Conspiracy (32 page)

Amusement tugged at Amaranthe’s lips. It
sounded like the sort of scheme she’d think up. Maybe there was
hope to bring Yara fully over to her side yet. “You don’t want to
leave when the emperor needs you.”

“
No,” Yara agreed, lifting
her chin, “there’d be no honor in that act.”

Sicarius had moved to the shadows near the
chute, where he could look outside without being seen.

“
We about ready?” Amaranthe
asked.

“
Yes.”

Below them, the corporal leaned the rake
against a pile of coal and hopped onto the roof of the cab. From
there, he jumped down onto the locomotive “nose” to one of the
water tanks. So much heat rose from the metal encasing the engine
that the air shimmered around the corporal. He checked a gauge,
then waved to the water tower.

“
That’s enough. Cut it
off.”

A moment later, he pulled the thick hose out
and screwed a brass cap into place. Amaranthe couldn’t see Basilard
from her position, but the hose retracted, spinning onto a giant
reel. The corporal skittered back to the coal car where a hill of
the black rocks had formed in his absence.

He grabbed his rake. “That’s enough!”

Amaranthe and Sicarius closed down the
chute.

“
You should at least leave
a business card,” Yara whispered from behind them.

“
What?” Amaranthe
asked.

“
Your card. You could leave
it on the body of the assassin, so someone would know you were
responsible for bringing down a criminal.”

“
If I left a card, the
soldiers that found the body might blame that worker’s death on
us.”

“
But doesn’t it grate on
you not to get credit?”

Daily, Amaranthe thought. “We’re used to
it.”

Yara stared at her.

“
If we can get the emperor
to know we’re not villains,” Amaranthe said, “that’ll be enough. He
can clear our names with a scribble of a pen.”

“
And have statues
commissioned in honor of our greatness,” Maldynado said.

“
Nobody’s going to believe
you’re great if they see a statue of you in that hat,” Yara
said.

“
Oh, nobody wears fur when
modeling for a sculpture,” Maldynado said, “It’s too hard for the
artist to get all the fuzzy strands to look good. I already have a
statue hat picked out.”

“
Dear ancestors,” Yara
murmured.

Amaranthe patted Maldynado on the shoulder.
His silence had been making her wonder if he was more injured than
she thought. Maybe he only needed bolstering after being beaten up
by one woman and criticized by another.

“
Ready to go, sir!” the
corporal called to the locomotive cab.

Everyone who had orders to board must have
done so, for the boardwalk had cleared. Good. Nobody inside the
train would have a good view of the coal shed or water tower—or the
people leaping from them.

Two men in black uniforms wearing cutlasses
and rifles trotted up to the locomotive and climbed into the cab.
Both of them had to duck and turn their substantial shoulders
sideways to fit through the doors.

“
When you said soldiers,”
Amaranthe told Sicarius, “I didn’t know you meant the emperor’s
elite bodyguards. Men hand-picked to serve in the Imperial Barracks
because of their martial prowess.”

“
They are only men, as
mortal as the next,” Sicarius said.

“
They’re huge.”

“
Huge men rarely move
swiftly or with great agility. You know this.”

“
Yes, but is that knowledge
enough to keep me from tinkling down my leg when one of those
towering behemoths swings a blade at me?”

Sicarius gave her one of his flat looks,
reminding her that a tendency toward whining wasn’t an admirable
trait in a leader.

“
You’re right, it
is
enough,” Amaranthe
said, “I was just making sure.” She’d hate it if she ever caught
disappointment in one of his gazes.

Inwardly, she hoped the team would be able
to stay hidden in the coal car until the train reached the pass and
was forced to stop because of a certain landslide blocking the
tracks. Then there’d be a nice distraction to keep some of those
hulking soldiers and bodyguards busy, and she might not have to
face any one-on-one.

