Encrypted by Lindsay Buroker Page B

glanced at the guards trailing them.
Maybe, as part of his punishment, he was forbidden from using his
old name.
    He lowered his voice. “My friends and
family, back when I had them...” He grimaced. “They called me
Rias.”
    “ Rias?”
    Tikaya had a feeling that was a nickname or
a truncation. Regardless, it gave her no hints as to his identity.
Since she had decrypted all the communications her people had
intercepted, she knew most, if not all, of the Turgonian officers
with enough rank to command a vessel, and she could not think of
any name with those syllables.
    “ My name is Tikaya,” she
said. “And, now that we’re on a first-name basis, maybe you can
tell me what you’re supposed to convince me of, Rias.”
    Their route had taken them to the archery
lane. Rias paused by the rack of staves, and the guards tensed,
their fingers finding the triggers of their pistols.
    “ No weapons,” the lead man
said.
    “ Captain,” Rias called.
“May we shoot?”
    In the center of the exercise area, Bocrest
knelt on a young officer’s back, with the man’s arm twisted in a
lock. The captain scowled over at them.
    “ May you shoot ? What is this, the
Officers’ Club? Perhaps I can get you some brandywine and lobster
too?”
    “ Captain, are you inviting
me to dinner?” Rias rested his hand on his chest. “I’m
touched.”
    Red flushed Bocrest’s face, and Tikaya
wondered at the wisdom of teasing the man. If the captain had a
sense of humor, she had not detected it. But he waved a disgusted
hand at the guards.
    “ Let them
shoot.”
    “ Sir?” The lead guard’s
mouth gaped open.
    “ You heard me,” Bocrest
barked.
    “ Yes, sir.”
    Tikaya eyed Rias. “It seems your word means
something to the captain.”
    “ He knows it’s all I have
left.”
    Bleakness stripped away his humor, reminding
her that pain lurked beneath the facade he was showing her today.
He caught her watching and reaffixed his smile.
    “ Tikaya,” he said slowly,
trying her name out, then nodding to himself as if he approved. “To
answer your question, despite his threats —” Rias scowled, “—the
captain has doubts about your intentions. He believes I should
convince you to help him wholeheartedly with his
mission.”
    She selected the bow she had used the day
before. “Why, when he’s keeping you chained in the brig, does he
think you’d be inclined to speak on his behalf?”
    “ He believes that my
indoctrinated loyalty to the empire will overrule whatever
revulsion I feel for him and those who took everything from
me.”
    “ They must do a lot of
indoctrinating in Turgonian schools.”
    Rias sighed. “Oh, they do.”
    “ And do you think I should help? You
recognized something about those symbols when I showed you the
rubbing. What was it?”
    He did not answer, though she did not think
him recalcitrant. His gaze grew far away, his face grim, as if some
painful memories had swallowed him and he had forgotten her.
    Maybe archery would loosen his mind and
unlock his thoughts for sharing. She shot a few times, leaving
arrows quivering around the red dot in the target. A stiffer breeze
scraped across the deck today.
    Rias stirred and selected his own
arrows.
    “ Want to make a wager?”
Tikaya asked, thinking she might be able to get him to talk more
freely about the symbols if he owed her from a lost bet.
    His grimness faded and he slanted her a
knowing gaze. “I suspect that would be unwise.”
    “ Captain Bocrest did
it.”
    “ Then I’m certain it’s
unwise.”
    Tikaya grinned. “Maybe I just got a lucky
shot.”
    “ I doubt it.”
    “ Why?” All the marines had
been stunned when she hit the target.
    He shrugged. “The Kyattese are bow
hunters.”
    “ Well...” She smiled and
twirled an arrow in the air. “If you’re afraid...”
    Rias splayed a hand across his chest. “When
you were learning our language, did you not also learn that we are
a fearless people? I simply don’t want to take advantage of