Gunfire cracked in the distance. Again. Bent over a table with Rias, Tikaya did not lift her head. The cube, one side removed, sat between them. Several parts she could not name lined the table in the order Rias had removed them. A three-dimensional display of the inside of one of the cubes hovered in the air, courtesy of the sphere. The blue lab lighting continued to flash, providing poor illumination for such detailed work.
A yell of rage-or pain-sounded in the tunnels. Rias grumbled something under his breath about how he ought to be out there, helping the men. He had set the situation up so everyone would be running around in the tunnels, distracted dealing with each other and the darkness, creating just this time they needed, but it clearly did not sit well with him.
“ The screwdriver thing,” he muttered.
Tikaya handed him a long tool with a magnetic hook on one end and a tiny flat-tip head on the other. She had finished her work, gathering supplies for Rias’s smoke bombs and translating the schematic and the numbers Sicarius had given her. The latter had proved to be another Skiltar Square. Now she handed Rias tools and tried not to feel useless.
“ Close,” he said. “It’s just a switch that modifies the level of ‘cleaning’ to be done, so it’s easier than I thought, but reaching it without taking everything else out is the problem. Also…I’m afraid if I take everything out, I won’t be able to get it back in correctly without breaking something. The insides are much more fragile than the outside.”
“ Take your time,” she said, wishing it didn’t sound so inane.
She was not sure how many minutes-hours? — had passed since Sicarius had left the lab, but she was beginning to think he must have run into a distraction. As uncharitable as it was, she hoped for a nice arrow or pistol ball to the chest.
Rias grunted and held out his hand for another tool. The kit of precision implements they had found ranged from knives and scalpels to repair gizmos, most of which she could only guess at. Some were too large for human hands, but all were well-made, the craftsmanship amazingly sturdy for such fine tools. A pair of black knives, in particular, had caught Rias’s eye, and he had stuck them into his belt.
“ There,” Rias whispered. “I think I got it.”
“ Is there a way to test it?”
“ Not here.” He started replacing the innards. “We’ll have to get into the tunnels on the other side of the cavern. That’s where I found the panel to cut off the lights. I’m guessing that whatever powers them powers these cubes and that’s why they’re inert.”
Tikaya realized how lucky she had been when the blasts brought down all that rubble. If power had been running to the cube, it might have cut her down after all.
The door hissed open.
They spat silent curses at the same time.
“ Distract him,” Rias mouthed, waving at the mess still on the table. If Sicarius caught them with the cube, he would figure out their plan right away.
Tikaya grabbed the sphere and her notes and sprinted to the top of the stairs. Sicarius was halfway up. No bag of guano dangled from his grip.
Though her instinct was to keep space between her and him, she jogged down several steps so she could stop him before he could see Rias.
“ We figured out the code,” she said, waving the pages. “It’s a puzzle with numbers.”
“ Where is the admiral?” Sicarius asked.
“ We made smoke bombs, and he’s packing them. We did find some potassium nitrate, so we won’t need the guano after all. Which is good, since you seem not to have gotten any.” She winced at her inane babbling. “What’s going on outside?”
Sicarius watched her, impassive eyes betraying nothing of his thoughts. He knew they had sent him on a useless errand. He had to. And he probably knew they were not on his side. They were going to have to kill him or incapacitate him somehow.
“ Cat and mouse,” Sicarius said. “I killed one of the wizards. Some of Colonel Lancecrest’s men are proving elusive, and they’ve set traps. Captain Bocrest’s team has split them up, brought a few down, and taken others prisoner.”
Down. Dead. “Parkonis?”
“ What?” Sicarius asked.
“ The man who…kidnapped me against my wishes. Do you know if he’s alive?”
“ He dropped to his knees and begged for his life when we came upon him. He bore no weapon, so the captain took him prisoner.”
Tikaya closed her eyes, thankful Parkonis was not the heroic type. He had no weapons training, and bravery only would have gotten him killed. Being a prisoner was no guarantee of safety, but there was still a chance she could help him.
“ Where is the admiral?” Sicarius asked again.
“ Here.”
Rias appeared at the top of the stairs, rucksack on his back, and what looked like ceramic globes with fuses in his hands. She had been busy with the translations and had not watched him assemble the smoke bombs. She thought of the vast cavern and hoped four would be enough.
He did not give her a wink or nod, not with the assassin watching, but she thought Rias’s rucksack appeared lumpier than before. He slipped two globes into pockets and handed the other two to Sicarius.
Tikaya wondered how they would detour to the lighting panel with Sicarius tagging along. And would the cube fly up to the weapons room of its own accord, or did they need to get it up there and lock it in somehow? For that matter, would their modifications even work?
Footfalls sounded in the corridor, and gear jingled.
Rias reached for his pistol, but Sicarius’s hand blurred, landing on his wrist in a firm grip.
