Conspiracy (54 page)

If Sicarius were the type to cackle
diabolically before killing someone, he’d surely be doing so now.
But he simply stood there, wearing all of his knives, his body
unmoving, his face unreadable.

“
What do you want?” Akstyr
tried to sound gruff and unconcerned, though he knew he wasn’t
fooling anyone. Also, it was hard to look tough standing barefoot
with a blanket pooled at one’s feet.

The quietness of that Science-made dirigible
engine meant there were no thrums or reverberations coursing
through the craft, and Akstyr could feel his heart thumping against
his ribs. Fast. He wondered if Sicarius could hear it too. He
wasn’t saying or doing anything, but Akstyr had the impression that
Sicarius might be debating whether to kill him.

Akstyr clenched a fist.
Sicarius could
try
. Akstyr knew ways to defend himself that had nothing to do
with physical contact.

“
Well?” Akstyr
demanded.

“
You’ve been talking with
bounty hunters,” Sicarius said. “I know you’ve thought often of
having me killed.”

Akstyr tried to swallow, but his throat was
too dry. He wanted to say something valiant, but he couldn’t get
any words out.

“
You may have doomed us all
by speaking of our plans to your mother.” Sicarius’s eyes bored
into him, hard and unwavering.

“
That was a mistake, I
know. It won’t happen again.”

“
I kill those who threaten
me.” He wasn’t attempting to intimidate or posture; he was simply
stating a fact. That made it worse.

“
I saved Am’ranthe that one
time.
Amaranthe
,”
Akstyr added, thinking that it might be somehow important to
pronounce each and every syllable in her name just then.
Respectful-like. “I’m important to the team. She wouldn’t want you
to kill anyone important to the team.”

“
I’ve studied the
schematics for the implant,” Sicarius said.

“
Uh?” The topic change
surprised Akstyr, but encouraging it seemed like a good
idea.

“
The artifact is designed
to be sensitive to physical tampering. It hides if it’s touched,
and if someone attempts to remove it, it kills its
victim.”

Why was Sicarius telling him this? Akstyr
had studied the schematic too. He already knew all about the
devices.

“
It’ll take someone with
Science training to destroy it,” Sicarius said.

“
I know. I’m not sure I can
destroy it, on account of that shaman having been so experienced at
Making things, and it’s real strong for something so little, but I
was thinking I could stun it for a few seconds. Then someone like
you could go in and cut it out before it can squirm away. Once it’s
out, you can drop it on the floor and stomp on it.” Akstyr finished
with a gulp of air. He’d rushed to make sure he got out the second
part, about how he might be able to do something, before Sicarius
decided he was useless after hearing the first part. Akstyr didn’t
know why Sicarius would care about the emperor or the implant, but
if he did that was good for him.

“
If you are successful in
removing the implant,” Sicarius said, “I will forget your prior
transgressions.”

A part of Akstyr wanted to be indignant—the
man was a notorious criminal, so he hardly had any justification
for calling anything Akstyr might have done to get rid of him a
“transgression”—but a bigger part of him was so relieved, he could
barely think of an answer. If Sicarius was willing to forget the
past, then he could start over, work with the team, get the money
for school without betraying anyone, and not have to spend his life
looking over his shoulder. And he’d been planning to get that
implant out anyway. That was why he had joined the group in the
first place, so he could work on Science stuff. The challenge of
trying to beat that old shaman’s invention intrigued him.

“
Agreed?” Sicarius asked,
startling Akstyr from his thoughts.

It wasn’t like Sicarius to get impatient and
prompt someone for an answer. Usually he didn’t care if someone
answered or not.

“
I’m planning to get it
out, yeah,” Akstyr said. “But, out of curiosity, what happens if
something unforeseen happens, and I can’t stop the implant from...
doing it’s job?”

Several long breaths passed before Sicarius
answered.

“
Do not fail,” he said and
walked out the door.

