by Martha Wells
Moon waited, knowing they had to go one at a time, but as Malachite sprang into the air, Jade said, “Moon, then Chime, go!”
There was no time to argue. Moon crouched, leapt, and flapped for all he and Shade were worth. He made it to the perch across the hall, snapping his wings in on the landing. Malachite caught his shoulder to steady him. Chime was right behind him, but as Jade sprang off the ledge, a dark clawed arm shot up from the water to reach for her. Moon gasped but she twisted at the last instant and flapped across the hall. As she landed, Moon snarled, “It almost had you!”
She snarled back, “I know.”
Malachite said, “Children, quiet.”
Moon followed her gaze and saw the dark shape move just under the surface. Something about it was more like a swarm of sea creatures than a single being. And it seemed to have more limbs than it had started out with. It fetched up against one of the seaweed-carved pillars and climbed out of the water, then swung to face them.
Chime made a strangled noise of horror in his throat.
Moon stared, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The creature had killed the Fell, but had merged their bodies with its own, somehow. Clawed arms, legs, a leathery wing, a tail hung from the fluid shape of its back and sides. The progenitor was attached to its chest, her body partially melded with it. Moon could glimpse one of her wings, half unfurled, through the creature’s gray semi-transparent flesh. Then her right arm, still free, twitched and she tried to lift her head; she was still alive.
Malachite hissed slowly, in mingled disgust and shock. Moon thought, The forerunners or whoever built this place left this creature buried alive here for a reason. They wanted to punish it for all the turns left in the span of the Three Worlds for a reason. And whatever we do, we can’t let it get out.
The progenitor said, “Why do you run? They attacked me. I had no choice.”
Moon felt sick. Her voice had a hollow effect, almost an echo. It was clear who—or what—was actually doing the speaking.
Jade called back, “You lied to the Fell and you’re lying to us!”
“I had to be free. Take me to the surface, I will still give you powers—” The progenitor choked, then her voice changed, dropping the strange hollow quality. “This place was first a fortress against it, then its prison when it was defeated.”
“That was her,” Shade whispered, horrified.
Malachite shouted, “How did they defeat it?”
One clawed limb grabbed the progenitor’s remaining arm, and ripped her out of the creature’s own body. It snapped her spine and tossed the corpse into the water. Then it dove in, vanishing under the swirling foam.
Malachite ordered, “That ledge, go!”
They made it in a mad scramble, flapping hard, newly terrified of touching the water. They assembled on the ledge near the archway that led into the next hall, the one they had to get through to reach the ramp and the outer door. This ledge was wider and higher above the water, but wouldn’t offer much protection if the creature came at them.
Moon set Shade on his feet and they both slid down the wall to a crouch. Chime, huddled at the other end of the ledge, was shivering almost as badly as Shade. Lithe squeezed in between Malachite and Jade, her spines flat in fear; Moon didn’t feel so good himself. The creature was using the illusory water to conceal itself, which made it nearly impossible for them to reach the outer door without letting it out. It could come at them at any moment, escape from its prison… What did the progenitor say? A fortress, and then a prison? Moon blurted, “It’s afraid of water.”
Jade’s and Malachite’s attention snapped to him. Jade said, “Because it’s using the illusion of water against us?”
Lithe’s frightened expression turned intrigued, and Chime’s spines shivered in excitement at the thought. Chime said, “Because our ancestors put it here?”
Moon said, “The progenitor said that this place was a fortress against it and then its prison, and then it killed her. It can’t talk to us without her, so shutting her up was more important than trying to convince us to help it. Maybe she was trying to tell us how to kill it.”
Jade wasn’t convinced. “But why would she do that?”
Moon started to answer, then shook his head in frustration. He couldn’t put it into words, the way the Fell became weirdly attached to their Raksuran prey. The Fell often seemed as if they were having a relationship with you that they expected you to reciprocate, and they became angry when you didn’t respond the way they thought you should. Maybe they were, but their complete lack of empathy prevented them from understanding the reactions and feelings of any other type of being. He just looked at Malachite and said, “She had Shade with her all that time. You know how they get.”
