As much as he wanted to find Starcrest and help Mahliki, someone needed to check on Maldynado. If he had managed to electrocute himself, Sespian would blame himself. He should have been helping, prioritizing the mission to save the city, instead of hacking away at the hatch.
As he dropped down from the submarine, he almost crashed into Starcrest, who was coming along the bottom, also heading for Maldynado. He was supporting himself by feeling his way along the hull. His face was pale and bleak behind a faceplate almost as fogged as Sespian’s.
“I think Mahliki made it,” Sespian yelled, not knowing if he had figured that out. Starcrest would have heard the gunshots too. Maybe he had assumed the worst.
Whether he heard or not, Sespian didn’t know, but Starcrest pointed toward Maldynado. When he tried to move away from the craft, his boot snagged on a rock, and he pitched forward. Sespian caught him, new fear rising in his chest as he wondered if both men would fall unconscious, leaving him to figure out a way to bring them to the surface. Or choose which one to bring.
“Long dead ancestors, not that.”
Sespian looped Starcrest’s arm around his shoulders and they staggered over to Maldynado. He had yet to move.
Blinded by the light, Sespian felt his way toward the adrift diving suit, leading Starcrest every step. As they neared the device, Starcrest pulled away. Sespian let him, needing his hands to check on Maldynado. His eyes were closed, his face slack, his hair... it was hard to tell inside the helmet, but the tufts around his faceplate seemed to be sticking out in odd directions. How could one know if a man breathed or not when he was encased in these suits?
Sespian tried the obvious. He shook Maldynado.
His eyes flew open so wide the whites were visible around his brown irises. He jerked away from Sespian, then flailed a bit, as if he couldn’t remember where he was. Or maybe even who he was.
“Maldynado,” Sespian called, “are you all right? I think you were zapped with electricity.” He tried signing the words as he spoke them, too, though again, he wasn’t sure of all the gestures. How often did Mangdorian hunters need to say zapped and electricity?
Maldynado gathered himself, finding the lake bottom with his boots. That seemed to steady him. He touched his helmet and grimaced, as if he were trying to convey that he had a hangover. He probably did.
Sespian pointed upward. “Can you make it to the top?”
A hand latched onto Sespian’s shoulder so hard it was painful. Starcrest. He pointed at the top of the submarine. The hatch had opened. Sespian stared. Water had to be not just leaking but pouring in now.
A figure swam out—Mahliki. And she had the engineer with her, dragging him by his collar. He was curled into a ball and didn’t resist. It might have been Sespian’s fogged faceplate, but he thought he read pain on Mahliki’s face. A lot of pain.
Starcrest pushed off, waving for them to follow, and tore the weights off his belt. He paddled so he angled toward his daughter, but Mahliki was wasting no time in arrowing to the top. Without a helmet, she probably couldn’t see and had no idea where anyone was. She would have only known the submarine was leaking and she had to escape before the air disappeared. She would also be defenseless up there against the plants.
Thinking of that enzyme that could burn through clothing—and flesh—Sespian pushed off the bottom and swam after Starcrest at top speed. He shucked the diving suit’s weights, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch Mahliki or even her father. Poisoned or not, he was rising quickly.
Sespian reached the surface, almost coming up between Mahliki’s legs. An idiotic thought flashed through his mind, that Starcrest might revoke his willingness to allow courting if he saw that. Sespian veered aside at the last moment, popping up a couple of feet to the side of her. Starcrest had already reached the surface and had a supportive grip under Mahliki’s armpit. She sucked in deep breaths. The water streaming down Sespian’s faceplate didn’t keep him from determining that he had been right—her mouth was twisted in a grimace of pain. She hadn’t let go of the engineer though. Even as her father held her, she kept the major’s face out of the water.
“Good,” Starcrest said. “Sespian. We need your help.”
Sespian reached for Mahliki, thinking to grab her other armpit so they could swim her to shore, or at least try. The plants were blocking the view in every direction, although... maybe it was his imagination, but they appeared a tad wilted. Dare he hope the device had worked? It hadn’t been deployed in the location Starcrest had originally chosen.
