by Martha Wells
Moon tossed the weapon over the rail and climbed up the wall, pausing at the top for a careful look across the cabin rooftops. No movement, and the remaining distance-light couldn’t turn far enough to shine on this area. He slung himself and Merit atop the roof and started toward the stern.
They reached the end of the roof and Moon crouched to see over the edge. The distance-light and fire weapon platform was much lower down on the far end of the stern, and there was another cabin section in the way. If they were quiet, the Hians on that platform shouldn’t hear them. He whispered to Merit, “They gave you Fell poison?” The light was bad but he still couldn’t see scale markings on Merit’s brown skin.
“A little,” Merit whispered back. He shivered and wiped his mouth. “I don’t think they realized how much I spit back up.”
The sound of waves breaking on the beach and on the rocks under the metal causeway was louder. The explosion of the bow’s fire weapon must have damaged whatever had held the boat steady on the lines of force that crossed the Three Worlds, and the crosswind had driven it out over the ruin. The hum of the insect-lizards rose, as those driven off by the explosion returned to the lure of the bug paste.
Moon growled under his breath. “Any time, Stone.”
Merit whispered, “What are we waiting—” Below, a hatch opened under a stairwell landing. With a faint choked sound, a Hian flew out and over the deck railing, vanishing as she fell into the shadows. “Stone!” Merit gasped.
Moon tightened his grip on Merit and caught the edge of the roof. As three dark figures stepped onto the platform, he swung down to land beside them.
“I couldn’t find Callumkal,” Stone said. Bramble stood beside him in her scaled form, her spines twitching in agitation and the salty tang of fresh blood on her scales. She and Delin smelled like Merit, a bitter scent of captivity, of confinement and no access to fresh air.
Moon set Merit on his feet and the mentor grabbed Bramble in relief, and wrapped an arm around Delin to pull him into the embrace. The corridor behind them was dark; Stone must have been ripping the liquid lights out of the walls as he went along. Someone called in Kedaic and someone else called back, but it was muffled, at least a couple of corridors over. Stone was saying, “He’s somewhere on the level below this one, I could scent him in the draft coming from that direction. The Hians cut off that stairwell and I didn’t want to try to get past them with these two.”
“We have to get the artifact too,” Bramble said in a breathless rush. “I told Stone, it’s a weapon, a bad one, worse than anything we thought—”
“Do you know where it is?” Moon asked.
Delin said, “Vendoin has it somewhere.”
Stone asked them, “Can Vendoin use it on us?”
Bramble said, “Not yet, she doesn’t know how, she has to take it somewhere.”
That couldn’t be right. Moon said, “But she used it on the Fell at that river town.”
Bramble’s spines flicked in an urgent negative. “No, Aldoan used it and died. The others don’t know how she made it work!”
Moon hesitated. The artifact was important, but they couldn’t leave without Callumkal. Moon had no intention of telling Kalam that they had left his father behind. He told Stone, “You take them, get out of here. I’ll find Callumkal. Remember to stay away from the stern. That fire weapon can’t turn far enough over this way.”
Stone bared his teeth in frustration. “Get caught and I will come back and slap you unconscious.”
“Right, because otherwise getting caught by these people sounds so attractive,” Moon snarled.
Stone snarled back and jumped backward off the boat.
His scaled form flowed into being just in time to disappear into the haze of insect-lizards below. Moon told the others, “You’re going to have to jump.”
Delin made a faint noise in his throat, then croaked, “I see.”
Merit told Delin, “It’ll be all right, he’ll catch us.”
His voice tight, Delin added, “One of you will have to push me.”
Moon caught his arm. “Just relax, it’ll be fine.”
Below, Stone’s shape materialized out of the cloud of insects. As he turned sideways, Moon snapped, “Merit, now!”
Merit leapt off the platform. In the dark and the haze of insect movement, Moon didn’t see Stone catch him. Several long heartbeats later Stone returned for a second pass with a lighter shape clinging just below his shoulder. “Bramble, you’re next.”
