Emperor's Edge Republic by Lindsay Buroker Read Free Book Online Page A

around for a while, then get steamed up and rubbed down by the ladies.” Maldynado winked.
    Mahliki thought Yara might scowl at this mention of a rubdown, but perhaps not. Mahliki’s one and only experience in a Turgonian bath had left her with bruises. She wasn’t sure what had been worse, the pummeling by the rotund loincloth-clad masseur or the flaying of her skin by the scrub lady with tree trunks for arms. If anything sexual ever happened in those baths, she doubted it was with the employees.
    “Er,” Sespian said again. “I have to finish—”
    “Please go with him,” Yara said, a tinge of desperation to her voice. “He misses his friends.”
    “Oh,” Sespian said. “I can understand that. You and Basilard were close, weren’t you?”
    “Despite the fact that he cheated ruthlessly at every dice, tile, or card game that you played with him, yes,” Maldynado said.
    Yara mouthed, “Never happened,” to Mahliki.
    Mahliki smiled but found her gaze drifting toward the plant. Her parents had sent her down to study it, but she would have come of her own accord anyway. She had seen nothing like it, not in any of her travels, nor in any of her books, and it fascinated her. It could be some practitioner’s project that had gotten out of hand—or perhaps it was doing precisely what its creator had intended—but what if it were some natural mutation?
    “It’s hard to believe, but I miss Akstyr too,” Maldynado said. “Even if he was appallingly uncouth, he was just getting interesting when he left. And Sicarius? Well, all right, I don’t really miss him, but Amaranthe, for sure. And, ah...” His eyes grew distant as he gazed down the waterfront.
    “Books,” Sespian said quietly.
    This remembrance of old comrades Mahliki barely knew made her feel like an outsider. It would be an opportune time to start work, though she was hesitant to leave Sespian, lest he walk off with them instead of with her.
    She touched his arm. “I’ll be on that dock over there. If you still have time, those drawings would help.” She lifted a hand toward the others. “Good day.”
    Though she told herself not to, she glanced over her shoulder to see if Sespian would follow or if he looked aggrieved that he had to go off with her instead of staying with them. His face didn’t suggest that, though he was probably politically minded enough to mask his thoughts. He shared a few more words with his comrades, received another solid thump on the shoulder from Maldynado, and strode after her.
    Mahliki plucked a specimen collection kit of out the satchel she carried, though most of the tools were inadequate for such a large plant. The wooden dock, though broad and of recent construction, creaked and groaned as she walked down it. Not due to her presence, but because the vines wrapping the pilings and boards were applying pressure as they grew at an alarming rate. She paused near a clump of tendrils sticking out of the water like grass—albeit grass with inch-thick stems. Their tips wavered in the breeze, and one had a bulbous tip. She had observed those bulbs on her last trip, but none of them had been near enough for collection. She had a hunch that bud might produce a flower eventually, and she would love a chance to dissect the pistol, stamen, and ovule, or whatever organs it ended up having in there.
    “Be careful.” Sespian eyed the bulb. “Sergeant Yara said people have gone missing down here the last two nights. She’s not ready to blame the plant, but everyone on the force talks about the oddity of it. An, ah, magical oddity. I know you Kyattese think us primitive for calling it that, but—” He shrugged and opened his sketch pad.
    “You’re not primitive. It’s just strange that the mental sciences aren’t practiced here at all, and that so many people don’t even believe people can do things with their minds.”
    Sespian had started sketching, but he stopped to point a pencil at the tendrils. “Can you tell if