“Grab our wayward engineer,” Starcrest said. “He’s barely conscious.”
Erg, Sespian wanted to help Mahliki, not the treacherous engineer. He grabbed the man from behind, though, and tipped him onto his back so he would be able to breathe. The major cried out right beside Sespian’s ear—the helmet did little to muffle the scream.
“What happened?” Sespian asked.
“I shot him,” Mahliki said, then, like a teenager justifying beating up a sibling, added, “He shot me first.”
Maldynado popped out of the water with a splash and a grunt. He thrust the metal wand of the electricity generator into the air like an athlete holding aloft a trophy. “Made it! And also... for anyone wondering... this slagging generator is heavier than a box of bricks. Was wondering... why I didn’t need... any weights to stay down there.” He spun around with the weapon, as if he expected savage vines to beat down on them at any moment.
They were in the clearing above the battery ring, though, and nothing leaped out at them.
“Which way to shore?” Sespian asked.
“This way.” Starcrest paddled toward a forest of stalks that didn’t look much different than the stalks in the other directions.
Sespian followed him without question. The engineer was alternating gasping and whimpering. He would need medical attention soon.
“You two will need to keep the plants off us and cut a path through to the shore,” Starcrest said.
Maldynado waved the metal fork in acknowledgment, though he looked to be having a hard time keeping afloat with the generator on his back. Sespian thought about telling him to tear off his air tank, but no... the air inside ought to be helping counteract the weight. Unless Maldynado had used most of it already. As a bigger man, he might consume oxygen more quickly than Sespian. Besides, Sespian had his own problem. How was he supposed to fight off a plant while dragging the engineer behind him? Nonetheless, he waved the dagger in acknowledgment of Starcrest’s order. He would have to use his legs for propulsion.
“It didn’t work, did it?” Maldynado asked. “The plants are still everywhere.”
“We’ll assess the situation when we reach the shore,” Starcrest said.
Maldynado’s expression was bleak when he met Sespian’s eyes. Sespian also worried they had failed, or at least not done enough.
With everyone injured or exhausted, not to mention demoralized, the team swam after Starcrest without much discussion. Mahliki paddled along with one arm and had no trouble kicking. Sespian hoped that meant her injury wasn’t life threatening. At times, it appeared she was supporting Starcrest as much as he was supporting her. Maybe she was.
Despite his burden, Maldynado swam ahead when they reached the barrier of tree-like stalks. He jabbed one with the fork. Before he turned on the power, it fell over like a limp noodle.
“Uhm?” he asked.
Starcrest pushed on another stalk. This one didn’t fall limp, but it did tilt, and he was able to push his way past it. No vines stretched down to menace him or the rest of the team.
“I think they’re dead,” Mahliki panted. “Maybe your... root-frying gizmo worked... Father.”
“Root-frying gizmo?” How a man dying of a poison managed the effort to sound indignant, Sespian didn’t know, but Starcrest did.
“Last I heard... you hadn’t named it yet,” Mahliki said. “I’m simply offering... a suggestion.”
Maldynado pushed aside more stalks, clearing th
e way for the others. Sespian tried to help, but keeping the engineer’s head out of the water so he wouldn’t drown was a demanding assignment all by itself. Though not vigorous, the lake waves did exist, and they lapped at the man’s face, occasionally splashing over his mouth. If Major Rydoth had shot Mahliki, Sespian wondered if he was simply saving him for a court marshal and hanging later.
Wearying hours seemed to pass as they pushed through the thick stalks. The plants didn’t fight back, and Sespian began to believe that Mahliki was right and they were dead, but their presence wasn’t easy to get around. If they didn’t decompose like the ones that had been directly treated with electricity, someone would have a very big job in cleaning up the harbor. Despite his exhaustion, that thought tickled Sespian enough that he had to comment.
“Maldynado, I think I know what job you can ask the president for next.”
“What?” Maldynado asked, his tone wary.
“Aquatic weed control.”
“I’m not cleaning up this mess.”
“It can’t be any more unglamorous than being called Shovel Head on a construction site all day.”
