by Martha Wells
Moon glanced up, saw that Rift had Esom and hung from the upper ledge. Moon cautiously let go of Karsis, made certain she had a firm hold on him, and began to climb down the wall.
Keeping his voice low, Moon said, “Tell me about Rift.”
She whispered, “We didn’t know what he was, at first. He came on the voyage to the forest coast with Ardan and his other men. Ardan said Rift would be our guide. He didn’t reveal himself until Ardan needed his help to force us to keep going inland.” She hesitated, then added, “We thought he was one of a kind, a…”
“Monster,” Moon finished for her.
“Yes, until we reached the tree and saw the artwork. It looked as if it had been abandoned for ages. We didn’t— And even Ardan and Rift didn’t think anyone lived there anymore.”
“It wasn’t abandoned, just… waiting.” The last thing he wanted at the moment was an apology. “Where is Rift from?”
“He’s never said.” She gasped as he had to drop for the next handhold, but recovered quickly. “Is it important?”
Moon couldn’t answer that right now either. He wanted Rift to be from a rival court, a place hostile to Indigo Cloud. He wanted him to be in the power of the Fell. “Why didn’t you mention that Ardan had a pet Raksura?”
“Ardan has six members of our crew locked up somewhere in the tower. He said if we spoke about Rift to anyone he’d order them killed. We know he’s serious. Five of our crew tried to escape in the forest, and he had them executed. He let Rift kill three of his own men when we were at the tree.”
That explained the bones left behind in the root passage. “What for?”
“Rift caught the men destroying some of the wall carvings, trying to take the inset gems.”
Moon snarled under his breath, incredulous. “What?” Karsis asked nervously.
“He showed Ardan how to take the seed; that’s killing the tree. Those carvings were all going to rot away with the rest of the tree without it.” If Rift knew where to find the seed in its hidden cradle in the colony tree, then he had to know what it was, what it meant to cut it out.
“I see,” Karsis muttered. “Or, I don’t see. I don’t understand his thinking.”
That makes two of us. The stench was getting worse; Moon couldn’t have scented a major kethel if it was breathing down his neck. The regular rush of wind grew louder as well. Moon reached the bottom of the shaft and hung there, trying to see what lay below.
The drop was about two hundred paces to an uneven surface that looked like pitted and scarred paving. Heavy round pillars and blocky columns supported the foundations of the tower. In the dim green light he could see they were heavily covered with patchy molds and odd dark growths. Rift and Esom arrived just above them, and Esom said, “Karsis, are you all right?”
“Quiet!” Karsis snapped, before Moon could. He listened intently to the wind. It had been repeating the same pattern the entire time they had climbed down the shaft: the sound would stop, there would be a long low rush, like something drawing breath, then it resumed. Like something drawing breath, Moon thought.Right.
Karsis whispered, “That’s not what I think it is, is it?”
“The leviathan. We’re right above its back.” Now that Moon knew what he was looking at, he could see that the pitted, scarred paving was actually the giant scaled hide of the leviathan.
Karsis made a noise eloquent of disgust.
From above them, Rift whispered, “It’s all right to walk on it. Its hide is too thick, it won’t feel us.”
“How do you know that?” Esom asked.
Rift didn’t reply, and Moon said, tightly, “Answer him.”
Rift said in annoyance, “I’ve been down here before. How do you think I knew the way?”
“That’s reassuring,” Moon said under his breath. He would just have to trust Rift now and beat the truth out of him later.
Holding on with one hand, Moon wrapped his arm around Karsis’ waist again. Then he let go of the wall. As they dropped he snapped out his wings to soften the fall. They landed on one of the big scales. He was braced to leap back up to the shaft, but nothing happened. The whistling rush of the creature’s breathing continued undisturbed.
