Conspiracy (50 page)

Sicarius bent his head over the notebook.
From what Amaranthe could see, he was solving equations, and she
figured she should be considerate and leave him alone to finish.
She managed to do that for almost an entire minute until her
curiosity undermined her power for consideration. She strolled
over, hands clasped behind her back.

He gave her a dark look and she froze. He
rarely gave her his icy stare any more, and she’d forgotten how
chilling it was.

“
You don’t approve of my
idea?” Amaranthe asked.

Sicarius’s gaze flickered toward Sespian
before settling onto the paper again. Ah, Sespian’s presence
changed his willingness to take risks. Foolhardy ones anyway.

Sicarius finished writing and stared hard at
the paper.

“
Some sort of blast wave
calculations?” Amaranthe guessed. “What’s your
conclusion?”

“
That your idea might work
to free the front of the train.”

“
That’s good, isn’t
it?”

“
There’s no guarantee that
the chamber you want to hide in won’t collapse or that we won’t
simply end up trapped back there. New detritus might block the
return route.”

“
Any way to figure out the
odds of that nook collapsing?” Sespian asked.

“
Not when we have no way to
determine how much it was damaged in the previous cave-in,”
Sicarius said.

It’d be safer to dig
out
, Basilard signed.

“
We could cause more rock
to fall simply by moving rocks aside,” Amaranthe said. “And that
might squish everyone too.”

“
It would take a week to
dig out by hand,” Sespian said. “I... don’t have a week. If you
hadn’t shown up when you did, I was going to try and escape at
Sunders City. I didn’t have much hope of it working, but I figured
I had to try. I need to get there sooner rather than
later.”

“
If you’re crushed by rock,
you won’t get there either way,” Sicarius told him.

“
All right,” Amaranthe
said, “we’ll vote. Who wants to dig out and who wants to risk an
explosion?”

“
Vote?” Sespian
asked.

“
He’s the emperor,” Yara
pointed out. “Shouldn’t he be making the decisions?”

About our lives?
Basilard frowned.
He’s
not
my
emperor.
And he’s eighteen.

“
Nineteen,” Amaranthe
said.

Sespian’s eyes narrowed. “What did he
say?”

“
You’re very wise for such
a young man,” Amaranthe said.

Now Basilard’s eyes narrowed.

“
Vote time,” Amaranthe
said. “Who wants to dig out?”

Yara, Basilard, and Sicarius lifted
hands.

“
And who wants to blow this
engine up, and see if we can be out by dawn?”

Amaranthe and Sespian raised their hands.
Maldynado sighed deeply, then raised his as well.

“
Are you on our side
because you have faith in me,” Amaranthe asked him, “or because you
don’t want to dig?”

“
Oh, I have faith in you,”
Maldynado said, “
and
I don’t want to dig. My main reason for hesitating was that I
fear this story might get twisted around at some future date,
and
I’ll
be
blamed for blowing up the train.”

“
Why would you get
blamed?”

“
Nobody ever blames
the
woman
for
blowing things up, such as garbage vehicles, even when the
explosions clearly happened as a result of her crazy
schemes.”

“
I have no idea what you’re
talking about.” Amaranthe smiled until she considered the split
votes. She might be the leader of the team, but there was so much
of a risk of failure—of
death
—that she didn’t feel like she
could order them into this. Even if she tried it, she might bump up
against the boundaries of her leadership. If Sicarius didn’t agree
to blow up the locomotive, nobody there would be able to go through
him to do it.

“
If I issue an imperial
mandate that says we
will
blow up the engine,” Sespian said, “would that
affect any of your votes?”

Amaranthe met Sicarius’s eyes. If he wanted
to win favor with Sespian, this might be a good opportunity for him
to switch sides and join him. Sicarius stared mulishly back at her.
It was Yara who sighed and lowered her hand.

“
Four to two,” Sespian told
Amaranthe. “Will that do it?”

Basilard caught Sicarius’s
eye and signed,
Will it be at all
comforting to know we were right as we lie dying?

If we’re right, our deaths
will be too swift for thoughts
, Sicarius
signed back.

“
I can tell I need to learn
this language,” Sespian said.

“
Basilard will be happy to
teach you.” Amaranthe patted him on the back.

Basilard didn’t quite glare at her, but she
could tell he wasn’t interested in “bonding” just then. She gave
him a smile anyway. Someone had to be encouraging, after all.

“
Who wants to handle the
blowing up of the train?” Amaranthe asked. “I’ll stay, but I
wouldn’t mind some manly strength in case it’s needed. I assume the
steam will need to build to the failure point, and there should be
time for us to get back to join the others.”

“
I’ll handle it,” Sicarius
said.

The others grabbed their gear, filed out of
the cab, and squeezed into the crevice winding back toward the
chamber. Amaranthe picked up the coal shovel, intending to help
Sicarius.

He took the tool from her and pointed for
her to follow the others. “Go.”

“
Sicarius...”

He turned his back to her, kneeling to
rekindle the fire in the furnace. His displeasure made her doubt
her decision. Maybe she should be listening to him. Maybe they
should simply take their time and dig their way out. If the emperor
and her team died in that tunnel, Forge would have its way, with no
one to oppose the organization. Her contributions to the empire
would be forgotten, she’d have no place in the history books, and
Maldynado would never get a statue. Dying would be irritating on
its own merits as well.

“
Maybe you’re right,”
Amaranthe said. “We should just work on digging out. If we’re here
long enough, Books and Akstyr might find us.” If they hadn’t had a
run-in with the enemy aircraft.

“
It’s too late now,”
Sicarius said, his back still to her. “This is what Sespian
wants.”

Thanks to her. “I guess I shouldn’t have
mentioned my idea.”

“
No, you shouldn’t
have.”

