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55 - Darkness And Churning Bubbles

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Suni

Chaos, instantly, in the wake of Kamil’s shout.

Theo ran to bar the door, slamming her shoulder against it and holding it shut. Maritza and Demetrias stood frozen, caught between shocked stares at Kamil and horrified looks toward the soldiers just outside the too-thin walls.

Senesio leapt into action. He tackled Kamil, then crumpled several loose pages and began stuffing them into the man’s mouth, muffling his shouting. When that didn’t work fully, a knee to the stomach burst the air from his lungs and left him gasping and spluttering.

And I didn’t feel bad for him. There was a new feeling. No sympathy. Not an ounce.

He’d betrayed us.

Time seemed to slow, and I felt every piece of my heart crack, shatter, and fall away. Like a hammer taken to a piece of pottery.

Kamil had betrayed us.

Theo growled as the guards hit the other side of the door and it rattled.

I came all this way. Risked my life to come save him and he’d betrayed us.

The door rattled again, a few splinters raining from it.

People had died to save him and his expedition crew. Good people.

And it’d all been for naught. How deep did this go? I turned to Kamil, oblivious now to everything happening around me. He was still sucking down air, gasping like a fish out of water.

“How long?” I asked as I kneeled down in front of him.

He shook his head, still gasping.

I pressed my knee into his stomach, leaned my weight into it, and he spit the paper from his mouth and cried out.

“How long?”

“How long what?” he finally shouted, eyes wild.

“How long were you planning to turn on us? To join the Bospurians?”

“You don’t understand, Suni. I would explain it if I could, but there’s no time. I’m not the bad guy here.”

“Was the attack on the Panagia planned?” Senesio asked, still holding Kamil down. “Did you set that up?”

And all at once, it made sense. The Panagia hadn’t randomly run into the Bospurians, it’d been led there. By Kamil. All part of the plan to defect. And taking his report with him, that’d been part of it as well. And then another thought hit me.

“That morning you kicked me off the expedition,” I said, voice calm and cold as ice. “You were the thief, weren’t you?”

He froze at that, panic falling away to be replaced by a lifeless sort of acceptance.

“You don’t understand,” he said simply.

“No, Kamil. I don’t. How could you do this?” I shook my head. It wasn’t the turn-coating that bothered me. There were always war hawks in the capital decrying the injustices of Bospur, telling tales of how they were subhuman savages. And no doubt, the same tales were told in Bospur’s capital, except painting us as the savages. No, if Kamil wanted to defect to Bospur, that was his choice. But people had died because of how he’d done it. People with friends and families, most with children, dead now as just another stroke in this endless game of politicking. And Kamil had been the one to cause that.

“I’ve never been more disappointed, Kamil.”

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That hit him, hard. For a moment, he stopped squirming, stopped resisting, and just stared at me. There was surprise in his eyes, but something else, as well. Guilt? Regret? What did it matter? He’d done what he’d done.

Senesio took advantage of the moment to let go of Kamil. I thought he was going to let the son of a swindler stand up, until he tipped the desk over and pinned Kamil beneath it.

“Gah!”

“That’ll hold him,” Senesio said, clapping his hands together. “Now we just have to—”

Theo was flung away as the door exploded inwards. A hole had been punched straight through it and, as I watched, the end of a two-man, iron-tipped battering ram was withdrawn, splinters falling in its wake.

“Where the hell did they get that from?” Theo groaned, holding a hand to her ribs as she climbed back to her feet. There was no time for an answer, though, as what remained of the door was bashed off its hinges and the soldiers charged in.

Ancestors above. I’d been so distracted by Kamil I hadn’t thought about anything else. About the fact that we’d no doubt woken the entire camp around us.

Theo met the soldiers with a scream, bowling into them as they filed through the narrow doorway. She knocked the first few over, sending them toppling back into their companions and buying us a moment.

A moment I didn’t know what to do with. I reached for my knife, but Senesio stopped me.

