Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura)

by Martha Wells

  Delin rubbed his hands together briskly. “Yes, I would very much like to see these images.”

  “Of course,” Callumkal said hastily. “Rorra, would you?”

  Rorra started toward the ladder. Vendoin asked Jade, “Who would like to come? Delin, perhaps, and the young one, Merit?”

  Jade turned to Moon and said in Raksuran, “I’ll stay here. You, Stone, Balm, and Chime take Merit and Delin. See if it looks anything like what we saw in the forerunner city.”

  It was a relief to have something to do, and Moon was anxious to see the carvings himself.

  From the railing, Moon watched Rorra and Vendoin climb down to the beach and secure the use of one of the two smaller sailing boats, then wade out to it with a couple of the Janderi expedition members. He didn’t know what explanations Vendoin was giving about the Raksura, though from the body language the Janderi were asking lots of questions. It was good of Vendoin to do this. Even if she could be a little condescending, she obviously wasn’t afraid of them, and she was doing a good job of smoothing their way with the others.

  Rorra brought the little boat around, and Moon and Chime shifted and carried Merit and Delin down to the deck. Balm carried Stone so he didn’t have to shift and risk sinking the small boat. Moon lit on the soft material of the deck and set Merit down, then furled his wings and shifted to give the others room. Rorra, standing under the boat’s canopy and holding the rod that steered it, didn’t react, but the two Janderi stared in wide-eyed dismay.

  Merit sat on his heels to peer down through the hatch in the deck, where Vendoin was banging around. “What’s down there?”

  “Supplies and storage.” Vendoin’s armored head and shoulders appeared above the hatch, and she handed Merit a wooden tube. “That’s a distance glass.”

  Chime landed and set Delin down, then shifted to his groundling form. He muttered in Raksuran, “I hope they don’t think we’re going to eat them. I hate that.”

  Delin immediately went to the two Janderi. “I am the scholar Delin-Evran-lindel. What are your names?”

  Both were women, one called Rasal and the older one Sarandel. Neither looked terribly reassured by Delin’s courtesy or Rorra’s stoicism.

  Balm landed with Stone, who tugged his shirt back into place as Balm shifted to her groundling form.

  Rorra called, “Ready?”

  “Ready,” Moon confirmed. Rorra did something with another lever, and the boat started forward.

  The small boat had a light metallic hull, much like the larger sunsailer, and was about twenty-five paces long. The sail seemed just for extra speed, and Rorra and the Janderi crew hadn’t bothered to unfurl it. The thing powering it was in the stern, a cross between a fungus and something Moon had heard called various names, most often a glass fish because it looked like a downturned crystal cup. Whatever it was drew the water in from the surface and expelled it below on command. They found this out because Chime immediately went to the stern to hang off the side and examine it. “Do you have to feed it?” he asked Rorra.

  She shook her head. “It’s a plant, lives off the sun and the saltwater.” Leaning on the steering lever, she jerked her chin toward the escarpment. “The images are on a stone island right at the base.”

  The boat glided steadily toward the escarpment, and Moon started to feel the disruption in the wind as it dashed itself against the rock. Even down here at the base, it was bad, making choppy waves as they neared the wall’s rocky feet. To reach the top, they might have to wait for a calm day. That wouldn’t make the flying any easier, but it would be safer. He tasted the air deeply, but there was nothing but salt and water and the sea wrack on the rocks.

  Moon moved up toward the bow with the others, Chime with him. As he stepped past the two Janderi, Rasal moved uneasily aside. Stone, Balm, and Merit all looked toward the wall at the base of the escarpment, while Delin and Vendoin both used distance glasses. Delin swayed and Moon put his hands on his shoulders to steady him. “What do you see?”

  Delin snorted. “Not as much as you, I suspect.”

  Moon thought they were looking at the remains of a harbor, or at least a dock of some kind. From here he could see the cliff wall had been carved out, that the deep grooves and furrows were straight lines, vertical and angled in an abstract design. A short distance from the wall, pylons stood in the water, perhaps thirty paces above the surface, in a roughly rectangular arrangement with platforms between them.