“
Maybe I can make him
decide he wants something else,” Amaranthe said.

Finally Sicarius stood and faced her.
“Perhaps you could.”

“
I will.” Amaranthe nodded
and turned for the door.

She had her foot in the air and was about to
hop down when Sicarius stopped her with a, “No.”

“
No?” she asked.

“
I wish to protect
him.”

“
Yes...”

Sicarius inhaled and exhaled slowly. “He
would not appreciate it. He has a mission of his own that is his
priority.”

A thread of guilt squirmed through
Amaranthe’s belly—Sespian wouldn’t have a notion that it was
possible to expedite their escape if she hadn’t brought up the
idea. “I think you’re right,” was all she said.

“
Go join the others.”
Sicarius flipped a thumb toward the crevice.

Amaranthe thought of saying “Be careful,”
but it seemed too little for the moment. She stepped back into the
cab and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. He didn’t
return the embrace, but at least he no longer seemed rigid and
angry.

“
Good luck,” she said,
pulling back. “Remember, don’t do anything foolish up here to get
yourself blown up. The plan is for you to run back and join us
before the explosion. So you can get squished in the cave-in like
the rest of us.”

Sicarius snorted. “A superior death, no
doubt.”

“
Just make sure to get back
there. If we’re going to get squished, I want time to plan
something significant. Like dying holding your hand, so we’ll be
together for all eternity.” Amaranthe winked and hopped out of the
train before he could scoff or roll his eyes. She’d never actually
seen him do either, but that suggestion might warrant an emotional
outburst.

* * * * *

Amaranthe paced about the cavern. It would
take time for the water in the boiler to heat up and more time for
the steam pressure to reach dangerous levels, but she felt as if
she’d been waiting for hours already. She tried to nibble at a
fingernail before remembering she’d decimated them all.

The others sat or stood near the wall of
rubble farthest from the train. Sespian and Yara looked like they
were contemplating fingernail chewing as well. Basilard and
Maldynado were engaged in Last Soldier, a strategy game one could
play with marbles, or in this case small pebbles scavenged from the
cavern. Though Amaranthe knew they had to be as nervous as she,
their blasé demeanors made her envious.

A lantern sat on a railway tie next to
Basilard and Maldynado, its flame straight and steady. No hint of
wind or a draft down here, she thought.

She stopped beside their
game, thinking she should at least
pretend
she wasn’t nervous. Leaders
were supposed to display confidence about their plans, weren’t
they? At the very least, chatting might make her less aware of time
creeping past.—and help avoid the thought that something might have
happened to Sicarius while he was building up the fire. What if,
with no place for the smokestack fumes to escape to, they’d filled
the tiny space and asphyxiated him?

“
Who’s winning?” Amaranthe
blurted. Distraction, she needed a distraction.

“
Basilard, but he’s
cheating,” Maldynado said.

Basilard signed,
Now, how am I cheating?

“
If I knew how you were
doing it, I’d stop you.”

I don’t know why I play with you.

“
Because I’m fun,”
Maldynado said, “and I buy you a drink after you win, even though
you cheat so often.”

You buy drinks no matter who wins.

Maldynado smiled. “See? That’s why I’m
fun.”

Their conversation didn’t do as much to
distract Amaranthe as she’d hoped, and she nearly fell over in
relief when Sicarius burst out of the crevice on the far side of
the chamber.

Before she could say anything, he pointed at
the floor in the center of the chamber and barked, “Down.”

Amaranthe hustled onto the railway, waving
for the others to join her. Being next to the walls of rock when a
new explosion went off might not be a good idea. She sank to her
knees and buried her face in her lap, her arms protecting her head.
Soon, bodies pressed against her on all sides.

When the explosion came, its boom was so
muted that Amaranthe questioned whether it truly came from the
locomotive. It sounded so distant that it might have occurred
outside. A faint tremor shook the earth, and dust drizzled to the
floor in places, but the cave-in they had worried about didn’t
materialize.

“
Is that it?” Maldynado
asked. “Are you sure you blew up the boiler correctly?”

Sicarius gave him a cool stare.

Sespian’s shoulders slumped. “We’re going to
be stuck here for days.”

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad, Amaranthe
thought. It would give her a chance to wheedle details out of
Sespian, and Sicarius could find opportunities to spend time with
him. She walked over to the lantern, intending to pick it up and
lead the way to the locomotive for an inspection, but she paused,
her hand hovering over the handle. The flame was flickering.

“
Draft?” she
wondered.

Amaranthe grabbed the lantern and hustled
for the crevice.

“
Wait for us,” Maldynado
hollered. “That’s our only light.”

Amaranthe barely heard him. She scraped past
boulders, clunking her head more than once in her haste to reach
the locomotive. A breeze whispered across her cheeks. Yes, they’d
definitely poked through somewhere, but would it be enough to allow
them to escape?

When she burst out of the cramped passage,
she stumbled over rubble and almost sprawled to the ground. She
gripped a newly deposited boulder to catch herself. Rubble had
completely buried the locomotive, and she couldn’t see the boiler
at all. But it didn’t matter. Cold flakes of snow drifted through
the top half of the tunnel exit and landed on Amaranthe’s nose.

“
Huh,” came Sicarius’s
familiar monotone from behind her.

“
I guess there won’t be any
hand-holding today,” Amaranthe said, a smile on her face as she
turned around.

Maldynado and Sespian were in the passage
behind Sicarius, and she blushed at her silly statement, hoping
they hadn’t heard it.

“
Oh, I don’t know,”
Maldynado drawled. “This looks like an occasion for celebratory
touching.” He looked over his shoulder, probably seeing if Yara had
joined them. “I’m always available for such activities.”

“
I’ll keep that in mind,”
Amaranthe said. “Shall we—”