Sarni’s face lit up. “Maybe we can get it back!”
“I did see that other stairway,” Vorrin pointed out.
Jendara’s mind began spinning a plan. The column was only one floor down—it couldn’t take them that long to find it. They’d get the column and retreat quietly.
“Let’s get out of here before those fish-things come check out the noise,” she said. “We’ll hide the Milady from the ulat-kini and come up with a real plan.”
“That’s the spirit.” Tam grinned at her. “I’ve always wanted to be rich.”
The group began to hurry away from the pit and the Star Chapel. Vorrin waited for Jendara. He suddenly stooped and picked a rock up from the ground.
“For you,” he said, holding out his find.
A ruby the size of his eye sat on his palm. Jendara gave him a kiss and slid the ruby into the bottom of her belt pouch.
For a moment she thought of the dolphin’s blood, ruby red on the blade of the white dagger. She pushed away the vision.
“Come on,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure our ship and our boy are all right.”
* * *
The Milady sat untouched and cheerful in the afternoon sunshine. Jendara left the others to haul anchor and sort out ideas about finding and moving their fallen treasure; she was more concerned about the incoming ulat-kini and that black merchant ship.
She caught Sarni’s eye. The teenager looked as bored by the conversation going on around her as Jendara would have been at her age. “Why don’t you and I go do a little scouting?”
Jendara had Sarni ready the dinghy while she briefed Vorrin on her plan, pointedly ignoring Kran, who was sitting beside his stepfather. She still wanted to turn him over her knee and spank him like a toddler, but knew he’d outgrown that years ago. His punishment would come to her soon enough.
She offered Sarni a strip of jerky and settled into the dinghy, letting the girl row. Sarni moved the oars slowly, slipping them into the water with all the stealth the former thief could give them.
They kept close to the rocks jutting out from the base of the island as they headed north. The island was quiet, save for the soft whistling of the wind in the rocks. The sound was no less eerie out here than it had been in the sea cave.
“Let’s move a little farther out from this headland,” Jendara instructed. “But keep low.”
They rounded the largest outcropping of weed-slicked rocks, and Jendara brought out her spyglass. She could see creatures moving in the water at the northern tip of the island, swimming between floating boxes and the ugly ulat-kini craft. The big black ship sat closer to the shore, partially obscured by the many rocks between it and Jendara’s dinghy.
“Know your enemy like a friend,” she murmured.
“What?”
“It’s what my father would have said if he were here. He was a firm believer in the importance of scouting everything out in advance. If he’d been in charge of this operation, he probably would have found a way to climb to the highest spire and get an aerial view of the island before we ever set foot on the ground.”
Sarni eased them a little closer.
“All right,” Jendara whispered. “Let’s stop here where we blend in with those rocks up ahead. Just be quiet.” She brought the spyglass to her eye.
The ulat-kini had begun assembling a floating dock at the tip of the island. Jendara couldn’t recognize the material they used. They unloaded it from the floating boxes, so it had to be light, but the structure they’d created seemed far more stable than a simple floating dock. Ulat-kini scurried across the platform without it noticeably dipping or swaying. The black ship sat beside the dock, its gangplank crawling with figures both ulat-kini and human. Or Jendara guessed them human, anyway. At this distance, even with the spyglass, it was hard to make out details besides the black robes and turbans. The mysterious crew shrouded even their faces in black scarves.
“What do you see?” Sarni whispered.
Jendara handed her the spyglass. “So far, they’re just building a dock.”
Sarni leaned forward as if the extra few inches could clarify her view. “They’re bringing out some massive crates. Looks like they’re full of more black stuff.” She paused. “Now they’re taking ladders out of the crates and putting them together. Black ladders.”
“They’re going to climb up to the top of the city.” Jendara bit her lip. “Can I see that again?”
