Basilard signed: My people not killers.
“I know,” Amaranthe said, “but sometimes things happen and people stray from their values.” That was vague, but she certainly was not going to tell him what sort of revenge had been motivating that shaman.
Basilard nodded, eyes downcast, and Amaranthe winced at her clumsy tongue. She had not meant to remind him of his bloody past.
“Suppose something crazy happened,” she said, “and a couple of your people chose to go against their religion and get revenge on…the empire. Is there anyone you’ve heard of who could do the sort of magic that might poison the water or kill people through devices embedded under the skin?”
Basilard hesitated, then shook his head.
Sicarius watched him, eyes hard. Amaranthe had a feeling he would interrogate Basilard without qualm at that moment. Now that Sicarius knew the Mangdorians had him targeted, he would want to find out everything he could.
Amaranthe gazed across the river in the direction of the canyon they had visited. Foliage and distance hid it from view. She wondered if she had let the storm drive her away too quickly. Perhaps she and Sicarius should have tried to capture and question one of the workers.
“Someone’s coming,” Sicarius said.
“They heard we have raccoon vomit for breakfast,” Akstyr muttered.
“Amaranthe?” Maldynado’s voice floated through the trees. “You around? I’ve got news.”
Relief washed over Amaranthe when he and Books ambled into view. They must not have found trouble at the Spearcrest estate after all. But maybe they had answers for her.
“What are you all doing back here in the trees?” Maldynado glanced downward. “And why are there dead squirrels everywhere?”
“Don’t tell him about our night,” Akstyr pleaded.
Yes, Maldynado would tease Akstyr for days over this.
“Just more quirky incidents with the wildlife,” Amaranthe said. “It’s not important now. What matters is-”
“That vomit is glowing.” Maldynado stared.
“Well, yes, but I’m more interested in what you two learned,” Amaranthe said.
Books eyed the vomit, but dismissed it with a shrug. He wore a relaxed smile that twitched into a grin now and then.
“Books?” she asked. “You have news?”
“The news is that old Booksie got his snake greased last night,” Maldynado said.
Books gaped at him. “That statement is crude, boorish, and…”
Maldynado’s eyebrows rose.
“…undeniably accurate,” Books finished, standing straighter.
“ That’s the news you ran out here to tell us?” Amaranthe asked.
“News?” Maldynado said. “More like a once-in-a-decade miracle.”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Books said.
“I’ll bet my finest sword that Raumesys was still on the throne.”
Amaranthe rubbed her face. Akstyr and Basilard covered smirks. Sicarius watched the forest, head cocked to listen, eyes always scanning. At least one member of her team preferred business to antics.
“Gentlemen,” Amaranthe said. “While I’m delighted to revel in your conquests with you, I’d like any information you might have found related to our mission.”
Books’s smile faded to an embarrassed foot shuffling.
“No information?” Amaranthe asked.
“Vonsha doesn’t know who bombed us,” he said, “but she claims the neighbor tried to buy her family’s land. She suspects him of colluding with the Kendorians, possibly to give them a foothold in our pass.”
“ Kendorians? “ Amaranthe asked. “We haven’t seen a Kendorian since this started.”
“She was adamant the neighbor is up to something,” Books said.
“The neighbor is dead,” Amaranthe said.
“Oh,” Books said.
All the men’s eyes swiveled toward Sicarius.
“ We didn’t do it.” Amaranthe relayed the previous day’s events. “Akstyr, do you know of any artifacts that could burrow beneath someone’s skin and kill when the wizard or whomever isn’t around?”
Akstyr shrugged. “If you’re good enough, you can Make just about anything. Sounds intricate though.”
“Could this be the work of the person also responsible for the big device in the gambling house vault?”
“I guess.”
Well, that was not particularly helpful.
“Any other information?” Amaranthe asked Books and Maldynado. She rushed to add, “Of the useful-to- our-goals kind?”
Maldynado snapped his fingers. “Forgot to tell you: we saw that female enforcer sergeant and the soldiers leaving the Spearcrests’ place.”
“Sergeant?” Amaranthe asked. “She’s a sergeant?”
Her first reaction was surprise, and then…bitterness. After all the years she had spent trying to get promoted to sergeant. All that hard work. As far as she knew there were no female enforcer sergeants. Until now, apparently.
“Yup, believe so,” Maldynado said. “And, er, she recognized us. Said she’d be back for us later.”
“Whatever they’re on assignment for must have priority over capturing outlaws,” Amaranthe said, “but we figured that. Where’d they go?”
“Back to the road heading up the mountain, not toward the other side of the pass.”
Amaranthe started pacing and thinking aloud. “There’s a lot of interest right now in the properties on either side of this river, but it doesn’t seem to be the source of the water to Stumps, so it’s probably not the problem. Somewhere up in these mountains, there’s a water supply that’s being tampered with, making animals crazy and effecting people all the way down in the city. What if the whole reason the water is being fiddled with is so people here, in this valley, can profit?”
“Profit from what?” Akstyr asked.
“If the city’s current water supply is suddenly unusable,” Amaranthe said, “then they’d have to look for another source. Quickly. Coincidentally, there’s a beautiful river here and a valley that could be turned into a lake if a dam was built. Of course, Sespian isn’t the kind of emperor who’d kick a couple of warrior caste families off their land. He’d compensate them. Richly perhaps, at least in comparison to what these people are eking out on this unyielding land.”
“Building a new dam and altering the underground infrastructure that delivers city water would be a huge undertaking,” Books said.
“More efficient to kill the person fouling the water,” Sicarius said.
Amaranthe tapped her chin. “Good point. Maybe that’s what the enforcers and soldiers are on their way to do.” More than ever, she wished she had told Sicarius to hop onto their lorry and follow them up the mountain.
“Although,” Books said, “if the water was somehow made permanently undrinkable, your limestone quarry might also provide a means for profits.”
“Raw materials for the dam?” Amaranthe guessed.
“The imperial mixture for underwater concrete used for such structures requires a great deal of limestone,” Books said.
“You can harden concrete underwater?” Akstyr asked.
“Yes, it’s quite fascinating,” Books said. “The original engineers who stumbled upon the formula were working near a volcano and found that a mixture of volcanic ash, sand, finely crushed rock…”
A minute or two into Books’s explanation, Maldynado slapped Akstyr on the back of the head.
“What was that for?” Akstyr blurted, interrupting Books.
“Asking a question that could result in a lecture.”
Books’s eyes narrowed.