“No.” He scooped up a chair in one fluid movement, then chucked it through the rear window. The glass shattered in a rain of sparkling pieces, catching for the briefest of moments in the candlelight.

“Out!” Senesio said.

“I—”

He shoved me toward the window, then swept my feet up before I could blink. He caught me mid-fall, then used my momentum to launch me through the now open window. The world spun and I toppled over, out into the humid night air. I landed on my back, staring up at the stars.

For a moment, I was stunned. Wind knocked from me, mind reeling.

And then the shouts reached my ears. Theo, cursing and spitting. And other voices. The soldiers.

I scrambled to my feet and reached back through the window for Senesio. But he wasn’t there. He’d grabbed Demetrias, was dragging him away from the fighting. Theo was pinned beneath several soldiers and Maritza was about to be as well.

“Senesio!” I shouted, hand held out. But even as I did, the mob of soldiers reached him. Dragged him down. He kicked the first one off, planting a boot between the man’s eyes. The second got him around the hips, dragging him off balance. And then Demetrias tripped, went down hard and pulled Senesio with him. More soldiers poured forward and joined the dog pile.

Through the mass of clenched arms and kicking legs I could just make out Senesio’s face. He was struggling, kicking, writhing his way to the top of the pile. The fight was far from gone in him. He got his head above the press for a moment and sucked in a deep, desperate breath.

I near jumped back in at that, raised a leg to climb inside, thinking without acting. He stopped me with a word.

“Run!”

And then a hand slapped down, covered his face, and dragged him back beneath the pile. The few soldiers still standing turned toward me, pointed, and began shouting.

And then I was running. Abandoning the others.

I didn’t realize I was crying until I felt the wet on my cheeks. But there wasn’t time for that. Wasn’t time for anything but a mad dash to... to... I didn’t know. But I ran on. Away from the buildings as the pounding of boots pursued.

I sprinted back into the maze of tents, but the soldiers had torches now and were close behind me. Men woke as the chase passed them, several stumbling from their tents, half-dressed and bleary-eyed with swords drawn.

Still, I ran.

Torchlight ahead of me, another group of soldiers who’d been on patrol. They spotted me with a shout, and I turned hard to the right. Deeper into the rows of tents.

Another group just ahead, these without torches so they were almost on me before I saw them. I ducked to the side at the last moment, darted through a tent. It was dark inside; still. The cots were empty but I was past them in a moment anyway, bursting out the back of the tent.

The prisoners were stirring in their pen now, but there was nothing I could do for them as I sprinted past. Nothing I could do for anyone. I was out of my depth. Lost, panicked. Afraid. I didn’t belong out here. I was just a naturalist’s apprentice. And now everything was coming down around me. Falling apart. Everyone that had survived so long, had trekked through the wilderness to make it here with me, was captured. And for what? To find out Kamil was a traitor? To find out he’d ruined so many lives, and now was ruining even more.

But he wasn’t going to get away with it. Not as long as I was still breathing.

Anger gave new life to my tired legs. Fresh air to my burning lungs. I ducked my head and sprinted for everything I was worth.

The camp was coming alive around me, more and more soldiers stirring then joining the chase. There was a dock ahead now. Canoes moored to it. I didn’t have time for them, though. Couldn’t slow down.

I hit the dock at full sprint, my boots thunking on the wood and echoing for all the world to hear. It didn’t matter though. A moment later I reached the end of the dock and leapt for all I was worth.

The air whipped past me and, for a moment, it felt like I was flying. Then gravity took over and I plunged downward. Hit the water just as I sucked down one last breath and then my world was darkness and churning bubbles.

The river rushed up my nose, in my ears. My boots hit the muddy bottom and I let momentum carry me downward until my knees were bent and loaded. I tilted forward and pushed off, launching myself forward through the dark water.

I couldn’t see where I was going, but there was a current to the water. I could feel it. Not fast, but strong enough to guide me. My lungs burned, begged for air, but I could hold out longer. Every extra moment I stayed below the surface was another that my pursuers couldn’t find me.

Kicking and stroking for all I was worth, I followed the current into the night.