The Cloud Roads

by Martha Wells

  “Yes,” Bone answered. He jerked his head toward two Arbora, nearly invisible behind a bush. “Salt and Bramble got right up under the edge of the platform and poured it into the fountain channels.”

  “They said the smell disappeared once it was in the water,” Chime said. “So maybe the Fell won’t realize it’s there.”

  That was a relief. “Good.” Moon relaxed into the grass. Now they just had to wait. Flower had said that it wouldn’t take long for the poison to spread into all the colony’s fountains and pools. The dakti and kethel would probably drink before going to sleep, so it shouldn’t be long before most were affected.

  He was just settling comfortably into the moss when the kethel burst out of the water, shaking its head frantically. Startled, Moon sat up to see better.

  “What’s this?” Chime said, anxious.

  The kethel slung itself onto the bank, and flailed in the brush, the trees waving wildly as their trunks cracked and split under its claws. It thrashed twice more, then collapsed, sliding back down the muddy bank into the river.

  Bone hissed in admiration. “That was the poison?”

  “It had to be.” Moon eased forward, trying to see. The kethel lay on its back, one leg twisted at an odd angle, dark fluid leaking from its mouth.

  “It didn’t do that to Strike,” Bramble whispered from somewhere behind them, sounding awed.

  “Strike’s not a Fell,” Moon reminded him.

  His voice tense with excitement, Chime whispered, “The current forms a pool right under the colony, and the kethel was lying in it. It must have gotten a big dose of whatever poison didn’t get drawn up the channels.”

  Moon squinted, making out movement on the platform. Several dakti came out of the lower entrances and flew down over the terraces to the riverbank. The Arbora twitched in quiet excitement, whispering to each other.

  The dakti clustered around the kethel’s body. Moon couldn’t quite see what they were doing. They seemed to be poking around the corpse, maybe trying to decide what had killed it. He cocked his head, listening hard, and heard flesh tearing. That can’t be... Oh, that’s perfect. He leaned down to whisper to the others, “They’re eating it.”

  Chime stared, and Bone muttered, “That’s typical of them.”

  They listened to ripping and crunching sounds as the dakti tore at the kethel’s body. With no warning, another kethel appeared on the platform; it must have walked out of the colony and then shifted. It flew down and landed in the water, scattering the dakti as it sniffed at the corpse. Moon held his breath. If the kethel somehow detected the poison...

  The kethel tore a huge bite out of the corpse’s belly, chewing it with apparent satisfaction. Then it spoke to the dakti, a low rumble that Moon couldn’t make out. It turned away from the corpse and Moon suppressed a snarl of disappointment. But instead of leaving the body, the dakti tore chunks off and leapt into the air to carry the meat back into the colony. More dakti came out to help tear the corpse apart, while the kethel climbed down the bank and walked into the water, moving upstream to the overhanging terrace. There, it slid down under the surface, taking the dead kethel’s place at guard duty.

  Bone stirred impatiently. “The poison will be either in the channels up inside the colony or washed away downriver.”

  “It ate the poisoned kethel’s belly,” Chime pointed out. “Just wait.”

  Finally, the dakti had transported most of the corpse inside, and the colony grew quiet again. Moon felt the pull of each passing moment. He reminded himself that if the Fell were eating kethel tonight, it might mean that they weren’t eating Raksura. It also might mean that they had finished off all the Raksura days ago, but for the moment he could hope otherwise.

  Near the platform the river bubbled and thrashed. Then the kethel lying under the water suddenly broke the surface, drifting limply.

  “There we go,” Moon whispered, easing to his feet. If eating from the poisoned corpse had been enough to kill a kethel, it was enough to kill the dakti.

  Bone told Bramble, “Tell the others to signal the queens.”

  As Moon turned to creep back down the hill, one of the Arbora made a sound, a call that blended into the distant cries of the nightbirds. Following Moon, Chime whispered, “It’s frightening that this was the easy part.”

  Moon and Chime met Jade, Song, Vine, and Sand at the edge of the forest.

  “Careful,” Flower whispered, sinking down into the high grass with Bone and the other hunters. For once, she was in her Arbora form, and the pure white of her scales made it harder for her to hide.