* * * * *

Amaranthe and Sicarius stood by the door in
Sespian’s suite. Books sat in one of the purple chairs with the
schematic of the device spread across his lap. Akstyr stood by a
table laden with scissors, suture wire, tweezers, and Sicarius’s
black dagger. Sespian waited on the bed, eying the implements. His
face was paler than usual, though he was nodding stoically and
grunting in a manly I’m-not-scared-about-this-surgery way as Books
and Akstyr explained the procedure.

“
They’re fragile once you
get them out of your body, so you can smash them with a hammer, but
that’s not a real good option when they’re still inside,” Akstyr
said.

“
I’d imagine not,” Sespian
said.

Amaranthe lifted a
thumbnail to nibble on only to remember she’d already chomped it
down to the nub. She was going to have to find a way to encourage
faster nail growth if she was going to be in stressful situations
so often. Sicarius’s face seemed a tad paler than usual, too, as he
listened at her side. He hadn’t said a word about the handholding,
but Amaranthe hadn’t had a chance to pull him aside and explain it
either. She wasn’t sure what to explain anyway. Sespian
apparently
did
still care. That was a problem, but one for another day. She
forced herself to focus on Akstyr.

“
Don’t worry,” Akstyr said.
“With Books’s help, I figured that I could stun them with a... uhm,
are you squirrelly about the mental sciences?”

“
Sire
,” Books whispered.

“
Are you squirrelly,
Sire
?” Akstyr
asked.

“
Though I don’t have much
experience in such matters, I’ve read many of the files in the
Imperial Intelligence Office, and I’m aware of reports suggesting
the human brain is capable of more than Turgonians officially
believe and acknowledge.”

Akstyr gave him a blank look.

“
Not squirrelly, no,”
Sespian said.

“
Good.” Akstyr held a
tiger-striped sphere up to one of several lanterns placed around
the bed, adding to the light that flowed in through a pair of
portholes. “I’ve been practicing on the ones we filched from the
shaman’s cave.”

Sespian leaned close to study the details of
the small but intricate sphere. “Hard to believe such an
insignificant-looking device could kill a person.”

A tiny barb sprang from the surface, and
Sespian jerked backward. Sicarius stirred at Amaranthe’s side, and
she imagined him springing to Sespian’s defense, should the need
arise. It seemed Akstyr was merely showing off a... feature
though.

“
Slicker than a greased
prick, isn’t it?” Akstyr asked.

Books leaned out of his chair to cuff him.
“Don’t say things like that in front of the emperor.”

Akstyr rolled his eyes.

“
And say
Sire
,” Books whispered,
as if Sespian weren’t right there, watching their exchange.
Fortunately, a hint of a smile touched the emperor’s
lips.

“
Slick, isn’t it,
Sire
?” Akstyr
asked.

“
I’ve translated the
shaman’s notes to determine how they work,” Books said, launching
into his best lecturing professor tone. “There are four of these
prongs in each sphere. If someone tries to remove the device from
the victim’s flesh—”

“
Me,” Sespian
said.

“
Ah, yes, you. If someone
tries to remove it prematurely, the device attaches to the jugular,
and the barbs spring out like that.” Books pointed to the
protrusion on the sphere. “The barbs pierce your vein, and poison
flows into your bloodstream. It’s a near-instantaneous process. The
poison induces a seizure, and the victim dies within
seconds.”

Sespian was staring, transfixed, at the
barb.

“
Why don’t you skip to
telling him how we’re going to remove it?” Amaranthe
suggested.

Sespian tore his gaze from the sphere. “A
splendid idea.”

“
I couldn’t figure out how
to destroy them or turn one off,” Akstyr said, “but I have managed
to stun some of them for several seconds.”

“
Some
?” Sespian asked.

“
Four out of five.” Akstyr
shrugged. “Those’re good odds, aren’t they? Each one is a little
different. They’re machines but individual hand-Made artifacts
too.”

