Maldynado blew out a low whistle. “What abeauty. An expensive conveyance for a private owner to pay for,too. My father talked about getting one for the family businessesat one point, but we never did.”
“So our kidnappers are well-to-do,” Amaranthesaid. “Or they stole it from someone well-to-do.”
“Always a valid vehicle acquisitionstrategy.” Maldynado threw a wink at her, no doubt thinking of thetimes they had borrowed enforcer wagons as a means of creating adistraction.
She could not muster a response, not with asecond man now missing. Amaranthe squatted on the tracks, elbows onher knees, head hanging. If she had thought Basilard would be atarget in the middle of the day, she never would have suggested heenter the competition. Well, not exactly true. She would have hadhim enter with the intent of using him as bait to lure thekidnappers, and she wouldn’t have been sitting hundreds of metersaway in the stands when it was time to spring the trap.
“Did he ever run the Clank Race that quicklyin your practice sessions?” Amaranthe asked.
“Nah. He got under two minutes once, but whoknew he’d have the fastest time today?”
“Strange that the kidnappers went after himright in the middle of the day when all their other abductions havebeen at night. Did they know he didn’t sleep in the dormitories?Maybe this was to be their last abduction, and they figured itdidn’t matter if someone saw them at work. Maybe they weren’tplanning on targeting him at all, but he beat the person they hadin mind so they switched-”
Crashes sounded in the woods from whenceAmaranthe and Maldynado had come. She drew her knife and jumpeddown to take cover behind the four-foot-high ballast bed. Maldynadoknelt beside her, a rapier in hand. This one had an opal gem on thepommel, and silver runes running up and down the steel blade.
“How many swords do you have?” Amaranthewhispered.
“Only thirteen. That covers most of myensembles.”
The thrashing continued, closer now. Booksraced out of the foliage.
Amaranthe started to relax, but theexpression on his face stopped her. As he ran toward the tracks, heglanced over his shoulder twice. The second time, he tripped over arock and nearly tumbled head long into the gravel.
“Time to depart,” Amaranthe said. She climbedup to the wooden sleepers and waved for Maldynado to follow.“Books,” she said, but he had already seen her.
He scrambled up the ballast bed and joinedthem on the railway.
Amaranthe raced along the tracks, bootsstriking the wooden sleepers with each stride. She wanted toobscure their trail by running on a surface that wouldn’t leavetelltale footprints, but only for a moment. “How far behind areyour pursuers?”
“Not…far,” Books panted.
A steam whistle screeched in the distance, atrain heading for the city. Good. Maybe it would cut offpursuit.
“This way!” a male voice shouted from thewoods.
Amaranthe led the way off the tracks, jumpingfrom the gravel to the weeds lining the edge of the woods, hopingnot to leave prints in the dusty band in between. Maldynado andBooks, with their longer legs, made the leap easily. The teamweaved through the trees for a hundred meters, then came out on thepaved trail that ran along the lake, the trail Amaranthe andSicarius had run together so many times.
The ache that formed behind her breastbonehad nothing to do with her running efforts. He hasn’t even beengone a day, she reminded herself. Nothing to worry about yet.Besides, they were going to find him. Basilard, too.
Thousands of footprints trampled the dustyred clay of the trail, and her fear of pursuit faded as she and themen continued along it.
“What happened?” Amaranthe asked Books.
“Basilard wasn’t back there,” he said.
“We know.”
She explained the towel boy and the railcarriage as they continued running. Popular beaches sprawledbetween the trail and the lake, many occupied with naked childrenrunning, playing, and swimming about. It was a workday, and mostadults who could steal time away were at the Imperial Games, but afew nannies attended the youths. One voluptuous and quite nudewoman waved to Maldynado who puffed out his chest and smiledback.
“Well, there’s one witness to our passing,”Amaranthe muttered. “Who was chasing you, Books? Enforcers?”
“Yes, I saw that towel boy, and I tried toapprehend him. He pulled this out of his pocket.” Books plucked avial filled with a golden powder from his own pocket and held itout for Amaranthe. “He tried to hurl it to the ground to, Ipresume, knock me out. I was quicker than he and stopped him, buthe started screaming, and enforcers surged into the tunnels. Onethought he recognized me as a criminal-can you imagine that? — so Ihad to run.”
Amaranthe took the vial. With that much ofthe powder, perhaps Akstyr could give her more information onit- confirm whether it was the one from his book or if it had otherproperties.
“
“Impressing a small mind is an insignificanttask.” Books lifted a hand, pointing toward a beach. “Is thatAkstyr?”
Amaranthe almost dismissed the possibilitywithout looking-Akstyr was supposed to be investigatingapothecaries-but they
“Yes, it is,” Maldynado said. “How come he’sgot the afternoon off?”
“He doesn’t.” Amaranthe checked behind themto make sure no squad of enforcers was huffing and puffing down thetrail after them, then veered past three rows of stands stuffedwith bicycles.
Akstyr saw them coming and sat up, a sheepishgrin on his lips. Children hollered and yelled in the shallows.Though this particular beach was far from residentialneighborhoods, it sported sand instead of rocks, making itpopular.
“I checked a whole heap of apothecaries anddidn’t learn anything about your red-headed woman or the powder,”he rushed to say, probably trying to head off a lecture. “Some ofthe older clerks knew about the powder, but they said you can’t getit in the empire.”
“How many apothecaries are in ‘a wholeheap’?” Amaranthe asked.
“Bridger’s on Second and that littleforeign-owned one in the Veterans’ Quarter, and…uhm…”
“Two?” Books said. “Two constitutes a heap?I’ll send a note to the publishers of the Titanus ImperialDictionary so they can update the entry.”
“Ha ha,” Akstyr said. “Look, I was going tocheck some more after I relaxed a little.”
Amaranthe held out the vial Books hadretrieved. “We got a sample of the powder.”
Akstyr took it and held it up to the sun.“Oh, brilliant,” he breathed. His eyes narrowed, and calculationgleamed in them.
Amaranthe noted his expression. Did he thinkhe could sell the powder for a handsome profit?
“Where’s Basilard?” Akstyr asked. The handholding the vial drifted toward his pocket.
“He was kidnapped after a stellar performanceon the Clank Race.” Amaranthe reached out and caught Akstyr’s handbefore he could pocket the vial. She pried it out of his fingers.“I’ll keep this for now.”
He reached for her hand, and an objectionseemed on his lips, but he caught himself. “Sure, whatever. Notlike I need it for anything.”
Uh huh. Which assured her he did. She wouldhave to keep an eye on him.
“What do you mean Basilard was kidnapped?”Akstyr asked. “Weren’t you there? How could someone take him whenyou were watching?”
“He was in the athlete area,” Maldynado said.“We were spectators.”
“And we’d appreciate it if you didn’t implywe were negligent,” Books added, his back straight and stiff.
“Fine, but we need Basilard,” Akstyr said.“He’s important for…stuff.”
“Yes,” Amaranthe said, her own eyes narrowednow as she considered Akstyr. “Yes, he is.” It was hard for her tobelieve Basilard would be a part of some scheme of Akstyr’s, butshe