He set Karsis on her feet. It took her a moment to unclench her hands from his collar flanges, and she wobbled on the uneven surface. He turned and scanned the dark space. It went on for a long distance. Apparently this area was the underpinnings of the city. It wouldn’t be the leviathan they had to worry about, but the parasites that might live down here, feeding off the garbage dropped from the buildings above and the growths on the leviathan’s hide. The creature’s stench made Moon effectively scent-blind, and the rush of its breathing masked slight sounds of movement.
Rift dropped to the ground a few paces away, and dumped Esom on his feet. Esom staggered into Moon, jerked away, then self-consciously straightened his jacket. Rift pointed roughly east, back toward the tail of the creature. “That way. There’s a passage to the outside up there.”
“Lead the way,” Moon said, pointedly.
Rift flattened his spines in a way that suggested he was hurt at Moon’s distrust, and started away through the shadows. Moon controlled the urge to slap him in the head and followed.
It was a long walk, nearly half the length of the city. They had to go at the pace of the two groundlings, who were moving as fast as they could, but the rough scales made for uneven and difficult footing. The vast support pillars loomed overhead, blossoming with ugly, bulbous growths, and several times they crossed broad, slimy trails, though they never saw the creatures that were leaving them. There were also gray shapes clinging to the ceiling that looked like giant tree frogs, like the ones in the suspended forest. They might be just as harmless, but Moon doubted it on principle. Nothing attacked them, but Raksura were different and unexpected enough that the predators here might be cautious. For now, at least.
Ardan’s men would have had to fetch ropes to get down the shaft, so they had a good lead by the time Moon caught the sound of voices. And unless Ardan had a way to magically detect them, there was nothing to show which way they had gone.
Finally the space around them became more closed-in, the foundation pillars and supports much closer together.
“There it is,” Rift said, “Do you smell it?”
“Smell what?” Esom asked, stumbling.
“Fresh air,” Moon told him. It was a draft scented of outside air, damp and fresh, an intense relief after the leviathan’s stench. “There’s an opening somewhere ahead.”
“Finally.” Esom wiped sweat off his forehead. “I thought we were going to be stuck down here forever.”
“I’d prefer it to going back to Ardan,” Karsis added.
“Now do you trust me?” Rift said.
“We’ll see.” Moon had no intention of committing himself on that point.
Finally they were close enough for Moon to actually see the opening. The chamber narrowed to end at a bulwark of heavy stones, and there was an irregular patch of lighter darkness about midway up, just above a mound of rubble.
But as they drew closer, Moon realized he could hear something else besides the rushing wind of the leviathan’s breath. It was a deep, hollow sound, regular and even. “Do you hear that?” he asked the others. His first thought was that it was something the leviathan was doing, though he didn’t even want to guess what bodily function could produce that sound.
Rift stopped to listen, then said, startled, “It’s the bell. The warning bell. The leviathan’s going to move.”
Esom swore in a strange language, then added in Kedaic, “There’s no telling how long it’s been ringing.”
The magisters’ enspelled bell, that rang to warn the city that the leviathan was about to move. It would call the fishers to lift their boats out of the water and the traders to cast off. Moon said, “How long does it—”
The ground lurched under him; he and Rift swayed, using their foot claws to stay upright. Esom and Ka
rsis both stumbled and fell.
The whole underground shook, moss and debris rained down from the ceiling. Beneath them the leviathan’s hide pulsed and shuddered. Moon leaned down, caught Karsis around the waist, and started up the pile of rubble. Rift followed, hauling Esom with him.
At the top, they climbed out through the jagged gap into a windy night, alive with the crash of the surf. There were hanging vapor-lights below them, rocking wildly with the leviathan’s motion. Moon squinted to see, realizing they were at the far edge of the city. A giant stone bulwark rose up behind them, and the leviathan’s immense tail stretched out below, like the surface of a reef. It moved now, migrating back and forth across the waves and tossing up fountains of spray as the creature swam.
“What do we do now?” Karsis shouted in his ear.
The leviathan moved at a good speed, but not faster than a Raksura could fly. The sky was starting to gray towards the east and they didn’t have much darkness left. They would be fighting the wind the whole way, but they had to go now. Moon turned to Rift, and shouted, “You take him, and follow me.”