  Jade led the way swiftly down through the terraced plantings. On the far side of the river, Moon caught a flash of gold as Pearl and the rest of the Aeriat approached the colony from that side. Two queens, nine warriors, and me, Moon thought. He hoped that was enough.

  They meant to stay on the ground until they were as close to the colony as possible. Everyone had agreed that the force that had kept the court from shifting seemed to have only been in effect inside the colony itself, and not the outer terraces. But if that had changed, it would be better to find out while on the ground rather than in the air. They all had knives and short spears borrowed from the hunters to use when they were forced to shift, though Moon had no idea how good the Aeriat, used to fighting with their claws, would be with the weapons.

  The colony was still quiet. No dakti had come out to see about the second dead kethel, another good sign. Jade paused at the moss-covered stone platform that crossed the river. There was no ground entrance in the wall facing this side, and fewer openings in the levels above, which was why they had chosen it. She glanced back at Moon and the others, saying in a low voice, “Everyone all right?”

  Moon nodded. He didn’t feel any impulse to shift to groundling. Chime whispered, “So far,” and the others murmured agreement.

  Jade pointed to the ledge marking the pyramid’s highest level and the square opening there. Pearl’s group would be heading for a similar entrance on the same level, but on the opposite face of the structure. “Go quickly,” Jade whispered, then crouched to leap into the air.

  Moon followed her, a few hard wing beats taking him up to the right ledge. He landed a moment after Jade and hooked his claws into a chink between the stones. Chime landed beside him; Song, Vine, and Sand lighted further along the ledge.

  He didn’t hear Pearl and the other Aeriat, but saw Root duck around the far corner, wave at Jade, and duck back.

  “Right,” Jade said under her breath, and climbed through the entrance. Moon slipped in after her, Chime and the others on his heels.

  Inside was a small room with heavily carved walls, with images of giant groundlings in heavy armor glaring down at them. Jade had already reached the next doorway, which opened into a wide stairwell. Glowing moss had been knocked down and lay strewn on the steps, still giving off enough light to show balconies in the walls, all hung with the big sleeping baskets. Water ran down from a spout high in the wall, collecting at the bottom of the chamber in a pool with floating flowers. Personal possessions were tumbled everywhere, silk blankets and cushions, torn clothing, broken baskets. Behind Moon, Song hissed softly in dismay.

  Jade stepped out onto the landing, and paused to taste the air. Moon couldn’t smell anything but Fell stench, couldn’t hear anything but the trickle of water. Jade glanced back at him, mouthing the words, “You feel anything?”

  Moon shook his head. Whatever force had stopped the court from shifting, it wasn’t working on them yet.

  They made their way down the well, dropping from platform to platform. Jade stopped at a window in the wall and ducked to peer through it. Moon looked over her shoulder.

  It opened onto a broad ledge above a large chamber, the same one where the court had gathered on Moon’s first full day at the colony. It was lit by fading glow moss, and the stone platforms across the back were strewn with furs and cushions. A dozen or more dakti crouched near those platforms, picking at a carcass, gna
wing bones. Jade’s spines lifted, and she nudged Moon’s arm, pointing to one of the dakti.

  It sat a little apart from the others and, at first, he thought it was deformed. But the odd, smooth shape of its back showed that it was missing wings. A Fell without wings? He hadn’t thought that was possible. It looked like an Arbora, short and heavily built, except its scales were black, with the heavier plates of a dakti. Whatever it was, it had to be the creature Flower had seen through Balm. There couldn’t be two strange new Fell invading the colony. I hope, he thought.

  Then, on a landing below, a dakti ducked out of a doorway. It stared up at them, aghast, for a heartbeat, then opened its jaws to shriek.

  Jade launched herself down the stairwell and landed on the dakti, crushing it before it managed more than a squawk. Moon leapt after her, landing on the platform just above her.