Sarni returned the glass. Jendara fixed it on the nearest small boat, an ugly scow built out of what was clearly flotsam. She’d never seen a more haphazard vessel. A group of ulat-kini stood on board, as well as one of the black-turbaned travelers. The ulat-kini looked normal for their kind. Each stood about Jendara’s own height, with legs and arms very much like a human’s, but they clearly depended on their long tails to help them balance upright—their broad, fishlike heads and spiny dorsal fins would otherwise overbalance them. They wore no clothes, although several wore simple belts woven from seaweed, and all were armed with tridents or clubs.
However, one of the ulat-kini wore an elaborate headpiece—not quite a crown, but more of a miter. The creature gestured broadly as it leaned toward the turbaned figure. Clearly they discussed something of great importance.
She had a feeling the group wasn’t here for a simple treasure hunt. She thought of the fish-folk in that dark house in the city above. Did the island hold some religious significance to the people of the sea? And would that put the crew in more danger or less, should they encounter these creatures?
Her father would have encouraged a retreat and more scouting before moving on. Or else he’d have recommended a swift run for the treasure followed by a quicker retreat. But this was Jendara’s call.
She could only trust her gut.
Jendara turned her attention to the ulat-kini on the floating dock. Two of the fish-men struggled to snap together two shorter sections of ladder. They weren’t making much progress.
She frowned. “I don’t understand why they’re settling here on the north end of the island without even scouting out a better location, but I’m guessing it’ll take them at least a day to get settled in.”
And thus her mind was made up: the swift run with fast escape.
“Let’s get back to the others and tell them we’ve got twenty-four hours, maybe, before we have to start worrying about ulat-kini trouble.”
Sarni hesitated. “And the turbaned folk?”
Jendara glanced back at the ship. Her eyes widened. “The black ship is already raising anchor. That’s good news, I think.”
“If they don’t head toward our cave.”
“Good point.” They waited a moment, watching the black ship. The big vessel began to slowly head north, away from the cave and the Milady. Jendara checked the sun. They had maybe two hours of daylight left. She beckoned for Sarni to begin rowing.
The girl rowed stealthily for a minute or two. She opened her mouth twice, but each time changed her mind before she managed to speak.
“Is something wrong?” Jendara looked closely at Sarni’s face. She’d never seen the girl so withdrawn.
“No,” Sarni answered.
Jendara raised her eyebrow. “Can’t you at least try to sound like you mean that?”
Sarni gave a weak chuckle and looked down at her knees. “Look, you know I was raised by thieves. That’s because ulat-kini took my mother when I was six.” She went quiet.
“That’s why you were so upset when we saw the ulat-kini this morning.”
Sarni nodded. “I’d always heard the stories—ulat-kini, the scum of the sea. Parents used ’em to scare their little ones—‘Don’t go out at night, or the ulat-kini’ll get you.’” She spat over the side of the dinghy. “Turns out the stories are true.”
Jendara studied the girl as she rowed. Sarni had fixed her face in a tight, hard expression, arms moving in powerful strokes. Jendara knew that feeling—trying to overcome sadness with anger and action. Losing her own her fa
mily to a barbarian attack had been part of what led Jendara to piracy.
They reached the sea cave just as the Milady slipped inside, like a fish swimming into the mouth of a massive shark. Jendara rubbed the gray spot on the back of her hand. She hoped their hiding place was good enough to keep them safe from the ulat-kini and the other mysterious fish-folk. She’d been excited about taking her friends on an adventure, but this island was turning out to be more trouble than it was worth.
6
LURES AND BOBBERS
Jendara glanced back over her shoulder at the Milady, sitting quietly beside the bone pier. The last of the afternoon sunlight cast a soft glow behind the ship, the colors already shifting toward the oranges and golds of sunset. Jendara could just make out Sarni and Kran, who still stood at the railing beside the gangplank. Sarni put her arm around the boy and raised her other in a silent goodbye.
“Why Sarni?” Vorrin murmured in her ear. “Kran knows Boruc better, and as annoying as Sarni is, she can be surprisingly useful.”