Rias twitched an eyebrow, the only indication he felt things might not be going according to plan.
“ The captain sent reinforcements.” The steely gaze Sicarius leveled at Rias was far too knowing for comfort. “To watch you and guard our backs while we retrieve some rockets.”
“ Watch us?” Tikaya asked innocently. “Why?”
Sicarius did not bother to look at her.
Agarik strode through the door, and Tikaya lifted her head. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.
Then Ottotark and Bones clomped in. She tried not to let her chagrin show. Even before Ottotark spotted her, he wore a self-satisfied smirk. Bruises from his fight with Rias still mottled his face, and a bandage wrapped his head, but he appeared delighted at this new turn. Bones ignored Sicarius and Rias in favor of glaring at Tikaya, an angry jaw-clenched glare. No delight there. She guessed Ottotark had buzzed in his ear, letting him know who killed his brother.
Tikaya looked at Agarik, but he avoided her eyes.
“ Evening, Admiral,” Ottotark drawled. “We’ll relieve you of your weapons now.” The smirk widened. “Captain says you’re back to prisoner status.” He ambled up to the step below Rias and held out his hand.
Rias neither moved nor spoke.
Ottotark launched a punch at his belly. Rias blocked it and slammed his knee into the sergeant’s diaphragm. Ottotark’s heel slipped off the step, and he nearly tumbled to the landing, but he caught himself on the railing. Tikaya started to back away, to give Rias room to fight, but Sicarius stepped in. He held a knife she had not seen him draw in one hand and splayed the other against Rias’s chest. His eyes were icy in warning.
Rias froze.
Ottotark found his balance. Fury contorted his face, and he snarled as he snatched Rias’s weapons. He lifted the musket, as if he might slam the butt of it into Rias’s head. Tikaya stepped down with a vague notion of grabbing the weapon, but Sicarius stopped Ottotark with a word.
“ Enough.”
The men dropped their arms. While punching Ottotark had won Rias nothing, it concerned Tikaya that none of that defiant spirit came out against the assassin. Had his last meeting with Sicarius disillusioned him so much that he would not move against the youth again? If so, that did not bode well for their success.
“ Lead on, Admiral,” Sicarius said. “You two will get us into the weapons cache.”
And then what?
The pair of kerosene lanterns the marines carried did little to push back the darkness in tunnels that had fallen silent. Eerily so. Tikaya began to feel as if their tiny group represented the only people left alive in the stygian passageways.
She and Rias walked side by side, leading the others. Ottotark and Bones kept their pistols trained on their backs. Agarik walked behind them, and Sicarius ghosted along in the shadows, rarely seen, rarely heard, always felt.
Tikaya checked symbols and peered down dark cross tunnels, hoping for inspiration. As soon as the marines had the weapons, they would likely shoot her. She wondered if Rias was expendable at this point too. At best, he could expect a trip back to Krychek. He would probably prefer death.
Rias caught her eye. “Sorry.” He spoke in Kyattese, which she had not realized he knew, though the words that followed proved he was far from fluent. “I was engineer. Picked where explosives go. Had chance.”
The slowness with which his words came out gave her time to puzzle over the meaning behind his choice of language. Bones, Agarik, and Ottotark probably knew no Kyattese, but hadn’t Rias warned her that Sicarius did? He had certainly seemed to be reading that journal.
“ No talking in codes.” Ottotark jabbed Rias in the arm.
“ Had chance,” Rias repeated, brow furrowed as he groped for words. “To drop roof on my people. End it all. Could not.” He shook his head and sighed.
Tikaya glanced between Ottotark and Bones, probing the shadows for Sicarius. Yes, he was there and close enough to hear. Maybe Rias wanted Sicarius to know he had spared the team. Tikaya could not imagine that or anything else winning sympathy from the stony assassin. Maybe Rias just wanted her to know without opening himself for sneering commentary from Ottotark.
Tikaya gripped Rias’s forearm. She could not condemn him for being unable to murder his own people, though it would have been convenient if he had arranged an accident for Sicarius when the men were catapulting over the chasm.
In the darkness ahead, four sets of symbols glowed, marking corners of an intersection. Rias tried to walk straight through it.
“ Right,” Sicarius said, voice cold.
“ I can turn the lighting back on if we go this way,” Rias said.
“ Darkness is tactically preferable.”
Tikaya shook her head; the kid didn’t even sound human. She and Rias had no chance if they couldn’t get the cube powered.
“ What if the door on the weapons room won’t open without the same power that operates the lighting?” Tikaya asked.
“ The lab doors are opening,” Sicarius said.
Good point. She sighed.
“ But it’ll be easier to see what we’re doing in that weapons room if it’s lit.” Rias turned to face Sicarius. “You were in Fort Deadend. You saw what happened to those people. Do you want to risk dropping something? A single broken vial could kill everyone in the cavern.”
