by Martha Wells
Moon nodded, trying to look appreciative. Khitah seemed pleased.
Keeping his voice low, Chime said, “We should have brought them a gift.”
Exasperated, Moon asked him, “Did you know we were coming? Because I didn’t.”
“I’m just saying that next time we should—”
Moon turned to Khitah. “We want to ask about other people who live out on the sea. Islands? That way?” He pointed out toward the water, roughly in the direction the mentors thought the seed lay. “Islands. People,” Khitah agreed, and made an expansive gesture, indicating most of the sea.
“Good. But what about that way?” Moon pointed again.
Khitah considered it, as the breeze stirred the feathery growths on his arms and head. He waggled his stick-like fingers in what seemed to be the Kek equivalent of a shrug.
“Maybe they just don’t know,” Chime said, a little frustrated. “Those round boats couldn’t make it very far out into the water.”
“But they trade.” Moon had forced himself to shift in front of a strange groundling settlement with only Chime for company, and he was unwilling to give up so soon. “They have to see who travels back and forth here.”
Maybe some of those words struck a bell for Khitah, because he turned back to the passage and motioned them to follow again.
They wound their way further into the city, through the green shadows of the plant racks and into the bottom level of one of the hives. Overhead, Kek moved on the reed floors, called to each other in their soft voices, peered curiously down at the visitors.
They went down a ramp, then came out again to a dock area open to the sea. Partly sheltered from above by woven reed canopies, it had small wooden piers snaking out into the lapping water. Round Kek boats were tied up along most of the piers, except for one. Next to it was a large leafless tree, apparently growing up out of the water.
Not a tree, a boat, Moon realized, moving down the dock to get a closer look. It was round, the gray branches arching up from a thick mossy mat to form a bowl-shape. Something sat in the center, its form obscured by the branches.
Khitah pointed emphatically toward the strange boat. “Water traveler,” he said. “Go long way. Know much.” Moon started to step down onto the pier, but Khitah put a hand on his arm. His grip was light, like being caught by dry brush. He stared hard at Moon and said, “Careful.”
Moon nodded. The warning just confirmed his suspicion. “I will.”
“Why?” Chime squinted to get a better look at the shadowy shape inside the branches. “It’s just a groundling in a boat… isn’t it?”
“No. Stay here with Khitah.” Moon stepped down onto the pier, the reeds creaking under his weight, and moved toward the water traveler.
Drawing closer, he could see root-like tendrils floating in the water, growing out from the underside of the mat. The gray branches looked less like wood and more like gnarled horn. They were connected to the being that sat in the center, growing out of its arms, legs, back, chest. It wasn’t a groundling sitting in a boat; it was a waterling, and it was the boat.
A voice said, “Now what’s this?” It spoke Altanic, low and sibilant. Something about it made the back of Moon’s neck itch. The scent wafting toward him had a rank edge to it, odd for a water being of any kind. It was a predator’s scent. “A curious groundling come to talk to old Nobent?”
“You could say that.” Moon crouched on the pier, so his head was about even with Nobent’s. It gave him a better view of the water traveler’s face. It looked a little like a male groundling, his skin gnarled and gray like the horn structures growing out of his body. There were chips of the stuff above his eyes, down his cheeks, studding the curve of his skull. It wasn’t that the growths or the gray coloring were particularly repellent. Stone was gray and a little gnarled too, though not to this extent. But this creature radiated menace. “I need to know if there are any groundlings living out on the sea, that might travel to this shore.”
Nobent leaned forward. Out of the corner of his eye, Moon saw the outer branches of the boat stir slightly. Nobent smiled, deliberately revealing a toothless mouth. If he was meant to live like this, floating atop the sea, then there might be a second mouth in the bottom of the mossy-covered base that supported his upper limbs. Top one for talking, lower one for eating, Moon thought. It wasn’t the oddest thing he had seen. The branches looked stiff, but he bet they could whip around, seize prey, and snatch it under water. Obviously the Kek didn’t fear the creature, but there was hardly any meat on their light bones. It said, “Old Nobent doesn’t hear well. Come closer.”