Jendara waved back at the pair at the railing and then led Vorrin away. The others had already entered the dark stairwell.
“Sarni’s got too strong a personal connection to the ulat-kini.” She paused to lower the flame on his lantern. “If we run into any, I want all of us at our sharpest.”
“What if they find the ship?”
“I’m keeping my fingers crossed.” Jendara urged Vorrin to go ahead of her on the stairs. “Besides, once it gets dark, the cave will blend in pretty well with the cliffs around it. I’m hoping it’s safer than wandering around the bowels of the island.”
They climbed the rest of the stairs in silence. The whistle of the wind, unpleasantly loud in the sea cave, faded as they moved upward. A mustiness replaced the smell of the sea.
The others waited for them at the top of the stairs. In this late hour, the boulevard was full of shadows. The sun still pierced the windows, but the purple skylights had gone dark, the light’s angle too low to reach them. Somewhere in the distance, an occasional water droplet plinked.
Vorrin pointed toward a street-sized tunnel leading east off the boulevard. “That’s the tunnel I checked out earlier, the one with the other staircase.”
“Let me note that on my map,” Boruc said, drawing out his notebook. His charcoal shushed across the page as they entered the new tunnel. Their lanterns were the only light in this space, and it felt much smaller than its actual size. Jendara didn’t suffer from claustrophobia, but the dank and the dark pressed in uncomfortably around her.
Even by the lights of their small lanterns, it was obvious the city’s creators had taken fewer pains decorating this corridor than the boulevard behind them: there were no signs of glitter, and only a small mural at the conjunction of the two tunnels. Most of the doors lining the hallway hung off their hinges or had been ripped away, presumably by the outrush of water during the island’s return to the surface. The empty doorways looked like hollow eye sockets in a battered skull.
“Look.” Boruc tucked his charcoal behind his ear and knelt down beside one doorway, where a pale stick had been trapped in the rubble. He gave a little grunt as he tugged it free. He studied it a second and then held it out to Jendara.
She held her lantern over it and frowned. It was no stick, but a long finger bone, much longer than a human’s, and very slender. An ornate ring had fused to the bone, salts and other mineral deposits crusting the two into one inseparable whole. The creatures who had built this city had been human enough to enjoy decorating themselves, as well as their environment.
Jendara felt herself inadvertently spinning the thick gold band of her wedding ring with the tip of her thumb. “Think it’s worth anything?”
He shrugged and stuck it in his belt pouch.
“Here’s the staircase,” Zuna said in a soft voice. She played her lamp over the mouth of the stairway, built very much in the fashion of the staircase leading to the beach. She pointed out a sconcelike structure built into the wall. The crumbling figure of some human-shaped being held the shelf of the sconce on its shoulders, and the shelf itself was carved in the shape of seven-pointed sea star. “Was there anything like this on the stairs leading into the cave?”
“I’m not sure,” Vorrin admitted. “But these steps look more worn than the ones back there. Must have gotten a lot of traffic.”
“I hope it’ll take us underneath the purple boulevard,” Tam said. “I’m ready to get our treasure and get out.” He took the lead on the stairs, Zuna falling in behind him. The staircase curved a little, obscuring their figures in only a few steps.
“Careful as you go,” Jendara called softly. “There could still be water down there.”
They went quiet, everyone moving slowly. Jendara had a hunch she wasn’t the only one thinking back to the way Boruc had slipped on the staircase leading up to the surface. If someone fell here, well—she touched the handle of her handaxe. There could be anything at the bottom of these stairs.
Then she rounded the curve and saw Zuna and Tam stepping down onto level ground.
“It’s not flooded,” Zuna announced, looking back over her shoulder at them. “But it looks like the water level’s only recently fallen.” She pointed to a damp line a few inches above the floor. Puddles still filled depressions in the floor, and the space smelled less like mildew and more like seaweed and fish slime. Dying barnacles and shellfish clung to the walls, and shriveled ribbons of weed hung from every surface like strands of dark hair.
