Emperor's Edge Republic (66 page)

“Hardly that,” Maldynado said. “I simply have a fantastic constitution.”

Rias strode over with Dak, the engineers and a dozen soldiers trailing behind them. “It’s time to assemble the team.”

“The team?” Tikaya asked. “Tonight?”

“Given the plant’s accelerated growth rate of late, delaying even a day could mean the difference between success and failure.”

Tikaya wondered if they had already delayed too many days to succeed. Mahliki almost hadn’t escaped from the last underwater excursion, and the plant had barely been out of the harbor then. It had also been far less aggressive. She kept the thoughts to herself. These men were nodding at Rias. They wanted encouragement not pessimism. It wasn’t as if there was a viable alternative, short of abandoning the city—maybe the continent.
Someone
had to go down.

“I hope you’re planning to appoint some hearty young men to the task,” Tikaya said, “while you remain here on dry land to attend to your presidential duties.”

Rias had the look of a man bracing himself for a battle. Tikaya realized she would be his opponent in this and stared at him with chagrin.

“Nobody knows the controls like I do,” Rias said, “and there’s not enough time to teach anyone.”

“Amaranthe and Sicarius know them.”

“They’re not here.”

Tikaya started, realizing she hadn’t seen either person all day. “Where—they didn’t get caught in the hotel, did they?”

Dak shook his head. “I didn’t see them when I was warning people.”

“Amaranthe went off to see Deret Mancrest, last I heard,” Maldynado said. “But she didn’t come back, and Sicarius went to look for her.”

Rias spread his hand. “They have troubles of their own. Other people can run the government. I’m the only one for the submarine.”

“
Other
people? If that were true, they wouldn’t have sent a letter three thousand miles asking for
you
.” Tikaya tried not to sound shrill and frustrated, but it was hard. Her fear of losing him came back full force, the emotion rising into her throat and lodging there.

Rias stepped closer to Tikaya, drawing her aside for a private moment. Dak lifted his hands, ushering the other men back. He didn’t say anything, but Tikaya guessed what they were all thinking.
Let him calm the woman, so we can get about our work...

“Do you remember how we electrified the hull of the first submarine we made?” Rias asked. “To fight the overeager sea life in your harbor?”

“Yes.”

“In addition to making other weapons, I ensured that feature works even without the artifact. I’m not planning a suicide mission.”

Tikaya thought of the way Mahliki had been forced to apply the electricity for several seconds before that single vine started to char and wondered how much power it would take to drive back the jungle in the waters below, especially now that the plant appeared quasi sentient. She imagined the huge limbs batting the submarine around, each one contacting the hull only briefly, not long enough to be damaged. How would they fight that?

“You look grim.” Rias’s eyes crinkled, as if this were some game. “No faith in an old admiral who’s survived a lot of battles over the years?”

“This is different. Even after twenty years of studying that race, I hardly know...” Tikaya sighed and laid her hand on his arm.

“We’ve defeated it before.”

“We guessed the combination lock on one of their security systems. That’s not exactly the same as
defeating
the technology.”

“I was thinking more of the ship you blew up, love.”

“That wasn’t defeat, either,” Tikaya said. “That ship had a self-destruction program built in. I simply turned it on.”

“Maybe the plant has a self-destruct command programmed into its cellular punch cards.”

Tikaya shook her head. “If it’s there, I wasn’t able to find it. While Mahliki was experimenting with the physical body, I tried everything I could think of with the sphere. I wouldn’t know how to...
transmit
any orders if there were some.”

“Then we’ll have to do it this way.” Rias patted the submarine hull.

Tikaya stepped in closer, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Is it horrible of me to wish Sicarius had never sent that message to you?”

“Abysmally horrible, yes.” He wrapped his arms around her. “But I love you anyway.”

They held each other for a couple of long moments, then, when Rias pulled away, Tikaya let him go.

“We don’t have a lot of room for a big team,” Rias said, returning to the waiting men. “I could use an engineer and a couple of people who have experience with the diving suits, in case we’re not able to get close enough to the roots with the submarine.”

