The lady ward looked over the assemblage of men and women fanning the flames for her comfort. None dared look back at her or her brother, but there was an air of unease, a sense of tension, the normal feeling of their total surrender was no longer palpable. Amanda felt oddly vulnerable, and didn’t like it one bit.
“What is the status of our gas?” she asked quickly, her hand going for the electronic switch in the pocket of her clothes.
He sniffed. “There is enough, no, there is more than enough.”
Amanda kept a neutral expression to the bad news. That was their private code. When in public, if either of them added a negative response in the middle of a sentence, it meant the entire sentence was a lie. So there was just barely enough gas in the vaults to protect them.
“Emergency storage?” she asked pointedly.
“It’s finished cooking, no, it was finished yesterday. There’s all we should need and more.”
Blast! More bad news. Nervously, she rose from the chair and crossed her arms. Her long blond hair was piled high on top of her head. Her gown was the purest white, her slippers crushed velvet, the sawed-off shotgun tucked into her sash delicately covered with the finest silver filigree.
“They can’t have gone,” she declared aloud, referring to the missing captives, as if trying to convince herself. “So they must still be here. But where? And what are they planning?”
“Escape is most likely. Unless they’re really Sons of the Knife, paving the way for the coldhearts to try another raid.”
“Paving the way, bow?” she asked. “We’re on full alert. That only makes us harder to attack.”
“Right now, yes,” Richard countered, squinting slightly as a stray breeze brought smoke to his face. In the courtyard, a whip cracked, a slave screamed and the fanning increased vigorously. “But after ten, twelve hours we’ll be tired,” he went on. “Hell, mebbe they’re sacrifices, trying to make our father use up all of the spare gas.”
Damn, what an unpleasant idea that was. “No,” she decided. “The tank is the target. It must be. I think we had better have the guards prepare all of our wall weapons.”
“Whatever for?” Richard asked, honestly puzzled. “Their vehicle is already inside.”
Both turned toward the canvas tent. It was beyond the circle of braziers, rich with shadows, and from underneath the sheeting came the noise of workmen banging steadily.
“Appears as if it’s still there, Doesn’t it?” Richard said in satisfaction.
“Do you really think Ryan will fall for the same trick twice?” Amanda asked.
“Even if he’s told the tank isn’t under the canvas,” Richard said with a smirk, “he’ll still have to send people to double-check. Whether it’s Ryan himself, his brat or bitch, we’ll be ready.”
“Unless they avoid the gas again. It only repelled them last time,” Amanda glowered. “And if they should find out where their machine really is and get it started, how will we stop them from reaching the northern pass without the wall blasters?”
“Bah. The defensives along the main road-”
“Are designed to keep the invaders out, not prisoners in.” She rubbed her lip, gently adjusting her new tooth. “We should triple the guards in the tower or, better yet, have them remove the tires.”
Richard blinked. “Remove? Why not just slash them? It’s a lot easier and faster.”
“Because we’ll need the tires to operate it ourselves,” she spit in uncontrolled fury. “And that large a size is hard to find intact. Those are military tires, not merely ones from a truck. Destroying the tires would be stupidity. Removing them will retard any attempt to escape.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling slowly. “I see. It should take them at least an hour, perhaps more, to put them back on. And in fifteen minutes we could flood the entire ville with gas.”
Richard took her hand and kissed it. “So wise, and yet so beautiful. You will be a worthy queen.”
“If we survive,” Amanda replied sourly, reclaiming her hand. It was sloppy with spit, but she dared not wipe it clean.
“If? But surely everything is under control.”
“Not quite. We have the tank in our possession, true, and are finally inside, but we still can’t turn on any of the systems!”