“Damn it, Ridge. You can’t put your career ahead of the king’s life. It’s our duty to keep him alive.”
“It’s our duty to follow his orders. Besides, who’s going to knock him out? Unless you’re a better pugilist than I remember, I’d be the scapegoat, and he’s got forty pounds on me.”
“Together we could—”
Aware of movement inside the tunnel, Kaika only had time to step back before Angulus stormed past her. Judging by the livid expression on his face, he’d heard at least some of that conversation.
“If either of you lays a finger on me, I’ll have both of your heads,” Angulus roared, his anger surprising Kaika, more because she had never seen him lose his temper than because it wasn’t justified.
Ort’s shoulders slumped. Zirkander’s face paled. Kaika had never seen him wearing such a distressed expression, not even in the face of certain death, but having his king angry with him clearly drove horror into his heart. He lifted his hands, looking very much like someone who wanted to deny all culpability, but he kept his mouth shut.
“Ort, get in your flier and get back to the city and follow my orders before I shove you off that ledge.”
“Yes, Sire.” Ort ducked his chin, then scrambled into the cockpit as quickly as any young cadet.
“Be careful out there, sir,” Zirkander said and stepped away from the flier.
Already activating the thrusters, his back stiff and his face unreadable, Ort did not look down or acknowledge the warning.
Angulus looked at Kaika. She straightened her back, hoping he wouldn’t think she’d had anything to do with the conversation. She could sympathize with the generals’ desires to keep the king safe, but she couldn’t see laying a hand on Angulus, unless it was to shove him out of the way of an oncoming bullet.
Fortunately, his fury did not appear to be for her. When their eyes met, he winced, his expression shifting from anger to apology, as if he was embarrassed to have been caught yelling.
“Zirkander,” Angulus said as Ort lifted off, “toss that camo netting over your flier, then follow us inside.”
“Yes, Sire,” Zirkander said, his voice contrite. From him, that tone was even rarer than the king’s fury.
“Kaika?” Angulus removed his rifle from his back and held it in his arms. “Let’s go.”
As he headed into the tunnel, Kaika hurried to catch up. She strode at his side, so she could see the way ahead, and so that she could spin and protect his back if needed. More than ever, she felt the need to ensure he walked out of here safely. As serious as this mission was, her body hummed with excitement. She had wanted a worthwhile assignment, and now she had it.
Chapter 5
Kaika stepped out of the tunnel and into the hollowed-out chamber ahead of the king, her rifle ready as she searched every dark nook and corner with her eyes. For the moment, she paid little attention to the three-story cylindrical construct of conduits and panels in the center, or to the smaller, unfamiliar mechanical contraptions that rested on the floor in the back, or to the glass-walled laboratories lining one side of the cavernous chamber. Instead, she searched for signs of danger, eyes alert to movement, her ears straining to detect sounds, her nose inhaling the strange mix of scents inside. Chemicals, moisture, and something akin to burned black powder. A faint hum came from a distant wall, or perhaps another level of the complex, and the floor vibrated faintly.
She did not see anyone crouched in the shadows, either in the chamber or in the labs, but she spotted and pointed at two unmoving men in blood-stained white lab coats, their bodies laid out on the cement floor alongside a wall. Even from several meters away, she could tell from their frozen faces and pale features that they were dead. Their hands rested across their abdomens, and duffle bags lay at their feet.
“Rigger and Korawhacten,” Angulus said quietly. “The two scientists I was told about.” He stepped up beside Kaika, eyeing a ceiling so high that the light did not reach it, and then the labs, their clutter-filled interiors visible through the glass walls. “But where’s everyone else? There should be eight other scientists and six soldiers here.”
“Hiding?” Zirkander suggested from behind them.
“From the king’s wrath?” Kaika asked, doing another survey of the chamber as they spoke. Her instincts itched, telling her that danger awaited them here.