Oh please, Moon thought. “Does that really work?”
Nobent hesitated, nonplussed, and something made Moon think that “Old Nobent” wasn’t so old. Nobent’s lips curled in derision. “You’re not scared of old Nobent? Nobent isn’t scary.”
Nobent was, however, annoyingly single-minded. This could go on forever. Moon shifted, flared his spines, snapped his wings out so they were half-unfurled. “I am.”
With a startled snarl, Nobent jerked back. His whole structure rocked and splashed water up onto the pier. Unimpressed, Moon flicked droplets off his claws. He said, mildly, “I’m not hungry yet.”
Nobent crouched, tugged his branches in tightly and made a protective cage around himself. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want. Tell me about groundlings who live out on the sea. Are there islands out there? Cities, traders? Do they come to this shore?”
Nobent eased forward, the fear in his expression turning into crafty greed. “Are you Fell? I’ve heard of Fell. You want the sea-goers? I’ll help.”
Moon controlled the urge to leap forward and rip Nobent’s head off. The fear of Fell had dogged him most of his life. All Fell were shapeshifters, all had black scales, and Fell rulers strongly resembled Raksuran consorts. It didn’t help that once Moon had thought he might be a Fell, for a brief and self-destructive time that he was still paying for, all these turns later. His voice tight, he said, “If I were a Fell, I’d take your help and eat you anyway. Tell me about the sea-goers.”
Nobent settled into his mossy bed and his branches relaxed a little. “The sea-goers don’t come here. They’re afraid of the forest.” With an air of injured dignity, he volunteered, “The Kek trade their rushes and edilvine to me, and I trade it to the sea-goers.”
That wasn’t helpful, though it explained why the Kek didn’t know much about what lay further out to sea. And if the sea-goers were afraid of the forest Reaches, it might be because they knew about the Raksuran colonies. “But other groundlings come to this shore, other traders?”
“Maybe.” Nobent seemed uninterested, and it was the first time in the conversation that Moon felt the waterling was being honest. “Not in a long time. There’s nothing here for them.”
“What about the far side of the sea? Do groundlings live there?”
“Probably.” Nobent leaned forward, eyes widening. “You want the seagoers.”
“Do they live in that direction?” Moon pointed with the tip of his right wing.
“Sometimes. They move around.” Nobent was more interested in his own questions. “What do you want them for? Nobent can help you, whatever you want to do to them.”
Moon couldn’t imagine what form Nobent’s “help” would take, and he didn’t want to. He countered with, “What do you trade for from the sea-goers?”
For some reason, that one made Nobent more cagey than ever. Moon asked more questions about the sea-goers, about what they looked like, why they moved around. Nobent’s answers were so cryptic it quickly became obvious that he had no intention of imparting the information. Moon decided to let it go, at least for now. He had found out what he really needed to know: there were groundlings living out on the sea at the point where the mentors’ map said the seed lay. Nobent couldn’t travel very fast, and now that Moon had his scent, he would be easy to track down again.
He stood, abruptly enough that Nobent
sloshed backward again. With a somewhat nervous sneer, Nobent said, “You’re leaving? Too bad.”
“It’s getting late, and I’m hungry.” Moon cocked his head, letting the meaning sink in. He didn’t usually threaten to eat people, but he was having difficulty classifying Nobent as “people.” “I might be back.”
He walked up the pier to rejoin Khitah and Chime. “Good?” Khitah asked.
“Good,” Moon told him. “Thank you.”
They started back into the green shadows and sweet scents of the Kek city, a relief after the miasma that hung over the water traveler. Chime looked back over his shoulder, frowning. “That was odd. What did it tell you?”
“Not much.” Moon was certain Nobent had been lying, or obfuscating, for some reason. But it was some confirmation that they were in the right place, that the map hadn’t led them astray. “We’ll have to see what Stone finds.”
