by Martha Wells
They started down the uneven stairs, Balm telling Jade, “You were right about this hall being the way through the city, but you have to go along the canal to avoid the trap. There’s a lock, though, and the Kishan are trying to get through it. The other canals are connected, but they all dead-end—”
“Merit scryed all this?” Jade asked as they hit the next landing.
“Not all of it. We thought it would be Fell chasing you,” Balm said.
Moon hissed as he cleared the next set of stairs. He hoped Merit hadn’t actually scryed Fell inside the city. They had about all they could handle now.
They reached the archway at the base of the stairs and found Vendoin already there, waiting with four Janderi, all armed with smaller versions of the fire weapons. “Are those creatures still coming?” Vendoin called as the Raksura spilled out onto the pavement. They were on a walkway paralleling a canal, and Moon’s sense of direction said it was the one they had tried to follow from the hall above. That had certainly seemed like a good idea at the time.
“They’re still coming, but not as quickly,” Jade answered. The Raksura gathered around, breathing hard from exertion, spines twitching. Rorra and Delin hovered nearby. To the watching Kishan crew, they probably seemed unmoved. To Moon, everyone looked exhausted and half-shattered by nerves. Jade shook her spines out. “Where’s the boat?”
“It’s up this canal, not far.” Balm glanced at her, obviously worried.
“We need to hurry,” Kalam said. “They said if they get the lock open before we get there, they’ll go on without us.”
“Your father is going to leave you behind here?” Jade asked, startled and skeptical. Moon found the idea unlikely too.
“Well, no,” Kalam admitted. “But I don’t want him to have to go against everyone.”
“Fair enough,” Jade said. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
It was a long walk before they saw the sunsailer’s lights. If the waterlings had made a serious effort to catch them, they would probably have all been eaten because Moon wasn’t sure they could have moved fast enough, even with the Kishan weapons as cover. Stone shifted to groundling about halfway along, and said quietly to Moon, “They’re following us, but they’re up there, in that hall above us.” He jerked his chin up.
“Why?” Moon wondered. “Are they just that territorial? Or hungry?”
Stone hissed under his breath. “That’s a good question.”
The lights grew brighter until Moon could see the battered sunsailer floating in the canal. It faced a huge mold-covered metal door stretched across the hall, blocking the way. From the curving pillars on each end, and the huge gears built into the sides, it looked as if it was meant to raise up to let boats pass below. But it was so old, the dark patina glinting under the lights, and it looked like the mold might be eating it.
“Oh, that’s perfect,” Chime said, weary and sour.
“And the other canals are blocked?” Moon asked, glancing back at the others.
Sounding irritated, River answered, “Yes, they all stop further back. This is a stupid city.”
For once, Moon agreed with him.
The Janderan on guard on the deck saw them and called out. A group was on the walkway, examining or working on one of the pillars. Lights flashed as they turned and Moon spotted Callumkal.
He came toward them, relief plain on his face. “We thought you were lost in this place—”
“We knew where we were, we just couldn’t get back,” Jade told him. Moon could hear an edge of irritated defensiveness in the husky quality of her voice, though he was fairly sure the Kishan couldn’t.
A ramp had been stretched from a break in the boat’s railing to the walkway. Moon was glad to see it, since he wasn’t sure most of them could have made the jump right now. His calf and knee, where the waterling had grabbed him, was one solid ache. As Rorra and Kalam told Callumkal about the waterlings, Moon trudged up the ramp with the others to the deck.
Kellimdar was there, sorting through a pile of tools with two Janderan. He seemed unflatteringly startled to see them. “You returned? We thought . . .”
He let that trail off. Bramble plopped down on the deck and said, “What, you thought we’d decided to live here?”
This part of the deck was brightly lit and littered with metal tools of obscure purpose and coils of various sizes of line, and several jars of the moss. The Kishan had obviously been working on the lock for a while. At least we won’t starve now, Moon thought wearily. He just hoped the waterlings tasted good.
