Chapter Thirty-Six
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Thirty-Six
Ellie leaned against a boulder at the edge of Borthwick’s camp, her ankles bound before her and her hands tied behind her back. The stream rushed past a few steps away. Ancient tusks and ribs curved overhead between tall thickets of bamboo. Beyond them rose the steep silver bluff of the waterfall.
Borthwick had gone, hiking off with a detachment of his men to start exploring some of the caves. Singh Rao remained behind to organize the others.
None of them paid her and Adam much mind. And why should they? The pair of them were trussed up like geese.
Bruises were already forming on the familiar lines of Adam’s face from his fight with Jacobs. His jaw was scraped, and his soaked shirt sported watery crimson stains. Adam caught her looking at them.
“I started it,” he admitted.
Ellie voiced the question that had been itching at her since she had seen the fight break out. “Why?”
“It gave Vanika a chance to get away.”
Even though he was filthy, bruised, and exhausted, a familiar brightness gleamed in his eyes.
“You’re happy,” Ellie pointed out.
Adam cocked a skeptical brow. “We’re tied up and completely at Borthwick’s mercy.”
“I know,” she replied significantly.
He leaned back against the boulder. “Maybe it just feels good to be myself again—even if it’s landed us in a pretty big heap of trouble.”
“I don’t mind being in trouble with you. And we’ve been in worse situations,” Ellie asserted.
“Like what?”
“Nearly being poached alive in a room full of Mesoamerican death gods?”
“That was pretty bad,” Adam allowed.
“Ambushed in a tomb full of crimson death sand,” Ellie listed.
“The tomb wasn’t full of death sand. Just the sarcophagus.”
“We had to flee a collapsing cave system.”
Adam smirked. “You did that one on purpose.”
“That was not on purpose. I didn’t know precisely what was going to happen when I threw all of Padre Kuyoc’s dynamite into that hole in the ground. You got us out of all of that trouble by being who you really are.”
“I contributed,” Adam corrected her. “Seems to me, we’ve frequently benefited from a hell of a lot of help.”
“We might be a bit short on help at the moment,” Ellie admitted. “Neil and Constance are trapped in the stepwell. Subhas is tied up and under guard with the rest of his men. What about Vanika?”
“I told her to get the hell out of here.”
Ellie racked her brain. “I suppose there’s the dog,” she offered with a grimace.
“Good point.” Adam’s mouth quirked mischievously. “I’m sure he’ll sort it all out once he turns back up.”
“You have an inordinate amount of faith in that animal,” she grumbled.
“That’s because he’s a good boy.”
A voice hissed from behind the boulder at their backs. “Whatever you do, don’t turn around!”
Ellie immediately twisted her body to peek around the stone—where a familiar figure crouched between the slender stalks of bamboo. “Connie!?”
Constance waved a furious hand at her. “Shh! You’re going to ruin the plot!”
Ellie quickly pulled herself around to face forward—just as one of the sepoys glanced over at them.
She flashed him a reassuring smile.
The man frowned.
Ellie pitched her words so that they wouldn’t be heard over the constant rush of the waterfall. “But how are you here?”
“It’s a bit of a long story,” Constance whispered.
“Guessing that means it’s a good one.” Adam’s voice was warm with relief.
Worry darted through Ellie. “But where’s—”
She was cut off by a slight crash in the bamboo. The stalks above her swayed violently.
“Bugger,” her brother bit out under his breath.
“Neil!” Ellie exclaimed, her voice catching.
“Hello, Peanut,” he replied feelingly from behind the boulder.
Constance piped in. “We can cut you loose, but we’ll need a distraction.”
Ellie perked up. “It’s possible I might have prepared for that.”
“I know that tone,” Adam said warningly. “That’s your practical chemistry tone.”
Ellie frowned. “I have a practical chemistry tone?”
“What’d you set to blow up, Princess?” Adam pushed back dryly.
“You’re the one who told me to do something with that ethanol!”
Adam’s eyes rose to the churning gray clouds overhead as though looking for strength. “And what did you do with the ethanol?”
“Nothing yet,” Ellie returned pertly. “I only put it aside in a safe place along with a deposit of potassium crystals that I chipped out of the ridge on our way here.”
Adam stared at her. “You just randomly collected a bunch of potassium.”
Ellie stiffened defensively. “Potassium has many useful chemical applications.”
“Like?” Adam prompted.
Her cheeks flushed. “Like creating hydrogen gas when combined with high proof spirits, which is just a little explosive when ignited in a contained environment.”
Adam stared at her.
“What? If there are no proper combustibles on hand, one has to make do.” She directed the rest behind the boulder to Constance. “I emptied out one of the supply trunks and stole a bit of fuse as well.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Constance confirmed eagerly. “I’ll just need Stuffy’s sword.”
