Conspiracy (40 page)

As Amaranthe raced after Sicarius, she
realized she’d not only been insulting, by saying Sespian needed
looking after, but that she’d presumed to give him, the emperor of
the entire Turgonian nation, an order. Maybe she could later claim
it’d been a suggestion.

Sicarius had already swung down into the
locomotive cab via the left side of the train. Amaranthe headed
right.

Envisioning Yara dead on the floor, her
throat slit, Amaranthe scrambled around the outside of the car too
quickly. She misjudged a ledge in the darkness, and her feet
skidded down the slick metal surface. The sudden weight shift
yanked at her shoulders, nearly tearing her fingers loose from
their grips. For a moment, she hung by one hand, legs dangling
above the rails, the wind threatening to rip her from the train
altogether. Her breath escaped in a terrified squeak.

Her first reaction was
fear—mind-numbing terror—but fury replaced it. She
wasn’t
going to survive
crawling beneath the moving train and pulling the emperor out of a
car full of soldiers only to stumble and fall for no
reason.

With that thought, she found the strength to
fling her arm up where she could reach a handhold again. Once she
had solid metal beneath all ten fingers, she hauled herself up,
biceps quivering, and pulled her legs back onto the ledge.

After that, it took a monumental effort not
to fling herself into cab—and onto its solid, reassuring
floor—before checking to see if it was stuffed with soldiers. She
forced herself to approach slowly and peer around the corner before
revealing herself.

Sicarius stood at the far side of the cab
with three downed soldiers piled about him, including the fireman
they had tied earlier. He wasn’t tied any more. A fourth soldier
stood on the side closest to Amaranthe, his back protected by the
engineer’s chair. He gripped Yara, using her as a shield as he held
a knife to her throat. A cut lip streamed blood down her chin, and
both of her eyes were swelling. She hadn’t given up the engine room
without a fight.

Sicarius had been crouched, his black knife
in his hand, as if he meant to spring, regardless of the threat to
Yara, but he must have seen Amaranthe, for he straightened and
lifted an open hand toward the soldier. He said something, though
she couldn’t hear the words with the wind whipping at her hair and
clothes. An offer to deal perhaps.

His eyes never flickered toward her, and
Amaranthe didn’t think the soldier had noticed her yet. His back
was mostly toward her. She eyed the arm holding the blade to Yara’s
throat.

Amaranthe eased her own knife out. She
lunged into the cab, her weapon slashing at the soldier’s arm
before her feet hit the floor. It sliced through clothing and
flesh, and he cursed, but he didn’t drop his own blade. Without
releasing Yara, he stabbed at Amaranthe.

She skittered back, but the blade never came
near her. Yara rammed an elbow into the man’s gut at the same time
as Sicarius sprang across the cabin. He ripped the soldier away
from Yara, and, in one fluid move, fastened his arms about the
man’s neck. Under other circumstances, he might have broken that
neck, but he merely applied a chokehold. The soldier’s face turned
red, then purple, and Amaranthe knew he’d pass out from lack of air
shortly.

Basilard appeared in the doorway that
Sicarius had vacated. With so many people sprawled about the floor,
he didn’t seem to know where to stand.

Yara slipped back into the engineer’s
seat.

“
Are you all right?”
Amaranthe asked. The question earned her a dark glower.

“
I hope you pay your men
well if you put them through events like this often,” Yara
said.

“
Not really. I think they
stick around to see what crazy scheme I’ll come up with next.”
Amaranthe nodded to Basilard. “Did you pass the
emperor?”

Basilard signed,
Yes. Maldynado banged up his knees and the
emperor was helping him into the coal car.

“
Uh, I think we’re supposed
to be helping the emperor, not the other way around,” Amaranthe
said. “We better bring him up here to keep him safe. We’ll have to
find some space.” She chewed on her lip and surveyed the packed
cab. Sicarius dropped the purple-faced soldier, adding another
unconscious man to the pile. “I don’t quite know what to do with
all these bodies though.”

“
The furnace is getting low
on fuel,” Yara said.

