Encrypted (34 page)

“
Emperor’s bunions,”
Bocrest growled. He lay a couple of men away with his arm flung
over his eyes. “If you two are going to wake people up with your
relationship crap, you could at least be fucking, so we’d have
something to watch.”

Rias winced at the crude words. Tikaya’s
cheeks warmed, but she kept her tone light when she said, “Is he
really one of your emperor’s most trusted officers?”

“
Only because of his
parents.”

Feral noises emanated from Bocrest’s
throat.

Rias stood up, took Tikaya’s hand, and led
her away from the sleeping men. Her heart sped up, and she wondered
if he had Bocrest’s suggestion in mind. He went to a corner, out of
earshot if they talked quietly, but within sight of the camp, so
she supposed not. Too bad.

They sat, backs against the wall, shoulders
touching.

“
Tikaya,” Rias said,
staring at the floor. “I appreciate your words, but hearing you
apologize to
me
is like getting a dagger in the chest. I’m the one who... I
need to say...” He snorted, or maybe it was a laugh. “My men used
to call me courageous because I’d lead the way into battle and take
risks others thought ludicrous. They didn’t know that it was just
arrogance. I thought I was too good to get myself killed. I knew I
wasn’t immortal, but I won often enough that I always thought I’d
come out on top. So, it wasn’t really courage.” He continued to
look down, avoiding her eyes. “Courage is the ability to do the
right thing when you’re terrified of the consequences. I’ve only
recently realized that I’m a coward.”

For a moment, the only noise was the snoring
of the marines. She could hear herself breathing.

“
You asked for my name,
more than once, and I could have told you. You deserved the truth.
If I’d
wanted
you
to know, I wouldn’t have let Bocrest’s threats sway me, but I knew
as soon as I told you, that your willingness to spend time with me
would be over. I wouldn’t be able to dream that somehow,
someway...

He fiddled with his hands. “Tikaya, I’m not
a young man. I’ve been in love before, infatuated with beauty or
taken by a sympathetic shoulder, but no woman has ever asked me to
explain my papers on mathematics.” That familiar half smile tugged
at his lips. “And, dear ancestors, the fact that you were the
cryptomancer too?” He chuckled. “I fell for you that first day we
shot together on the exercise deck.”

She watched his face as he spoke and tried
to memorize every word. Her heart soared at his naked
admission.

“
But I knew you could
never love Fleet Admiral Starcrest, the man who—Ottotark is
correct—pointed out to the emperor the strategic value in having a
base on your islands, and helped try to make that advice a reality.
Even if you could somehow forgive that person for hurting your
people, I’m sure they—your family—would never understand. I
wouldn’t want to be the cause of your ostracism. I kept trying to
convince myself to keep my distance, to figure out a way to make
sure you walked away at the end of this, and to just accept my
fate. It didn’t work. I was afraid to tell you, afraid to lose you,
and so I made the wrong choice.” He finally looked up, forced
himself to meet her eyes. “I’ve been a coward, and, in being so,
I’ve hurt you. I’m sorry.”

Emotion welled in Tikaya’s throat. She had
fallen in love with him every bit as much as he had with her. The
thought of going home by herself, never to see him again, brought
tears to her eyes.

She wanted to hug him, to kiss him, but she
caught the marine on guard watching them. She settled for leaning
her head against Rias’s shoulder. “I forgive you.”

He rested his head on hers, and neither
suggested returning to camp to sleep. She thought about bringing up
her suspicions about Bocrest’s mission. If Rias had risked his
career because he thought assassinating her president dishonorable,
surely he would not knowingly help the emperor obtain weapons that
could wipe out millions of innocent people. She trusted him more
after his confession, but she still hesitated. His first questions
to her came to mind, the way he had asked if her president was a
good person, if the people liked him. Now she realized he must have
had regrets during his time on Krychek, that those questions had
been a damaged man asking if it had been worth it. If he had those
moments to live over, would he make the same choice? Could she
trust him now to make the right choice over one that might gain him
the emperor’s favor once again?

