Conspiracy (35 page)

Amaranthe tried to hear or sense whatever
he’d heard or sensed. Wind blasted past the train, and the mounds
of coal beneath her reverberated in synch with the wheels pumping
below. She couldn’t detect anything out of place, but, from
Sicarius’s vigilant posture, she assumed someone was coming from
the other side.

She laid one finger on his wrist and turned
her face toward him, so he’d know it was a question. He pressed two
fingers against her wrist, then released her and disappeared over
the side of the coal car.

Amaranthe figured he was going to skirt the
outside, crawling along the moving train like a spider to come up
behind the soldiers. She had better plan to handle the lead
man.

Across from Amaranthe, Basilard and
Maldynado had risen to crouches. Yara, back against the wall,
looked like she meant to stay out of the way. Probably a good plan.
Amaranthe waved to her men and pointed toward the locomotive,
though she wasn’t sure they’d see the gesture in the poor
light.

Coal crunched a few feet away, near the
front of the car. A man came into view above Amaranthe’s hill of
coal. Clad in the black uniform of the emperor’s personal guard, he
loomed, a dark shape against the cloud-filled sky, his shoulders
wider than a meter stick, his neck as thick as an oak tree. He had
to be seven feet tall.

Crouched so low her butt skimmed the coal,
Amaranthe hoped the shadows hid her. And she hoped she could
surprise the guard. Because Maldynado and the others were farther
back, she should move first. Out of habit, her hand drifted to her
sword, but she caught herself. They were subduing people without
injuring them here. That had to be the goal. That and not being
crushed by the behemoth.

A second guard stepped into
view. Correction, Amaranthe thought,
two
behemoths. They walked one after
the other down the center of the coal car, unaffected by the wind
or the train’s reverberations.

The first man drew even with Amaranthe’s
hollow. They didn’t have lanterns, and they were moving slowly,
their heads swiveling from side to side. Searching.

Amaranthe thought of the knockout gas. Would
it work out here in the open air?

The first man stopped. The shadows hadn’t
cloaked Amaranthe enough—he was looking straight at her. Too late
to dig out the knockout gas.

The second man disappeared from view behind
him. It happened so quickly, Amaranthe almost missed it. The head
and shoulders were in sight, and then they simply weren’t.

The first man’s rifle shifted toward
Amaranthe, but his comrade must have made a sound, for he glanced
back. She didn’t hesitate. She might not get another opening.

Amaranthe skittered up the hill of coal in
front of her, both to get closer to the guard and to escape the
rifle’s sights. Before the man could spin to track her, she rammed
a sidekick into the edge of the man’s knee. The blow might have
sent a lighter opponent stumbling to the ground, but he merely
growled and whipped his rifle toward her head.

Figuring he expected her to run or dodge to
the side, Amaranthe ducked and lunged in closer instead. She turned
sideways and rammed her elbow into his groin. He bent over with a
grunt and dropped the rifle, but that didn’t keep him from
reacting. His arms came down, attempting to grab her and crush
her—or maybe hurl her from the car.

Amaranthe skittered between his legs and
spun toward his back. He wasn’t as slow as she’d hoped, and he was
already whirling about, his huge hand curled into a fist. She
jumped and caught a handful of his uniform at the back of his
shoulder, then scampered up his side like a mountain goat. Before
he could recover and tear her off, she reached the top of the
“mountain” and drove her elbow into the sensitive vertebrae at the
back of his neck. Fear and nerves lent power to the strike, and he
dropped like a sack of coal.

That was all she needed to do, for Basilard
and Maldynado were there by then, swarming over the guard. While
Maldynado forced the man into a neck lock, Amaranthe fished out a
gag and bindings.

“
What took you two so
long?” she whispered.

“
We stopped to watch,”
Maldynado said, a grin in his voice. “You were all over him like a
pack of cats on a saucer of cream. We didn’t want to make a mistake
and hit you. Besides, you looked like you had him under
control.”

