Ice Cracker II Read Free Page B

shrubs weren't
buying that. They must know you sleep with your knives."
    She dropped the cutlass, belted on the
familiar blade, and glanced around him at the second soldier. The
prone man was more unconscious than she had left him; she hoped he
was not dead.
    Amaranthe knelt to truss her soldier,
intending to use his bootlaces to bind ankles and wrists.
    "Don't bother," Sicarius said. "We have to
go. Now."
    "Why? Did you find the—"
    "The engineers are dead, the safety valves on
all four boilers have been tampered with, and the Kendorian is down
there shoveling coal into the furnaces."
    Amaranthe stared. "Why didn't you—"
    "There's a trap at the door. I watched two
soldiers run in and get incinerated by flames. There's no way into
the boiler room right now."
    "Show me." Amaranthe started past him,
heading for the closest ladder, but he gripped her elbow.
    "This isn't worth risking your life for,"
Sicarius said.
    She turned and looked him in the eyes.
"Hundreds will die if this ship explodes. And what happens if the
city can't import food for the rest of the winter? There are a
million people in the capital. Local stores aren't enough to feed
everyone." Again, she tried to step toward the ladder, but he did
not release her. She might as well have been bound by steel.
    "We'll survive."
    A frustrated rant leapt to her lips, but,
cursed ancestors, there was no time for arguing. He said so
himself. Grasping for calm, she spoke evenly: "Let me go."
    Even now, his face was unreadable. Only those
dark eyes held extra intensity. A heartbeat passed—it seemed like
hours—and he released her.
    Amaranthe sprinted for the ladder. Ignoring
the rungs, she slid down to the bottom of the ship. Heat bathed her
as she stepped into the corridor. She expected to run into crew and
soldiers, but the lanterns on the walls illuminated an empty
passageway.
    The chugging and clanking of machinery led
her to the engine room. At the hatchway, she passed the first body:
a man in a gray engineer's smock, throat cut, his blood pooled on
the deck.
    Nine-tenths of the crew did not know there
was a problem; the other tenth was dead. Great.
    She raced through the engine room, a jungle
of colored pipes, gauges, and machinery. A railing surrounded the
churning pistons of the engine. More corpses clogged the twisting
walkways.
    Two blackened bodies blocked the hatchway
leading to the boiler room. Only the dead men's boots, which stuck
out toward Amaranthe, had not been marked. Such intense fire had
charred their clothing and features that little more than melted
lumps remained. The smell of roasted flesh rose above the odors of
machine oil and burning coal.
    A hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped,
but it was only Sicarius. He did not say anything, but she would
have had trouble hearing over the machinery anyway.
    He crouched, removed one of the dead men's
boots, and tossed it. A curtain of crimson flames flashed across
the hatchway. Heat poured out and light flared. Amaranthe stumbled
back, shielding her face with her arms. The boot was
incinerated.
    When the flames disappeared, leaving only a
border of glowing red along the bulkhead and floor, she waited for
Sicarius to voice an I-told-you-so. He merely watched her.
Expectantly. He must think she had an idea, for why else would she
insist on racing down here? She smiled bleakly.
    It took a few seconds for the crimson borders
to dim and wink out, leaving the bulkhead with no signs of a
trap.
    "Huh," she muttered.
    Amaranthe unlaced two more boots, forcing her
mind away from the grisly knowledge that she was disrobing some
poor engineer who had been living but moments before. She tossed
the first boot. The fire curtain burst forth. As soon as the
hatchway grew dark again, she threw the second boot. It flew
through and landed on the other side.
    She and Sicarius exchanged significant
looks.
    Only when the border faded, heartbeats later,
did the trap reset. Sicarius removed the last boot and nodded for
her to