The Serpent Sea

by Martha Wells

  “Why?” Balm asked, her expression critical. She seemed to find this a dubious pursuit at best.

  Karsis explained, “Negal believes that it tells a great deal about a people, how they dispose of their dead.”

  “So they’ve been storing all the remains of everyone who died on this leviathan for however many turns?” River said, skeptical. Then he added, “Maybe that’s what the underground area is for and there is a passage up into the place from there.”

  Moon was too struck by River actually saying something helpful to reply immediately. Jade turned to Rift. “Is that what they do with their dead?”

  “I don’t know.” Rift twitched uncomfortably. But after a moment of reluctant thought, he added, “I never saw anything down there that looked like a place for burials, but I didn’t explore very far. Once I found a way to the surface, I didn’t want to risk Ardan finding out where I’d gone.”

  Jade nodded, her decision made. “We won’t go back through the underground, not unless there’s no other choice. Moon’s right. Ardan might still be looking for you down there. We’ll search around this temple.” She glanced toward the stairwell, the fall of gray light still illuminating it, and amended, “Some of us will search around it. Unobtrusively, as groundlings. I’ll join you when it gets dark.”

  “I’ll go,” River said.

  Of course you will, Moon thought. He was trapped here until dark.

  Stone pushed away from the wall. Moon tensed all over, but Stone only said, “I’m going out to talk to some groundlings, see what they know about this mortuary place.”

  It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it was such a good idea, Moon wished he had thought of it. There was Theri, Rith, and Enad to ask, if they were back from their daily work, or the woman who ran the wine bar. But it was a much touchier subject than how strangers found work in the city. Moon asked, “How are you going to work ‘What do you do with your dead?’ casually into a conversation?” Tension made the words come out sharper than he meant.

  Everyone seemed to tense in apprehension. But Stone just said, “I thought I’d ask somebody who won’t notice. Like Dari.”

  

  As soon as the sun sank out of the cloudy sky, Moon and Jade left the tower, flying toward the coastline near the leviathan’s head.

  All through the afternoon, the warriors had taken turns surreptitiously searching the empty buildings in this area, looking for passages down to the underground space. Root, Song, and Floret had been left back at their tower to keep watch over Rift and the two groundlings.

  The mortuary temple lay in a shallow valley between the leviathan’s shoulders, surrounded by crowded, crumbling stone structures only a few stories high. There weren’t many vapor-lights and the empty streets were deeply shadowed, except for the gleam of water. The sea must wash up over the leviathan’s head whenever it moved, flooding the streets and leaving puddles behind. Moon could pick out only a few lit windows here and there. This was obviously not a highly prized neighborhood, if it had ever been one.

  To the northwest, he could see where the creature’s body dipped down, just below the ridge formed by its right arm. The roofs and top stories of flooded buildings were just visible above the dark water.

  They banked in to land on the peak of a roof, and Jade climbed down to the alley. Moon paused to watch a groundling lamp-tender make his way across the open plaza in front of the temple’s entrance. It was a big, round structure, at least four stories tall, topped by an octagonal dome. A wall formed a roofless court before the entrance, and inside it several blue-pearl guards, probably Ardan’s men, stood in front of the metalbound double doors. The night was cool, and they had gathered around a waist-high brazier. From their postures, they were very bored.

  The lamp-tender reached the stand at the far end of the plaza. He filled the well in its base from the heavy canister he carried, closed it, and went on his way. The sputtering vapor-light in its glass cage at the top of the stand brightened noticeably.

  “Moon,” Jade whispered from below.

  Moon climbed down the pitched roof to a ledge where Chime and Balm waited. Chime reported quietly, “Stone just got here. He said he thinks there’s something over in that part that’s underwater.”

  “We hadn’t looked there yet,” Balm said, frustrated. “We thought if there was an open passage, the water would have drained away.”

  They took flight again, Chime following them toward the flooded section. Balm went to gather the others back from their fruitless search.