“ Turn right,” Sicarius said.
“ Why are you so against turning the lights on?” Tikaya asked.
“ Because you two wish it.” Sicarius jerked his chin to the right. “Lead.”
In other words, he did not trust them. No news there.
A long moment passed before Rias headed right. Even as a prisoner with everything going wrong, he remained outwardly calm, and Tikaya reminded herself there was still time.
Lantern light played over piled rock ahead. This was a different tunnel than she had fled the cavern from, but it, too, had been partially blocked. They clambered over the waist-high rubble. When Agarik hopped down from the pile, Tikaya tried to catch his eye again. But he seemed to be deliberately avoiding them. In plotting to betray the marines, had Rias lost Agarik’s respect?
Boulders and shattered stalactites cluttered the cracked and uneven cavern floor. The illusion hiding the camp was gone, revealing a mess of smashed gear and broken crates. A pair of legs stuck out from a boulder, and Tikaya tore her gaze away. Above, darkness sheathed the rockets, though the number panel glowed, faintly illuminating the door area.
Sicarius detoured into the camp and grabbed a coil of rope and a bow. He plundered quivers, some still strapped to dead people, for arrows.
Tikaya waited to the side, not in a hurry to be helpful. Rias too, wandered into camp, though he looked less certain about what he sought. Inspiration, probably. Ottotark and Bones followed him, pistols cocked. The expression on Ottotark’s bruised face promised he would love to use his.
Agarik bumped Tikaya’s shoulder as he came up to stand by her. He pointed his pistol at her, though his finger did not touch the trigger. While Sicarius collected arrows and the other two men guarded Rias, Agarik chanced a whisper.
“ Ottotark and Bones are planning to kill you as soon as you open the door.”
It wasn’t unexpected, but hearing how little time she had unsettled her nonetheless.
“ Does Rias have a plan?” Agarik murmured.
Sicarius glanced their way. Fortunately, Agarik still had the pistol aimed at her.
Rias bent to pick something up. “Ah, these might help.”
Sicarius turned back to him as Rias hefted Lancecrest’s goggles.
“ We had a plan,” Tikaya whispered back to Agarik. “You people weren’t a part of it.”
“ Rias will have a backup one,” he said. “If I act against the others to help you, I can’t go back, or it’s the end of my career, probably my life.”
She feared they needed his help, but this was their cause, not his. As far as the marines were concerned, getting those weapons was a good thing. How could she ask Agarik to risk his life when it meant betraying everyone dear to him?
But he had already made his choice: “Just wanted to be sure your offer is still good.”
She wished she could hug him, but all she dared was a slight nod. “Beach house,” she whispered. “As long as you want it.”
A slight smile stretched Agarik’s lips. “Surfer with the talented tongue?”
“ I’ll do my best.”
A rifle boomed in a nearby tunnel.
“ It’s time, Admiral.” Sicarius pinned Tikaya with his gaze as he strode to the base of the butte beneath the door. “Bring the ordering for the numbers.”
Tikaya wanted to bring a dagger to stick in his gut, but she kept the thought to herself and the sneer from her face as she walked over. Best not to give him any warning that she would make trouble.
Rias joined her, deliberately turning his back on Ottotark and Bones. “What’s your plan, Sicarius? There are only a few of us and a lot of weaponry up there. Getting it out will be a challenge.”
“ We don’t need that many rockets to satisfy the emperor’s needs,” Sicarius said. “If your smoke reveals a safe path, I’ll climb up with one other person. We’ll press in the correct code and lower several of the weapons to the floor. Once the captain has cleaned up the raiders, he’ll be here, and we’ll have plenty of men to transport the weapons out.”
“ Over the chasm?” Rias asked.
“ There are other ways out.”
He sounded certain. An image came to mind: Sicarius gathering information by torturing captured raiders-Parkonis. She winced.
“ Who’s going up with you?” she asked. If Sicarius climbed to the top with Ottotark or Bones, that would leave her, Rias, and Agarik with only one hostile man to deal with.
“ Starcrest,” Sicarius said.
Tikaya fought back a curse. She was beginning to wonder if the assassin had telepathy training, Turgonian or not. Or maybe he just wanted Rias up there because he was expendable at that point. Her hackles rose. “I’m not certain we have the puzzle right. You’re not making Rias push the numbers for you. Have you seen what happens if someone gets it wrong? Instant incineration.”
Sicarius lifted his stuffed quiver of arrows, and she blushed. Wrong conclusion. Of course, he intended to test it from below or he would not have bothered gathering the arrows.
Rias touched his index finger to his lips. To silence her? Or warn her not to irritate the assassin? She scowled at him. Somebody had to do something, and he was just going along with these brutes. He gazed back at her, steady and imperturbable.