Malachite’s gaze turned thoughtful. “That only makes sense if we’re right about the water being a hallucination.”
“I know I’m right about that,” Chime said, more life in his voice. “And maybe that’s what this thing wanted with the groundlings. To make the huts as a way for it to get out of here. Maybe it knew all along they couldn’t set it free. It was waiting for the Fell to make crossbreeds, but once it was out, it needed a way to get to the surface without touching the water.”
“That could be it,” Lithe said. “If the forerunners had a way to get in and out of this place without swimming, they must have destroyed it when they left, to make the prison more secure.”
“So we let the water in,” Moon said.
“We’ll have to swim to the surface?” Chime shook his spines. “Can we do that?”
Jade said to Malachite, “Not all of us.”
His voice rough and weak, Shade said, “I can try to shift. Maybe if I wait till the last moment—”
Moon was pretty sure Shade was lying to keep them from reconsidering the plan. If he could shift, he would have done it by now.
Jade must have had similar doubts. She said, “If we distract it by letting the water in, we could get back up the ramp to the huts.”
Malachite said, “Yes, that’s still our best way out.” Her gaze was on the roof of the hall, on one of the round windows in the curve of the dome. The sea outside pressed against it, the water darker as if clouds had covered the sun somewhere far above them. “The rest of you get ready to go.”
“You think you can just tear through it?” Jade asked. “If more than one of us—”
“What about—” Chime began.
Water boiled in front of them. Moon pushed in front of Shade, instinctively protecting the one member of their group who couldn’t shift. The limb caught him across the shoulder and knocked him off the ledge and into the water.
Moon fell right through the surface, struggling against the illusion. He knew he was falling toward the floor of the hall, that there was no water around him, but for a heart-stopping moment his body was unable to do what his brain told it. He closed his eyes and forced his wings out, flapped with all his strength. He felt his body lifting up, a moment before he collided with a soft surface. He bounced off, slid down, and hooked his claws into it. He opened his eyes to see he was holding onto one of the seaweed-carved pillars, above the illusory water.
He looked back for the others and the creature. The water churned, and Chime clung to the wall above the ledge but Moon couldn’t see anyone else. He almost flung himself toward them but somebody had to let the real water in.
He swarmed up the pillar, and leapt from it to the curved roof, sunk his claws into the soft material and climbed across it toward the round window. It was the same as the other one, the crystalline substance webbed with translucent fibers. He struck at it with his claws and jerked back, anticipating the rush of water. His claws barely scored the tough material. You should have known this wasn’t going to be easy.
He swung out onto the window and dug his claws in, using all his strength, trying not to think about what was happening below him. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and jerked away, but it was Chime with Lithe clinging to his chest. Chime
gasped, “Malachite is distracting it, Jade has Shade. We’re supposed to be with her but Lithe had an idea.”
Moon looked down, but couldn’t see anything but boiling water below the arch where the walkway was. Jade, be careful. The creature would be after Shade, knowing it could use him to get through the outer door to the groundling huts. Grimacing, Lithe stretched to reach the clear material of the window. She said, “This didn’t work on the groundling boat, but our ancestors made this.”
Moon didn’t understand what she meant until the crystalline substance started to warm under his claws. He dug them in again and leaned back, bracing his feet on the window. The material felt more permeable, but it still wasn’t tearing. Chime huffed in frustration, then climbed down next to Moon. “Please don’t kill us with your spines,” he said and wrapped an arm around Moon’s waist. Lithe hooked an arm around Moon’s shoulder.
Moon said, “All right, together. One, two, three!”
They all threw their weight back at once. And a small hole tore under one of Moon’s claws, saltwater squirting through it. Moon made a desperate hiss and said, “Again. One—” Then the whole window ripped apart.
