by Martha Wells
Chime said, “Could the darts be from a plant? I mean, they’re obviously from a plant, but did they run into a plant that shoots darts at moving things?”
It wasn’t a bad idea. There were plenty of aggressive thorn-bearing plants in the Reaches, and some of them preferred to live on meat rather than light and water. But Stone shook his head. “They were all inside their leaf boat. And something tore up the place, searching it. If it was a plant, it was one that could get up and walk around, and if it could do that, it wouldn’t have left them in there alive.”
Chime hissed in confusion. Stone was right, a meat-eating plant would have finished the job. Moon asked, “Were the Kek killed this same way?”
“No.” Stone grimaced. “They were attacked by something, fought it hand-to-hand, all three of them.” He added, “And it wasn’t one of these groundlings. Their hands don’t show any damage.”
Chime sat back, tugging a tent-cover back into place over another groundling. “Are you sure? The gray ones look strong enough to break a Kek in half.”
Stone’s expression showed his patience had come close to its limit with questions, but he said, “The Kek are tougher than they look. And they can’t bleed out, their veins close up.”
Moon settled his spines again. This whole situation was making his claws itch. “The Kek don’t use any dart weapons?” The idea of the Kek attacking anybody seemed unlikely at best, but the groundlings might have threatened them.
“They don’t. Not much use to them, as they don’t eat meat. And Kek don’t attract the kind of predators a dart weapon would work on.” Stone looked at one of the Kek, who had brought a snail shell filled with water and was trying to clean the blood away from the face of one of the unconscious groundlings. “Nobody thinks the Kek and some random groundlings got in a fight. Especially the other Kek.”
“But it wasn’t—” Moon made his spines flat so he didn’t accidentally poke Chime. “This doesn’t make sense. If the groundlings were attacked by something with a dart weapon, why did it leave them alive? If a predator was drawn by the blood-scent and killed the Kek when they tried to protect the groundlings, why didn’t it eat the groundlings? Or the Kek?”
“And when did it happen?” Chime asked, bewildered. “The groundlings must have been out there three days at least, since before the Kek went missing. Why didn’t the blood scent draw more predators?”
Stone rubbed his face wearily. With the edge of a growl in his voice, he said, “If I knew, I’d tell you. All I can say is that something happened to these people, and the Kek must have walked up on it either while it was happening, or right after.” He looked up at Moon. “I called you down here because I want you to search through that leaf boat. I looked through it but I want to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Whoever attacked these people tore it apart looking for something in there, and we don’t know if they found it or not.”
Moon flicked a spine in acknowledgement and pushed to his feet.
Worried, Chime said, “You want him to make sure there isn’t a dart weapon in there. That the groundlings didn’t do this to each other.”
Stone tilted his head. “That too.”
Moon stepped out of the shelter. The Kek who had come close to watch and listen scattered out of his way. Coming toward him through the clumps of fern and clusters of huts were Merit and another Arbora, a young female soldier called Sharp.
Merit had a couple of bags slung over his shoulder and his spines flicked anxiously. As Moon reached him, Merit said, “Floret told me about the groundlings. She’s guarding the edge of the village with the other warriors.”
“Just be careful,” Moon told him. He added to Sharp, “Keep an eye on him. The groundlings don’t look like they could do much damage right now, but we don’t know anything about these people.”
Sharp’s spines were reassuringly steady. “I will, consort.”
Merit moved toward the shelter, Sharp on his heels, and Moon headed for the leaf boat. Chime caught up with him a few paces later, though he kept glancing back toward the shelter as if he was torn between curiosity about the leaf boat and helping Merit. “It sounds like the Kek have no idea why these groundlings were here in the first place,” Chime said. “Were they exploring, trading? Why would they come here?”
“They might be from here. It would explain why they have this.” Moon nodded toward the flying boat. It looked bizarre at first glance, but the materials and the way it was put together did suggest it had been assembled or cultivated by people familiar with the forest floor.
