Snake Heart (Chains of Honor #2) -Lindsay Buroker Page 0,116

the odds that our captors will let us have our cabins back? And a snack?”

A clang sounded, the hatch opening again.

Dak stalked out, his face, hands, and shirt coated with black soot. Yanko barely recognized him. A white bandage wrapped around his right hand was the only clean thing on him, and even it had a few black smudges.

Four young armed soldiers trailed after him, trading nervous glances with each other. One of them broke away and jogged over to the senior soldier holding Yanko and his friends against the bulkhead. They shared a few whispers in Turgonian.

“What’s going on?” Yanko asked Dak, noting the displeased thundercloud storming on his face.

“The boiler explosion has been averted,” Dak said, his voice hard and terse, as if he were speaking about their imminent sinking rather than a problem being solved.

Another thunk came from the hull of the bow, followed by a disturbing squealing scrape. The ironclad veered onto a new course with surprising alacrity for such a large craft. Yanko allowed that they still had a problem.

“We’re going to the brig,” Dak said, and jerked his chin toward a different hatch that led below decks.

Yanko sighed, though he was hardly surprised. “Will they let us out if we run into a mountain and start to sink?”

The Turgonians spoke rapidly to each other, then waved their weapons toward the hatch, making it clear that Yanko was to lead the way.

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Dak grumbled.

He walked behind Yanko, Arayevo, Lakeo, and the mage hunter. The soldiers crowded around them. Yanko thought about pointing out that he could protect himself and his friends if they decided to shoot, but there wasn’t much to be gained from reminding them that he could access the mental sciences.

They wound through dark corridors and down two flights of stairs. More soldiers waited in the brig. One kindly opened the gate to a cell for Yanko. He, Arayevo, and Lakeo were directed into it, while Jhali was placed in the one adjacent to them. A guard with a first-aid kit went in after her, while another stayed nearby to keep a pistol aimed at her. Yanko would make sure he did not fall asleep anywhere close to the shared cell wall.

Kei sprang from his shoulder and chose a perch on the horizontal bar that ran between the vertical ones. Yanko rubbed away blood from his skin, wishing to have his robe back for more reasons than one.

“Dak,” Yanko said, “if we make it back out to the sea before—” A scrape against the hull sounded, the noise much louder down within the bowels of the ship. “If we make it back out to sea, can you—”

“I can’t do anything, Yanko,” Dak said.

“But—” Yanko broke his protest off before it had started, his mouth dangling open as Dak was pushed into a third cell, one across the way from Yanko.

The guards spoke rapidly to each other, then shoved his gate shut with a clang. One turned a lock in the keyhole, then did the same to Yanko’s gate. Yanko barely noticed. He kept staring at Dak, trying to figure out if he was grasping the situation correctly. What could have happened? Why would his own people imprison him?

Once the gates were locked, half of the guards left, their boots clanging on the metal decking as they strode out of the brig. The other half of the contingent, eight men, remained behind, taking up guard positions and looking like they intended to stay for a while. The other three cells were empty, so all of these people were there for the mage hunter and for Yanko. Yanko and... Dak.

“Uhm, Dak?” Yanko asked. “Are you here to guard me again?”

Dak glowered through the bars, and for a moment, Yanko did not think he would answer.

Finally, he said, “I’m here because I’ve been confined to the brig for assisting a rogue Nurian criminal in killing a Nurian diplomat. Admiral Ravencrest plans to take me back to Turgonia, where my superiors can sort out my actions and figure out if I was working against my nation.” His nostrils flared as he inhaled distasteful air.

“But I...” Yanko groped for words, all too aware that he had pleaded with Dak to help him against the mage. “Sun Dragon isn’t—wasn’t—a diplomat. How can they not see that? He wanted to strand your entire fleet there when the land rose up, and he had arranged for someone else to pick him up.” Yanko admitted that he was