“What?” Being back in the science station, Tikaya had missed quite a few conversations between the two men.
“These torpedoes of his. He said he’s working on a clockwork mechanism that would cause them to explode a specific number of seconds after leaving their launch tubes. They travel at a specific knots-per-hour so he could gauge the distance to an enemy ship, so they’d explode precisely underneath it.”
It chilled Tikaya to think of Rias designing such weapons. Given how easily the submarine could slip beneath the waves, why did it need weapons? For their purposes, it could simply evade those who might wish them ill intent. Though she didn’t want to doubt Rias, or question his word that he’d broken ties with the empire, she couldn’t keep away the niggling doubt that tugged at a sleeve in the back of her mind.
A clank sounded against the hull behind them.
“We’re almost there,” Rias said, lowering his head through the hatchway for a moment. “Keep pulling. Thank you.”
Mee Nar grumbled and joined Tikaya at the lever again.
“An explosion underneath a ship is apparently even more powerful than one that strikes it,” Mee Nar said. “Or so he explained to me. That explosion forms a sphere of gas, and the gas rises with such force that it hurls the ship into the air and breaks it in half.”
“That’s... disturbing.”
“More so if you’re an innocent Nurian sailor on that ship.” Mee Nar gave her a significant look. “Or a Kyattese one.”
“He’s not going after my people,” Tikaya said.
“Their successful resistance is the only blemish on his otherwise perfect naval record.”
“He doesn’t care about his record, and I don’t care to discuss this further.” Tikaya stared at the winch, avoiding eye contact with Mee Nar as she focused on turning the crank.
More scrapes and clunks sounded outside as something was dragged across the hull. The chest. It couldn’t be anything else. And from the weight, it must still have something in it.
“You can stop pulling,” Rias called.
He hopped inside again and lowered the chest with his bare hands, though he staggered under the weight before dropping it to the deck with a thump. “There. Much easier to move when you’re not in the water or trying to clamber up the side of a submarine.”
Given its weight, Tikaya was surprised the chest had fit through the hatchway, but it was only about two feet long and a foot-and-a-half wide. Maybe less once one removed all the grime crusted to it. Prying open the lid would be challenging.
“Too bad all the tools are in the flooded science cabin,” Tikaya said.
“I’ll handle it,” Rias said. “Can you climb up top and keep an eye on the other ship?”
“What?” How could he think she didn’t want to be here, helping him pry that lid open?
“I imagine they’ll start looking for us as soon as they confirm that the wreck has been destroyed and that we’re not down there.”
“Mee Nar can keep watch.”
“Mee Nar will be busy concentrating to see if any magical attacks are being readied,” Rias said.
Mee Nar leaned against the hull, his arms crossed, and his eyebrows raised as they discussed him.
“Let’s find a way to get the Freedom someplace safe, where we don’t need to worry about the other ship,” Tikaya said, “and then we can all open the chest together.”
“When practitioners are involved, I don’t believe there are any safe places to hide. At least on or around this island.”
“Rias,” Tikaya said, “I want to see what’s in the box too.” She knew she sounded whiney, but what was he doing? Her curiosity was as great as his. He had to know that.
“Yes, I understand, and I’ll show you when it’s open. I want to open it by myself, though, in case it’s booby-trapped.”
“Booby-trapped?”
“These are my ancestors we’re dealing with,” Rias said dryly.
Tikaya wasn’t amused. If those amphoras were any indication, his ancestors had been too besotted to think of anything as clever as booby-trapping. “I’m sure seven hundred years at the bottom of the ocean will have eroded any security measures they might have employed.”
“I don’t want to risk having you harmed if something goes off while I’m opening it.” Rias gripped one of the rings on the ends of the chest and started dragging it into the bowels of the submarine. “I’ve already endangered you enough tonight.”
As Tikaya watched him go, it was all she could do not to stomp her foot like a petulant schoolgirl. She might have, but Mee Nar was gazing blandly in her direction. A hatch clanged shut. Rias sealing himself in to open that chest in private.
