“I am indeed,” Kaika said, shoving him to claim another inch of space. Elbow room so she could work, he guessed. Naturally, the lock hole faced the guard rather than the inside of the cell.
“Careful, I’ll tell Cas you were touching me in inappropriate places,” he said.
“Oh? Would she get jealous if I fondled your ass?”
“I’d be disappointed if she didn’t. Wouldn’t Angulus get jealous if I fondled yours?”
“Not if it was mission critical.”
“Mission-critical fondling. You live in an interesting world.”
Kaika grinned and draped her hands so they appeared to hang over the lock hole, doing nothing, just hanging. “Just the way I like it.”
“You Cofah talk too much,” the guard said, his words so accented, Tolemek struggled to understand them. Still, the man could probably catch the gist of the conversation. Tolemek was glad he had said Angulus’s name softly.
“This is how we engage in foreplay,” Kaika told the guard. “We’re going to have sex soon, if you want to join in.”
Tolemek gaped at her, more alarmed by her bluntness than that she would make the invitation. He assumed her thoughts were to clobber the guard if he was foolish enough to wander over.
Kaika shrugged at him. “I thought you wanted me to seduce him.”
“I wasn’t imagining myself being involved.”
“No? You just like to watch?”
“Be quiet,” the guard growled, tapping the side of his rifle. “Or say something useful.”
“Such as?” Tolemek immediately asked, sensing an opening.
The guard drummed his fingers on the rifle as he considered them, then walked to the door. He opened it, looked out, then closed it. He pointed the muzzle of his rifle at Tolemek’s pile of jars and vials.
“Tell me what these things are and if any of them are valuable.”
“They’re extremely valuable. I’m a chemist.”
“A what?” The guard’s forehead wrinkled. He must not have known the term.
“Scientist,” Tolemek said, resisting the urge to look down at Kaika’s hands, though he would occasionally notice her fingers moving slightly. “That little ceramic jar there contains a compound that can burn through iron and stone.”
“This little jar?” The guard pointed at the correct one with his rifle. “How much iron and stone?”
“Bring it here, and I’ll demonstrate on the bars.”
The guard snorted. He leaned his rifle against the table and bent low, studying the jar, his back mostly to the bars.
Tolemek glanced at Kaika’s hands, then met her eyes. “How long?” he mouthed.
“One minute,” she mouthed back.
“Be very careful if you remove the lid,” Tolemek advised. “It can burn through human skin even more easily than iron.”
“I must see a demonstration.”
“Who are you going to sell it to?” Tolemek asked. “That jar contains such a small amount that the earnings potential might not be great, but perhaps we could form a partnership. Were I free of these bars, I could gather the components to make more. I could sell it to you, and you could sell it to your contact for a mark up.”
The guard grunted. “Of course, I will let you go, so we can do that.” Despite his dismissal, his gaze remained fastened on the jar.
“As far as I know, we’re not being held for any crime,” Tolemek said.
“You blew up a bridge.”
“Only because it was covered with winged alligators.”
“You’re suspected of being here to interfere with Chief Razthar’s wedding.”
“Just because your superiors suspect something doesn’t mean it’s true. There’s absolutely no proof to indicate we have anything to do with that wedding. I’m a scientist, looking for new markets to sell my formulas in and also for new ingredients with which to experiment.”
Kaika tapped a finger on the gate and wriggled her eyebrows at Tolemek. He hadn’t heard the click of a lock, but trusted she knew what she was doing.
“I want to try this,” the guard said, gingerly reaching out and tapping the jar a couple of times before committing to touching it for longer.
Tolemek rolled his eyes. They hadn’t worried about touching any of his containers when they had been removing them from his pockets and flinging them on the table.
The guard decided to risk unscrewing the lid. He found the applicator brush fastened to the bottom and poked it into the cream. He looked at the dollop, then pressed it to an iron support post in the corner of the room. The dab started smoking.
