Tikaya’s breathing sounded loud in her ears, and she tried to quiet it. She yanked her left arm out of the sling, ignoring the pain, and dug out a fistful of matches. In her right hand, she held a single one. The tremble to her fingers annoyed her. She eyed the pan atop the door, and doubts flooded her. It was too stupid, too obvious. Children did this as a prank; it was not a way to attack an enemy, a bigger stronger enemy who would probably only be angered by the attempt.
“ I’m going to wipe that arrogant defiance off your face,” Ottotark growled. A door creaked. He was checking the closet.
She swallowed. Would he notice the missing kerosene? Or would he smell it before he entered her room?
“ You don’t act like a prisoner, not like you should, and the captain’s too lenient. You screwed us during the war. You gave our secret orders to the Nurians. They knew just how to ambush the Crusher. All those men-my brother — didn’t have a chance.” The heavy footsteps thudded closer. “I’ve been waiting to avenge him since you came on board.”
Ottotark shoved the door so hard it cracked against the stone wall. Tikaya jumped back and almost didn’t see the trap spring. Kerosene drenched him, and the pan clattered to the floor.
“ What the-” He stumbled into the room.
She slammed a boot into his backside with all her strength. He pitched forward, though he turned the fall into a graceful roll and came up facing her. She kicked the door shut and scraped a match against the stone wall. The scent of sulfur stung the air.
Ottotark snarled and started to lunge. She almost threw the flame then and there, but she kept herself to holding it out and shouting.
“ That’s kerosene you’re covered in!”
Ottotark paused, just short of springing.
“ Ever wanted to be a human torch?” Tikaya asked. “You could look just like all the dead soldiers here in about three seconds.”
He snorted. “You’ve not steel enough to kill anyone.” But his gaze stayed on that match, and he did not advance.
“ I’ve killed more people than I can count since this nightmare started. First on the Nurian ship and then in Wolfhump.”
Ottotark’s eyes widened. “The captain was right. You killed Commander Okars!”
Admitting that might be stupid, but it might convince him she was a threat. She needed to resolve this before Ottotark realized she would run out of matches eventually. She had to gamble. “Yes, and I liked him a lot more than I like you.” She tried to put a manic expression on her face as she looked him up and down. “I can’t imagine anyone would even miss you. Maybe I should just-”
“ Wait!” He licked his lips. “What do you want?”
“ Your word that you won’t touch me ever again.” It was another gamble. Just because Rias’s word meant a lot to him did not mean every Turgonian shared that viewpoint. Still, there were several words for honor and promises in their language. Maybe it was not that big of a gamble.
And Ottotark winced. If his word meant nothing, he would have agreed quickly. He would not be thinking it over.
The first match was burning low. She lit a second from it, then tossed the discard into a puddle of kerosene at Ottotark’s feet. The vapors ignited and flames roared, hurling shadows from every corner of the chamber.
Ottotark leapt away, slamming his back against the dangling corpse. “Shit, woman!”
“ Your word or you’re next.” The confident steely tone of her voice surprised her.
“ Fine, fine. I won’t even touch you if you’re dangling on the edge of a cliff, begging me to pull you to safety.”
“ Excellent.” Tikaya stepped to the side of the door. “You first. We’re going up to the others before I let you out of match range.”
Teeth bared, he edged past her and sprinted up the steps. Tikaya would not have kept up, but he crashed into someone in the hall upstairs.
“ Sergeant Ottotark, what are you doing?” It was Bocrest.
Tikaya stepped out of the stairwell, and both men turned. Ottotark thrust an accusing finger.
“ That crazy bitch doused me in kerosene and threatened to light me on fire!”
“ Because you locked me in the dungeon so you could rape me, you sadistic prick.” The burning match had gone out, but she clutched the box in her hand, prepared to light another if need be. She eyed Bocrest, who lifted a lantern and eyed her back.
“ Ms. Komitopis,” he said, “we call it an Interrogation Station, not a dungeon.”
Curse him, he sounded amused. At least he had used her name. That was a first.
“ Ottotark, go get cleaned up and find a rack,” Bocrest said.
The sergeant slunk away, muttering under his breath.
“ What were you doing in here?” Bocrest asked with no preamble, no apology for his loutish man.
Tikaya thought about lying, but reminded herself she wanted the captain to trust her. For now. And she did not think her true purpose that condemning. “Looking for the fort commander’s office. If anyone has more relics or rubbings, I figured it’d be him.”
“ I just came from there. It’s been searched, probably by whomever tortured the Nurian. There’s nothing, not even Colonel Lancecrest’s orders.”
“ Colonel…Lancecrest?” Tikaya asked.
“ Yes, usually we’d have a general commanding a fort, but this is a small outpost.”
“ It’s the name, not the rank, that surprised me,” she said. “There was a Turgonian named Lancecrest studying at the Polytechnic when I was a student.”
Bocrest shrugged. “Probably one of the younger ones. There are nine or ten kids, and they’ve had to make their own ways. The family’s poor as pond scum. Their lands were salted during the Border Wars, and you couldn’t grow a weed there now.”
“ So, just a coincidence, you think?” As she recalled, that Lancecrest had been studying archaeology; he had shared a couple classes with Parkonis.
“ The colonel’s body is up there in his office. If he was plotting with some relative, don’t you think he’d have figured himself up a better deal?” Bocrest headed for the stairs. “Get some sleep. I’ve got to look at this Nurian body. One cursed mystery after another up here.”
“ Captain?” she called, halting him on the steps. “Why is your team here, with me and Rias, instead of hunting for whoever sent that box to your capital? It might have originated in the tunnels, but surely the people who found it didn’t stick around and post it from there.”
The flickering lantern played shadows across Bocrest’s face. Answering was probably a violation of orders, but he had already doled out some information when they discovered the cube. Maybe he would divulge more.
“ Someone was sent to hunt down and kill the person who delivered the box,” he said. “We are here to seal the tunnels.”
“ Oh?” Tikaya sensed a cover story. “Why would you need Rias or me if that’s all you’re planning to do?”
“ We need to make sure we find all the possible entrances and exits. You two will ensure we don’t stumble into the kinds of traps that devastated the last group.”
The blasting sticks they were carrying were the only things that led credence to his story. Tikaya believed him about the attack on the university-something had started this wave crashing toward the beach-but, now that she’d glimpsed the potential for genocide these artifacts offered, she wagered sealing the tunnels was at the end of a list Bocrest received. Wouldn’t the Turgonian emperor love to have some of these weapons for his own use? With which to utterly destroy anyone who defied the empire? She swallowed. Like her people?
She should to talk to Rias, see what he thought about this. She blinked. Or should she? Whatever had happened, he seemed loyal to the empire through and through. What if he merely shrugged and went along with the mission?
Bocrest was watching her through narrowed eyes, and she feared too many of her thoughts traipsed across her face.
“ I understand.” She smiled innocently. Nothing to worry about from her. “You mentioned something about