  Then Jade suddenly twitched, her spines flaring in alarm, and shifted to Arbora. An instant later, Moon’s claws vanished and he was suddenly in groundling form. He swallowed back a yell, dropping to a crouch to keep from falling. On the platform above him, Song and Vine landed awkwardly, and Chime crashed into a sleeping basket; they all shifted into groundling form. Moon tried to shift back to Raksura, just in case it was still possible. He felt a pressure in his chest, behind his eyes, and nothing happened. This is almost as bad as the poison, he thought, shoving to his feet. At least he still had his clothes, and the long bone javelin borrowed from the hunters.

  Jade shook herself, recovering from the shock, and ducked forward into the doorway the dakti had come through. Moon jumped down behind her.

  In the big chamber, the cluster of startled dakti leapt up, hissing, to charge at them. Jade blocked the doorway, and the dakti hesitated, unwilling to attack a Raksuran queen even in Arbora form. One conquered its fear enough to lunge at her, and Moon dropped into a crouch, leaning under her arm to stab at it with the javelin. It jerked back, shrieking, but he didn’t think he had hurt it. Oh, we could be in trouble here, Moon thought, ducking away from the creature’s flailing claws as Jade held the others off. Fighting Fell as a groundling was going to be even less fun than it had always looked.

  One dakti bounced up to the window above the ledge, flinging itself through into the stairwell and into Song and Chime. Song grabbed its wing and jumped off the platform onto the steps, using her groundling weight to yank the creature out of the air. Chime scrambled after her, swinging at it with his javelin. Vine grabbed a loose stone from a platform and whacked it in the head.

  That only took three of us, Moon thought sourly, as Sand braced himself at the window to try to repel the other dakti. This isn’t going to work.

  Then Pearl and the other Aeriat burst in through the doorway on the opposite side of the chamber. The dakti scattered to face the new threat. Pearl pounced on one, ripping its head off, and River hooked one down out of the air. A heartbeat later, all the Aeriat were suddenly groundlings. River staggered and nearly fell; Root, in mid-leap, did fall. Moon looked at the wingless dakti, and saw it staring intently at Pearl, just as she shifted to Arbora.

  “It is that thing; it’s doing this,” he told Jade.

  “Get it,” Jade snarled to Moon, and dove through the doorway. Chime and the others followed her, and Moon used the distraction to head for the strange dakti.

  Even as an Arbora, Pearl didn’t hesitate, bounding forward to slam another dakti into the wall. Jade lunged in to pull a dakti off Root, and Moon dodged around the fight.

  The strange creature saw him coming and ran, scampering up the steps to the platform. Moon bolted after it. The creature scrambled away from him, huddling in on itself. It moaned and lifted its head, and he stepped back abruptly, feeling a cold chill. Its eyes had an avid expression completely at odds with its terrified posture.

  Then it lunged at him. Moon swung the javelin like a club, slamming it across the creature’s head. He dodged a wild blow as it fell across the steps, then slammed the point into its chest.

  Its scales resisted the sharpened bone, and Moon leaned all his weight on it to drive it in. Gurgling, the creature clawed at him, tearing at his shirt and scratching his arms as he grimly forced the javelin further into its chest.

  Vine ran up, grabbed the upper part of the javelin, and threw his weight on it as well. Moon felt the creature’s scales give way with a crack. Dark blood gushed from the wound. Moon saw the intelligence fade from the creature’s eyes, leaving them blank and gray.

  The pressure in his chest lifted so abruptly that Moon stumbled down the steps. In relief, he shifted back to Raksura. Vine stepped back and shifted too, calling to the others, “That’s it! We can shift!”

  Bloody and ragged from the brief fight, the others all shifted and pounced on the last of the confused dakti before they could flee.

  As the last of the dakti died, Jade shifted to her winged form and jumped up to the platform to land beside Moon. She said, “Song, Vine, go out and signal the Arbora.” The plan was for the Arbora to climb up the outside of the colony, gather here, and then they would all fight their way down through the structure together.

  As Vine turned to leap for the skylight, Jade moved forward, staring down at the strange dakti. “This has to be the thing Flower saw, but what is it?”

  The others gathered around as Pearl stepped up onto the platform. She circled the dead creature, her lips curling in disgust. “A new kind of Fell? It looks oddly like an Arbora.”

