that monstrosity would be something they’d want to keep a secret from people.”
“That’d still be fifty miles.” Maldynado stabbed a finger at the porthole. “They’ve gotten closer, just while we’ve been talking. There’s no way they won’t catch up with us.”
“I don’t suppose there’s a chance they’re just flying in the same direction as we are and haven’t seen us yet?” Amaranthe murmured.
“About as much chance as there is of Sicarius joining us for drinks, whoring, and bouts of unbridled laughter after the mission is over.”
“Us?” Amaranthe asked. “You think there’s a chance of me joining you for that?”
“You’d be more likely to do it than him.”
“I… think it’s safer if I neither agree nor disagree with that.” Convinced the trailing craft was only going to get bigger instead of smaller, Amaranthe spun a slow circle, taking in everything in the cargo bay. “We still have half a box of blasting sticks,” she mused.
“Unfortunately, they’re in here and the enemy is way out there. Not only did Lady Buckingcrest betray us by sending along ambushers, but she gave us a tub with no weapons. Unbelievable. Pleasuring a woman all night doesn’t count for as much as it used to.”
Amaranthe hadn’t mentioned Books’s hypothesis that Maldynado might somehow be behind the stowaways and the fact that this black craft had found them in the first place. She trusted Maldynado and couldn’t believe he would betray her. Besides, if by some remote chance he was a spy, wouldn’t he have arranged things so that he wouldn’t be on the dirigible when it was attacked?