Not disapproving of the obsession, Hollowcrest had supplied third-person accounts of his battles and even copies of a few of Starcrest’s personal reports and mission summaries. Those had been brief, though, without any of the… personality that had occasionally shown up in Probabilities. Looking back as an adult, Sicarius wondered if Starcrest had been trying to excite future officers about the field of mathematics. Either way, he’d been secretly—oh, so secretly—delighted when he’d stumbled across Captain Starcrest in the West Markiis. Ten years old at the time, Sicarius had been reporting to an officer-tutor in the intelligence office for linguistics lessons when he’d spotted the book on the man’s desk. The lieutenant had cleared his throat and hastily stuffed it into a drawer, but not before Sicarius saw the title. He’d returned in the middle of the night to sit under that desk and devour the story by candlelight. Over the next year, he’d risked much to acquire other titles in the series. Hollowcrest had forbidden Sicarius to read fiction, calling it a waste of time, and he’d been caught twice with the books. It had been his own fault for daring to keep some of the copies he’d acquired, favorites that he’d wanted to read again. The first time, the punishment had been tolerable if unpleasant. The second time… had convinced him not to hunt down any more of the books. But for months afterward, he’d lain in his bunk at night, imagining himself as a young officer on the Striker or the Emperor’s Wrath, performing heroic feats to win Starcrest’s regard and eventually working himself up to second-in-command.
Sicarius sighed and rolled onto his side, the lumpy snow beneath the carpet pressing into his ribs. He was surprised at how much he remembered of those days, and how vivid the memories were. To be forced to kill Starcrest now…
Kor Nas couldn’t know that he’d been given that assignment twice in his life already and refused to accept it both times. But now, he wouldn’t be able to. He could slag himself for ever sending that letter.
If he could have foreseen these events…
Enough. He needed to do more than lament his fate; he needed to find a way to avoid it.
Yes, how?
Kill Kor Nas, he thought promptly and not for the first time. But he’d already tried. The first night they lay like this, the Nurians snoring on their cots and Sicarius on the carpet, he’d stood, silent as a shadow, and tried to plunge his dagger into the practitioner’s chest. He’d managed to lift the blade overhead, but his muscles had locked. The opal embedded in his temple had flashed an angry warning, sending a stab of pain into his brain, and his arms had never started their downward descent. He’d stood there, seconds bleeding past as he mentally wrestled with it, trying to find a way around the artifact’s power, but he’d failed. A few minutes later, he’d lain back down, breathing heavily, but not so much as to wake anyone. Kor Nas had slept through it all, not concerned in the least that his “pet” would—could—turn on him.
So get someone else to kill him, eh?
Sicarius let the thought hang in the silence for a while, considering it from a few different angles. With Kor Nas’s death, the power of the opal should fade, or at least have no direction. The leash might remain until he could figure out a way to remove it, but the handler at the other end would be gone.
But who could kill Kor Nas? Thus far, the practitioner had sent Sicarius out on independent missions—assassinations—while remaining in camp, but if Flintcrest meant to march on the city, he’d want his Nurian wizard along, blowing things up and adding to the enemy’s chaos. In such a battle, Kor Nas might be a target, but he would keep Sicarius at his side. That was what Nurian battle wizards did—employ bodyguards to allow them to concentrate on their Science. In such a situation, Sicarius had no doubt he’d be compelled to protect Kor Nas.
So, he needed to pit Kor Nas against someone capable of both bypassing Sicarius and killing a practitioner. Or simply killing them both. The bleak thought didn’t repel him as much as it would have once. With little left to live for, this might be more apropos than suicide. If he could take Kor Nas down with him, and in doing so, assure Starcrest would live… Starcrest was the one person, he believed, who might achieve what Amaranthe and Sespian had failed to do: create a better empire.
Yes. Sicarius rolled onto his back again and placed his hands behind his head. This would be an act worth dying for.
