The Books of the Raksura: The Complete Raksura Series

by Martha Wells

  Behind him, Stone hissed with bitter disappointment. “It’s not the seed,” River said, pointedly speaking in Kedaic so Esom could understand him.

  “I never said it was your seed,” Esom said, exasperated. “I said—”

  “What is it doing to the leviathan?” Stone asked him, cutting across the budding argument. “It has to be doing something, or it wouldn’t be down here.”

  “I don’t know.” Esom lifted his hands helplessly. “It could be helping to control the creature—”

  “It has to be,” Chime broke in, his spines shaking with excitement. “Think about where we are. We went a long way down, but we’re not that far from where we started.”

  “Maybe five hundred paces, give or take.” Moon tilted his head, and found that place inside himself that always knew where south was. “We’re below the mortuary temple, just in the center—”

  Chime finished, “We’re under that dome, under that steering device.” He thumped the column. “This thing could be part of it.”

  “Huh.” Stone looked up the column again.

  “But we can’t get out that way,” River said impatiently. “There’s no opening. The flesh closes in around the top of this pillar-thing.”

  “Yes, but…” Moon stepped back to the column, reached into the compartment and touched the crystal thing gingerly.

  “I still think you should be careful,” Esom persisted.

  Moon nudged the device a little. It wiggled back and forth, but didn’t seem to do anything. “Could this be how they control the leviathan?”

  They all looked at Esom, who wiped his forehead wearily. “I don’t know. Our ship the Klodifore works by arcane power, using the metora stone as fuel. But it still has a wheel, a steering mechanism. There wasn’t anything like that on the device we saw. Not that I could tell, anyway.”

  “But it’s not a ship, it’s a creature.” Chime eased forward and leaned close to the compartment. “Maybe the device controls a spell that lets the groundlings communicate with it.”

  Esom nodded, preoccupied. “Oh, that’s a thought. Yes, I think that’s likely.”

  If they were right… it didn’t matter how many seeds Ardan stole, they were all useless without this. This could be the whole key to Ardan’s power, the power of all the magisters. Moon reached for the crystalstudded metal piece, gripped it, and twisted it free.

  As it snapped loose he felt the ground underfoot tremble. The rhythmic rush of the leviathan’s breath halted mid-inhale, the silence sudden and absolute. Stone cocked his head thoughtfully, listening. Esom and Chime were wide-eyed in alarm, while River’s spines twitched nervously. The moment stretched, then the creature’s breath whooshed out in a long sigh.

  As the breathing resumed, Chime said, “It felt that. I don’t know what happened, exactly, but it felt that.”

  Moon weighed the metal piece in his hand. “Good. Maybe Ardan felt it too.”

  

  They went back down the Thluth tunnel, and took one of the vertical passages upward. The Thluth didn’t appear to demand tribute again.

  The passage worked its way up through the leviathan’s hide along a narrow and twisty path. After a short distance it turned into a vertical shaft, too steep for Esom or for Stone in his groundling form.

  Esom groaned but didn’t otherwise protest being carried by Chime again. River hesitated, looking dubiously at Stone. Stone hissed in annoyance and turned to Moon.

  Moon supposed that if Stone had to be carried, he would rather it be by another consort, no matter how awkward. So they started up with Stone’s warm weight hanging on to Moon’s neck, and it was just as awkward as Moon could possibly have imagined.

  The pocked surface was slick and pieces chipped off under their claws, but the leviathan’s breathing grew steadily louder, a welcome sign that they were nearing an opening to the surface. River, unencumbered, got a little ahead. They climbed in silence for a while, until Stone muttered, “I remember why the Arbora hate this.”

  “It’s not like we have a choice,” Moon answered, concentrating on feeling for the next good claw-hold.

  There was another long silence, broken only by whispers from somewhere below, where Esom seemed to be interrogating Chime about mentor abilities. Chime’s answers were tinged with irritation. Then Stone said, “I don’t kill solitaries just because they’re solitaries. And I would never have killed you.”