Angulus shook his head, apparently not finding her joke funny. Not surprising, since he had just displayed that wrath a few minutes ago. Besides, this wasn’t the time for jokes. She clamped her mouth shut and told herself to talk only when spoken to, or when she had something useful to volunteer.
She wanted to walk the perimeter and check more closely for people, but she did not want to leave the king’s side, especially after she had promised Ort she would take care of him. She trusted Zirkander’s unparalleled combat skills in the sky, but she was the better person to act as a bodyguard on the ground.
“I meant that they might be hiding from whatever killed those men.” Zirkander didn’t seem to be in the mood for humor, either. He nodded toward the bodies.
“This would be the logical place to hide,” Angulus said. “That glass would let them see out of their labs, but it’s so thick that it’s bulletproof. It was designed to withstand a lot of force, in the event of accidents.” He tilted his head toward the enormous cylindrical construct. Whatever it was, he had more of a clue than Kaika. “Anyone see any tunnels in here? Besides that one over there? That goes up to the sleeping quarters and down to the generator room. Troskar mentioned a tunnel that someone burrowed into the facility. Also that the intruders might have blown their way into the mountain from somewhere else.”
“I didn’t see a gaping hole in the cliffs during our approach,” Zirkander said, “but I could have missed it in the dark.”
Angulus grunted. “I don’t think your eyes miss much, General, not when you’re flying.” The words, as much a compliment as statement of fact, seemed an apology of sorts. Maybe he felt bad about yelling, or maybe he realized Zirkander hadn’t been the one spearheading that conversation.
Zirkander barely seemed to notice the words, but Kaika found herself wishing Angulus had a compliment for her. She hoped she would have a chance to prove her own capabilities to the king out here. He must have seen reports of some of her missions over the years—even though she was a mere captain, she and Nowon had done some militarily and nationally important work in Cofahre, especially of late. But he had never seen her in action, not the way he had seen Zirkander blowing enemies up in his flier. It was probably silly, but she wanted to impress him.
“We can’t see half of the walls from here,” Kaika said. “Want to take a walk with me, Sire?”
She wanted to look at the bodies, too, to see if anything about the men’s deaths could hint to the identity of their attackers, but first, they needed to make sure they were alone and see if there were, indeed, unauthorized back doors.
“Any time you like, Captain.” Angulus smiled at her. It was a tired smile, or maybe one weary from responsibility.
Kaika decided it wasn’t flirtatious—he certainly wasn’t going to wink at her—but she liked it, nonetheless. He seemed human and approachable when his stern mask faded.
“Though a park or a beach would be a preferable place for it,” he said with a sigh, and nodded for her to start on her investigation.
“Parks and beaches are boring, Sire. Unless pirates are involved.”
Angulus walked alertly beside her, his rifle cradled in his arms and pointing toward the shadows. That pleased her.
“Do you run into many pirates at parks?” he asked.
“Once. But usually it’s just ten-year-olds with swords playing at being pirates. That’s why parks are boring.” Kaika peered into the labs as they passed them.
“Go through that tunnel over there, Zirkander,” Angulus said, “and check the sleeping quarters upstairs. There’s also a generator down the stairs at the end that powers the lights and the
instruments in the labs. See if anyone’s hiding back there, or if there are any clues as to what happened.”
“Yes, Sire.”
Kaika and Angulus returned to the search in the chamber, pausing to open lab doors and look at the walls inside. The equipment-filled rooms were set up closer to the outside of the mountain than the chamber, so she doubted tunnels would have been bored in from that direction—they would have seen entrances on their way in. Still, she looked and listened for anyone who might be hiding under counters. She encountered a number of strange chemical scents and contraptions that reminded her of the Cofah volcano lab, though the Cofah hadn’t possessed electricity, at least not out at that remote location. Iskandia always seemed to have a bit of an edge over the empire when it came to technology, but their numbers were small when compared to the empire’s population and all of the land and resources it claimed. Keeping the juggernaut from rolling over them again always seemed a battle against the inevitable. Kaika hoped something here could change the tides.