“No, I should stay here with you.” Bramble’s voice was hoarse and determined. “I’ll help you find Callumkal.”
Moon hissed at her, but there was no time to argue. Watching for Stone, he said, “If you jump, I’ll give you a clutch whenever you want.”
Bramble, clearly braced for snarling and orders, blinked, distracted. “What, really?”
“Really.” As Stone appeared in the cloud of insects, Moon gave Bramble a shove. She flailed and fell. Stone caught her neatly in one hand and turned to come around for his next pass.
Delin groaned. “I am not looking forward to this.”
Just as Stone appeared below again, a scatter of wooden disks landed on the platform. Moon shoved Delin off with more force than he had originally intended. Then he crouched and flipped down to land on the lower hull just as fire washed the platform above him. The heat warmed his scales and he climbed rapidly, knowing he would blend in with the dark green moss and make a poor target.
He hadn’t seen Stone catch Delin, but Stone’s big form vanished into the insect cloud with a flip of his tail, so Moon hoped for the best.
Jade rode the wind, scouting ahead with Balm. The sun had set and it was too dark to see much ahead, and they would need to return to the wind-ship soon. At least stretching her wings and fighting the strong salt-scented wind helped keep her anxiety and irritation in check. The last thing Jade needed to do was bite a warrior’s head off.
They passed into an open valley where the ground rose up to form rocky hills, all of it shrouded in deep shadow. “We should go back,” Balm called.
Jade could feel her spines twitch impatiently. Draman had said they were close, that the two moss samples, the Hians’ and Moon and Stone’s, had been converging at a point not far ahead. Jade had hoped to find the two consorts before they found the Hians, but flying around aimlessly in the dark wasn’t going to help, even though it gave her the illusion of doing something.
She began, “Right, let’s—” then she saw the flash of light above the cliffs. She hissed in a startled breath.
Balm slipped sideways in her excitement. “There! That was a—”
“Kishan distance-light,” Jade finished as it flashed again. “Go back, warn the wind-ship! I’ll wait here.”
Balm banked to head back to the others and Jade tilted her wings to land on the rocky crag of the hill overlooking the beach. Finally, their quarry was in sight.
The Hians would be watching the starboard side of the boat, where they had last spotted Raksura, so Moon climbed down, claws sinking into the thick moss, all the way under the hull. The still-working starboard distance-light swept the cloud of insects, catching iridescent reflections off carapaces and wings, as Moon climbed up the port side.
Moon reached the deck and flattened his spines to cautiously poke his head up over the railing. He spotted movement atop a cabin roof; there were Hians up there, but they faced away from him, clearly still expecting him to appear on that side. He wasn’t sure whether they had seen Stone or not. They must be aware that their captives were escaping but there was no telling how many Raksura they thought were on the boat.
He eased over the railing and dropped to the deck, then crawled to the nearest hatch and slipped inside. This corridor ran parallel to the deck, and was for the moment empty. Stone had been cut off from the stern stairwell, so Moon went forward, this time trying to make as little noise as possible. Stone had also been hampered by having to stay in his groundling form in order to fit inside the
boat, and trying to keep Bramble and Delin from being recaptured. Moon hoped for better luck.
He heard movement and stepped into the nearest door, a cabin with narrow beds and cabinets built into the walls. The footsteps ran past. Moon slipped out and made it to the next stairwell. He crouched at the foot, listening and tasting the air.
The lower corridor and the cross-corridor that branched off the stairwell were empty. Most of the Hians would be up on the decks where they expected the next attack to come from. Moon moved rapidly down the cross-corridor, looking for cabins with sealed and reinforced doors.
The moss scent was strong, especially the further toward the stern he went, nearer to the moss-driven motivator that kept the boat aloft, and Moon had to filter it out of the other scents. Stone had probably been able to find Delin because his senses were so much more acute than Moon’s, and because he knew Delin’s personal scent. Moon knew Callumkal’s, but Janderan and Janderi had skins nearly as tough and thick as scales; they didn’t sweat like soft-skinned groundlings, and it made their scent less easy to detect.
