by Martha Wells
Chime bounced too. “If his body’s been sleeping, but he can still think, and he’s been here all these turns—”
“If he wasn’t raving mad when he was put in there, he is now!”
“Yes,” Malachite cut through their speculation. “But why was he put here in the first place, in an underwater prison, that only a member of his own species could unlock?”
Everyone went still, thinking over that. Moon supplied the obvious answer. “Because somebody powerful wanted to punish him, and it wasn’t safe to put him anywhere else.” The forerunner hadn’t made groundlings flee and die and Fell attack Raksura to create crossbreeds because its intentions were good.
Malachite gave him a head tilt of approval.
Jade said, “How do we know for certain?”
“Perhaps I’ll ask it, after I kill the Fell.” Malachite stood, spread her wings, and sprang out to drop to the floor of the chamber.
Chime and Lithe recoiled in shock. Jade made a choking noise that seemed to combine rage and astonishment. Moon just stared. “Didn’t expect that,” he admitted. In hindsight, he probably should have.
Jade snarled and leapt after Malachite, and Moon followed.
He landed on the floor, every nerve alert. The progenitor and the rulers had swung to face them at Malachite’s sudden appearance. The Fell were all in their winged forms but Shade was still a groundling. Thedes had caught him by the neck and held a clawed hand to his throat, probably the only reason Malachite hadn’t started ripping Fell apart yet.
Shade hadn’t shifted because he looked like he was about to drop from exhaustion. His pale skin was gray-tinged and there were dark bruises under his eyes, his clothes were torn and filthy; he stared at Malachite as if he thought he was hallucinating her. Of course, Moon thought, they haven’t been feeding him. Faced with the choice of groundling meat or nothing, Shade must have chosen nothing. The Fell could have forced him to eat by threatening Moon and the others, but they had wanted him weak.
Malachite paced deliberately toward the progenitor. Moon had never seen anyone or anything look at a Fell like that. Like Fell were intriguing prey, tricky to catch, but not impossible.
The progenitor didn’t react, though Moon thought he could see tension gather in her body. The progenitor said, “You hate us very much. We must have done something terrible to you.”
“You took my consort and destroyed my court.” Malachite tilted her head and smiled. “Don’t try to get inside my mind. I might let you.”
Moon sensed more than saw an uneasy stir among the rulers. Malachite wasn’t acting the way they expected, and it unnerved them. It’s not a pose. Malachite’s not afraid, and the Fell know it. He wondered if that was what Malachite had been doing for the turn she had stalked the Fell flight. Learning about them, learning how to resist their influence to the point where it didn’t exist for her, learning contempt for them instead of fear. Maybe that was the key to defeating the Fell, that your mental attitude was everything.
The progenitor didn’t draw back, but Moon could sense her regroup. She said, “Why are you here? It does not want Raksura.”
“You know why I’m here. You have something that belongs to me.” Malachite didn’t look at Shade, holding the progenitor’s gaze as if holding her captive, but her meaning was clear. “Why haven’t you let your guide out yet?”
“Perhaps we never meant to.”
Malachite’s spines rippled in amusement. “This is a long way to come for nothing.”
“Other flights found the way for us. Our part was easy.”
Moon threw a look at Jade and saw her attention was entirely focused on Thedes and Shade. She’s waiting for an opportunity. But Thedes might be too old and clever for that. He would know the only thing keeping the Fell alive was the threat to Shade.
Malachite said, “You took advantage of their failures.”
The progenitor inclined her head. “Yes.”
“So why have you changed your mind?”
The progenitor said, “The guide told us it could teach us new powers, give us powerful weapons to defeat the prey who have weapons of fire and projectiles. It told us it had slept for a long time, and only recently woken, and was anxious to help us eat the world.” That was hardly surprising. The only thing the Fell would be truly interested in were ways to eat groundling cities more efficiently, with less danger to the progenitors and the rulers.
“And to destroy Raksura,” Malachite added.
