The Emperor's Edge

The Emperor's Edge Ch. 16 Pt. 1

“Your name?” the sergeant asked.

Perched on an uncomfortable wooden chair, Amaranthe flirted with making up an identity, but with her wanted posters plastering the city, the soldiers would figure it out sooner or later. Besides, her interrogator would probably see through her lies.

Hard, experienced eyes studied her from beneath graying eyebrows. A scar ran down his cheek, tugging his lip into a sneer that made it look as if he had eaten something unpleasant for breakfast. His last prisoner perhaps.

“Amaranthe Lokdon,” she said.

No one sat at the lone desk, but two armed guards stood by the office’s only door. It was open, and a man wearing captain’s pins leaned against the frame and further blocked the route. At least the soldiers were questioning her here instead of some dank interrogation chamber, though the vertical iron bars securing the sole window offered little hope of escape. No one had bound her hands, but with so many soldiers around, she failed to see how it mattered.

“Occupation?” the sergeant asked.

Counterfeiter of money, plotter against business coalitions, and all-around hindrance to Commander of the Armies Hollowcrest. “Enforcer.”

“What district?”

“Commercial.”

The sergeant strolled around the room, hands clasped behind his back. His boots alternately clacked or thudded as he crossed back and forth over a thin rug. It did little to cover the web of cracks marring the concrete floor, evidence of the building’s age.

“A female enforcer,” he said. “There can’t be many. It’ll be easy enough to check your story.”

“I imagine so.”

“Women warriors. Ridiculous notion. You can’t beat a man in a fight.”

“Depends on the man,” she said. “Why don’t we leave the fort, just you and me, and we can test your theory?”

The sergeant steered a frosty look her direction. “Who’s your friend that ran?”

Amaranthe hesitated. In the doorway, the captain’s eyes narrowed. She shifted on the hard chair. The sergeant dropped his fists on the desk, leaned on them, and glared at her.

“My partner,” she said.

The sergeant snorted. “That man is no enforcer. He evaded our soldiers slicker than a greased fish.”

“Did he kill anyone?” Amaranthe asked. Please, no more deaths on my hands.

“It depends on how much you two had to do with the men who were murdered by the lake and under the water tower.”

“We had nothing to do with that,” Amaranthe said. “We were only following the trail to see what did kill them.” She leaned forward and gripped the edge of the desk. “And we did. We saw it, and we fled from it. Your men need to be very careful. It’s not a bear or panther, like the papers said. It’s much worse.”

“Oh?”

Amaranthe frowned. The sergeant sounded more skeptical than interested. Was he not concerned about his lost men?

“Yes, oh,” she said.

“What did you see?”

“It was like a cougar but much bigger. It was strong, but it wasn’t graceful. It was ugly and blocky—like something molded out of clay. It’s not of natural origins.”

The sergeant exchanged significant glances with the captain, who was apparently content to let his man do the questioning while he observed. A part of her wanted to tell them about everything: Forge’s assassination threats, Hollowcrest’s drugging of the emperor, and her suspicions about the creature. But they would never believe her. Still, if there was a chance she could get them in on the monster hunt, she had to try. After seeing Sicarius’s knife clank uselessly off the beast’s eye, she knew killing it was beyond her team.