Cloudbound (45 page)

“He's a very lucky bird. He must have followed us the whole way to Mondarath.”

I tucked Maalik into my robe. “If he recovers, perhaps he can find his way back again.”

“Perhaps,” Wik said. He helped me tie the message chips to my wrist. I ran my thumb across the carved letters, then returned my attention to the horizon.

Even at day's end, the city's skin steamed this close to the ground. We walked down the city's leg, hoping to find another glimpse of Hiroli and Ciel.

As we'd scrambled across the landscape, our footwraps had shredded on the city's tough skin. Our feet were blistered, our calves ached. My hair stuck damply to my neck and face, with no wind to dry my sweat.

I caught myself rubbing a patch in my robe, sliding my thumb over the quilting. Elna's stitches. The fabric grew shiny from contact with my skin.

Wik paced, head down, a frown deepening the lines on his face.

Kirit stared down the distance, daring the horizon to give up.

The air finally cooled that night as the moon rose. In the deep shadows and etched silver light, we found Dix. She hung from a bone spur jutting from the city's elbow, one wingstrap caught. The skin of her face had been scraped raw in her fall, and her feet were swollen.

My breath caught. I raised my hand to block the moonlight so I could look up at her. Wik and I scaled the bone spur. We cut her wingstraps and lowered her down. She did not wake. Her chest barely rose and when it did it made an ugly rattle. Around where she'd fallen, three of the brass plates lay, their etched faces reflecting the moon. We gathered them up and put them in Wik's satchel.

We left Dix in the shade of the bone spur to be forgotten, and we kept walking.

Staring towards the end of the city's leg, Wik frowned. “We could walk this way for days and nights and not find them. At some point, we need to think about saving ourselves. Some point very soon.”

Kirit looked at him, angry. “We're not leaving her down here.”

“We'll find her,” I agreed, determined. I didn't want to linger on the ground any more than Wik did. I knew that what he was thinking was practical. But I wouldn't turn my back on Ciel a second time. Not until I was sure there was nothing more I could do.

Late that night, just before the next moonset, we passed above a cesspool that had collected beside the city's leg. Not even the bone eaters would go near the foul liquid seeping from the city's side.

“Lucky we didn't land in that,” Wik said. We'd walked for half a night without saying anything between us. Since just after we'd found Dix. Now he coughed, making a face at the stench. Covered his mouth and didn't speak again until we were past the cesspool.

The city hadn't moved for a very long time. A river of filth trailed away from its body, towards a rippling blue haze in the distance. The stench was beyond reckoning. No one spoke, to avoid having to open their mouths.

Beyond the worst of the smell, we found the last guard who'd been traveling with Hiroli. His weapons were gone, and his wings. If he'd carried food and water, there was none with his body now.

“She's growing desperate,” Kirit said.

We all knew what Hiroli was willing to do to survive. We scanned the horizon for Ciel. Hoping to find her alive. Finally, Wik pointed over the hillside, then began moving. We followed close on his heels.

“Light,” he shouted. “A campfire.”

 

35

HORIZON

The fire Wik saw was a tiny flicker in the dark expanse of the city's leg. They'd traveled closer to us than before, but much lower down the city's side. Close to the ground.

“It will be a trick to get back up that ridge,” Wik whispered. His voice was hoarse with exhaustion.

Behind us, Kirit stumbled on the city's uneven surface. We were headed now towards the expanse of ground between our city and the ones farther away. She didn't like it. Neither did I.

But Hiroli was leaving the city and taking Ciel with her, and none of us would leave Ciel behind.

“From the look of things, Hiroli's had to backtrack around a flight of bone eaters,” Wik said. “Her new path takes her near the city's head. She's slowing.”

We picked up the pace, moving through the dark, using our bone hooks and wing battens to feel our way. Slowly, we gained on them, dreading what we'd find when we got there.

*   *   *

Hiroli's voice rose as she pulled Ciel farther down the ridge. The fledge stumbled, but managed to stay on her feet in the orange light of sunrise. They slid into the deep valley nearest the city's head. The bonefall clattered as they kicked pieces of bone loose.

A bone eater flew from the pit, alarmed, a femur in its beak. It flapped away noisily.

