Edge of Worlds

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The wind had changed slightly so it took longer to get back than Moon had hoped. It was full dark by the time they spotted the lights of the sunsailer. The stench of dead kethel, coming from the corpse left on the beach after last night’s battle, tainted the air.

There hadn’t been much to do on the way back, except take turns scouting and listen to Chime, Jade, Balm, and even River speculate about the Fell’s plans and purpose. It wasn’t as bad as listening to the Arbora do it, but Moon found it annoying enough. Stone must have too, because he retired to the back of the boat to talk with Magrim.

Rorra felt well enough to stand up and finish dressing, and to get her boots back on. Then she fell asleep. Moon mostly answered Kalam’s worried questions and tried not to overthink everything. The fact that this flight had at least one Raksuran crossbreed with them was just more confirmation that their and Delin’s speculation had been right all along. The Fell must be certain it was a forerunner city, even if the Kishan weren’t.

Though the Fell who had managed to open the underwater forerunner city had specifically needed a half-Fell half-Raksuran consort, as close to what a forerunner looked like as they could come. The question that Moon most wanted the answer to was whether the reason the Fell hadn’t managed to get into this city yet was because they couldn’t find the doorway, or because the crossbreed queen wasn’t close enough to a forerunner to make it open.

“I wonder what court she’s related to,” Jade had said, frowning into the distance as the sky and sea darkened around them.

“Some eastern colony that was overwhelmed and destroyed.” Balm’s shoulders twitched in an involuntary shudder.

That thought was too close to home for Moon. But unlike Opal Night’s eastern court, there hadn’t been a Malachite to search for survivors and retrieve their half-Fell children. Moon didn’t want to think what life would have been like for Shade and Lithe and the others if they hadn’t been found and brought to the Reaches.

“You think there’s a progenitor, still? Back in that hive somewhere?” Chime asked uneasily.

“A progenitor voluntarily sharing power over the rulers with a part-Raksuran queen?” Stone snorted. “I doubt it.”

It was a relief when they came within range of the sunsailer, and one of its distance-lights crossed the bow. Rorra waved, and the Kishan on guard on the deck waved back. “Doesn’t look like there’s been another attack,” Balm said. She was in groundling form, and the cool wind lifted the curling strands of her hair. “They must be waiting until tonight.”

Chime said, “Merit said he was going to try scrying again, but I guess Bramble wouldn’t have much to do, unless the Kishan let her help with something.”

Stone made a “humpf” noise.

“What?” Jade asked him. “She didn’t have much to do on the flying boat, either.”

Stone said, “There’s a lot more trouble to get into here than there was on the flying boat.”

Magrim maneuvered their craft alongside the sunsailer’s hull, and Moon and the others caught the lines tossed down by the crew and tied them off at Rorra’s direction. Two ladders dropped down and everyone started to scramble up the side. Callumkal waited on deck, saying, “Were you successful? We’ve made a great discovery here.”

“A discovery?” Kalam asked, eyes alight with excitement. “The city?”

Moon swung over the railing, realizing Callumkal looked, and sounded, more excited than Moon had ever seen him. He hadn’t seemed this agitated when the Fell had attacked. Beside him, Chime muttered, “Uh oh.”

Callumkal said, “Delin discovered the location of the doorway!”

“Oh,” Jade managed, after what Moon was sure was a moment of stunned dismay, because that was what he was feeling. She added, “How?”

“Delin was able to interpret some clues, but it was Bramble who really made the breakthrough.” Callumkal was obviously proud to deliver this good news. “We couldn’t have done it without her.”

Balm, River, and Chime all looked at Jade, wide-eyed. Jade somehow kept her spines from lifting, and said, “I’m sure you couldn’t.”

Of course not, Moon thought. Stone said, “I told you so.”

“We didn’t mean to find it.” Bramble sat on the floor in the cabin they had been given. “Things . . . just got out of hand.”