  Stone turned away and went over the railing, water splashing the deck as he vanished below the choppy waves. There were startled exclamations from the Janderi, and Vendoin lowered the distance glass to stare at Moon. Moon sighed. “He’s fine.”

  From the stern, Rorra called, “How close are we?”

  Sarandel told her, “About two boat lengths to the shallow. And careful, a rock shifted a few days ago and changed the currents.”

  Rorra muttered a curse in Kedaic that probably no one but the Raksura heard. The boat bumped against something that bounced off the hull; the groundlings swayed, but Moon was fairly certain it wasn’t a rock. Balm muttered, “I hope that wasn’t his head.”

  Moon called, “Rorra, can you stop?”

  She worked the lever and the boat slowed. Something tugged gently on it to bring it nearly to a halt. Moon stepped to the side as Stone popped up out of the waves, back in his groundling form. He hooked an arm around the railing and said in Altanic, “There’s a lot of stuff down there.”

  Delin stepped closer and Vendoin almost flung herself over the railing, demanding, “What?”

  Stone shoved the wet hair out of his eyes and pointed toward the pylons. “There’s a set of steps coming down from the platform at the base of the pillars on the right. It goes down about thirty paces and stops, still above the bottom. Though it’s pretty shallow here.”

  Everyone was leaning over to listen now, even Rasal and Sarandel. Stone continued, “There are a lot of broken pylons below the surface. This was a big docking area, probably.”

  Chime asked, “Could you see an opening? Any way inside?”

  Stone sank down a little in the water. “No, but I’m wondering about those stairs.”

  Merit said in Raksuran, “Can you get me something to scry with? A chip of carved rock, maybe?”

  “Sure.” Stone let go of the rail and sank below the waves.

  A moment later Stone surfaced with a splash and handed up a fragment of tile, mud and a weed still clinging to it. Merit took it carefully, wrapped it up in a cloth, and stored it away in his bag.

  Rorra called, “Are you done? I need to start the motivator again so we don’t smash into those rocks.”

  Stone grabbed the railing and hauled himself back aboard, his clothes dripping onto the deck. Wringing out the tail of his shirt, he said, “Done.”

  Rorra worked the starting lever and steering bar, and the boat swayed underfoot as it turned away from the rocks. She said, “I don’t think we can get much closer, not with the water so choppy.”

  Moon pointed toward the wall beyond the pylons. Waves washed the ledge at its base, and he could just make out the shapes carved on its surface. “Is that it?”

  “Yes.” Vendoin confirmed. She appeared to remember she was speaking to Raksura. “Ah, can you reach it? Without the boat?”

  Moon knew he and Balm could. He glanced at Chime. “Can you do it? If not, one of us can carry you.”

  “Uh . . .” Chime hesitated, studying the situation. “I can get there. Don’t tease me if you have to carry me back.”

  Balm nudged his shoulder. “We won’t.”

  Delin was already holding his arms up for someone to carry him. Moon shifted and picked him up, and Balm shifted to lift Merit. Before Moon could ask Stone if he wanted to come, Stone went backwards over the rail again. Moon sighed. He asked Vendoin, “Do you want someone to come back for you?” He didn’t want Chime to have to carry anyone, just in case.

  “Thank you, no,” Vendoin said, bemused. “I saw the im
ages several times on our previous trip.”

  Moon crouched and leapt, snapped his wings out to catch the wind, and rode a gust to one of the pylons. He landed and had to furl his wings and clamp his claws on the wet stone surface to steady himself. Glancing down, he saw Stone’s big dark shape move through the water below, weave in between the bases of the pylons, and then sink out of sight. “Exhilarating,” Delin commented.

  Balm landed with Merit on the next pylon. Chime overshot but curved around well before the wall and managed the landing on his second pass. He crouched, breathing hard, clinging to the top of his pylon. Balm and Merit watched worriedly.

  “You did good,” Moon told Chime, thinking, I’m definitely carrying him back.

  Chime nodded, his spines flicking anxiously. “Right, yes. That was fun.”