The progenitor seemed to feel that was just an extra benefit. “And that. But we are here and it will not teach.”
Moon couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. He said, “Ask it what it offered the groundlings to get them here. They didn’t let it out, and it killed them.”
The progenitor didn’t look at him, but answered, “The prey could not let it out. It did not know then that the cage could only be opened by one of its own species.”
A strange prison. It could only get free if another member of its species came for it. And nobody came, Moon thought. If whoever had trapped it here had been trying to make a point, then the point had certainly been made.
Malachite hadn’t taken her gaze off the progenitor, but Moon sensed more of her attention had shifted to the creature trapped inside the flower. She said, “But what did it offer the groundlings? The same thing it offered you?”
The progenitor said, “We are people. They were prey.”
That must be a “no,” Moon thought. “Then why haven’t you let it out already? You know it’s a trick, now. You know it won’t teach you powers. You know there aren’t any weapons here. This place is empty. If there were any weapons, the groundlings took them when they fled.”
Malachite must have decided she had heard enough. In the same even tone, she said, “Give us Shade, and we’ll leave you alive.”
The progenitor was equally calm. “You would never leave us alive.”
Malachite showed her fangs in approval. “You aren’t as foolish as you appear.”
Her voice trembling with urgency, Lithe said, “Malachite, why hasn’t the forerunner tried to stop us from having this conversation?”
There was a moment of stillness. The Fell didn’t react.
Malachite’s eyes narrowed. “Shade, did anything happen when you first came into this room?”
“The flower opened,” Shade said, his voice a weak croak. “I don’t think that was a good thing.”
Uh-oh, Moon thought. Chime whispered anxiously, “Maybe it doesn’t need anything but Shade’s presence. Maybe it’s been waiting for the spell, or whatever it is, to finish.”
Malachite must have agreed. She snarled. “Give me Shade and we will all leave here alive.”
There was no warning. The flower opened. It was like a too-near lightning strike, like the explosion when the dakti had thrown Delin’s bag of projectiles into the fire, but without light or heat. A wave of invisible force crossed the chamber, flattening everything in its path. It knocked Moon onto his back and bounced him off the floor. He flashed on an image of the dead groundlings up in the hall, stretched out flat, and the others huddled in the hut they hadn’t been able to escape in.
The force passed on, leaving Moon gasping for air, shivering in reaction. He rolled to one elbow, trying to get his body to work enough to stand. His blurry vision cleared and he saw everyone sprawled on the floor, including the progenitor and the rulers. The Fell who had been closest to the flower lay like they were dead, but he saw with relief that the Raksura were dazed but trying to move. Then he saw the forerunner.
It stood in front of the sea-flower, watching them. He couldn’t read any emotion in its face or spines; it might have been a statue.
Malachite suddenly pushed to her feet, spines flared, breathing rough. She said, “What are you?”
One of the rulers rolled over and stood, its movement jerky and abrupt. Its jaw opened and it rasped out, “I am your ancestor.”
Malachite’s spines rippled in what Moon co
uld only interpret as wary disbelief. He felt cold settle in the pit of his stomach. The forerunner was speaking through the ruler, the way rulers could speak through dakti and kethel.
Chime and Lithe both managed to sit up, leaning against each other for support. Shade still lay sprawled near the unconscious Thedes, and out of the corner of his eye Moon saw Jade push herself up to her hands and knees and stretch to grab Shade’s ankle. One eye on the forerunner, she pulled Shade toward her. The creature didn’t try to stop her.
Dazed, Shade started to fight, then opened his eyes enough to see her. He struggled toward her and Jade pushed him behind Moon, then stumbled to her feet. Moon managed to sit up all the way, but he didn’t think he could stand yet. “Are you all right?” he whispered to Shade. Shivering, Shade nodded against his shoulder.
The ruler said, “I’ve waited so long. They meant me to sleep forever, but I woke.” Its eyes were closed, its face and body slack; it looked dead. The other Fell stirred weakly. The progenitor lifted her head, her tail lashed, and she fixed her dark gaze on the forerunner.