Jendara moved to examine the nearest wall. She scraped a few of the barnacles away, revealing the stone below. The same gray as the stone making up the grotto, it looked plain and undecorated. She moved to brush away a long rope of weed.
Her hand passed right through. Jendara held up her lamp. “It looks like there’s another hallway connecting right here.” She ripped away a handful of the seaweed. “I’d say it runs roughly the same direction as the big boulevard, but it’s hard to tell.”
“Let’s take it,” Tam urged. He pushed back the weed and led them into the north-south corridor. “Looks like there’s another tunnel coming up that goes east. This place is like a maze.”
“It must have been spectacular when it was inhabited,” Glayn breathed. “Even if the city only occupied the surface and these two levels, it would have been bigger than Halgrim.”
Jendara grinned. “If they were still on our trading route, we’d be rich.” Her smile faded as she remembered the bone in Boruc’s belt pouch. Perhaps it was ill-advised to joke around when she stood in what was essentially a giant graveyard. She remembered her trip to the Forest of Souls on the Isle of Ancestors, just last autumn. Sometimes the dead remained near their remains.
She didn’t much like ghosts, even those of her ancestors. Ghosts with no relation to her had to be even less pleasant.
“Ho, ho!” Boruc clapped his hands together. “Look what we’ve got here.” He was a ways up the hallway, still in sight, but farther away than Jendara liked. The group moved to join him. He put his shoulder against a partially opened door in the wall and shoved.
“We’re trying to hurry,” she reminded him.
“Just a quick look. You see this image here?” He pointed to a blob of stonework that, while not covered in shellfish, was entirely meaningless to Jendara. “It’s a chisel and hammer—this must have been a mason’s workshop.”
He set his shoulder to the door again, and with the crunch of shattering barnacles, the door ground open. Boruc stuck his head inside and immediately began pointing out delights like a kid at his first knife shop.
Glayn hurried behind him. “That’s lovely.”
Jendara stood in the doorway, her lips tight. Lantern light flickered gold across the slab of marble lying in the center of the room. Glayn circled the thing, brushing his fingers over the rounded shape—a whale, still just emerging from the pale stone. It was far from complete, but the smooth head and solemn eyes were remarkably true to life.
B
oruc appeared from the back of the room, which was apparently built in an L-shape. “It’s a real mess back here, but I found some nice pieces.” He held up what appeared to be a jade figurine of a squid. “It’s not even missing any of the tentacles.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Jendara said. “We’ve got a load of treasure to haul, remember?”
Vorrin took the jade squid from Boruc. “This is good stuff, Dara. We should bring it, too.”
“There are some fallen shelves over there that might have something good mixed in with the debris,” Boruc said. “Give me a hand.”
He and Vorrin went into the back of the room where it rounded a corner. Jendara scowled.
“Hey, captain’s orders,” Tam said with a shrug. “Why don’t Glayn and I check the room next door? If there’s one artist’s workshop down here, there might be more.”
“I’ll go with Tam and Glayn,” Zuna said, and then the trio headed out into the hall.
“You’ve got five minutes!” Jendara snapped at them. Then she followed after Boruc and Vorrin.
This leg of the room was longer and narrower, some kind of storage space, perhaps. Jendara’s boots splashed as she picked her way through the debris. The water hadn’t finished draining out of this enclosed space, and there were three or four inches of standing water. Boruc and Vorrin’s splashing echoed in the little storage area.
She wriggled her toes and was glad she’d treated her boots with mink oil. “You’d better have found something really valuable,” she growled.
“Oh, this is remarkable,” Boruc murmured. He was only a few feet ahead of her, but she couldn’t see anything beyond his broad shape. She raised her lantern and craned her neck.
“Where did they find such fine alabaster?” he cooed.
Jendara shook her head. She couldn’t see anything, but the room smelled strange, sweet and musky somehow. Her eyes and nose itched.
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