Amaranthe threw her a startled look.

“
It was a joke.” Yara
touched her split lip. “Mostly.”

“
The rest of the soldiers
will figure out where we went before long,” Amaranthe said. “See if
you can slow the train down to twenty miles an hour. At that speed,
we ought to be able to drop people outside without killing them,
but it won’t be so slow that men can jump off and run up here to
attack us from the ground.”

“
I haven’t figured out how
to adjust speed yet,” Yara said.

Amaranthe looked around. “What happened to
the engineer?”

“
The soldiers who swarmed
me untied him, and he was one of the first to attack your assassin
when he burst in. Your man sidestepped and assisted him on his way
off the train. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the
scream.”

“
Ah.” Amaranthe decided not
to mention that she’d been busy almost assisting herself off the
train at the time. “It’s probably not a good idea to get rid of the
people with the knowledge of how to operate the massive piece of
machinery you’ve hijacked.”

Sicarius wasn’t around to hear her comment.
He’d stepped out of the cab and was standing on the ledge outside,
head turned toward the coal car. Checking on the emperor or keeping
an eye out for soldiers or both, Amaranthe guessed. Knowing they’d
have company soon, she dropped her chin into her hand and
considered the meager offerings of the engine cabin.

“
Basilard,” she said, “can
you try to... I don’t know, stack these men up in the back here, so
we have room if we need to fight? I’m going to...” Her gaze snagged
on the fire station and the hose hanging there. “That might
help.”

Maldynado lunged into the
locomotive, making the space even tighter with his bulky form. He
shook his head so vehemently, his brown curls flopped about his
face. “That was
awful
. Who’s idea was that?”

Amaranthe handled it
without trouble
, Basilard
signed.

“
That’s because
she’s
little
,”
Maldynado said. “She’s a woman. They don’t weigh much. I had to
hold twice as much weight from my fingers. And squeezing past those
axles? While they’re spinning around at a billion revolutions a
second? I couldn’t figure out if I was supposed to go under them or
over them. I almost lost an important appendage that Lady
Buckingcrest would dearly miss, should I show up without
it.”

“
Where’s the emperor?”
Amaranthe asked.

Before Maldynado could
answer, Sergeant Yara, who was still sitting in the engineer’s
chair, turned around and asked him, “Are you whining
again
?”

Despite the cramped
quarters, Maldynado managed to get an arm around her shoulders.
“Of
course
, my
lady. These other blokes are on the quiet side, so one of my duties
is being the voice of the group. If I don’t protest the working
conditions on everyone’s behalf, how will the boss know which parts
of her command need improvement?”

“
Did you assign him that
duty?” Yara asked Amaranthe.

Amaranthe was busy unraveling the hose and
hunting for the controls that would turn it on. No fewer than
twenty identical red handles adorned the cab. “Uhm, no,” she said.
“I believe he assigned that one to himself. Maldynado, the
emperor?”

Maldynado turned sideways. Sespian had
slipped into the cab behind him. He stood about six feet tall, with
a build similar to Sicarius’s although less muscular, and
Maldynado’s height and wide shoulders had blocked the view of him.
Amaranthe made eye contact and gave Sespian a reassuring wave. He
offered a quick return smile, though it had a strained feel, like
that of a man stuck in a grimbal’s den and hoping the massive
predator wouldn’t eat him. As far as Sespian knew, Amaranthe and
her team might be no better than the enemy he sought to escape.

“
What duties
did
you assign him?”
Yara asked. Nobody else seemed to have noticed Sespian
yet.

“
Maldynado?” Amaranthe
asked. “His job is to look pretty and get us good deals from female
shop clerks and businesswomen.” She handed Basilard the hose
nozzle, then screwed the other end into a spigot next to the
furnace. She assumed it attached to the water tank and hoped it had
plenty of pressure behind it.

“
And to beat things up,”
Maldynado said. “Don’t forget that. I like to thump
fellers.”

“
He seems expendable.” Yara
pushed Maldynado’s arm away from her shoulders.
“Touching.”