  They circled down to the flooded street, and Moon landed on a roof and crept to the edge. The street formed a dark passage below, lined with empty stone houses, their doors long ago washed away. Stone was in groundling form, standing balanced on top of a low wall just below this house. The water was as dark as obsidian and gleamed in the moonlight. The place smelled of dead fish and silt and… “Do you smell that?” Moon whispered.

  Jade answered, “Yes, it’s water traveler. There must have been one through here at some point.”

  Moon hooked his claws into chinks in the mortar and climbed down the wall. “I saw some yesterday, heading toward the city. But why is the scent here, and not at the harbor?”

  Following Moon and Jade, Chime said, “This must be where they do their trading, to keep them away from the groundlings in the harbor. After all, Nobent wanted to eat you when he thought you were a groundling.”

  Then from below Stone said, “The rumor I heard from Dari is that the city trades the dead bodies of the poor to the water travelers in exchange for edilvine.”

  “They trade their dead?” Moon stepped cautiously into the water and his claws slipped on the slimy pavement.

  “For vines?” Jade added skeptically, hanging from the wall as she waited for Chime to climb down.

  “That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” Stone admitted, and turned to lead the way along the flooded street.

  Behind them, Chime muttered, “The more I hear about this place, the less I like it.”

  If this was true, the vines had to be something the city wanted or needed, badly. “Maybe they make a drug out of it. Like that smoke, and whatever it is that Dari drinks.”

  Stone made a noncommittal noise and turned a corner to follow the street as it passed under a high, curved archway. It led into what had been an open court with a covered terrace at the back, supported by pillars carved in the shape of giant lily stalks. Like the street, it was flooded, the water washing the broad steps up to the deeply shadowed terrace. “How did you find this place?” Chime asked.

  Stone said, “Once Dari mentioned water travelers, I just followed the scent.”

  Moon tasted the air as he and Jade followed Stone up the steps and past the columns. The scent of water traveler was much heavier here, clinging to the damp mortar and the furry plants growing across the vaulted ceiling. Stone dug in the pouch at his belt and pulled out a faintly glowing object—one of Flower’s spelled rocks.

  It cast a dim light over the cracked, stained paving and up to the far wall, revealing a carved scene with life-size groundlings in a procession, carrying a body on a bier. The carving framed a doorway, rusted metal figured with elaborate curving designs. “It’s locked, maybe barred on the inside.” Stone tugged on the handle, demonstrating.

  “Let me see. If you shift under here, you’ll break the roof.” Jade stepped forward and took the handle.

  “Don’t break it off,” Moon said.

  “Moon—” Jade jerked at the door and it yielded with a loud crack. Pieces of a broken lock fell to the ground as the door swung open. Stone lifted his light and it shone down a long ramp that led into darkness.

  Stone started to step forward and Chime snapped, “Stop!”

  They all froze. Moon flicked a quick glance around the doorway, but he didn’t see anything but dark patches of mold. He whispered, “What?”

  “I— It’s— I’ve got a funny feeling,” Chime said, sounding mortally embarrassed. “L
ike there’s something there.”

  “A mentor feeling?” Jade asked, and crouched down for a closer look at the pavement just inside the door. Careful not to let any of his frills fall past the threshold, Moon joined her.

  “Maybe,” Chime admitted.

  “I thought all that didn’t come back after you changed,” Stone said, his tone carefully neutral.

  “Well, it hadn’t.” Chime twitched uneasily. “Until… Look, I’m probably wrong.”

  Jade nudged Moon and nodded toward something on the pavement inside the doorway. “No, you’re right,” Moon told Chime. About a pace past the threshold was a line of dirt and flotsam that had washed up under the door. It had formed a straight line across the ramp, as if it had encountered some solid object, except there was nothing there. “It’s one of Ardan’s barriers, like the one around the tower.”

  Jade sat up, her spines flicking impatiently. “This could be a trap. If they trade with the water travelers, groundlings must come and go through here, and the lock would be enough to keep thieves out. The only reason to put a magical barrier here is to catch us.”

  “Trap or not, we still have to get in there,” Stone said.