“You spoke the truth,” the guard said, staring in wonder. His back was fully to them now.
Kaika eased the gate open and slipped across the room without making a sound. The guard must have spotted her shadow on the wall, because he whirled as she reached for him, but she was too quick. She unleashed a barrage of punches, kneed him, and spun him around, finally locking her arms around his throat. Seeing that she didn’t need his help, Tolemek strode for the table and returned his gear to his pockets. He grabbed his rifle from a rack it had been stuffed into with several local firearms. By the time he finished, the guard lay unconscious on the floor. Kaika found some rope, tied him and gagged him, and dragged him into the cell, where she locked him in.
Voices came from outside, so Tolemek did not know how long it would be before someone walked in and discovered the man, but if they could escape the building, they might disappear into the maze of walkways, rope bridges, and boardwalks that connected the different layers of the city.
While Kaika donned her gear, he stepped to the door and eased it open for a look. He closed it immediately.
“Six more guards outside,” he whispered. “They look like they’re waiting for someone. The man in charge of our interrogation, perhaps.”
Kaika snorted. “I don’t think blowing up a bridge is likely to bring a godly ordained inquisitor to our cell.”
Tolemek had no idea if that was an actual position in the city or if she was making it up, but he didn’t ask. He climbed onto the table to look out the window he had been studying earlier. It was too small for them to squeeze out, but it offered a view of the back side of the building. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a walkway or platform below it, so they couldn’t sneak out that way. Tolemek considered the tree trunk in the center of the room. Less than two inches remained open around its girth, but he would widen that with his compound.
“Down?” he asked.
“Can we do up?” Kaika looked toward the ceiling around the trunk. “I have a hunch.”
Someone shouted outside. Did one shout when an ordained inquisitor headed over? Though Tolemek thought down would be better, so that they could disappear into the lower levels of the city, it might take the guards longer to look up and spot their exit hole, especially if their prisoner remained unconscious and didn’t see which direction they went.
“You just want to see if I can climb,” he muttered, grasping the tree trunk. All of the limbs within the building had been cut, removing the easy handholds.
“Yes, and to gauge whether fondling your butt would be worth dealing with Lieutenant Ahn’s ire.”
Tolemek almost said he doubted it, but that might reflect poorly on his physique. He scrambled up the trunk as gracefully as he could, his jacket clanking with its contents. Kaika stood below, her rifle pointed toward the door. With his legs and one arm wrapped around the trunk near the ceiling, Tolemek had to apply his stone-eating concoction with great care. He tried to make his hole look artful, like a couple of boards had simply rotted away. They were thinner than expected, and the first of those boards broke away before he had finished dabbing the others. It dropped and smacked Kaika on the shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said.
She caught it before it hit the ground and made noise. “Your revenge for me making you climb?”
“Inadvertent, but yes. More are coming down. I don’t have a hand free to grab them.”
Kaika caught the three other board ends, looked around for someplace to hide them, and settled for the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet in the corner. While she climbed up after him, Tolemek eased his head through the hole he had made. Disappointment smothered him when he found a pair of boots and the tip of a rifle waiting for him. What was one of the guards doing up on the roof of the police building?
The man’s back was to him. Maybe he could scramble up and overpower him before the guard reacted.
Before he’d lifted even his shoulders out of the hole, the boots shifted, the rifle swinging toward him. He started to yank his head down, but realized that rifle was exactly like the ones he and Kaika carried. He looked up into Colonel Quataldo’s surprised eyes, his head nearly hidden by branches. He was squatting to avoid them.
“That will make my rescue easier,” he murmured.
Tolemek climbed out, keeping his grunts to a minimum since he could hear someone addressing the men on the platform below. He eased to the side, making room for Kaika to crawl out after him. Quataldo squatted down, peered through the hole briefly, then nodded at them.
“I’ve obtained some information.”