Root still paced next to it, keeping watch. Moon went toward what he supposed was the back of the contraption. Instead of being square to hold as much cargo as possible, the body of the leaf boat tapered into a triangular bow at either end.
Most groundling wagons or other transports Moon had seen had an opening in the back, so he jumped up to hook his claws on the curve of the leaf’s edge. There was a gap in the canopy here, a door flap with a clump of vines that seemed to act as a way to keep it closed. Moon pulled himself up and crouched on the wide edge, then tugged the flap open and peered inside.
The upper part didn’t look translucent from the outside but it and the narrow windows did let light through. Moon saw bundled shapes, and something hanging from the ceiling. He tasted the air, but the damp green scents of the forest floor were too intense for him to detect anything unusual.
Behind him, Chime climbed the stern and hung on with one arm. “Here, Root had one of the light stones.” He handed Moon one of the smooth glowing stones.
Moon took it and rolled it into the leaf boat. The white glow of light revealed the width of the interior. Bundles were stacked along the sides, leaving the middle of the space mostly open. Nets hung from the arches that supported the canopy, each of which contained a single bundle or roll of cloth. It seemed an impractical method of storage, until Moon realized the cloth was bedding and the nets were hanging beds.
Moon stepped into the leaf boat, the plant fiber floor giving a little beneath his feet. He was careful to keep his foot claws retracted. Inside, it was easier to detect the scents, a mishmash of unfamiliar groundlings, intense moss odors, rotted fruit, damp grain, and blood. He could see the sticky stains on the floor where the occupants must have collapsed when they were wounded. Most of the blood was a light dull green, but there was also a clear fluid. There was a cloud of gnats hovering, and other insects whizzed around.
A woven reed case lay open on the floor, with rolls of papers, wooden writing utensils, and an ink bottle made of shell. Moon crouched over one of the papers and flicked it with a claw to unroll it. It was a map, drawn in light blue ink on waxed pounded reed paper, marking out a ground level route through a part of the Reaches. At least he thought so, to judge by the huge irregular circles that must be symbols for various mountain-trees. The notations were in a language Moon didn’t know.
From the doorway, Chime said, “Is that a map? Can you tell where they came from?”
It looked as if the route started somewhere in the middle of the Reaches. “Sort of.” The ground level map did mean that this leaf, unlike Golden Islander flying boats and Aventeran bladder boats, probably couldn’t get much higher off the ground than it was now. Moon reached for another roll of paper. “It must be—” He froze, certain something had moved inside the leaf boat. A faint breeze stirred a torn fragment of paper up towards the bow and Moon relaxed, twitching his spines to shake off the tension. They didn’t have time to look at the maps right now. He pushed to his feet and continued around.
Stone was right, the place had been searched. Containers and bundles had been dragged around, pulled loose from the vine ties and wooden clips meant to secure them to the floor, and some had been roughly thrown aside. But most hadn’t been opened or dumped out, as if whoever had searched hadn’t been looking for something that could be hidden inside one. The foodstuffs Moon found were all roots or fruit, and there were several big clumps of mold-looking things, which were emi
tting the grainy odor. He couldn’t tell what they were, but it seemed unlikely that they had produced darts. The contents of the wrapped bundles were either recognizable as the sort of supplies most groundlings needed on a long trip, like cloth made of pounded reed, or utensils or tools made of shell or polished wood, or things like the mold clumps that were completely strange. But there was nothing that looked even vaguely like a weapon that shot thorn darts. So the groundlings hadn’t shot at each other, unless they had also thrown the weapons away before collapsing.
Moon climbed back out of the leaf boat and shook his spines. There was something about this whole situation that made the skin creep under his scales, though there had been nothing really odd in the boat. Maybe it was just that five groundlings had lain inside it slowly dying, until the Kek had stumbled on them. And then something else had stumbled on the Kek.
“Well?” Chime said impatiently.
