Cold Steel

The captain shouted a command. Rifles leveled, pointing at me.

“Stand down, gal!” cried Captain Tira.

A gust of wind roared through the cave with a squall of blown sand. The lamps whooshed out. A rifle went off. The sting of its powder lanced up my nostrils. A hand fastened on my shoulder. I twisted away, grabbed the arm, and bit. The man shrieked, reeling away. Men shouted as the lamps crashed to the ground and shattered with a gush of oil that abruptly flamed into bright fire.

The scent of guava flooded the air. A person who looked like me raced past them out the cave mouth. To my left stood a third opia looking just like me. Everyone started shouting at once. In the confusion I dashed for the back of the cave. Another gust of wind doused the burning oil, drenching the cave in darkness. I thudded into a man’s body which I knew instantly as Vai’s.

“Yee brother and cousin is safe. Follow me.”

We splashed through the string of caves up which we had so recently climbed. I stumbled more than once, stubbing my toes on rocks. Blood dribbled down my foot to smear the ground.

When we passed from the mortal world into the spirit world I did not know. But in the dense night of the cave, a big cat’s body nudged up beside me. A long incisor grazed my hip as my hand slipped across his moist nose. He licked me with a raspy tongue. I giggled.

“My feet are coated with slime!” exclaimed Bee in the darkness. “It’s disgusting.”

I laughed.

“Shh!” The opia pulled me close, lips pressed to my ear. “We’s not out of danger.”

Even knowing I was grasping a stranger—a dead man!—I could not stifle the tremor of arousal I felt at the familiar shape I had my arms around, his strong shoulders, his solid chest. He even had the sawdust-and-sweat scent of Vai as well as the mouthwatering fragrance of guava.

“Then it’s best if we hurry,” I whispered, my irritation at my body’s unwanted reaction making my voice a hiss.

“We can bide a few breaths here, gal, as long as we bide quiet-like. The maku soldiers cannot venture any deeper into the cave. ’Tis a small reward to ask that yee kiss me, don’ yee reckon?” he murmured in Vai’s coaxing voice. His lips brushed my mouth.

I stiffened my entire body, as Vai had done when my sire had teased him with my form in the coach. “I don’t reckon. Not with my brother and cousin right next to me! And the cacica’s head in the basket.”

“She cannot see with the basket closed up tight, can she?”

“They warned me that opia are dangerous spirits. Why do you appear to me as my husband?”

“Because it vex yee,” he whispered, laughter in his tone. “And I like yee when yee is vexed.”

A little stab of laughter shook me. “Who are you?”

He rubbed his cheek against mine, the bristle of beard making me shiver. “Just one kiss like that one yee gave me in yee room in Expedition, when yee thought I was him. Don’ yee think yee owe me?”

“You haven’t gotten us to Europa yet.”

“For the chance of it, gal.”

“Let me see the face you wore when you were a living man.”

He chuckled. “I like the stubborn way yee never give up.”

Blessed Tanit, but I took the chance of it. Rory didn’t care, the cacica’s head was safe in the basket, and it was too dark for Bee to see anything. I pressed my mouth to his. For a single searing kiss, I pretended I was holding Vai. It was a good kiss, strong and sweet.

“Cat, where are you? What is going on?” Bee’s hand brushed my shoulder like the flutter of a feather across my skin. Her fingers dug into my upper arm. “What are you doing?”

His hand slid down my arm and caught hold of my fingers as he stepped back.

“Cat, there is someone else here with us,” Bee said ominously.

“He’s an opia. He’s helping us so we can do something for him. Help me carry the chest.” I hoisted one end of the chest by its rope handle. “It was very clever of you to bring the chest, Bee.”

“Cleverness had nothing to do with it. It was pure desperation. I’d already hidden the other two when Drake caught me with this one. The moment he saw Andevai’s dash jackets, I saw murder in his eyes. Sartorial murder. I couldn’t bear the thought of all that expensive fabric and fine tailoring blazing into ash.”

“How came you to have all our gear?”

“I got all three chests from Lucretia before I left for Sharagua. I told her I would deliver them to you. Gracious Melqart, Cat. I must ask, how many fashionable dash jackets can one man own?”