by Martha Wells
“Is it a mentor thing? I mean, are you…” Knowing how badly Chime felt about his involuntary change to warrior, Moon hesitated to suggest that Chime might be getting his abilities back. If he wasn’t, if it was just his imagination… Hope was painful.
But Chime shook his head. “No, it can’t be. Augury isn’t like this. This is different.”
“Then you should talk to Flower.”
“I know.” Chime slumped. “I’m tired of strange things happening to me. I just got used to being able to fly, and to hunting, and all the other things I’m supposed to do now. I know this is the only way you’ve ever seen me, but to me it still feels like it just happened.”
“No, I know what you mean.” Moon felt like he was reliving his past at regular intervals, whether he liked it or not.
Flower stepped into the doorway, gave the room a sour look, then came to sit down next to Moon with a grunt of effort. “Consorts,” she said, in a tone that made it sound like an insulting epithet. “Old, stubborn, obstinate consorts.” She eyed Moon without favor. “And you. You have to be coaxed to do everything except risk your life.”
Moon fumbled for a rebuttal as Chime said, “Are you all right? You look terrible.”
Flower transferred her glare to him. “If you ask me that one more time, I will curdle your liver.”
“Hah, good luck trying to slip me the simple to do it with.” Chime leaned close to her, despite her attempt to bat him away. “You’ve got blood trails in your eyes.”
Moon took her hand. Her skin was the matte white of extreme age, no trace left of its original color, though there were traces of gray in the creases around her wrist and on her palm. He wondered how many Raksura were left in the court who remembered what Flower had looked like in her youth, if her skin had been bronze or copper or some shade in between, if her hair had been black or red-brown. Stone was more than old enough, and maybe Bone. Pearl might be, but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t learned to judge the age of queens yet. He said, “You should rest.”
She freed her hand. “I’ll rest when we get the seed.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m risking my life,” Moon said pointedly. “We knew what we were doing. You shouldn’t have let Jade bring the warriors.”
“I know.” Flower rubbed her eyes. “I advised her not to go.”
That didn’t make Moon feel any better. Worried, Chime said, “I didn’t know. Did you have a vision that we shouldn’t go? And Jade didn’t listen?”
“No, it wasn’t a vision,” she said, annoyed. “I just thought we should wait. Sometimes I don’t have visions; sometimes I have common sense. Not that any of you listen to me.”
“You could have lied and said it was a vision,” Moon said. They both looked at him, nearly identical exasperated expressions. “What?”
“Mentors don’t lie about visions.” Flower sighed. “I’m going to rest now, hold still.”
“What? No, I can’t—” Flower climbed into Moon’s lap, ignoring his protests. “I need to keep an eye on Rift.”
“Balm and the others are watching him and the groundlings. Root is going to come get me when it’s my turn,” Chime said and settled against Moon’s shoulder.
Flower had buried her face against his chest and he automatically put his arms around her. She felt like she was all sharp bones under the light material of her dress; it was like holding a Kek. He didn’t remember her feeling this insubstantial. In fact he was fairly certain she had had more solid muscle, like the other Arbora, not that long ago. But before he could think of a way to frame a question, she said, “Stone won’t kill him. Not now. You two can fight that out later.”
Moon leaned back against the wall. He was painfully sensitive to any mention of Stone at the moment, angry, guilty, and angry at himself for feeling guilty.
He didn’t mean to rest, but he hadn’t slept since last night, so he ended up dozing for a while. He woke when Root came to get Chime for his turn at watch. Too anxious to stay still, Moon handed the still-sleeping Flower over to Root.
Everything was quiet. Chime and Song settled down to watch Rift, who had fallen asleep. Jade was in the other room, sleeping with Balm, and River was up in the top room on watch. Esom and Karsis had even dozed off, lying in a corner of the main room on borrowed blankets.