Tikaya lifted her fingers to her lips, horrified anew at the idea of someone walking out in that man-eating jungle with nothing but a canvas suit for protection. Though Mahliki had downplayed the danger of being captured by the plant, Tikaya could guess how close her daughter had been to dying, based on Dak’s report, and the way he had avoided her eyes when answering her questions.

“I’ll only take volunteers,” Rias said.

Every single engineer’s arm shot up. Several of the soldiers said, “I haven’t been in a suit, but I’m sure I could learn it,” or something to that effect.

“Rydoth.” Rias pointed to a graying engineer with major’s rank pins. Unlike the more eager men who were waving their hands and proclaiming their fitness for the job, he had merely raised a finger, his face grave.

A throat cleared behind Tikaya.

“Uhm,” Maldynado said, a tentative finger poking in the air. “I’ve spent time in the suits. And fought a battle underwater.”

Tikaya thought Rias would dismiss him instantly, since he wasn’t military, and twenty minutes ago, he had been whining like a rusty wheel about the likelihood of his toenails falling off.

But Rias considered him thoughtfully. When Maldynado wasn’t opening his mouth and offending people or talking about sexual conquests, he
did
appear a formidable warrior, and if he had trained and fought with Amaranthe and Sicarius for a year, he was probably as battle-hardened as most soldiers.

“Are you simply volunteering that information, or are you volunteering to go?” Rias asked.

“I could go,” Maldynado said. “I owe that plant a lick or two. Besides, I’d like another chance to protect necessary people.” He nodded toward Mahliki.

“She is not going,” Rias said.

“What?” Mahliki propped a fist on her hip. “Nobody knows more about that plant than I do. You’ll need an expert along.”

Tikaya’s heart sank at the argument. When Mahliki hadn’t raised her hand, she had thought maybe her daughter had enough of a self-preservation instinct to wait out this fight, but she must have assumed she was on the team to start with.

“Your mother is already put out with me for volunteering,” Rias said. “I doubt she would speak to me—or my spirit—again if I took us both on a journey from whence we didn’t return.”

Fancy way of saying, “If I got us both killed,” Tikaya thought bleakly. Maybe Rias had been destined to be a politician after all.

“So whether or not I go is Mother’s decision?” Mahliki asked.

“No,” Rias said. “I want you back here, safe.”

You implied this wasn’t a suicide mission, dear...

A floorboard popped up in a corner, and a thin tendril rose through the crack. Sespian ran over to deal with it, the black dagger in hand.

“It’s not exactly safe here, either,” Mahliki said.

“Safer,” Rias said. “Dak will take everyone to our backup headquarters, three miles from the waterfront. I’ll bring up the submarine somewhere less strangled with vegetation—the Fort Urgot dock if it’s still free—so there’s no point in waiting here.”

Dak propped his arms over his chest, frowning at this assignment. Surely he hadn’t been expecting to be invited on the team as well? What was wrong with these Turgonians? Were they all so eager to die? No, she realized, they were just so eager to help Rias. This was what she got for marrying a national hero and returning to his homeland.

“Mother?” Mahliki asked, the age-old trick of asking another parent when the first said no. Strange to see it played here, especially with Rias looking on.

Naturally, Tikaya’s instinct was to squash the request and keep her daughter safe, but Mahliki
was
the foremost expert on the plant here. Her knowledge might be crucial in defeating it. More than that, Rias might sacrifice
himself
for some noble cause, but he would move mountains to make sure his daughter survived. And if they were on the same vessel together, they’d both have to survive, now wouldn’t they?

“I had assumed you would be a necessary member of the team,” Tikaya said.

Mahliki had her finger raised and her mouth open, an argument on her lips, so she sputtered a couple of times before managing, “You did? So I can go?”

“No.” Rias scowled at Tikaya.

He had probably followed her train of thought as easily as if she had spelled it out on a page.

“You promised me it isn’t a suicide mission, love,” Tikaya said. “Why wouldn’t you take one of your greatest assets?”

Mahliki beamed at this designation, or maybe the fact that Tikaya was arguing on her behalf. Inside, Tikaya wanted to wail against the idea of letting either of them go and cry out that it wasn’t fair that
her
loved ones had to take these risks. Outside... she smiled calmly at Rias.