Rias lifted his head. “Is that the journal
you found?”

Tikaya looked toward camp.
It
was
the
journal. And the assassin was reading it. She could have smacked
herself on the forehead for not hiding it. If Sicarius was the one
who tortured Lancecrest, he was also the one who had been looking
for the journal.

She jumped to her feet and
hustled toward the camp while trying not to
look
like she hustled toward camp.
If she seemed desperate to keep it to herself, it would arouse
suspicions, but she had to get it away from him.

Sicarius flipped through the pages. The way
his dark eyes skimmed the columns from top to bottom and left to
right made her believe he could read Kyattese. He lifted his head
as she drew near, and Tikaya’s determined step faltered when that
cool gaze landed on her.

“
Uhm, that’s mine. I mean,
I’m the one who found it, and I’ve been translating the runes drawn
in there. The owner’s guesses are largely incorrect, so you
wouldn’t want to...” She stopped talking since he had already
turned his attention back to the journal.

To make sure her concerns were founded, she
switched languages and asked, “Can you read Kyattese?”

His eyes flicked up briefly, but she
received no answer. She took another step, toying with the idea of
seeing if he would let her take it out of his hands. An arm slipped
around her waist from behind.

“
Yes,” Rias said near her
ear. “He can. Among other languages.” He put a hand on her arm and
guided her to her rucksack. “Is there something in it you don’t
wish him to find?”

Her uncertainties about Rias’s regrets and
loyalties made her hesitate, but she needed an ally, and he was
still the most likely one. She did not see how she could fool the
Turgonians and eliminate the threat to her people—to the world—by
herself. “Instructions on how to launch the rockets.”

His grip tightened on her arm. “Why didn’t
you tell me what was in there?”

Tikaya watched his face. “I didn’t know
whose side you were on.”

“
That’s...” Rias closed
his eyes, “understandable. Get some rest. We’ll look for an
opportunity to get it back tomorrow.”

Tikaya found her bedroll, but her earlier
weariness had disappeared. For a long time, she lay on her side,
watching the assassin read.

CHAPTER 17

Water trickled somewhere in the distance.
After the monotonous black walls and tomb-like silence of the
tunnels thus far, Tikaya would appreciate some dripping
stalactites, striated walls, bumpy columns—proper cave
appurtenances. As of yet, though, no end of the alien passages lay
in sight.

The marines marched ever deeper with Bocrest
and Rias leading, and Tikaya walking behind them. Sicarius came and
went, sometimes padding soundlessly alongside the captain, other
times exploring on his own. That morning, Rias had given a briefing
highlighting the dangers of the tunnels. Admonitions had included
“no touching things” and “don’t wander off on your own.” The
assassin apparently did not believe rules applied to him, and she
could not even wish him to get lost and fall off a cliff, not as
long as he had her journal.

“
You’ve been here longer
than us, right?” Bocrest asked when Sicarius returned from one of
his roaming stints. “Do you know where the archaeologists
are?”

“
No.”

“
Do you know where the
weapons are?”

“
No.”

“
Do you know what other
dangers we’ll face?”

“
No.”

The assassin’s cool monotone never changed,
though Bocrest’s pitch grew more agitated as he failed to hear the
answers he wanted. He was probably used to flogging kids this age
for not cleaning the head sufficiently.

“
What
do
you know?” Bocrest
asked.

Tikaya, walking behind them, had a good look
at the frosty gaze Sicarius slid the captain. She glanced at Rias
who merely raised his eyebrows. He might pull her away and keep her
from doing something stupid to annoy the young assassin, but he did
not appear inclined to watch out for Bocrest.

“
I crossed the mountains
on foot and arrived only a day before you,” Sicarius
said.