Above their heads, the door panel pulsed three times.
“ What does that mean?” Bones asked.
“ The numbers are about to change.” Tikaya had no idea if that was true, but it sounded plausible, and if the marines feared they would need another translation, they might keep her alive a little longer.
“ Give me the solution,” Sicarius said.
Tikaya showed him the order of the numbers. He stared at it a moment, nodded, and nocked an arrow. Rias handed him the goggles. She expected Sicarius to regard them with suspicion, but he looked them over, then tried them. He lifted the bow and shot, untroubled by the bulky eyewear. The first arrow passed through one of the invisible beams and sizzled to ashes before it reached the target.
“ Shit,” Ottotark announced.
Unflappable, Sicarius took a step to the side and loosed a second arrow. This one found the target, bumping one of the symbols a slot to the left. The arrow did no damage to the durable alien technology. It bounced away, where another beam incinerated it.
“ No need to worry about trash collection here,” Bones muttered.
While Sicarius continued moving the numbers around, she gauged the distance to the corridor they had exited, the corridor that eventually led to that panel Rias wanted to visit. She would not consider running with Sicarius on the ground, but if he was busy climbing, the odds improved. Ottotark and Bones were no doubt proficient with their firearms, but she judged them far more fallible than the assassin. If she just had a distraction…
A final arrow clattered off the panel after shifting the last number into place. A chime sounded and the door slid open. It was hard to feel triumphant given the circumstances.
Sicarius removed the goggles and returned them to Rias with a single nod.
“ Light a smoke bomb,” Sicarius said, apparently unwilling to trust the ones Rias had given him until he had seen them used.
Rias held out the goggles, glancing around as if looking for a place to put them, then shrugged and strapped them around his head. He pushed the lenses above his eyes so they were not in the way as he lit one of the globes. He laid it on the floor at the base of the butte. Soon, plumes of grayish blue smoke wafted into the air. They diffused quickly, spreading over a greater area than the haze from a pistol firing. As Tikaya had seen before, an asymmetrical pattern of white beams grew visible in the smoke.
“ Those kill you if they touch you?” Ottotark asked.
“ Yes,” Tikaya said.
“ Glad I’m not trying to climb past them.”
Sicarius gave him a cool stare, then laid down the bow and jogged to the bottom. Tikaya eyed the weapon. It would not take many steps to reach it.
“ Come, Admiral,” Sicarius said.
Rias strode to Tikaya first. He gripped her hands. “Whatever happens, you’ve been the light that’s driven away the darkness in my life.” He did nothing so obvious as putting special emphasis on the word light, but she understood anyway: he wanted her to try for the panel.
She squeezed his hands. “I love you too. Be careful.”
Ottotark groaned. “Can we shoot them now?”
“ Wait until we have the weapons out. If the symbols change, we’ll need her again.” Sicarius handed his two globes to Bones. “Light one of these if the smoke dies out before we reach the top.”
Rias widened his eyes slightly before releasing Tikaya’s hands and heading for the base of the butte. Tikaya tried to guess at the meaning in that look; had he done something with the other smoke bombs? The current haze tickled her nose and teared her eyes a bit, but had no significant side effects.
Overhead, the door slid shut. It had only stayed open a couple minutes before locking again. She wondered what happened if someone was on the inside when it closed.
Sicarius was already ten feet up the wall. Though natural, with protrusions and crevasses, it did not look like an easy ascent, even without the beams. They touched it in myriad places, and no easy routes awaited the climbers.
After considering the rock face, Rias removed his rucksack. Tikaya tensed. No, no, if he did not take the cube with him, how would they get it up there? He met her eyes and shook his head faintly. She grimaced. He must not think there was enough space between beams to climb with the rucksack on his back. After watching Sicarius, she reluctantly agreed. As soon as the assassin reached the level of the beams, he had to start sidestepping, twisting and contorting his body. For every two feet he ascended, he ended up dropping a foot somewhere else.
Rias started up, and worry gnawed at her before he even reached the beams. He was taller and broader-and older-than the agile assassin. Dodging those beams would prove a difficult feat. Not impossible, she hoped.
Tikaya eased toward the bow. Agarik remained near her, and he shuffled forward too. They froze when Ottotark eyed them.
“ Agarik,” he said. “Go hold the lantern for Bones in case he needs to light another smoke thing.”
Ottotark slapped his pistol across his palm as he strode over to stand by Tikaya. Agarik glanced at her. She nodded infinitesimally. Better to comply now and wait until Agarik’s side-switching might accomplish something.
Light pulsed at the door. The symbols changed.
“ Is that what I think it is?” Rias asked, cheek pressed to the rock, a laser less than an inch from his eyebrow.
“ Yes.” Tikaya slipped the sphere out of her pocket.
