Lindsay Buroker - Deadly Games

Amaranthe stood straighter, eyes riveted onthe woman. “A blond man and a scarred one?”

Merva shrugged without dropping her hand.“I’m not sure. I’ve been…” She touched her head with her otherhand. “I don’t remember anything since… Two men grabbed me in mybunk at the athletes’ barracks and thrust a vial under my nose.After that… I don’t know how long I’ve slept. I woke up a littlewhile ago, like this. Someone had cut straps holding me to atable.”

Someone? That sounded too beneficent forSicarius, but Basilard perhaps? She wanted to pump the girl foranswers, but they had best find someplace less open for planningthe next step.

Merva leaned past her and pointed into thestaging chamber. “Can I get out that way? We’re underwater, right?Are we in the ocean?”

“Nah,” Akstyr said. “We’re just-”

“We can help you escape,” Amaranthe said,cutting Akstyr off before he could reveal how close to the citythey were. She did not want the girl swimming out there, only todrown trying to reach the surface. “But let’s get all the prisonersout first. Have you seen others since you woke up?”

Merva tore her gaze from the chamber. “Westarted out together, several of us, but then we ran into thosesoldiers, and one of them fired at us. Everyone scattered,and-”

A man in military fatigues jogged around thecorner and skidded to a halt. His eyebrows flew up when he spottedthe diving suits. “Intruders!” he shouted and grabbed for a pistol,but he seemed to realize he was outnumbered. Instead of shooting,he whirled for the cover of the corner.

Grimly, Amaranthe fired her harpoon launcher.They couldn’t let him run off and gather reinforcements.

The projectile zipped down the corridor andsliced into the man’s shoulder before he disappeared around thecorner. He stumbled and landed belly-first on the deck. His pistolflew free and clanged against the bulkhead, going off with anechoing bang.

Amaranthe winced at the noise.

Maldynado ran past her and checked thecorridors leading from the intersection. “No one else. Yet.”

The guard tried to crawl away. Maldynadostepped on his arm to pin him. The man scrabbled for a knife at hisbelt, but Maldynado took it from him easily.

“Want me to…?” He made a throat-slashingmotion.

Amaranthe sighed. The poison should kill theman in a couple of minutes, but she had no idea if that would be amore merciful end than a dagger to the throat.

The man twisted his neck to look at her. Fearhaunted his eyes.

“Sorry,” Amaranthe said quietly.

A part of her was tempted to ask Akstyr if hecould do anything to keep the man from dying, but there was notime. Someone would come to investigate that shot.

“Leave him,” Amaranthe told Maldynado. “Afterthat entrance, I’m sure the whole vessel knows we’re here.”

She waved for Merva to come forward. Theyounger woman gave her the same wary look Amaranthe had seen somany people use on Sicarius. Having such an expression directed ather made her uncomfortable. I’m not a monster, she wanted to say.I’m just trying to do the right thing….

“Can you take us to the navigation area?” shesaid instead. Finding the captain-or whoever was in charge of thisplace-would be better than wandering around randomly. If they foundsomeone important, perhaps they could use him or her as a hostageand avoid more bloodshed.

“I think it’s on the second floor,” Mervawhispered.

They hid the harpoon launchers in thetransition chamber, drew their swords, and headed away from thefallen guard. They passed numerous closed hatches and ducked underand around knots of pipes. Another four-way intersection came intoview ahead of them, and, beyond it, a ladder rose to a secondlevel. Voices drifted from the corridor to the left of theintersection. Agitated voices.

Amaranthe lifted a hand for silence andpassed Merva. As if by magic, the clomps of her men’s heavy bootssoftened to imperceptible footfalls. She glanced back, intending tosign an order for someone to watch their hindquarters, but Bookswas already doing it. He stalked backwards, his sword at theready.

At the intersection, Amaranthe poked an eyearound the corner. She almost yanked her head right back. Not tenfeet away, six white-jacketed men and women stood before a closedhatch marking the end of the corridor. Only the fact that all theirheads were turned away from the intersection kept her there for alonger look.

Their hair ranged from blond to black,straight to wiry and tightly curled. Representatives from severalnations and, Amaranthe feared, practitioners as well.

They were gesticulating and talking, morethan one at a time with frequent, emphatic points at the hatch.Were her men inside? Or other escaped prisoners?

Symbols were etched in a plate above thedoorway. Amaranthe waved for Books to take her spot and decipherthe language.

Engine room , he signed after apeek.

Amaranthe fingered the hilt of her sword, butshe did not want to attack practitioners. They would have far moretricks than Turgonian guards. Besides, she did not know if what laybehind the hatch was something that should concern her or not.

Let’s sneak past, Amaranthe signed,then put a finger to her lips and pointed to the ladder for Merva’ssake.

She waited until all of the practitioners’heads were turned and eased through the intersection, figuringsudden movement would be more likely to draw someone’s eye.

A clang sounded down the corridor behindBooks. Guards searching the vessel? The practitioners were tooengrossed in their argument to notice.

Amaranthe waved for Maldynado and the othersto follow, one at a time. A bead of moisture slithered down herribcage. More than nerves made her sweat; now that they had leftthe icy water, the suit kept her far warmer than she needed.

Akstyr slipped across without incident.Good.

Out of habit, Amaranthe lifted a finger toher mouth to nibble on a nail, but the gloves stopped her. Bookscrossed, and Merva stepped into the intersection. Amaranthe curledher fingers into a fist. It was working. Everyone would-

A thunderous boom erupted, and the corridorheaved.

Amaranthe stumbled back and threw an arm out,trying to keep herself from falling, but the smooth walls offeredno hand holds, and the suit affected her balance. She hit thefloor, her helmet flying from her fingers. It clanked down thecorridor, bouncing as it went, and she cursed under her breath.

Quakes rattled the fortress. Half of her teamhad fallen to the floor as well, making her glad for her decisionto leave the harpoon launchers behind; someone might have cuthimself on a poisoned blade.

Curses in foreign languages- multiple foreign languages-spilled from the adjoining corridor.

Amaranthe rolled onto her knees and grabbedher helmet. She waved and pointed toward the ladder, silentlyurging her team to hurry. She hoped the commotion had kept thepractitioners from hearing them.

Merva and the men filed up the ladder.Amaranthe went last, her oversized boots making the ascentawkward.

Clomps sounded in the corridor she wasleaving. The practitioners? No, Turgonian words punctuated thefootfalls. Those were guards coming.

Ignoring the awkward boots, Amaranthe flew upthe last few rungs. She rolled into the corridor above just as aman below demanded, “Have you seen the intruders?”

Her first ludicrous thought was that he wastalking to her, but the voice was not that close. The guards had tobe at the intersection. She was tempted to stick around to listento the conversation, and see if she could find out what was goingon in the engine room, but those men would soon move on with theirhunt.

At the top of the ladder, anotherhatch-filled metal corridor stretched.

“Which way to navigation?” Amaranthewhispered.