  It was so unexpected, Moon’s claws almost slipped off the wall. Stone waited until he recovered, then continued, “If I’d decided you were crazy, or lying to me, I would have left you behind. I wanted you with me at Sky Copper so I could watch your reaction, make sure you’d never seen a court before. But by the time we got there, I’d already made my decision.” He added, “You little idiot.”

  Moon hissed reflexively. After a moment, he said, “Sorry.” Deeply reluctant, he admitted, “I’m still not… good at this.”

  “You’ll get over it,” Stone told him.

  Above them, River hissed to get Moon’s attention. He looked up and realized they were very near the top. The space above them was dark, and the hole through the last layer of hide was small. A little ahead of Moon, River stopped just below the opening. He pointed to himself, then up. He was saying he should go first, since he was the only one not carrying someone. I hate it when he’s right. Moon nodded for him to go ahead.

  River climbed to the lip of the opening, stopped to peer out, then scrambled over the edge.

  After a tense moment, he leaned back down to whisper, “Come up.”

  Moon gave Stone a boost, then followed him. As he climbed out, he knew where he was by scent and sound before his eyes adjusted to the dim green glow from the phosphorescent molds. They were in the underground space below the city, the stone of its foundations high above, supported by giant pillars and columns. The foundations were much lower here than in the area below Ardan’s tower, which was closer to the midpoint of the leviathan. The highest supporting arch was barely fifty paces above their heads.

  Esom scrambled out with Chime right behind him. Chime stood and looked around, his spines flicking uneasily. Esom collapsed on the lumpy leviathan hide and said in relief, “I never thought I’d be glad to see this place again. Now it looks homey and welcoming.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Moon said. He turned to Stone and pointed north, toward the leviathan’s head. “The mortuary temple is back that way.”

  Stone’s mouth twisted in an ironic grimace. He said, “Let’s hope Ardan’s not expecting us.” Then he shifted.

  Stone’s larger body flowed into being so fast that Esom yelped and bumped into Chime as he flinched away. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m just not used to it when he does that.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Moon led the way across the dark space, finding the way back toward the mortuary temple. They moved in long bounds, and Chime carried Esom. That had to be rough on Esom, though

  Chime had partially extended his wings so he could make each landing a fairly light one. Esom didn’t complain, but kept a grimly tight grip on Chime’s collar flanges. There wasn’t another choice. They had to move fast and they couldn’t leave Esom behind down here.

  The foundations and heavy buttresses above them dropped even lower, the columns grew wider. Then Stone came to an abrupt halt, head cocked as he listened. They all stopped and froze into place. Moon tasted the air, but all he could scent was rot and leviathan. It was hard to hear over the rush of the leviathan’s breath, but he was certain there was a voice from somewhere to the east, not far away. An oddly familiar voice. Incredulous, Chime whispered, “Is that Root?”

  Before Moon could answer, River interposed, “Of course it is. He’s the only one who can’t shut up.”

  “He’s not the only one,” Moon told him. Stone growled low in his throat and bounded away to follow the thread of sound.

  The supporting pillars were closer together through this area, blocking the view, but as they traveled Moo
n started to make out some movement in the hazy light ahead. At least it was no mystery how the others had gotten down here. Vine and Drift would have seen Ardan’s men enter the mortuary from the main entrance, and had gone back to the tower-camp for help. Now they must be trying to find the underground entrance to the temple, which was what Moon would have done in their place.

  Ahead, dim light glittered off scales and Moon spotted the Raksura, gathered with their backs to a pillar. He couldn’t tell what threat they faced… Then his eyes adjusted and he thought in disgust, Oh, that’s typical.The Raksura confronted a large group of the pale armored Thluth.

  Moon shot ahead of Stone, River, and Chime. Coming up behind the Thluth, he swarmed up the nearest pillar, hopped to the next to get above them. In the group of Raksura he saw Vine, Floret, Song, Root, Drift…And Balm! She was leading the others, and faced the Thluth leader, her spines bristling. Relief was sharp and almost painful. Balm was alive; he just wished he could tell Jade.

  And there was one extra Raksura: Rift was here, too.

