Lindsay Buroker - Encrypted

Rias lunged after him, and the man jumped back. His heel caught on a downed comrade, and he pitched to the deck, cracking his head on a crate.

Rias dropped beside the man, gripping his throat, and Tikaya winced and looked away.

“ Live or die?” Rias asked in accented Nurian.

Surprised, Tikaya looked back.

“ Live?” the Nurian croaked, eyes darting with fear, as if he did not expect to be that lucky.

Rias glanced toward the door, then laid his sword on the ground while he tore pieces from the man’s colorful clothing. With quick efficiency, he gagged the Nurian and started on ankle and wrist bonds.

“ Who would answer with die?” Tikaya asked.

“ Most of my people,” Rias said. “To live when the rest of your team died would be an unacceptable disgrace to many.”

With some vague sense that someone should be standing guard, she stepped over the bodies to watch the exit. Another hold stretched before her, lit by glowing orbs hanging from the beamed ceiling. No one else waited to charge.

Rias finished the bonds, leaving the Nurian wide-eyed on the deck, and snatched arrows from partially spent quivers. When he had a fistful, he joined Tikaya.

“ I want to take control of the ship,” he said.

“ Take control?” She gaped at the audacity. Surely, the best they could manage would be to run for the upper deck and leap over the side. But, no, who would find them in the cold, dark waters? Even if the Turgonians spotted them, and that was unlikely, they had their own troubles.

“ We’ll have another fight when they realize what’s going on.” He held out the arrows, enough to stuff her quiver, and watched her face. “You’ve got my back?”

She guessed at what he was really asking: can you, a philologist from an island full of peace-loving academics, keep from collapsing in a weepy heap when I need your help?

Tikaya grabbed the arrows and jammed them into the quiver, angry with herself for that weak moment that made him question her. “I’ve had it so far, haven’t I?”

“ Yes.” Rias gripped her forearm. “You’ve been magnificent.”

She snorted. Right. He didn’t know how lucky he was her trembling fingers hadn’t loosed an arrow that turned him into a eunuch. “Will you still think that if I insist on taking a side trip?”

“ What?”

“ I want to search the captain’s cabin for orders and find out why these people are trying to kill me.” And maybe she could finally get answers about what this secret Turgonian mission was all about.

“ We may not have time,” Rias said.

Tikaya lifted her chin. “We’ll make time.”

His eyebrows flicked upward, but the surprise lasted only a second. He nodded once and gave her a Turgonian salute, a fist thumped over his heart. “Yes, ma’am.”

“ Jeela, is it done?” a tinny voice asked from the center of the room.

As one they stared at the dead practitioner. The voice emanated from within her black robe.

Rias pointed his cutlass. “Can you answer that?”

“ Uhm.” Tikaya knelt by the dead woman, trying not to look at the bloody stump where the head should have been, and patted the blood-sodden robe. She found a glowing opal pendant, the chain broken, just as the voice spoke again.

“ Is the Kyattese girl dead? Jeela, do you need help?”

Though her education in the mental sciences was not ecumenical, she could sense the soft hum of a practitioner-made device. She held it up to her mouth, then waved at Rias and mouthed, “Make some noise.”

She partially covered the device with her hand, hoping to disguise the fact that her voice would not match the practitioner’s, and spoke in Nurian: “Yes, mission complete. She’s dead.” Then, fearing further conversation would only hurt her chances at pulling off the ruse, she dropped the device on the deck, so it clanked against the wood.

“ I doubt that fooled anyone,” she apologized to Rias as they exited.

The grim cast to his eyes suggested he agreed, but all he said was, “We’d best hurry.”

The Nurian captain’s cabin offered a distinct contrast to Bocrest’s quarters. Behind a desk painted with flowers and vines, lace curtains decorated a bank of windows. Velvet furniture and lush rugs covering the deck might have invited one to lounge, but the cannons booming in the distance suppressed the cozy parlor ambiance.

Tikaya and Rias slid inside, shutting the door behind them. For the moment, the Nurians were busy attacking-and defending against-Bocrest’s warship, but sooner or later someone would figure out “Jeela” had failed her mission.

“ Check those trunks.” Rias jogged around the desk to the windows. “Let me know if you can tell if the captain is a wizard or not. If he is, he’ll likely have wards protecting his orders.”

Tikaya threw open the trunks and lifted a sword and a lacy brassiere. “I believe she’s a warrior.”

“ Should be safe to search then.” Rias tore his gaze from the windows and cocked an eyebrow at the lingerie. “Unless you want to model that for me first?”

Startled, she dropped the sword. The hilt banged onto her sandaled foot.

Rias winced and lifted an apologetic hand. “Sorry, I, er, two years, you know.”

“ It’s fine.” Cheeks warming, she threw the sword back in the trunk, relieved she had not cut off any toes. “I’ll just, uhm, find those orders now.”

Tikaya yanked open a desk drawer and rummaged through letters and supply receipts. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Rias shaking his head, fingers splayed across his face, before he turned back to the window. A grin tugged at her lips.

A moment later, he found his fearless-soldier-in-charge tone and reported: “All four Nurian ships are even with the Emperor’s Fist now, two on each side. Bocrest is doing damage, but…if we’re going to help, it’ll have to be soon.”

Tikaya tried another drawer. She wanted those orders, and she wanted them to say something significant to justify detouring here. Rias helped her search, checking cupboards under the bunk, but she sensed restless energy emanating from him. He wanted to assist his people, though she could not imagine how he planned to take over the ship.

Under a pile of log books in the bottom drawer, she found a parchment displaying lines of gibberish. “Got it. Encrypted though.” She tapped the nonsensical Nurian letters. “Given enough time, I can work it out, but it’d be helpful to have the key. The captain ought to have it, right?”

“ Yes.” Rias joined her at the desk and opened and closed all the drawers.

“ I already looked in there.”

He paused at the lower one, yanked it clear, dumped the contents on the deck, and ripped out the bottom. His vandalism revealed a secret compartment from which he plucked another sheet of parchment.

“ Guess my looking skills need improvement,” Tikaya murmured.

“ I get suspicious when inside dimensions don’t match outside ones.”

“ Ah.” She laid both sheets on the desk and quickly memorized the key.

The clanging of a bell echoed through the ship. More footsteps pounded, this time on their deck instead of above.

“ Alarm,” Rias said. “They know we escaped. Take that with us. We’re out of time.”

“ Wait, I’ve got it.”

“ Already? How could you…”

She skipped the introduction and translated the meat of the orders: “‘Search and destroy the Emperor’s Fist before it reaches the Northern Frontier. If any artifacts with strange symbols are found, sink them in the ocean. Use extreme caution in handling them. Do not bring them home and do not try to destroy them.’”

“ Honored ancestors,” Rias murmured. “What have my people uncovered?”