Basilard’s meal?”
“Yes, those were the most excellent eel filets I’ve ever had. And I don’t know what those dumpling things were, but they were also fabulous.”
Though the men had insisted on it, Amaranthe felt guilty sitting in a seat while Yara, Sespian, and the rest of the team crowded the specimen-storage area behind her. Shoulder-to-shoulder and backs bent, they were constantly clunking body parts against the exposed pipes and the overhead hatch. Weapons and rucksacks full of lanterns, rope, and other gear they’d salvaged from the steamboat further cluttered the space. Only Basilard had arm-room, but he’d had to volunteer for the task of cranking the human-powered engine to receive it. Interestingly, Sergeant Yara, who stood on Maldynado’s other side, hadn’t voiced any complaints about “touching.”
“The dumplings were good,” Sespian said, speaking for the first time since everyone had crammed into the vessel.
Basilard paused his cranking for long enough to offer a half bow to his peers.
Though he could barely move his arms in the limited space, Sespian hesitantly signed, You good chef.
Basilard’s eyes widened. That must have been the first time Sespian signed something to him. It tickled Amaranthe to see that he’d been paying attention and trying to learn some of the hand code. After Basilard’s surprise wore off, he offered another half-bow, this time to Sespian alone.
“We’re entering the trapezoidal area,” Sicarius said.
Amaranthe faced front again though she hoped Sicarius had seen the exchange-in particular that Sespian was willing to get to know even the most brutish-looking member of the group. Granted, Basilard had a gentle soul beneath the scars, but the fledging camaraderie ought to give Sicarius hope.
Sicarius nudged the vehicle to the left, toward a wide, dark area in the lake floor.
“How well do you know these waters, Maldynado?” Amaranthe asked.
“I swam and fished out here as a kid, but, as far as I know, nobody in the family has been down since I was twelve or thirteen. More than fifteen years.”
“You never explored beneath the surface?” Amaranthe leaned forward as their vehicle’s treads rolled closer to the dark area. Fish and eels swam through the light seeping down from above.
“No diving suits in the boathouse,” Maldynado said.
“You mean you didn’t go spelunking in any caves down here?” Akstyr snickered.
When more snickers answered his, Amaranthe peered over her shoulder at the tightly packed men. Books and Basilard wore identical smirks. Maldynado rolled his eyes upward while a blush colored Yara’s cheeks.
“I think we missed a joke,” Amaranthe told Sicarius.
Without bothering to glance at the men, Sicarius lifted a hand from the throttle. “We can’t go farther in this craft.”
They had crawled to the lip of a drop-off. A sharp drop-off. Utter blackness lay below. The bottom might be dozens of feet down or hundreds. It reminded Amaranthe of the area in the lake back home that had hidden that underwater laboratory.
“No chance of exploring down there?” Amaranthe asked.
“This is pure imperial technology,” Books said, “with no magical enhancements. It appears to have been designed for operation in the lake’s littoral zone. The increased water pressure beyond more than fifty or one hundred feet down could result in leaks.”
“It lacks buoyancy,” Sicarius said. “We can’t drive off a cliff.”
“Ah, yes, that too,” Books said.
“Given how often we end up cruising around on lake bottoms,” Maldynado said, “perhaps diving suits should be part of our regular gear.”
“Or we could get a submarine,” Akstyr said. “That’d be golden. We could go anywhere there’s water and nobody could find us.”
“I don’t think a submarine is in the budget,” Amaranthe said.
“Why not? Don’t we have all that money the emperor brought?” Akstyr lifted his head, clunking it on the ceiling. “Who has that money anyway? We didn’t leave it on the steamboat, did we?”
Amaranthe twitched a shoulder. She’d never seen it.
“It’s safely hidden,” Sespian said.
Rocks crunched beneath them as Sicarius turned the craft around.
“That’s good,” Maldynado said. “We don’t want imperial money to be wasted. Extra funds should be set aside to hire a sculptor to immortalize our team in statue form.”
“The team or you?” Yara asked.
“I’m thinking of everyone here,” Maldynado said. “Don’t imply I’m a more selfish lout than I am.”
Sespian cleared his throat. “Is that some sort of illumination up ahead? Or simply sunlight from the surface?”
“No,” Sicarius said.
Sespian looked at Amaranthe, the way he might if he needed a translation of Basilard’s hand signs.
“He’s a little selective in which questions he chooses to answer,” Amaranthe said.
“I wouldn’t mind a return to the surface,” Books said. “Did you see that library full of books in the house? I’m certain some of them could help with my current project, a project that was severely derailed by that fire in the engine room. I was fortunate to get most of my paperwork out before the flames spread.”
“Books was working on his project while we were being fired upon,” Maldynado said, “and yet I’m the one who gets blamed for the crash.”
Amaranthe had forgotten how much the men talked-and bickered. Part of her was glad to be back with them, but part of her missed the quiet of being alone with Sicarius.
“Maldynado,” Amaranthe said, “why don’t you give Basilard a break back there?”
Amaranthe thought he might object to being singled out for work, but Maldynado merely rolled up his sleeves and eased past Yara to take Basilard’s place. Amaranthe wondered how much of his willingness to accept the task had to do with the way one’s forearm muscles tended to flex and ripple while manning the crank. Yara’s gaze did follow him. Yes, Amaranthe would have to give up on her hope of setting Yara up with Sespian.
“There is light over there,” Akstyr said. “I see it too.”
Though Sicarius had been ambiguous with his answers, he had turned the vessel in the direction Sespian had noticed. A rocky cliff dropped down from the surface before leveling out where it met the lake floor. Amaranthe recognized the cliff; she’d stood on the top when checking out the hot springs above. The water bent and contorted the light, but it seemed to be leaking from a fissure.
The vehicle rumbled closer until Sicarius stopped it at the base of the cliff.
“The light may simply be the sun filtering through from an opening above,” Books said.
“What sun?” Akstyr asked. “It was raining harder than a pissing donkey by the time Am’ranthe picked us up.”
“Lovely imagery,” Books murmured.
“It’s wider than it looked from back there.” Amaranthe waved toward the fissure. “Think we can drive inside?”
Sicarius slanted her one of his unreadable looks.
“What?” All right, wider wasn’t the same thing as wide, but Amaranthe didn’t think the opening was that narrow. Just because it twisted and turned and one couldn’t see anything except darkness and rock ahead…
“I was wondering who would get blamed should the vehicle crash,” Sicarius said.
A few silent heartbeats skipped past before Akstyr whispered, “Was that a joke? Did he make a joke?”
“Nah,” Maldynado whispered back, “he doesn’t know how to do that.” He raised his voice and said, “It’s been my experience that it’s never the woman’s fault.”
“That is my concern.” Sicarius nudged the vehicle forward and gripped the control wheel.
Amaranthe smiled as they crept into the fissure, inching across a bottom that had changed from rocks to sand. “It’s good to have the team back together.”
“Says the woman who has her own seat and isn’t wearing Basilard’s elbow on her belt,” Books said.
Busy watching their progress through the fissure, Amaranthe didn’t see if Basilard signed a response, but something prompted a few snickers from the men.
Minutes passed as Sicarius guided the vehicle through a zigzag of turns that made a lightning bolt seem
