Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura) (40 page)

They were now in an even larger cavern, in what might be a harbor basin. The rope-like pillars supported archways and sheltered broad stone platforms that did look like docks. There were three to the left of the sunsailer, and two to the right, on either side of a wide canal that led farther into the city. Ramps stretched up from the docks into the shadow past the distance-lights, to openings he could barely see as dark outlines. Vendoin, Kellimdar, and several Kishan stood on one of the docks on this side with a smaller distance-light. Kellimdar was adjusting it to shine on another section of the side of the archway, while Vendoin wrote hastily on a slate. The other Kishan, Moon was glad to see, were all armed with fire weapons and were warily keeping their gaze on the ramps and the water.

Bramble said, “Vendoin thinks she might be able to translate the writing.”

Moon frowned at the archway, brightly lit now by the distance-light Kellimdar directed at it. “Uh, what writing?”

“We can’t see it,” Bramble explained. “It’s in colors we can’t see. But Vendoin can see it, and so can some of the Kishan, just not all of them. She said it’s rare, but they’ve found it on some of the old foundation builder ruins in Kish.”

“Huh.” They had encountered a species they hadn’t been able to see once, but never colors. Or at least Moon hadn’t thought so. If you couldn’t see something and no one who could mentioned it, you weren’t likely to know about it. “Can Delin see it?”

Bramble snorted. “No, and he’s madder than a headless Fell about it, too.”

Stone, who was apparently awake, said, “Ha.”

Moon turned away from the railing. “Where’s Jade?”

“Up in the front, talking with Callumkal.”

“Did she ever sleep?” They had all slept a little in the small boat on the way back to the escarpment, but the fighting and difficult flying through most of the night had been draining.

“She said she was going to.” Bramble got to her feet. “Are you hungry?”

Moon looked down at himself. There was blood spotted on his clothes, his own and Fell blood. The scratches on his arms had closed up, but the bruises were still all there. He felt like someone had punched him all over his body. “Not really. How are Balm and River?”

“Merit put them both in a healing sleep. Everyone else just needed simples. You should have some tea.” She nudged Stone with her foot. “Come on, line-grandfather.”

“Ugh,” Stone said, or something similar, but let Bramble prod him to his feet.

“What did Jade and Callumkal decide to do?” Moon asked.

Bramble pushed him and Stone toward the hatch. “We know we have to look for a way out, but that’s it so far. That’s why you need to eat. Go past that room they gave us to the middle part of the ship, then up a level. There’s a big common room. Some of the others are there. I’ll bring Chime.”

Moon found the way down the corridor and up a set of stairs, Stone trailing behind him. There were food odors in the air: cooked fish and waterweed and roots. The stairs opened up to a big room with windows on both sides, with seats built around the walls and more benches fastened to the floor. There was a square Kishan stove in the center of the room, with a pot on the metal frame top emitting fragrant steam. Merit and Delin were there, along with Kalam and Rorra, sitting around on the benches and looking weary and worried.

Balm and River were stretched out on two padded benches at the far end of the room. From their breathing, they were still deep in healing sleep. Moon tasted the air and caught a little blood scent but no sickness or infection. “How are they?”

“River’s wounds are healing well,” Merit told him. He got up and started to fill a couple of metal cups from the pot. “I’m going to wake Balm in a little and check on her.”

Moon sat down on a bench. His back muscles twinged. Stone plopped down next to him and yawned.

Merit handed them both cups. “It’s Kishan tea,” he explained. Stone sniffed it and winced.

“It’s not as good as yours,” Kalam offered, “but we have a lot more of it.”

Moon downed half the cup. It had a dark smoky flavor that wasn’t unpleasant. “How’s the boat?” he asked Rorra.

She sighed. She had a darkening bruise on her forehead and the skin under her eyes looked swollen. “The steering is pulling to the right. But we’re still floating.” She added dryly, “We’ll be comfortable until the food and water run out.”

Kalam said, “The sunsailer had just filled its water tanks from the spring on the island, so . . .” He looked around at everyone and shrugged a little. “That won’t be a problem for a while.”

Delin stirred. It was hard to tell past the weathered gold of his skin, but Moon thought his face looked a little sunken. He gestured toward the windows. “When we search the city, we will surely find a way out.”