“You heard that?” Maldynado groaned.
“I think everyone heard that foreman.”
“I hope he got eaten by the plant.”
“I doubt a plant would find anyone that crotchety pleasant eating,” Sespian said.
The idle chatter distracted him, and he was surprised when he kicked something with his boot. The ground, he realized. They had finally reached land. He had expected to come ashore near the docks—or where the docks had once been—but Starcrest had brought them to a beach.
Sespian dragged the engineer out of the water and laid him on his back. Dead, wilted plant matter caked the beach like overzealous seaweed brought in by an ocean tide, and he couldn’t tell whether sand or pebbles lay beneath it, but he didn’t care. He flopped down in exhaustion and fiddled with his helmet. He had wanted to remove it as soon as they popped up to the surface, but it took some flexibility—or the help of a comrade—to unfasten the bindings in the back.
A heavy clunk sounded as Maldynado heaved the generator and the tank off his shoulders. “That was as hard as a Sicarius workout, maybe even harder. I want to sleep until next week. Maybe next month.”
“Me too.” Sespian hoisted off the helmet, then pushed himself to his knees to check on the others. Starcrest and Mahliki had made it to the beach but both had collapsed as soon as they climbed out of the water.
After hesitating over who to check on first—they both lay on their backs, faces to the sky—Sespian went to Mahliki. Starcrest might be in worse condition, but Sespian knew how to help someone who had been shot. Poison... he could only hope he and Maldynado could find someone who would know how to cure him. If anyone remained in the city at that point. He had no idea how long they had been underwater or what time it was now.
Sespian had no more than touched Mahliki’s arm to ask how she was doing when the weird squish-crunch of dead plants being stepped on made him lift his head. He expected Maldynado, but a squad of black-uniformed soldiers was picking their way down the beach. Sespian nearly flopped over in relief, for he recognized the man leading the troops. Judging by the way his black hair stuck out in unbrushed clumps and his bloodshot eye scanned the beach, Colonel Dak Starcrest had been up all night too. He stalked straight up to the unmoving Rias Starcrest and stared down at him through the faceplate.
“This isn’t the agreed upon rendezvous point.”
A few silent seconds passed, the wind scraping down the beach and rustling the drying plant matter, before he got a response—Sespian had started to wonder if there would be a response.
“I apologize for my miscalculation,” Starcrest said. “I’m not at my best. Health issues, you understand.”
The banter relieved Sespian. If Starcrest could speak—and joke—he wasn’t so far gone after all.
“If you want to haul your presidential carcass off the beach, we might have someone who can cure you of that,” Dak said.
“Sir,” a sergeant whispered from behind him. “Should you... Won’t you get in trouble for talking to the president like that?”
“Dear ancestors, I hope so. I’ve been wanting to be fired all winter.” Dak reached down to help his uncle sit up and remove the helmet. “Mahliki, are you injured?”
“Someone shot me because he wanted to destroy Father’s sub.” She glowered over at the unconscious engineer.
“It’s a real reward being related to the president, isn’t it?” Dak pointed at one of the soldiers. “Janik, you brought your medical kit, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well stop gaping at the pretty girl and put it to use.”
“Yes, sir!”
Mahliki snorted. “Can’t imagine I look pretty with blood leaking out of my shoulder and my hair plastered all over my face.”
Sespian took her hand. He thought about denying her claim and complimenting her beauty but suspected that she might appreciate a chuckle more than praise of something as meaningless as physical traits. “I think he was talking about Maldynado,” Sespian said.
“What?” Maldynado had managed to remove his own helmet by this point, and he shook out his headful of wavy brown curls. “I’m not a girl.”
“But you don’t deny being the pretty one here?” Sespian asked.
“Of course not. But in a manly way.”
The silly conversation did draw a smile from Mahliki. Good. Her face was pale, and Sespian worried about whether she had lost a lot of blood. He kept holding her hand while the medic knelt on the other side of her. Meanwhile, Dak and two more soldiers helped Starcrest up the beach. Sespian hoped they had a lorry parked up there, so Starcrest wouldn’t have to walk far. He also hoped Dak’s claim to having someone who could cure the poison was true and hadn’t simply been a comment designed to make his uncle feel better.
