A few blocks away, a clock tower tolled eight times. While the schedule for Sespian’s train hadn’t been announced anywhere, Books had done some fancy math based on known schedules for other trains sharing the railway to determine that the emperor would likely arrive between nine and ten. That didn’t leave Amaranthe a lot of time to win over Yara. At least the sergeant was following them out of the train station without alerting anyone on the way.
“Why did you want me here?” Yara asked as soon as she joined them. “It’s obvious that you don’t have any interest in working within the boundaries of the law, or even the dictates of humanity.”
Amaranthe and Maldynado stood in the shadows of a mercantile store that had closed for the day. A kerosene streetlamp burned at an intersection, its illumination dim compared to the gas lamps that lined the streets in Stumps.
“This-” Amaranthe lifted the papers, “-wasn’t done with my knowledge or approval. As for why I wanted you here, the emperor needs help, and I thought you cared enough to want to see to his welfare.”
“I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Yara said.
“And here I thought she’d come to trade terms of endearment with me.” The dim lighting was enough to show off Maldynado’s white teeth when he flashed a smile.
“I wasted a week’s leave to come,” Yara said without acknowledging him. “The soldiers are on high alert, and nobody will risk kidnapping the emperor now. Not here.”
“Actually, someone will. I promise you.” Amaranthe withdrew a carefully folded note from her pocket and handed it to Yara. “One of my men won an event in the Games this summer, and Sespian gave that to him at the dinner afterward.”
Yara walked to the streetlamp to read the note. Amaranthe forced herself to stay put, but it made her nervous to let any distance form between her and that note. Though it wasn’t signed, it was the closest thing to evidence she had in case she ended up having to justify her actions to someone after the mission.
“Amaranthe Lokdon,” Yara read, “I wish to hire your outfit to kidnap me. I can offer 100,000 ranmyas.” She lowered the note. “You expect me to believe the emperor gave this to you?”
“No, he gave it to one of my men.” Amaranthe smiled, hoping a smidgeon of humor would lesson Yara’s scowl.
It didn’t. If anything, the woman’s lips turned further downward.
Amaranthe coughed and slid the note from Yara’s fingers. She slipped it back into her pocket.
“This means… you’re the one planning to kidnap him tonight?” Yara asked.
Amaranthe nodded.
Yara lifted her eyes toward the sky. “This is worse than sedition, more than a crime. It’s… It’s…”
“Likely to be a good time?” Maldynado asked. “You don’t have to do anything, you know. You can just come along to watch. It ought to be entertaining, if you can avoid being shot.”
Amaranthe lifted a finger to her lips, hoping to hush him up. But Yara snorted. Or was that a short laugh? Maybe Maldynado had said the right thing after all.
“You are invited,” Amaranthe said. “It might put Sespian at ease to have a friendly face. Someone he’s fairly certain is loyal to him. Of course, we’re loyal to him, too, but I don’t think he knows that yet. I must convince him of that.”
Yara stared at her and shook her head.
“If you come along,” Amaranthe said, “you can rescue him if you two decide we’re not to be trusted.”
“Are you insane?” Yara asked. It wasn’t clear whether the comment applied to Amaranthe’s last suggestion or to the scheme as a whole.
“We debate that frequently,” Maldynado said, “but the boss hasn’t gotten us killed yet, so we haven’t made a ruling.”
“If you rescue him, or simply make sure he doesn’t come to harm while he’s with us, I’m sure he’ll be grateful,” Amaranthe said. “Maybe you’ll get another promotion out of it, eh?” She said the last as a joke, but it didn’t elicit a smile. She needed to stop trying humor on people scowling so fiercely they were in danger of pulling muscles in their necks.
“I’ll be lucky to keep my current rank after all this trouble. I’ll admit I got myself into it by pestering my higher ups about those weapons, but having you and your cursed assassin show up on my family’s stoop, and with my enforcer brother there to witness it…” Yara groaned.
Amaranthe wondered if the week of leave Yara had mentioned might have been someone else’s idea. A superior suggesting she take the time off to figure out if she was truly committed to being an enforcer?
“We’re on his side, Yara. I swear it.”
“I don’t believe your intent is to harm the emperor, but what of the men guarding him?”
For some silly reason, it pleased Amaranthe to hear that Yara believed they weren’t a threat to Sespian himself. “The plan is not to harm them either.”
“Is everyone on your team aware of that plan?” Yara eyed the darkness around them, probably wondering if Sicarius was lurking nearby. “It doesn’t sound like you have a lot of control over certain members.” She stabbed a finger at the newspapers.
“Yes, we’re agreed on how to handle this.”
“What are you going to do with the emperor after you get him?” Yara asked.
“Whatever he wishes us to do.” A cold breeze drifted down the street, slipping beneath the skirt of Amaranthe’s purloined dress and reminding her that she needed to change back into her work clothes and return the disguise before the emperor’s train came in. “We must leave shortly, so I need your answer. Are you in?”
“I’d be addled to join you when you lured me down here under false pretenses. I’d be even more addled if I believed half of what you’re telling me.”
Maldynado leaned close to Amaranthe and whispered, “That’s a yes, right?”
Yara’s eyes narrowed. “If I do join you, do you mind if I attempt to collect on this shrub’s bounty when everything else is finished?” She pointed at Maldynado.
“Not at all,” Amaranthe said.
“How can you say that, boss?” Maldynado pressed his hand to his chest. “Your lack of support wounds me.”
“You need practice staying on your toes.” Amaranthe waved toward the street. “Let’s get to work.” Though she strode off with a confident air, she was more relieved than she would admit when Yara walked after her and Maldynado.
Amaranthe crossed the tracks again and used the cover of the warehouses to skirt the train station. Instead of approaching from the rear, as they had before, she came in from the front. She paused at the last loading dock to consider the blocky form of a brick water tower with an articulating arm that could be lowered to fill the holding tanks of an engine idling beneath it. In front of the tower, a two-story coal shed abutted the railway with a chute angled over the tracks. Lamps illuminated the entire area, and Amaranthe’s stomach sank when she realized the well-lit door at the base of the water tower faced the station. Anyone on the boardwalk outside could see it if they looked in that direction. She might need to rethink that part of her plan. When she’d concocted it, she hadn’t imagined soldiers swarming about the station like ants on an abandoned pastry from Curi’s Bakery.
A hand caught Amaranthe’s arm, surprising her from her thoughts. Before the others noticed, Sicarius drew her into the shadows of an alley between the last two warehouses before the water tower. Basilard joined Maldynado and Yara.
“Basilard and I will take the water tower,” Sicarius told Amaranthe, not acknowledging the fact that Yara had joined them. “Your team can do the coal.”
Sometime in the last hour, he and Basilard had acquired army uniforms. They both had distinctive faces, and, thanks to all the wanted posters around the empire, Sicarius’s was particularly well known, so neither would pass for army men up close, but they might be able to slip into the water tower without anyone thinking anything of it.
“Agreed.” Amaranthe pointed deeper into the alley. “A word?”
The others had noticed Sicarius, so she lifted a hand to keep them from following, and joined him a dozen paces away.