The others followed them up the ramp and a Janderi woman started to help Rorra take off her harness. Delin staggered toward the hatchway, and Merit hurried to help him. Callumkal stood with his arm around Kalam’s shoulders, obviously nearly overcome with relief that he was alive. He said, “What did you find? Was Merit right about the trap?”
Jade turned to answer, though her spines were drooping and she had clearly used up every ounce of energy she had left. Moon decided he was going to take drastic action. He stumbled a little, then shifted to his groundling form and collapsed. Jade caught him with a startled hiss, and Moon went limp. It wasn’t difficult. Losing the weight of his wings after all this time made him dizzy, and every muscle ache acquired in all the previous hours increased tenfold.
He heard Callumkal, Kalam, and Vendoin make exclamations of concern and dismay, and Jade said, “I need to—”
“Of course, go on,” Callumkal urged her.
Jade lifted Moon and he heard the hatch swing open. The light visible through his eyelids faded and he felt the change in the air as she carried him inside. He heard the others trailing after her, then Chime asked worriedly, “Is he all right?”
“Yes,”Jade said, her voice tired but dry. “I was particularly impressed by how he rolled his eyes back in his head before he fell over.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” Moon said under his breath.
They turned into a cabin and a moment later Jade deposited him on one of the padded benches. He opened his eyes and caught her arm. She shifted to her Arbora form and he drew her down next to him. She curled around him, said, “Balm, wake me if something happens,” and fell instantly asleep.
Balm smiled in relief. “I will.” She squeezed Moon’s shoulder and left the cabin.
Stone and Chime had followed them in. Now Chime said, “I think I’ll be right here,” and pulled a cushion down to curl up on the floor. He shifted to his groundling form and groaned.
Bramble ducked in, glanced around as if counting them, and then ducked out again. Moon wasn’t sure where the others had ended up and had to resist the knee-jerk urge to get up and check on them.
Stone leaned over for a close look at Jade. Satisfied, he said, “I’m going to go collapse dramatically on Rorra,” and walked out.
“I think Stone likes her,” Moon said through a yawn.
Already half-asleep, Chime sighed. “It wouldn’t be the oddest thing that happened on this trip.”
The next thing Moon knew, Merit was leaning over him, saying, “Are you awake?”
“No.” Moon rubbed his face. To his relief, Jade was still curled around him, breathing heavily. He knew it was night outside the city again, that they had only been asleep for a few hours. The bright liquid lights hurt his eyes and his throat felt raw. He managed to rasp, “What?”
Merit was in his groundling form, frowning with worry. “The Kishan think they might be able to get the lock open. I have to talk to you and Jade before we leave the city.”
From the floor, Chime said, “Why do they call it a lock? Why would you build a river for a boat and then put a lock on it?” He sounded woozy and half-conscious.
Merit ignored him. “It’s about my vision. I need Chime to hear this too. And Stone, but he’s still asleep and I’m afraid to wake him.”
Chime wondered, “He’s sleeping with Rorra?”
Merit’s jaw set. “Hold on.” He turned around, leaned over Chime, and
shook him hard.
“All right, all right,” Chime protested. “Stop, I’m awake!” Chime sat up, his hair sticking out in all directions. He blinked and groaned. “What were you saying?”
Moon carefully moved the arm Jade had around his chest and sat up a little. “What about your vision?”
Merit crouched beside the bench. “You all thought that trap you ran into was meant to keep anyone from going up into that part of the city, right?”
Moon nodded. Jade stirred and muttered in her sleep. Scratching his head vigorously, Chime said, “Mmmhmm.”
“But instead you realized you could climb or fly out of it, that only someone who could climb or fly like a Raksura could get out of it,” Merit said. “From what I saw in the vision, it wasn’t a trap, it was a—a trail sign. It was telling you where to go.”
“But—” Moon hesitated. It took us to a place where there was only one way to go, and once we were through it, there were open stairwells and halls. “Go on.”