Ottotark grabbed her arm, pistol digging into her ribcage. “What’s that?”
“ Not a weapon,” she said, then raised her voice for Rias. “Give me a minute, and I’ll translate the new numbers. I know some of them.”
“ How often does it change?” Bones asked.
Once a day, she guessed. “At random,” she said.
Ottotark stepped back, startled when the display flared to life. She manipulated it to find the number symbols.
“ You want me to read them to you?” Tikaya called. “Or try to solve the problem and shoot the numbers into place from here?” She had to try, though she doubted Sicarius would be foolish enough to let her have a bow much less authorize her shooting it in his direction. He would probably laugh and say nice try.
“ Give Starcrest the numbers,” Sicarius said with no sense of humor or annoyance. “He’ll figure it out and he’ll push them.”
Rias grunted. Pebbles clattered down the cliff face. One bounced into a beam’s path and was vaporized. The dwindling smoke made the sweat beading his forehead visible. Be careful, Tikaya urged.
The pistol bumped her ribs.
“ Get to work,” Ottotark snapped.
“ I’ve got the numbers,” she said a moment later and read them aloud to the men.
She hoped Rias would wait until he reached the top, or some place safe, to mull over the solution. He was about halfway up now. In a couple feet, Sicarius would reach the ledge.
“ I could use more smoke,” Rias said.
Bones and Agarik lit one of the globes. Tikaya checked on Rias, hoping he would wait until the smoke thickened before trying to climb farther. She caught him pulling his shirt over his nose and tugging the goggles over his eyes.
As soon as smoke curled from the globe, Bones and Agarik dropped it and stumbled back. They threw their arms over their faces, gagging.
Tikaya sucked in a deep breath and held it. Even then, she still caught the first whiff as the smoke disseminated. More pungent than rotten eggs, it invaded her nostrils and teared her eyes. Ottotark leaned forward, grabbing his nose.
This was her chance.
She drew back her arm and slammed the sphere into his temple. It was not big, but it was blunt and solid. He reeled sideways and stumbled to the ground.
“ My eyes,” Bones shouted, then retched.
Agarik clutched at his belly and vomited.
No time to check on Rias or Sicarius. Tikaya lunged for the bow and quiver, grabbed them, and wheeled. Agarik had dropped the lantern. She snatched it as well. By then, her lungs burned, demanding air, but she sprinted for the tunnel.
Tears blurred her vision, and she tripped over a rock. She sprawled, almost losing the bow, and her breath whooshed out. Before she could catch herself, she sucked in a mouthful of air. Distance stole some of the potency from the smoke, but it still made her gag. She staggered to her feet, forced her legs into motion, and clambered over the rubble pile and into the tunnel before retching.
As soon as she could, she raced toward the intersection. The air was clearer here, and she sucked it in. She rounded the corner, hoping to run straight to the panel without encountering a maze of tunnels to guess at. A T-section came first. She lifted the lantern and peered both ways. There. A faint crimson glow in the distance.
Tikaya sprinted to the panel, a column of symbols and five vertical lines that glowed solid blue.
Shouts echoed from the cavern. She shuttered the lantern and set it down, plunging the tunnel in darkness. The men would not be distracted for long, and the light would make her an easy target. She could only hope Sicarius would not take his irritation out on Rias, who she had left in a vulnerable position. Second doubts assailed her. She should have stayed and used the bow on the men, shot the cursed assassin, not run away. But, no, the lights were what Rias wanted, and her eyes had been too tear-wracked to aim at anything anyway.
She examined the symbols. Not all were familiar, and there were more than she expected, but she understood the gist. Lighting, power levels, and water controls. Right spot, but what to touch?
In the still tunnel, she felt her rapid heartbeat reverberating through her body. She started to reach for the sphere, but feared she had no time for research. Rias had guessed. She would have to as well.
Boots pounded into the tunnels. The marines would know right where she had gone.
Tikaya slid a finger across one of the horizontal stripes labeled with illumination. Nothing. There was no switch or knob. She slid her finger the other way. Nothing. She waved her hand before it as she had seen Rias do once to close a door.
The stripe pulsed once, and something thunked inside the wall. Had that done it? The lighting did not come on, and she waved her hand before the other stripes. More thunks, and a faint hum from behind the wall.
The footsteps hammered closer. She grabbed the bow, nocked an arrow, and flattened herself against the wall. The corridor offered no cover, but she could not run until she knew if her hand-waving had accomplished the goal. Besides, darkness stretched behind her, and she did not know if more tunnels lay that way or only a dead end.
The footsteps stopped near the intersection, and lantern light bobbed on the wall. She drew the bow, but no one burst into sight.
More footsteps, these ones softer and slower, reached her ear. She tensed. They were coming from behind her somewhere. Trap. And she had only the darkness to hide in.