But how? Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Amaranthe’s face was the first one to pop into his thoughts as someone who could concoct a scheme that would bury a wizard and his bodyguard beneath a mountain of rubble. But she wasn’t around any more to do that. And she’d risk herself trying to save him, anyway, instead of accepting that he and his master—in the darkness, with nobody watching, Sicarius allowed his lip to curl at the word—had to be slain. His belly shivered at the idea of Amaranthe approaching him while he was under Kor Nas’s influence. Once again, he remembered Darkcrest Isle and his fingers wrapped about her neck.
Stop it, he told himself. She’s dead. It’s moot.
He needed someone else capable of the job. Starcrest himself was the logical person. But Sicarius had defeated him the one time the admiral had attacked him, and Starcrest was twenty years older now. Slower. While Sicarius was still in his prime. Or close to it anyway.
True, Starcrest had seen him as a boy back then and had underestimated him. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. Still, Sicarius would win in a purely physical confrontation between the two of them. But if the admiral had warning, time to plan something…
A snort came from the cot above. Sicarius’s thoughts hiccuped to a halt. Had Kor Nas woken? Had he been listening to Sicarius’s mind spin all along?
The snort, more of a gurgle, came again. Kor Nas rolled over and started snoring.
Sicarius exhaled slowly. No, the practitioner slept on. Here, and here alone, he could think without being monitored. He had to take advantage of that and come up with a plan before dawn.
Go in person? He couldn’t. For one thing, he didn’t know where Starcrest was. Beyond that, Kor Nas would wake if Sicarius tried to escape. He’d tried to walk away before and had been compelled, after a blast of pain seared his brain, to return. Kor Nas had been waiting for him, a slit-eyed glare on his face.
Maybe Sicarius could send another letter. Encoded like the first. But through whom? Some soldier in the camp? True, some of them might be swayed to Starcrest’s side if they knew he existed, but Sicarius had no way to ferret out which ones. He had to assume everyone here, in committing themselves to this march on the throne, belonged to Flintcrest.
Although… there was one person in the camp he could be certain didn’t want to see Starcrest killed.
Sicarius felt his heart rate quicken.
Dare he approach the man? Try to get him alone without Kor Nas finding out?
You still have to figure out where Starcrest is, he reminded himself. A letter couldn’t be delivered without an address. And somehow he had to keep these thoughts locked down deep so Kor Nas wouldn’t stumble across them as soon as he woke up. The practitioner might like his new pet, but that wouldn’t keep him from killing Sicarius and finding another if the situation warranted it.
• • •
Sicarius scrambled up the granite cliff, his fingers finding purchase in the slender cracks and on the ledges where snow gathered. His pace was fast, but not fast enough. The terrifying howl of the soul construct echoed from the canyon walls, following him as he climbed. The beast followed him, too, hulking and black in the dark night, not affected by the snow gusting sideways down the ravine. It bounded from ledge to ledge, knocking rocks and huge clumps of snow off with each leap, but finding a way to scale the cliff nonetheless.
Sicarius didn’t glance back, but he had to sense it gaining. Surely, he did. Amaranthe, watching from some impossible viewpoint floating behind him, tried to scream a warning. It’s gaining on you. Do something! But the snow and the wind stole the words.
The top of the cliff came into view, and Sicarius charged the final meters towa
rd it. But his foot slipped, and the handhold beneath his fingers gave way. He dangled from one arm, legs hanging above the thousand-foot drop. A tiny frozen stream wound through the canyon far below, amidst boulders that might as well have been spikes. Sicarius reached for a new handhold. He would have made it, would have finished the climb, but the soul construct caught him then. It leaped, fangs biting, claws slashing, and tore him from the cliff.
Together they fell, spinning into the dark depths below. Before he plummeted to his death, Sicarius’s accusing eyes met hers, and he asked, “Why, Amaranthe? Why didn’t you come help when I needed you?”