“
Men coming,” Sicarius
called.

Amaranthe pointed to Basilard. “You spray
anyone who gets close. Maldynado, man the tap.” She pushed bodies
aside and pulled her crossbow off her back and handed it to
Sicarius. “Five quarrels are loaded and there are more in my ammo
pouch.” She unclasped it from her utility belt and handed to him.
“Aim for limbs, please.” Whether the crossbow would prove less
deadly than a rifle, she didn’t know, but being able to shoot five
times without reloading was a boon.

“
Understood,” Sicarius
said.

“
Your job is to turn the
water on and off?” Yara asked when Maldynado sidled in next to her
and placed a hand on the valve. A woman whose face sported so many
contusions surely had little reason for mirth, but she seemed to
find that amusing.

“
For now,” Maldynado said,
“but if any soldiers make it in here, I’ll thump them good, and
then you’ll be thanking me for the protection.”

“
Doubtful.”

“
Yara, I need you to figure
out how to slow down the train long enough for us to clear out some
of this dead weight,” Amaranthe said.

Yara’s smirk faded, and she nodded curtly,
as if she’d been given an order from a commanding officer.
Amaranthe pulled open a toolbox mounted on the back wall next to
the coal chute.

“
What’re you going to be
doing during all of this, Corporal Lokdon?” came a quiet
voice.

Sespian. Amaranthe had almost forgotten
about him.

“
Oh, I’m sure I’ll find a
dangerous endeavor in which to partake.” Amaranthe rummaged around
until she found a crowbar with a hook on the end. She couldn’t tell
if it’d be sturdy enough for what she had in mind, but she didn’t
see anything more substantial in the box. “Sire, why don’t you come
stand next to Maldynado? He can protect you from the fighting,
should any soldiers make it in here.”

“
Protect me from my own
men?” Sespian asked, then touched his neck. “The woman is the only
one who—”

A shot fired from the coal car. The bullet
clanged off something on the outside of the locomotive and
ricocheted into the forest, but Amaranthe grabbed Sespian by the
wrist anyway. She steered him away from the door to stand next to
Maldynado.

“
I’m sure you’ve heard the
term friendly fire.” Amaranthe lifted a hand, palm toward Sespian’s
chest. “Stay. Sire.”

His eyebrows flew up, which Amaranthe
presumed meant people didn’t treat him like a hound very often, but
his lips quirked with amusement instead of irritation. “Yes,
ma’am.”

“
Surrender the emperor, or
be shot down,” a cry came from behind them.

“
Time for water, Bas?”
Maldynado asked.

Basilard held up a fist. Not yet.

Amaranthe wanted to see if her hose idea
worked to keep the soldiers back, but it’d be even better if she
could slither under the coal car and decouple the rest of the train
before her men needed to push back a mass of invaders. Not that she
was certain the train could be decoupled while in motion, but she
had to try. It’d put an end to this battle much sooner.

With the crowbar in hand, Amaranthe headed
for one of the exits. She glanced at a clock on the back wall on
the way by. It felt as if hours had passed since they first crept
back toward the emperor’s car, but it’d scarcely been twenty
minutes. Another two hours until they reached the pass. Her hand
tightened on the crowbar. This needed to work.

Outside the exit, Sicarius stood on the
ledge, using the body of the train for cover as he fired her
crossbow. Amaranthe knelt and peered at the wheels, trying to find
a spot where she could wriggle through to crawl back under the
train again. Yara hadn’t slowed the train down yet, and the earth
and railway ties blurred past at an alarming speed. The idea of
going back down there twanged at Amaranthe’s nerves, but she
couldn’t walk through the soldiers to get to the coupling between
the coal car and the first passenger car. It’d be easier to get to
the coupling between the coal car and the locomotive, but her team
wouldn’t make it much farther than the engine-less train if they
dropped their fuel supply. No, she had to go under and take her
chances.

Sicarius leaned out to fire the crossbow.
Perched behind him, Amaranthe couldn’t see the quarrel streak away,
but someone in the coal car cursed vehemently.