A loud voice spoke from below, as if to rouse the men to action. Several sentences came out, with Quataldo and Kaika both listening intently. A bang followed, then the thunder of boots on wood. The guards Tolemek had seen took off down one of two rope bridges extending from the platform that held the police building.
“Had I known they were leaving, I could have saved myself a climb,” Tolemek muttered. He also could have saved his valuable compound.
“Most of the city has been called to help with a search,” Quataldo said, not bothering to whisper. Everyone had left the platform.
“A search for you?” Tolemek guessed.
“No, I don’t believe they’re aware of my existence. They’re searching for Zilandria Hallistan.”
“As in Emperor Salatak Hallistan’s youngest daughter, Zilandria?” Tolemek asked. “The one who’s down here to get married?”
“From what I heard, she disappeared a couple of hours ago. City guards claimed to have spotted her heading out into the swamp and followed her, but that someone helped her get away. That’s the story the police are circulating. I’ve also heard that a faction that doesn’t want the alliance between the city and the emperor kidnapped her. Another rumor suggests Chief Razthar found her an unwilling bride and fed her to the alligators.”
Tolemek blinked. “Does he have a reputation that would support that?”
“He’s a shaman. Shamans aren’t always adored, even here where magic is more accepted.”
“Yet they elect them as city leaders?”
“Leadership is taken by power, financial or magical, down here.”
“The wedding hasn’t occurred yet, so how could she have been an unwilling bride?” Tolemek asked.
“The custom down here is for men and women to try each other out before a final commitment,” Kaika said. “It’s supposed to be to the benefit of both parties, but only the men are allowed to run a comparison with other women at the same time. Both sides, however, can agree to break off the marriage before the ceremony. I assume that’s why she came down ahead of her father and his escort.”
“In this case, she probably doesn’t have the power to break off anything,” Tolemek mused, “as the emperor is responsible for the marriage of all of his kin. It’s a longstanding tradition to use them to cement alliances.”
“Right, so she might have found her groom wanting and decided to run away,” Kaika said. “I’m more inclined to put faith in the story the police are claiming.”
“As am I,” Quataldo said.
“What are we going to do about it?” Tolemek shifted his weight, more than ready to get off this roof.
“Take advantage of the chaos,” Quataldo said.
“To do what?” Tolemek asked, thinking of the young woman roaming the swamps out there. Even if he wasn’t a loyal Cofah subject anymore, he couldn’t help but feel he should do something to keep one of the princesses from being eaten by alligators.
“Our mission.”
Kaika nodded. “If the emperor sends troops out to help search, the ships will be more lightly guarded. It could be our chance to get to him.”
“My exact thoughts.” Quataldo pointed toward one of the rope bridges. “I’ve learned where the emperor’s ships are, naval and air. I can take us out of the city. We might even be able to sneak in before dawn. Tolemek, you’re with us?”
Nerves teased his stomach, but he nodded. This was why he had come along, for his chance to remove the man who’d placed a bounty on his head from power, and perhaps to see a wiser person sitting on the Cofah throne. He would have to hope that the princess knew what she was doing and could take care of herself.
Chapter 10
It took an hour to catch up with Phelistoth. Tired, sweaty, and grumpy, Cas struggled not to curse at him when they spotted him. He was still in dragon form, perched on a hillock surrounded by trees and water with his prisoner sitting on a log in front of him. Phelistoth’s sphere of light floated over the hillock, but the darkness might have been preferable, given the frosty glare that Zia leveled at Cas, Pimples, and Tylie as they walked out of the marsh. The princess might have been pleasant enough to deal with after they had pulled her out of the water, but any feelings of gratitude she’d had were surely gone now. Though she wasn’t bound, at least not physically, Cas wouldn’t be surprised if she was being restrained by magic.
Pimples shrank under the young woman’s glare.
“It’s not our fault,” Cas whispered to him as a reminder.
“Yes, but she doesn’t know that.”