Jade flicked a quick glance at Moon and he gave her a sharp nod. He could move if he had to and help the others.
Malachite studied the creature intently. “That’s what you told the Fell,” she agreed. “Why didn’t the groundlings let you out? You called them to you, taught them how to find this place, to use the air plants to reach you.”
Yes, that was what Moon was wondering, too. This was not going how an encounter with an ancestor of their species should go, as far as he could tell. Maybe Lithe and Chime were right and the forerunner was raving mad. Maybe it was worse than that.
The dead ruler said, “They couldn’t solve the puzzle. You are far more clever.”
Jade said bluntly, “So the groundlings ran away and died.”
Lithe shook her head. “And we didn’t do anything, didn’t solve any puzzle,” she said, her voice a bare whisper.
From behind Moon, Shade whispered, “Neither did the Fell. They just stood there, talking to it, but I couldn’t hear its answers.”
Jade said, “It’s lying. The only thing it needed to get out was for Shade to come close enough.”
The ruler said, “I will help you defeat these terrible creatures, all across the worlds.”
Malachite hadn’t looked away from the forerunner but Moon felt she knew exactly where they all were, and was thinking furiously. She said, “Then why have you conspired with them all this time?”
“I had no choice.” There was emotion in the words now, and the Fell ruler trembled as the voice was forced from its throat. “The Raksura could not hear me, and I had to be free.”
Malachite was unmoved. “We have paid dearly for your freedom.”
“I will repay my debt. I will help you destroy the Fell.”
Malachite tilted her head, but her expression gave nothing away. Jade said, “Yet you told the Fell you would help them destroy us.”
“I had to lie. Have you not lied to these creatures, to survive?”
That hit home for Moon. But looking past the captive Fell, at the forerunner itself, he thought, It stands so still. Why doesn’t it move?
It continued, “Come with me to the surface of the island. I have proof there, hidden weapons and resources. I will give them to you.”
Lithe nudged Chime. “Chime, what is it?”
Chime was staring at the creature, squinting as if it was hard to see, though it wasn’t more than twenty paces away. “It’s not… It isn’t… This is not its true form.” His voice trembled. “I can see two of it.”
Malachite hissed out a breath. She asked it, “Are you deceiving us? What is your true form?”
The progenitor lunged upright. Moon flinched back, pushing Shade behind him, but the progenitor charged the forerunner. She struck it in the chest, hard enough to stagger it back. The rulers sprang at it in her wake—and it changed.
Its body softened and blurred and flowed into another shape, larger, dark and fluid, with more limbs than it had had before. It lifted a double set of wings and bared an enormous array of fangs though its body was so amorphous Moon couldn’t tell where its mouth was. It flung one of the rulers away, the body shredded into bloody fragments.
Malachite spun and snapped, “Go!”
Moon grabbed Shade and sprang for the door. Shade’s groundling body was heavier than Moon had been expecting and he hit the bottom edge of the doorway, just able to catch it with his claws. Shade curled against him, holding on with all his remaining strength, holding his breath as if that would help. Moon hauled them both up into the corridor and Shade gasped with relief.
Lithe hit the wall below him and scrambled up without difficulty, then Chime, who must not have moved fast enough to satisfy either Jade or Malachite, flew over their heads and bounced off the floor. The queens landed an instant later and they all bounded down the corridor.
That was Moon’s first chance to think it through and he realized Malachite was right; they had Shade, all they needed was to make it out of here. Hopefully the creature would slow down to kill all the Fell before it came after them.
Chime gasped, “I don’t think that thing is our ancestor.”
Even if it was, Moon didn’t want anything to do with it. Then he heard a crash behind them, with a whoosh and a rush of water, as if a waterfall had just exploded into the chamber. Oh, no, Moon thought. It couldn’t be that stupid—
Malachite growled, “Don’t stop.”
Moon asked Shade, “Can you see anything?”
