Beneath the Surface

by Lindsay Buroker

Basilard lifted his hands and signed, When I spotted Maldynado fighting the enforcers, he was alone.

  “Fighting the enforcers?” Amaranthe asked. “Start at the beginning.”

  “I don’t know how they got to that point. Sure there were some undercover enforcers about, but I avoided them just fine.” Akstyr tapped his chest. “I don’t know why they didn’t stay with me. Anyway, I went behind the stage at the circus performance and into the crew area. I went all over that first deck, like a hound sniffing after a ’coon, but I couldn’t get close enough to the source. There were always bulkheads and locked doors in the way. I thought the artifacts might be upstairs, but Basilard found me and made me come with him before I got to finish looking.”

  “You can search more tonight when most of the boat is asleep,” Amaranthe said. “Right now, I’d like the details on Maldynado and Yara, please. You said they were fighting enforcers. Where are they now?” She wondered if she’d need to plan a brig breakout.

  Akstyr and Basilard exchanged looks, and Amaranthe knew she wouldn’t like the answer.

  “You saw it,” Akstyr muttered. “You tell her.”

  I only saw Maldynado, Basilard signed. I heard fighting sounds, but I was coming down the steps at the far end of the deck, and it took me a moment to reach him. He was finishing up a couple of enforcers, but some had miniature crossbows and were trying to shoot him. His back was toward me, and I don’t think he noticed me running toward them. He threw himself over the railing.

  “He what?” Books asked.

  “You didn’t see Yara?” Amaranthe asked.

  It was hard for me to stop to look, because when the enforcers saw me running up, they turned their attention toward me. I had to sprint back the way I’d come and lose them on the second deck. But I glimpsed Maldynado swimming down the river, and I thought I heard him call out her name.

  Amaranthe rubbed her forehead. How had such a simple task turned into such a mess? She found herself staring at Akstyr.

  “It’s not my fault,” he repeated, balling his fists and stuffing them into his pockets. “It’s not. I’m sorry though. I didn’t mean for them to get caught. I was just concentrating on what I sensed.”

  An apology was an improvement from him, but it didn’t get her team back together. Should they all gather their gear and find a lifeboat to steer to the shore? To see if they could meet up with the others? If Yara was hurt, Maldynado wasn’t the most knowledgeable person when it came to medical skills. And they wouldn’t have any food or gear.

  “Did you see which side of the river they headed to?” Amaranthe asked Basilard.

  He shook his head. By the time I eluded the enforcers and had a chance to look back over the railing, we’d gone around a bend. I never spotted them again.

  So, even if the team went after Maldynado and Yara, finding them would be a matter of luck. The steamboat was due to reach a town in the morning, docking there for a few hours. Maybe those two could catch up on their own. Besides, there was the matter of these artifacts Akstyr had sensed. Were they what the circus troupe had purchased? And had the Forge women been the ones to provide the funds and instruct them to do so? What if they were tools or weapons meant to aid Ravido?

  “Why are all these enforcers on board?” Books asked.

  Amaranthe had thought he’d already have his face buried in his self-appointed work again, but he was listening, and he raised his brows when she met his gaze. “Good question,” she said. “The steamboat has its own security team.”

  Basilard shrugged.

  “Because they’re always around to harass us,” Akstyr said. “We’re their special hobby.”

  “No, if they’d boarded because they suspected we were here,” Amaranthe said, “they would have searched the vessel the first day.”

  “We could be experiencing heightened security due to the potential for trouble in the capital,” Books said. “We saw that in Sunders City.”

  “Even allowing for that,” Amaranthe said, “wouldn’t the military have been tasked with accompanying a steamboat upriver? We’re passing in and out of several enforcer districts, and patrollers aren’t usually assigned work that involves encroaching on other districts’ territories.”

  Basilard signed, Some sort of investigation?

  Akstyr snapped his fingers. “Maybe they know about the artifacts.”

