sciences during a fight. The latter probably. He wasn’t thesort to praise anyone.
“Yes,” Amaranthe said, agreeing eitherway.
“Look out.” Akstyr pointed over hershoulder.
She ducked and slid to the side, avoiding astevedore’s attempt at a grasp. A knife glinted in his hand.
Books stalked after the man. Surprisingintensity burned in his eyes, and Amaranthe danced further awayfrom the confrontation, figuring this was the middle of somethingbetween the two men.
“You think you can grab her and use heragainst us?” Books growled as the stevedore spun back to face him.“I don’t think so.”
The man limped backward, hands raised, andAmaranthe wondered what Books had done to him.
Movement to the side distracted her from therest of the fight. Ms. Setjareth had discarded her clipboard andwas scurrying toward the door, steps short and awkward thanks tothose sandals.
Amaranthe ran over to cut her off. They didnot need the woman calling for reinforcements-many more stevedoresstill labored on the dock.
Setjareth tried to evade Amaranthe buttripped, sprawling face first onto the hard floor. Amaranthegripped the woman by the triceps and hauled her upright.
“One who has a personality that grates likeglass paper should probably choose footwear sufficient for fleeingfrom irritated people,” Amaranthe said.
“You’re no business woman,” Setjarethgrowled.
“Not true. I run a mercenary business.”
“What do you want?” Setjareth tried to yankher arm away.
Amaranthe did not let go. After skirmishingwith the brawny stevedores, restraining another woman was easy.“Tell the workers out there to take a ten-minute break, then closethe door.”
The woman leaned outside and filled herlungs. Recognizing the nascent scream for what it was, Amaranthegripped the back of Setjareth’s neck and dug her thumb into one ofSicarius’s favorite pressure points. The would-be scream came outas a soft whimper.
“Listen,” Amaranthe said. “Nobody’s planningto harm you or your business. We just need a few minutes to lookaround to make sure you’re not harboring fugitives.” She decidednot to point out that she was a fugitive herself.
“What?” Genuine bewilderment blossomed onSetjareth’s face.
“A couple of suspicious folks took refuge inyour warehouse last night.”
With the sounds of fighting fading, Amaranthechecked on her men. They had routed the impromptu security team andwere forcing the stevedores to sit against the wall in a neat row.Akstyr had returned to peering into corners and prodding atcrates.
“Maybe that’s why the lock was destroyed,”Setjareth muttered.
“What?” Amaranthe asked.
“When I came in this morning, the padlock onthe door was dangling open. It didn’t look like it’d been forced,and it still works.”
Amaranthe removed her hand from Setjareth’sneck. Akstyr knew a few atypical methods of bypassing locks; maybethe red-headed woman was a practitioner herself.
“First time this happened?” Amarantheasked.
“Yes,” Setjareth said. “I spent two hoursrunning inventory this morning.” That might account for some of herdourness. “Nothing was missing, and I didn’t find anyoneinside.”
“I’m sorry. Checking through all yourinventory must have made for a tedious morning.”
“Ancestors know that’s true.”
“And we must have fueled your suspicions,”Amaranthe said, thinking she might yet win the woman’s cooperationif she commiserated.
“You’re mercenaries, you say?” Setjarethasked.
Books, who had been supervising the disarmingand lining up of the men, looked in the women’s direction at thequestion. A grin played across his lips. Pleased with himself, washe? He
“More or less,” she told Setjareth.
“Do you have a card?”
“A what?”
“A business card. My partner and Ioccasionally have problems the enforcers are lax about solving.They’re professional and thorough when it comes to protectingcitizens, but much less enthusiastic when they’re tasked withprotecting a business’s interests.”
As illogical as it was, Amaranthe stillbristled at slights toward enforcers, but she had to admit thatmembers of the predominantly male force did sometimes showresentment toward the growing power women in the city wielded.Maybe she should tailor her services to fill that gap. As themen-especially Akstyr-were quick to remind her, charity work donein the name of the emperor didn’t pay well. Especially when theemperor never learned of that work….
Setjareth, waiting for an answer, lifted hereyebrows.
“Sorry, no card,” Amaranthe said. “We find itprudent to move our base of operations often, but…” She retrievedthe woman’s clipboard, scribbled the name and address of one oftheir contacts on a page, and tore it off. “Either one of thesefellows usually knows how to contact us. Uhm, take some of yourstevedores-the big ones-if you go to that neighborhood. And don’tgo at night. Or without some alcohol to bribe your way out of…”Amaranthe leaned over and scribbled the name out. “Actually, justgo to that fellow. It’s usually safer. And if you get there beforenoon, he’s usually sober.”
“You might want to think your contact chainthrough a little, dear,” Setjareth said.
“Yes, thank you.”
Since the woman no longer seemed inclined toscream for help, Amaranthe joined Akstyr to see what he had found.He had returned to the trapdoor and was peering down the ladderagain.
“Think they swam away?” she asked, though itseemed unlikely. Why go through the effort of breaking in when onecould simply dive off the end of the dock?
“There’s a residue here.” Akstyr swiped afinger along the edge of the square hole.
“Something physically visible?” Amaranthesquinted but saw nothing more interesting than algae sliming thetwo ladder rungs visible above the water’s surface.
“No, just a sensation. Someone used the-” heglanced about and lowered his voice, “-mental sciences. Rememberwhen that Mangdorian shaman flew out of the lake with Books andthere was a glimmering globe wrapped around them?”
“I was unconscious at the time, but Maldynadotold me the story, yes. You think this practitioner lady envelopedherself and Taloncrest in magic?” She almost choked at the idea ofa Turgonian army officer agreeing to such a mode of transportation,especially when the man had sneered at the idea of magic when he’dexplained his medical experiments in the Imperial Barracks dungeon.“If so, where did they go? For a flight? Or into the lake?”
“I didn’t see anyone fly away in a glowysphere,” Akstyr said.
“Glowing,” Books said.
“What?”
“Glowy isn’t a word.”
“Books…” Maldynado groaned. “I was gettingready to compliment you on doing a decent job in that fight andbeing less of a pedantic know-it-all, but you’re ruining myenthusiasm for the idea.”
“Impressive,” Books said.
“What is?”
“That you used the word pedantic.Correctly.”
“You’re always going to be a stodgyprofessor, aren’t you?”
Books’s eyes crinkled. “It does seemlikely.”
Amaranthe held up a hand to silence them.“Akstyr, are you suggesting the perpetrators have ahideout…
“I’m not wearing a diving suit again,” Bookssaid.