  Chime reached down toward it. Then his spines flared and he jerked his hand back. Sounding sick, he said, “It’s a mentor.”

  Jade shook her head, staring at him. “It can’t be. It looks—”

  “Like a Fell. I think it’s a crossbreed, part Fell, part Raksura.” Chime’s face was bleak. “They weren’t lying when they said they wanted to join with us.”

  Moon looked down at the thing, appalled. He had been hoping that the “joining” was just a Fell lie. Root eased forward to sniff at the creature; Sand grabbed his spines, dragging him back.

  Chime continued, “They must have done it before. Captured Arbora, forced them to mate with rulers, until they produced a mentor.” He waved a hand frantically. “They didn’t need a Fell in the colony to see us through its eyes. This thing could see us because it was part of us. Not our court, not our bloodline, but still Raksura, still a mentor.”

  The others stirred uneasily. Pearl hissed, sounding more angry than anything else. “How did it force us to shift? That’s a queen’s power, not a mentor’s. And even another Raksuran queen couldn’t force Jade and I to shift, no matter how old or powerful she was.”

  Chime shook his head, baffled. “Because it’s a crossbreed? I don’t know. It had to know we were there before it could force us to shift, though. That’s like a queen’s power.”

  “It sees through the other dakti,” Moon said, the realization turning his blood cold. “When that one saw us in the stairwell—”

  “This creature knew we were there,” Jade finished. She gave the mentor-dakti a kick with one clawed foot, as if she had to suppress the urge to tear the body apart. “That must be how it forced the court to shift. The kethel dropped the dakti on the colony, they ran through, finding everyone, and this creature used its power on them.”

  “We just have to hope it’s the only one,” Moon said, and looked up to see everyone staring at him. “Well, we do,” he added defensively.

  Song and Vine leapt back in through the skylight overhead. A moment later Bone, Flower, and the other Arbora swarmed in through the doorways. A few of the hunters carried extra waterskins filled with poison.

  Still in her Arbora form, Flower climbed up to the platform to stand beside Chime, staring down at the dead crossbreed.

  “It’s worse than you thought,” Chime told her. Flower hissed and crouched to poke at the creature.

  The other Arbora gathered around the platform, watching Pearl. Pearl’s spines flared, and she said, “Work your way down. Kill them all. Find our court.”

/>   Bone growled, and the hunters turned nearly as one, flowing toward the doorway out to the big central stairwell. Moon leapt over their heads to land in front, beating Bone down the passage and diving down the stairs.

  The Arbora bounded after him, climbing along the walls and ceiling. Moon met a dakti, surprising it as he whipped around a corner onto a landing. He tore its head off before it could scream. The stairs divided at this point, splitting off into a wide passage that led to more Aeriat bowers and then a second stairwell. Jade leapt down to land beside him, just as Bone caught up to them. She said, “We’ll take the other side.”

  Moon nodded. They had to move fast. “Look for the kethel.”

  Jade turned for the passage, hissing for the Aeriat to follow her. They flashed by in a multi-colored swarm of wings and tails. Moon turned down the stairs with Bone and the hunters.

  They reached the next landing down, where three passages split off. One led forward into the pyramid’s central shaft, another led to the right, turning narrow, concealing the room it opened into. Moon heard the bubble of fountains and, over the sick stench of Fell, he caught the scent of the poison. And a faint sound of movement, something like hissing, breathing.

  He went down the right hand passage in a bound, the hunters right behind him. The doorway at the end opened into a long chamber with an open-roofed court in the center. It was full of dead and dying dakti.

  They sprawled everywhere, smaller and shriveled in death. Chunks of bloody meat, already attracting buzzing insects, lay among them. Kethel meat, Moon thought, with some satisfaction. That’s what they get for eating each other. The stench was unbelievable.

  Behind him, a startled hunter asked, “Is that one of us?” In the nearest pile of dakti was a body, no scales, the naked skin light-colored but mottled with green and black. The hunter reached down for it, meaning to pull it away from the pile.

  Moon lunged in and grabbed his arm before he could touch it. “No, it’s a dakti!”