  Amaranthe doubted enforcers would recognize magic if they saw it performed before their eyes, but perhaps someone had reported suspicious activity from the circus troupe, and a team had been assigned to trail them. “We better figure out exactly what these entertainers are hiding then. I’ll find Sicarius and Sespian, and we can split up and search. All of us.” If they could find what they sought that night, maybe they could steal the items, sneak ashore at the next port, and wait for Maldynado and Yara there. She didn’t like the idea of delaying the team’s return to Stumps—Forge and Ravido already had far too much of a lead in enacting their plans—but it couldn’t be helped. “Basilard, you were keeping an eye on those Forge women, right? Did you find any more of them?” As much as she preferred gentler means of dealing with people, maybe she should grab Sicarius and go to interview those ladies.

  No, Basilard signed. And they’ve left their cabins.

  “Left? As in they’ve moved to other quarters or they snatched a lifeboat and floated away?”

  Basilard shrugged. All I know is that the rooms were empty of people and belongings. I was checking around the ship, looking for familiar faces, when I ran into Maldynado’s fight.

  “All right,” Amaranthe said. “I might send you and Books to keep looking for them while Sicarius, Sespian, Akstyr, and I search for these artifacts.”

  Books lifted a protesting hand. She scowled at him. He wasn’t going to object to helping with the search, was he? His new government-design avocation was fine when they had nothing else to do, but they needed everyone tonight.

  “What about Maldynado?” Books asked.

  “I guess you won’t have to worry about where he’s sleeping tonight.” The words came out snippier than Amaranthe intended, but she’d heard from Maldynado about how Books had accused him of colluding with his family and being untrustworthy. Even if Maldynado’s actions had been a tad suspicious at times—she’d been a little concerned herself for a while—he’d proven himself a dependable ally again and again and hadn’t deserved ongoing mistrust from the team. He’d even saved Books and Akstyr’s lives in some Forge trap.

  “They won’t have any money or supplies,” Books said, “and unless there are female trees in the forest, Maldynado won’t be able to charm those things out of the boughs.”

  “You’re actually worried about Maldynado?” Akstyr asked. “I thought you didn’t like him.”

  Books blinked. “I don’t... dislike him. He’s just immature and grating.”

  One wonders what colorful adjectives you have for people you do dislike, Basilard signed.

  “We’ll reconnect with them as soon as we can.” Amaranthe waved for Basilard and Akstyr to head outside. Before heading out herself, she told Books, “You should let Maldynado know about your... lack of dislike. You’ve been crusty with him of late, and I know it’s stung him.”

  “I’ve been crusty with everyone. I’m busy.” Books waved at the paper stacks.

  Amaranthe raised her eyebrows, letting him know she didn’t accept the excuse.

  Books’s arms drooped. “I need this, Amaranthe. I’m a washed up professor who can’t look at a bottle of wine without craving it. Even when I was working, I wasn’t... respected by my peers. Few of my papers passed review and made it into the archives. This...” He pointed at his documents again. “This is my chance to do something that matters. To contribute to the world. To...”

  “Earn a spot in the history books?” Amaranthe asked.

  He hesitated, then nodded warily. As if he feared she’d think him foolish. How could she when she had similar delusions?

  “To shape humanity’s
future,” Books said.

  “I understand, trust me, and it’s a noble pursuit. But I don’t believe you can improve humanity’s future by being so obsessed with your work that you ignore the human beings around you. You might want to make your peace with Maldynado before we enter Stumps. Given the odds we’ll be facing... I think it’s a good idea not to leave words left unsaid, things you might regret later.”

  Books lifted a hand in defeat. “I heed your point. We will be going back for them, though, won’t we?”

  “We’ll see what tonight’s search reveals. The best we may be able to do is wait for them to catch up on their own.”

  CHAPTER 6

  On the middle deck, Amaranthe and Sicarius stood guard by an interior door while Akstyr crept through yet another cabin. Bunks stacked three high lined the two longest walls, and snoring figures occupied half of them. She doubted they’d find any signs of Science use in there, but she certainly couldn’t track magic on her own, so she had to follow Akstyr’s lead. After a few moments, he slipped back out into the narrow corridor, its lamps dimmed for the night, the tiny flames barely providing enough illumination for one to navigate the passageway. The evening’s dinner and show had long since completed, and only those people necessary to keep the boat traveling after dark remained awake.