“
Magical,” Sespian said for
clarification.

“
If you insist on using
that ignorant Turgonian word, I suppose.”

“
Sire
,” Books hissed. “And don’t question the emperor’s education,
which I’m certain is far superior to yours.”

Sespian lifted a hand. “It’s all right. I
prefer straight talk here. Akstyr, what happens after you stun
it?”

“
I’ll have to keep
concentrating to make sure it doesn’t wake up, so someone else will
cut open your neck, dig around in there, and pry it
out.”

Amaranthe winced at Akstyr’s bluntness.
Surely that had to be straighter talk than anyone would want.

“
I see,” Sespian said. “And
who will be wielding the knife?” He didn’t look at Sicarius. In
fact, he seemed to be making a point of
not
looking at Sicarius, as if he
feared that someone might have already chosen him, but by
pretending he wasn’t there, Sespian could change the
outcome.

“
You’ll want our swiftest,
most agile person with a blade, Sire,” Amaranthe said and tilted
her head toward Sicarius.

“
I’ll try to stun it real
fast, so it doesn’t start moving around,” Akstyr said, “but it has
this reflex to burrow deeper when there’s a chance it’ll be
discovered.”

Sespian lay back on the bed, and Amaranthe
wondered if he was thinking it’d be better to take his chances and
leave the implant in there. If he decided that, she’d have to try
and talk him out of it. With the shaman gone, there wasn’t likely
anyone better around than her team for this surgery.

“
All right,” Sespian said.
“Let’s do it. I’m going after Forge people, so it’d be better if
they didn’t have this control over me, or the ability to see me
coming.”

That hint of what his mission was made
Amaranthe want to grab his arm and wheedle details out of him, but
the surgery had to be the first priority. Afterward, she could—

“
Company’s coming,”
Maldynado bellowed from the cargo hold.

Amaranthe groaned.
What
was he doing in
there? Maldynado should be in the navigation room with Yara. Books,
after grudgingly acknowledging that his expertise might be needed
for translations during the surgery, had given them a flying
lesson.

When Amaranthe opened the door, Sicarius
lifted his head, a question in his eyes.

“
You, Akstyr, and Books
have a job to do,” Amaranthe told him. “Stay here. The rest of us
will buy you the time you need.” She hoped that sounded half as
confident as she meant for it to sound.

“
Understood,” Sicarius
said.

Amaranthe slipped into the corridor and
trotted to the cargo hold. Maldynado had both hands pressed against
the exterior hatch, his face close to the porthole in the center.
When he saw Amaranthe, he stepped back and pointed. A dark dome was
flying above the mountains behind them. Though daylight had come,
it did nothing to alleviate the inky blackness of the craft.

“
How far until we get out
of the mountains?” Amaranthe asked.

“
We’ve been cruising along
to the northwest all night,” Maldynado said, “and we’re almost out,
but we have sixty miles of lakes and wetlands to cross before we
reach Sunders City.”

“
If we can make it to the
populated areas on the outskirts of town, they might veer off.
You’d think that monstrosity would be something they’d want to keep
a secret from people.”

“
That’d still be fifty
miles.” Maldynado stabbed a finger at the porthole. “They’ve gotten
closer, just while we’ve been talking. There’s no way they won’t
catch up with us.”

“
I don’t suppose there’s a
chance they’re just flying in the same direction as we are and
haven’t seen us yet?” Amaranthe murmured.

“
About as much chance as
there is of Sicarius joining us for drinks, whoring, and bouts of
unbridled laughter after the mission is over.”

“
Us?” Amaranthe asked. “You
think there’s a chance of
me
joining you for that?”

“
You’d be more likely to do
it than him.”

“
I... think it’s safer if I
neither agree nor disagree with that.” Convinced the trailing craft
was only going to get bigger instead of smaller, Amaranthe spun a
slow circle, taking in everything in the cargo bay. “We still have
half a box of blasting sticks,” she mused.