other.
Dunn fidgeted in his chair. Sespian felt nervous too. Had he chosen the right man?
“You’ll report only to me,” he said. “If your superiors ask you for details, tell them you’re under secret orders.”
“I understand, Sire.”
“You usually focus your efforts on the empire’s borders and beyond, so this will be a different type of task for you. I need you to investigate every soldier working in the Barracks.”
Dunn tilted his head. “Sire?”
“Hollowcrest has been poisoning me for the last year. I’m sure he’s had help.” Sespian watched Dunn’s face intently.
The shock that widened the lieutenant’s eyes seemed genuine. “Why?” he asked. “Why would he dare?”
“To keep me and my ideas out of his way. He grew comfortable as regent, and he didn’t want to give up that power.”
“Despicable,” Dunn whispered.
“Quite.” Sespian held Dunn’s eyes. “That’s why I need your help. I think you’re a man I can trust.”
“Of course! What can I do, Sire?”
“Find out who’s with me and who’s loyal to Hollowcrest. I wish I could lead the investigation myself, but people have a tendency to be on their best behavior when I’m about.” When they’re not trying to drug me…
“Quite.” Dunn smiled as he echoed Sespian’s earlier comment. “On the other hand, who would notice a young lieutenant in one of the ubiquitous soldier uniforms around this place?”
“We’re thinking alike already. Your skills will serve you well in this. One other thing…” Sespian cleared his throat. “Find out everything you can about a female enforcer named Amaranthe Lokdon. In particular, I want to know if she’s dead or alive. Hollowcrest says dead, but I’ve decided it’ll be best for my health to question everything he’s ever told me.”
“Yes, Sire,” Dunn said.
“That’s all. Report to me daily before breakfast.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Sespian sat in the cubicle for a few minutes after Dunn left, wondering if he could trust the man. Even if he could, this was only a start. He would have to round up Hollowcrest’s minions and do something with them-all before Hollowcrest figured out Sespian was off the drug. He hoped he had enough time, but feared he did not.
Chapter 16
“Y our name?” the sergeant asked.
Perched on an uncomfortable wooden chair, Amaranthe flirted with making up an identity, but with her wanted posters plastering the city, the soldiers would figure it out sooner or later. Besides, her interrogator would probably see through her lies.
Hard, experienced eyes studied her from beneath graying eyebrows. A scar ran down his cheek, tugging his lip into a sneer that made it look as if he had eaten something unpleasant for breakfast. His last prisoner perhaps.
“Amaranthe Lokdon,” she said.
No one sat at the lone desk, but two armed guards stood by the office’s only door. It was open, and a man wearing captain’s pins leaned against the frame and further blocked the route. At least the soldiers were questioning her here instead of some dank interrogation chamber, though the vertical iron bars securing the sole window offered little hope of escape. No one had bound her hands, but with so many soldiers around, she failed to see how it mattered.
“Occupation?” the sergeant asked.
Counterfeiter of money, plotter against business coalitions, and all-around hindrance to Commander of the Armies Hollowcrest. “Enforcer.”
“What district?”
“Commercial.”
The sergeant strolled around the room, hands clasped behind his back. His boots alternately clacked or thudded as he crossed back and forth over a thin rug. It did little to cover the web of cracks marring the concrete floor, evidence of the building’s age.
“A female enforcer,” he said. “There can’t be many. It’ll be easy enough to check your story.”
“I imagine so.”
“Women warriors. Ridiculous notion. You can’t beat a man in a fight.”
“Depends on the man,” she said. “Why don’t we leave the fort, just you and me, and we can test your theory?”
The sergeant steered a frosty look her direction. “Who’s your friend that ran?”
Amaranthe hesitated. In the doorway, the captain’s eyes narrowed. She shifted on the hard chair. The sergeant dropped his fists on the desk, leaned on them, and glared at her.
“My partner,” she said.
The sergeant snorted. “That man is no enforcer. He evaded our soldiers slicker than a greased fish.”
“Did he kill anyone?” Amaranthe asked. Please, no more deaths on my hands.
“It depends on how much you two had to do with the men who were murdered by the lake and under the water tower.”
“We had nothing to do with that,” Amaranthe said. “We were only following the trail to see what did kill them.” She leaned forward and gripped the edge of the desk. “And we did. We saw it, and we fled from it. Your men need to be very careful. It’s not a bear or panther, like the papers said. It’s much worse.”
“Oh?”
Amaranthe frowned. The sergeant sounded more skeptical than interested. Was he not concerned about his lost men?
“Yes, oh,” she said.
“What did you see?”
“It was like a cougar but much bigger. It was strong, but it wasn’t graceful. It was ugly and blocky-like something molded out of clay. It’s not of natural origins.”
The sergeant exchanged significant glances with the captain, who was apparently content to let his man do the questioning while he observed. A part of her wanted to tell them about everything: Forge’s assassination threats, Hollowcrest’s drugging of the emperor, and her suspicions about the creature. But they would never believe her. Still, if there was a chance she could get them in on the monster hunt, she had to try. After seeing Sicarius’s knife clank uselessly off the beast’s eye, she knew killing it was beyond her team.
“What do you mean not of ‘natural origins?’” the sergeant asked.
Amaranthe leaned back and felt the hard edge of the chair against her shoulder blades. She considered her next words. If she simply said the beast was a magical Nurian creation-something imperial subjects were supposed to know nothing about-she would find herself thrown in a cell as a conspirator. She had to lead them to make their own conclusions.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve never heard of anything like that monster. My comrade threw a knife at its eye, and the blade didn’t penetrate.”
“The weapon must have spun and hit with the hilt,” the sergeant said.
Amaranthe shook her head. “The point struck true. Right in the eye. It clanged off as if it had hit steel.”
“Impossible. You saw wrong.”
Believe me, curse you. “I’m just an enforcer, and I don’t know too much about politics, but isn’t it possible that some-I don’t know-enemy of the empire sent the creature over here to make trouble? Especially now, with the emperor’s birthday celebration only days away? Foreign diplomats and hundreds of important officials from all across the empire will be in town. Don’t you think it’s a bad time for soldiers to start showing up dead?”
“It’s never a good time for soldiers to show up dead.” The sergeant dropped his chin to his chest. “It is kind