  Moon saw enough to tell the confrontation with the Thluth was angry. The Thluth seemed to be demanding tribute and Balm and the others weren’t taking it much better than Moon had. The Thluth leader spoke, pushed forward aggressively. Balm lunged to swipe him back.

  Then Stone slammed between the pillars and sent the Thluth scrambling frantically away. Moon leapt down behind the leader.

  He wasn’t certain if this was the same tribe of Thluth, but apparently it didn’t matter. The leader spun around, saw Moon, and bellowed a wordless warning. It wasn’t needed, since the other Thluth were already loping rapidly into the shadows. The leader bolted away, desperate to catch up with the others.

  Chime and River arrived, and Esom staggered away as soon as Chime set him on his feet. Then Karsis darted out from behind the pillar and flung herself at Esom. They hugged each other, speaking rapidly in their own language, Karsis laughing with relief. Moon tried not to be envious.

  “Balm!” Chime shouted. He grabbed her in a hug, and released her immediately when she gasped, “Ow!”

  “Are you all right?” Chime asked her worriedly, holding onto her arm to steady her. “We couldn’t find you. We thought you were dead!”

  “No, I’m fine,” Balm insisted. At close range, she didn’t look fine. She had scratches and dark patches in her golden scales, and her left wingjoin had a dark, livid scrape. She asked, “But what happened? I thought you were trapped.”

  “We got out the hard way,” Chime told her. “It was horrible, but it worked.”

  Drift greeted River enthusiastically, Root bounced around trying to greet everybody, and the others gathered around, excited, relieved, and demanding immediate answers. Only Rift hung back, watching them uneasily. “We thought the groundling sorcerer had you,” Floret said to Moon. “Balm saw—”

  Balm frowned suddenly. “Wait, where’s Jade and Flower?”

  Moon said it quickly, to get it over with. “They didn’t get out. They were trapped in that dome we found. We opened it, but then the warden-creatures attacked, and the door slid shut.”

  That put an end to all the relieved excitement. Balm hissed in dismay, and looked from Moon to Stone. “Are they all right? Can the sorcerer get to them?”

  “We don’t know.” Moon didn’t want to think about that right now. “How did you get away?”

  Balm’s spines flicked in agitation, but she let her question go. “The waterling threw me back toward the other side of the chamber, and I hit the wall and fell to the floor. I must have been knocked out for a time. The next thing I knew, some groundlings ran right past me. When I managed to stand, those warden-creatures swarmed me and I flew up the first passage I found. It was the one that went outside to the plaza, where the guards were. They shot darts at me, but I got past them.” Her expression was bleak. “I found Vine and Drift, and we tried to get back in through the entrance in the flooded area, but the magical barrier was still there. So we went to the tower to get the others, and we decided to come down here to look for an underground passage into the temple.”

  “That’s where we’re headed now,” Chime told her.

  “You brought the solitary and the groundling woman?” River demanded, with an angry gesture at Rift. “What was the sense of that?”

  “I told her not to do it,” Drift said. He sounded self-righteous about it, despite the fact that he had a fist-sized swelling around his left eye and another one low on his jaw. Moon hadn’t seen any of the Thluth land a blow, so it had to have happened earlier.

  Rift, who had been hovering in the back to listen, twitched uneasily and looked away. Unexpectedly, it was Floret who rattled her spines and said, “The groundling woman showed us where the entrance to this place was, the one above the leviathan’s tail.”

  Her voice flat and angry, Balm added, “We couldn’t leave them there. Rift would run away, and if we were all killed, Karsis would be stuck up in that tower unable to get out. I was going to just let her go, but she said she wanted to come along to find her brother.”

  Moon flicked his spines at River, and told Balm, “No, you did right.” Stone touched her frills lightly with one claw tip, sympathy and reassurance combined. Moon looked around at the others. “We need to go.”

  Balm nodded. “We think it’s this way.”

  As the others moved away, Moon stopped her with a hand on her arm. He asked quietly, “What happened to Drift?” If Rift had tried to escape and Drift had gotten hurt stopping him, Moon needed to know.