“That’s what I saw in my vision,” Merit said, his expression anxious. “Any groundlings who walked into it would be stuck. I think there might be a way out for them, I’m not sure what it is. But if you knew to take one of the paths through the city, and you were told that at the right point, something would show you the way . . .”
Chime was wide awake and staring. “I didn’t have any warning. I mean, my . . . power, my sense, whatever it is, I didn’t have any warning.”
Merit turned to him. “Because it wasn’t a trap. And I think maybe it was hiding from me, from my scrying. The closer we came to this city, the less I could see. It was like I’d forgotten how to scry. Once you all walked into that hall, suddenly my vision was back.”
“So you think it was meant for Raksura?” Moon said. His skin was prickling with unease.
“Or forerunners.” Merit shook his head and shrugged. “Maybe the foundation builders were their allies, and something happened, and the builders had to leave. But they left something here for the forerunners, and left a way to show them where it was. Maybe what the tiles with forerunners on them at the outside dock area were saying was ‘if you’re a forerunner, go down one of the halls above the canal and you’ll find it.’”
Chime frowned, frustrated. “But what was supposed to be up there? The waterlings destroyed everything in that room we found, except that thing Root picked up.”
Moon said, “Uh . . .” They all stared at each other.
Jade said, “This shitting city,” and sat up. “Are the waterlings still out there?”
Merit told her, “Stone said they were in the hall above the boat. He’s up on the roof of the top cabin, so he could listen to them while he slept.”
Jade prodded Moon to move. “I have a bad feeling.”
Moon had a bad feeling too. He sat up and moved over for her. This would explain why the waterlings had woken so suddenly, when they had done nothing to disturb them. “You think it made the waterlings come after us? That whatever attracted Root to it also attracted them?”
Jade climbed over him. “I think for an ancient object that had a magical trap guiding Raksura-like beings straight to it, it gave up way too easily when a Raksura picked it up.”
They went to the upper deck common area, the one with the cooking stove, where the others had gone to rest. Balm and River had been keeping watch out on the deck, but the other warriors and Bramble were here. They were all mostly awake now, in their groundling forms and still bleary-eyed. Delin was here too, awake and making notes in one of his books, half-lying on a bench with his bare feet propped up on a cushion. A pot of water was heating on the stove and there was a bowl of something that smelled like pickled melon that Bramble was trying to get the warriors to eat.
First Moon had gone up to the top deck of the ship to get Stone, who reluctantly rolled off the cabin roof, yawned, and stretched. “Now what?” he asked.
“Are the waterlings still up there?” Moon asked. “Because we think we know why.”
As Moon and Stone followed Jade and Merit into the cabin, everyone looked up, and Bramble held out the bowl of melon. She said, “I’m making tea.”
Jade said, “Wait, we need to talk.”
Chime hurried down the corridor with Balm and River behind him. Once they were all together, Jade slid the door shut, lowered her voice and said, “In that room we found, where the waterlings had destroyed almost everything except the silver cage thing Root picked up.”
Everyone nodded except Balm and River, who must have only heard parts of what had happened. Root ducked his head and tried to look unobtrusive. Jade finished, “Did anyone else pick it up?”
Moon looked around the room. In the dark, in the confusion, with everyone waving their lights around at random, it would have been easy for someone to slip the object into a pack. Especially if compelled to by an influence that had made them immediately forget what they had done. Moon had already checked his own, Jade’s, Chime’s, and Stone’s packs, which had been dumped in the cabin downstairs, even though he didn’t think it was likely to be there. Moon had walked out with one hand around Root’s arm, and the others had all been in the front part of the room, too far ahead to get back to where the object had lain without anyone else noticing. And Rorra had been carrying Delin, though he suspected the spell was like the trap, and had been aimed at Raksura, or a species related to Raksura.
The warriors and Bramble stared at Jade, confused. “No,” Song said, a little hurt. “You said not to.”
