The Emperor's Edge 2: Dark Currents

The Emperor's Edge 2: Ch. 26 Pt. 1

Amaranthe hobbled toward the ledge and tossed a satchel to Akstyr. “See if there’s anything you can use in there.”

Akstyr dug into it. Across the chamber, Basilard pulled Maldynado out of immediate danger, though little had changed. The constructs had three targets instead of one. Amaranthe stood, poised, her face thoughtful, as if she was considering jumping into the mess. She did not even have a weapon.

Books lay on his stomach and extended his arm. “Smart people up here. We have to figure out the solution.”

“While it’s flattering that you’re including me in your group, I haven’t done anything smart lately.”

Books wriggled his fingers. “They like to shoot things this direction. Come up here to discuss it.”

Amaranthe waved the hand away. “We have to get out of here. The shaman is dead. I doubt these will follow us past the mine entrance. How fast are they? Can we outrun them?”

“Oh!” Books perked. If all they had to do was outrun the constructs.... He hefted one of the powder flasks. “Maybe we can use these to—”

A crack and a screech of metal sounded, followed by a war whoop from Maldynado. A construct tottered, a cannonball hole in its torso. Metal parts rained from the gap like petals shaken from a flower. The construct toppled.

“Though,” Amaranthe mused, “if we destroy them, we don’t need to worry about some aspiring megalomaniac getting them and using them against the city later.”

“I’ve arranged a nice flood, so I think that part is covered.”

“Got something,” Akstyr said. His eyes were bright as he sat back, a plain black box in his hands. “It feels like a controller. There’s writing on it. I can’t read the Mangdorian, but—”

Books slid it from his hands. “Attack, guard, and...hibernate.”

“The last one sounds good,” Amaranthe said without taking her gaze from the mad scrambling of the men.

“Agreed.” Books rotated the box. “I don’t see a switch or trigger though.”

Akstyr snatched the device back. “That’s because you’re uneducated in the Science.”

Books sniffed. “Really.”

Akstyr, head already bent over the device, did not seem to hear. His tongue stuck out of his mouth, and his face scrunched in concentration.

“Look out!” Maldynado shouted.

At first, Books thought it a warning for Sicarius or Basilard, but the entire cadre of constructs had turned their attention away from Maldynado and the others. En masse, they advanced toward the ledge. No, toward Akstyr. And Amaranthe was in the way.

“Uhm, Akstyr?” Amaranthe crouched, ready to spring one direction or the other.

A cannonball flew over Books’s head and cracked into the wall behind him. Shards of wood from the support beam flew.

“It’s possible there’s an anti-tampering device,” Akstyr said, voice strained.

Books reached down, intending to grab Amaranthe, but he still clutched the pistol and one of the black powder bombs in his hands. He hesitated a half a heartbeat, then struck sparks to light the fuse.

“Out of the way, Amaranthe.” He hurled the flask into the path of the advancing constructs.

In the second before the explosion, Books glanced toward the other men. Maldynado’s eyes bulged, and Books feared he had made a mistake. A huge mistake. Sicarius lifted a hand toward Amaranthe, though his gaze was locked past Books’s shoulder. A boom sounded. Wood snapped behind Books even as the explosion roared below.