A rumble sounded from deeper inside the mountain, and the vibrations of the floor increased. Dust trickled down from somewhere in the distance. Kaika rested a hand against a doorjamb, wondering if this was an earthquake and if the shaking would increase. Angulus had promised the glass walls of the labs were thick, but could thick glass still crack and break? She thought about stepping away from them, but the shaking did not intensify. She had experienced an earthquake on one of the volcanic islands in Cofahre’s southern chain, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling one in Iskandia.
“Is this normal?” Zirkander yelled down from the tunnel he had gone into.
Kaika winced at the loudness of his words. She couldn’t help but feel they should be discreet and quiet in here.
“Not as far as I’ve heard in the reports,” Angulus called back.
Kaika’s walk along the wall of labs had taken her past the cylindrical construct in the middle of the chamber, and she glimpsed a dark hole in the cement wall behind it, a hole that hadn’t been visible from the entrance. As soon as the trembling quieted, she strode toward it.
She crouched and peered into what turned out to be a low tunnel shaft no more than three feet high and wide. Her first thought was that it was a lava tube, as the rounded stone walls were smooth, and she had never seen a manmade cutting tool that could leave such tidily carved rock. There wasn’t any rubble visible, and she couldn’t tell if the tunnel had been there for eons or for days. It disappeared into darkness where it might have gone on for fifty feet or fifty miles. No, probably not miles. She wrinkled her nose at a faint scent that drifted to her on a draft. Bat guano and ancient mustiness.
“That’s not normal, either,” Angulus said from behind her, his voice grim.
“New since you were here last?”
“Yes. This must be what Colonel Troskar was referring to.”
“It must connect with a passage or cave that has a link to the outside. I smell bats. Technically, I smell what bats leave around under them in their dens, but it amounts to the same thing.”
“I imagine so.”
Kaika touched a hand to one of the smooth walls and found it still slightly warm. Interesting. She didn’t think rock drilled with a boring device would remain hot hours afterward. This warmth seemed to come from within, and she thought again of lava tubes, the way the slow creep of magma might heat the rock around it to the melting point. But if lava had done this, where was it? Not only was there no rubble in the tunnel, but the floor around the entrance remained clean. She doubted the scientists had run over to wipe up magma oozing all over the place.
“Walls are warm,” she said, then rubbed the stone with her fingers.
She didn’t feel any residue, and she highly doubted a bomb could have been responsible for forming a tunnel like this, but since she’d been brought out here as the demolitions expert, she figured there was a reason. Someone suspected explosives had been involved somewhere.
She did not smell anything on her fingers. Granted, one of Major Bruntingdor’s bomb-sniffing dogs would have been better for the task, but she could usually smell the residue after the explosion, gunpowder or charcoal or the sour, salty scent of potassium nitrate, depending on the bomb’s makeup.
“Shall we investigate?” Kaika asked, curious as to what lay at the other end. Were there spies hiding back there? Or had they already made an escape? Was it possible they had been the same people who had been piloting those fliers? Maybe the king’s team had chanced across them when the spies had been fleeing for the shoreline. But if so, why had a sorceress been down on the ground? And why had the fliers attacked if they were busy fleeing, especially when they were invisible?
“Eventually, yes,” Angulus said. “But we better wait for our backup.”
Kaika glanced at him and caught an intrigued expression on his face. He crouched behind her, scrutinizing the tunnel.
She grinned. “You want to check it out yourself, don’t you?”
“Yes, but I’ve already got people questioning my sanity tonight, and after losing the others, I’m...” He met her eyes and trailed off, maybe remembering that she was a lowly captain and not a confidante.
Too bad. She wouldn’t have minded being a confidante. Not that she cared that much about the inner workings of the monarchy and the politics of the land, but he seemed like he could use someone to listen. She owed him a lot for the career she loved that he’d allowed her to have all those years ago, so she would gladly do so for him.
“Being impulsive doesn’t make you insane,” she said.
