face in his neck. He smelled of black powder and blood, but it didn’t matter.
“ You came for me,” she whispered.
“ Of course.”
“ The explosions… I was afraid you were…”
“ Me too,” he said, voice hoarse. “I feared you’d been caught in that cave-in. Bocrest was too quick to light the charges. He was supposed to wait until-it doesn’t matter now. If I’ve succeeded, they think the weapons are buried and I’m dead.”
She lifted her arms, intending to hook them over his shoulders, but her fingers encountered dampness. A torn section of uniform wrapped his biceps like a bandage. She drew back, staring at blood on her hand.
“ You’re wounded!”
“ Lancecrest got lucky.” Rias twitched a shoulder. “It’s just a scrape. It’ll be fine. Besides, it was worth it. He was carrying something you might find useful.” He unbuttoned a pocket, withdrew her spectacles, and draped them over her ears.
Tikaya slumped against his chest. She should have been elated to have her vision back, but a lump of guilt lodged in her throat. “You got shot trying to help me. I’m sorry.”
Rias took her face in his hands. “I’d risk a lot more than a trifling arm to help you.”
Comforted by his words, she tilted her head back.
He seemed on the verge of kissing her, but he cleared his throat and glanced around. “Are you…alone?”
“ Yes, though Sicarius was here a few minutes ago.” She realized he had probably been wondering about Parkonis, but his eyes widened at the mention of the assassin.
“ He was? Rust, he’s not supposed to be on this side of the cave-in. He must have found a way through.” He scrubbed his face. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and be able to avoid him.”
“ I haven’t seen Parkonis since before the explosions,” Tikaya said. “Do you know if he… Did any of the raiders make it?”
“ I didn’t see him amongst the dead.” Rias took a deep breath. “Tikaya, I’ll help you find him, but I need you to know… When he appeared and absconded with you I… My first thought was to hurl myself into that chasm. But there’s a stigma against suicide in my culture, and regardless it’s always seemed like giving up, which isn’t something I’ve ever strived to master. I fully intend to fight for you.”
“ Rias-”
“ I know he represents your dream, the life you always wanted, and I know its selfish of me to want you when it could alienate you from your family, but… How is it he’s been alive a year and never found a way to let you know? I would have toppled an empire to get back to you.”
“ Rias-”
“ I can’t walk away and let him have you, Tikaya. Not if there’s a chance…”
“ Rias.”
He opened his mouth again, but she flattened her palm over his lips. His shoulders slumped, and wariness hooded his eyes.
“ I appreciate hearing those things very much.” She grinned at the idea of him toppling an empire-for most people, that was just an expression, but she wouldn’t put it beyond his means. “But there’s no need for you to go on.” She lowered her hand, brushing his lips with her thumb. “You have me.”
He gaped at her in stunned silence.
“ You have me for a lot of reasons,” she said quietly, “but especially because you’re willing to give up everything to be here at my side, plotting against your people to destroy those weapons. The definition of a good man is someone who makes the moral choice when temptation invites him to do otherwise. The definition of a hero is someone who makes that moral choice even when temptation, threat of reprisal, and the mores of his culture invite him to do otherwise.” She considered her words and issued a self-deprecating smirk. “That was preachy, wasn’t it?”
“ Oh, no, I liked it. Especially the part where you’re calling me a hero.” He grinned, eyes sparkling, and her heart danced.
“ I’m sure I’m not the first, Fleet Admiral Starcrest.”
“ In Turgonia, you’re a hero if you sink more ships than anyone else.” He tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and laid his forehead against hers. “I like your definition better.”
“ Good. I hope you like this too: I don’t want you worrying about being selfish because you want to have a life with me. I want one with you too. Some people are worth changing your dreams for.” She kissed him, wishing there was time for more. “I want to be with you. Always. Even if it means we’re both exiles on your forsaken prison island.”
Rias’s grip tightened. “Cursed ancestors, don’t say that.”
“ It’s the truth, though I’m going to be terribly disappointed if the preeminent military strategist of the era can’t outsmart a teenage assassin in order to avoid that fate.”
Whatever Rias’s retort was going to be, it was lost when the door hissed open.
Before Tikaya could do more than think of hiding, Sicarius strode in. His gaze swiveled upward to lock on them. The pulsing blue light painted his face in eerie shadows. Blood stained his short blond hair, spattered the side of his face, and painted his hands. As those dark hard eyes raked her, she had an unsettling hunch none of it was his. Two pistols were jammed into his belt, and he carried a dagger. A drop of blood fell from the blade and splashed on the landing.
“ Sicarius, good,” Rias said.
Good? The assassin looked like he was about to kill both of them. Tikaya stifled the incredulous expression that wanted to waltz across her face.
“ Do you have the door symbols from the journal?” Rias asked.
“ You assured Captain Bocrest you were placing the blasting sticks to provide a distraction, but the tunnels came down in such a way that he believed the weapons cavern had been buried and you with it.” Sicarius spoke in such an emotionless monotone it was almost possible to miss the accusation in those words. “I informed the captain that it was unlikely you would miscalculate so badly. The marines are searching the tunnels for you and her.” His cool eyes flicked Tikaya’s way.
She groaned inwardly. The plan would have worked if the emperor’s perceptive henchman wasn’t here. She glanced at Rias, almost expecting him to dive behind the railing and rip his pistol free for a shot, but he did not.
“ Demolitions are dangerous and sometimes unpredictable,” Rias said. “We can, of course, rejoin the others now, though why not get through the locked door and finish the mission while the relic raiders are too scattered to guard their cache? Do you have the symbols?”
“ Yes,” Sicarius said, no sign on his face of whether he believed Rias’s lies. “I already tried them.”
“ How?” Tikaya asked.
No doubt, he was agile enough to scale the side of that butte, but not with those invisible beams waiting to slice off limbs.
“ Bow and arrow,” Sicarius said.
Rias lifted an eyebrow toward Tikaya. He probably had not had as good a look at the entryway as she had. She nodded thoughtfully. If Gali had used telekinesis to nudge the symbols around, she supposed something thrown-or shot-against them could do the same job.
“ You lined them up?” Tikaya had assumed the numbers she copied were a different set than the ones that had appeared the day Lancecrest got in.
“ As close as I could. Not all the symbols matched those in the journal.”
“ Maybe you misread them,” Rias said.
Those dark eyes turned a shade cooler. “I did not.”
“ I’ve been told the symbols change periodically,” Tikaya said. “It was probably designed so people who knew the secret to the puzzle could always get in, providing they had the math skills, whereas others would have, well, the trouble Lancecrest’s team has had.”
“ You know the secret?” Sicarius glided up the stairs, eyes locked on her.
Rias dropped to the step in front of her, blocking the assassin’s advance. Sicarius halted.
“ I’m close,” Tikaya said. Or not even remotely close. It was one of the two. “It would help to see the
