“Just look at the picture.” Akstyr tapped thepage.
Several yellow dots were sprinkled around ahomely brown root with more kinks and snarls than a hair ball.
“That’s the powder that was on the cork?” sheasked. “It comes from that root?”
“This might be the powder,” Akstyrsaid. “I’m…not real experienced at identifying things yet.”
“An understatement.” Books massaged histemple.
“If this is the right powder, the root it’smade from can make you sleepy if you eat it. But wizards havetinkered with it, and there’s a recipe here for enhancing itseffects, so it can knock someone out completely.”
“Is it put in food or water?” Amarantheasked.
“It can be, but it’s so fine that people havealso made blow tubes and breakable capsules for distributing it inthe air. Breathing it can be enough to knock you out.”
“So, it’s Nurian?” Amaranthe thought ofArbitan Losk. Was it possible another Nurian had come to thecapital with a plan to disrupt the empire? Or to get at the emperorsomehow? Tradition mandated he would be at the final days of theImperial Games, and there was that dinner…. She did not know howdisappearing athletes might be used against him though. Couldsomeone be getting the competition out of the way so a particularloyal athlete would make it to the end to get close to the emperor?For an assassination attempt? But, if so, why bother to kidnap somany people, across multiple events?
“Maybe.” Akstyr tossed his head, flickinghair out of his eyes. Thanks to his errant experiments, it had thesame snarls and tangles as the root today. “Maybe not. The root isfrom the Nurian continent, but it’s actually the Kyattese that madethe powder and have done most of the experimenting with it.”
“They wouldn’t attack the empire, though,”Amaranthe said. “Or would they? They’re supposedly a peaceful folkwith academic tendencies, but we did try to conquer them a coupleof decades ago. Could they be harboring thoughts of revenge?”
Akstyr looked around. “Are you still talkingto me? ‘Cause I dunno about that stuff.”
“No, just thinking out loud. Books?” sheasked, thinking to draw him into the conversation-he had wanderedaway and seemed to be looking for a cloth for his cut.
“Anyone home?” Maldynado’s voice came fromthe distance.
Amaranthe winced at the loudness of it.
“We’ve got news for-ouch!”
She jogged out of the dead end to findSicarius standing before Maldynado and Basilard. Maldynado wasclutching his shoulder.
“Lower your voice,” Sicarius said. “Enforcersare nearby.”
“You could have started with that instead ofthrowing a rock at me,” Maldynado muttered. He spotted Amarantheand said, “Mancrest wants to meet with you.”
Sicarius glared. Maldynado was lucky he hadwaited until after the rock throwing to deliver thisinformation.
“You arranged another meeting for me?”Amaranthe asked. “Are we certain enforcers and army officerbrothers won’t be involved?”
Maldynado thumped his chest. “I setthe meeting place this time. Tomorrow night, Pyramid Park. Nobodycould possibly ambush you there.”
She snorted and looked at Sicarius, thinkingof their first meeting. He hadn’t exactly ambushed her, but he hadappeared behind her as if by magic. She still did not know how hehad gotten there without using the only set of stairs leading tothe top. He appeared to be too busy glaring at Maldynado to askjust then.
“All right,” Amaranthe said. “Did hesound…interested in hearing more from me? Did you arrange thingsagain, or was it his idea?”
“His idea,” Maldynado said. “He wants to talkabout the kidnappings, but he sounded interested in you. And wantedyou to leave Sicarius at home.” Maldynado winked. “I think youcharmed him. Maybe he’s ready to take you to dinner.”
If Sicarius’s glare grew any frostier, itwould leave icicles dangling from Maldynado’s lashes. Or perhaps anice spear thrust between his eyes.
“It’s likely another trap,” Sicarius toldAmaranthe.
“This Mancrest thing isn’t the priority now,”Amaranthe said. Eager to change the subject, she added, “I’d likeyou gentlemen to get out of the boneyard before the enforcers amblethrough. Please assist Books and Akstyr in their research. Sicariusand I have something to do tonight and may be back late.”
“Nothing that will make Deret jealous, Ihope.” Maldynado snickered, as if he had made some fabulousjoke.
The building trembled as a locomotive rumbledinto the station down the street. From the darkness of The BrewedPuppy rooftop, Amaranthe watched a tenement building across thestreet while she waited for Sicarius to join her. The stench ofburning meat wafted up to her, mingling with an omnipresent thickyeasty smell oozing from the building’s pores, and Amaranthe judgedthe old woman’s dismal opinion of the eating house’s quality to beaccurate.
With her elbows propped on a low wall and aspyglass raised to her eye, she checked each window, searching fora man with a woman and two young boys. She did not know if shewould recognize Raydevk based on a vague memory of the man’sfather, but if she found the right combination of people…
She paused. Could that be it? Beyond athird-story window, a woman sat, knitting on a couch in aclutter-filled, one-room flat. Toys littered the floor at her feet.While Amaranthe was trying to judge if the carved wood blocks andautomata represented boys’ or girls’ playthings, two youngstersscampered into view from behind a room partition formed byfurniture draped with clothing. They chased each other around thewoman’s chair, but an upraised hand and word from her halted that.She thrust a finger toward another clutter-partition, this one witha curtain hanging on a rod to delineate a door. The childrendisappeared into the dark space. Their sleeping area, Amarantheassumed.
Voices sounded below as a couple exited theeating house, and she shifted her elbow to move the spyglass fromher eye. Something gooey made her sleeve stick. She drew her armback with a grimace and picked off tar.
She yawned and glanced around her rooftopperch, thinking of Sicarius’s warning to check her surroundingsfrequently. Moonlight gleamed against a stovepipe and providedenough illumination to confirm nothing stirred nearby. No doors ledto the lower levels of The Brewed Puppy-she had climbed up via adrainpipe-and she doubted anyone except Sicarius would sneak up onher. She returned her attention to the brick building across theway.
“Is he there?” came Sicarius’s voice frombehind her.
Amaranthe almost dropped the spyglass.
“Not yet,” she said, putting her back to thewall so she could face him.
It took her a moment to pick him out,standing in the shadows of a chimney. Had he just arrived? Or hadhe been testing her? Seeing if she would notice him before heannounced himself? And why did she always feel like he was an armyinstructor, bent on training her to be a better soldier?
“You found a uniform?” Amaranthe asked.
He glided out of the shadows, soundless, likea haunting ancestor spirit. The moonlight did not reveal the colorof his outfit, but it appeared less dark than his usual black, andshe thought she detected familiar silver piping and buttons. A boxycap covered much of his blond hair.
“Yes,” he said.
She touched his sleeve when he knelt besideher, and her fingers met the familiar scratchy wool of an enforceruniform. She wore hers as well, the only article of clothing shehad retained from her old life.
“Did you…uhm, where’d you find it?”Amaranthe had asked him not to maul anyone for a uniform, though hedid tend to do things his own way.
“Clothesline.”
“Oh, good.” Her hand bumped an enforcer-issueshort sword hanging from his belt. He had not found that ona clothesline, but it was a typical part of the uniform, so shedecided not to ask. She wore one, too, as well as handcuffs. Shepointed at the window she had identified earlier. “I think I’vespotted the wife and children. Maybe we should…interview herbefore the husband gets home.” Yes, “interview” sounded friendlierthan interrogate. “She might know what he’s up to. I can talk toher, see what I can learn, and you can snoop and see what you canlearn.”