this?”
She let out a shaky laugh just as a terrible thought struck me.
“Actually,” I said slowly, not wanting to admit the possibility, but now that I knew more what was going on, I couldn’t escape the facts. “My arrival might have given you the opening, but it might also have been the trigger that brought on the attack.”
She froze mid-step, her face blank. “What do you mean?”
“Did your whole family know something was going on at Station 112?” I asked.
“They would have seen the same signs I did,” she acknowledged. “And if they did get my message, they would have known I certainly thought there was something fishy there.”
“So they would have noticed when the first official Imperial diplomatic mission to the Areitis Sector in a century showed up, right?”
Yasmin crossed her arms in front of her chest, stepped away to lean back against the tunnel wall, studying me carefully.
“Why did your ship end up there, anyway? Are you part of whatever is going on there?”
“I don’t know a thing about Desyk’s secrets, and I’m sure the Emperor doesn’t either. We’re only in the Areitis Sector because a couple of my brothers ended up on Heladae while it was shifting to new management.”
And a few more of us were missing out here, but that didn’t seem to be important to this puzzle.
Unless Jenke was a part of all of this.
Her eyes widened. “Everyone’s been speculating what exactly happened there,” she admitted. “The Empire took it over?”
“Not at all,” I corrected her. “They just happened to be there when it all went down.” Which was more or less true. Sort of. “Then the new management offered to make some introductions in the sector. Desyk was the first to make an invitation, that’s all.” I reached for her hand, hating the distance she’d put between us.
Slowly, she laced her fingers with mine.
“But why would they send you to Station 112?” she mused, as we continued down the tunnel.
“No idea.” I squeezed her hand. “Vandalar just wants to check things out here. I’m sure he’s looking for any opportunities he can find to get information. Maybe when we get back, you should talk to him. Maybe the best way to get ahead of Desyk would be to make a deal with the Empire yourself.”
She rolled her eyes. “Because the Emperor is going to want to talk to me. Sure.”
“Don’t ever tell anyone I said this, but he’s not that bad. And he’s got a weakness for smart women.”
Yasmin snorted. “That’s not a weakness. That’s rare intelligence. Maybe I’d want to meet him after all.”
As the tunnel curved again, I considered ways to make sure she and Vandalar never met, without it getting in the way of her business.
Maybe she could just work through Thalcorr? Or maybe Loree would be a better intermediary. Loree would even put a good word in for me, I was sure.
Then every potential plot dropped out of my head as I stared at the chasm that broke the tunnel in half.
On the other side lay another cavern, filled with stone columns traced with light and more of those damned glowing mushrooms.
“Void take it!” Yasmin leaned close to the edge, peering down into the darkness. Crouching next to her, I shook my head. Even with my enhanced vision, I couldn’t tell how far down the bottom was.
Her shoulders slumped. “I guess we turn back, make another night in the cavern, and head back to the desert tomorrow.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” I said.
I gauged the width of the gap.
I could probably make it. I could probably make it carrying Yasmin and our supplies.
But I wasn’t willing to risk her on ‘probably.’
However, there was another option.
“I’ve got a plan, but if it goes wrong at all, we might lose our best weapon,” I admitted.
“What happens if it goes right?” Yasmin asked.
“We end up on the other side. But if it goes really wrong, we plummet to the bottom. I’m not planning on that happening,” I hastened to reassure her.
“We really need to work on how you introduce an idea,” she said. “Let’s hear it.”
“It’ll be faster to show you.”
Yasmin
With anybody else, I would’ve been worried.
Hakon had proved he could do the damn near impossible more than once.
Even still, I was a little… let’s call it uncertain.
“Hand me the rope?” he asked.
Unwinding the coil from my body, I handed it to him and he carefully bound one end of it three quarters up the shaft of the spear.
“That stalagmite over there,” he said, pointing