“Ciel!” I chased them down, readied the bow we'd taken off the blackwings, ignoring the pain. Wik and Kirit slid beside me. We ran across the city's skin, stumbling on rough patches. I tripped and jarred my arm. Gasped, but kept going. Feet pounded behind me as Wik and Kirit caught up with me.

Below, Hiroli waited for us.

“Stop where you are.” I drew the bowstring awkwardly with my good hand. Tried to hold the weapon steady.

Hiroli looked at me and laughed. “Nat Brokenarm now. Mighty Hunter.” Her voice cracked. “We're going to find a new city,” she yelled, pointing at the horizon. “Just as our ancestors did.” Dried spit crusted the corners of her mouth.

“That's skytouched,” Kirit said. “We need to go up, not away.”

Hiroli held Ciel by the robe at arms' length. “You've seen the magnificent creatures out there. We could climb one that's not half dead and begin again. Those above could join us, and survive.”

“You want to climb another city?” Kirit said, trying to comprehend, while Wik slowly edged towards Hiroli in the shadows of the ridge. “What about the towers? What about Naza?”

Hiroli pointed at the horizon, where the cities paced. Stars pricked the dark sky behind them. “Look at them! Much more potential than this.” She tapped the thick skin with her silk-wrapped foot.

Ciel raised her head. Her eyes were glazed with thirst and hunger. Hiroli's own lips were split and pale. They were out of water.

“Come with us, then, and warn those above us.” I kept my voice calm, trying to give Wik an angle to get closer to her. There
was
time to warn the towers, I realized, as long as the bone eaters kept feeding the city. But I vowed Hiroli would not be with us when we did.

For now, I had to keep talking. To hold her attention. “We have water. We'll eat. Then we'll all go up together. You'll need more people than just you and Ciel to go. You'll starve.”

Wik had slowly edged to Hiroli's right, but couldn't get any closer. Ciel's feet kicked off the ground as Hiroli lifted her.

“You are a terrible liar, Councilor.” She shook Ciel. “You won't take me with you. You want to be the one to lead.” She began to drag Ciel towards the ground again, walking backwards. “I will lead us to the new city. I'll make the Laws. We'll let people come who can follow our Laws.” She murmured to herself, “I'll lead.”

“Come back, Hiroli,” Wik said, coaxing. “Or leave Ciel with us. Then you can do whatever you want.”

Hiroli didn't see the next drop, beside the city's mouth. She nearly lost her footing. At the last minute, she stepped forward, pushing Ciel before her.

Ciel stumbled. Hiroli growled and raised her hand as if to slap the fledge, then grabbed Ciel's hair and twisted it in her fist. “We'll have order in the new city.” Her voice was eerily calm now. Kirit was right. Skytouched. Cloudtouched. Groundtouched.

“Stop this!” I shouted, loud enough to halt Hiroli in her tracks. She looked at me, as if just seeing me again. Smiled. “Councilor. You could join me. You and Wik.”

I shook my head slowly. “Never. We'll go back up into the clouds, and rise above them again.”

Her face darkened. “Dissent,” she muttered. As she focused on me, Kirit tried to flank her other side, but when she and Wik got too close, the former blackwing jerked at Ciel's hair again. Ciel grabbed at Hiroli's wrists, scratching the skin hard enough to break it, but did not fight further when Hiroli shook her again. She slumped, exhausted.

Hiroli held her free hand out, motioning to the edge. “Don't make me throw the fledge down!”

In the great expanse behind Hiroli, a crack opened to a narrow slit of yellow and black, surrounded by white sclera and thick skin. Hiroli did not see it because her back was to the eye, but Ciel did. She froze. Hiroli jerked her arm.

“City save us,” said Wik.

“The city can't save us,” I said, changing my grip on the bow. “We have to save ourselves.”

Fire shot through my arm as I readied my arrow but I hesitated. This was an unfamiliar bow, and I was injured. What if I couldn't hold it? I could harm Ciel. I could hit the city. But Kirit and Wik had no shot. I did.

Hiroli smiled, her face utterly calm, and terrifying.

We cannot lead out of fear,
Ezarit had said. And I was afraid. So very afraid.

But not acting was worse. I felt the breeze against my cheek, blowing towards Hiroli. Saw the meager wind's arc and how it flowed. Even if I could not ride that breeze, I knew it. I understood it.