“
Of course, I did.”
Amaranthe was glad the darkness hid the post-fight tremor in her
hands. She wouldn’t want to face one of the emperor’s bodyguards on
even terms. That one had probably been night blind, after being
inside the cab with lanterns and a furnace, and had struggled to
follow her movement. “Also, I think cats are a clowder, not a pack.
Unless you’re thinking of large wild cats, in which case it’s a
pride. I’m not sure if they’re cream zealots though.”

“
Did you intend to sound
like Books, there?” Maldynado asked. “Or was that an unfortunate
mishap?”

“
Er.” Yes, Amaranthe was
fairly certain Books had been the one to share that tidbit of
information with her. When nervous, she had a tendency to babble—or
burble, as Sicarius said—but this wasn’t a good time for verbosity.
“Never mind, let’s move on.”

A few feet away, the second bodyguard lay on
his back, a gag stuffed into his mouth. Of course, nothing
intimidated Sicarius.

But he’d disappeared. Into the
locomotive?

He must have decided he couldn’t risk
attacking the guards with the engineer at his back. But if he’d
taken out the engineer, who was going to drive the train?

“
Try to move them into one
of the valleys we dug,” Amaranthe told Maldynado and Basilard, “so
they’re not visible to soldiers peeking in from the other end.
Someone will need to stay with them too. I’m sure they’d get out of
those bindings without someone watching them.” She blew out a puff
of air, feeling the weight of her decision not to harm
anyone.

“
Why don’t we just toss
them over the side?” Maldynado suggested. “That’s what we did with
those blokes traveling with the weapons.”

“
You did
what
? I didn’t tell you
to do that.”

“
We didn’t have any choice.
They were searching the train.”

“
We’re going fifty miles an
hour. I’d be shocked if throwing someone overboard wouldn’t break
his neck.” Amaranthe closed her eyes, wondering if the men’s
actions on the other train meant there were more deaths she was
responsible for.

“
Nah, look at how thick
those necks are,” Maldynado said. “You’d be lucky to break them
with a steam hammer.”

“
Just... guard them,
Maldynado. Basilard, come up front with me, please.”

Sergeant Yara was standing in the
background, probably not certain what was expected of her.
Amaranthe gave her a stay-there wave. She didn’t want Yara to feel
she had to be a part of this. Once they got Sespian, that’s when
she’d have a role.

Amaranthe and Basilard climbed over the
front of the coal car and onto the back of the locomotive cabin. As
they angled toward one of the side doors, wind scoured the train,
railing against them. They had to claw their way from handhold to
handhold, the cold iron icy beneath their fingers. Trees streaked
by, their branches outstretched, scraping and batting at the side
of the train. Movement at the corner of Amaranthe’s eye spurred
instincts into action, and she ducked a branch before it swept into
her head. She gulped. If a branch struck her while she hung on the
side...

Basilard touched her shoulder, a questioning
prod, and Amaranthe pushed on. She wasn’t about to let the men know
she was nervous.

The bifold door was closed. Light glowed
behind large windows on either side, windows that would allow the
engineer a view of someone approaching the entrance. Amaranthe
stopped before leaning out and reaching for the door latch. What if
Sicarius hadn’t gone up there? She couldn’t imagine where else he
would have gone, but she might stumble into an awkward fight if she
simply pushed her way inside.

She poked one eye around the corner. She
didn’t see anyone in the cab. No Sicarius, no engineer or
fireman.

“
What’s going on?”
Amaranthe muttered.

She grabbed the latch. Not locked. Good. She
pulled the door open and leaped onto the footboard before
catapulting inside.

Amaranthe landed in a crouch, fists balled,
ready for a skirmish. That was when she noticed two men in blue
engineering overalls sprawled on the textured metal floor along
with copious amounts of spilled coal. One man lay beside her, his
face pressed to the back wall, his ankles tied and hands bound
behind his back. On the other side of the cab, in front of the
furnace, Sicarius knelt over the second man. He was tying that one
as well, though he paused long enough to arch an eyebrow at
Amaranthe’s overzealous entrance.