It was dusk by the time they returned to the camp on the tree branch and found that Jade and Balm were already back. They had found ruins along the shore too, but no Kek and no evidence of recent groundling habitation. Vine reported that his afternoon had been uneventful. “Flower slept the whole time,” he said. “I think she needed the rest.”
Flower, fidgeting around as if having trouble finding a comfortable spot on the branch, gave him an irritable glare. “No one cares what you think,” she told him.
Vine said wryly, “I noticed that.”
Chime handed her a pack to lean against. “Are you all right?” She hissed at him. “I’m fine.”
No one was hungry enough to hunt again yet, so there was nothing
to do but wait for Stone. The branch was more than wide enough for them all to sprawl on comfortably, and through the leaves they had a good view of the seashore. During the afternoon, Vine and Flower had built a little hearth: one layer of flat, water-smoothed rocks to insulate the wood, and a second smaller layer that Flower had spelled for heat, so she could warm water for tea.
The air was fragrant in the gathering twilight, scented with the flowers of the field and the leaves of their tree. The nightbirds and treelings and insects sang and hummed, and Moon tried to listen to the others talk and not be rabidly impatient for Stone to appear.
After darkness settled over the shore, Balm took the watch and they tried to sleep. Moon lay with his head pillowed on Jade’s stomach, wide awake. He didn’t realize he was tapping his fingers on his chest until her hand closed over his. She said softly, “It’s not a long flight for Stone.”
“I know.” He made his hand relax. “Still.”
Nearby, Chime said, “Pearl will know by now. I wonder… I mean, what will she do? Besides send someone after us.”
Jade snorted, quietly. “I think we know what she’ll do.”
Just past Chime, Vine groaned.
Moon finally dozed off at some point, only to wake abruptly some time later, when someone said, “He’s back!”
Moon sat up and startled Jade awake. It was still dark but he could tell from the quality of the air that it wasn’t long before dawn. Vine had taken Balm’s place at watch and Moon scrambled forward to his side.
A darker shape hung against the starlit sky: Stone, flying back toward the shore.
By the time Stone reached them, everyone was awake. Flower was the only one who had slept heavily. Still bleary with it, she filled their kettle from the waterskin and put it on the hearth to heat.
Stone was just a big dark shadow as he landed on the end of the branch. The wood shivered with his weight, then went still as he shifted to his groundling form. He walked up the branch toward them, and Moon wished they had been able to camp on the ground, or anywhere else where they could have made a real fire. The heating rocks didn’t give off light and he wanted to see Stone’s expression.
Stone stopped a few paces away, and said, flatly, “I couldn’t find it.”
Jade stirred a little, and Moon knew she had just controlled the urge to hiss in disappointment. Chime shook his head, confused. “The seed? But—”
“The island,” Stone corrected. He sat down, moving slowly, and Moon heard his bones creak. “There’s nothing out there. I spent most of the night flying a spiral, looking for land.” He rubbed his eyes. “What I’m afraid of is that these groundlings were on a boat that sank.”
“Or the island moved,” Moon said. Suddenly some of the things Nobent had told him made a lot more sense.
Even in the dark, Moon could tell that Stone was giving him a look that would have sent most of the warriors skittering for cover. But there was more life in his voice when he said, “What?”
Moon told him, “We found a Kek settlement, and talked to a waterling trader. It said there were groundlings called ‘sea-goers’ who lived on the water and moved around.” He told the rest of it, with Chime inserting more details.
“That might explain it,” Jade said. “If we knew how these sea-goers were moving, it would help.”
Vine shrugged. “They could be on boats, or they could have a flying island.”
“If they have a flying island, it must be moving fairly fast,” Chime countered. “Too fast.”
“That’s right.” Flower sounded thoughtful. “It moved out of Stone’s range in only seven days. Flying islands drift slowly with the wind. Unless there was a big storm, and we’ve seen no sign of one, it would still be in the area. It’s more likely to be a boat.”
“Or a fleet of boats,” Moon added.