The rush of water blew them down into the hall. They were caught in the torrent, as if the whole world had turned to water, and Moon couldn’t imagine how they had ever thought the creature’s illusion of an onrushing sea was real.
Still holding on to each other, they bounced off various hard surfaces and then tumbled to a stop, crammed into a corner. Moon shook the water out of his frills and tried to disentangle himself from Chime and Lithe. They had fallen into the bottom of the hall and the water was pouring in, streaming across the floor toward them. The illusion of water was gone and rapidly being replaced by the real thing. Moon managed to stagger upright, then something grabbed his arm from behind.
He whipped around in alarm, but it was Malachite. She shoved him toward the base of the walkway and reached to drag Chime to his feet, then Lithe.
Moon staggered through the rising water toward the nearest support for the walkway, looking up, trying to see where the creature was. There was a dark blot at the top of the hall that had to be it; it had retreated away from the water, but he doubted it would give up that easily.
Malachite landed behind him, with Chime in one hand and Lithe in the other, both still dazed. Moon took Chime, pulling him against his side. Chime revived enough to loop his arms around Moon’s neck, Malachite slung Lithe over her shoulder, and they both started to climb.
They reached the walkway. Moon saw Jade and Shade waiting at the start of the ramp, both unharmed, and felt dizzy with relief. “I told you to go on,” Malachite said, her voice a growl.
Jade just bared her teeth at her. Shade said, “I wouldn’t go without—”
High in the roof, something made a noise like a high-pitched shriek, like tearing metal. Moon looked back to see the rent in the window running into the roof below and growing rapidly larger. He yelled, “Run!”
Jade snatched up Shade and they bounded up the ramp. When they reached the outer door, Lithe had recovered enough to be set on her feet, though she was still wavering a little. Chime could stand on his own but kept squinting and holding his head. They all watched anxiously as Jade boosted Shade up. He touched the flower blocking the doorway.
Moon held his breath, but it opened just like they thought it would.
They climbed and swung up through the opening, into the big chamber. It was a relief to see the huts still there, to see the invisible barrier still held the water back. Malachite and Jade went last, and both stood beside the flower until it closed. Moon hissed out a relieved breath. Jade nodded agreement. She said, “Let’s hurry. That thing will be desperate and the further we get away the better.”
Malachite started toward the first hut. “Get in, Lithe. You too, Shade.”
Lithe stepped into the hut, shifted to her groundling form, and sat down heavily on the floor. Shade followed and sank down next to her.
Jade said, “You go with them. I’ll take Moon and Chime in the other—”
Moon heard a faint sound behind him and spun around. The flower was rotating open. He fell back a step as the creature’s dark form flowed up out of it. One clawed limb was holding a rusted metal bar—the tool the groundlings had made to open the flower.
Chime whimpered in dismay. “I dropped it, when it knocked you off the ledge, I shifted for an instant and I dropped—”
Moon figured they could sort that out later. He grabbed Chime by the spines and shoved him into the hut, then slammed the door shut and twisted the handle. He shouted, “Pull the lever!”
Malachite and Jade braced themselves, spines flared, ready to battle to the death. The creature flowed toward them.
Then the creature froze, and the lump on top of its body that seemed to be its eyes swiveled upward. Moon looked up and saw the barrier trembling like a pool that a rock had been dropped into. He thought, Oh, clever. One last defense. Their ancestors might have meant to punish the thing by imprisoning it forever, but they had left a trap if it ever got this close to escape.
The transparent barrier shivered and started to give way, releasing first a shower of water like a light rain. It struck the creature like acid, like burning molted metal. It flung its limbs wide in a silent scream and its body started to dissolve. Pieces of the dismembered Fell tumbled out and scattered across the floor. Then its flesh ran in gray-black streams and it melted away.
Moon realized later the green blur was Malachite shoving him down, flinging Jade on top of him, then throwing herself on both of them. The shock as the full weight of the water crashed down still knocked him out.
