possible.
Then his breath stirred her hair-not a breath, a soft laugh. “You do have a sense of humor. That’s delightful. You should trying unsheathing it as often as your sword.”
“ I’ll consider it.” Evrial pointed again. “Now there are two figures working their way along the wall after-”
“ I see them. And, yes, I think that’s Akstyr. Even if someone else had adopted his hairstyle, nobody here would have the poor fashion sense to wear clothes three sizes too large. I wonder if there’s some way we can get to him before they do.”
“ Go under the tables?”
“ I don’t think either of us is small enough for that.” Maldynado shifted out of his nook. “We’ll have to use the elbow method.”
“ You seem to have a knack for it.” Evrial touched her knife for reassurance as she followed him, though she feared the universe might have an ill fate in mind for her if she brawled with the same enforcers-and hurled them over the side of a steamboat again. If her captain found out, she’d never get her job back.
“ I have big elbows,” Maldynado said over his shoulder as he jostled more people aside. Now that the show was starting, this drew even more grunts of anger, and Evrial almost received a punch meant for him. “Other things as well,” Maldynado added.
“ Such as your head, I know.” Evrial shoved him to encourage more movement and less talking.
They turned the corner and headed down the side of the dining hall. By now, men and women in sleek, tight- fitting clothing were performing handsprings, somersaults, and flips back and forth across the stage, their movements synchronized to the drumbeats. Evrial wondered how they’d manage the athletic feats on ice. If the city wasn’t immersed in bloodshed when they arrived, maybe she could attend a show.
Maldynado halted.
With drumbeats reverberating from the walls, Evrial had to stand on her tiptoes to speak into his ear. “What is it?”
She didn’t hear all of the words in his response. “…lost him… those enforcers…”
Evrial leaned around him for a better view. They’d reached the end of the standing area, and only tables remained before the stage. If she and Maldynado drew closer, they’d risk being highlighted by the colored lamps. But there was no reason to. Akstyr and the two enforcers had disappeared. Evrial checked on the enforcers at the table, then looked away. One of the men’s faces pointed toward the stage, but the other fellow was gazing straight at her and Maldynado.
“ We may not want to linger,” Evrial said.
“ Oh, I agree, but where do we go? I don’t see a door, or where they went.”
“ Backstage?” Evrial pointed to black curtains hanging between the wall and the side of the stage. She assumed a doorway or stairs lay behind them.
“ I have a feeling backstage will be busy.”
Evrial glanced at the enforcer table again. Both men were gone. “Blast it, go, Maldynado. Better to deal with performers than enforcers.” When she heard the words come out of her mouth, she frowned. She told herself she wasn’t thinking like an outlaw; it was just these particular enforcers she needed to avoid, not uniformed people in general.
“ Whatever you say, my lady.” Maldynado stuck his hands in his pockets and casually strolled toward the curtains.
He looked about as inconspicuous as a purple-winged swallowtail on an apple tart. Figuring they’d already been spotted, Evrial hustled past him and reached the curtains first. She parted them and paused only long enough to make sure the other two enforcers weren’t standing there with crossbows. Costumed dancers milled about, waiting for their turn on stage, but she didn’t see anyone armed. A muscled, bare-chested man standing nearby did turn around and frown at them.
“ What-”
Maldynado giggled and grabbed Evrial’s arm. The giggle surprised her into silence. She’d heard all sorts of laughs from him, but nothing that effeminate.
“ I told you, sweetling,” he slurred, “that’s not the right door.” He blinked a few times at the performer with the bulk of a bouncer. “ ’Scuse me, Bare and Brawny. We’re looking for-oh, what’s his name? The first officer said- There he is.” Maldynado thrust an arm toward a corridor entrance a few paces away.
From Evrial’s viewpoint, she could tell it was empty, but the brawny fellow shouldn’t be able to see down it. “Yes, yes,” she said, “I see him too. We better get out of the way before we disturb the act.”
She gripped Maldynado’s hand and led him into the corridor, not daring to glance back to see if anyone followed. He stumbled and staggered so effectively that she was surprised he didn’t trample her heels. They reached the corridor without anyone intercepting them, but Evrial hustled past several hatches and around a corner before stopping.
Heat radiated from the white, metal walls. The dim lighting couldn’t have accounted for it; they must be near engineering and the boiler room. There was no sign of Akstyr or the enforcers. They hadn’t been back with the performers; where else could they have gone? Numerous metal hatches lined the utilitarian walls, but why would Akstyr have started going into random cabins? These windowless inside rooms probably belonged to the crew. Though if the circus performers were paying their way with their performance, perhaps they’d been given small cabins in this area.
“ What now?” Maldynado asked, his drunken slur gone.
“ I don’t know,” Evrial said. “If we go back the way we came, we’ll raise suspicions. More suspicions.”
“ You don’t think my brilliant act fooled anyone, eh?”
Maldynado was proving a quicker thinker than she would have guessed from the feckless facade he usually portrayed, but Footsteps interrupted her thoughts. Boots, Evrial guessed, resounding on the metal floor and echoing over the banging of the drums.
Maldynado jogged down the corridor to a hatch that stood ajar. He jerked his head for Evrial to follow. Though she had doubts about being trapped in a cabin, there wasn’t time to debate other options. She darted into the dark space behind Maldynado just as someone asked, “Did he go this way?”
Maldynado eased the hatch most of the way shut, leaving a crack. The darkness behind it was absolute and revealed nothing. They might have been in a closet or a cave. Though, from the whiff of sweaty laundry that floated to Evrial’s nose, she guessed a crew member’s cabin was more likely.
“ I thought he went this way,” a second man responded.
The footsteps thudded into their corridor, and Maldynado pushed the hatch all the way shut. The voices shifted from distinct to muffled, though they didn’t fade away. It sounded like the men had stopped outside to discuss their search, or tomorrow’s breakfast menu, for all Evrial knew.
“ The good news,” Maldynado whispered, “is that they’re looking for Akstyr instead of us. The bad news is that they’re looking for Akstyr. That means they know our team is aboard.”
“ At least they haven’t found him yet. Of course, we haven’t found him either. I’m supposed to be in charge here, and I lost one of my men not ten minutes into the assignment.”
“ Now, now, it’s not that bad,” Maldynado said. “It’s been closer to fifteen minutes.”
“ Very helpful, thank you.”
CHAPTER 4
Amaranthe dangled from the bar in the corner of the cabin, alternately wondering if her quivering forearms thought these chin-ups a worse torture than Pike’s knife and if she’d have to pay a fine for Sicarius’s unauthorized installation of training equipment.
“ One more,” he said from behind her.
“ I know. I’m just… marshaling my muscles and giving them a rousing speech, much like a general readying his troops for the battlefield.”
“ The longer you hang, the harder the task will become.”
