by Martha Wells
The half-Fell queen stood on the edge of the dock, holding the bleeding dakti by the neck. She tossed it into the water.
Moon sprang backward and almost rammed into a pillar. Then Jade landed between them.
For a long heartbeat, they were all frozen, crouching, ready to attack or flee. Then the Fell queen said, “You saw what I did.” She was speaking to Jade.
Jade said, “I saw. That’s why you still have your head.”
The Fell queen flicked her tail, an oddly Raksuran gesture. Teeth gritted, trying not to breathe too loudly and upset the fragile balance of the situation, Moon wondered if she had much control over her spines, if she used them to express emotion and communicate. Or if she didn’t know how.
The Fell queen eased to a standing position and Jade copied her, the two moving in time with each other. The Fell queen said, “I want to talk.” She spoke Raksuran, but her pronunciation was oddly accented.
Jade said, “How did you control the sealings?”
Yes, Moon thought, keep her distracted. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the stern of the sunsailer moving toward the doorway.
The Fell queen answered, “That was the other flight. The sealings aren’t under control, the progenitor asked them to attack you. She found their spawning ground. Now they have to do what she says.”
So they were right, it wasn’t one flight nesting in two different places, but two flights. That ... doesn’t necessarily help, Moon thought.
The Fell queen stepped to the side, tilting her head as if trying to see Moon better. “I don’t want to fight.”
Jade’s spines flicked. “You know, that’s what all Fell say. So unless you have something more interesting to add—”
“We chased away the other flight. You’ve seen it.”
Jade said, “So you don’t want to share your prey. How does that not surprise me?”
“I don’t want prey. I want your help.”
“We’ve heard all this before. You’re hardly the first to try this.”
Moon, his senses hyper-alert, felt something change in the water lapping over his claws. It might just be a wake from the sunsailer’s passage, but the angle and the force of it was wrong. Jade hadn’t given any indication she had noticed.
The Fell queen tilted her head, another Raksuran mannerism. “The other flight wanted something in the city. Let us come in with you.”
Jade laughed. “We’re going into the city to get away from you. Surely you noticed that.”
“But you don’t know what’s inside. We know what the other flight told us.”
“Then tell me. Prove I should listen to you.”
The Fell queen hesitated, and the moment stretched. For a heartbeat, Moon actually thought she was going to tell them something important, something real. Then she bared her fangs in a gesture more Raksuran than Fell, and said, “You don’t want to listen. I told you—”
Water fountained up beside the platform as Stone lunged across it at the half-Fell queen. Jade leapt to the top of the pillar, and Moon scrambled up beside her, just in time to see the Fell queen fling herself into the air. She tumbled across the water, flapping frantically, then managed to get enough height to catch the wind.
Stone stood up, spreading his wings, but the Fell queen turned away, arrowing off toward the island. Jade growled, quivering with the urge to give chase. Moon glanced back toward the door to see the stern of the sunsailer was all the way inside. “Jade, we need to go.”
She hissed in reluctant agreement, and shouted, “Stone, the door!”
Stone launched into the air. Jade leapt upward and Moon followed, letting the wind catch him and push him toward the sunsailer.
He saw Bramble and Delin waiting on the deck with half a dozen armed Kishan. River, Root, and Briar were up on the cabin roof. He couldn’t see Balm and Song, but Chime must still be down on the door ledge. And where was Merit?
Jade dropped onto the stern deck first and furled her wings in to give Moon room to land. Moon skidded across the deck and stopped himself on the rail. He saw with relief that Chime and Merit were both down on the ledge, with Balm and Song beside them. Above him, Stone snapped his wings in and shifted to his groundling form, and landed beside him in a crouch.
Kalam ran toward them. “You made it! We were afraid—”
“So were we,” Moon admitted. Bramble flung herself at him so hard he staggered back a step.
Stone straightened up and let his breath out in a hiss. Bramble let go of Moon and flung herself at Stone.
The sunsailer’s stern cleared the door and Jade shouted, “Chime, let it close!”
