Sespian forced himself to stare into Lakecrest’s eyes as he spoke, all the while hating himself for the threats coming out of his mouth. If this was what it took to get his power back from Hollowcrest, he would do it. Later, he could wonder if he had done the right thing.
“I see.” Lakecrest leaned back in his chair and considered Sespian through new eyes. “The real question is not of what I know or don’t know. It’s whether you have the gumption and the wiles to challenge Hollowcrest.”
Sespian withdrew a folded paper from his pocket. He opened it and placed it on the table before his guest. Lakecrest leaned forward. It was Dunn’s now-complete list of men working in Fort Urgot and the Imperial Barracks who were loyal to Hollowcrest. When Lakecrest’s frown gave way to a slack-jawed gape, Sespian felt a thrum of satisfaction in his breast.
“I’ve discovered that Hollowcrest has an appointment that will take him out of the Barracks tonight.” Sespian didn’t know where or with whom, but he could find that out later. “While he’s gone, I’m having all these men arrested. Without their support, Hollowcrest will be easy to oust.” Unless, of course, Hollowcrest already knew what Sespian was doing and had some plan in place to outmaneuver him. The old warthog had seemed distracted the last couple days, but that could be an act. Sespian cleared his throat and forced his mind back to Lakecrest. “If I arrested you, it would leave Urgot without a commander, and it seems a shame to dethrone a man of your experience. If you willingly choose to come to my side, perhaps some of the soldiers in your command could be spared.”
“Spared?” Lakecrest’s frown deepened. “You’re planning on killing the men you arrest?”
Here was where the acting came in. Sespian could not imagine killing anyone in cold blood, whether they were Hollowcrest’s lackeys or not, but… “That is the law, is it not? Traitors are always put to death.”
Lakecrest slumped in the wingback and massaged his jaw. All the while, he stared at Sespian, who did his best to look determined and righteous.
It either fooled Lakecrest, or he was feeling magnanimous, for he said, “It seems the boy has become a man.”
Something that tended to happen naturally when drugs weren’t involved. All Sespian said out loud was, “You’ll join me, then?”
“I shall not impede your plans.”
It was not exactly an endorsement, but it was as much as Sespian had dared hope for.
• • • • •
Drips of melting snow pattered from the eaves of the icehouse. Inside, darkness and layers of sawdust insulated the frozen blocks from a similar demise.
Amaranthe chose to take the warming weather as a positive sign, though that didn’t make her any less nervous. Broom in hand, she was cleaning everything in sight as she rehearsed her words for the meeting.
Sicarius took a break from running a new obstacle course he had set up for himself, and Amaranthe waved him over. He grabbed a jug of water and joined her. His hair stuck up more than usual, but he was otherwise neat in his typical black. If they lived through the mission, she decided to buy him an obnoxiously cheerful shirt. Something in sunflower yellow, perhaps.
The other men were swatting at each other with swords near the back wall. Maldynado was supposedly leading a fencing practice, though copious amounts of chatter punctuated the clanks of metal. All that mattered for the moment was that the others were out of earshot.
“Tonight’s the night,” she told Sicarius. And then winced. Emperor’s teeth, could she have uttered anything more inane?
Predictably, he said nothing.
“There’s something I need to know.” Amaranthe brushed a shred of sawdust off her sleeve. How could she say this without alluding to the note? “Tonight when Hollowcrest shows up…” No, wait, she had to explain why she was doubting him. “Uhm, Mitsy Masters from the Maze said you’re still Hollowcrest’s man and the bounty is just a cover. I don’t believe that, otherwise you wouldn’t need me to help the emperor, because you’d be right there in the Barracks, but I do believe you worked for Hollowcrest in the past and…” I spied on you and read the note where he invited you back. No, couldn’t say that. “Anyway…” She should probably be looking in his eyes. She lifted her gaze but only made it as far as his chin. “I certainly owe you a lot-you’ve saved my life half a dozen times in the last couple weeks-so I’d like to trust you one-hundred percent, but you’re always so reticent and I’m never sure…” Amaranthe took a big breath. “What I need to know is if we’re all out there tonight, me and Hollowcrest and the Forge people, who are you going to back if there’s a physical confrontation?”
Finally, she met his eyes.
If her doubts troubled or insulted him, he did not hint of it. Sicarius returned her gaze without evasion-and without answering.
Swords clashed and laughter sounded on the other side of the icehouse. Between Amaranthe and Sicarius…silence.
Frustrated, she wiggled her fingers in a give-me-something gesture. “Please, Sicarius? I need to know how to plan.”
“I’m not backing anyone,” he said. “My only concern is protecting the emperor.”
“So I should plan this as if you won’t be there?” She struggled to keep the disappointment out of her voice. It wasn’t as if he had ever implied he was doing things for her. From the beginning it had been the emperor’s name that had swayed him to her side. “Very well.”
He turned back toward the obstacle course.
“Are you ever going to tell me what he is to you?” she asked.
Sicarius did not answer.
• • • • •
Amaranthe’s group arrived at the Oak Iron Smelter a half hour before midnight. The huge plant lay dormant, its massive smokestack black against a starry sky. Carts on railroad tracks walled in one side of a huge scrapyard that stretched for a block around the central building. Mountains of raw ore, scrap metal, and coal created snow-covered hills, and she led Books, Akstyr, and Maldynado into the valleys. All four of them carried swords, and Akstyr and Books toted the repeating crossbows taken from the enforcers. Sicarius had disappeared with the remaining crossbow before they arrived.
Amaranthe had left the majority of the counterfeit bills behind, stored amongst the rafters in the ice house. She carried a knapsack with a sample of their work, enough-she hoped-to give her adversaries cause for alarm.
As they walked, her kerosene lamp created a yellow sphere that wobbled along the ground litter. Silvery splashes of hardened metal glinted on a discarded mold. She stepped over food wrappers, scattered ore, and spilled slag. What snow melted during the day had frozen into ridges of icy slush that made the footing capricious. A cold breeze scraped at her cheeks, and her breath fogged the air.
“Maldynado, you’ll come with me to the meeting, where I need you to look big and imposing,” Amaranthe said.
“And dangerous?” Maldynado asked. “Like someone deserving a huge bounty on his head?”
“Precisely so. Books and Akstyr, I want you on top of the mountains of junk where you can see us and shoot at troublemakers if you need to. I’m hoping this won’t devolve into a fight, but if it does, be ready.”
“What’s Sicarius doing?” Akstyr asked.
“Being independent,” she said.
“How new for him.” Books lifted a finger. “May I speak with you for a moment, Amaranthe?”
They stepped away from the others and into the shadow of a warped flywheel.
She gave him a frank look. “If you’re going to tell me that I’d be better off with Sicarius by my side, I already tried to talk him into that. He has his own reasons for being here, but that’s fine. I know what I’m doing.” I think.
Books held out a fist full of crossbow quarrels. “I merely need to know how to load this contraption.”
“Oh.”
She plunked the quarrels into the magazine and showed him how use the lever to chamber new bolts. Books thanked her and jogged between two rubble heaps. Before disappearing from sight, he slipped on a frozen puddle and rammed his shoulder against a junk pile. Shards of metal rained down around him. He staggered to his feet, acknowledged his survival with a wave, and continued into the maze.