Basilard slipped in behind Amaranthe and
also gave her a curious look. She noticed her hands were still
balled into fists and raised one to cover a fake yawn, as if she
hadn’t been concerned at any point in the mission thus far.

Sicarius manhandled the fireman into a
position on the back wall next to the engineer. Both men were alive
and glaring at him, though gags in their mouths kept them from
voicing complaints.

“
I hadn’t planned to take
over the cab.” Amaranthe tucked stray strands of hair back into her
bun. “Was it necessary to subdue them?”

“
They would have grown
suspicious when the guards left and did not return,” Sicarius
said.

True, but inconvenient. Now someone would
have to stay up there and drive the train. Maybe two people. She
cursed under her breath. When they charged into the emperor’s car,
she would need all of her men. That one fastidious corporal was
spawning a lot of headaches.

Amaranthe eyed the front of the cab,
wondering if there was a way to automate the train. The furnace was
set into the left half with heavy cast iron doors that could swing
open and closed again when someone stepped on a floor pedal. A
shovel leaned to the side of it, beneath several wheels attached to
pipes. Amaranthe had no idea what they controlled. All she knew was
that shovel would need to be used again soon. A boiler capable of
powering a locomotive would need heat applied constantly, lots of
heat.

The engineer’s seat was on the right side of
the cab, and all manner of gauges and levers adorned that station.
The only thing Amaranthe could identify was the steam-whistle chain
dangling from the ceiling. She leaned over the seat to peer out a
vertical rectangle of a window. The long cylindrical engine took up
most of the view, but she could see a little ways to the front of
the right side of the train. She wasn’t sure what kind of lights
were burning above the brush guard, but they didn’t illuminate as
much of the rail as she would have thought. She hoped there’d be
time to stop when they saw the landslide.

“
We’ll be going slower when
we start ascending into the mountains,” Sicarius said. “We can
throw them and the other prisoners overboard without critically
damaging them.”

“
I’m glad you’re thinking
of ways not to
damage
people, but what I’m
really
wondering is who’s going to drive this thing
while we go after the emperor?”

Muffled words—curses most likely—came from
the engineer. His shoulders flexed and strained as he tried to
loosen his bonds. The fireman was glowering at her with eyes
seething with hatred. She tried to offer them a disarming smile.
They glared more fiercely. For all they knew, her team meant to
assassinate Sespian and blow up the train, and she didn’t have time
to explain otherwise, not that they would listen anyway.

“
One of the men,” Sicarius
said, ignoring the straining prisoners. His gaze shifted toward
Basilard.

Basilard’s eyes
widened.
My people are simple nomads. I
know how to hunt, fight, and put up a tent.
He stared at the controls for a moment before adding,
This looks a lot more complicated than a
tent.

“
Maldynado then,” Sicarius
said.

“
Dear ancestors, do you
want us to crash?” Amaranthe asked. “Besides, we need everyone if
we’re to have a chance against a car full of soldiers. How many
people are in there with Sespian? Twenty?”

“
Twenty-three soldiers and
bodyguards. And the woman.”

Who might have skills as a practitioner.
Lovely. And then there was the fact that there were more soldiers
in the neighboring cars. If they didn’t figure out a way to
retrieve Sespian quietly and quickly...

“
We need everyone,”
Amaranthe repeated.

“
Talk the enforcer woman
into doing it,” Sicarius said.

That... might work. As a rural enforcer,
she’d know how to drive a lorry. How much different could it be?
Amaranthe considered the furnace, the engineer’s station, and the
prisoners. It was a lot to ask, especially when Yara hadn’t
promised full support—or any kind of support—for the mission.
Still, it would keep her out of the way of the fighting.

“
Basilard, will you get her
please?” Amaranthe unfastened one of the lanterns mounted on the
wall and handed it to him. Maldynado would need to see Basilard’s
hands to know what he was saying.

Basilard nodded and slipped back
outside.

“
You intend to defend this
point until we reach the pass?” Sicarius asked.