Delin had been absently combing his beard. “It is not their fault. I had no idea we were so close. I meant to delay—”

Both Arbora looked tired, and Bramble in particular smelled strongly of saltwater and sea wrack. “He said to stop digging, but I had water in my ears, and I didn’t hear—”

Merit, who had withdrawn across the room and was pointedly sitting near Jade, said, “I told her not to do it.”

Moon buried his face in his hands. Briar, Root, and Song perched on the bench, all being very quiet. Balm and River had been told to go out on the top deck to watch for Fell and had seemed glad to do it.

Moon didn’t even think Jade was angry at the warriors. Warriors just weren’t used to telling Arbora what to do. Especially younger warriors like Briar, Root, and Song, when faced with a mature Arbora like Bramble. Moon would have been happy to tell her what to do, along with Stone, and also Balm, who was used to relaying Jade’s orders and anticipating what those orders were going to be. River probably wouldn’t have been bad at it either, and Chime, having been an Arbora himself, would have been even more effective. But none of them had been here.

Bramble, glaring at Merit, said, “That’s not helpful.”

Jade flicked her spines in a way that signaled everyone really needed to shut up now. She said, “Delin, tell us what happened.”

Delin sighed. “I had been thinking about the possibility that the entrance was underwater, placed there either as a protective measure, or because the sea did not yet reach the foot of the escarpment when it was built. This morning I proposed to Callumkal that I take a rowing boat back over to the ancient dock and look at the carvings again. Bramble was bored with idleness and Merit’s help was not needed with those wounded last night, so they came with me, along with two Kishan to manage the boat.”

Jade looked at the warriors. Song said, “We were guarding the boat, and we took turns flying over to the dock, to keep watch on them.” Briar and Root nodded, and Root added plaintively, “It’s the way we keep watch on the Arbora at home.”

Jade just gestured for Delin to continue.

He said, “As we examined the carvings at the base of the escarpment, the wind had died, and the water was much calmer. Bramble decided to try to explore the steps and the area below the dock that Stone had briefly examined.” He spread his hands. “I suggested it might be dangerous, but she was confident of her abilities.”

“I imagine she was,” Jade said, her voice dry. Bramble was finding something absolutely absorbing in the loose threads on the tail of her shirt.

“So she began to dive down to the sand at the base of the dock structure.” Delin added, “She can hold her breath for an inordinate amount of time. I knew her capabilities by that point, so I was unsurprised, but the Kishan were impressed.”

“And what did Merit do?” Moon had to ask. He didn’t want Bramble taking all the blame.

Merit bit his lip and squinched his eyes nearly shut, as if trying to recall. Delin said, “He took clumps of sea wrack and made them glow, to illuminate the area underwater where Bramble was searching.” He gestured to Bramble. “You should explain the rest.”

“It was these symbols in the carvings on four of the pillars,” Bramble said. “They weren’t anywhere else we had seen so far. They looked decorative, but maybe they weren’t. Maybe they were a symbol for ‘opening’ or ‘pathway.’

“I looked underwater, in the sand between each of those four pillars, and I found broken rock, like there was a causeway,” Bramble continued. “But whatever that causeway led to isn’t there anymore. But then I went back up onto the docks and I started to look on the wall of the escarpment, above the carvings the Kishan had already found. I saw a spot fairly far up, where just the shape of the rock looked curved. It looked like a larger version of that symbol was there, and that the rock was on top of it, somehow. So we swam over to the escarpment and climbed up about twenty paces toward the spot I saw—And then part of the rock came off in my hand.”

“It turns out it’s not rock, not on that section of the cliff, it just looks like it,” Merit put in. “It’s like coral, it’s all drilled through with tiny little worm tunnels. Some plant or animal or plant-animal grew up the wall of the escarpment at some point, and then died, and it left this coating that weathered to look just like rock. It’s still very hard down at the bottom, where the Kishan were searching. But it was more breakable further up the wall.”

“And we kept knocking it off,” Bramble finished, “and we found the symbols, and a seam.”

Jade was leaning forward now, absorbed in the story. “A seam for an opening?”

