Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura) (55 page)

“That was brave.” It was one of the bravest things that Moon had ever heard of anyone doing.

Shade seemed reassured. Maybe he had expected Moon to disapprove of his decision to come. Moon was too loopy to judge anybody’s decisions about anything at the moment. Shade said, “I didn’t feel brave at Indigo Cloud. But Ember invited me to have tea, so it was all right.”

It didn’t surprise Moon. “Ember always knows what to do.” He rubbed his face, trying to stay conscious. “The Fell were part Raksura. There was a Fellborn queen only twenty turns old.”

“You told us, about her and the dakti.” Shade’s brow furrowed. “You said she killed the progenitor. You don’t think . . . Maybe we could talk to them, to her?”

Moon hesitated. He only vaguely remembered telling them about the Fellborn queen, so he wasn’t sure his opinion was worth anything right now. “I don’t know.” He remembered how desperate the queen had been. Like he had been desperate, not that many turns ago, a lost fledgling with no idea who or what he was. But he also remembered the paralyzing fear at the possibility of being taken away by Fell, so intense despite the drugs and sickness. “Maybe I should have tried harder, but—”

“No, no. I meant all of us with Malachite. The Fell queen tried to take you away.” Shade twitched uneasily at the thought. “We have to be careful.”

Through the deck, Moon felt a gentle thrum. “They got the motivator started.”

Shade said, “Niran was going to try to help Rorra get the boat moving again so we can get out of the ocean.”

Right, that was important, Moon remembered. Being carried further into the deeps wasn’t going to help anything. “We’re going after the flying boat?”

Shade watched him with concern, as if worried what his reaction might be. “The warriors couldn’t find it. But Rorra thinks it must be going back to Kish.”

Moon slumped a little. He had known the warriors were too late to catch the Hians, but hearing it confirmed was painful. If Rorra wasn’t right . . . And even if Rorra was right, Kish was a big place.

On the bench above him, Stone made a faint noise, as if trying to wake. Moon shoved himself up and leaned over him.

The scale pattern on Stone’s skin had perhaps started to fade a little, though it was hard to tell, and it hadn’t been nearly long enough. He tried to explain this to Shade, who said, “Why don’t you lie down with him? It will help keep him calm.”

That sounded like a good idea, but Moon hesitated. “You’ll keep watch?”

Shade said seriously, “I will.”

Moon lay down beside Stone, and sank into sleep.

Moon slept off and on, listening to Stone’s steady heartbeat and the motivator’s thrum. He was aware when Stone stirred, rolled over, and curled up around him, but didn’t really wake.

Moon woke finally, far more alert, to realize it was night and the liquid lights had been adjusted to a soft glow.
Song’s dead
, he remembered again, and squeezed his eyes shut until his self-control returned.

He pushed up on one elbow. Shade sat on a cushion near the stove, and Rorra, bleary but conscious, sat on a stool nearby holding a cup of tea.

Stone was deeply asleep. Chime, Briar, Root, and Balm still lay unconscious but they had rolled over, changed positions. Moon could see River’s chest move with his breathing. Jade was missing.

His voice a rusty creak, Moon said, “Where’s Jade?”

“She woke a little while ago and went to talk to Malachite,” Shade said, watching him worriedly. “She’s very upset.”

Moon moved Stone’s arm off his waist and began the slow process of sitting all the way up, and possibly standing in the near future. Every bruise had settled into a sustained ache, but at least his head was clear. A memory tugged at him, an echo of something someone had said. In another moment he had it; it had been Callumkal, when the Hians had first arrived. “Can we find the Hian flying boat the way it found us? With the moss in the motivator?”

“We thought of that,” Rorra said, her voice hoarse. “But Magrim was the only one who knew enough about the moss varietals to do that.”

Moon wanted to growl. He hadn’t believed Magrim’s death was some sort of avoidable accident before; now it seemed sure that he had been killed deliberately, on Vendoin’s orders.

Then Stone snarled and sat bolt upright. Shade and Rorra flinched. Moon grabbed Stone’s shoulder and said, “It was the Hians. They gave us Fell poison.”

He watched the blank, blind rage in Stone’s face turn slowly into awareness and recognition. Stone’s gray brows drew together as he focused on Moon, then on the wide-eyed Shade, and then Rorra. His voice a gravelly rasp, he said, “Malachite’s here.”

