had felt that return to normalcy before she started touching things, perhaps even out in the hallway.
She stretched and walked to the window, intending to open it and let some air in. Maybe she should have asked Agarik to drag the bodies out before leaving. Someone had nailed a couple boards across the window. So much for fresh air. Maybe she could still open it a bit.
A scream echoed from the building next door. Tikaya froze, her hand on the window lock. She drew back. Maybe she would leave it shut after all.
She dug a chalkboard out from behind a toppled filing cabinet. It was hard not to look at the bodies, but she could not remove the device to study elsewhere. The men had apparently tried to do that and failed.
Tikaya copied the writing from the bottom of the device and circled spots where the lone symbols on the side of the box appeared in the groupings. If they were numbers… No, she better not assume that yet. Just because something reminded her of an equals sign in her language did not mean anything.
Time bled past, the chalk clacking on the board the only sound in the building. Infrequently, gunshots in the distance interrupted. She found herself squinting at the chalkboard and realized twilight had come. The glowing symbols gave off some light, and she worried it would be visible through the windows.
A crunch sounded in the snow outside. She halted her work, chalk poised in the air. More crunches. Footsteps on her side of the building.
Tikaya eased past the bodies and grabbed Agarik’s rifle. She wished he had left powder and balls too. One shot was all she had if someone attacked her, one shot with a weapon she had never used before.
She cracked the door. Deep shadows lurked in the hall, and she barely made out the dead wolf. At one end, the door thumped and banged in the breeze.
Shots fired beyond that door, and she jumped. “Stop-what-” someone cried. Then screams of pain and aggressive yells followed. A lot of them. Her mind conjured the imagine of a wolf pack chasing after its wounded prey. Not Agarik, she prayed.
“ Where’s the woman?” someone yelled.
Tikaya swallowed and closed the door. The voices still penetrated the walls.
“ Find the woman!”
Someone cackled, and graphic descriptions of what could be done with ‘the woman’ followed.
Tikaya forced herself to return to the device. The same set of symbols glowed crimson in the air, taunting her.
There was an answer here; she just had to figure it out before time ran out.
CHAPTER 9
A boom rattled windows, shook the earth, and knocked Tikaya’s chalkboard on the floor. Rias’s group must have arrived, though she could not imagine him flinging blasting sticks wantonly.
Chalk still in hand, she ran to the window to peer between the sloppily nailed boards and through the frosted panes. Darkness had fallen, but flames burned in a building down the hill. Two figures with rifles ran through the light before turning down an alley.
She shivered, wishing for warmth in the office. The already frigid temperature had dropped noticeably after the sun had set.
Footsteps sounded at the end of the hallway.
Tikaya lunged for the rifle, but caught her heel on the downed chalkboard and skidded to her backside with a noisy thud. Great. If they hadn’t known where she was before, they knew now.
She scrambled to her feet and grabbed the rifle. She hopped over the bodies and slid into the shadows thickening the corner across from the door.
Finger on the trigger, butt pressed into her shoulder, cheek against the stock, Tikaya waited. In the stillness, she could feel her heart pounding in her ears. The footsteps thudded closer, the steady pace of someone jogging.
The door bumped against the furniture barricade, eliciting a surprised grunt that sounded familiar.
“ Rias?” Tikaya hazarded before she could think better. What if he was as crazy as everyone else out there seemed to be?
“ Tikaya!”
Rias burst into the room, bringing lantern light with him. He did not seem to notice the artifact or bodies; he searched until he spotted her in the corner, started forward, but stopped, gaze dropping to her weapon. He was missing his cap, his hair stuck up in places, and blood trickled from a gash on his temple. A cutlass was strapped across his back, two bulges in his parka suggested pistols, and he carried a rifle as well as the lantern.
“ Are you…you?” Tikaya asked.
“ I’m not murdering people and trying to kick the ore out of everyone’s cart if that’s what you’re asking. Just a little-” Rias cocked his head, almost like a dog listening. “Actually, it’s strange but I feel normal in here.”
Tikaya lowered her rifle. “Yes, I think the device creates some kind of normalcy field around it, probably so the operator isn’t affected by whatever it’s emitting that’s causing everyone to be on edge.”
“ On edge, that’s an understatement.”
Rias closed the door and hopped over the upturned furniture. Tikaya joined him in the middle, intending to show him the device, but he dropped his rifle on a desk and wrapped her in a hug. Surprised, she found herself crushed against his chest. There was a desperate fierceness to the grip, but she managed to get one arm around to his back to return the embrace.
“ I’m relieved you’re not hurt or…” Emotion thickened his voice.
“ I’m guessing you’ve had a worse afternoon than me,” she said, relaxing against him. The fear that had tensed her shoulders since Agarik left disappeared, and she felt warm for the first time in hours.
Rias released her and stepped back. “Sorry, I just… I wasn’t sure if you…” He cleared his throat. “It’s dangerous out there. Half the people are mildly affected by whatever’s in the air, and the other half are crazier than the bloodthirsty maniacs I left on Krychek.” His gaze skimmed the bodies in the room, and he frowned thoughtfully as he took in the furniture barricade and the half-boarded windows.
“ I’m glad you were able to get to me,” Tikaya said. “I need your help. Maybe Agarik can stand guard while- wait, where is Agarik?”
“ I don’t know.”
“ I asked him to go find you.”
Rias spread his arms, palms up. “I haven’t seen him. When I realized what was going on, I worried that one of these lunatics would shoot you, so I escaped at the first opportunity. I’ve been hunting around, dodging packs of the more aggressive people, and just now found you.”
Despite the situation, she smiled. Escaped at the first opportunity. By what creative means had he eluded his shackles this time? She almost felt sorry for Captain Bocrest.
“ I hope he’ll be able to stay safe.” Tikaya tapped the box and nodded at the collection of symbols hovering in the air. “I need your help. I think this device is responsible for what’s happening out there.”
Rias walked around it, shaking his head and massaging the back of his neck before he even saw the side with the runes and indentations.
“ If you press those, the representations appear in the air.” She demonstrated as she explained.
“ Oh, Tikaya,” he murmured. “I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person. We Turgonians may be good engineers, but students go to different nations if they want to seriously study alchemy.”
Her breath caught. “Alchemy?”
He stabbed one of the indentions and a symbol flared to life. “That’s iron, isn’t it?” Another stab. “And copper.” He shrugged apologetically. “I only remember the ones that we use in alloys. Since the Turgonians deny magic exists, we won’t publish anything in our textbooks that was only discovered through the use of magic. Aren’t your people the ones who first talked about atoms and electrons and such? We don’t have a microscope that can see anything that fine. We’ve only got fifty things on our table of elements.”
Scarcely breathing, Tikaya dropped an incredulous stare to the symbols. Was he right? Were they looking at the alchemical table of elements? If so, then this could be her Tekdar Tablet. She had to be sure before she based