A steam whistle blew again, and the train
inched forward. Amaranthe drummed her fingers on her thigh. They
needed to jump soon, but the corporal was still in the coal car,
raking his piles into place. Normally, Amaranthe would appreciate
someone with a fastidious nature, but right now she wanted the man
to toss the rake in a corner and leave. Surely, he had a warm berth
waiting for him in one of the passenger cars.

“
We must go,” Sicarius
said.

“
I know.” The rail car was
inching past them with the train picking up speed. A few more
seconds, and they’d have to jump onto one of the passenger cars,
and the soldiers inside were bound to hear kidnappers gamboling
about on their roof. “Let’s do it.”

Sicarius went first. He didn’t drop straight
down into the car, but leaped fifteen feet and landed on top of the
corporal, a hand smothering the soldier’s mouth.

“
Go, go,” Amaranthe urged
the rest of her team.

She jumped and landed lightly in the coal, a
foot from the back lip of the car. Maldynado and Yara dropped down
beside her. They flattened themselves to their bellies. The
passenger car behind the coal car didn’t have windows in the front,
but it did have a door with a balcony. Anyone tall who stepped out
to smoke or admire the night sky would be able to see straight
through to the back of the locomotive. The coal level was only a
foot below the lip of the car, so that didn’t leave them a lot of
room for hiding. They’d have to undo the corporal’s raking and see
if they could dig a hollow or two.

On her elbows, Amaranthe crawled toward
Sicarius. As the coal car passed the water tank, Basilard dropped,
landing beside her. He also flattened himself to his belly. The
darkness precluded hand signs, but she squeezed him on the shoulder
to thank him for his reliable efficiency.

“
Overboard?” Sicarius
whispered when Amaranthe joined him. He had the corporal subdued,
face pressed into the coal.

“
Yes,” she said.

The train was just starting
to pick up speed, so tossing the man over the side shouldn’t hurt
him much. Because the corporal had been irritating, a mischievous
part of Amaranthe wanted to take off his pants and force him to run
back to the station half-naked. Unfortunately—or perhaps
fortunately
—Sicarius
dumped him over the side before she could voice the
suggestion.

She listened for voices or any sign that the
men in the cab had noticed, but all she heard was the chugging of
the train as it picked up speed. Smoke blew back from the stack,
clouding the air above the coal car. She could think of better
things to smell, but at least it would help to camouflage her
team.

“
Let’s dig out places to
hide,” Amaranthe said, careful to keep her voice low so the men in
the locomotive wouldn’t hear, “so we’re not visible at a glance.
Sicarius, do you want to scout via the top of the train? See if you
can locate the emperor’s car?” She knew he could glide across the
roofs without making a sound.

“
Yes.”

Sicarius disappeared so quickly, she guessed
he’d been planning to do it whether she asked or not.

Amaranthe and the others set to scraping
coal aside to create depressions. Maldynado knelt beside her and
helped while Basilard and Yara dug on the other side of the
car.

“
What happens when someone
misses that corporal?” Maldynado asked.

“
I’m hoping he annoys his
superiors as much as he did me and that people will be so relieved
he’s not around that they won’t come looking for him.”

“
The army doesn’t work that
way. Everybody’s always reporting in to someone else.”

“
I know,” Amaranthe said.
“I don’t expect to make it all the way to the Scarlet Pass without
something happening, but maybe we’ll get lucky. It’s only four
hours away.”

“
Uh huh, and what happens
if we
don’t
get
lucky?”

“
We’ll launch our current
plan early. Most likely with more bullets flying in our direction,
because we won’t have our distraction.”

Maldynado touched his injured temple. “As
the night goes on, I’m wishing more and more that I’d purchased
some of that cider.”

Akstyr joined Books in the dirigible’s
navigation cabin. Maps were tented over levers, and open manuals
sprawled across gauges, leaving little of the control panel
visible. Books was hunched over it, scrutinizing the papers so hard
that he didn’t notice someone had come in. Akstyr hoped there
wasn’t a problem with the dirigible. The pilot had escaped while
they’d been rummaging around in the mines, so there was nobody to
turn to for help.

