superior suggesting she take the time off to figure out if she was truly committed to being an enforcer?
“We’re on his side, Yara. I swear it.”
“I don’t believe your intent is to harm the emperor, but what of the men guarding him?”
For some silly reason, it pleased Amaranthe to hear that Yara believed they weren’t a threat to Sespian himself. “The plan is not to harm them either.”
“Is everyone on your team aware of that plan?” Yara eyed the darkness around them, probably wondering if Sicarius was lurking nearby. “It doesn’t sound like you have a lot of control over certain members.” She stabbed a finger at the newspapers.
“Yes, we’re agreed on how to handle this.”
“What are you going to do with the emperor after you get him?” Yara asked.
“Whatever he wishes us to do.” A cold breeze drifted down the street, slipping beneath the skirt of Amaranthe’s purloined dress and reminding her that she needed to change back into her work clothes and return the disguise before the emperor’s train came in. “We must leave shortly, so I need your answer. Are you in?”
“I’d be addled to join you when you lured me down here under false pretenses. I’d be even more addled if I believed half of what you’re telling me.”
Maldynado leaned close to Amaranthe and whispered, “That’s a yes, right?”
Yara’s eyes narrowed. “If I do join you, do you mind if I attempt to collect on this shrub’s bounty when everything else is finished?” She pointed at Maldynado.
“Not at all,” Amaranthe said.
“How can you say that, boss?” Maldynado pressed his hand to his chest. “Your lack of support wounds me.”
“You need practice staying on your toes.” Amaranthe waved toward the street. “Let’s get to work.” Though she strode off with a confident air, she was more relieved than she would admit when Yara walked after her and Maldynado.
Amaranthe crossed the tracks again and used the cover of the warehouses to skirt the train station. Instead of approaching from the rear, as they had before, she came in from the front. She paused at the last loading dock to consider the blocky form of a brick water tower with an articulating arm that could be lowered to fill the holding tanks of an engine idling beneath it. In front of the tower, a two-story coal shed abutted the railway with a chute angled over the tracks. Lamps illuminated the entire area, and Amaranthe’s stomach sank when she realized the well-lit door at the base of the water tower faced the station. Anyone on the boardwalk outside could see it if they looked in that direction. She might need to rethink that part of her plan. When she’d concocted it, she hadn’t imagined soldiers swarming about the station like ants on an abandoned pastry from Curi’s Bakery.
A hand caught Amaranthe’s arm, surprising her from her thoughts. Before the others noticed, Sicarius drew her into the shadows of an alley between the last two warehouses before the water tower. Basilard joined Maldynado and Yara.
“Basilard and I will take the water tower,” Sicarius told Amaranthe, not acknowledging the fact that Yara had joined them. “Your team can do the coal.”
Sometime in the last hour, he and Basilard had acquired army uniforms. They both had distinctive faces, and, thanks to all the wanted posters around the empire, Sicarius’s was particularly well known, so neither would pass for army men up close, but they might be able to slip into the water tower without anyone thinking anything of it.
“Agreed.” Amaranthe pointed deeper into the alley. “A word?”
The others had noticed Sicarius, so she lifted a hand to keep them from following, and joined him a dozen paces away.
“The soldiers are waiting for a train that will take them to the capital,” Amaranthe said. “It seems someone murdered a bunch of prominent citizens, and reinforcements are being called in to protect Stumps and aid with the hunt of the killer.”
A moment passed before Sicarius said, “Understood.”
The single word gave away nothing of his thoughts, so Amaranthe tried to read the pause. Maybe it meant he regretted his actions, or at least realized he’d acted rashly and that there might be inconvenient consequences. Somehow she doubted she’d get him to admit it, even if that were the case.
“Do you think it’s odd,” Amaranthe asked, “that soldiers would be called in to deal with an assassin? I know they’ve hunted you before, but those were special missions, out in the wilds, weren’t they? Crimes in cities are almost always relegated to enforcers.”
“Yes,” Sicarius said.
“You’re answering both questions there, right?”
“Yes.”
“Have I mentioned how much I appreciate your garrulousness?” Amaranthe asked.
“No.”
“Good.” She touched his arm to make sure he knew she was joking, though something in the back of her mind-her father’s spirit perhaps-told her she shouldn’t be joking, touching, or even talking to someone capable of tearing through the city, killing dozens of people in a twenty-four-hour span. “I had an instructor in school, Ms. Worgavic, who had this saying, ‘In every crisis lies opportunity.’”
“You believe Forge is using my attack to bring the soldiers to the city for a scheme of its own?”
“The idea entered my mind, yes.”
He glanced toward the alley entrance. None of the others were in sight. “My only concern is getting Sespian to safety.”
Amaranthe tried not to feel irritation at the statement. It wasn’t news. Sicarius had never claimed to have an interest in helping humanity or saving the empire or anything of that ilk. In fact, he’d told her quite frankly that he didn’t. That he’d been letting her use him this last year only because they shared the goal of keeping Sespian safe. That Amaranthe had other goals too… She supposed that didn’t matter much to him. Though she knew it shouldn’t, the reminder stung.
“I understand that’s your main concern, but-” Amaranthe lowered her voice, “-I thought you hoped to become the type of person the emperor might wish to get to know.”
“That… cannot be the priority.”
“Oh, Sicarius.” She knew he was the last person in the world who would want sympathy-and maybe she was crazy to feel such emotions for him, knowing what he’d done in his life and of the questionable choices he continued to make-but it made her heart heavy to think of him never having a relationship with his son. “We’ll see what we can do about you getting a chance to deal with both concerns. But, in the meantime, I don’t want any more glares from you in regard to who I chose to add to my list of allies. It’d be premature for smugness on my part, but I don’t believe any of our complications thus far-” she waved toward the soldier-filled boardwalk, “-are a result of anything I’ve done.”
“Really,” Sicarius said dryly.
“Really.” Amaranthe smiled. “I know, I can hardly believe it either.”
Footfalls sounded at the head of the alley. Yara was striding toward them with Basilard and Maldynado hustling after her. Maldynado gripped her shoulder and said, “Wait until they’re done.”
Yara jerked away. “Unhand me, or I’ll collect on your bounty right now.”
Maldynado lifted both hands skyward.
“It’s all right,” Amaranthe said. “We’re done.”
Yara stalked up to Sicarius. “Who’d you kill for those uniforms?”
Sicarius regarded Yara with as much warmth as one might give a cockroach. A particularly invasive and pesky cockroach. “No one.” Sicarius jerked a thumb toward two inert forms farther back in the alley.
“We brought a number of gags, and I had a special wrist- and ankle-tying bands made,” Amaranthe said. The latter had come from Ms. Sarevic and were clever for their compactness and efficiency. “I told you the truth. We’re hoping not to injure anyone tonight.”
“We’ll see about that,” Yara muttered.
Amaranthe checked her pocket watch. “We better get started in a moment, but first, Yara, join me over here for a moment, please.”
Amaranthe knelt at the end of a loading dock and rummaged in her rucksack. She pulled out a mask and a