“Do you truly think he believes it’s booby-trapped?” Mee Nar asked.
“It might be. Paranoia does seem to be bred into Turgonians.”
“Or maybe he just wants to see what’s inside before he shows it to you.”
Tikaya glowered at him. “He’ll show me.”
“Perhaps.”
“What’s your agenda here, Mee Nar? I thought you were just along to get your government its precious submarine schematics, not try to start something between Rias and me.”
Mee Nar held out his open hands. “I’m simply making observations. I believe he’s fond of you, and vice versa, but in the end, he is still Turgonian. And you are not.”
If Tikaya could melt stone—or Nurians—with her glower, she was sure its intensity would be turning Mee Nar into a puddle. She was tempted to stomp back to wherever Rias had secluded himself and bang on the hatch, demanding to be let in.
But... what if she did and he didn’t let her in? Knowing the truth might sting more than having doubts.
“Aren’t you supposed to be checking for Science work?” Tikaya asked, then climbed outside for her own appointed task. Keeping watch. She grumbled and hoped Rias couldn’t read whatever he found and had to come out and beg for her help.
• • •
Tikaya sat cross-legged next to the open hatch, watching the Kyattese ship. It had left its spot over the wreck and was sailing back and forth in lines running parallel to the cliffs. Search pattern.
She was surprised the ship’s practitioners hadn’t tracked the submarine down yet, but supposed it was a big sea, and they might be looking under it instead of on top of it. Also, as Rias had mentioned, the energy source would have acted as a beacon to practitioners; without it, they were only three people amidst all the life in the nearby sea. Isolating the humanoid auras would take time. Though daylight would make the process much easier. She cast another uneasy glance toward the eastern sky. It seemed a smidgen lighter than it had when she first came outside.
“Tikaya?” Rias called up softly.
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you come down for a minute? We have... something to discuss.”
“That sounds ominous,” Tikaya muttered to herself.
She climbed inside where Mee Nar and Rias waited. The chest wasn’t in sight. Rias wasn’t holding anything either.
“Well?” she asked.
“I opened it,” Rias said.
Tikaya propped her hands on her hips. “And was it proliferated with booby traps?”
“Actually...” Rias lifted his palm to display a new gash. “Yes.”
Tikaya dropped her arms. “Oh.”
“There would have been more of them seven hundred years ago, but, as you said, water and time effectively disarmed most of them.”
Booby traps. That meant there’d been something to protect.
“The chest was carved from granite,” Rias said. “The rings on the sides too. Only the locking mechanism was made from iron—I’m guessing because it was missing. I believe there are bacteria in the sea that consume iron. Only the shell of half-petrified grime on the outside kept the lid from falling open as we rose. We’re lucky the contents didn’t fall out.”
It was as if he was avoiding telling her what those contents were just to frustrate her. ?
??Not to belittle your wound, but what—” Tikaya grabbed his arm, “—is inside?”
“Ah, yes, about that. Before I show you, I’m going to need a favor.”
“A favor.” Tikaya glanced at Mee Nar, wondering if he’d been privy to the chest’s contents, but he merely shrugged. “Rias, you know I’ll be happy to perform all sorts of favors, but later. I want to know if all this has been worth it.”
“The favor needs to be done soon.” Rias glanced toward the open hatchway and the fading stars above. “Now. I need you to go to the Kyattese ship and open negotiations with them. On my behalf.”
“Your behalf?”
Rias took a deep breath. “On behalf of the Turgonian people.”
Tikaya didn’t know what to say. Had he truly found something that he couldn’t share with her because he worried she’d be forced to choose her people over his? Over him? She opened her mouth to say that she’d never make that choice, but she closed it without uttering a word. Would that be the truth? What allegiance did she have to Turgonia? Absolutely none. She cared about him, yes, but enough to betray her people if it came to that? She’d gladly hand over the idiots out there on that ship, but what if the contents of this chest somehow threatened her entire nation?