Merit tugged on Chime’s arm and pulled him away from the wall. Chime staggered and almost went into the water. Balm caught him, lifted him off his feet, and leapt to the railing. Moon reached up and she dropped Chime into his arms, then stepped off the rail.
Annoyed, Chime said, “You can put me down, I’m fine.”
Moon’s heart thumped in relief as he set Chime on his feet. Chime seemed ruffled and tired, but not hurt. Song arrived with Merit and jumped down from the railing. Nerve-rackingly slow, the great door started to swing backward, moving to shut off the opening. The Kishan distance-lights focused on it. This side was a smooth stone of mottled browns and grays, gleaming damply in the light.
Watching the door, Jade said, “Careful. If one gets in—”
The door was almost shut when a dakti slipped through the narrow opening. It froze in the light, clinging to the door, staring at them as if it hadn’t expected them to be watching. A Janderi fired her weapon and fire blossomed in its chest. It collapsed and fell into the dark water.
The door shut with a rumbling thump that seemed to go on for a long time.
Moon leaned on the railing. His wings were a heavy weight and he wanted to shift to groundling, but he was afraid if he did, he would just collapse on the deck and not be able to get up. Jade didn’t need a collapsed consort right now.
“That was close.” Chime gripped the railing so tightly, the scales over his knuckles were swelling.
It was still close; they hadn’t escaped, just changed the level of danger. Moon hoped it was a little less, at least at the moment.
The distance-lights moved across a high curved ceiling, down to huge arched doorways that led off into empty, echoing halls. The scents were all dank stone and saltwater and rotting vegetation. The thrum of the sunsailer’s motivator sounded oddly loud. It was punctuated by the Kishan’s hurried footsteps and their shouts as they checked for wounded and made sure no one had fallen off or been snatched away by Fell at the last moment.
Moon squinted into the darkness. It still didn’t look anything like the forerunner city, which was a relief. The stone was a light gray, the sides of the archways carved to form pillars made to look like giant twisted skeins of rope or vine. The curved ceiling was emblazoned with interlocking squares. Staring upward at it was making Moon dizzy. He swayed and leaned on the railing again.
“What do we do now?” Root said, his voice small and hushed.
Jade looked around at the warriors. They had gathered around on the deck, and everyone had scrapes and claw slashes and probably some impressive bruises under their scales. She focused on River, who had claw rips across his chest and was dripping blood on the deck. “Merit, take River inside and do something about that. Balm, I saw you run into that ruler, you go with them.”
Balm, who had one hand pressed to her head and was grimacing in pain, protested, “I’m fine.”
“Sure you are.” Merit took her wrist and towed her toward the hatch. “Come on, River.”
River limped painfully after him. Jade said, “Stone, why don’t you go with them?”
Stone glanced around at the empty darkness of the hall. “Nah, I’ll just stay here.” He sat down on the deck with a wince and a partially suppressed groan.
Jade hissed in exasperation. “I know I made that a question, but what I actually meant was—”
Ca
llumkal strode out of the hatchway, Vendoin and Kellimdar hurrying after him. Callumkal gripped Kalam’s shoulder in relief and looked around at the Raksura, asking, “You are all well? Everyone made it inside?”
Giving up on Stone, Jade turned to him. “We’re well, is your crew all right?”
“We’ve accounted for everyone, and there were no serious injuries.” Sounding overwhelmed, Callumkal said, “We need to talk about what to do next.” He looked around, taking in the size of the entrance passage. “For so long, we wanted to get inside this place, and now . . . We have to get out.”
Delin, leaning on Bramble, said, “Cities seldom have one entrance. There must be another way out, even if it is concealed.”
Moon thought that was probably true, but they would still have to get past the Fell. From the grim atmosphere, that aspect of the situation had occurred to everyone.
Then Callumkal said, “How did you open the door?”
Jade glanced at Chime. “That’s a good question.”
Chime hesitated and Bramble gave him a poke. “You said it was magic.”