Moon paced an empty room on the far side of the stairwell, thinking of everything they needed to do. Jade and the warriors had eaten heavily before they left the mainland, and had brought meat in their packs, wrapped in the big leaves of the mountain-saplings. It was enough for the moment, but they were going to have to feed everyone in the next couple of days. They still had enough metal bits to buy food, but the market he and Stone had used was too close to Ardan’s tower. Looking for another one would be a good use of Moon’s time, except he couldn’t go outside in the daylight for fear that Ardan’s men might be searching for him.
He had reached a peak of frustration when Song ducked into the doorway. She said, “Floret’s back. She says they found the place.”
“It was just like the groundling said,” Floret reported, when they gathered in the main room again.
Stone had returned from the depths of the tower and leaned against the wall, as calm as if nothing had happened. That made Moon’s jaw so tight his back teeth ached. Rift hunched in a corner, with Chime and Balm nearby. River stood near Jade, with a grimly skeptical expression that seemed to be trying to indicate that he was a leader but not responsible for anything that went wrong. Esom and Karsis had taken seats on the bench again, and watched anxiously. Flower sat nearby, still trying to wake up. Drift was on guard now, up on the open top floor, and Root and Song stayed near the doorway, as if ready to make a quick escape if there was another fight.
Having left before the argument broke out, Floret didn’t notice the undercurrents, or if she did, she was too excited by her news to worry about it. “A big round building, near a flooded part of the city, towards the front of the leviathan. There weren’t many groundlings living nearby, and they all seemed to be sick or sleeping, and they smelled funny.” Or drunk, Moon thought. Floret had probably never seen anyone intoxicated before. She continued, “The only ones who looked normal were guarding the round building’s doors. Vine stayed behind to keep watch on it, in case anyone comes to take the seed away.”
Jade asked, “There was only one way in?”
“That we could see.” Floret glanced at Moon. “Vine and I thought that since you and the two groundlings found an underground passage out of that tower—”
“There could be one into this mortuary.” Moon looked at Rift. “Is there?”
Rift shrugged helplessly. “There could be, but I never went there with Ardan. I don’t know where the entrance would be.”
“If it’s guarded on the surface, wouldn’t it be guarded underground, too?” Chime ventured, with a cautious glance at Stone.
“The passage down from Ardan’s tower wasn’t, but then groundlings would have needed ropes or ladders to use it,” Moon said. It had looked more like a handy disposal area for garbage or waste. Whatever its original purpose, it had fallen into such disuse it had been nearly forgotten. He didn’t remember seeing any other shafts upward to other structures, not that he had been looking closely. “We could try going back and working our way toward the mortuary, but Ardan might still be searching down there for us.”
Stone said, in Kedaic, “Why did you think it was a mortuary?”
Moon looked up, startled. Stone watched Esom and Karsis. Confused, since no one had translated the other part of the conversation for them, Esom said, “The building I described, where we think your seed is? Oh, well, Negal and I saw what seemed to be a funeral procession going inside. We asked one of the local men, and he told us the dead were carried there.” He looked around, and explained, “We had been trying to find out about the burial customs of the city.”
“Why?” Balm asked, her expression critical. She seemed to find this a dubious pursu
it at best.
Karsis explained, “Negal believes that it tells a great deal about a people, how they dispose of their dead.”
“So they’ve been storing all the remains of everyone who died on this leviathan for however many turns?” River said, skeptical. Then he added, “Maybe that’s what the underground area is for and there is a passage up into the place from there.”
Moon was too struck by River actually saying something helpful to reply immediately. Jade turned to Rift. “Is that what they do with their dead?”
“I don’t know.” Rift twitched uncomfortably. But after a moment of reluctant thought, he added, “I never saw anything down there that looked like a place for burials, but I didn’t explore very far. Once I found a way to the surface, I didn’t want to risk Ardan finding out where I’d gone.”