  “It feels like we’re farther away on this deck,” Akstyr whispered.

  “The circus troupe is housed below,” Amaranthe said. “If they’re smuggling contraband into the empire, they’d probably keep it close so they can keep an eye on it.”

  “I already hunted all over that deck. I even pawed through people’s closets.”

  Amaranthe tried to catch Sicarius’s gaze, but his thoughts seemed to be turned inward. Maybe he was worried about Sespian. He hadn’t been in his cabin when they’d gone to collect him for the search. After the news she’d given Sespian earlier in the day, Amaranthe also worried, but there weren’t many places he could go on a boat. He probably just needed private time to think.

  She touched Sicarius’s arm. “Any ideas?” He knew more about the Science than anyone else on the team, save Akstyr. Actually, she wasn’t positive Akstyr truly knew more, despite all his studies.

  “Under the deck,” Sicarius said.

  Amaranthe had long since grown accustomed to decrypting his terse statements and guessed, “You think there’s storage down there?”

  “Oh!” Akstyr blurted. “Maybe that’s why I couldn’t get to it.” He lowered his voice to mutter, “Knew my skill wasn’t the problem.”

  “The boat doesn’t have a deep draw,” Sicarius said. “It’d be a couple of feet at most.”

  “Enough room to house artifacts though, right?” Amaranthe asked. “If they’re not too big.”

  “There may be schematics in engineering,” Sicarius said.

  “Let’s go.” Akstyr bounced on his toes, then launched himself down the corridor. Not much enthused him, but artifacts surely did. He nearly crashed into a woman in ship’s whites entering the hatchway as he tried to exit.

  “Who’re you?” She frowned at his rumpled, baggy clothes. “This area is for crew only.”

  “I know. Wrong door!” Akstyr pushed past her, nearly knocking her into the wall, and disappeared into the night.

  Amaranthe and Sicarius had to exit through that hatchway as well, but she worried that two more people using Akstyr’s tactic would cause the woman to raise an alarm. Not wanting to give Sicarius a reason to throw anyone overboard, Amaranthe stepped in front of him to approach the exit first. He’d be more recognizable than she, especially since he never bothered changing out of his familiar black. Or his knives. With luck, the shadows would make recognition difficult.

  The woman, young and prim and wearing an ensign’s rank pin next to a bar that declared her a navigation officer, jammed her fists onto her hips and stepped into Amaranthe’s path, blocking the exit. “You choose the wrong door too?”

  “Not us,” Amaranthe said, then lifted a hand and whispered around it conspiratorially. “We both have roommates upstairs, so we were looking for a quiet, dark place for amorous activities, if you get my meaning.” Amaranthe threw in liberal winks to ensure it couldn’t be missed.

  “Here?” The woman scowled. “You came here for that?”

  “Yes.” In her mind, Amaranthe ran through the rooms they’d searched. A couple of the larger ones had possessed two bunks instead of three, such as a young officer might rate, and one of those cabins had sported an empty sleeping area. “The door was open at the end of the hall, and the person in the other bed was sleeping so hard, she didn’t even notice—”

  “The end of the hall?” The woman dropped her hands. “That’s my room. You—that’s disgusting!” She sprinted down the corridor and would have caromed off Sicarius, but he glided out of the way. She never glanced at his face.

  As soon as the officer disappeared around the corner, Amaranthe stepped outside. Akstyr had already disappeared. The boy was like a hound on the trail when he sensed magic. She headed for a set of stairs, assuming he’d gone down to engineering to check on schematics.

  Sicarius fell into step beside her. “You have a singular sense of humor.”

  Amaranthe paused at the top of the stairs. “Singular as in remarkable or singular as in unique?”

  “Yes.”

  Amaranthe snorted. “We better catch up to Akstyr before enforcers show up to throw us overboard. Those trailing after him don’t seem to fare well.”

  Sicarius led the way down the steps. As soon as they reached the bottom, he gripped her arm and pulled her into the shadows beneath the staircase.

