“When you said soldiers,” Amaranthe told Sicarius, “I didn’t know you meant the emperor’s elite bodyguards. Men hand-picked to serve in the Imperial Barracks because of their martial prowess.”
“They are only men, as mortal as the next,” Sicarius said.
“They’re huge.”
“Huge men rarely move swiftly or with great agility. You know this.”
“Yes, but is that knowledge enough to keep me from tinkling down my leg when one of those towering behemoths swings a blade at me?”
Sicarius gave her one of his flat looks, reminding her that a tendency toward whining wasn’t an admirable trait in a leader.
“You’re right, it is enough,” Amaranthe said, “I was just making sure.” She’d hate it if she ever caught disappointment in one of his gazes.
Inwardly, she hoped the team would be able to stay hidden in the coal car until the train reached the pass and was forced to stop because of a certain landslide blocking the tracks. Then there’d be a nice distraction to keep some of those hulking soldiers and bodyguards busy, and she might not have to face any one-on-one.
A steam whistle blew again, and the train inched forward. Amaranthe drummed her fingers on her thigh. They needed to jump soon, but the corporal was still in the coal car, raking his piles into place. Normally, Amaranthe would appreciate someone with a fastidious nature, but right now she wanted the man to toss the rake in a corner and leave. Surely, he had a warm berth waiting for him in one of the passenger cars.
“We must go,” Sicarius said.
“I know.” The rail car was inching past them with the train picking up speed. A few more seconds, and they’d have to jump onto one of the passenger cars, and the soldiers inside were bound to hear kidnappers gamboling about on their roof. “Let’s do it.”
Sicarius went first. He didn’t drop straight down into the car, but leaped fifteen feet and landed on top of the corporal, a hand smothering the soldier’s mouth.
“Go, go,” Amaranthe urged the rest of her team.
She jumped and landed lightly in the coal, a foot from the back lip of the car. Maldynado and Yara dropped down beside her. They flattened themselves to their bellies. The passenger car behind the coal car didn’t have windows in the front, but it did have a door with a balcony. Anyone tall who stepped out to smoke or admire the night sky would be able to see straight through to the back of the locomotive. The coal level was only a foot below the lip of the car, so that didn’t leave them a lot of room for hiding. They’d have to undo the corporal’s raking and see if they could dig a hollow or two.
On her elbows, Amaranthe crawled toward Sicarius. As the coal car passed the water tank, Basilard dropped, landing beside her. He also flattened himself to his belly. The darkness precluded hand signs, but she squeezed him on the shoulder to thank him for his reliable efficiency.
“Overboard?” Sicarius whispered when Amaranthe joined him. He had the corporal subdued, face pressed into the coal.
“Yes,” she said.
The train was just starting to pick up speed, so tossing the man over the side shouldn’t hurt him much. Because the corporal had been irritating, a mischievous part of Amaranthe wanted to take off his pants and force him to run back to the station half-naked. Unfortunately-or perhaps fortunately — Sicarius dumped him over the side before she could voice the suggestion.
She listened for voices or any sign that the men in the cab had noticed, but all she heard was the chugging of the train as it picked up speed. Smoke blew back from the stack, clouding the air above the coal car. She could think of better things to smell, but at least it would help to camouflage her team.
“Let’s dig out places to hide,” Amaranthe said, careful to keep her voice low so the men in the locomotive wouldn’t hear, “so we’re not visible at a glance. Sicarius, do you want to scout via the top of the train? See if you can locate the emperor’s car?” She knew he could glide across the roofs without making a sound.
“Yes.”
Sicarius disappeared so quickly, she guessed he’d been planning to do it whether she asked or not.
Amaranthe and the others set to scraping coal aside to create depressions. Maldynado knelt beside her and helped while Basilard and Yara dug on the other side of the car.
“What happens when someone misses that corporal?” Maldynado asked.
“I’m hoping he annoys his superiors as much as he did me and that people will be so relieved he’s not around that they won’t come looking for him.”
“The army doesn’t work that way. Everybody’s always reporting in to someone else.”
“I know,” Amaranthe said. “I don’t expect to make it all the way to the Scarlet Pass without something happening, but maybe we’ll get lucky. It’s only four hours away.”
“Uh huh, and what happens if we don’t get lucky?”
“We’ll launch our current plan early. Most likely with more bullets flying in our direction, because we won’t have our distraction.”
Maldynado touched his injured temple. “As the night goes on, I’m wishing more and more that I’d purchased some of that cider.”
Chapter 12
Akstyr joined Books in the dirigible’s navigation cabin. Maps were tented over levers, and open manuals sprawled across gauges, leaving little of the control panel visible. Books was hunched over it, scrutinizing the papers so hard that he didn’t notice someone had come in. Akstyr hoped there wasn’t a problem with the dirigible. The pilot had escaped while they’d been rummaging around in the mines, so there was nobody to turn to for help.
“I’ve been studying the implants,” Akstyr said. “It’s hard because they try to leap into your skin when you touch them. It’s real dangerous of me even to look at them, but I’ve got some ideas.”
He waited for a response-he wouldn’t have minded a little praise or encouragement for taking on the difficult task-Books didn’t acknowledge him.
Whatever. Akstyr sat down in the co-pilot’s chair. Darkness had come hours earlier, and he couldn’t see much outside the forward window. After a few minutes, Books stood tall, his head nearly brushing the ceiling, and rubbed the back of his neck. He yawned, spotted Akstyr, and jumped in surprise, cracking his head on the low ceiling.
“You didn’t notice me come in?” Akstyr asked. “Truly? Sicarius would have yelled at you. Well, not yelled but glared in that icy ball-withering way of his.”
“Probably true.”
“You figure out why those stowaways were lurking in our engine room?”
“I have several hypotheses, and none of them would be good for the team. There’s little we can do about it now.” Books rubbed his lips and frowned at the papers as if they were wayward students, running around one of his classrooms and ignoring his teachings. “I believe we’ve arrived at our destination in the Scarlet Pass.”
“Then why do you look so worried?”
Books leaned forward and peered into the darkness below. “Landing on a mountain ledge in the dark presents a challenge.”
“You landed us by the mine.”
“In a flat, stump-filled field with good visibility, yes,” Books said.
“If you crash, the blasting sticks will probably blow us up.”
“If I crash… it probably won’t matter.”
Akstyr leaned forward to peer out the window. Night had fallen, and snow drifted from the dark sky. He could make out the white tips of mountains in the background and a cliff nearby-a big cliff. What might have been railway tracks ran along a ledge on the cliff. To the side, the ground dropped away into a canyon. Nothing looked like a promising landing spot for a dirigible.
“Wait, why do we have to land?” Akstyr asked.
