“Who’s that?” Mahliki asked.
Guessing it was neither her father nor the sixty-something General Ridgecrest who had caught her eye, nor-sorry, Books-her fit but graying scholar, Amaranthe said, “Sespian.”
He wasn’t as muscular as Sicarius, but the last few weeks of adventure, along with a natural filling out as he reached the end of his teenage years, had added pounds, none of it fat. Though he might describe himself as bookish-or, bookly, as Maldynado called him-he had his father’s natural athleticism and jogged along with the older men at an easy lope, speaking and gesturing, not at all winded. Though Amaranthe’s tastes had come to favor a certain man with a harder, more chiseled face-and body to match-she had no doubt Sespian would attract any number of young ladies, should he take the time to place himself in their midst.
“The Sespian who was emperor up until recently?” Mahliki asked.
“Yes, that’s him.” Amaranthe decided not to say, and he will be again, for she had no idea how the tile bag would truly shake out. Whatever Books was saying to Starcrest, it was accompanied by enthusiastic gestures.
Starcrest might have been listening earlier, but he lifted a hand toward Books as soon as his gaze encompassed those on the landing. His wife and daughter specifically, Amaranthe guessed, and stepped to the side when he surged ahead, long legs swallowing the remaining meters of catwalk. A wise decision, for she might have been flattened otherwise.
Starcrest enveloped Tikaya in a long fierce hug, then extended the embrace to his daughter as well. “That was quite an explosion,” he said, striving for casual commentary, though his hoarse voice betrayed his feelings. Amaranthe belatedly realized how the destruction of the Behemoth must have appeared to those watching from the ground. From what little she’d seen, packed into the back of that lifeboat, it had been fiery, orange, and enormous in the late afternoon sky. Starcrest must have wondered if his wife had escaped the explosion. “I can only assume the trench-immersion plan was abandoned in favor of a more… complete method?”
“Mother found the immolation button,” Mahliki said dryly.
Books gripped Amaranthe’s arm and pulled her up onto the landing with him and Sespian. He gave her a hug, too, then stood her out at arm’s length to eye her from head to toe. “We’re relieved you survived and seem to be intact.”
Sespian lifted an arm, as if he might offer a hug too, but he settled for gripping her shoulder.
“I’m intact too.” Maldynado propped a fist on his hip.
“Yes, we’re relieved to see you well too,” Books said.
Maldynado squinted suspiciously, expecting some sarcastic addition perhaps, but Books only patted him on the back.
“Everyone in Stumps stopped fighting to stare at the sky,” Sespian said. “It dwarfed the manmade explosions in the mountains and in the city.”
“Yes, I was wondering if anyone here knew anything about those…”
Starcrest hadn’t finished with his reunion-he’d switched to putting a hand on his daughter’s shoulder and asking her a couple of quiet questions-so Amaranthe looked to Ridgecrest instead. The one-eyed general was leaning against the railing, his arms folded across his chest, the accompanying frown making it an aggressive posture. He grunted at Amaranthe’s comment, but didn’t offer anything more conclusive.
“Come,” Starcrest said, pulling Tikaya and Mahliki onto the landing and pointing toward an office door. “We have much to discuss.”
As the group filed into the office, Books walked beside Amaranthe and whispered, “I’ve been telling him all about my treatise.”
“Has he been listening?” she asked.
“In between reports from his men, yes.”
One of those men thundered up the stairs behind the group, pushing Amaranthe and the others aside to reach Starcrest. “My lord!” The young man’s heels clacked together and he thumped his fist to his chest.
Starcrest’s hand twitched, as if he meant to return the salute, but he stopped himself, opening his palm instead. “Yes?”
Though he’d found a pair of black army fatigues that fit him, he was neither in the military any more nor a Turgonian subject. Nobody should have been saluting or “my lord”ing him, but none of the soldiers Amaranthe had crossed while in his presence acted as if these missing credentials mattered.
“Captain Greencrest reports that the-” for the first time he glanced at all the additional people in the room, “-the items have been secured in their new location.”
“Thank you, Private. Let Colonel Stonecrest know.”
“Yes, my lord.” The private spun on his heel and rushed out.
“Items?” Ridgecrest rumbled. “He talking about the rice?”
“I assume so,” Starcrest said.
Amaranthe perked. “We saw the granaries blow up. The professor suggested that might be… is that our doing? And if so, why?” She didn’t manage to keep all of the anguish out of her voice, though she told herself to be patient and wait for an explanation.
“You saw it?” Starcrest tilted his head curiously. “From the ship?”
“We’ve seen a lot,” Tikaya said, “and collected a great deal of data on troop positioning, movements, and… allies. Rather I should say, Corporal Lokdon did. I was searching for that-” she glanced at her daughter, “-immolation button.”
Mahliki had been stealing glances at Sespian, but marshaled her attention to the conversation at her mother’s look. Amaranthe shrugged off her rucksack and dug out the journal full of notes she’d made. She handed it to Starcrest.
He accepted it and waved to the chairs. “Sit. Let me get you caught up.”
That “you” was more for his wife, Amaranthe sensed, but his wave did include her and Maldynado. They dragged chairs around the tables, and she ended up between Sespian and Books. Good, if Starcrest didn’t answer her questions, she could interrogate them for details. If the jog was an indicator, they’d insinuated themselves into the inner circle.
“We are responsible for the explosions at the aqueducts, the granaries, the freighter docks, and two of the main railroads,” Starcrest said. “It will appear to the public that food stores and water supplies have been devastated. We did destroy the main lines by which more food can be brought into Stumps, though the railways were attacked in such a way that repairs should not be extensive for a competent team of combat engineers. The Blue Bluff Bridge was in abysmal condition anyway and wouldn’t have passed an inspection I led.”
Amaranthe couldn’t believe that in the middle of admitting to being responsible for all of this destruction, he sounded genuinely affronted at the condition of the bridge, a bridge he’d ordered blown up. Or blew up in person. What exactly had he been doing in the night and day her team had been gone?
“Appear?” Maldynado asked, his usual baritone on the squeaky side.
“The food in the granaries was moved overnight, before the explosions, and it is safe,” Starcrest said. “The aqueducts were not, in fact, damaged, insofar as their capabilities to deliver water. We blew up the auxiliary line, which is widely believed to be the main and only line, and have only temporarily dammed the flow.”
“How do you know that wasn’t the main line?” Amaranthe remembered her thought that Sicarius, having been part of the team that had researched the underground water passages for their mission the year before, had told Flintcrest. But if Flintcrest and Sicarius had had nothing to do with all this… “That’s secret information, I understand. Or…” She faced Sespian. “Did you know about it?”