“Impulsive, yes. I suppose that’s some of what’s guided me tonight. I never used to be impulsive; I’ve always carefully measured my actions and thought of the consequences ahead of time.”
How tedious. Kaika kept the opinion to herself.
“But lately...” Angulus leaned back on his heels, looking toward the tunnel he’d sent Zirkander to explore.
Checking to see if they were alone? Kaika perked up, intrigued that he might tell her something that he wouldn’t want the general to hear.
“I shouldn’t have lost my temper out there with them.” Angulus waved toward the main entrance, toward the direction of the exterior ledge. “I’ve just been furious with myself over the kidnapping, over the fact that I needed rescuing.” His mouth twisted downward in something between a frown and a sneer. “I never thought of myself as someone who was helpless, as someone who needed to be surrounded by bodyguards. The ease with which I was removed from office is disconcerting. A blow to the ego.”
Kaika could understand that. She’d hated having to be rescued by Nowon during a mission in the eastern province. Like he’d said, it was a blow to the ego to need someone else as a babysitter. And Angulus hadn’t even been doing something impulsive and risky when he’d been kidnapped. He’d probably been going about his average day, and then woken up in the back of that lighthouse, tied up and helpless to escape.
“So having my officers plotting against me out there, even if it was for my own good...” There was that grimace again.
“From what I heard, Zirkander didn’t want anything to do with it.”
“No, he’s like you. Brash and impulsive and perfectly willing to go along with me on foolish missions.”
Even though he smiled slightly, Kaika didn’t know what to make of the statement. It didn’t sound like a compliment, yet he looked pleased.
“It sounds like this mission is important, not foolish,” she hazarded.
“It is, but kings aren’t supposed to put themselves into positions where they might be killed, thus leaving the country in chaos over a succession that isn’t firmly established.”
“What positions are kings supposed to put themselves in?”
“Padded rooms without windows or pointy objects, if my staff had its druthers.”
“No pointy objects at all?” Kaika quirked an eyebrow. “Doesn’t sound like much fun.”
“It’s often not.” He frowned at
her slightly, perhaps wondering if that had been an innuendo.
She smiled innocently.
Footsteps sounded on the other side of the chamber, Zirkander heading over to join them.
“Nobody upstairs, Sire,” he said. “Just some drawers and lockers left open, belongings hastily packed. Other rooms look like they were abandoned without even that much effort. Generator room’s locked, and I haven’t seen a key. Do you—oh, hells.” He’d come close enough to see the tunnel. “I guess that answers the question as to whether or not that sorceress has been here.”
“Oh?” Angulus asked. “Do sorceresses burn holes through mountains?”
Kaika touched the smooth rock again. She couldn’t come up with another explanation, so she supposed magic was as good of a guess as anything.
“Well, their swords can. I saw Jaxi do something like that to get us into a pyramid.” Zirkander crouched to peer into the dark passage. “Nothing so long though. That must have taken a lot of time and used a great deal of power. How far does it go back?”
“We were debating whether to check,” Kaika said. “I think we should brashly and impulsively do so.” She wriggled her eyebrows at Angulus. She didn’t truly want to encourage him to risk himself, but if there were enemy spies roaming through caves back there, she wanted to find them, especially if they had killed those scientists. They also might have gathered information and made schematics of whatever prototypes were in here.
Zirkander’s eyebrows arched. “I prefer being brash and impulsive from my cockpit, where I have two machine guns to back me up. And a lot of space to maneuver out of trouble.”
“You’re not as fun as I thought you were, sir,” Kaika said. “I hope that doesn’t disappoint Sardelle in the bedroom.”
His already elevated eyebrows climbed further, and he looked toward Angulus. “Have you ever noticed that she says whatever’s on her mind, no matter what your rank is in relation to hers?”
“Yes. I’ve decided to find it charming.” Angulus’s eyes narrowed. “I’m still debating whether I classify it that way when you do the same thing.”