But Moon had been close enough to Delin to scent illness on his skin and clothing. He was betting Callumkal wasn’t in much better shape.
At the next intersection he caught the bitter scent of recent sickness. He followed it around to another winding corridor. As he started down it he heard movement and voices from the direction of the stern. That had to be the stairwell Stone had found guarded. Moon turned away from it first, but the scent faded. Hissing to himself in irritation he turned back and crept toward the stern. Barely ten paces from the bottom of the stairs he found a door reinforced with embedded bars. Bracing himself, Moon thought, this is going to have to be fast. And if it wasn’t Callumkal in there, Moon would lose his chance to rescue him.
Moon took hold of a bar, braced his foot against the wall, and yanked it with all his strength. Something snapped inside the door, far too loudly, and half the door came out of the wall. Moon dropped it and flung himself into the room.
Callumkal lay on a padded bench, unconscious and stinking of sickness. A Hian, either guard or nurse, had been sitting on a stool and was just now standing, scrabbling for the fire weapon lying on the floor. Moon snapped out the end of his wing to punch her in the face with the tip. As she fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, Moon snatched up the fire weapon, looped the strap over his arm, and then grabbed Callumkal.
He darted into the corridor and raced away as the Hians from the stairwell shouted the alarm. Callumkal felt like a dead weight in his arms, but there was no time to stop and see if he was breathing. Moon reached the stairwell, slung Callumkal’s limp body over one arm, pointed the fire weapon down the corridor and triggered it twice. The fire roared just as the Hians dashed out of the cross-corridor. They retreated in a mad scramble and Moon ran up the stairs.
He reached the landing and heard movement from both corridors in the junction; he was cut off from the outer door on the port side. He went the only way left, and burst out through a hatchway onto the lower bow deck. Vendoin, Bemadin, and the other Hian, Lavinat, stood on the platform just above.
There was a frozen instant where Moon stared at them and they stared at him. Then Lavinat lifted a silver and crystal shape. Moon recognized it instantly. It was the foundation builder weapon, the crystal inside its cage of metal.
He turned to go over the railing but the boat’s deck shuddered under him, and he staggered sideways. Looking down he realized the boat was barely twenty paces from the top of one of the ruin’s metal rings. The night, which had still been filled with the hum of the insect-lizards, abruptly went quiet as the whole swarm shot away down the beach. So Moon had lost his cover and he and Callumkal were probably about to die anyway, from the foundation builder weapon or the fire weapons of the Hians running across the bow deck toward him. There was no other option, and Moon would rather die in the air, so he crouched and leapt off the boat into the sea wind.
And then everything went black.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
For a heartbeat the darkness was burning cold and absolute. Then suddenly dim cloudy starlight shone, the wind moving cool and sweet.
Moon clutched at Callumkal, relieved he hadn’t dropped him in that strange instant of deprived senses. He tilted his wings to slow and control his fall. The sudden darkness was baffling. He still couldn’t see the gleam of waves breaking on the beach, or on the verdigrised metal of the old ruin, or . . . He couldn’t hear the waves, either. That can’t be good, Moon thought, a knot of fear growing in his chest. Something had happened and he wondered if this was what the Fell at the river trading city had felt, right before their bodies had come apart.
But the sky was still there. Faint stars, obscured by far more clouds than there had been when he and Stone had flown to the flying boat. When he looked down, his eyes had adjusted enough to make out a shape below, like the bulb of a giant flower. It was in about the same spot as the edge of the ruin, but it hadn’t been there earlier. Wary, he banked sideways away from it.
Overhead, from the direction of the flying boat, Moon heard someone shout in Kedaic, but the voice cut off abruptly. He registered the difference in the air: there was no scent of the sea, and it was dryer and cooler. As his body adjusted to the abrupt change, something told him they were much higher above the ground now, as high as a snow-covered mountaintop, at least. We moved, we went up, he realized.
That took a little of the terror of the unknown out of the situation. It must be something the ruin had done, maybe not that different from the forerunner tunnel that had given the sunsailer such a violent exit from the foundation builder city.