Jade nodded, her decision made. “We won’t go back through the underground, not unless there’s no other choice. Moon’s right. Ardan might still be looking for you down there. We’ll search around this temple.” She glanced toward the stairwell, the fall of gray light still illuminating it, and amended, “Some of us will search around it. Unobtrusively, as groundlings. I’ll join you when it gets dark.”
“I’ll go,” River said.
Of course you will, Moon thought. He was trapped here until dark.
Stone pushed away from the wall. Moon tensed all over, but Stone only said, “I’m going out to talk to some groundlings, see what they know about this mortuary place.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it was such a good idea, Moon wished he had thought of it. There was Theri, Rith, and Enad to ask, if they were back from their daily work, or the woman who ran the wine bar. But it was a much touchier subject than how strangers found work in the city. Moon asked, “How are you going to work ‘What do you do with your dead?’ casually into a conversation?” Tension made the words come out sharper than he meant.
Everyone seemed to tense in apprehension. But Stone just said, “I thought I’d ask somebody who won’t notice. Like Dari.”
As soon as the sun sank out of the cloudy sky, Moon and Jade left the tower, flying toward the coastline near the leviathan’s head.
All through the afternoon, the warriors had taken turns surreptitiously searching the empty buildings in this area, looking for passages down to the underground space. Root, Song, and Floret had been left back at their tower to keep watch over Rift and the two groundlings.
The mortuary temple lay in a shallow valley between the leviathan’s shoulders, surrounded by crowded, crumbling stone structures only a few stories high. There weren’t many vapor-lights and the empty streets were deeply shadowed, except for the gleam of water. The sea must wash up over the leviathan’s head whenever it moved, flooding the streets and leaving puddles behind. Moon could pick out only a few lit windows here and there. This was obviously not a highly prized neighborhood, if it had ever been one.
To the northwest, he could see where the creature’s body dipped down, just below the ridge formed by its right arm. The roofs and top stories of flooded buildings were just visible above the dark water.
They banked in to land on the peak of a roof, and Jade climbed down to the alley. Moon paused to watch a groundling lamp-tender make his way across the open plaza in front of the temple’s entrance. It was a big, round structure, at least four stories tall, topped by an octagonal dome. A wall formed a roofless court before the entrance, and inside it several blue-pearl guards, probably Ardan’s men, stood in front of the metalbound double doors. The night was cool, and they had gathered around a waist-high brazier. From their postures, they were very bored.
The lamp-tender reached the stand at the far end of the plaza. He filled the well in its base from the heavy canister he carried, closed it, and went on his way. The sputtering vapor-light in its glass cage at the top of the stand brightened noticeably.
“Moon,” Jade whispered from below.
Moon climbed down the pitched roof to a ledge where Chime and Balm waited. Chime reported quietly, “Stone just got here. He said he thinks there’s something over in that part that’s underwater.”
“We hadn’t looked there yet,” Balm said, frustrated. “We thought if there was an open passage, the water would have drained away.”
They took flight again, Chime following them toward the flooded section. Balm went to gather the others back from their fruitless search.
They circled down to the flooded street, and Moon landed on a roof and crept to the edge. The street formed a dark passage below, lined with empty stone houses, their doors long ago washed away. Stone was in groundling form, standing balanced on top of a low wall just below this house. The water was as dark as obsidian and gleamed in the moonlight. The place smelled of dead fish and silt and… “Do you smell that?” Moon whispered.
Jade answered, “Yes, it’s water traveler. There must have been one through here at some point.”
Moon hooked his claws into chinks in the mortar and climbed down the wall. “I saw some yesterday, heading toward the city. But why is the scent here, and not at the harbor?”
Following Moon and Jade, Chime said, “This must be where they do their trading, to keep them away from the groundlings in the harbor. After all, Nobent wanted to eat you when he thought you were a groundling.”
Then from below Stone said, “The rumor I heard from Dari is that the city trades the dead bodies of the poor to the water travelers in exchange for edilvine.”
