Chapter 12 #2
“They’re designed to be in the water. You can jostle them, but I would be hesitant to hit them with something solid.” In the lantern light, his eyes were a flash of brown. “If you’re careful, you might be able to get all of them. It would go quicker with more of us in the water.”
“And how many of you are comfortable swimming at night in a river current?” I asked, my voice flat. “I imagine Namati’s men would be extremely comfortable. But the rest of you?”
None of the soldiers stood up, none voiced their confidence. I nodded, swimming away. Now that I knew I didn’t have to be quite as careful, I was able to bring back the next in less time. After that, I developed a system.
The explosives had been placed every ten feet so that they would be impossible to avoid.
It took me until the constellations shifted and the great hunter fell below the horizon to clear the first line, and I went back and forth along it twice to make sure I hadn’t missed one before I cut the line in the middle, letting the two ends flow with the river water.
My muscles were beginning to burn when I started the second line. I tried to keep my focus, but I could feel myself slowing. My muscles trembled and twitched, and my heart clenched when I accidentally knocked my elbow into one of the canisters.
I could practically feel Yor?mu slap the flat of her blade against my back. She would have said there was no point in doing the job if you were going to do it so carelessly you would end up dying anyway.
But she wasn’t here. No one was here. I was alone in the water, and even if the blood monks said we could trust the men in the boats, I had no idea if I could trust them with my life. With Tallu’s life.
I didn’t need to look up to see that the stars were slowly turning overhead, reminding me that dawn was coming and our hope of escaping the river in darkness was fading. All my hopes were fading.
If we stayed too long, perhaps Kacha would send more boats, perhaps Bemishu had built enough of his airships to drop the canisters on us, and then all my work wouldn’t matter, as little as all my years of training had mattered in the end.
After bringing up another canister, I croaked that I needed a rest. The soldiers immediately dragged me in the boat, one of them wrapping me in a blanket as another held out a canteen of clean water.
None of them said anything, and the soldier who had been taking the bombs apart carefully wrapped the electrical rocks so they wouldn’t be jostled.
“How many more?” one of the soldiers asked. He looked up at the sky as he spoke, his eyes tracing the path of the moon.
I glanced up. The stars here were different, but by my judgment I had spent half the night already.
“I have another line to go, and half of the one I’m working. That’s if he hasn’t hidden another further down.” I spit over the edge of the boat, the burn in my throat so sharp that I did it again. Then I swallowed the clean, cold water. “Food?”
One of the soldiers immediately reached in his own pocket, drawing out a small wax bag. He handed it over and I unwrapped it with trembling fingers to find dried meat. I didn’t recognize it from any of our meals, so he must have been saving it for himself.
I started to hand it back, but he politely declined, using a palm up gesture that indicated it was a gift.
“I can swim,” he said. “That was what they asked before assigning me—if I could swim, but I do not think I could do what you are doing, Your Highness.”
There was a tone of wonder in his voice that I was more familiar with when soldiers talked to Tallu. It was as though I was doing something impossible and it made them question if I was truly as human as they were.
I didn’t stay long in the boat, knowing that every minute I was out of the water, my muscles were growing tighter, my exhaustion taking deeper hold. As soon as I could, I was back in the water. I wasn’t surprised to hear another splash, then another. Four soldiers joined me.
“Show us how,” one of them whispered. Even with the rush of the water, a voice carried a long distance in the quiet night.
“I’ll cut the canisters loose,” I said. “You take them back. Carefully. If I lose my right arm, you had better hope you die, as His Imperial Majesty will not be gentle in his anger.”
Two of the soldiers laughed, and I led them back to the trawling line. It was much faster work with their help. Being able to focus entirely on loosening the knots meant that I was able to slip a bit of magic in, using ice to make the rope brittle enough that my blade cut through faster.
In half the time it would have taken me on my own, we had finished the line and a half I had left.
“I’m going to check ahead,” I whispered. My shoulder ached, my muscles twitching. I swam ahead, as far as I could, waiting for the next impact, waiting to feel the trap, but there was nothing, there were no other lines.
I floated on my back for a moment, forcing my legs to find the strength to keep me in place. The constellation that made up the lioness and her cub was just touching the edge of the horizon, the spear of the matriarch chasing them, even as she sat in her throne of stars. We were out of time.