“A big one.” Bramble waved her arms. “There’s a huge door in the cliff. We didn’t mean to find it, and it wasn’t Delin’s fault. He started yelling and waving at us, but we were so interested we didn’t hear him.”

“I thought he was cheering us on,” Merit said with another wince. “The Kishan on our boat saw it, and then a big section fell off and everybody saw it. It’s a really big door. Big enough to sail this boat through.”

“They stopped, then, so the door is not completely exposed,” Delin said, “and we still are not certain of how to open it. But—”

“But now there’s a door,” Jade concluded. “And all the Kishan know about it.”

Delin conceded, “Yes.”

Chime said, “And the Fell will know, as soon as they see it in daylight.” He turned and gave Merit a shove to the shoulder.

“Ow,” Merit protested.

Jade said, “Merit, I thought you were going to scry while we were gone.”

Merit looked at the floor, lifting one shoulder in a not-quite-shrug. He suddenly looked very young. “I tried, but I didn’t get anything,” he admitted reluctantly. “I thought maybe if I stopped for a while and helped Bramble and Delin . . . I don’t know what’s wrong. I should be seeing something about what the Fell are doing now, or the city, but I just get images of water.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. Maybe he’s trying too hard, Moon thought. But Merit usually did his best work when he was trying too hard. Frowning, Chime said slowly, “Maybe there’s just too much going on right now.”

Stone groaned, leaning his head back against the wall. Watching Jade anxiously, Bramble said, “I’m sorry we found the door. Is it really that bad?”

They didn’t know about today’s discovery yet. Moon glanced at Jade, and got a nod. He told them, “We found the Fell, nesting in two different places. Rorra got close to one group and saw a crossbreed queen.”

Bramble’s mouth dropped open. Merit made a choking noise. Even the usually unflappable Delin looked alarmed. He said, “You think they will attack again tonight?”

“We’re sure of it,” Stone said. He pushed to his feet. “We need to get out there.”

Jade was up and sweeping out the door before anyone else moved. As the warriors followed, Bramble leaned forward and caught Moon’s arm. “Tell her we’re sorry, Moon.” She looked miserable, and Merit didn’t look much better.

“She knows you are. It’s all right,” Moon told her, trying to sound reassuring. Jade was under a terrible amount of pressure, and she probably blamed herself for this; she needed a little time to just be angry. Moon didn’t think it was necessarily anybody’s fault for Arbora acting like Arbora and doing a thorough job of anything they put their minds to.

“You’re all idiots,” Stone said, gave Bramble a shove to the head, and walked out.

Bramble slumped and sighed in relief. “Stone still loves us.”

“Just get some rest,” Moon told them, and followed Stone out.

Stone and Chime were waiting for him down the corridor by the door to the deck. Chime whispered, “How much trouble do you think we’re in?”

“A lot,” Moon said honestly.

Stone growled under his breath and stepped outside.

Moon sat up on the roof of the cabin on the topmost deck, the metal still warm from the day’s heat. The thin sliver of moonlight slid in and out of the clouds, casting an occasional silver illumination on the waves washing up onto the beach, or the tops of the broadleaf trees. The wind tugged at his spines and frills, and danced across his scales.

Chime, sitting behind him and facing the west, said, “Jade’s right, you should be inside.”

As a consort, Moon was a prime target for a Fell flight who had successfully produced crossbreed Fell-Raksura. He was also tired of being reminded of it every other heartbeat. If there was anybody here supremely conscious of that fact, it was him. He said, “Can we stop talking about that?”

He heard Chime twitch uneasily, scales scraping on the cabin roof. “Sorry. It’s just . . . I’m worried. All right, I’m not worried, I’m terrified.”

“Everyone’s terrified. If anyone on this boat isn’t terrified right now, there’s something wrong with them,” Moon said. Two of the Kishan distance-lights pointed up at the sky and moved in slow patterns, watching for Fell. There were more lights, but Vendoin had said they lasted only for a limited time before they needed to be rested, and their use had to be rationed.