Esom’s “Where are we going—” was cut off with a yelp as Rift grabbed him. Moon tightened his hold on Karsis, snapped his wings out, and jumped into the wind.
Both he and Rift were blown backwards, out over the moving tail. Hard flaps took them back over the creature’s hindquarters, Moon leading Rift upward to gain altitude.
Moon played his wings against the wind, riding it to keep moving forward. Karsis clung to him, her hands gripping his collar flanges tightly, and buried her face against his scales. A few vapor-lights were lit in the streets and in the windows of the towers, but the city looked empty; everyone must be huddling inside.
Moon banked away to avoid the area near Ardan’s tower. The wind drove him further than he intended, and he skirted the harbor. It was empty of the big trading ships, the pontoon docks churning up waves as they were dragged through the water. Little fishing boats swung from the cages that had lifted them to safety. The metal ship, the Klodifore, had been moved close to the dock, but was still floating… No, it’s hovering,Moon thought, realizing it had no wake. When the bell had started to sound, Ardan must have sent someone to the harbor to raise the ship.
He fought the wind to curve toward the abandoned tower where he and Stone had camped.
The wind sheared around the roof of the tower and Moon made a dive for the open terrace on the top floor. He made it and bounced lightly off the tower wall. Rift managed it too, though he bounced a little harder and staggered across the terrace.
Moon stepped between the columns into the shelter of the big room, expecting to find an impatient Stone. It was too dark to see much, but the Raksuran figure waiting there was much smaller. It said, “Moon?”
“Song?” It couldn’t be Song, except it was. Startled and a little appalled, he set Karsis on her feet. “What are you doing here?”
Song explained, “Pearl sent us. We caught up with Jade and the others late yesterday, and just reached this place a little while ago. Stone saw us and guided us here. They’re all downstairs. Why do you have a groundling—” Rift stepped in and Esom staggered after him. Startled, Song stared at him. “Who’s that?”
Rift hesitated, then stepped back toward the balcony. “No,” Moon said sharply.
Rift quivered, on the verge of bolting. If he fled, Moon would have to catch him again, if the wind whipping around the tower didn’t kill them both. On impulse, he shifted to groundling. It was Raksuran etiquette that when the highest-ranking person shifted to groundling, everyone around them did as well. Song followed suit immediately, and Rift, by habit too ingrained to break, shifted too.
Moon reached, caught Rift’s wrist, and towed him toward the door. He could deal with Esom and Karsis later.
They passed Root in the dim stairwell; he was hanging from the ceiling. He saw them and shouted, “Moon! Moon’s back!”
Light shone up from the room on the level just below, and Moon heard familiar voices raised in argument. It was an interior room, no windows, so no one venturing out into the streets would see suspicious light from an abandoned and inaccessible tower.
Moon stepped into the doorway. Some broken tiles had been spelled for light and tucked into various wall niches, so he could clearly see Stone, Jade, Chime, Vine, Balm, and Flower. But the other three warriors were Floret, Drift, and River, which was a surprise of a whole different kind. I can’t believe Pearl sent River, he thought incredulously. That’s all we need.
He couldn’t believe they were here at all. It was a bad idea, it was going to cause trouble, and Jade should have waited before leading the warriors to the leviathan. But Moon couldn’t help a warm swell of relief at seeing them all. He said, “I thought you gave us three days.”
Everyone’s attention snapped to the doorway. Jade stared. “Moon—”
Moon said, “This is Rift. He helped Ardan get the seed, and he’s going to help us get it back.”
Esom and Karsis sat on a marble bench built out from the wall, watching nervously, but then the conversation was in Raksuran. Rift’s presence had caused some awkwardness. Most of the others had stared at him, then looked away. Stone hadn’t betrayed any reaction, and Balm was expressionless, but Chime kept looking anxiously at Moon.
