So, they had earned enough notoriety thateveryone who knew Maldynado knew he was a potential avenue to herand Sicarius. She would have to remember that.
Mancrest sipped his wine. “How do you getMaldynado to climb stairs? We used to fence together, and he wasalways too unambitious to put any serious effort into histraining.”
“We aim to be a fit group. It helps withdefeating the evil doers of the world. At the least, it helps ifyou’re fast enough to outrun them. We’re all up well before dawnfor distance work or obstacle courses, and there’s usually weaponstraining in the afternoon or evening.”
Mancrest sputtered and almost spilled hiswine. “You can convince Maldynado to get up before dawn?”
Behind him, Sicarius stirred. He pinnedAmaranthe with a hard stare. Not enthused about her sharinginformation on when and where they trained? She raised her fingersand nodded once. He was right. Mancrest was not someone to betrusted yet.
“I didn’t think even breasts could convincehim to get out of bed before nine,” Mancrest continued, notnoticing her exchange with Sicarius. He did glance at her chest, asif wondering if something special might be going on down there. Uhhuh. Right.
“That’s not how I motivate the men,”Amaranthe said dryly. “And I’m sure it would take someone prettierthan I to finagle them into doing things by that method.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Mancrest smiled for thefirst time. “You’re pretty enough. I’d like to see you with yourhair down. It looks like you have a few waves that don’t want to beconfined.”
“Uhm. Maybe another time when I’m sureescaping soldiers and enforcers won’t be a part of the eveningactivities.”
Mancrest’s smile widened. “Is that a requestfor a second date?”
“Er.” She was rescued from having to avoidSicarius’s gaze by the fact that his eyes were boring into the backof Mancrest’s head. “We’ll see. Why don’t you tell me more aboutyour recent story?” She laid the newspaper on the table betweenthem. “The emperor is going to dine with the winners of all theevents?”
Yes, that was good. Talking about work.Sicarius wouldn’t glare disapprovingly then, right? And maybe shecould even get some useful information out of her new contact.
With that in mind, she spent the rest of thedinner chatting with Mancrest about the Imperial Games and avoidingsuch fraught topics as hair. He had not heard of the kidnappings,so she managed to pique his interest with those tidbits. Though hemade no promises in regard to Forge or retracting stories, by theend of the evening, she had hope that she might make an ally out ofhim one day.
After almost an hour of wandering thegrounds, Basilard and Akstyr found something. Rather Akstyr foundsomething, and Basilard waited while the younger man knelt in thegrass behind the bathhouse examining it.
What is it? Basilard signed.
Head bent low, Akstyr did not see thequestion.
Basilard nudged Akstyr’s arm, drawing theyounger man’s gaze, and repeated himself.
“It’s too dark back here,” Akstyr whispered.“I can’t see your fingers.”
Basilard waved toward a glass globe lanternhanging from a post and took a couple of steps that direction, butAkstyr did not follow. His head was down again, his eyes focused onsome tiny object in his hand. Something magical? That was the onlything Basilard could think of that would explain Akstyr’sfascination-especially since it was too dark to examine much witheyes alone.
He headed to the lantern, figuring Akstyrwould come show him his find sooner or later.
The number of people enjoying the summerevening had dwindled, but people still ambled along the trails.Voices drifted from the men’s and women’s bathhouses every timesomeone opened a door. Athletes strolled back to the barracks inpairs and groups, all friends now, but that would likely changeonce the events started.
The faint scent of blackberries lingered inthe evening air. Basilard patted himself down, found one of hiscollection bags, and followed his nose toward a bramble patch inthe shadows.
Frenzied grunts coming from nearby bushesmade him pause, thinking someone might be embroiled in a battle andneed help. His cheeks warmed when he realized it wasn’t the sort ofbattle from which one wanted to be extricated. He supposed heshould move farther up the path and give the enthusiastic grunterstheir privacy, but a post-coital chuckle made him freeze. Thatlaugh sounded familiar.
Basilard plucked the lantern from its wroughtiron perch and returned to the bushes. He parted the branches,lifted the light, and revealed…
“Oh, hullo, Basilard.” A nude Maldynadopropped himself up on an elbow.
A young woman squealed, snatched agrass-stained towel off the ground, covered herself, and sprintedtoward the women’s barracks. Judging by the speed her long barelegs managed, she was one of the athletes, a rather embarrassedone.
You have the night off? Basilardsigned, an eyebrow raised.
“Not exactly.” Maldynado stood, brushed grassoff himself, and started retrieving clothing. A shoe from under thebush, a belt from the grass, and-how did that shirt get ten feet upin that tree? “The boss sent me to find you fellows and let youknow she’d be late. I hunted all over and didn’t see you. I did seethat exquisite young lady coming out of the baths all by herself,though, and she appeared lonesome so I struck up a conversation,asking if she knew how in the old days women used to compete at theImperial Games to win the eye of eligible warrior-caste bachelors,and did she know I was warrior caste-I left out the part aboutbeing disowned naturally-and would she like to…”
There were times Basilard dearly missedhaving undamaged vocal cords. He would have liked to bark an,“Enough,” to cut Maldynado off. It was bad enough few peopleoutside of his team could understand his sign language, but hisscars and lack of height ensured no Turgonian women looked upon himwith kind-or lascivious-eyes.
Akstyr trotted over, which fortunatelyresulted in Maldynado bringing his story to an end.
“Look.” Akstyr held his hand out, obliviousto the fact Maldynado had yet to find his trousers.
Basilard lifted the lantern, wanting to seewhat had occupied the younger man’s attention so thoroughly. Itlooked like…
“A cork?” Maldynado asked. “You’ve been herefor two hours and that’s all you’ve found?”
“A cork with the residue of something Made,”Akstyr said. “A powder or maybe it was a liquid in a vial. I needto do some research.” He snapped his fingers. “That Nurian book Ihave has a section on potions, powders, and airborne inhalants. Oh,but I’ll need Books to help me translate it. Where is he?” Akstyrlooked around and blinked in surprise when he noticed Maldynado’sstate of undress. “Why are your crabapples hanging out?”
“Crabapples? More like MountainGenerals.” Maldynado made gestures with his hands to denote thesize of the largest local apple.
“Uh, whatever.” Akstyr nodded at Basilard.“Books?”
Back that way, last I saw. Basilardpointed toward the other side of the grounds.
“All right, tell Am’ranthe we may havesomething.” Akstyr waved the cork and jogged off. “I’ll grab himand go back to the boneyard,” he said over his shoulder.
Excited about his find, he sprinted awayalmost as quickly as Maldynado’s conquest had. A nervous threadwove through Basilard’s belly. Akstyr had promised he would sharenothing of their discussion with anyone, but losing track of theyoung man made him uneasy. Also, this left Basilard alonewith…
“So, Bas.” Maldynado slung an arm over hisshoulder. Thankfully, he had located his pants and put them on.“Looks like we found what we needed to find tonight. We ought to beable to head off and have a few drinks now, eh?”
Is Amaranthe still coming?
“Later, I think. She got held up.” Hiseasy-going smile faded. “Deret tried to set up a trap to captureher. He used me to get to her.”
Alarm coursed through Basilard. Is she allright?