Rorra said, “But we have to find it before the Fell get in. And this place is very large. It must fill the entire escarpment.”

Delin nodded. “That is a succinct description of our problem.”

Bramble came in with a yawning, bleary-eyed Chime. They were followed by Song and Root carrying wooden trays and accompanied by a strong scent of food. Moon tried to get up to help but was still moving so slowly that they had set their burdens down on the benches by the time he was on his feet. Song began to pass out bowls, saying apologetically, “It’s all cooked. You’re supposed to eat it with these little scoop things.”

It was a thick broth with fish, crunchy white and red roots, something green and leafy that tasted like salty sea wrack, and a thick piece of bread in the bottom. The sight of it woke Moon’s stomach and he finished off three bowls before he took another breath. Food had been a good idea; he already felt much less bleary and slow.

All three groundlings were still on their first bowl. Delin was unsurprised, but Kalam and Rorra had initially looked puzzled at the number of bowls. After watching the Raksura eat, they evidently understood. With Stone on his fifth bowl, Kalam asked, “Do you want me to get some more?”

Stone, still eating, shook his head. Moon said, “No, this should be enough.” It was enough for now, mostly because everyone had been catching fish off and on during the day. But if they were trapped here for longer than a few days, flying around searching this place and expending energy, it was going to become a problem.

Jade walked in, trailed by Briar. She stopped to check Balm and River, then sat down next to Moon. He said, “Did you eat?”

She began, “I don’t need—” and Moon handed her a bowl. She looked down at it for a moment, then reached for the scoop.

Briar took a bowl from the tray. “We’ve been talking about searching for the way out,” she said, while Jade’s mouth was full.

Jade nodded, swallowed, and added, “We need to start as soon as you’re ready.” She watched Moon for a moment. “Are you ready?”

He was a lot more ready now than he had been before the food. “Sure.”

Bramble was refilling everyone’s cups with tea. “About that. You need to let me help you.”

Merit seconded that, collecting empty bowls to pile back on the tray. “Bramble figured out which symbols to look for to get in here, and you might need her help figuring out other things.”

Delin said, “I will help, as well.”

“You don’t look so good,” Chime told him, before Moon could. “I think you need to stay here and rest.”

“I will look worse if I am eaten by Fell,” Delin countered.

Jade eyed them, and finished chewing. “Well, you’re right. We’ll take Bramble and Delin.”

With Callumkal watching worriedly, the Raksura leapt from the deck down onto the nearest dock. The party was Moon, Jade, Stone, Song, and Briar, with Root and Chime carrying Bramble and Delin. Rorra was a last-moment addition and was travelling under her own power, with one of the flying packs salvaged from the wreck of the flying boat.

As Moon landed, his spines wanted to shiver and he refused to let them; it was too easy to imagine something waiting in that dark, watching them. The warriors set Bramble and Delin down so they could get their lights out and so everyone could stare warily around at the immense shadowy space. Rorra had a small version of a distance-light mounted on the shoulder of her pack, and it cut sharply through the darkness. Merit had spelled a collection of the metal cups and the Kishan had contributed some net bags of glowing moss. Bramble whispered, “It’s scarier without the groundling boat,” and Briar hushed her.

“I think I agree,” Rorra murmured, tugging the strap of her pack.

Rorra was here because Kellimdar and Vendoin had seemed to want a member of the Kishan party to go along, and Callumkal had given in to placate them. Moon thought they were more suspicious of Delin than the Raksura, not wanting a rival scholar to have a chance at any discoveries. Kalam had volunteered to go, but in the face of Callumkal’s obvious fear for his safety, Rorra had offered to go instead. This was actually helpful, since if they found anything underwater that needed exploring, it would be easier for her to do it.

Merit had stayed behind with Balm and River, to give them time to recover fully in their healing sleep. He also intended to scry. Moon had heard him tell Bramble, “You go find some more doors you shouldn’t and I’ll stay here and fail to scry anything worth knowing.”

On the far side of the boat, Vendoin, Kellimdar, and their guards were lifting into the air with their flying packs, going to copy the writings on the walls above the other docks. Though Vendoin had told Jade, “From what I see so far, these inscriptions may be standard greeting texts we’ve seen before, in the builder ruins in Kish. But it’s that inscription—” She had nodded up toward the broad arch above the central hall, her armor plates cracking with her excitement. “—that may truly prove the most valuable. It’s in a prominent spot, and I am sure I have never seen it before.”