Amaranthe woke with a gasp, her heart trying to jump out of her chest. For a disoriented moment, she stared about, surprised she wasn’t on a mountainside with snow streaking through her vision. Instead, she lay on her back, using her lumpy rucksack for a pillow. The black floor of the control room stretched before her. She remembered reaching it, watching Tikaya and her daughter lock the doors from cuboid intrusions, then setting to work. And she remembered feeling useless as the two women had called up the floating images—the control interfaces, Tikaya had called them—and taken turns manipulating them and considering journals full of notes. She’d announced that her team would get some rest, which had unfortunately resulted in Maldynado and Basilard conspiring to ensure she slept while one of them stood watch.
Amaranthe sat up, wondering if she should be disappointed or relieved that her nightmares had evolved into something new. Neither. That one hadn’t been any better than the others. Her sweat-soaked shirt stuck to her back, and strands of hair that had fallen from her bun lay pasted against her face and neck.
Thirsty, she unclasped her canteen from her rucksack. She hoped the thirst meant she’d actually slept for a number of hours this time, instead of her usual fistful of minutes. She also hoped the two women had, thanks to their interest in alien sewage and plumbing, found something that qualified as a washout. Last time, her team had been forced to make do with… well, Amaranthe hoped neither of her Kyattese explorers had opened that cabinet thing on the far wall. Though maybe the cubes or repair devices had cleaned in there. They’d scoured the floor of the control room of any memory of the fight. The bodies were all gone, not so much as a drop of blood or strand of hair left behind to prove those people had existed. Some funeral pyre.
Someone touched her shoulder. Basilard.
He sat with his back to the wall, a rifle across his knees while Maldynado, using his silly hat for a pillow—how did he keep from losing that thing when he was fleeing killer technological constructs?—snored, his face smooth and relaxed as he slept. No nightmares haunted him.
With concern in his eyes, Basilard signed, Bad dream?
They all are these days, Amaranthe signed back, not wanting to disturb the quiet room.
Tikaya and Mahliki still worked, though now they were sitting, heads bent together over an image displayed on that black sphere. Stuck on some problem? Amaranthe didn’t wish to disturb them.
Pike? Basilard asked, mimicking an actual pike for his sign.
Not this time. Sicarius in trouble.
Oh, Sicarius, she thought, if you’d figure out a way to show me where you are, I’d come help. True, she had no way of knowing if he needed help, but it’d been four days since anybody had seen him, maybe more.
I have wondered, Basilard signed, if he’s…
“Still alive?” Amaranthe murmured.
Basilard hesitated, watching her face, afraid he’d upset her maybe. Injured, he decided on.
“Me too.”
I think it would surprise him, but I’d miss him if he were gone.
“Maybe not surprise so much as perplex.” Amaranthe tried to smile, but couldn’t. She’d been better at false cheer before. Maybe it’d been required too much of late.
Yes. He was just getting…
Human, Amaranthe thought. “Interesting?” she responded aloud.
Less unpleasant, Basilard signed. Perhaps realizing that wasn’t much of an accolade, he added, It was a noticeable improvement. Not bad for a year’s influence.
“Your influence?”
Yours. By the time you’ve been married for ten years and have a pile of children, he might be almost approachable.
Amaranthe almost fell over. “Children?” she squeaked. “Him? Us? Er.”
Her voice had grown louder, and Mahliki glanced in their direction. Amaranthe blushed and made sure Maldynado was still asleep. He’d rib her endlessly for a discussion like this.
You don’t envision it? Basilard asked.
Amaranthe went back to signing, not wanting people she barely knew overhearing the rest of the conversation. I suppose I’ve thought about it from time to time as possibly happening in some distant future. Though she also wondered if the injuries she’d received from the makarovi would preclude her ever having children. I didn’t realize you, any of you thought about it, or that he’d… that we’d be…a good idea. Books had been disapproving for months, and Maldynado kept trying to send her on picnics with other men.
Not all of the others, perhaps. Basilard glanced at Maldynado. But you are a good team. Your strengths complement his weaknesses and vice versa. And you are a good influence on him. The world is safer because he’s with you.