He withdrew the purloined journal, and
Tikaya’s fingers twitched. She strained to see over his shoulder as
he opened it to a dog-eared page. The instructions. He ripped them
out. He turned to another page in the back of the journal and tore
the bottom third off.

“
What are you doing?”
Tikaya blurted.

Sicarius ignored her, showing the scraps to
Bocrest. “Operation instructions for the rockets and the sequence
of runes Lancecrest pushed to get into the weapons chamber.”

Tikaya cringed. She should have hidden the
journal. Assuming no one else could read her language had been
foolish.

“
Lancecrest claimed the
sequence only worked once,” Sicarius said, “and his team has been
stymied since.”

“
Give the book back to
Tikaya now that you’ve got what you wanted,” Rias told
Sicarius.

Bocrest glanced at Rias, startled eyes wide.
Even the captain had not dared give the emperor’s assassin a direct
order. But Sicarius handed the journal back to Tikaya without
missing a step.

“
Thank you,” she said,
though it seemed obsequious to thank him for returning something he
had stolen out of her rucksack. He was going to be a problem—as if
she did not have enough problems already. She needed more allies
out here, not more enemies, and her only option was the team that
waited within. “Why did Lancecrest fire the rocket on your fort?”
she asked Sicarius.

He did not respond or even glance her
direction.

“
I’m just wondering why
one of your citizens would turn on your people like that. Is living
in the empire that bad? Are people disaffected and eager to fight
back against the oppressive rule of your emperor?” She hoped to
goad the assassin into speaking, but it was Bocrest who
responded.

“
There’s nothing wrong
with living in the empire,” he snapped. “If that Lancecrest brat
was motivated by anything, it’d be money.”

“
I didn’t know slaying
marines in remote outposts could be profitable,” Tikaya
said.

Rias’s lip twitched. He was staying silent,
but she decided it did not represent disinterest or annoyance at
her sleights toward the empire. In general, he was not as garrulous
around the marines as he was alone with her, and she imagined all
but the closest of his men had known him as a quiet, enigmatic
leader.

“
I only bring it up,”
Tikaya said, “because it might be useful to know why Lancecrest was
attacking your people and whether those left inside are out to get
you, too, or if he was the leader and now they’re
rootless.”

“
I’d like answers to those
questions too,” Rias said when Sicarius did not respond. “What
happened on that ledge?”

Sicarius glanced at the squad of marines
following them, men who had grown silent as soon as the
conversation started. Rias nodded to Bocrest, and the captain
called a halt. He, Rias, and Sicarius walked ahead to speak
privately. Tikaya followed. She’d asked the questions, and she
intended to get the answers.

The assassin watched her walk up, his gaze
cold and unwavering. He didn’t want her there. She folded her arms
and leaned on the wall. Too bad. Rias’s eyes crinkled.

“
I was too late to stop
Atner Lancecrest,” Sicarius told Rias and Bocrest. No remorse or
angst colored his tone. He spoke it like a simple fact. “But I
learned much from questioning him. He originally heard of the
tunnels from Colonel Lancecrest, who disliked his assignment and
wanted to retire. He told Atner about the possibility of ancient
valuables and asked for a split of whatever profits were
made.

“
So they intended to be
relic raiders from the start,” Tikaya said.

“
Atner Lancecrest started
assembling a multinational expedition of archaeologists and
linguists a year ago, and they’ve been inside for several months.
They came for relics. They found the weapons. Atner revised his
plan. He decided to figure out how to get the weapons so he could
hand them to the emperor and gain favor for his family. Some of his
team, which included a handful of Nurians, were against that. A
pair of them slipped away with a box. They warned their government,
and—”

“
The box that was
delivered to the capital?” Bocrest asked. “The one that killed
hundreds?”

“
Yes,” Sicarius said. “The
Nurians delivered it, and, after the deaths, they sent a message
telling the emperor to seal the tunnels forever or more killer
artifacts would be delivered.”

“
Your emperor doesn’t seem
the sort to heed threats,” Tikaya said.