Then the lights blinked on. It happened so abruptly, she squinted, half-blinded. She almost missed the movement ahead-someone slipping around the corner and dropping to a knee.
Tikaya loosed an arrow without waiting for her vision to clear. As soon as it flew free, she dropped to the floor. A pistol cracked.
She rolled to the side, cursing herself for getting caught in such a bad spot. She scrabbled for another arrow.
“ Tikaya, this way,” Agarik urged, not from behind but from ahead.
She cursed. Had she just shot at him?
By the time she lunged to her feet, her eyes adjusted enough to see the intersection. Bones lay on his belly, blood pooling beneath his head. Agarik waved for her to hurry.
“ What the-” Ottotark blurted, a hundred meters or more down the tunnel behind her.
Tikaya sprinted for Agarik. His pistol, not her bow, had felled the doctor. He pulled her around the corner as another shot fired. The pistol ball clanged off the corner and ricochetted down the tunnel.
“ Traitor!” Ottotark screamed.
“ No time to reload,” Agarik said as they ran toward the intersection that could take them back to the cavern. “You’ll have to shoot if he catches up.”
“ Understood,” Tikaya said grimly.
She glanced back to see if Ottotark had rounded the corner yet and missed the reason Agarik skidded to a stop, cursing. He flung his arm out to halt her as well.
A cube hovered in the intersection ahead.
She slammed a fist against her thigh. She should have known-the whole reason for turning the lighting back on had been to power one of the cubes. With the mess from the explosives, all of them would probably respond.
“ Maybe it’ll go on to the cavern,” she whispered.
It rotated, and its crimson orifice came into view.
“ Back, back.” Agarik spun, taking her with him.
Tikaya ran at his side. They would have to take their chances with Ottotark.
“ Zag,” she barked on a hunch.
She pushed Agarik one way and ducked against the opposite wall. A red beam seared the air between them.
As soon as it faded, they sprinted off again. Tikaya nocked the bow as she ran. Any second-
Ottotark lunged around the corner, pistol pointed at them. She fired without slowing, and it threw off her aim. The arrow skimmed past his head, stirring his hair, but doing no damage.
He must have seen the cube coming, for he looked between them and cursed before choosing a target. Tikaya.
Agarik hurled a knife at Ottotark. It bought them a second as the sergeant dodged the projectile. She yanked another arrow from her quiver, but Ottotark recovered before she had it nocked.
He fired. There was no room to dodge, no time to duck. Agarik leaped in front of her, grunting as the pistol ball slammed into him.
“ No!” Tikaya cried.
She jumped around him, took the split second to aim, and shot. The arrow spun into Ottotark’s eye.
She dropped the bow and whirled back to Agarik, catching him as he slumped. His hand gripped his chest, and pain ravaged his face. The cube continued its inexorable advance, but she tried to pull him down the aisle.
“ Leave me.” Blood spilled from his lips. “Help Rias.”
“ It’ll get you,” she choked, refusing to accept the inevitable.
“ Yes,” Agarik rasped. “Give you…time.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw it: that cursed glow intensified. She stumbled away as the beam fired. It burned into Agarik and started its deadly work.
“ Go,” he gasped.
Tears blurring her vision again, Tikaya grabbed the bow and sped away. She leaped over Bones’s body and kicked Ottotark on the way past. She should have lit that bastard on fire when she had the chance. Agarik’s death was her fault.
She found the corridor Ottotark had used to circle around behind her and cut over toward the cavern. It would take time for the cube to clear away all three bodies, but she recalled the multiple units in that cavern closet and knew others would be about.
Tikaya slowed at the cavern entrance and tried to peer out without revealing herself. No shadows remained, though, and the assassin was already looking down at her when she spotted him. He crouched on the ledge, his shirt off and tied about his nose and mouth. His back was to the closed door. None of the symbols had been moved. He dropped his head to focus on the floor at his feet-or something on it. Paper and pencil, she guessed from his movements. He was trying to solve the new Skiltar Square.
But where was Rias? Smoke still wafted from the noxious globe, but it had thinned, and she would have seen him on the cliff if he remained there. His rucksack lay on the floor where he had left it. Dread crept into her as she continued to search the area without spotting him. If he had fallen, the beams could have incinerated him before he reached the ground.
Two cubes worked in the cavern, eating away the piles of rubble. They reminded her of the one in the tunnels behind her. As soon as it finished with the bodies-she forced herself not to dwell on Agarik, not now-it would head this way.
Tikaya eased out of the tunnel and kept her back to the wall. Sicarius kept track of her as he figured. Her hand ached where she gripped the bow. If Sicarius had killed Rias, he was not getting off the cliff. Agile or not, he could not dodge arrows while he climbed down past those lasers. She removed an arrow and nocked it with steady hands. Cold controlled anger made her movements sure, free of fear. Even if he had not killed Rias, he was the Turgonian emperor’s assassin, someone who had tried to murder her president. The world would be better off with him dead.