“The Fell found us,” Moon told him. “She drove them off. She’s outside now, with Jade.”

Stone looked at the others’ unconscious forms, tasted the air. “Where’s Song and Merit? And Bramble?”

The words stuck in Moon’s throat for a moment, and he had to force them out. “Song died. The poison killed her. The Hians took Merit and Bramble away, with Delin and Callumkal, maybe back to Kish. We’re trying to find them now.”

Stone stared at him. Then abruptly shoved to his feet. Moon grabbed his wrist, and said, “Don’t leave!”

Stone blinked, his expression clearing. He said, “I just want to see Song.”

Moon let go of him. He didn’t know where that outburst had come from. It wasn’t as if Stone could fly anywhere at the moment; the faint scale pattern was still on his skin.

Rorra pushed herself upright, wavering a little. She looked exhausted and sad. “I’ll show you. And tell you the rest.”

Stone squeezed Moon’s shoulder almost hard enough to hurt, then followed Rorra out.

Shade let out his breath and reached for the kettle.

Moon told him, “I’m going to find Jade.” He shoved to his feet and went out into the passage. Under one of the brighter lights, he examined the skin of his forearm. He could still see the faintest impression of scales in the bronze of his groundling skin. He resisted the urge to try to shift. He wouldn’t be able to yet and he didn’t want to waste his slowly returning strength.

He had to grip the railing to get down the steps. The ship sounded more like it normally did, with voices and movement audible from down the corridors. Though some of the muted noise he could hear were groans and Kishan being very ill.

Moon heard familiar voices ahead, then Kalam stepped out of a doorway. Moon leaned against the wall to let the dizziness pass. Kalam had to know about the artifact or weapon or whatever it was by now, know that the Raksura had brought it onto the sunsailer.

Kalam came toward Moon. He looked terrible, his cheeks sunken and his eyes clouded. He said, “They took my father.”

“I saw it.”

Kalam stepped forward and almost fell into Moon’s arms. Moon said, “We’ll find him.”

Kalam looked up, and suddenly he had pulled Moon’s head down and was pressing their lips together.

Kissing wasn’t something Raksura did, though Moon had seen it in some of the different groundling communities he had lived in. He had been careful to avoid it; even in groundling form, his teeth were too sharp. Moon gently disengaged Kalam and said, “That can’t happen. You’re too young.” He used the tone that worked best for firm commands to fledglings.

Kalam buried his face in Moon’s shoulder for a moment. Moon said, “I know they killed Magrim. Was anyone else . . . ?”

Kalam stepped back, and pressed his hands to his face briefly, a gesture of apology. He looked up and said, “Kellimdar died, and three others of the crew, Viandel, Hith, and Semdar.” He sounded wounded, and bewildered, and angry all at once. “Do you think the Hians will kill my father?”

Moon took a sharp breath. “I think they wanted hostages.” He hoped that was what they wanted.

Niran stepped out of another doorway, with Lithe and Esankel, the Janderi navigator. Frustrated, Niran said, “We searched this Hian person’s quarters but she left nothing behind.”

Kalam said, “We’ve known Vendoin for five turns, since I was a child. How could she do this to us?”

Moon didn’t have the answer to that. It had sounded as if all the Hians, not just Vendoin, had been planning this ever since Callumkal and the other Kish-Jandera scholars had found the map to the city. He pushed off the wall and started forward again. “The Fellborn queen said the other Fell flight heard groundlings talk about a weapon in the builder city. Did Callumkal know about it?”

“No, no one did. No one . . . It must have been the Hians.” Kalam lifted his hands helplessly, trailing after him. “And the Raksura. Why did you hide it from us?”

Moon stopped and faced him. “We didn’t know it was there until we found it. We didn’t know what it would do, and we were afraid of it.” It was the bare truth, and he hoped it was enough for Kalam. “There was a spell; it tricked us into taking the weapon back to the sunsailer. We just wanted to get rid of it in the ocean, where the Fell wouldn’t find it.”

Lithe watched Kalam carefully. “It wasn’t why your people wanted to get into the city?”

“No, I swear it.” Kalam lifted a hand in helpless frustration. “I’ve seen my father’s work, I’ve traveled with him, I’d know if there was any idea about a weapon. If it is a weapon.”

“Vendoin believed it was,” Esankel said, wearily. “I’m sure she believed it. Would she have done all this if she hadn’t?”