“I don’t know.” Chime sounded weary. “The Kishan think their weapons are going to hold off the Fell because they did last night. I wish I thought so.”

It was far more likely that last night had been a test of the Kishan’s defenses, and a successful attempt to destroy the flying boats and cripple the Kishan’s ability to escape quickly. Moon said, “I don’t wish I thought so. It’s better not to be surprised.”

“If you’re trying to reassure me, it’s not—” Chime began.

At that moment, Stone said from the deck below, “Do you smell that?”

Moon stood and tasted the air. It held saltwater and sand, the green scent of the trees and the heavy groundcover that cloaked the dunes on the other side of the island. And something else, just a trace that smelled of the sea bottom brought to the surface, decaying mud and dead shellfish. He said, “Something came up off the bottom. Something big.”

Stone said, “That’s what I was afraid of. They’re driving something toward us.”

Chime groaned in dismay, and Moon hissed under his breath. It was a trick they had seen before, where an attacker would take control of some large being that was normally harmless, and use it as a battering ram. Moon said, “Chime, go warn the others.”

Chime jumped down to the deck. His voice drifted back as he hurried away, “I didn’t think there was anything that big out here!”

Moon hadn’t either. The sea all through this area was shallow and he hadn’t seen anything bigger than an Arbora swimming through it. “Can you tell the direction?” Moon knew it was coming toward them from downwind, but that was it.

Stone swung up on top of the cabin. “It’s behind the island.”

Moon listened, trying to separate out the wind, the waves washing against the beach, the running footsteps and growing agitation on the ship below. They didn’t know how the Fell could control other beings, but they knew it would have to be a ruler, and that ruler would have to be in physical contact to do it. The instance Moon had seen from far too close had been a ruler mounted on a cloud-walker’s back, protected by a sac made from a kethel’s secretions.

The wind carried the sound of a rushing torrent, the sound of something large moving through water. Moon said, “Do you hear that?”

Stone said, “I’m going to take a look. Stay here.” He stepped to the edge of the cabin and leapt out into the wind. Moon ducked as Stone’s large form flowed into being. Stone fell toward the water, then caught the wind and soared upward.

The distance-lights pointed toward the island now, moving along its shore, past the abandoned camp and the wrecked pieces of the flying boat, already coated with windblown sand. There was no movement there. Moon went to the opposite edge of the cabin and crouched down. One of the distance-lights was mounted on the lower deck, a big barrel with the light pouring out the fluted end. It steamed in the damp air and made ominous clicking noises. All the lights were lit now and Moon hoped they lasted through the night. He called down to the Janderi standing beside it, “Hey, can you point it east of the island, at the open water?”

The Janderi glanced around, clearly not sure who had called to her, but seized the big lever and swung the light to the east.

Moon stood again to look, but the light only revealed an empty stretch of water.

“Moon!” It was Jade’s voice.

Moon jumped down to the deck below. Jade stood there with Callumkal and Rorra. Jade said, “Stone couldn’t tell what it was?”

Moon moved his spines in a negative. “It’s behind the island, in the water, coming this way.” He turned to Rorra. “Can you move the boat?”

Rorra nodded and looked at Callumkal. Callumkal said, “You think they mean to trap us against the rocks of the—”

Then Jade snarled. She was facing out toward the sea and Moon whipped around. Caught in the glow from the distance-light were two dark shapes, each almost as tall as the ship itself. They were rounded at the top, and Moon had the impression that something moved along the sides, like tendrils or feelers. More shapes formed out of the darkness. Moon’s spines prickled with fear and dismay. There were three more, five more . . .

Callumkal swung around to Rorra, “Tell the captain, get us underway—”

Rorra waved an assent, already limping rapidly toward the hatchway that led to the nearest stairwell.

“Do you know what those are?” Jade asked tightly.