She drew the bow. No sense of alarm widened Sicarius’s eyes, but he stood. Balanced on the balls of his feet, arms relaxed, he appeared unconcerned by the weapon pointed at him. Even on that small ledge, he could probably dodge an arrow. But if she bumped one of the numbers, and he could not solve the problem on time, he would either have to climb down, where she could shoot him in the back, or he would be incinerated.
Yes, then why hadn’t she fired yet?
Killing Ottotark in self-defense was one thing; shooting someone in cold blood… Could she do it?
Motion across the cavern saved her from having to answer the question. Rias burst from a tunnel, diving and rolling as a red beam lanced the air over him.
“ Rias!” she shouted.
He scrambled to his feet and zigzagged toward the butte. He chopped a wave her direction, but lifted his head to shout a stream of numbers at the assassin.
The solution to the door. Sicarius’s head tilted, and he gazed upward-calculating. Not trusting enough to enter them without checking for himself. And why should he be? Rias had no reason to help, to get the assassin inside with the weapons. What was he doing?
“ Is that…” She thrust her bow toward the cube chasing him.
Rias dove over a fallen stalactite. A beam struck the rubble, and rock and dust flew. He came up, racing toward the camp this time, and a wild grin lit his face. He pressed a finger to his lips and mouthed something. Distract it?
Sicarius was punching in the door code. Tikaya cut toward the cube from the side. As soon as she was closer to it than Rias, it rotated toward her. She ran toward a pile of rubble and ducked behind it without any of the grace Rias had managed. Her shoulder clunked against a boulder with a painful jar. She peeped around the edge.
Rias reached his rucksack and tore open the lid. He dug out the cube, still inert, the lid still off. So the one following him-her now-was an extra.
She circled the pile to avoid its approach. A beam bit into the rubble, and shards of stone rained upon her.
Overhead, the door slid open. Rias thumbed something inside his cube. Sicarius entered the chamber. Rias hurled the cube toward the top of the butte.
The one at ground-level was nearing Tikaya and she had to sprint to the next pile of debris. She glanced upward as she ran, fearing pieces would fly out of the open cube or the beams would incinerate it, but it reached the top unharmed. It caromed off the transparent wall, and Tikaya thought it would bounce away from the butte, but it righted itself. Hovering in the air, the cube approached the door.
Inside, Sicarius whirled at the noise and dropped into a crouch.
“ Get out!” Rias called.
He dug a familiar jar out of his rucksack and raced at the cube stalking Tikaya around the rubble pile. She let it get dangerously close to keep it occupied.
She risked another glance upward. If the modified cube started destroying rockets while the door was open, they would all be dead in seconds. But it focused on Sicarius first.
A beam shot out. Tikaya held her breath. Sicarius ducked, and the beam splashed against the wall without hitting a rocket.
Her own cube almost skewered her when her heel caught a rock, and she ripped her attention back to the closer danger. Rias scrambled over the pile from the side and splattered the air with his concoction. He and Tikaya split and raced away while the cube was deciding where to focus its beam.
As they met on the other side of the pile, an earsplitting shriek echoed from all around. The weapons chamber door started to shut. Sicarius dove under the cube and rolled through the entrance. The door sealed. His momentum took him to the edge, and Tikaya thought he would fly over the side, but he twisted and caught the overhang.
Smoke rose behind Tikaya. Their cube was out of action. She leaned forward, willing the one caught inside the chamber to do what they wanted.
Rias gripped her hand. He had lost the crazy grin and stared at the chamber, as if he could will the cube to work with the intensity of his gaze.
Then the first beam shot out. Tikaya could not see the target from where they stood, but a green haze filled the air in the weapons chamber. A bone-shaking rumble emanated from the butte-the ventilation system firing up. Smoke whirled and rose, drawn into the ducts at the top.
Sicarius hung on the cliff, his chin over the edge, staring at the display. A blue gas joined the green, mingling and merging as it too was sucked upward. Tikaya hoped some sort of filter existed, so everything in the mountains at the other end of that vent did not die.
“ It’s working.” Rias smiled and wrapped her in a hug.
She could not bring herself to return the smile, not with Agarik’s death haunting her thoughts, but she did return the embrace. She smashed her face into his shoulder and hugged him with all her strength. And then released him. She would cry later, when they were safe.
A pebble clattered down the cliff. Sicarius was climbing down.
“ We better get out of here,” she whispered.
Rias nodded, grabbed his rucksack, and jogged to the camp. She followed him, but when he started gathering food and gear, she shifted from foot to foot.
“ Do we have time for that?” She jerked her head toward Sicarius. Even with the beams to navigate, his progress going down was faster than it had been climbing up. “He’s going to be irate.”