Stone was in his winged form, and had paced a short distance down the dock to the ramp. Jade said, “Forward first.” It was obvious that the likeliest spot for another opening was at the opposite side of the escarpment from this one. If they were lucky, the canal leading away from the basin would cut straight through the city to another hidden doorway. Of course, the Fell were bound to think of that, too. “Bramble, you go with Stone.”

Bramble shouldered one of the moss-light bags and went to Stone. He held out his hand and she scrambled up his scales to a secure position next to his collar flange. Stone leapt up to the first pillar along the edge of the canal, and then to the next, just out of range of the sunsailer’s lights. Bramble’s lighted net swung wildly, then stilled as she steadied it. Moon squinted to see, but couldn’t spot anything but the carved surface of the pillar, and the water stretching beyond.

“Ready,” Jade said. Moon glanced back at Delin and Chime. Rorra tugged at the strap on her pack, and it pulled her upward, her boots hovering a few inches above the pavement.

“Here we go again,” Chime muttered as he picked up Delin.

Jade sprang into flight and Moon leapt after her with the others.

C
HAPTER
E
IGHTEEN

M
oon took the last position in the group, wanting Chime and Delin to be closer to Jade and Stone, and wanting to keep an eye on Rorra in case her pack failed. And to make sure nothing came out of the dark to snatch anyone away.

After several jumps from pillar to pillar, the light from the sunsailer faded, making the hall ahead look like a dark and slowly shrinking tunnel. The rest of Moon’s senses could tell they were still moving through a cavernous space. The lap of water against rock, the click of claws finding purchase on the stone, an occasional half-heard sound from the ship behind them all struck faint echoes from distant walls.

Then Bramble’s light jerked and Stone hissed. Moon froze, his claws gripping the edge of a pillar. Everyone stopped. Carrying Delin, Chime had landed just above Moon. Rorra maneuvered her pack close to his shoulder.

After a moment, Moon heard what must have alerted Stone. Claws scrabbled on rock below them, near the edge of the canal. Jade, on the pillar just ahead, turned back and tapped the spell-light hooked around her pack, and then pointed toward Rorra. Interpreting this, Moon whispered, “She wants you to use your light and try to see what it is.”

Rorra hovered closer, gripping the light mounted on the shoulder of her flying pack. Her voice low, she said, “Where is it?”

Holding on with one hand, Moon pointed to where he thought the scrabble had come from. Rorra angled the light and squeezed it, and the illumination suddenly doubled. It formed a thin shaft, throwing light down onto the edge of the canal. It showed only empty pavement and lapping water, but movement just on the edge of the darkness made Rorra twitch the light over.

Something huddled on the pavement, something at least the size of a small warrior. It had multiple spiky limbs, and a protective shell in bright colored stripes, red, yellow, blue. So many antennae stood out from the head that Moon couldn’t see any features, if it had eyes or a mouth. Two curved claws so sharp the light glinted off their edges shot out from the tangle of limbs, then the creature slid off the pavement into the water.

Rorra moved her light around, searching for more, but as far as they could see there was no movement. That still left a lot of dark space down there that they couldn’t see. “Well, we’re not alone in here,” Chime muttered.

“No swimming,” Moon agreed. They hadn’t seen any waterlings like that around the island, so the creatures might live in the city. All this water was coming in from the open sea some way, probably through channels buried deep in the rock. “Seen anything like that before?” he asked Rorra.

Eyeing the dark water, she said, “No, not that large. There’s a tiny version something like it in the shallows near Vesselae that can snip your fingers off if it gets the chance. I would think a large creature with claws like that would be extremely deadly.”

Moon thought so too. Ahead, Jade hissed a command and they continued on.

They passed a long section where there were no archways leading off into the depths of the city, just the supporting pillars and the ledge running along the side of the canal. Moon could tell the hall wasn’t quite straight, but curved gently toward the left and the eastern end of the escarpment. Then Bramble’s light jerked up suddenly and stopped. As Moon drew closer, he saw Stone had landed on a bridge or gallery, stretching across the hall. The canal extended below it, but seemed to open up into a large space.
I really hope this doesn’t dead-end into another basin
, Moon thought. But this city was huge; surely it couldn’t function with just one entrance.