“I see.” Tikaya released her grip on Rias’s arm. “What if they don’t want to negotiate? What if they’re more interested in capturing me and throwing me in the brig—or worse—because I’ve been your accomplice? A half hour ago, you were worried about me falling victim to a booby trap, but you’re perfectly happy sending me over to a ship full of people who’ve been trying to kill me?”
“Not happy, no, but this is the only way.”
Tikaya took a step back, putting distance between them. “Were you truly worried about booby traps or were you just determined to keep me from seeing what was inside before you did?” She didn’t know why she was asking. She already knew the answer.
“Will you go over and act as intermediary for our negotiations?” Rias asked.
A part of her was tempted to tell him to send Mee Nar. He’d make a more believable third party anyway, but she couldn’t stand the idea of completely stepping away from this. Besides, the Kyattese knew what this was all about; they wouldn’t have been so desperate to blow up the wreck before Rias found it otherwise. If he wouldn’t tell her, maybe they would.
With that thought, Tikaya’s musings leaped off one rail and onto another. Was that exactly what Rias wanted? What if they’d pulled up a pile of junk, and he hoped that, in pretending they’d already discovered the big secret, the Kyattese themselves would reveal it to her? Now that she thought about it, the odds that they’d found, in their hasty rush, just the right piece of information down there were slim. Though, she argued with herself, Rias had known where the captain’s cabin was. If any one spot on the ship were to hold a secret, it’d be that one. And that chest obviously had something in it.
There was no way to tell one way or the other for certain. And as long as she didn’t know the truth, she couldn’t give it away if some telepath invaded her mind to check for himself.
“I see,” Tikaya said again, more to herself than Rias this time. “Are you going to turn on the lights and wave a flag so they’ll come pick me up? I don’t fancy another swim.”
“Until negotiations are complete, it would behoove me to remain out of their reach. I have a collapsible dinghy that you can use to row out to them.”
“Oh, fabulous.” She imagined the other ship either shooting her with a harpoon as she approached or not picking her up at all, leaving her to float out to sea. “I’ll have you know that my life has become incredibly fraught since I met you.”
A hint of his old half-smile touched his face, though it had a self-deprecating edge. “I’ve heard that from people before.”
Mee Nar snorted. “That I don’t doubt.”
“Come.” Rias lifted a hand toward Tikaya. “We need to discuss my terms and what I can bring to bear if they’re not willing to negotiate.”
A mischievous—or perhaps wicked—glint entered Mee Nar’s eyes. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that ship-breaking-in-half explosion you mentioned earlier.”
Tikaya ignored him and told Rias, “I can tell that negotiating on your behalf is going to be quite the experience for me.”
“Fraught?” Rias asked.
“Undoubtedly.”
CHAPTER 21
If there was anything that could test a woman’s love more than rowing a flimsy dinghy across choppy waters toward a cannon mounted in the stern of an enemy ship, Tikaya couldn’t come up with it at the moment. A sailor in typical island garb, clam diggers and a loose hemp shirt that flapped in the breeze, stood behind that cannon with a lantern in hand, one that could be touched to the fuse to loose the deadly black ball. She imagined the man’s contemplation. Should I fire on this nettlesome woman now? Or wait until we’ve interrogated her for all she knows and then fire on her?
Normally, Tikaya would chastise herself, proclaiming that Kyattese citizens were peaceful and would never contemplate such things, but whoever commanded this ship obviously followed a different philosophy than the majority of her people. Though the simple two-masted schooner had the design of a typical research vessel, the cannons were an atypical addition. If the craft held more of those explosives, the cannons were probably the most innocuous weapons aboard.
A man and woman in white robes came to stand beside the sailor. Though dawn brightened the horizon, and lanterns dotted the ship, shadows lingered on the deck and Tikaya couldn’t make out facial features yet. A hood further guarded the woman’s face, leaving only a hint of dark, wind-tangled hair.