“Why would we—” Bramble began, then went still as the implications hit her. “You think—”
Delin sat up all the way, dislodging his cushion, alarmed. “You think the compulsion caused someone to take it?”
Jade said, “Check your packs.”
The packs had been dumped by the wall and Briar got up to pass them over to the others. The packs didn’t hold much, most of the warriors having only brought what they thought they might need on the search for the way out of the city, leaving the rest of their belongings on the sunsailer. Song turned hers out, revealing a still-glowing cup, a nearly empty waterskin, a crumpled spare shirt, a little pouch for flints, and some fragments of cloth waterproofed with mountain-tree sap that had been wrapped around food. Bramble’s and Root’s packs all held variations on the same, though Root squeezed his eyes shut with trepidation before he dumped his out. Briar sat down, opened hers, and stared down at it. “Jade . . .”
Moon stepped between Bramble and Root, and crouched beside Briar. Inside her pack was the dull silver cage, the crystal gleaming faintly in its center.
Briar’s eyes were wide with horror. “I—I didn’t—I don’t even remember—”
Moon felt a surge of sympathy for her. He knew it hadn’t been her fault and he hated to see anyone singled out like this. He told Briar, “You couldn’t help it. And you were right behind me and I didn’t see you.” He looked up at Jade. “This thing really wanted out of there.”
“It’s not your fault, Briar,” Jade said. Her jaw was set, as if it was taking a lot of effort not to hiss. Or maybe scream. Moon wanted to scream a little himself. They had been tricked into taking this object with them and there just couldn’t be anything good behind it. They had come here to prevent the mentors’ vision of a massive Fell attack on the Reaches from coming true, and he had a bad feeling they had just made that vision more possible.
Watching Briar’s pack nervously, Song said, “You think it made those waterlings come after us?”
Delin climbed off the bench and limped over to look more closely at the object. “Possibly whatever influence it projects that drew us to it also drew them, as an unwanted side effect. It may explain their attraction to the city, why they came here from the ocean. Possibly it also drew the Fell.” He looked up at Jade and added bluntly, “You understand we will be accused by the Kishan of stealing this thing, for our own purposes.”
Jade grimaced. “We came here to prevent the Fell from getting inside this city, be
cause we were afraid there was something dangerous inside it that they could use against us. That was our purpose. All I want to do is leave this thing here.”
“Can we put it back?” Balm asked, obviously thinking furiously. “We could get back up there . . . Except for the waterlings . . .”
Stone leaned against the wall, sighing wearily. “It’s too late for that. If the trap was meant to guide forerunners to this thing, it would work for the Fell, too.”
“But what is it?” Chime asked helplessly. “What does it do?”
No one had an answer for that. Moon said, “If we were forerunners, I guess we’d know. Or be able to figure it out.”
Chime stepped over to peer cautiously into the pack. “I wonder if the Fell know, or if they just think it’s a weapon, like what the creature in the forerunner city offered them.”
Delin’s face, already wreathed with new lines from exhaustion, wrinkled further in consternation. “Perhaps this was what it meant to offer them.”
There was a general moment of silent dismay. They couldn’t just leave it in poor Briar’s pack, so Moon started to reach for it. “No, better not to touch it,” Delin said.
Root rubbed his hands on his pants anxiously. “I touched it.”
Briar winced. “I must have touched it too.”
“Well, nobody touch it anymore,” Bramble said. “Here.” She pulled a leather bag out of a supply pack. “Tip it into this.”
Moon took the pack and managed to work the object out and into the bag Bramble held open without touching it. As Bramble laced the top down, Chime asked, “But what do we do with it? I know the Kishan will want it, or think they want it, but whatever it is or does, we can’t let them have something that’s going to attract Fell. They’ll never get home alive with it.”
Jade rubbed her temples. “I don’t know. Unless we just drop it in this canal.”
Moon didn’t think that would work. “If the Fell get into the city when we get out, it might draw them to it, like it did the waterlings. And us.”