Neil’s horrified voice hissed at her from behind the rock. “You can’t use Dyrnwyn for that!”
“Why not?” Constance retorted crossly.
“It’s completely covered in flames! If any of that hydrogen leaks out of the seams in the trunk, you could blow yourself up before you get to the fuse!”
Constance made a distinct noise of dissatisfaction. Ellie couldn’t entirely blame her.
Adam shuffled himself closer to the edge of the rock. “Matches. In my pocket.”
Constance poked her head out to assess the scene.
Her hair hung loose and tangled, peppered with bits of leaves.
She was missing a few buttons at the top of her blouse, exposing a slice of well-formed cleavage.
Satisfied, she plucked the tin from Adam’s trouser pocket and ducked back into her hiding place.
The suspicious sepoy whirled at the flicker of movement, his eyes narrowing.
Ellie tried her best to look innocent. Adam smiled as the flowers danced at his side.
The soldier called across the camp, and Ellie chilled with alarm as Singh Rao approached.
The subedar loomed over them, framed by one of the moss-draped elephant bones. Unlike Ellie and Adam, he still appeared entirely well put together, with his turban perfectly wrapped and his beard brushed.
“One of my men said you were talking to someone,” Singh Rao accused.
“Just the two of us here,” Adam returned lightly.
“He thought he heard someone else.”
“Maybe it was a ghost,” Adam quipped. “This place seems pretty haunted.”
Singh Rao looked pained. “You seem to have a knack for causing a great deal of bother.”
“Can’t really argue with that.” Adam dropped his insouciance. “Do you know what your colonel is actually here for?”
“Yes.”
“Really think it’s a good idea for him to get it?”
“Some old artifact?” Singh Rao returned with tired skepticism.
“What if it’s not just an old artifact?” Adam pushed back.
Singh Rao shook his head. “You choose strange things to risk your life for, Mr. Bates.”
Adam let out a low, dry chuckle. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Across the stream, a burst of hot blue fire whooshed up from the forest of bones.
With a giddy thrill, Ellie calculated the height and velocity of the explosion.
That feldspar she had collected must have had a very high proportion of potassium indeed.
It was good that she had placed her little chemistry project in a sheltered, rocky location, or even with the moisture of the monsoon, she might’ve succeeded in lighting the whole ravine on fire.
Singh Rao dropped into an instinctive crouch, whipping his sidearm from the holster and aiming it at the explosion. The soldiers around him did the same, weapons clattering as everyone took up defensive positions.
The subedar’s eyes snapped back to Adam.
“Don’t look at me.” Adam shifted his torso to show Singh Rao how his wrists were still tied behind his back. He added an insouciant wiggle of his fingers.
Singh Rao’s mouth tightened with exasperation. He signaled to his men, and a handful took up secure positions to offer cover while he led the rest across the stream.
Everyone was focused on the potential threat across the water—and not the pair of scruffy prisoners by the boulder with their hands and feet still bound.
Neil scrambled out from behind the rock.
He was filthy. His waistcoat was scuffed and his shirt smudged with dirt. He hadn’t shaved—not that it mattered all that much with Neil. The lightest shadow of a beard accented the line of his jaw. Relief washed through Ellie at seeing him intact.
“Get her behind the rock!” Adam ordered, already shuffling himself in that direction.
Neil hooked his hands under Ellie’s armpits and hauled her around the boulder. He tugged quickly at the knots binding her ankles.
Adam collapsed to the ground beside them, his cheek kissing the gravel. “This would go a little faster with a knife,” he pointed out urgently.
A shout of alarm rose from the camp.
Neil stared at the knots he had barely started to undo and winced.
“Please hold very, very still?” he pleaded.
He whipped out his sword.
Flames shot up Dyrnwyn’s length. Neil brought the weapon down between Ellie’s legs—and the ropes fell away.
Adam stared at the perfectly severed strands piled around Ellie’s feet. “How sharp is that thing?”
“You really don’t want to know,” Neil returned feelingly, then cut Adam’s ankles free as well.
Yanking Ellie upright, Neil pushed her into the forest of bamboo. Constance burst through the slender trunks from the other direction, her eyes bright with excitement.
“I had no idea chemistry could be so much fun!” she exclaimed brightly.
“Talk about it after we run,” Adam countered.
Ellie plunged through the leaves and branches, sprinting awkwardly with her hands still bound behind her back.
Her boots slipped on moss-covered bones.
Adam tripped along beside her, Neil at his heels with his sword now safely sheathed.
Shouts rang out from behind as Singh Rao’s men organized a pursuit.