“Greetings,” Tikaya called when she was close enough to be heard. “May I have permission to come aboard?”
“Are you surrendering?” the man asked, his voice familiar.
Professor Yosis. Tikaya couldn’t claim to be surprised, but she would have preferred enemies who didn’t hold a personal grudge against Rias—or her. She hoped Yosis was some underling, not the person in charge.
“Surrendering?” Tikaya continued to row as she spoke, not out of any real desire to hurry aboard, but because it’d be preferable to face people instead of the black mouth of that cannon. “I’m here to act as a third-party intermediary. Former Fleet Admiral Sashka Federias Starcrest wishes to open up negotiations on behalf of the Turgonian people.”
“I thought he wasn’t in a position to do that,” Yosis said. “Didn’t you claim he was exiled?”
“He claimed that to me, yes. I am merely relaying the information he gave me.”
Rias had given her a great deal of leeway insofar as what claims she could make about him and the empire, giving her only, as he’d said, his terms and, “My trust that you’ll handle the situation far more competently on your own than if I tried to instruct you.” Nice of him to say that, but she couldn’t help but feel she’d been given, as the old Turgonian expression went, enough rope to hang herself.
Yosis and the woman bent their heads together. Two other practitioners in white robes watched from the railing while sailors in island garb called to each other, preparing to steer the ship into shallow waters so they could set anchor. Someone had decided to stop searching, it seemed, to see what she had to say. Though the sky had lightened, Tikaya couldn’t see any sign of the Freedom. Rias must have submerged again. She was on her own.
“May I come aboard?” Tikaya asked again. “He knows our people’s long forgotten secret, and if we don’t want a message going straight to the emperor, we need to deal with him.”
A moment of silence passed, not shocked silence, Tikaya decided. Others on the ship were looking back and forth, as if wondering if anyone knew what she was talking about, but the shoulders of Yosis and his female comrade drooped. The woman pressed a hand to her forehead and muttered something. Yosis’s answer was short and sharp, though the wind swept the words away before Tikaya could hear them.
“We?” Yosis asked. “You
’ve been walking at his side and fighting us since you returned, and now you want to identify yourself as one of us?”
Not in the least, Tikaya thought. Out loud, she said, “You should have told me what was at stake from the beginning. This is... this could change everything.” She shut her mouth and told herself not to rush things. They wouldn’t likely blurt secrets across the open deck, and if she said the wrong thing and clued them in on the fact that she had nothing more concrete than hunches, this trip would have been for naught.
“When he so clearly had you in his pocket?” the woman asked, speaking for the first time. Her voice sounded familiar, but Tikaya couldn’t place it. “Despite your old lover’s stories, nobody knows for sure what happened during those months you were gone,” the woman continued. “Many people believed—believe you’ve been brainwashed.”
“I wouldn’t do anything to put our people at risk,” Tikaya said. “My entire family lives eight miles from the capital city. Do you think I want to help the Turgonians attack?”
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen now,” Yosis grumbled, “thanks to you helping that murdering joratt.”
So, whatever was down there would give the empire reason to attack? Tikaya thought of the skull in her room, and the arrowhead that had pierced it.
The white-robed woman put a hand on Yosis’s arm. “Let’s bring her on board and see what she has to say.”
“You mean what she’s being a joratt mouthpiece about.”
Tikaya sighed. By now she’d reached the hull of the ship, and she bobbed in the water beneath the arguing practitioners. Maybe it’d been better when she hadn’t been able to hear all the muttered snarls.
Yosis leaned over the railing and glared down at Tikaya. “If you want to be welcomed aboard, why don’t you tell us where he is?”
“So you can hurl more explosives at him?” Tikaya asked. “No.” As if she knew where Rias had gone, anyway. Not far with the limited energy in his battery. “You needn’t welcome me. I’ll settle for not being shot.”
While Yosis stewed on that, the woman disappeared for a moment, then returned with a coil of rope.