“They might be explorers. There wasn’t enough in there for trade goods. One of the groundlings almost looked like a sealing, but I’ve never seen one come this far inland before.” Moon absently dragged his foot claws through the ground moss. “If that boat is going to stay here, we need to clean the blood up before it draws predators.”
“I’ll do it,” Root offered.
“Use some of that hanging moss to wipe it up,” Moon told him. “It’ll help disguise the smell. And then bury it.”
Chime rippled his spines uncomfortably as Root bounded away to get the moss. “We can clean up the boat, but the wounded groundlings are going to attract predators too.”
“We’re going to have to keep watch on the village, until Merit can get their wounds cleaned and bandaged.” Hopefully Pearl wouldn’t balk at the necessity.
Chime studied the leaf boat again. “You think they’re from the Reaches somewhere.”
“They could be.” Moon hadn’t gotten a good look at the other groundlings. “There’s some amphibian species that live down in the deep level swamps.” The one that looked like a sealing might actually be some variety of swampling. Moon had never seen one before, but that certainly didn’t mean they didn’t exist.
Chime flicked a spine in agreement. “And they have to have some sort of magic, to make the boat fly.”
“If they had magic, you’d think they could have fought off whatever attacked them,” Moon said.
“Or whatever came after them had better magic,” Chime said.
Stone appeared, brushing past the stands of fern. Moon started to speak, then stopped as a strange humming sound rose up from the center of the village.
“It’s the Kek,” Stone said, before he could ask. “Mourning the dead.”
Chime twitched uncomfortably. The sound was a little like the hum of insects at twilight, except louder and more resonant. Feeling it echo in his bones, Moon said, “I didn’t see anything that could shoot darts like what they’re wounded with. Unless they stabbed them into each other—”
Stone growled in annoyance. “This is getting more complicated.”
Chime said, “So there must be more groundlings out there.”
Moon shook his head a little. “That’s a lot of groundlings, even if some of them do come from the Reaches.” The Reaches didn’t have populated trade routes where groundlings gathered. Unless the amphibians who occupied the lower swamps had trade networks. Now that Moon thought about it, it would be odd if they didn’t. He hissed in frustration. They just didn’t know enough about all the different species who occupied the forest floor.
Stone favored the leaf boat with an absent glare. “Did you see the map, with the mountain-trees marked on it?”
Moon frowned. “You think they were after a colony tree seed?”
Chime’s spines lifted in alarm. Stone shrugged, eyeing the leaf boat. “It’s possible. If they knew enough to come for a seed, they knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
The groundlings might have thought the colony tree would be empty. The Indigo Cloud tree had been deserted for a long time. But it depended on whether the leaf boat could fly high enough to reach the knothole entrance, and Moon doubted it. And he hadn’t seen any climbing ropes or hooks stored inside.
Chime said, “You think someone told them how to find us? Like Negal and the others. Or even one of Ardan’s people who survived the trip. Or they could have stolen a map from the Golden Isles—”
Stone growled in irritation, a bone-deep sound that rivaled the Kek’s hum. “Too many groundlings know where we are.”
“Not that many.” Moon just didn’t think it was possible. Any groundlings who had spoken to Negal’s people or Ardan’s would be coming from a great distance away, including across most of the freshwater sea. The distance from the Yellow Sea was also a long, dangerous trip for anyone without the ability to fly. And he still thought these people were native to the Reaches. “It’s just not likely.”
Stone’s gaze narrowed. “We’re not going to know anything until one of them wakes up and tells us.”
Moon suspected that was Stone’s way of telling them he was tired of discussing it. Root returned with an armload of moss, Briar following him with a waterskin. Watching them climb into the leaf boat, Moon said, “Whoever did attack them could follow the trail here.”
Stone turned the narrow gaze on Moon. “I did think of that. That’s the other reason why the warriors are on watch.”