“Maybe.” Jade scratched her claws on the wood, thinking it over. “How does the water traveler find them?”
“That’s… I don’t know,” Chime said slowly. “It has to be scent, doesn’t it?”
“Something in the water.” Moon shook his head. “The sea-goers leave a trail, somehow.”
Stone sounded weary. “We’ll figure that out when we get there. You all know how we’re getting there, right?”
“An augury?” Vine asked, turning to Flower.
“No, we don’t need an augury,” Moon said before she could reply. He smiled. Old Nobent was going to help them after all. “We’ll follow the water traveler.”
Chapter Eight
Once everyone had agreed on a plan, Moon and Chime flew immediately toward the Kek city, following the dark line of the shore. The others were to follow later, after leaving a marker for
whoever might be coming after them from Indigo Cloud. Stone, who would be doing the biggest share of the tracking once Nobent set out, needed to sleep before he started another long flight.
Before they left, Flower had asked, “If this creature does lead you to the sea-goers, do you have any idea what to look for?”
“Besides the seed?” Moon had to admit she had him there. “No.”
Flower sighed and rubbed her forehead. “You’ll need something to go on besides that. I’ll augur again.”
Chime frowned at her. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Flower stared hard at him. “Yes.”
After they had taken flight away from the camp, Moon asked Chime, “Why didn’t you think Flower should augur?”
“She hasn’t been looking well,” Chime replied, slipping sideways in an unexpected air current. “I just have a bad feeling about it.”
Moon hoped he was wrong. Flower’s augury was the only thing that had gotten them this far.
When they drew near the Kek city, Moon tipped a wing at Chime. Chime broke off and flew into the deeper shadows under the trees. Moon turned toward the city.
There were a few smudge pots and lights lit in the lower levels; by the smell they were using some kind of nut oil. Several lamps hung on the outer edge of the dock area Nobent occupied.
Moon had debated approaching underwater, and decided against it. He didn’t know what kind of senses Nobent had for detecting prey in the water, and it was best not to find out the hard way. He was pretty certain he could take Nobent in a fight, but that wouldn’t get him what he wanted.
He
circled the city, playing the cool damp wind against his wings, dropping lower and slowing until he could catch the side of a hivetower. He heard a slight stirring of movement through the woven reed wall, and a sleepy squeak, but no one gave the alarm. He climbed down the wall head first, found the heavier support for the half-roof that hung out over the dock, and eased out onto it.
This close to the piers and the surface of the water, he could scent Nobent’s rank odor, but it wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been before. Taking a chance, Moon crawled to the end of the roof and hung his head down over the edge.
The dock area was lit by three hanging lamps, the wan light showing him the empty pier where Nobent had rested. Huh. Maybe he left as soon as we were out of sight. That was a little odd. If Nobent only wanted to take his next cargo of edilvine and rushes to the sea-goers, he should have waited until morning. His eyes hadn’t had the appearance of a nocturnal being’s.
He could be rushing off to tell the sea-goers that Raksura were searching for them, but Moon didn’t think Nobent could know about the theft. Nobent hadn’t recognized Moon as a Raksura, hadn’t seemed to know about the courts inhabiting the forest. But maybe the sea-goers were interested in anyone who asked about their whereabouts. That’s a good sign we’re looking in the right place.
Moon straightened up and pushed off the roof to catch the wind. He swept down low over the water, only ten or twelve paces above it. He cast back and forth over the sea in front of the city twice before he caught Nobent’s scent again, traces of it carried by the constant breeze blowing in off the water. It gave him a direction and a faint trail to follow.
He swooped up again and curved over the city. Chime, watching from the forest, arched up out of the canopy to meet him. Moon twisted into a tight circle, matched Chime’s slower speed, and said, “He’s left already. I’m going to follow. Tell Stone to go northwest.”
“Northwest,” Chime repeated. “Be careful. Don’t go too far!” Like all good advice, Moon didn’t think he was going to have much chance to follow it. He banked away and headed out to sea.