Moon looked away. He was standing by the doorway to the other room the Raksura had been using and found himself looking at Delin’s bag, tucked under the bench next to Stone’s pack. Delin. Delin who had gone through Vendoin’s things and then became even more insistent that the object from the city should be dropped into the ocean as quickly as possible. He pointed at the pack. “Delin looked through Vendoin’s notes when she was up in the steering cabin. Maybe he copied something. He was suspicious, I think. I didn’t realize it at the time . . .”

Niran snarled, “Of course he was,” and went to snatch up the pack. “I’ll send this up to Diar so we can examine it all. Perhaps grandfather left us some clue or message.”

Moon knew Niran’s fury was mostly terror at what might happen to Delin. He turned away and went down the corridor to the hatch.

Guarding it was a young Golden Islander. She said, “They’re on the stern deck.”

He nodded to her and stepped outside into the night. The cool salt-scented wind was like being dashed with cold water. The outside lights had been dimmed and shaded to help conceal the boat’s position from the Hians and the Fell and whatever else might be after them. The reassuring shadow floating above them was the wind-ship.

Jade and Malachite stood near the stern railing, their spines outlined by the faint moonlight. Jade was still in her Arbora form, and Malachite had her wings.

He heard Jade say, “I shouldn’t have done this. I’ve done everything wrong.”

Moon stopped in mid-step. He hadn’t thought Jade would take it that way. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought it.
Of course she would
. Queens thought they were responsible for everything.

With just an edge of sarcasm to her cool voice, Malachite said, “So you should have ignored the dreams and the augury and waited like an animal in a trap.”

“Waited for help.” Jade looked toward the water and the silver glimmer of the ship’s wake. She added, almost not grudgingly, “Waited for you.”

Malachite’s spines took on a skeptical angle. It had to be for Jade’s benefit. Malachite seldom betrayed any recognizable emotion unless it was deliberate. “Was I in the augury?”

“No, but—”

“All this is hardly over. We’ve seen nothing of most elements of the vision.” Malachite flicked a spine. “Moon.”

Moon moved forward and Jade turned toward him. He couldn’t think of anything to say, and just folded himself into her arms.

When he looked up, Malachite was gone. Jade muttered, “She’s up on the roof of the second deck, looming over us.”

“I thought you two were getting along better.” Moon buried his face in her frills. “When Root wakes up, we have to tell him about Song.”

“I’ll do it,” Jade said. Her grip on his waist tightened, almost enough for him to feel her claws. “I don’t know why she died, and not the rest of us.”

Moon knew. The Hians had dumped her and Root on the floor like garbage, with no concern for what might happen. The poison had made Song sick and she had choked on her vomit. Even Rorra, a sealing, had been aware of this danger and had crawled around half-conscious making sure the others with her had been propped up.

Chime staggered out of the hatch and headed for Moon. Jade let Moon go and he caught Chime, who stumbled and wrapped his arms around him. He muttered into Moon’s neck, “Stone told us about Song, and the Hians.”

“Are you all right?” Moon asked him.

“I feel sick, and you smell terrible,” Chime said miserably.

Jade patted Chime’s back. “Let’s go inside.”

When they got back up to the common room, Lithe, Rorra, Kalam, and Shade were in the corridor. Shade was telling the other three, “I thought you all should talk.”

Inside the room, Stone sat on the bench. His face was drawn and exhausted. Raksura didn’t show age the way most soft-skinned groundlings did, but there was something in Stone’s face right now that revealed the weight of many, many turns.

The others were awake, sitting around on the floor, still bleary and sick, the scale patterns visible on their skin. Root was curled up in a ball, his head in Briar’s lap, and she was stroking his hair.

“They killed Song, and stole the Arbora and Delin.” Root sat up suddenly, his face etched with pain. “They took the weapon I found and we don’t know where they are.”

“Root—” Moon began. “You didn’t find the weapon—”

“It found you,” Jade said firmly. “It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t Briar’s fault.”

“I told you that,” Balm said. She sounded as if she was barely holding on to her own composure. Briar looked wretched. “Listen to your queen.”

“But we can’t find them,” Root persisted. “They stole Merit so we couldn’t find them.”

Then Stone said, “But they didn’t know about Lithe.” He watched the group just outside the door.

Lithe was saying, “But it’s the moss, correct? The moss is from the same plant, and the two have an affinity.”