His throat dry, Moon took a deep taste of the wind and caught the scent of familiar Raksura.
Moon hissed in relief and adjusted his course, heading toward the scent’s origin. Another bulbous shape caught a gleam of light. Something dark moved against it and Moon took the chance and called out, “Stone!”
Bramble’s voice, ragged and frightened, answered, “Here!”
Moon dropped toward her and landed on the curve of the bulb, his claws skittering for purchase on the strange soft material. From here he could just see the outline of Stone’s dark shape. Guessing that Stone was perched on something, Moon hissed, “Look out, I’m coming down.” He jumped, cupping his wings in case the surface was closer or farther than he thought.
He landed on a ledge that felt like smooth rock. He whispered, “Stone, you all right?”
Wings scraped the ground as Stone moved. Delin groaned, and Bramble said, tentatively, “Moon? Where are we?”
“I don’t know.” Moon edged toward her voice and brushed against the tip of Stone’s wing. “I’ve got Callumkal. He’s unconscious.” He carefully put Callumkal down on the paving and patted his face, but there was no reaction. At least Callumkal was still breathing. “Delin, are you all right?”
“It’s my head,” Delin said, thickly, “and my stomach. I’ll be well in a moment.”
Moon felt the displaced air as Stone shifted to groundling. Stone said, “Something’s wrong with Merit.”
Moon hissed in dismay. Above them wispy clouds fragmented and more stars shone, just enough light for Moon to make out the shapes of Delin and the Arbora. Stone crouched in front of Merit, who was folded up into as small a ball as possible, his arms wrapped around his head. Bramble huddled nearby and Delin wavered beside her.
As Stone leaned over Merit, Moon turned to face out into the darkness. With the slightly brighter starlight, he saw they were at the edge of a large ruin.
More flower-like blubs stood at different heights across an open space that formed a deep pool of shadow a few hundred paces wide. He tasted the air again, and caught the scents of rock and dust and fresh water, and the more distant hint of greenery and dirt. It was quiet except for faint high-pitch sounds that he could identify as water insects. This had to be a forerunner ruin. Something had happened to the ruin on the beach, it had made some sort of magic a
nd sent them inland, to another ruin on top of a mountain. He remembered Lavinat had been holding the weapon right before he had leapt off the boat, and hissed under his breath. It must have other uses than just killing. If she caused this . . . It would be typical.
They needed to get to cover; if the flying boat used its remaining distance-lights, it could find them easily.
Bramble crept up beside him. He felt her tremble against his scales and put his arm around her. She huddled into his side and said, “I thought you were all dead. Vendoin said you weren’t, and the way she was so worried about someone coming after her, it didn’t make sense if you were. But I was still so afraid.”
Moon hesitated, but he felt waiting would be worse. “Song is dead, from the poison the Hians gave us. They killed Magrim, and Kellimdar, too.”
Bramble made a noise like all the air had been knocked out of her. Behind him, Delin groaned, and muttered a curse. In a small voice, Bramble said, “Where’s Jade?”
“She’s following us with the warriors, probably on Niran and Diar’s wind-ship.” Moon just hoped they hadn’t been transported beyond the moss’s direction-finding range.
Bramble curled tighter into Moon’s side, and Delin said, “Ah. Niran must be beside himself.”
“You could say that,” Moon admitted. “Diar isn’t thrilled about it either.”
Behind him, he heard Merit say weakly, “I’m all right, it’s just my head. I heard—I thought I heard—I don’t know.”
Moon felt his spines try to lift. Strange voices in your head while you were in a forerunner ruin were never a good thing. Bramble slipped away from his side to go to Merit. Stone said, “We need to find shelter.”
Moon agreed. They had the Hians to worry about, and there might be any number of predators stalking this place. He eased to his feet. “Try to get inside this bulb thing?”
Stone grunted an assent. Bramble said, “I’ll carry Callumkal.”
It was best, as it would leave Stone free to shift. As Stone helped her sling Callumkal over her shoulder, Moon pulled Delin to his feet, then steered him to Merit. “Delin, take care of Merit.”