I swam back to the boat. The soldiers hauled me back in, wrapping me in the blanket again, then turned the boats back to our small fleet.
I stared out at the darkened water, hearing the whispers behind me and knowing that I had gained their loyalty with the work of this night. They no longer followed me because General Saxu had ordered it. Now, they wanted to be mine.
My heart felt just as cold as my trembling flesh because I knew that, in the end, Tallu and I would have to betray them once we achieved our goal.
We reached Tallu’s ship only a couple hours before the break of dawn.
I was barely able to climb up the rope ladder, collapsing on the deck straight into Tallu’s arms. He wrapped his robes around me, the silken fabric absorbing the last of the river water.
“It is done, Your Imperial Majesty,” I said.
“Is there a chance that General Kacha has set up another trap farther down?” General Saxu asked.
I shook my head, then raised my shoulder in a helpless shrug. “We cleared out the area that your scouts found, and I went as far as I could, but I didn’t check the whole delta.”
“It’s unlikely,” the explosives expert said. Gently, as though taking a sleeping baby from against his chest, he loosened the scarf he had tied around himself.
He crouched down on the deck of the ship and opened it, revealing all of the rocks we had collected.
“Electro stone,” he said. “This is more of it than I have ever seen in one place. It is worth an imperial fortune.”
“What is Kacha thinking?” Saxu asked, gazing down at it. “If he has set traps further down, they cannot be as dangerous as this.”
“We need to go through tonight,” I said. “Leaving debris and the letters in our wake.”
“I agree,” Saxu said. “General Kacha must have emptied the armory to use this much electro stone.”
“Would anyone else have had…” I stopped because my teeth were chattering. Clenching my jaw, I forced the words through. “That much?”
“Kacha may have discovered a new mine,” Saxu said. “But he would need Krustavians to work it. You cannot use metal pickaxes or shovels, or there’s a chance of an explosion.”
“Where—” I shivered again, so violently that I banged my elbow on a nearby railing.
Tallu stepped forward, wrapping his strong arms around me, stilling my body with his. I could feel the warmth emanating off him, eating away at the chill in my bones.
“Why are the rest of your men not soaking wet?” Tallu asked. His question was sharp, a fierce accusation that ricocheted through the men.
All of the soldiers who had been on the boat with me, even the ones who had joined me in the water, dropped to their knees, pressing their foreheads against the rough wooden deck.
“We are sorry, Your Imperial Majesty. We have failed. None of us could do what your consort did.” The scout spoke his words into the wood. “I am not sure anyone could do what he did. He removed each of the explosive canisters himself, loosening them and freeing them without killing himself or us.”
Tallu shook his head, and I could feel his arms still tight around me, the muscles keeping me safe, the warm beat of his heart a steady thrum against my ear.
“You seek to appease me despite your paltry inadequacy by praising my consort’s excellence?” Tallu growled. I felt his words rumble against my chest, soothing the last of the tremors.
Before he could order the men thrown overboard or flayed or whatever else he thought was necessary, I put a hand against his chest. “Take me below deck.”
Tallu stilled, then, in a carefully controlled voice, he said, “Take us past the delta into the open water where Kacha cannot catch us. Do not render my husband’s work worthless by letting us be discovered.”
Then he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, still covered by his cloak, and guided me below deck.
He led me to the room that Nohe had claimed as my quarters.
There were no imperial baths, but Nohe took one look at me and stoked a brazier in the corner and ordered one of the servants to go find hot soup and tea.
Homisu said nothing, but stripped me out of my clothes, taking the steaming water that Nohe brought and wiping me down with it, cleaning off the river silt that clung to my skin.
When he was done, he wrapped me in a warm robe, drying every inch of my skin with a soft towel before he began to dress me again.
Tallu lingered in the corner, the door guarded by his Dogs. They wouldn’t fit inside—my quarters were no match for his own—but they did keep us safe from any interruptions.
By the time Homisu was satisfied he had dressed me in an adequate number of layers, the soup and tea were ready. I sat at the small table in the room, using the only chair. Tallu towered over me, glaring down at the top of my head.