  “Are we avoiding someone’s notice?” Amaranthe whispered. At this late hour, there was only one other person outside on their side of the boat, a cloaked man leaning against the railing with his hood pulled up. “Or did my words to the officer stir thoughts of amorous activities in your mind?”

  A finger came to rest on her lips. Two security guards in ship’s whites strode into view. That answered her question.

  Though they bore lanterns and swords, one yawned widely, and neither appeared alert. They had the miens of men stuck on the night shift, simply doing their rounds. Neither glanced toward the shadows underneath the stairs.

  “I hope those enforcers don’t talk the captain into doing a full search,” one man said as he drew even with Amaranthe and Sicarius.

  “What do you care?” his partner asked.

  “The enforcers only have one squad of men on board, so you can guess who’ll end up doing the searching. At dawn probably. That’s when we’re supposed to get off and go to bed. Besides, if it is those outlaws, I don’t want to walk in on Sicarius. I want to live. I...” His voice drifted out of earshot as they kept walking.

  “I guess that means we need to move our belongings out of the cabins soon,” Amaranthe whispered.

  “Yes,” Sicarius said.

  “We’ll have to find a hiding place until we reach the next port.” She’d planned to disembark there anyway, so long as they could find these artifacts and deal with them by then. “Think these theoretical below-deck storage cubbies of yours are warm and cozy?”

  Sicarius said nothing. He was watching the security team as it slowed down to approach the cloaked man. It was late for stargazing, so Amaranthe could understand why they might be suspicious.

  “That’s Sespian,” Sicarius said.

  She stiffened. “What? How can you tell?”

  One of the enforcers tapped the figure on the shoulder. Sicarius stepped out of the shadows. Amaranthe tried to catch his arm, wanting to tell him to give Sespian a chance to handle the problem on his own, but Sicarius moved too quickly. Cursing under her breath, Amaranthe ran after him. Amazing how the man could glide across the deck like a wraith, seemingly not in a hurry at all, but covering the distance as if he were sprinting. His feet didn’t make a sound as he closed on the three men.

  “Don’t kill anyone,” Amaranthe whispered after him, trying t
o pitch her voice so the security men wouldn’t hear it and Sicarius would.

  “...remove your hood,” one of the enforcers was saying when Amaranthe came into hearing range.

  “It’s cold out here.” That was Sespian. He turned to face the men, but he didn’t reach for the hood. The darkness and the beard might disguise him, but they might not. “I’m out here getting some air. I couldn’t sleep.” His gaze shifted over the men’s shoulders.

  Sicarius stood behind them, not bothering to hide his face as the breeze rifled through his short blond hair. He hadn’t drawn a weapon yet, and Amaranthe hurried to catch up, to keep him from doing so.

  First one security man glanced over his shoulder and jumped, then the second emulated the move.

  Sespian lifted a hand. “Don’t hurt—”

  One of the men pointed to the side of Sicarius, cried, “Look, enforcers!” and hurled himself past Sespian and into the river. The second man squeaked, scuttled backward until his shoulders rammed against the railing, then grabbed it and also propelled himself into the water. His lantern caught and dropped to the deck instead of falling overboard. It clanked and highlighted a dubious puddle before tipping over and winking out. Amaranthe had forgotten how much Sicarius’s reputation affected the average person.

  By the time she reached his side, there was little left to worry about, except Sespian’s reaction. Not everybody appreciated protective looming the way Amaranthe did. The two men stared at each other, their profiles like mirror images, each unreadable.

  “Hello,” she said cheerfully. “Everything all right, here?”

  “It is unwise to stand with your back to the deck,” Sicarius told Sespian.

  Oh, good. Lecturing. That’d be sure to warm Sespian’s heart.

  Sespian lifted the flap of his cloak to reveal a small crossbow in his hand. Amaranthe recognized it as an enforcer-issue weapon, one that often had poison on the tip, making it ideal for subduing dangerous criminals during undercover missions. Had he already tangled with an enforcer to acquire it? Sespian kept it pointed at the deck, but he held it out for a long moment, as if to make sure Sicarius saw it, before dropping the flap. Letting his father know he could take care of himself?