  Balm’s spines twitched at the memory. “He tried to take over the group, so I had to fight him. I didn’t trust him to do the right thing, and I knew we had to get back to Jade fast.” She hesitated, then in a mix of pride and relief said, “When I won, I was still afraid the others wouldn’t follow me, but they did.”

  Moon thought that was the important part. Balm had to know that she could physically beat Drift. It was the fact that the others had not only stood by and let her, but supported her over him afterward, tacitly acknowledging Balm’s status in the court, even over one of Pearl’s favorites. He said, “Good.”

  

  It was better hidden than Moon had anticipated, and they found it only because Stone was able to follow the stench of the fermenting edilvine and rot, buried in with the leviathan’s pervasive scent.

  The tunnel entrance was in the deeper shadow up near the city’s foundation, in a buttress that joined two pillars, about fifty paces above the leviathan’s skin. When Moon climbed up to investigate, he found a broad walkway along the buttress, with the tunnel just above it, opening into a dark passage up through the layers of rock and metal.

  Moon made the others stay below and climbed up with Chime and Floret, Chime in front to sense any magical barriers. The city’s foundation was much thinner here than it had been under Ardan’s tower. Barely twenty paces up, Chime hissed for them to stop, then climbed back down to report, “There’s a tunnel up there, pretty narrow. It stinks of those vines. It’s coming from the direction of the mortuary, going off toward the east.”

  River hovered impatiently under the passage opening. “Come on, let’s go,” he said. “We have to find out what the sorcerer did with Jade and Flower.”

  Moon, who hadn’t been able to think of anything else except what the sorcerer might be doing to Jade and Flower, managed not to give in to the impulse to drop back down and tear River’s head off. He said, “No, we scout first.” He didn’t intend to make any mistakes, or to let them all rush up there and find themselves running right into Ardan. “Floret, follow the tunnel back toward the mortuary, as far as you can without being seen. See if there’s anyone guarding it. Take Chime, to check for barriers.”

  Floret flicked her spines in acknowledgement and started to climb. Chime, nervous but determined, followed her. Moon dropped back out of the passage to wait, as River stomped away to sulk with Drift. But no one questioned the decision.

  Stone settled under the opening to
wait and Moon paced uneasily. It didn’t help that the others were all sitting or standing there staring at him, even Karsis and Esom. This was much easier when Jade was here to take all the responsibility, and all Moon had to do was have the crazy ideas. It had been easier having responsibility only for himself.

  Rift hovered a little apart from the others, his whole body suggesting reluctance to be anywhere near them, though he hadn’t tried to run away. Seeing him again made Moon realize just how confused his feelings were. He felt sorry for Rift, he was deeply suspicious of him, he wanted to help him, he just wanted him to go away. Rift was a miserable reminder that there were pitfalls to living with the Raksuran courts that Moon hadn’t even stumbled into yet. None of it was going to matter if they didn’t get the seed back and get off this damn leviathan, but he couldn’t stop his thoughts from drifting in that direction.

  Balm looked up at the passage, worried and preoccupied. She said, “You think the sorcerer knows Jade and Flower are trapped in the dome?”

  “He has to.” Moon thought it was dangerous to assume anything else. “He would have wanted to open it to see if the seed was still there.”

  “Maybe they can fight him off,” Song said. “There’s two of them, and Flower’s still pretty strong.” She flicked her spines nervously, a young and deceptively delicate predator.

  “Your friends might have been able to lock the door from the inside,” Esom pointed out. “Or dismantle the mechanism that opens it, if it’s not too complicated.” Karsis elbowed him and he blinked and added, “Not that I think they wouldn’t be able to figure out something complicated—”

  “It’s all right,” Moon cut him off before he made it any worse. “We know what you mean.”

  Karsis cleared her throat. Obviously trying to distract everyone from Esom’s gaffe, she asked Moon, “Is Jade your wife?”

  In groundling terms, it was close enough. “Yes.”

  With bitter emphasis, Rift said, “He’s a consort. It’s not like he had a choice. It’s not like anyone in a Raksuran court has a choice.”