“It’ll still be dangerous,” he grumbled, though he couldn’t fight much harder, not without invalidating the very argument he had used to talk her into letting him go.

“Fine,” Rias said, his tone clipped. “We have our team.”

“I, ah...” Sespian raised a hand. “I have that fifteen minutes of experience with the suits. Maybe I can come too?”

“Very well. There’s no time to spare. Let’s get going.” Rias headed for the submarine.

A number of the engineers and soldiers glowered at Sespian and Maldynado, clearly disgruntled that a couple of civilians had been chosen over them. Rias ordered a few men to help prepare the submarine to launch and told Dak to take everyone else to the backup headquarters. Dak issued a few orders of his own but didn’t hurry to the lorries. Like Tikaya, he seemed to want to see Rias off before leaving. The soldiers had to fight off a few more attacks from the plant as well. Tikaya could only imagine—with nightmare-like vividness—what sort of battle it would offer once the submarine was in the water.

When the suits and men—and Mahliki—were in the craft, Rias came to her for one last hug. “I saw that the Kyattese communication device is still in our cabin. Did you by chance pack the complementary half before you left the hotel?”

“Did you also see that there was a message on it for you?” Tikaya arched her brows.

“A recent one?”

“Yes.”

Rias shook his head. “I haven’t looked in the cabin since my original walkthrough this morning.”

“Never mind then.” Technology, only helpful when used... “I do have the other one,” she said. “It’s in the lorry.”

“Good. I can send Dak reports.”

“You better send
me
reports.” Tikaya stood on tiptoe to kiss him, but paused. His skin was oddly warm. She squinted at his forehead. Small beads of perspiration filmed his skin. The poison. Dear Akahe, what if it hadn’t been a bluff after all?

He started to turn away from her, but she gripped his arm.

“Rias?”

He sighed softly. He knew. “Yes?”

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired. It’s been a long night.”

Her grip tightened. “You know what I mean.”

Another sigh. “I’ve had a fever and some other symptoms for the last few hours.”

“The poison?” she whispered.

“It might simply be a virus.”

He had grown blurry. No, that was her vision. Tikaya blinked rapidly. “I’ll find Amaranthe and Sicarius. I asked them to locate the head priest, to look for an antidote.”

Rias nodded. “Good. I have to take care of this.”

“I know.”

The blinking didn’t help. Hot tears ran down Tikaya’s cheeks as he returned to the submarine.

Chapter 26

S
icarius stood with his back to a thick oak, the cool breeze whispering across his bare chest. Amaranthe leaned against his arm, smelling of brandy. He thought about teasing her that her new perfume was much worse than his earlier sewer scent—especially since he had washed before going to the construction site with Maldynado and Basilard—but she was shivering, so they ought to get on with the mission.

He eyed the wrought iron fence surrounding the large masonry house, razor-edged spikes protruding toward the night sky. Bypassing them would not be difficult, but doghouses leaned against one of the gray stone walls, and he had heard a few wuffs and snuffles during his initial scouting of the compound.

“Who would have thought a house in an apple orchard would need such security measures?” Amaranthe mused.

“Judging by the rust accumulation and weathering, the fence is approximately ten years old.”

Amaranthe looked up at him, though the shadows hid her face. “You were dating the fence while I was drowning in a vat of cider?”

Sicarius had only meant to relay information on the age of the security apparatuses and could not tell if she was truly irked with him. “I was unaware of your location at the time.”

“I’m going to forgive you since you were kind enough to lend me your shirt.”

“You may consider it a permanent exchange.” Sicarius could not imagine what degree of washing would be required to remove the brandy vapors.

“Very generous.”

“If you wish to enter, I recommend going over the fence there, downwind of the dogs, and climbing up the roof to that attic entrance. The house has been quiet since I arrived, so the residents may be sleeping. The bunkhouse over there contains more than twenty beds. I believe most are occupied.”

“There’s still a light on there.” Amaranthe nodded to a window.

“Yes, it has not been long since the men left the mill. Some went in the bunkhouse and others took a lorry and left the premises. Someone will likely come out to check on the missing man before long,” Sicarius added to remind her that they had better do their infiltration quickly. “I can go in on my own while you wait here if you wish.”