Conspiracy (57 page)

Half swimming, half walking on the muddy
bottom, Amaranthe maneuvered toward the closest bank. She checked
the sky as she traveled, expecting to see the black craft hovering
nearby, but it was nowhere to be seen. The smoke slowly cleared,
and insects resumed droning. Or perhaps they’d been droning all
along and Amaranthe’s ringing ears were now recovering enough to
hear them.

A splash sounded to her right. An alligator
flicking its tail before disappearing beneath the surface.

Amaranthe touched her belt, but she didn’t
have any weapons, not even her knife. Maybe she should have kept
one of the soggy blasting sticks, if only to beat at predators with
it.

She reached the shoreline without incident
and climbed toward dry land, mud sucking at her feet with each
step. Twice she almost lost a boot, but she would have slogged
through the swamp barefoot if she had to. She needed to check on
the others. Between the crash and the explosion in the cargo hold,
she worried that...

Amaranthe clenched her jaw and forced
worries out of her mind. She’d find them and see what was what.
Until then, she’d simply focus on walking there. Nothing more.

She found herself on a muddy peninsula,
blanketed with wet, brown leaves. Vines and curtains of moss
dangled from tree limbs, and animals skittered away from her,
rustling the underbrush.

Before Amaranthe had taken more than five
steps, a black-clad figure stepped out of the trees ahead. She
started to smile, to lift a battered hand in greeting, but it
wasn’t Sicarius. The man had white hair, not blond, and the weapon
belted at his waist was a long trench knife with brass knuckles at
the hilt, not a sleek black dagger. A crescent-moon scar cupped the
bottom of one of his eyes.

Though Amaranthe had never seen him before,
she recognized him from the men’s description. Major Pike,
Hollowcrest’s old Master Interrogator.

He wore a pistol at his waist as well as the
dagger, and Amaranthe didn’t think challenging him to a fight
sounded like a good idea, not when she was battered from the events
of the last twenty-four hours, and she lacked a weapon. She eyed
her surroundings, wondering if she could run along the shoreline
and evade him long enough to find the downed dirigible. But other
people were stepping out of the trees as well. Four men in black
fatigues wore swords and approached Amaranthe with rifles aimed at
her. Two women she didn’t recognize walked behind them. A fifth man
approached her from the side, and he had a familiar face. He looked
like an older, harder version of Maldynado. The army general
brother who wanted to take Sespian’s position on the throne.

Amaranthe glanced behind her, wondering if
it might be best to hurl herself into the water and take her
chances with the alligators.

“
I wouldn’t, Ms. Lokdon,”
Major Pike said, his voice hard and raspy, as if someone had
applied a garrote to his throat once. “You’re not so valuable to us
that we’d be upset if we had to put a bullet in your
back.”

“
Thanks for the tip,”
Amaranthe said.

The major waved toward two of the men. They
stepped forward as a pair, one keeping a rifle aimed at Amaranthe’s
chest while the other unclasped handcuffs. The efficient way they
approached her left little doubt that they were well trained. Even
if they weren’t, there were too many other guns pointed her way.
There was nothing she could do.

As the cold metal handcuffs snapped about
her wrists, Amaranthe lifted her chin and stared defiantly at her
captors. A tight smile came to Major Pike’s lips, and a predatory
gleam of anticipation entered his eyes.

~

I always swore I’d never be one of those
authors who leaves readers dangling with nasty cliffhangers. What
kind of deranged minds think that’s a decent thing to do? But… as I
started plotting out Book 4, I realized Books 4, 5, and 6 were
going to be one complete story arc rather than three separate
adventures. There wasn’t going to be a tidy place to break things
off, so I chose this point, where we have some resolution with
Akstyr’s story, and where I can start off Book 5 through
Maldynado’s eyes. I’m already writing that part of the adventure
and plan to have it out to you in a timely manner (don’t worry,
early readers have already threatened me with shackles, dungeons,
and denial-of-service attacks on my Internet to ensure there’s no
way for me to be distracted).

If you haven’t signed up
for my newsletter yet, and want to be the first to know when Book 5
is out, you can do so on the
“book
news”
of my website. You can
also
follow me on Twitter
or stop by
my Facebook author
page
.

Before I head off to that
dungeon, let me take a moment to thank those who recently helped
out with my KickStarter campaign to raise funds for the creation of
the Emperor’s Edge Audiobooks (details on
where to find them—they’re
free!—and how to subscribe are on my site
). So, thank you Sue, Brenna, Kendra, Nelson, and the 150
other folks who chipped in. Also, let me give a shout out to
backers, Roxanne and Gretchen, whom I had a chance to meet when I
passed through Lockhart, Texas, last year. If there’s a short story
writer in you, they’d love for you to check out their library’s
“Scare the Dickens out of Us” fundraiser contest at the
Dr. Eugene Clark Library
site
.

Also by the
Author

THE EMPEROR’S EDGE
UNIVERSE

NOVELS

The Emperor’s Edge, Book
1

Dark Currents, Book
2

Deadly Games, Book
3

Conspiracy, Book
4

Book 5, coming Fall
2012

Encrypted

SHORT STORIES

Ice Cracker II
(and other short stories)

The Assassin’s
Curse

THE FLASH GOLD
CHRONICLES

Flash Gold

Hunted

Peacemaker

THE GOBLIN BROTHERS
ADVENTURES