Dark Currents by Lindsay Buroker Read Free Book Online

shoulder. Startled, she took a step, and her heel slid on a slimy patch. A quick arm flail kept her from toppling into the channel or falling against him, but it was anything but graceful. She attempted to turn the movement into a casual lean against the wall. Basilard’s eyebrows lifted, but Akstyr was still puzzling out the channels and did not seem to notice her lack of suaveness.
    “So, Sicarius.” Something moist fuzzed the wall beneath Amaranthe’s hand. She gave up the pretense, slipped a kerchief out of her pocket, and wiped off the mildewy residue. “Find anything interesting?”
    “No.”
    “Find anything boring?” She smiled.
    Sicarius favored her with his usual humorless face.
    “I wanna check something,” Akstyr said.
    He backed up for a running start and leaped across the channel to the other side, the side where a flat, bland wall stood instead of the fourth passage the map said should be there. The ledge was only a foot wide, and his momentum smashed him into the bricks, but he managed to keep from bouncing back into the water.
    “Something over there?” Amaranthe asked.
    “The wall is solid.” Akstyr massaged his hand where it had mashed against the brick.
    “You don’t sense anything odd about that spot, do you?”
    “The wall?” Akstyr asked. “No.”
    Sicarius was watching her, probably wondering at her string of questions. She showed him the map, which he studied briefly.
    “An error,” he said.
    She had feared he would simply say she had led them the wrong direction and was glad he thought it a problem with the map.
    “Akstyr thinks this intersection is odd,” Amaranthe said. “Do you sense anything?” He had far more experience with the Science than she did and likely more than Akstyr as well.
    Sicarius considered the passages. “No.”
    “Really? Is it possible his nose for magic is better than yours?”
    She meant it as a simple question, not an insult, but his expression grew chilly.
    “In their eagerness to practice their craft, neophytes learning the mental sciences often sense things that are not there.”
    Akstyr scowled at him. “You think I’m imagining things?”
    Sicarius turned the chilly gaze on him. Akstyr’s chin lifted mulishly, but he looked away first. A resentful curl remained on his lips.
    “Basilard, why don’t you and Akstyr explore that direction?” Amaranthe pointed to the right. “Our goal is still to find the source of those bodies, so check manholes and access points along the way, but if Akstyr senses anything more, feel free to veer off to investigate.”
    “A waste of time,” Sicarius said.
    Amaranthe gave him a nudge toward the channel on the left. “Sicarius and I will explore this direction.” She dug out a pocket watch. “Unless you find something worth exploring, meet back at the pumping house in two hours, and we’ll investigate the gambling joint.”
    Basilard nodded and led the way down the indicated tunnel. Akstyr, hands stuffed in his pockets, slouched after him.
    As Amaranthe and Sicarius headed the opposite direction, she clamped down on her tongue to keep from bringing up his lack of tact and the problems inherent in offending people. It would sound like nagging, and she did not want to alert him to her hunch that Akstyr did not seem the sort to forgive insults. Suggesting he might be a threat one day would only get him a knife in his back. Besides, she hoped, amongst comrades who cared, Akstyr would grow into a better man.
    Water spilled out of a massive pipe in the far wall. Amaranthe eyed it as they passed, still suspicious of that side of the channel. Maybe the old waterway had been bricked in and the flow diverted to this exit point. If so, why would the map not have been updated?
    She thought of investigating it, but the channel had widened around the pipe, creating a pool too great even for Sicarius to jump.
    They continued onward until they reached a ninety-degree turn. Amaranthe halted on the corner.
    “This is