“No. I mean, yes, it was magic. No, nothing told me what to do.” Chime’s spines shrugged tiredly. “There was no scarily persuasive voice.”
“That’s good,” Moon pointed out. “That’s really good.”
The Kishan were listening with various expressions of confusion and dismay. “Scarily persuasive voice?” Vendoin glanced at Delin. Her armor patches glistened damply and her dress was dripping onto the deck. She must have been near a window when the sealing had started pouring saltwater into the sunsailer. “Like the one that drew the Fell to the forerunner city?”
“Right, there wasn’t one.” Chime was distracted, obviously trying to find the right words. “It just felt right to touch those symbols. And I didn’t feel anything until I was right in front of them, so if Delin and Bramble and Merit hadn’t figured out they were the ones we should be looking for, we’d still be outside with the Fell. Before that, it was all just a big dead sea-mount.” Chime looked around at everyone. “I don’t know why.”
Delin interposed, “We are all tired, and some of us are very old. We should rest while we talk.”
Stone punctuated this by stretching out on the deck and apparently falling instantly asleep. Reminded of his other responsibilities, Kellimdar said, “Yes, the crew need rest and food as well.” He started off down the deck toward the distance-light operators on the nearest balcony.
As Callumkal and Delin turned to go back inside, Moon told Jade, “I’ll stay out here with Stone.” He understood Stone’s reasoning for remaining on deck. If something attacked the boat, he could shift instantly to deal with it. There were four Kishan crew posted along the stern railing, holding fire weapons and worriedly watching the darkness past the range of the lights, but Moon figured they could use the help.
“I’ll stay, too,” Chime added. Possibly he wanted to avoid further unanswerable questions from Vendoin. In Chime’s place, Moon knew he would have.
Jade’s spines indicated reluctant agreement. She said, “Everyone else, inside for now.” The warriors and Bramble started to make their way toward the hatch, Root stumbling a little with weariness.
Moon went over to Stone and sat down heavily. Chime followed, sitting on his heels to eye Moon worriedly. “Are you all right?”
“Just sore.” Moon shifted to groundling, and managed not to hiss from relief as the weight of his wings melted away. The next moment, the pain of every strained muscle and bruise and claw scratch doubled in intensity, and he managed not to hiss again. He rubbed his eyes, tried to focus. “When you touched the symbols, you said you didn’t think it was forerunner.”
Chime shifted to groundling, muttered, “Oof, ow.” He half fell over, supporting himself with one arm. “Yes, but now I can’t think why I thought that. Maybe just a different . . . feel? I know at the time it seemed clear, but it’s just slipped away.”
That’s probably a good sign, Moon thought. It seemed more likely all the time that this was a foundation builder city.
The motivator thrummed into life again, and the boat started to move slowly forward. Esankel came out of the hatch, a fire weapon slung over her shoulder, and stood by the railing. She made a soft exclamation of awe as one of the distance-lights swept upward over the great blocks on the ceiling. Moon asked her, “Do we know where we’re going?”
“No, they thought it was better to move forward, away from the door, in case the Fell get it open.” She turned away from the rail, and lifted her hands in a gesture of uncertainty.
They sat in the quiet darkness for some time, watching the Kishan go back and forth from the hatchway and the steps that led to the upper decks, checking over the sunsailer for damage, shining their lights on the city’s walls and remarking softly on the carving.
Moon didn’t mean to sleep, but he nodded off at some point. He woke lying on the deck next to Stone, with Bramble leaning over him.
Moon could feel through the deck that the ship wasn’t moving. Raksura could sense the position of the sun, even when they couldn’t see it, and he knew that outside it was near dawn. Everything was quiet except for dripping water, and the faint movements of the crew. The distance-lights still played over the cavernous space and the water. He cleared his dry throat and said, “We stopped.”
Bramble nodded. “They decided that we’ve come as far as we can without scouting. There’s been no sign of the Fell; we’re not that far from the door and we’d hear it open. Everybody’s been taking turns sleeping, except Vendoin and Kellimdar. They’re out there on the docks, copying a bunch of the inscriptions and symbols.”