After cutting open part of Mahliki’s shirt and examining the wound, the medic said, “The bullet is lodged in your shoulder.”
“No kidding,” she said, then switched to Kyattese for a short soliloquy addressed toward the sky. Judging by her tone and the handful of Kyattese words Sespian knew, it wasn’t a compliment on the medic’s skills.
“Now, now,” Sespian murmured. “Being sarcastic toward the man poking in your shoulder isn’t a good idea.”
Mahliki’s face crinkled up in an expression he couldn’t read. “You should probably distract me then.”
“Ah, yes, forgive me for not coming to that conclusion on my own. Would you like me to tell you a story? Or a joke? Or discuss my plans for adding a plant-proof layer of shielding to your father’s new building?”
Sespian thought he was being rather charming, especially considering he was wearing a big uncomfortable suit coated in congealing plant grime, but Mahliki’s face crinkled up further, and he had the sense that he had disappointed her.
“Emperor’s warts, boy,” Maldynado said, “kiss the girl already.”
Sespian blushed at this interruption—shouldn’t Maldynado have trudged up the beach after the others?—but something about Mahliki’s raised eyebrows made him wonder if that wasn’t exactly what she had been hoping for.
“Here? Now?” Sespian waved at the desecrated beach and his own suit and appearance. He couldn’t even imagine how bedraggled he must appear after the night they’d had. What kind of reward was that for a woman? And she was injured. Surely she wouldn’t appreciate such a gesture from even the tidiest and most handsome suitor right now.
“Unbelievable.” Maldynado stood up and started dragging the generator and his equipment up the beach. “Not only am I the prettiest one here, but I may be the smartest one here as well.”
“Maybe the smartest male,” Mahliki murmured.
The medic lifted his brows and met Sespian’s eyes. “Normally I’d take that as an insult, but I think you’re the one in trouble here.”
“I think so too.”
Se
spian looked down at Mahliki, but she wasn’t looking at him any more. He had missed his opportunity. It would be stilted and awkward if he tried to kiss her now, especially with the medic right there. He would find another opportunity, he vowed, a more appropriate one. And she wouldn’t be disappointed. Definitely not.
As the medic finished bandaging Mahliki’s shoulder and helped her to her feet, Sespian wondered if it was too early to panic and hyperventilate over his vow.
“Sespian?” came Maldynado’s voice from the top of the beach. Something about his tone made Sespian forget about kissing and his own stupidity. “You... might want to come up here now.”
Sicarius was at the top of the beach as well. He stood off to the side of the path, his leg propped on a rock, as if he had been there for a while. Watching Sespian to make sure he was all right? Waiting and not wanting to interrupt Sespian’s moment with Mahliki? Whatever he had been doing, Sespian was glad that he hadn’t kissed Mahliki after all. He doubted Sicarius would judge him or say anything about it, but there was something intrinsically awkward about having one’s assassin father watching for a first kiss. Er, second kiss. But Sespian had been so surprised at the other one that he hadn’t responded, so it hardly counted.
Sespian gave Sicarius a wave to let him know he was fine, then headed toward Maldynado, who was chewing on his lip thoughtfully. When Sespian reached the top, he spotted a black military lorry that was covered with dust and had a couple of broken branches sticking out of the nooks. Tikaya was embracing her husband near the front. Amaranthe was standing next to Colonel Starcrest and holding the hand of a little girl who was leaning against her. She had a dusty, tear-streaked face and the almond eyes and black hair of a Nurian.
“So...” Maldynado tried to stick his hands in his pockets only to realize he was still wearing the diving suit and didn’t have any pockets. “You remember that arrow with the note?”
“How could I forget it?”
“Well, it seems... that’s your favor.” Maldynado pointed at the girl.
“I... what?”
“There wasn’t really time to explain it earlier. Besides I thought it should be his job to—er, that he could explain it better.” Maldynado pointed his chin at Sicarius.