  Balm took the long jump across to the ledge and set Merit on his feet. It was a wider space than it looked, about six paces, but half of it was awash. Moon went next and set Delin down. His foot claws were washed by cool seawater, and the wind pulled a little at his spines and frills, but it wasn’t a bad perch. They all watched as Chime made the leap, and landed without a stumble. “That part was easy,” he told them, clearly a little annoyed at their concern.

  Merit thumped him in the arm. “It didn’t look easy.”

  Delin turned to the wall to examine the images. The water churned, then Stone popped up in groundling form. He sat on the ledge, squinting at the wall. Moon turned to look and found himself staring at the carved figure of a forerunner.

  The images were scattered along the wall, along with symbols and figures he couldn’t guess the meaning of. Delin, Chime, and Merit moved up and down the ledge, examining everything in detail. Chime touched the cut-out section where the tile they had seen on the boat had been removed.

  To get out of the way, Moon withdrew to the edge where Stone sat, and Balm joined them. “Were there images like this in the forerunner city?” Balm asked.

  “No.” Moon frowned at the wall. “It didn’t look like this.” He remembered Vendoin asking if the images at the forerunner city had at all resembled trading flags or other methods for displaying information for travelers. “I think this was done by someone else, for someone else.”

  Stone nodded toward the water. “This was a docking area for surface ships, so that makes sense.”

  “But wouldn’t they already know they were going to a forerunner city?” Balm pointed out, her brow furrowed.

  “It might not be saying that.” Moon settled his spines, aware they wanted to convey unease. He wasn’t even sure why, though he could see Balm reacting the same way. “It might be saying, ‘if you aren’t a forerunner, leave.’”

  “Or,” Chime said, “‘If you don’t have a forerunner with you, leave.’ Or ‘Wait here till a forerunner comes to get you.’ Or anything.” He sat on his heels beside Balm. “The good thing is, I’m not hearing or feeling anything. Nothing odd, I mean. No voices.”

  That was good news. Moon hoped the place was just an empty shell, either forerunner or foundation builder. Then the Kishan could poke at it to their hearts’ content without fear of releasing anything horrible. As long as the Fell stayed away.

  “But then where’s the door?” Balm flicked water off her claws. “You don’t put up a message like that—if that’s what it is—unless it’s on or near an entrance to something.”

  Delin, leaning so close to the wall his nose was almost resting on it, pointed at her without turning around and made a waving gesture. Chime said, “I think he agrees with you.”

  “The Kish took that tile out because they were looking for the door, not because they wanted the image on it,” Moon said.

  Stone made a “hmph” noise. “They want into this place bad. Even before they sat there on that island for the last couple of months staring at it.”

  That wasn’t encouraging. Merit came over to them, shifting to his Arbora form so he could sit in the water on the ledge without getting his pants wet. He held another fragment of rock. “Maybe I can scry something about the door. I took this from the edge around the missing image.”

  Delin turned away from the wall. “Intriguing.” He asked Stone, “There was no sign of an underwater door?”

  Stone shook his head. “Not that I saw, not below this wall. If it’s there, it’s hidden well.” He looked back toward the boat. “And if it’s there, I don’t think we want to find it. At least not until we know what we’re dealing with.”

  Delin frowned at the boat too. “We should get back.”

  The wind had calmed a little and they reached the boat again without too much trouble, though Moon took two trips, one with Delin and one with Chime. Chime objected, but not too strenuously, saying, “You don’t have to. I could probably make it.”

  This was no time to force the issue of the tricky flying that Chime had always been slow to master. Moon told him, “It’s the probably part that worries me.”

  Once they had shifted back to their groundling forms, Rorra guided the boat back toward the island. Shielding his eyes from the glare, Moon could see Jade and the other warriors and Bramble on the beach, talking with two figures that were probably Callumkal and Kalam. Or Jade was talking to them; Bramble played in the surf with Root, and Briar and Song wandered on the beach just above, looking as if they wanted to play in the surf. The other Kishan had gone back to their camp.

  It was a peaceful scene and Moon hoped it meant Kellimdar and the other scholars had agreed to accept the Raksura’s presence.