I drew hard and let the arrow fly. It pinned Hiroli's hand against the city's lip.

The city roared, lifting her off her feet, trying to shake her loose.

Ciel bit Hiroli's other hand. When Hiroli shrieked and let her go, Ciel dropped to the ground and ran across the bonefall, towards us. She stumbled, then kept running. Wik scooped her up and began to climb over the city's leg, away from the mouth, the eye.

Below us, the city's jaw opened slowly and the thick, gray tongue emerged. The stench bowled us back, and we scrambled unsuccessfully to climb the beast's shoulder again.

Hiroli writhed, trying to free her hand. She shouted for us to help.

We retreated to safety, then looked back.

The gray tongue had wrapped Hiroli and smothered her screams. She disappeared into the city's mouth and the jaws ground closed.

“Hurry, before the city decides it's still hungry.” I started forward, and the others followed me around the immense claws and across the hot, red ground. We stopped when we were far enough from its head to avoid its tongue.

“Did she mean what she said?” Ciel asked, her breath rasping. “Is the city dying? Moc's up there. And everybody.”

We looked back across the ground at the enormous shoulder ridges, at the towers and spires rising from its spine, too heavy. Towers that our ancestors had grown higher in order to rise, to be safe. Towers that were now crowded with our family, our friends, our people.

But the city chewed and shifted, sated for now. Its eye followed us.

“She meant it,” I said. “But it might take a long time to die, especially if it has food.”

The towers' shadow grew long against the red dirt as the sun came below the clouds again, drenching us with sweat. We felt the city's regular breathing and its heartbeat through our feet We could hear it chew.

I remembered the rolling quake from our first night on the ground. If the city died, it could roll again. And that time, the weight on its back could pull it right over. The towers might come crashing down.

The image left me breathless.

We would not let that happen. Stopping the process felt impossible, but we'd already done the impossible. We'd fallen through the clouds and lived.

“I don't think a whipperling note could get people to understand. We have to find another way to tell them.” I looked up then, into the gray expanse of cloud, missing the dome of stars, the bats that flew the night. I missed the familiar and the beautiful. The blue sky, filled with birds, the bone white towers, ferns and lichen in the meadow. The glow of littlemouths in the cave. Ceetcee's smile. Beliak's laugh. Elna's songs.

Kirit closed her eyes. “Who will believe us, in enough time to make a difference? How will we convince them to leave on the word of Lawsbreakers?” she said.

I thought of everyone above whom we'd left. Whom we couldn't reach. “The northwest will believe us. They know us. And they can help.”

The moon rose, brightening the horizon to dark blues, rippled with silver. “But they won't believe us if we don't return,” Wik said. “We have to go back up before we can change things.”

I sank to a sitting position, looking at the steep bone wall, thinking of something Ceetcee had told me long ago. “Things are already changing. The towers rose up. The blackwings are in disarray. Dix and Hiroli are no longer a threat to the city. We have the plates, and we rescued the artifex. We did that.”

“The city needs much more from us,” Wik said.

“They'll know. We'll find a way to make them believe.” Ciel sounded hopeful. “Moc's up there. He'll be mad if he doesn't get to see this.” She hummed “Nest of Thieves,” but stopped partway through. “We're going to need more songs.”

New songs, a new way of living.

“We go back up?” Wik asked. He put a hand on Kirit's shoulder. She nodded.

The city believed the clouds were dangerous, that fallen meant lost. But we'd fallen from the clouds. And we'd lived.

Our new horizon balanced ground and sky, cloud and bone.

Between the unreachable clouds and the immovable earth, stars shone against the darkness. They were as beautiful below as they had always been above.

“We'll lead the city to safety.” I stood with my companions, beside the bone wall, below the clouds. Above us, the people we loved waited, caught between the soaring city we could no longer see and the dying city below. “We'll rise once more.”

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my first readers: Chris Gerwel, E. C. Myers, Lauren Teffeau, Kelly Lagor, Nicole Feldringer, Laura Anne Gilman, Jaime Lee Moyer, Sara Mueller, Sarah Pinsker, A. C. Wise, A. T. Greenblatt, and Siobhan Carroll, who encourage me whether I run short or long. To Stephanie Feldman and Siobhan for the brainstorming road trip. We should do that again.