Callumkal shook his head, his horrified gaze on the approaching sealings. “There should be little in the way of large sea life in this area, especially carnivorous sea life. I don’t—”

“They don’t have to be carnivorous, they just have to be able to swamp the boat,” Moon said. From the stern, someone bellowed orders to release the anchor lines.

Jade said to Callumkal, “Can you—”

The hull moved under Moon’s feet, then it suddenly jerked upward. His claws slipped on the wood as water and wet sand flooded over the rail. He slid down the deck toward the opposite side.

The distance-lights swung crazily, groundlings screamed. Moon slammed into the rail and held on despite the torrent of water, realized the tight grip around his waist was Jade’s arm. He shook his soaked frills out of his face and saw Jade gripped Callumkal’s arm, keeping him from being washed over the side; Moon was the only one with a free hand to hold onto the rail.

Looming over the deck was a dark shape, rounded on top, a long flowing fin along its edge. There was no sign of eyes, but a narrow lip across its belly poured out seawater. At least it’s not a carnivore, Moon thought, not reassured. It must be something that normally lay flat on the seafloor, drawing in water and sand through some other orifice and pushing it out through this one, filtering out everything that had fallen to the bottom.

Something metallic screeched from the stern. Callumkal, shielding his face against Jade’s shoulder, sputtered and gasped, “The anchor lines! They’re holding us—”

Keeping this thing from turning the boat over, Moon thought, struggling to push himself off the rail. When the other sealings got here, the lines wouldn’t be enough. Or this one would pour enough water into the sunsailer to sink it in place. He tried to plant his claws in the deck and push himself upright.

Then another dark shape loomed up over the sealing; Moon’s heart stuttered for an instant because he thought it was a kethel. Then it buried jaws and claws in the top of the sealing and he realized it was Stone.

The torrent of water stopped, and Jade choked and spit out a mouthful. “Finally,” she gasped, then yelled, “Balm, Briar! Where the shit are you?”

From the stern, Balm yelled, “Jade!”

Moon braced himself as Stone reared back, dragging the sealing with him. The hull swung back to rock toward the sealing, and Moon tightened his grip, holding on to the railing to keep all three of them from falling into the creature’s maw.

With a crunch, Stone ripped the sealing away from the boat, taking a chunk of the opposite railing with it. Jade let go of Moon and Callumkal and they staggered on the rocking deck.

Callumkal recovered and ran down the deck toward the stern, shouting for the crew. Jade said, “We need to keep them off until the boat can move,” and leapt to the top of the cabin.

Moon followed her to the cabin roof and jumped from it to the upper section. He caught a glimpse through the large windows of the steering cabin, saw the flying boat navigator Esankel and two Janderan pulling levers and turning wheels and shouting at each other. Callumkal was just climbing up the stairs from below.

Moon leapt down to the stern deck where Jade had found Balm, Briar, and River. There were Kishan on the overhanging deck working the distance-lights and the weapons, and another group huddling over the winch attached to the anchor line. But there was one person Moon didn’t see. Chime was heading here, he thought, sudden fear tightening his chest. Where is he? But then Chime, with Song and Root behind him, slammed out of the nearest hatch.

Chime staggered on a buckled deck plate and said, “Sorry, we got stuck inside when the ship went sideways. What happened?”

Moon turned him around to face the island, where the shapes of the sealings were visible in the shafts of the distance-lights. Chime made a strangled noise.

Jade said, “Balm, Briar, Song, get in the air and try to see where the Fell are. River, Root, and Chime, get back up on the cabins, watch this deck. Don’t let anything get inside.”

The warriors took flight from the deck. Moon started to follow and Jade grabbed his frills and jerked him to a halt. “You stay with me,” she said.

Moon bounced impatiently, thought about protesting, and decided it would make him sound too much like Root. Then he saw Stone bank through the air and come in low over the top cabin roof. “There’s Stone,” he said.

Jade hissed, “Come on,” and went up the wall onto the next deck. Stone shifted, dropped down to the cabin roof, and landed on his feet in his groundling form. He swung down to their deck and said, “Where’s Callumkal?”

“This way.” Moon turned to the nearest hatchway.

