them and were sitting on them. She had the sense of men preparing for a trip to the borders to stave off an enemy encroachment rather than soldiers ready for an immediate brawl.
While pretending to study the blackboard listing arrivals and departures, Amaranthe eased toward a group of chatty privates. With her back to them, she listened to the conversations.
“…was going fast and hard when the call came. Can you believe it? Finest girl in town.”
“Should have seen what I was doing with that buxom woman from the eating house up the street.”
“Oh, yeah? I was with her sister. And she was way more…”
Maldynado snorted as the bragging-disguised-as-complaints continued. “Bet none of them were entertaining more than their hands.”
Amaranthe was about to give up on getting information from the group-maybe there were some officers around with more to talk about-when a familiar voice addressed her from behind.
“You’re audacious to show up here.”
Careful to keep her back to the soldiers, Amaranthe turned to face Sergeant Yara, someone else who could hurl a glare like a cannonball. Yara wasn’t wearing her enforcer uniform, but she managed to appear stern and authoritarian even in an unadorned gray wool sweater. In fact, she looked extra stern. Irked and irritated might be better words.
“Good evening, ma’am,” Maldynado drawled, giving Yara a lazy smirk. “You’re looking well.”
Amaranthe winced. She doubted Yara was in the mood for Maldynado’s charms.
“You’re looking like a buffoon,” Yara told him. “Hasn’t anyone shot you to collect on your bounty yet?”
“Any number of degenerate hoodlums have tried, but they lacked the fighting prowess to threaten me.”
Amaranthe decided not to encourage the conversation by pointing out how many of those degenerate hoodlums had been children armed with slingshots. They had more pressing matters to discuss.
“Sergeant Yara,” Amaranthe said, “I thank you for coming. Ah, you didn’t have anything to do with all of this, did you?” She waved at the soldier-filled lobby.
“No.” Yara’s hard gaze grew harder. “Reinforcements are being sent to the capital because of this.” She removed a knapsack-it clinked, probably from weapons stuffed inside-and withdrew a pair of wrinkled newspapers. She thrust them at Amaranthe.
The headline on the first one was familiar, the story of the assassinations she’d read about before they got on the train. Amaranthe flipped to the second, a Forkingrust newspaper from that morning. It updated the death tally, adding another six men and women, and posited theories as to the culprits. Sicarius’s name was mentioned more than once. A paragraph at the end implored citizens not to worry because troops from nearby garrisons were being called in to aid in finding the murderer and to protect innocent citizens.
Amaranthe slumped. All of these soldiers were on the alert because of Sicarius’s actions? That meant their presence had nothing to do with her choice to talk to Yara, but she couldn’t find it within herself to gloat. This would only make things more difficult for her team. It was odd, though, that soldiers would be called in; enforcers handled crimes in the city. A discordant twang sounded in the back of her mind. Was it possible someone was using the murders as an excuse to bring more troops to the city? Troops possibly loyal to the commanders ordering that advanced weaponry?
Yara rattled the papers, recapturing Amaranthe’s attention. “Did your man do this?”
At least she didn’t accuse the entire team. “Why don’t we go outside to discuss this?” Amaranthe asked.
“Oh, certainly. We wouldn’t want these soldiers to figure out who you are and put an end to any felonies you’re in the process of committing.” Yara’s voice wasn’t quiet.
Amaranthe kept herself from glancing about nervously-and conspicuously. At least Yara wasn’t jumping up and down, yelling and pointing at Amaranthe and Maldynado. Maybe there was hope to placate her.
Amaranthe nodded toward the front door and headed that way, hoping Yara would follow.
A few blocks away, a clock tower tolled eight times. While the schedule for Sespian’s train hadn’t been announced anywhere, Books had done some fancy math based on known schedules for other trains sharing the railway to determine that the emperor would likely arrive between nine and ten. That didn’t leave Amaranthe a lot of time to win over Yara. At least the sergeant was following them out of the train station without alerting anyone on the way.
“Why did you want me here?” Yara asked as soon as she joined them. “It’s obvious that you don’t have any interest in working within the boundaries of the law, or even the dictates of humanity.”
Amaranthe and Maldynado stood in the shadows of a mercantile store that had closed for the day. A kerosene streetlamp burned at an intersection, its illumination dim compared to the gas lamps that lined the streets in Stumps.
“This-” Amaranthe lifted the papers, “-wasn’t done with my knowledge or approval. As for why I wanted you here, the emperor needs help, and I thought you cared enough to want to see to his welfare.”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Yara said.
“And here I thought she’d come to trade terms of endearment with me.” The dim lighting was enough to show off Maldynado’s white teeth when he flashed a smile.
“I wasted a week’s leave to come,” Yara said without acknowledging him. “The soldiers are on high alert, and nobody will risk kidnapping the emperor now. Not here.”
“Actually, someone will. I promise you.” Amaranthe withdrew a carefully folded note from her pocket and handed it to Yara. “One of my men won an event in the Games this summer, and Sespian gave that to him at the dinner afterward.”
Yara walked to the streetlamp to read the note. Amaranthe forced herself to stay put, but it made her nervous to let any distance form between her and that note. Though it wasn’t signed, it was the closest thing to evidence she had in case she ended up having to justify her actions to someone after the mission.
“Amaranthe Lokdon,” Yara read, “I wish to hire your outfit to kidnap me. I can offer 100,000 ranmyas.” She lowered the note. “You expect me to believe the emperor gave this to you?”
“No, he gave it to one of my men.” Amaranthe smiled, hoping a smidgeon of humor would lesson Yara’s scowl.
It didn’t. If anything, the woman’s lips turned further downward.
Amaranthe coughed and slid the note from Yara’s fingers. She slipped it back into her pocket.
“This means… you’re the one planning to kidnap him tonight?” Yara asked.
Amaranthe nodded.
Yara lifted her eyes toward the sky. “This is worse than sedition, more than a crime. It’s… It’s…”
“Likely to be a good time?” Maldynado asked. “You don’t have to do anything, you know. You can just come along to watch. It ought to be entertaining, if you can avoid being shot.”
Amaranthe lifted a finger to her lips, hoping to hush him up. But Yara snorted. Or was that a short laugh? Maybe Maldynado had said the right thing after all.
“You are invited,” Amaranthe said. “It might put Sespian at ease to have a friendly face. Someone he’s fairly certain is loyal to him. Of course, we’re loyal to him, too, but I don’t think he knows that yet. I must convince him of that.”
Yara stared at her and shook her head.
“If you come along,” Amaranthe said, “you can rescue him if you two decide we’re not to be trusted.”
“Are you insane?” Yara asked. It wasn’t clear whether the comment applied to Amaranthe’s last suggestion or to the scheme as a whole.
“We debate that frequently,” Maldynado said, “but the boss hasn’t gotten us killed yet, so we haven’t made a ruling.”
“If you rescue him, or simply make sure he doesn’t come to harm while he’s with us, I’m sure he’ll be grateful,” Amaranthe said. “Maybe you’ll get another promotion out of it, eh?” She said the last as a joke, but it didn’t elicit a smile. She needed to stop trying humor on people scowling so fiercely they were in danger of pulling muscles in their necks.
“I’ll be lucky to keep my current rank after all this trouble. I’ll admit I got myself into it by pestering my higher ups about those weapons, but having you and your cursed assassin show up on my family’s stoop, and with my enforcer brother there to witness it…” Yara groaned.
Amaranthe wondered if the week of leave Yara had mentioned might have been someone else’s idea. A
