The Emperor's Edge 2: Dark Currents

The Emperor's Edge 2: Ch. 16

Towering pines rose, their branches blocking the sky and turning the road into a twilight tunnel. The lorry shuddered and wobbled as it groaned up the steep incline.

Amaranthe sat cross-legged in the back, reading a newspaper they had picked up in the last of the tiny towns on the mountain. Across from her, Sicarius sat in an identical pose with his knives, a pistol, and a disassembled rifle lying on a towel before him. The rest of the men rode up front, taking turns driving and tending the firebox.

“This is interesting.” Amaranthe tapped a middle page of the paper. She had already read the news on the “epidemic” and promises that the water was fine. No need for alarm. The empire was taking care of everything, thank you very much. Nothing she had not expected. But this small story in the back.... “Remember Farth Textiles? The Kendorian owner was taken into custody by the enforcers on suspicion of magic, and her business is being sold at an auction.”

Sicarius ran a bore brush through the barrel and blew out flecks of carbon.

“Why do I have a feeling she was set up?” Amaranthe said. “First Klume wanted you to assassinate the woman, and then we stumble across those thugs doing...we never did figure out what. I thought they might be stealing something, but if they’re linked to everything else—and they must be if they had the same death-causing bumps under their skin, right?—then they had to be up to more than petty theft. Maybe they were scouting the place in anticipation of a return trip, one where they would plant false evidence of magic. But why would the same people responsible for a Kendorian textiles plant folding want to foul the city water? Is Books’s theory right, and they want to build a dam on that other river, then sell the land to the empire all prettied up and ready to become the city’s new water source? Is all of this about profits?”

Sicarius ran an oiled rag along the outside of his barrel.

“It’s your turn to speak,” Amaranthe said.

“Have you attended to your weapons? If you intend to continue with the rifle instead of the crossbow, you need to clean it frequently to minimize malfunctions.”

She slumped against a pack. “Is that your way of telling me my theories are ludicrous and I should retire from the speculation game? Or were you just ignoring me?”

“No.” He handed her a cleaning kit.

Amaranthe chuckled and fished out her firearms to work on. He was probably right. Thinking and figuring things out were good, but getting killed because of a weapons malfunction would make all her thoughts meaningless. She kept the pistol loaded in case they ran into trouble, but disassembled the rifle to work on.

“Perhaps they intend it to be a privately owned dam,” Sicarius said.

Amaranthe grinned. “I knew you were listening.”

“A private dam that the city was forced to use would put a lot of power into the hands of the owners.”

She tapped her bore brush against the rifle barrel thoughtfully. “But would someone be allowed to keep a private dam if the capital city relied upon it? The law says the emperor can go in and take land if he wants to.”

“If he has the power to act freely.” Sicarius laid down his work and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. After a glance toward the cab, where the men chatted, he spoke in a low voice, “With Hollowcrest and Raumesys dead, the only record of my mission in Mangdoria would be in the Imperial Intelligence Office in a locked filing cabinet. That this information is just coming out now is telling.”

“You think Forge or whoever we’re dealing with has a man inside? Someone working at odds with Sespian’s interests? Someone who might be a threat to him if he doesn’t comply?”