Amaranthe didn’t feel like she could be a good influence on anyone anymore, but Basilard’s approval warmed her heart nonetheless. So few people seemed able to see Sicarius as anything other than a heartless killer, even those with whom he’d spent an entire year in close quarters. It shouldn’t surprise her that Basilard would be the one to glimpse behind the facade, at least a little. It took an observant man to find a tasty herb in a urine-beleaguered alley.
After all this is over, will you return to your people? Find your daughter perhaps? Amaranthe hadn’t asked his thoughts on the matter in a long time. She should have. She’d been too buried in her own inner world.
Basilard fiddled with the strap of his rucksack and avoided her eyes. She wouldn’t want to see me. After my crimes… it’s better for her if I don’t try to make contact.
You’re making assumptions, Amaranthe signed. Don’t you think you should at least plan a trip to find out the truth? For all you know, she wonders every day what happened to you.
Basilard swallowed. Even if that were true, when she found out what I’ve done… He spread his hand toward his face and head to indicate his scars, and those he’d killed to receive them. She would be shamed. She would not want anything to do with me.
Do you still want anything to do with her?
He dropped his forehead into his palm, but not before she glimpsed a damp sheen on his eyes.
“Basilard,” she said, because he wouldn’t see signs if she made them, “don’t give up on her without finding out how she feels. Even if she is shamed, because that’s what her culture has taught her to feel, you don’t have to give up. You know… or do you know—” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “—that everything Sicarius has done these last couple of years, even before we met him, has been for Sespian’s sake? At first to protect his son, and later because he wanted a relationship with him, even though Sespian has always thought him a monster. And unlike in your case…” Amaranthe stopped herself from saying Sicarius really was a monster. She didn’t believe that, but she couldn’t think of a better way to say Sicarius’s crimes had been greater than Basilard’s. Given the strict pacifist nature of the Mangdorian religion, he might not agree anyway. “He hasn’t given up on Sespian, and, if it matters to you, I don’t think you should give up on your daughter.”
Basilard lowered his hand from his face. He didn’t look at Amaranthe, but he signed, more to himself than to her, I’ll consider your words. He shifted his weight and grimaced. The idea of Sicarius being a better father than I would be difficult to swallow.
Feeling she’d won a victory, Amaranthe chose not to argue Sicarius’s merits in the parenthood department. She fancied he might do just fine though, withou
t meddling from emperors or other superiors.
Basilard leaned back, a newly thoughtful expression on his face. He did seem to be getting closer to Sespian there at the end. Or I guess I mean Sespian was letting Sicarius get closer to him.
“How so?” Amaranthe asked.
They went off on a spy mission together for the general. Sespian was the one to suggest it. I gather it was harrowing for him, but he seemed pleased he lived to talk about it. He was visibly disappointed when Sicarius left to hunt the soul construct on his own.
Amaranthe tried to imagine the adventure they must have had that night. She wished she could have seen it, especially after Sespian had said he might understand his father better now that he knew his past, but that he didn’t want anything to do with him. Hah, boy. What Sicarius lacked in charm, he made up for in persistence.
Out in the center of the room, the two women stood, returning to one of the images floating above their heads. In addition to the piles of notebooks and the familiar sphere decorating the floor around their packs, a few small black objects Amaranthe hadn’t seen before rested amidst their gear. Items brought from Kyatt? Or were they shopping for goods to take home and study? She frowned at the idea. If not for “goods” collected from those tunnels twenty years ago, the Kyattese Polytechnic wouldn’t have started a research division to study the ancient language and technology, and the Behemoth wouldn’t have turned Fort Urgot into a graveyard.
Amaranthe climbed to her feet and joined the women. “How are things going? Have you figured out how to dump this in that trench yet?”
“I believe so,” Tikaya said, not tearing her eyes from the shifting and changing images to meet Amaranthe’s gaze. “But this ship is incredible. It can do so much. I could spend the rest of my life in this room and not come close to understanding everything available here. Rias should be out here, using it as a command headquarters for his troops. It’d be a lot easier to defend than a molasses factory, and look.” Tikaya prodded one of the images.
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