Moon sat up on his elbow. “Docks?” Chime lay curled on his side a couple of paces away, still asleep. Three Kishan were on guard at the stern railing, but Esankel had gone. He heaved himself to his feet and went to the rail for a better look at their surroundings.
They were now in an even larger cavern, in what might be a harbor basin. The rope-like pillars supported archways and sheltered broad stone platforms that did look like docks. There were three to the left of the sunsailer, and two to the right, on either side of a wide canal that led farther into the city. Ramps stretched up from the docks into the shadow past the distance-lights, to openings he could barely see as dark outlines. Vendoin, Kellimdar, and several Kishan stood on one of the docks on this side with a smaller distance-light. Kellimdar was adjusting it to shine on another section of the side of the archway, while Vendoin wrote hastily on a slate. The other Kishan, Moon was glad to see, were all armed with fire weapons and were warily keeping their gaze on the ramps and the water.
Bramble said, “Vendoin thinks she might be able to translate the writing.”
Moon frowned at the archway, brightly lit now by the distance-light Kellimdar directed at it. “Uh, what writing?”
“We can’t see it,” Bramble explained. “It’s in colors we can’t see. But Vendoin can see it, and so can some of the Kishan, just not all of them. She said it’s rare, but they’ve found it on some of the old foundation builder ruins in Kish.”
“Huh.” They had encountered a species they hadn’t been able to see once, but never colors. Or at least Moon hadn’t thought so. If you couldn’t see something and no one who could mentioned it, you weren’t likely to know about it. “Can Delin see it?”
Bramble snorted. “No, and he’s madder than a headless Fell about it, too.”
Stone, who was apparently awake, said, “Ha.”
Moon turned away from the railing. “Where’s Jade?”
“Up in the front, talking with Callumkal.”
“Did she ever sleep?” They had all slept a little in the small boat on the way back to the escarpment, but the fighting and difficult flying through most of the night had been draining.
“She said she was going to.” Bramble got to her feet. “Are you hungry?”
Moon looked down at himself. There was blood spotted on his clothes, his own and Fell blood. The scr
atches on his arms had closed up, but the bruises were still all there. He felt like someone had punched him all over his body. “Not really. How are Balm and River?”
“Merit put them both in a healing sleep. Everyone else just needed simples. You should have some tea.” She nudged Stone with her foot. “Come on, line-grandfather.”
“Ugh,” Stone said, or something similar, but let Bramble prod him to his feet.
“What did Jade and Callumkal decide to do?” Moon asked.
Bramble pushed him and Stone toward the hatch. “We know we have to look for a way out, but that’s it so far. That’s why you need to eat. Go past that room they gave us to the middle part of the ship, then up a level. There’s a big common room. Some of the others are there. I’ll bring Chime.”
Moon found the way down the corridor and up a set of stairs, Stone trailing behind him. There were food odors in the air: cooked fish and waterweed and roots. The stairs opened up to a big room with windows on both sides, with seats built around the walls and more benches fastened to the floor. There was a square Kishan stove in the center of the room, with a pot on the metal frame top emitting fragrant steam. Merit and Delin were there, along with Kalam and Rorra, sitting around on the benches and looking weary and worried.
Balm and River were stretched out on two padded benches at the far end of the room. From their breathing, they were still deep in healing sleep. Moon tasted the air and caught a little blood scent but no sickness or infection. “How are they?”
“River’s wounds are healing well,” Merit told him. He got up and started to fill a couple of metal cups from the pot. “I’m going to wake Balm in a little and check on her.”
Moon sat down on a bench. His back muscles twinged. Stone plopped down next to him and yawned.
Merit handed them both cups. “It’s Kishan tea,” he explained. Stone sniffed it and winced.
“It’s not as good as yours,” Kalam offered, “but we have a lot more of it.”
Moon downed half the cup. It had a dark smoky flavor that wasn’t unpleasant. “How’s the boat?” he asked Rorra.