Moon sensed movement overhead and looked up, his spines lifting involuntarily. But it was only three more Raksura, one of whom was large and gold. Pearl was arriving.
Stone muttered, “Finally.”
Pearl met with Kof in the center of the village, not far from the shelter where Merit was tending the injured groundlings. They sat atop a raised dais made of woven reeds. Moon sat behind Pearl, while Chime, Floret, and Sage crouched on the edge. They faced Kof, and three other Kek elders, with a large number of Kek gathered around to listen. Stone sat between them, so he could translate.
Pearl curled her tail around, the color of her scales still vibrant in the perpetual twilight. The Kek in the front were mostly the older members of the village, the ones who were probably Kof’s advisors and contributed to the decision-making. The younger ones stood in the back, and many were holding up children so they could see Pearl. It was probably rare for the Kek to see any Raksura except warriors and the occasional hunter. It was terrible that this occasion had to coincide with the death of three of their number.
Pearl turned over a dart with one jewel-sheathed claw tip. It had been removed from one of the groundlings by Merit. “He doesn’t know who might use a weapon like this? Or if these groundlings might have some quarrel with Kek?”
Stone translated the questions. Kof waggled and spread his fingers, a display meant to convey complete bafflement, and managed the Raksuran word for “No.” Then he added, in the Kek-Raksuran pidgin: “Some other.” Stone said, “He means there’s something or someone else involved here.”
“Hmm.” Pearl’s expression conveyed resigned exasperation rather than doubt. A Kek child crept over the edge of the dais and tapped its stick-like fingers on the tip of her tail. Pearl absently held out a hand and let the child tug on one of her claw sheaths. A turn ago this would have surprised Moon, but after so much experience with Raksuran nurseries he knew one thing all queens had to be used to was being tugged on by inquisitive children. She said, “What do they wish to do with the groundlings?”
The answer took more back and forth, but Stone finally said, “They’re waiting for them to wake up, to find out what happened to the plant hunters. But they don’t think it was these groundlings who killed their people.” Stone listened intently to Kof for a time, watching his gestures carefully. Then he sat back. “They think it’s a mystery.”
Pearl tilted her head at Stone. “That is not helpful.”
Unmoved, Stone said, “You asked. We have to wait. And guard the village.” Stone had already worked that out with Kof, it was just Pearl who still had to agree to it.
Pearl’s spines rippled in irritation. Moon knew why. She wanted to be done with this, a potential source of trouble, but the court was embroiled in it now. They had to consider the fact that the groundlings might have been coming here to try to steal the seed again, no matter how unlikely Moon thought it was. And having offered to help the Kek, they couldn’t now stop in the middle and tell them they were on their own. She said, “Very well. Floret will take charge of the warriors to guard the Kek village, until we know if these groundlings are enemies or just unwanted idiot visitors.”
Floret stirred. “Can we open one of the doors in the trunk? The one nearest the village? It will be easier if Merit can come and go when he needs to, and the soldiers can guard him and the door.”
Pearl considered. “Yes. It will also be faster for you to summon help that way.”
Moon managed not to let his spines flick uneasily. He didn’t like the idea of opening a door into the tree with these strange groundlings here, not to mention whatever might be following them. But it was safer for any Raksura down here to have quick access and a faster route to get word to the rest of the court.
No one had suggested bringing the groundlings into the colony, and Moon was hoping no one would. Leaving the Kek vulnerable to the higher level predators who might be attracted by lingering blood scent was the last thing he wanted to do, but letting strange groundlings into the colony was also the last thing he wanted to do.
Once arrangements were discussed with Kof, Pearl took her leave and Kof moved away to speak to the rest of the Kek. Floret sent Sage off to bring a new group of warriors, so the ones who had been on the search could go back to the court to rest, and to tell Knell, the leader of the soldiers, about the plan.
Moon told Stone, “I need to get back to Jade. She’s going to be getting impatient, especially if she knows Pearl came down here.”