“
I’ve been studying the
implants,” Akstyr said. “It’s hard because they try to leap into
your skin when you touch them. It’s real dangerous of me even to
look at them, but I’ve got some ideas.”

He waited for a response—he wouldn’t have
minded a little praise or encouragement for taking on the difficult
task—Books didn’t acknowledge him.

Whatever. Akstyr sat down in the co-pilot’s
chair. Darkness had come hours earlier, and he couldn’t see much
outside the forward window. After a few minutes, Books stood tall,
his head nearly brushing the ceiling, and rubbed the back of his
neck. He yawned, spotted Akstyr, and jumped in surprise, cracking
his head on the low ceiling.

“
You didn’t notice me come
in?” Akstyr asked. “Truly? Sicarius would have yelled at you. Well,
not yelled but glared in that icy ball-withering way of
his.”

“
Probably true.”

“
You figure out why those
stowaways were lurking in our engine room?”

“
I have several hypotheses,
and none of them would be good for the team. There’s little we can
do about it now.” Books rubbed his lips and frowned at the papers
as if they were wayward students, running around one of his
classrooms and ignoring his teachings. “I believe we’ve arrived at
our destination in the Scarlet Pass.”

“
Then why do you look so
worried?”

Books leaned forward and peered into the
darkness below. “Landing on a mountain ledge in the dark presents a
challenge.”

“
You landed us by the
mine.”

“
In a flat, stump-filled
field with good visibility, yes,” Books said.

“
If you crash, the blasting
sticks will probably blow us up.”

“
If I crash... it probably
won’t matter.”

Akstyr leaned forward to
peer out the window. Night had fallen, and snow drifted from the
dark sky. He could make out the white tips of mountains in the
background and a cliff nearby—a
big
cliff. What might have been railway tracks ran
along a ledge on the cliff. To the side, the ground dropped away
into a canyon. Nothing looked like a promising landing spot for a
dirigible.

“
Wait, why do we have to
land?” Akstyr asked.

Books was muttering something about a lack
of running lights, and he started to glare at Akstyr—he probably
had a lecture on his lips—but he paused thoughtfully. “That’s...
actually a good point.”

“
You needn’t sound
shocked.”

“
Go see if there’s some
rope on board. I think I can hover in place while you climb down to
the ground and set the explosives.”

“
Nice of you to volunteer
me for that.” Akstyr had been thinking along those lines anyway,
but didn’t like someone assuming he wanted to risk
himself.

“
I have the most experience
piloting the ship, so it’s logical for me to stay here.”

“
A day at the controls
doesn’t make you an expert.” Akstyr said, though he pushed himself
to his feet. A few minutes later, he returned with a coil of rope
and two bundles of explosives. “I’m leaving half of the blasting
sticks here. I don’t think I can slide down a rope with the whole
box. Besides, if I get myself killed, you may need the rest to try
again.”

“
A surprisingly noble
sentiment.”

“
Don’t get used to it. I’m
feeling sentimental because I’m about to put on a rucksack full of
volatile explosives, and I know I’ll be dead if I fall or trip down
there.” Akstyr meant to sound nonchalantly unconcerned, but it
didn’t quite work.

“
We’re hovering in place
now.” For the first time, Books looked away from the viewing window
and the controls to regard Akstyr. “Be careful down
there.”

“
Obviously,” Akstyr said.
“But, look, if anything... happens, could you let my mother know I
died heroically or something?”

“
Your
mother
? I didn’t know you had
one.”

“
I didn’t know I had one
any more either, but she found me a couple of days ago. I guess
’cause we’ve been mentioned some in the papers.” Akstyr shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter. She wasn’t around for most of my life, so I
don’t care what she thinks. Forget it. Don’t worry about telling
her anything.”