  Rorra took the boat back to its spot near the beach and Rasal and Sarandel dropped the anchors to keep it in position. Chime offered to fly Delin to the shore, so Moon shifted and jumped into the water.

  He arrived, dripping, at Jade’s side, with Chime and Delin already there, and Stone wandering up the beach behind him. Rorra was walking with Balm and Merit, while the two Janderi women headed up toward the camp.

  Jade regarded him with cocked spines, and Moon said in Raksuran, “Nobody got eaten.”

  She snorted, and said in Altanic, “The others say the clouds generally burn off by later in the day. Callumkal says they’ll give us a tent.” She added in Raksuran, “The Kish here are ‘uncomfortable’ with the idea of sharing their camp with us, but other than that, they don’t seem openly hostile.”

  Stone muttered, “Hmm,” and wandered off toward the trees.

  “Will he be all right by himself?” Kalam asked Moon, worried. “I know his other form is very large, but . . .”

  “He’s fine,” Moon said. “Just try to ignore him.”

  Callumkal turned to Delin. “Did you get a good look at the images on the structure?”

  Delin nodded. “Yes. We agree it is the remains of a docking point for the city. Stone was able to see steps and some continuation of the docking structure below the surface.”

  Callumkal stared after Stone, startled. “Below the surface. Like the underwater city the Raksura discovered?”

  Delin eyed him. “Possibly. Possibly also this sea was more shallow, or entirely absent, in the time of the city’s occupation and what we think is a dock is actually for land-going craft.” He frowned at the escarpment. “There is no evidence to draw conclusions at this point.”

  Moon looked toward the escarpment again, the summit still wrapped in clouds. There was so little evidence that they couldn’t draw the conclusion that there was a city there at all, except for the Kishan’s word for it.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  As predicted, it was mid-morning when the wind changed, and the clouds began to dissolve into shreds. Moon and the others went down to the beach for a better view.

  They had spent the remainder of the morning setting up their camp. The tent the Kish had given them was at the edge of the main camp, and looked like it had just been pitched. Bramble and Merit had immediately taken it down, dug trenches to give it better drainage, and put it back up again in a different configuration. The warriors’ attempts to assist them with t
his process were not appreciated. Chime dodged a swipe from Bramble for trying to help her hold a pole, and retreated over to Moon. He called back to her, exasperated, “Fine, you do it! I’ll never help you with anything again!”

  “Is that a promise?” Bramble called back.

  Moon had just stood there, arms folded. To the Kishan watching from a distance, it would just sound like growls and hisses. If it was Moon’s decision, he would have been a great deal more circumspect around strange groundlings. But it wasn’t his decision.

  Stone had flown out from the island, but hadn’t been able to detect any Fell stench. If the Fell were nearby, they had retreated to whatever island they were using as a nest, and weren’t in the air. Kalam had said that while the Kishan here had waited for Callumkal to return, they had spent the time searching this island, and all the others surrounding it, for signs of the foundation builders. They had found a few fragments of stone platforms and support pillars, but that was all.

  Now, as the clouds dissipated, Moon saw the top of the escarpment. It was a flat plateau that curved up into a sharp pointed peak at the western end. The peak formed a graceful curve, like a horn. The edge of the city was visible as a partial line of conical towers along the top of the cliff. Still obscured by shreds of cloud, they were hard to make out even with Raksuran eyes, but the shapes of the pointed rooftops were distinctive. They didn’t line the entire escarpment, just the portion of it directly above the docking structure.

  “It’s not centered,” Chime said. “That’s kind of odd.”

  “It ruins the effect,” Bramble agreed, tilting her head as she stared at the escarpment. “That peak doesn’t look natural, either.”

  Now that they had pointed out the tilted effect, Moon noticed it too. The escarpment itself was roughly square, like the sea-mounts, and faced the island. But while the ruined docks at the foot and the towers along the top were aligned with each other, both were set closer to the western end of the escarpment than the eastern, clearly off-center and leaning toward the peak. He had seen some natural rock formations that were almost as odd as the peak, though he had to admit that the elegant curve of it above the plateau did look artificial.