It opened into a corridor with two stairwells, one up and one down. From the watery rushing noises and yelling, the down one led to something important, probably the motivator. Moon took the upper one and climbed rapidly, rounded a corner, and up again into the steering cabin. It was a wide cabin with windows all around, like the steering cabin of the Kishan flying boat. The wall below the front window had a number of levers and wheels and long tubes with horns on the end, which, from how Esankel and the other two were using them, were apparently for yelling at people in other parts of the sunsailer. Vendoin was there with Callumkal, and Kellimdar clutched one of the fabric maps. Rorra held the steering lever, her weight braced against it to keep it in place. They looked up as Moon stepped aside to let Jade and Stone get into the room.

Callumkal started to speak and Stone interrupted, “They’re coming in from the east and the west. There’s no way to go.”

Rorra swore in another language. Callumkal and Vendoin just stared. Kellimdar said, “But—” and stopped, as if he had no idea how to finish that sentence.

“The sacs.” Jade turned to Stone. “If we can rip open the sacs on some of the sealings, maybe just enough for the sunsailer to get past the others—”

Stone said, “I couldn’t see any sacs, and no rulers. The Fell are controlling the sealings some other way.”

Moon hissed in disbelief. He felt unexpected sympathy with Kellimdar. He wanted to say but that’s impossible. He heard footsteps on the stairs behind them and saw Delin climbing up. He looked a little shaky and Moon stepped out to give him a hand up. Moon had forgotten he was in scaled form, but Delin closed his soft-skinned hand around Moon’s scaled palm and claws with no hesitation. His face etched into worried lines, Delin said, “Oh, this has not turned out so well.”

Moon steadied him on the landing. Figuring he might as well get the worst out of the way, he told Delin, “They’ve got us trapped between the island and the escarpment.”

Delin nodded grimly as he stepped into the steering cabin. “I thought as much.”

Callumkal was saying, “We’ll fight them. We still have our weapons.”

Jade’s tail flicked continuously, a sign of her racing thoughts. “How long? Do your weapons run out?”

“Yes,” Kellimdar said, his voice thready. “They will function for some hours, but the mosses need to rejuvenate. They need sunlight . . .”

Then Delin said, “We must try to open the city.”

Moon, and everyone else, turned to stare. Delin said, “We can retreat to it, take shelter. If we can open it.”

Jade recovered first. Speaking Raksuran, she said, “I thought it would take a crossbreed Fell-Raksura to open it, someone who looks like a forerunner. We saw the Fell have a half-Raksuran queen.”

“That was our theory and may be what the Fell believe,” Delin replied in the same language, “but we do not know if that is so. There may be another way. If it is a foundation builder city and not forerunner at all, there is certainly another way.”

Callumkal found his voice. “Please speak Altanic. Do you know how to open it?”

Delin spread his hands. “Bramble, Merit, and I accomplished much today. We found the door, we can find the way to open it.”

“Can you do it in time?” Vendoin asked.

“That is a good question,” Delin said. “Perhaps the Fell and their sealing battering rams will be driven away by our weapons and it won’t matter.”

Stone made a skeptical noise, and Delin added, “I agree.”

Callumkal looked at Vendoin and Kellimdar, then Jade. He said, “He’s right, we have to try. Even if the city holds some danger, there is no other option. We can send Delin and the others over in the small boat, if your people will guard them—”

Rorra gestured toward the railing. “Both the small boats were hulled when that thing tried to overturn us.”

She was right; the mast of the boat that had been tied off there was still visible above the rail. But it sat at an acute angle that didn’t bode well for the rest of it. The Kishan had those little rowing boats, but they would take too long. “We can fly them over,” Moon said. He thought it was a bad idea. He also thought it was the only idea.

Jade’s tail lashed in frustration but she snarled, “We don’t have a choice.” She turned and flung herself out the door and down the steps.

Stone caught Moon before he could follow. Stone said, “Tell Jade I’m going to try to hold them off as long as I can.”