Shade looked back over Moon’s shoulder and reported breathlessly, “It must have broken the windows in the chamber. Maybe it won’t—No, the water’s coming right toward us!”
The opening into the first big hall wasn’t far ahead, but the floor leading from it dropped down, offering no refuge from the onrushing sea. Moon could feel the spray on his back.
Jade raced ahead and leapt up, clung by one hand to the top of the arch and held out the other. Moon sprang for the arch, caught it with his claws, but Shade’s weight kept him from using the momentum to swing up and around. He grabbed Jade’s free hand and she pulled, and they both scrabbled up onto a ledge no wider than his feet. Chime landed an instant later, scrambled up with a desperate cry.
Malachite hit the arch then, with Lithe clinging to her, and then the water struck them.
It rushed out below in a white-capped torrent, pouring down and into the hall. Jade crouched and grabbed one of Malachite’s wrists, and Chime grabbed the other. Still holding Shade, Moon had to watch helplessly. There was just no room to brace themselves and Jade and Chime couldn’t hold on for long.
Then Lithe climbed around and up Malachite’s back, got her claws into the ledge and pulled herself up next to Chime. Without the extra drag, Malachite clamped her claws into the ledge, constricted her body, and popped up out of the water like a jumping fish.
As Malachite hooked her claws into the wall, Jade asked, “Where now?”
“We make our way back to the outer door.” Malachite scanned the hall. “There’s a perch across there. We should be able to reach that.”
Jade’s spines flicked in assent, and she turned to Shade. “After you and the Fell came down here in the metal huts, the flower-door opened when you touched it?”
Shivering, Shade nodded. “It did. You think it won’t open for the creature?”
“I hope not.” Jade glanced at Malachite. “But if the water has already filled up the ramp to the outer door—”
“I know,” Malachite said, and for once she didn’t seem annoyed that Jade existed. “Once the water fills this place and the pressure eases, we may be able to swim through it.”
Some of us can swim through it, Moon thought. From his own experience he knew Aeriat could hold their breath underwater for far longer than most groundlings, and he knew Jade and Malachite would be just as strong in the water as they were in the air. But Arbora were built differently. And Shade was still unable to shift and seeme
d to be getting weaker by the moment; his skin felt chilled through his clothes.
Chime said, “Wait.”
They all looked at him. He was half-crouched at the end of the row next to Lithe. He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for their reaction, and said, “I don’t think this is real.”
Jade and Malachite frowned. Moon decided to get the question in before anyone else did. He asked, “Which part isn’t real?”
“The water.” Chime sounded stricken. He scooped up a double-handful. “When it’s in my hands, I can’t see it.”
Lithe reached down and touched the water in Chime’s cupped hands, and rubbed her fingers together. “I can feel it. I think I can feel it.”
Heartened that they hadn’t dismissed him out of hand, Chime said, “I think… that creature knows we have Shade, that he can open the outer door. It’s chasing us there. It’s going to follow us right out.”
Shade said suddenly, “My clothes are dry. Moon, your scales are wet, but my clothes are dry.”
Moon felt the sleeve of Shade’s shirt. The light material wasn’t clinging damply, wasn’t spotted with water. If the water was an illusion, the creature could have missed a few details. “Chime, I think you’re right.”
Jade was still frowning, but she said, “You were right about that creature, Chime. There was two of it, in a way. Maybe it isn’t even a true shifter, maybe it was just making us see it as one of our ancestors.”
Lithe said, “That would explain why only a forerunner—or someone close to them, like a crossbreed—could let it out. If our ancestors imprisoned it here—”
Malachite dragged them back to the point. “The water was real enough to kill the groundlings. The creature was still trapped inside the flower, but something made them run, killed them when it caught them. If we can’t make ourselves believe the water isn’t real, it will kill us too.”
Chime nodded anxiously. “That’s the part I don’t have any ideas about.”
A sudden dark stirring in the water below them cut off that line of discussion. Malachite snapped, “The ledge, now!” and grabbed Lithe.