He opened his eyes, saltwater burning in his throat and lungs, choking him. For a moment all he knew was that something was holding on to him, then his blurry vision cleared enough to show him that it was Jade. She had him clutched to her chest with one arm, the other holding onto to Malachite’s tail.
Malachite was half-climbing, half-swimming up the chain and vine attached to the hut. Moon looked down and saw the round metal roof moving upward. Chime must have finally thrown the damn lever, he thought, numb. Jade was kicking her feet to help Malachite along, and Moon forced his limp legs to move.
Moon blacked out again before they reached the surface. He came to when someone dropped him on a hard stone surface and then punched him in the stomach. Moon’s lungs tried to turn themselves inside out as he coughed up water; someone flipped him over and he went to his hands and knees, choking out the last of it. The first real breath was sweet.
He shook his head and saw Jade crouched next to him, being messily sick. Moon’s body felt like his blood had turned to lead, but he reached over and squeezed her wrist. He was exhausted and wanted to shift to groundling more than anything, but he knew the longer he could hold on in this form, the faster his abraded lungs would heal.
He looked up and saw Malachite standing over them. They were on the platform in the cave, where the huts were stored. She was watching the water with concentrated intensity. Then the surface churned and the hut lifted out, its chain clanging in the support beam.
The door swung open as soon as it was clear of the water and Chime stared anxiously at them. “They’re alive,” he shouted.
They were. Moon decided he had time to pass out again while the others were sorting out the situation, and did.
Chapter Twenty-One
Malachite had to send Chime up to the entrance of the cave to bring Floret, so she could help them get out. In the end, Chime carried Moon, Floret carried Lithe, and Malachite carried Shade. Jade managed to fly on her own, out of pure stubbornness.
As they crossed back to the mainland, Moon still felt woozy and sick. He spotted the sac, resting in the waves some distance along the beach. The smoke had decreased to a thin stream and only a few dakti circled above it. The flight would have felt the deaths of its progenitor and what was probably most of its rulers. The young progenitor might have a chance to rebui
ld, or the remaining kethel might just kill her in a frenzy of grief and confusion. Either way, the flight was in no shape to make the long journey south to tackle Opal Night. And we’re in no shape to tackle it, Moon thought. He hoped the Fell decided to cut their losses and leave.
It took them some time to find the flying boat, even though Malachite knew in what direction it had been traveling. The sky was darkening toward evening when they located it; the strong wind off the sea had pushed the little craft swiftly inland. As they banked down toward it, Moon saw Stone on the deck, watching their approach. Two daughter queens of Onyx’s bloodline were on look-out, one perched on the small basket atop the mast, and the other on the steering cabin roof.
Chime followed Malachite and Jade down to land near the cabin, where Saffron gripped the control pillar with a determined expression. She sagged against it a little, profound relief crossing her normally hard expression. Stone just looked them over briskly, checking for wounds. “Are the Fell following you?” he said. “This damn boat stinks so bad, I can’t tell if their scent’s on the wind.”
Chime carefully set Moon on his feet. Keeping one hand on Chime’s shoulder to steady himself, Moon shifted to groundling. He didn’t immediately collapse, so he took that as a good sign. He said, “Don’t think so,” and his voice came out in a rough, barely audible wheeze.
Jade rubbed her eyes, her spines drooping from exhaustion. “I haven’t caught any Fell scent since we left the coast.” Her voice was better than Moon’s but not by much.
Stone frowned. “You need to get below.”
Moon couldn’t agree more. Malachite was already carrying Shade down to the hold, Lithe at her heels. With a worried frown, Jade glanced at Floret, who had shifted to groundling and stretched full-length out on the deck. “Floret, are you all right?”
Floret assured her, “I’m fine. I just don’t want to go down to the hold right now. We spent enough time there.”
Stone said, “I’ll keep an eye on her.”