“Right,” Moon said. He wanted to say a lot of other things, but there was no time right now, and no real point.

Delin tapped his arm. “Your assistance?”

“Sure.” Moon lifted Delin up and carried him down the stairs, then outside and over the rail down to the lower deck.

There, River and Chime waited with Jade. She must have told them how bad things were. River looked the way he usually did, except maybe less sullen, but Chime’s spines and tail twitched nervously. As Moon landed, Root came out of the hatch with Bramble and Merit. Moon sat Delin on his feet and told Jade, “Stone’s going to try to hold them off.”

Jade flicked her spines in assent. She said, “The Arbora will go with Delin to try to open the city, Root, River, Chime, and Moon will fly them over. I’m going to join the others.”

Overhead, Stone launched into the air, his shifted form skirting the distance-lights and diving toward the oncoming sealings.

Bramble nodded tensely. She and Merit were in their scaled forms, spines and tails twitching in anticipation and nerves. She said, “We could use Chime’s help.”

Merit seconded that. “He’s done this before.”

“Sort of,” Chime corrected, but he didn’t object.

“Whatever you have to do to get that door open,” Jade hesitated, then grabbed Moon’s shoulder and nipped his ear. “Be careful,” she whispered. “And take care of them.”

Moon’s throat went tight; she didn’t mean just the Arbora. He thought of their clutch again. But he said, “I will. Just come back.”

Jade stepped away, jumped to the railing, and then into the air.

Moon took a deep breath. “Everybody grab someone,” he told the warriors. “I’ll take Delin.”

Root obligingly picked up Bramble. “What are we doing?” he said, “because I missed that part.”

“We’re going to open the city,” Moon said, lifting Delin up. It sounded far too optimistic.

“Oh.” Root’s spines drooped. “I was hoping it wasn’t that.”

Moon asked Chime, “Are you going to be all right?”

Chime moved his spines in an assent that wasn’t quite as confident as Moon would have liked. “The wind’s better than it was before. I can do it.”

River snarled, “Let’s just get it over with,” and picked up Merit. Moon decided to let that go and leapt off the deck into the wind.

He caught the strong current and banked to turn back toward the escarpment. As the others followed, Delin gripped his collar flange and gasped, “One of the creatures nears the ship!”

Behind Moon, Kishan yelled warnings and he heard something strike the ship’s metal hull. Moon hissed and concentrated on his flying. The wind had died down a little when the sun had set earlier, but this was still going to be tricky.

He let the wind carry him toward the escarpment, then pulled up at the last instant and let it shove him toward the wall. He caught hold of the rock with his free hand and his foot claws. Delin, whose head was a handsbreadth from the stone, whistled in admiration.

Moon twisted to look over his shoulder. Chime hit the wall several paces below him and slid a little. River and Root landed with less velocity, Bramble freeing one hand to help Root hold on.

But the sunsailer wasn’t doing so well.

Moon couldn’t see the sealings, but there must be at least one or more, possibly underwater or just above the surface. They were pushing the sunsailer slowly toward the escarpment. The wind carried the sound of a straining rumble: the motivator that drove the sunsailer, fighting the pressure.

“The ship?” Delin gasped.

“You need to hurry. Hold on, I’m going to climb down.” Delin gripped his collar flange so Moon could use both hands to climb down to the ledge. Bramble and Merit had already spread out over the wall, pounding and clawing the obscuring coral-rock off the surface.

Moon set Delin down in front of the carvings at the base. He started to say, “Do you need any help?” when River shouted, “Dakti!”

Moon twisted around, spotted the shapes outlined against the sunsailer’s lights. He snarled, “Chime, stay here, River, Root, get in the air!”

Moon launched himself off the wall, veered away as River did the same. Root went too low and almost ended up in the water, then flapped his way to an unsteady recovery at the last moment.

Moon flapped upward. The first group of dakti shot toward River and Root. Their night vision must be dazzled by the distance-lights, and they hadn’t seen Moon, his dark scales fading into the night. He waited until they bunched up, nearly on top of River, and then hit them from above.