  “Esom said he could get past the tower barrier without Ardan knowing,” Moon said. “If he wasn’t lying.”

  “We’ll find out.” Jade turned to Chime. “Bring him here.”

  

  “It’s an untested theory,” Esom said, though at least he kept his voice low as he sloshed through the water up the terrace steps.

  “Then we’ll test it,” Chime told him as he climbed down a column from the roof.

  Balm and River waited here now too. Drift was on watch, posted on a rooftop above the flooded street, and Vine on the roof of the terrace.

  “Finally,” Jade muttered, and pushed to her feet. It hadn’t really been that long. Moon and Stone had spent the time exploring the terrace, carefully not speaking to each other. Moon had found wilting scraps of a plant that smelled like the vegetation that had grown all over the Kek town on the coast, more evidence for the idea that the water travelers traded here.

  River hadn’t been in favor of the plan. “You’re trusting a groundling thief,” he had said. “That’s almost as bad as trusting the solitary.”

  Jade just ignored his objections, and Moon didn’t have an argument either. The only basis they had for trusting Esom was that he would be a fool to betray them to Ardan.

  Then Floret climbed down the wall, followed by Flower. Jade hissed, startled and angry. “What are you doing here? Who’s watching the solitary?”

  “Root and Song and the groundling woman,” Floret said, her flattened spines conveying guilt and chagrin.

  “The groundling woman?” Jade repeated incredulously. “Are you—”

  “I made her bring me,” Flower interrupted, sounding brisk. She shifted to groundling and shook out her dress. “It smells foul here. Where’s this barrier you’re all babbling about?”

  Silence fell. Moon scratched under the frills behind his ear and kept his mouth shut. After a moment, Jade said through gritted teeth, “Floret, get back to the tower.”

  Floret fled.

  Jade made an effort to drop her ruffled spines. She said, “You should be resting. You’ve been ill since we reached the coast, whether you’ll admit it or not.”

  “I can rest later.” Flower crossed the terrace to the threshold of the doorway, and Stone shone the light on it for her. She nodded and glanced at Chime thoughtfully. “Something’s there, all right. It smells of groundling magic.”

  Chime shrugged uneasily. “I don’t know. Maybe it was just a good guess.”

  Stone snorted, but didn’t otherwise comment.

  Esom edged forward and frowned at the barrier. Moon switched to Kedaic, asking him, “Can you see it?”

  “No, but I can feel it.” He held out a hand, carefully not reaching past the doorway. “It’s similar to the barrier around Ardan’s tower.”

  “Can you get us past it?” Jade said, her voice tight with impatience.

  “I can try.” Esom looked around at them all, his expression grim. “I was never able to get outside Ardan’s tower to try with that barrier. Tampering with this one could alert Ardan.”

  River hissed angrily, as if they hadn’t all thought of that earlier. “If it does—”

  “If it does,” Moon cut him off, and finished to Esom, “Then you’ll know, for when you go back to his tower to get your friends.”

  Esom glanced nervously at River, but said, “That’s a good point.” He stepped forward, hands out, and eased across the threshold, right up to the line of debris that marked the barrier. He crouched down and slid his hands along the pavement.

  Moon stepped to the side to see his face. Esom’s eyes were shut in concentration, and sweat beaded on his forehead despite the cool air. Flower cocked her head, as if listening to something the rest of them couldn’t hear. Chime watched intently, obviously straining his senses to feel what Esom and Flower felt.

  Esom turned his head, and said in a hoarse whisper, “Be ready. I won’t be able to keep it open very long.”

  Jade turned to the others. “Vine and Drift will stay here on watch. The rest of you will come with us.”

  Vine, hanging upside down from the edge of the terrace roof, said worriedly, “Be careful.”

  Moon happened to look at Balm in time to see an expression of relief cross her face. She had been afraid Jade would leave her behind.

  Then Esom slowly eased to his feet and held his arms out as if lifting an invisible curtain. As Esom stood, Moon felt a breath of cooler air, tinged with decay and incense and mold. It was a draft that had been held back by the barrier, now flowing from the doorway. It was more confirmation that Esom was performing as promised.