“ I know,” Rias said, but he continued his preparations, unhurried. Black powder tins and ammo pouches went into his rucksack. “It’s weeks to get across the mountains and back to civilization. We’ll need supplies to survive the trek.”
“ I need to find Parkonis and make sure he can get away from the Turgonians,” she said. “And, Rias? Agarik didn’t make it.”
His jaw tightened, but he kept himself to a curt nod.
“ He saved my life,” Tikaya said, “so I could come back to help you.”
Rias grabbed a second rucksack and started filling it for her. She glanced at Sicarius.
“ He’s almost down,” she murmured. “If we want to take him out, this may be our last chance.” That weeks-long trek would be arduous enough without an assassin hounding them. “If he comes after us…after you… We can’t waste the gift Agarik gave us.”
Rias finished packing. “We won’t.”
Sicarius jumped the last ten feet, landing lightly. Even in defeat, that same stony mask hid his thoughts, his feelings.
Rias handed Tikaya her pack and a fresh quiver of arrows for her bow. He picked up a rifle but did not bother to load it.
“ Ready.” He pointed to a tunnel, a tunnel they would have to walk past the assassin to reach.
Metal rang softly as Sicarius pulled a dagger from his belt and stepped into their path.
Tikaya grabbed Rias’s elbow when he did not slow. “Are you mad?”
Rias removed her hand gently and strode toward the tunnel. Tikaya nocked an arrow, but did not fully draw the bow. Rias had to know what he was doing. Didn’t he? Shaking her head, she followed him.
Sicarius’s grip tightened around the dagger hilt. “You never intended to help. You had the chance to redeem yourself, but you betrayed the emperor again.”
Rias stopped a few feet from him. “Yes.”
Sweat dripped down the sides of Sicarius’s dust-streaked face and dampened his pale hair. For the first time, he seemed uncertain, frazzled. Young. “Why?”
“ I couldn’t let him have those weapons. There’s no honor in destroying one’s enemies like that. Nobody should have that kind of power.”
“ That wasn’t for you to decide.”
“ Yes, it was. Sometimes the only person capable of such a decision is someone who stands on the outside, someone who has nothing left to lose, nothing to gain, by the outcome.”
“ Nothing to gain?” Sicarius asked. “You could have had your life back, your lands.” The faintest hint of longing entered his voice. “You could have been a hero again.”
Tikaya lowered the bow as it dawned on her that Sicarius had yet to point the dagger at Rias. Not here and not at any point since he had shown up.
“ That’s never been a goal of mine,” Rias said. “The definition of a hero changes depending on the needs of the person with the dictionary. And of late I’ve become more aware how much being a hero to the empire means being a war criminal to the rest of the world.” Rias smiled sadly at Tikaya before turning back to Sicarius. “For twenty years, I served Turgonia. I think it’s time now to see if I can serve the world.”
“ I see,” Sicarius said, and Tikaya had a hard time telling if he truly did or not.
Rias unsheathed a dagger, flipped it in his hand, and held it hilt-first toward Sicarius. It was utterly black, one of the tools they had gathered for working on the cubes. The keen edge would probably never dull.
Sicarius considered it for a long moment before accepting it. Peace offering, Tikaya guessed.
“ Are you returning with Bocrest and the others?” Rias asked.
“ Yes,” Sicarius said.
“ Parkonis is no threat to the empire. Will you see to it that he escapes when the ship docks in Port Sakrent?”
Tikaya’s eyes widened, not in surprise that Rias would care enough to make the request, but that he was asking Sicarius for a favor. After they had defeated him.
“ If that is your wish,” Sicarius said, stunning Tikaya even more.
The kid was going to be in trouble already for not completing his mission, for letting Rias go. Earlier, she had been thinking of shooting him, but now she found herself hoping the emperor had invested too much in his education to dispose of him over a failure.
“ Thank you,” Rias said. “And one last request: will you relay a message to the emperor for me?”
Sicarius tilted his head.
“ Though I may never see them again, I have family and friends in Turgonia. It is not my intention to make trouble for the empire. But I want him to know that if he bothers them or-” Rias angled toward Tikaya, directing Sicarius’s eyes to her, “-if he sends anyone after her or her family, I will become trouble.”
Tikaya thought she detected bleakness in the assassin’s usual mask. Yes, all Fleet Admiral Starcrest would have to do to make the emperor’s life unpleasant would be to show up on the Nurian Chief’s threshold, offering to help war against his former nation.
“ I will tell him,” Sicarius said.
“ Thank you,” Rias said again, and he put a hand on Sicarius’s shoulder. “You would have made a good officer.”
“ Not the road fate paved for me,” Sicarius said, but something in the soft exhale that followed his words made Tikaya wonder if he wished things were different.