Tikaya listened bleakly. She had been hoping for fellow archaeologists to ally with; instead she might have another cursed Turgonian military commander waiting. She looked to Rias, hoping for some comfort there, but his face was inscrutable. She still had no idea what he thought about his emperor’s desire to obtain these weapons.
“ But his team is stuck, right?” Bocrest said. “If they could get to the weapons, they’d have taken them and disappeared by now.”
“ Correct,” Sicarius said. “They lack what we have.” His gaze came to rest on Tikaya again.
Her bleakness increased. When this had started, she had worried her skills would not be enough to keep her family safe. Now she worried her skills would be enough.
“ Valuable intelligence,” Rias told Sicarius. “Good work.”
Tikaya jerked with surprise. Was he actually complimenting an assassin on the bounty his torture session had yielded?
“ Yes,” Sicarius said, apparently unaffected by the praise.
The tunnel opened into a cavern with a ceiling that disappeared into darkness. A chasm over a hundred feet wide yawned across the center, cutting through walls as well as the floor. A multistory building perched near the edge on their side, and eagerness quickened Tikaya’s step-finally, a chance to see something more than a lab. A plant for distributing water, she guessed. Pipes ran vertically and horizontally from the structure, and a smokestack rose as far as the eye could see. A reservoir adjacent to the building held driftwood-littered water, which trickled over the edge on one side, flowing into the chasm.
Tikaya peered over the edge. Darkness and distance cloaked the bottom-if there was one. The black floor ended at the lip and started again on the other side. The tidy cobweb-free tunnels made Tikaya forget how much time had passed since this place had been created, but this chasm, which appeared to have formed after the complex was abandoned, reminded her that thousands of years, maybe tens of thousands of years, stood between then and now.
“ Looks like we’ve caught up with the other team.” Rias pointed at a tunnel entrance on the far side. Tikaya froze. Two men stood in it, and one had shaggy red-blond hair and a scruffy beard. She could not make out features at the distance, but they reminded her of Parkonis and sent a painful jab through her mind. Though her islands did not have the only blonds in the world, that hair coloring combined with the likelihood this was an archaeologist made her suspect this was one of her people. The second figure, dark-haired and dark-skinned, wore black and carried a musket. He could have been one of Bocrest’s men. The pair stepped back into the darkness when they noticed the marines watching them.
“ How’d they get over there?” Bocrest asked. “And how do we follow?”
“ Assuming they have a practitioner studied in telekinetics, they could have floated across,” Tikaya said.
Bocrest’s expression turned sour. “Starcrest, you know any other tunnels that lead over to that side?”
“ No. I don’t know what’s over there. We were desperate to escape by the time we got here. We climbed those pipes and got out through a vent mountainside.”
Bocrest growled and gazed about. Two other tunnels left the cavern on their side.
“ Karsus,” the captain said, “take your squad through that one and see if there’s a way across the gulf. Everyone else with me. We’re checking this one.”
“ I’d prefer to stay here and study the journal,” Tikaya said. “Not to mention there’s probably much I could learn in that building.” And maybe, if she was alone, those archaeologists would come visit her and she could find out more.
“ You’re not staying alone,” Bocrest snapped.
“ I can stay too,” Rias said.
“ Oh, yes, I’m going to leave you two alone to conspire.”
“ Bet they want to do more than conspire.” Someone snickered.
Bocrest silenced the commenter with a glare.
“ It’s possible there’s something in the pumping house that could get us across,” Rias said.
Bocrest’s gaze landed on the assassin. “Will you keep an eye on them?”
“ Yes,” Sicarius said.
Tikaya grimaced. A babysitter who was young enough to be Rias’s son. Lovely.
Before the marines reached the tunnels, Rias was already checking out the reservoir. An underground stream fed the pool, and the current had pushed logs and branches to the nearest side. He gazed thoughtfully at the wood.
Though eager to explore the building, Tikaya dropped her rucksack and joined him at the edge. She could not remember her last bath, but dipping a finger in the icy water stole her fantasies of immersing herself. Maybe she could heat some up for washing later.
“ Getting an idea?” she asked as Rias pondered the driftwood.
“ Perhaps.”
“ You don’t think the marines will find another way around?”
“ If that rift is a result of a fault line, it could run a long way.” Rias tapped a finger in the air toward the building. “The last time I was here, I found a fantastic cutting tool in there. It burned through stone, wood, and metal like a knife slicing apple custard. If those archaeologists didn’t find it…” He dragged one of the logs out of the water and nodded to himself.
Tikaya waited for him to explain further, but the assassin appeared at Rias’s shoulder. Tikaya jumped. She had not seen or heard the youth’s approach.
“ Ah, good,” Rias said, less discombobulated. “I’ll need some more muscle.”
Sicarius had to be curious, but his expression never changed.
“ What do you think, young man?” Rias asked. “Ever want to fly?”
Sicarius gave the faintest hint of an eyebrow twitch.
“ Let’s get this wood out of the water,” Rias said.
“ Can I help?” Tikaya wondered what he planned.
“ How are your carpentry skills?
“ Er. I helped my father build a birdhouse once.”
“ An impressive project.” Rias smiled and pulled another log out. “But don’t you want to explore the pumping house and look for language clues?”
“ Yes.” Though her curiosity would have to wait for satisfaction, she would rather translate runes than hammer nails anyway.
“ Be careful in there. Touching things is how my team got in trouble. Multiple times.”
“ I won’t touch anything,” she said. “Unless I can read the label and know what it is.”
With journal in hand, Tikaya headed to the structure. Though dwarfed by the cavern, it rose more than fifty feet and sported three rows of windows along each side. She paused inside the threshold, patting down pockets until she located a pencil. Before she headed deeper, Sicarius spoke to Rias.
“ I bring you a message from the emperor.”
Her ears perked.
“ Oh?” Rias said.
“ He believes you’ve been sufficiently punished for your transgressions and is willing to return everything to you-your name, your rank, your land-if you cooperate with Bocrest and myself and we’re able to accomplish this mission.”
Tikaya pressed a hand against the wall. She barely saw the vast room she had stepped into as she waited for Rias’s answer. When it came, it was so soft she almost missed it.
“ My ship? My command?”
“ Yes,” Sicarius said. “You can return with Bocrest, in command of the Emperor’s Fist until you can be transferred to the Raptor and resume your full duties.”
Say no, Tikaya urged. Tell him and your sprite-licked emperor to fall on their swords.
“ What is the mission exactly?” Rias asked.
Tikaya clenched a fist around her pencil. What was he doing? He couldn’t possibly be considering this offer. He had to know it was only coming because the war had gone badly after he disappeared. Disobeyed orders or not, the emperor must have realized he overreacted and come to regret ousting his star admiral.