“Phelistoth.” Cas shrugged off her pack and let it drop to the ground. Her shoulders ached after slogging through the marsh with it, especially since they’d had to run for much of that slog. It had taken forty-five minutes to elude their pursuers, and Cas wasn’t positive the guards wouldn’t continue to track them, especially now that she knew who they had. “What are you doing?”
Phelistoth ignored Cas and shared a long look with Tylie, the kind that usually meant they were communicating secretly with each other.
“What do you people want?” Zia asked. She wasn’t ignoring Cas.
Cas looked at Pimples, wishing they had brought Captain Blazer. Someone with more rank. Someone who knew what to do with a princess, not that Cas knew if Phelistoth would even let them touch Zia. What could he possibly want with her?
“I honestly don’t know,” Pimples told Zia.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“I’m Farris,” Pimples said. “Like I told you. This is Cas.”
Zia’s eyes closed to slits. “I thought you were from the city at first, until I realized you’re speaking the wrong language. You’re too pale to be Cofah.”
“But intriguingly and attractively pale, right?” Pimples asked.
Cas elbowed him. This was not the time for flirting.
To her surprise, Zia snorted. It wasn’t exactly a sign of true amusement, but she didn’t glare at him the way she was glaring at Cas.
“You must be Iskandians,” Zia said.
Cas was surprised that she’d had to work it out, that she hadn’t guessed right away from the accent. But she supposed an imperial princess would lead a sheltered life most of the time, until trussed up and sent off to marry a foreign man in a foreign country. Maybe she had only read about Iskandians in books, much like winged alligators.
“Are you travelers?” Zia’s gaze lowered to Cas’s and Pimples’ rifles. “Hunters?”
“Travelers,” Cas said, amazed the young woman hadn’t guessed they were soldiers. They weren’t wearing their uniforms, since they had come to skulk around uninvited in a foreign country, but she thought they had a military mien about them, even without the clothing. She was wearing her army boots.
“Travelers with a dragon?” Zia shot a glare over her shoulder. Ph
elistoth and Tylie still seemed to be communicating. Tylie’s frown spoke of rare disapproval.
Cas suspected she wouldn’t like whatever Phelistoth eventually told them. She was very aware that the night was passing and that they were farther from the city and from checking on Tolemek and the others rather than closer.
“The dragon is inexplicable,” Pimples said when Cas didn’t answer.
I will go now, Phelistoth announced into Cas’s mind. You will stay. Guard the prisoner.
“Uhm, what?” Cas asked.
Zia stood up, only to be shoved back down onto the log again by some invisible hand.
“Phel.” Tylie crossed her arms. “We’re not going to guard your prisoner for you.”
Phelistoth transformed into his human form. He strode over to Tylie, though he slowed his pace when he drew close. He put an arm around her shoulder. At first, she merely continued her frown and stood with her feet planted. He bent his head low, murmured a few words, then walked toward the edge of the water. She let herself be guided along.
Pimples looked at Cas. She shrugged, but let her lips thin to show her displeasure. She didn’t know what was going on, but she didn’t like that a dragon seemed to think he was in charge of this portion of the operation.
After speaking for a couple of moments, more telepathically than out loud, Tylie lowered her arms. Phelistoth transformed into a dragon again and crouched at the edge of the water, spreading his wings.
“We’ll be back before dawn,” Tylie said.
“We?” Cas asked. “You’re going too? Where are you going?”
Tylie hesitated. “To talk to someone.”
Phelistoth gazed at her, his big dragon head above hers, his eyes far more reptilian than human. She shook her head and did not say anything else. The idea that he might be controlling, or at least manipulating her, crossed Cas’s mind, and it made her uncomfortable. She didn’t know what she could do about it. Once again, she wished Sardelle was here to advise them. She would even settle for Sardelle’s sarcastic sword.
Tylie climbed onto Phelistoth’s back, scrambling up his smooth, scaled side and making it look easy.
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