  Esom stepped in, pushed the barrier above his head. He gasped, “Now!”

  Moon lunged forward, halted at the threshold as Jade beat him there and slipped past Esom. He followed her, Chime and Flower behind him. River and Balm ducked past Esom, then Stone. Esom stumbled suddenly, staggered forward as if something heavy had fallen on him. Breathing hard, he moved further down the ramp, away from the barrier. “I think… I think it’s all right. Hopefully Ardan didn’t sense that.”

  Jade said, “You didn’t have to come in here. You could have waited outside with Vine.”

  Esom leaned against the wall, still catching his breath. He made a helpless gesture. “I meant to, but it got a little much for me. It was easier to go forward than back.”

  “You can say that about a lot of things,” Flower said in an aside to Chime.

  “Then you’d better come with us,” Jade told Esom. She took the lightrock away from Stone and started down the ramp.

  Moon had somehow assumed Stone was staying behind. Unable to stop himself from sounding accusing, he said, “Why did you come? This place is too small for you to shift.”

  Even in the dark, he could tell Stone was giving him that look. “That’s none of your business.”

  “It’s my business if you collapse the ceiling on us.”

  “Both of you, quiet,” Jade snapped.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The ramp curved down into darkness, the stale air heavy with the scent of old and new decay. The light caught carvings rimed with mold: processions carrying biers, faces twisted in pain and grief.

  In the dark it was it hard to tell, but they all looked like the blue-pearl groundlings. Maybe they lived here first, Moon thought, and the others all came later. Maybe it was their crazy idea to tame a leviathan. He suspected many of their descendants had cause to regret it.

  They were some distance below street level when their light fell on an opening in the wall that looked as if it had been roughly chiseled out. It stank of edilvine that was gradually fermenting into something else, and as Jade stepped inside they saw bundles of the vine, stuffed into vats filled with dark liquid. Esom made a gagging noise, clapped a hand over his mouth and nose, and
retreated back to the corridor.

  “That’s the drug,” Stone said, and stepped past him. “It smells like that wine bar.”

  The stink of it was intense, but it wasn’t having any ill effect on Moon or the other Raksura.

  “That’s not what we want.” Jade turned away, hissing in frustration.

  Moon glanced at Chime just in time to see him flinch, as if something had suddenly poked him. “Are you all right?” Moon asked, as they followed Jade down the ramp.

  “Yes.” Chime kept his voice low. “It’s that… thing I told you about. It’s worse here.”

  Chime meant he was sensing the leviathan again. Unlike Chime’s flash of insight about the barrier over the door, Moon didn’t see how an awareness of the leviathan could help them. It wasn’t like they didn’t know the creature was here. Though maybe Chime would be able to give them warning if it was about to move again.

  “What thing?” Flower demanded from behind them.

  “You didn’t tell her?” Moon said, his attention on the corridor ahead. It still sloped down, curving back toward where the mortuary temple lay on the surface.

  Chime protested, “I didn’t have a chance—”

  Then Jade said, “Quiet, there’s light ahead.” She handed the light-rock back to Stone, who tucked it away in his pack. After a moment, Moon’s eyes adjusted, and he saw the dim white glow somewhere down the corridor.

  Following it, they found the passage ended in a wide doorway that led to a much bigger space, scented of earth and cold water and more decay.

  They stepped through and made their way down a crumbling set of steps into a cavernous chamber, the ceiling curving up out of sight. It was lit by fading mist-lights, their vapor heavy in the air. The lamps stood on metal stands only ten paces high and secured to the floor with clamps, leaving most of the chamber in heavy darkness. Dozens of thick, square pillars supported the ceiling, and every surface Moon could see, the walls, the pillars, was covered with plaques carved with unintelligible writing. It felt like a deep underground cavern, but they hadn’t come down nearly far enough for this space to be completely below the surface. “We’re under that dome,” Moon said softly.