“How many times do I need to explain this to you people?” The major stepped closer to the guard in white barring the entrance to the Royal Road. The guard wore an infinitely calm, sleepy-eyed look that Syfax recognized as the fatalistic resignation of an experienced killer. “The governor of Arafez, Lady Sade, and Ambassador Barika Chaou are going to murder the queen. Now get your asses moving, there isn’t much time!”
“No unauthorized personnel beyond this point.” The guard blinked her heavy lids. “The queen is in no danger. All travelers on this road are searched, thoroughly, both here and at the palace gates. All visitors are searched again upon entering the queen’s home, and when entering the queen’s presence. I searched Lady Sade myself less than an hour ago. There were no weapons of any kind on that carriage.”
“Wrong, soldier. Chaou has an electrical device implanted in her arm. And at least one other member of their party has another weapon hidden specifically to kill the queen.” Syfax glanced across the dull-eyed faces beneath the white helmets. As the train whistle sounded behind them, the guards’ horses whinnied in reply. “We need to get up there, now.”
“Major Zidane, when did you arrive in the Lower City?”
Syfax hesitated. “On last night’s train. Midnight.”
“And if you believed the queen’s life to be in danger at that time, why did you not report it immediately, last night, instead of waiting until now?”
Syfax felt what little control he might have had over the conversation slipping away. He heard Kenan’s boots scraping over the gravel as he shifted his weight. A new plan came to mind and Syfax wondered how well the corporal could follow his lead. “I spent the night watching the hotel to see whether Lady Sade would be meeting with any other agents or contacts in the Lower City.”
“And did she?”
“No.”
“I see.” The guard blinked again, a slow and deliberate gesture. “So you then let these would-be assassins continue on their way up the road before coming to us with this information, information that you believed to be critical to national security.” She sighed to reinforce exactly where she thought this matter fell in comparison to actual matters of national security.
He clenched his teeth. We would have been here on time if Kenan hadn’t fallen asleep during his watch. Syfax said, “Look, we don’t know exactly what weapons they have. All we know is that Sade has friends everywhere, and we thought it would be safest to arrest her on the road, under your jurisdiction, where she could be isolated.” That much was true, although the legal dancing didn’t sound as reasonable in the early morning light as it had the night before.
“Step back from the gate, sir. The queen is safe. But I will report this to my superiors in the Upper City. Private?” A second guard joined the first. “Go down to the signal light and relay the major’s concerns to the commander.”
“Ma’am!” The second guard trotted away toward the slender tower standing on a rocky outcropping a hundred yards away.
“There. The matter has been brought to the commander’s attention. You may leave now, major.” The guard swiveled her eyes back to center to stare at the Lower City.
Syfax glanced at Kenan. The kid looks angry, ready to spring, ready to strike. But he doesn’t know what I’m about to do and that’s gonna make this tricky. Mostly for him.
Syfax burst into a sprint, angling for the narrow gap between two of the guards standing in front of the gate. As if on cue, the two figures in white closed shoulder to shoulder and snapped their rifles down, but they were too late. Syfax grabbed the rifle barrels and twisted both weapons out of their owners’ hands, and as the two soldiers fumbled to recover their guns and grab the marshal, one of them tumbled forward onto all fours. Syfax planted his boot on the fallen guard’s shoulder and leapt over the gate. He landed on the dusty road, rolling once over his shoulder, and then launching himself to his feet, running toward the horses tied to a row of posts in the grass.
A single gunshot echoed across the valley and the major tensed in anticipation of the pain, but the pain never came. As he freed the first horse and leapt into the saddle, he glanced back toward the gate. Kenan had thrown himself at the two men who had lost their rifles, and he was grappling with them both for control of their weapons. A third guard was on all fours, recovering from a blow to her chest or belly. The fourth guard stood behind Kenan, her rifle pulled tight against the corporal’s throat, crushing his windpipe as he wrestled with the other two’s rifles. Syfax lashed the horse into a gallop, charging up the road as fast as his hooves could climb the mountain path. As he rounded the first curve and began to pass behind a low wall of raggedy shrubs, he glanced back one more time to see Kenan lying face down with three of the guards pinning him as they tied his hands. The fourth one had reached the horses, freed a mount, and was clambering into the saddle even as she lashed the animal into a gallop.
Syfax leaned down close to his horse’s massive, rocking neck and felt the wind rushing back over his sweaty scalp. “Run. Run hard, girl, because I’m all out of tricks.”