“They trade their dead?” Moon stepped cautiously into the water and his claws slipped on the slimy pavement.
“For vines?” Jade added skeptically, hanging from the wall as she waited for Chime to climb down.
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” Stone admitted, and turned to lead the way along the flooded street.
Behind them, Chime muttered, “The more I hear about this place, the less I like it.”
If this was true, the vines had to be something the city wanted or needed, badly. “Maybe they make a drug out of it. Like that smoke, and whatever it is that Dari drinks.”
Stone made a noncommittal noise and turned a corner to follow the street as it passed under a high, curved archway. It led into what had been an open court with a covered terrace at the back, supported by pillars carved in the shape of giant lily stalks. Like the street, it was flooded, the water washing the broad steps up to the deeply shadowed terrace. “How did you find this place?” Chime asked.
Stone said, “Once Dari mentioned water travelers, I just followed the scent.”
Moon tasted the air as he and Jade followed Stone up the steps and past the columns. The scent of water traveler was much heavier here, clinging to the damp mortar and the furry plants growing across the vaulted ceiling. Stone dug in the pouch at his belt and pulled out a faintly glowing object—one of Flower’s spelled rocks.
It cast a dim light over the cracked, stained paving and up to the far wall, revealing a carved scene with life-size groundlings in a procession, carrying a body on a bier. The carving framed a doorway, rusted metal figured with elaborate curving designs. “It’s locked, maybe barred on the inside.” Stone tugged on the handle, demonstrating.
“Let me see. If you shift under here, you’ll break the roof.” Jade stepped forward and took the handle.
“Don’t break it off,” Moon said.
“Moon—” Jade jerked at the door and it yielded with a loud crack. Pieces of a broken lock fell to the ground as the door swung open. Stone lifted his light and it shone down a long ramp that led into darkness.
Stone started to step forward and Chime snapped, “Stop!”
They all froze. Moon flicked a quick glance around the doorway, but he didn’t see anything but dark patches of mold. He whispered, “What?”
“I— It’s— I’ve got a funny feeling,” Chime said, sounding mortally embarrassed. “Like there’s something there.”
“A mentor feeling?” Jade asked, and crouched down
for a closer look at the pavement just inside the door. Careful not to let any of his frills fall past the threshold, Moon joined her.
“Maybe,” Chime admitted.
“I thought all that didn’t come back after you changed,” Stone said, his tone carefully neutral.
“Well, it hadn’t.” Chime twitched uneasily. “Until… Look, I’m probably wrong.”
Jade nudged Moon and nodded toward something on the pavement inside the doorway. “No, you’re right,” Moon told Chime. About a pace past the threshold was a line of dirt and flotsam that had washed up under the door. It had formed a straight line across the ramp, as if it had encountered some solid object, except there was nothing there. “It’s one of Ardan’s barriers, like the one around the tower.”
Jade sat up, her spines flicking impatiently. “This could be a trap. If they trade with the water travelers, groundlings must come and go through here, and the lock would be enough to keep thieves out. The only reason to put a magical barrier here is to catch us.”
“Trap or not, we still have to get in there,” Stone said.
“Esom said he could get past the tower barrier without Ardan knowing,” Moon said. “If he wasn’t lying.”
“We’ll find out.” Jade turned to Chime. “Bring him here.”
“It’s an untested theory,” Esom said, though at least he kept his voice low as he sloshed through the water up the terrace steps.
“Then we’ll test it,” Chime told him as he climbed down a column from the roof.
Balm and River waited here now too. Drift was on watch, posted on a rooftop above the flooded street, and Vine on the roof of the terrace.
“Finally,” Jade muttered, and pushed to her feet. It hadn’t really been that long. Moon and Stone had spent the time exploring the terrace, carefully not speaking to each other. Moon had found wilting scraps of a plant that smelled like the vegetation that had grown all over the Kek town on the coast, more evidence for the idea that the water travelers traded here.