Moon had explained something of what he had found out about Ardan and the tower, and where Rift and the two groundlings had come from. They had also established that by everyone’s sense of direction the leviathan was moving further west, away from the coast, and the distance was probably already too great for the warriors to make in one flight. They were lucky, Moon thought grimly. If the creature had chosen to move while they were still flying towards it, they could have all drowned.
How they would get back to the coast was another question. River swung around and snarled at Moon, “This is your fault.” Moon regarded him. All things considered, he had had a hard day.
“If you’re not careful, Floret is going to be taking you back to Pearl in a basket.”
Floret lifted her hands, protesting, “I didn’t say anything!” Jade said, deliberately, “If I have to tell you all to stop fighting one more time, I’m going to beat every single one of you senseless.”
There was a short silence. Then Karsis whispered to Flower in Kedaic, “What are they saying?”
“It’s not important,” Flower said, wryly. She sat next to them on the bench, her legs drawn up under her smock. Her face was drawn and weary, but that must have been from being carried on the long flight out here.
“Esom knows where the seed is,” Moon said, speaking Kedaic so the groundlings would understand him.
Everyone turned to Esom and he recoiled a little under the concentrated predatory gazes of a roomful of Raksura. Even though most of them were in groundling form, it was a little intimidating. Even Karsis flinched. Jade said, “Where?”
Esom coughed, and uneasily repeated the story he had told Moon. He finished, “So, I think you should search that building.”
Jade took a step forward to stand over him. “Why are you certain it’s there?”
Esom blinked up at her and appeared to have difficulty answering. Considering how many clothes his people wore, Moon thought it was probably due to the fact that she was dressed only in jewelry. Even with the scales, it had to be distracting. Esom managed, “Ah—”
Karsis put in, “Rift said that’s where Ardan took it.”
Everyone looked at Rift. He twitched uneasily and stared determinedly down at the dirty floor.
Jade watched him for a long moment, her spines flicking. Rift wouldn’t meet her eyes. Finally she turned to the others. “We need to look for this place, see how well-guarded it is.”
River folded his arms. “And make sure it exists at all.”
Moon ignored that. “We’ll need to go on foot. Dawn’s breaking, and the wind is keeping the mist from forming.”
“Not you. This Ardan will be looking for yo
u now.” Jade glanced around at the others. “Vine and Floret? Can you walk through a groundling city without letting anyone know you’re Raksura?”
The two exchanged a worried glance. Vine said, “I think so, yes. Probably.”
Moon looked them over critically. They were dressed like the others, pants and a shirt, a sash and belt at the waist. The fine fabric was sunfaded and a little dirty from their long journey, so they didn’t look overly prosperous. He said, “Take off anything that looks like Arbora-work, especially your jewelry. And put something on your feet, a cloth or leather wrap, to make it look like you’re wearing shoes.”
Both looked down at their feet, a little dubious, but neither argued with him.
“Go now,” Jade said. “Don’t try to fly. Climb down the outside until you’re out of the wind. Find the building, but don’t try to go inside without us.”
Floret nodded soberly, but Vine said, “If we find the seed lying around unguarded, can we—”
“Yes.” Jade added, “If you do, I’ll be very surprised, since nothing so far has been easy.”
“Good point,” Floret muttered, and gave Vine a nudge.
As they headed for the stairs, Moon let his breath out in relief. At least they were moving forward again, even if they didn’t know exactly where they were going.
Stone had been leaning against the wall, taking it all in with an expression that could best be described as satirical. Now he pushed himself up with one shoulder and said, “Who let you into the tree?”
Both groundlings stared up at him, and Esom’s throat worked as he swallowed. There was no space in here for Stone to shift, and he still looked like an older groundling man, battered and gray, wearing battered gray clothes. But he seemed to be taking up far more space in the room, and the air was suddenly heavy. Esom said, “It was him.” He pointed toward Rift.
Watching Stone uneasily, Karsis said, “Rift flew to a large doorway high up in the trunk. We couldn’t have reached it. Our ship can only lift about forty paces off the ground.”