A squirrel reared on an overhead branch and chattered at them.
Basilard thumped Akstyr on the chest, pointed at it, and signed: Watch out.
Akstyr scowled. “Not funny.”
Basilard grinned.
“What’s your sign for shut up?” Akstyr asked.
“Quiet,” Sicarius said.
He lifted a hand and stopped. Everyone hunkered down. Voices grew audible on the road behind them. They belonged to men, but distance muddled the words.
Though it would have been better not to have their vehicle discovered, Amaranthe was almost happy to hear the soldiers. Their presence validated her choice to take this arduous route.
The conversation continued for a while. They must have reached the lorry and were deciding what to do. Amaranthe’s thighs started to burn from crouching down. Sicarius could have continued on without making a noise, and perhaps Basilard as well, but she figured the group should remain still until the men left.
“Well, someone’s here,” one voice said, loudly and distinctly.
The other answered in a hushed tone.
As Amaranthe listened to the men, she wondered where the enforcer woman was and if she was in charge. She had enough rank to be the leader of the enforcer mission, but surely the soldiers would not obey her. They never would have obeyed Amaranthe anyway. She rolled her eyes at her thoughts. She should wait until she actually met the woman before growing jealous of her.
The voices faded. After a few moments, Sicarius waved for her team to continue.
Thanks to the absence of trails, it took an hour to push through to the lake where the trees gave way to reeds and marsh. A blue heron standing on one leg turned a malevolent glowing eye upon them. Amaranthe touched the hilt of her sword, but the creature did not attack.
“Guess this is the right place.” Maldynado nodded toward the leggy bird.
Beyond the wetlands, a blue lake gleamed beneath the afternoon sun. Steep, valley slopes marked the northern and eastern boundaries while, to the south, a massive gray concrete wall stretched. A watch tower rose on either end. If men observed from within, Amaranthe could not see them. The roar of water drifted from beyond the wall.
“Waterton Dam?” she guessed.
“This is not on the map.” Books sounded affronted, as if he could not believe some cartographer had betrayed his integrity to misrepresent the mountain.
“The camp is over there.” Sicarius pointed toward a tree-filled peninsula between them and the dam. If the road they had been following had continued on straight, it would have come out there.
“Not a logging camp?” she asked dryly.
“No,” Sicarius said. “Tents and the enforcer vehicle.”
“Many people there?”
“Not immediately visible, but I came back to find you before scouting.”
The heron ruffled its wings and turned to face them squarely. Amaranthe wondered if a shaman could spy on people through an animal’s eyes.
“I sense something.” Akstyr stood, eyes closed, hands spread.
“Indigestion?” Maldynado asked. “You didn’t eat any of that glowing vomit, did you?”
Akstyr opened one eye and issued a cold glare Sicarius could not have topped. “It’s a presence, an… emanation. Yes, that’s the word. Like you feel handling that key fob from the gambling house.”
Amaranthe had felt nothing except warmth when she handled the fob, but she nodded for him to explain further.
“Much, much stronger though.” Akstyr closed his eyes again. “Like the difference in light between a star and the sun.”
“It’s a device?” Amaranthe asked. “Not a person?”
“A Made artifact, yes.”
“Is it what’s causing the problem with the water?” she asked.
“I can’t tell what it is or does, just that it’s here.”
Amaranthe turned to Sicarius and Books. “Thoughts?”
“Nothing natural is causing the peculiarities with the wildlife,” Sicarius said.
“Agreed,” Books said. “I don’t know much about magical devices-”
“ Made artifacts,” Akstyr said.
“Right,” Books said. “I don’t know much about them, but it seems likely this is the source of our problems.”
“Where is this artifact?” Maldynado was lounging against a tree, exchanging glowers with the heron. The bird seemed transfixed by the feathered plume jutting from his hat-angry that some fellow bird had died for fashion? “We’ll send Amaranthe in with her pistol to shoot it like she did the other one.”
She sighed. She should not have shared the details of her brief incarceration in the gambling house.
“I think,” Akstyr said, “it’s at the bottom of the lake.”
“That sounds…problematic,” Amaranthe said. The steep walls of the valley, carved from glaciers long ago, probably extended below the water’s surface. She doubted this reservoir had many shallow spots.
Maldynado stroked his chin. “How long can you hold your breath, boss?”
“Even if it was a long time,” she said, “black powder doesn’t light underwater.”
“What’s the plan?” Sicarius asked.
Yes, time for action. “You, Basilard, and I will check the camp. Books, Akstyr, and Maldynado, I’m putting you on artifact-investigation duty.”
“Investigating something at the bottom of a lake will be difficult,” Books said.
“I agree,” she said. “That’s why I want your brain cogitating on how to do it.”
Books lifted his chin. “I understand.”
Maldynado snorted. “Books’s brain will probably tell him to give it a lecture.”
Books sneered at him.
“Books, you’re in charge of those two,” Amaranthe said. “Use them as you see fit.”
His irritated expression turned speculative, and a faint smile crept onto his lips. “In charge, you say?”
“Wait a minute.” Maldynado pushed away from his tree. “Books is in charge of me?”
Amaranthe waved his objection away. “Akstyr, get them as close as you can to the artifact. Books will figure out a way to take a look at it. It’ll be dark in a couple of hours, so you better get moving. I probably needn’t say it, but stay out of sight. The soldiers are here to investigate the same thing we are, and they may have patrols around the lake. Patrols that would be happy to shoot outlaws foolish enough to cross their path.”
The heron ruffled its wings, then flapped them and took off.
CHAPTER 17
A surprising amount of smoke thickened the air, hanging low amongst the ferns and evergreens. The soldiers were certainly not being discreet. The smoke stung Amaranthe’s eyes and tickled her nostrils. She blinked away the irritation and hung back, letting Sicarius and Basilard lead the way toward the camp. After her admonition to the others to be careful, she did not want to be the one to step on a twig and alert everyone to their approach. The last time she had been forced to fight enforcers with Sicarius at her side, it had gone poorly…for the enforcers. A victory against those she wanted as allies was no victory.
Sicarius had offered to scout the camp on his own, but she wanted to see what the enforcers and soldiers were up to. Assuming they had the same goal she did, they had a day’s head start. What had they done with it?
Ahead of her, Basilard and Sicarius stopped.
Much smoke, Basilard signed.
No cook fire, Sicarius signed back.