Dakti shrieked and tried to scatter as Moon tore through them and slashed their wings, slapping them out of the air. River slammed through a knot of survivors who tried to regroup and Root came up from below to tear through three stragglers.

Chasing stray dakti, keeping them away from the escarpment, Moon rapidly lost track of time. Suddenly he was circling, looking for prey and finding none in sight. The sunsailer still held its own, closer to the escarpment than it had been but not impaled on any rocks. The Kishan had managed to turn one of their weapons to point down over the side. The fire bundles thumped down into the water, glowed under the waves like some strange sea creature, then went out, but it was working. The huge sealings who had managed to get close stayed back from the hull, thrashing angrily in the water.

Moon gained some more altitude, trying to get a look at the situation further out. He saw Jade and the female warriors circling, driving off or killing the dakti who darted at them.

A small number of dakti were the only ones trying to get to the sunsailer, because most of the other Fell were attacking each other.

Moon stared, trying to make sense of it. He saw distinct swarms of dakti, striking at each other and falling back. Rulers flicked back and forth, darting at each other. Near the beach, three kethel fought in a confusing mass of wings and tails. Another dead one lay in the waves, next to the one that had been killed last night. Taking advantage of the situation, Stone dove on one of the sealings, snatched it up in his claws, and flung it away across the water. What the shit is going on? Moon thought.

Movement in the water caught his eye and he swung around, but it was Bramble, just pulling herself up onto the docking platform. She ran over to the pillars, studying them in the light of a glowing sea-weed clump Merit must have made for her. Moon growled under his breath at the danger she was putting herself in. But he realized that while Delin and Chime and Merit had all made extensive drawings of the symbols, it was all sitting back on the ship, because Moon and Jade hadn’t given them any time to go get it. Bramble must have needed to check on what exactly was carved into the pillars.

A group of dakti came in low over the water, past the bow of the sunsailer, and River and Root dove for them. Moon hung back, waiting to see if it was a distraction. But the Fell fighting with each other near the island couldn’t be a distraction. Not unless it was the dumbest distraction anyone had ever thought of in the long and varied history of the Three Worlds.

Then Moon saw a dark shape swoop on Bramble. He dove, pulled in his wings and arrowed down. Closer, he saw it was a ruler, and it had her pinned to the dock platform. Moon had never been blind with rage, the way he had heard some groundlings describe it. He had been so consumed with killing that it blotted out all rational thought, and that was what he was now.

He snapped out his wings at the last moment to retain control over the strike and slammed into the ruler. He knocked the ruler away from Bramble and down onto the stone dock. They slid a good twenty paces, the ruler on the bottom. Moon reached to tear the stunned ruler’s throat out. Then a voice behind him called, “Let him go!”

He twisted around. Another ruler gripped Bramble’s shoulders. Then he saw it wasn’t a ruler; it was the half-Fell queen.

She had the Fell crest and the Raksuran spines like Shade, Moon’s half-Fell half-clutchmate, and her scales were matte black, like a ruler, like a Raksuran consort. The light from the ship caught a reflection off a web pattern of contrasting scales, like a queen’s. Her voice harsh, speaking Altanic, she said, “You let him go, I let her go.”

Moon, now terrified as well as enraged, was paralyzed for an instant. If I let him go, he’ll kill me and she’ll kill Bramble. You couldn’t bargain like this with Fell, you couldn’t. Fell lied like it was breathing, they didn’t see any other living thing as sentient.

Then the Fell queen pushed Bramble away. Bramble staggered, then scrambled out of reach, toward Moon.

Moon, almost by reflex, dragged the ruler upright and shoved him away. The ruler staggered, then ran to the queen.

Bramble reached Moon’s side, panting, wild-eyed.

The queen caught the ruler around the waist and leapt into the air. Moon shoved Bramble behind him and spun to watch the queen, certain it was a trick. But she spread her wings, caught the wind, and vanished into the night.