Edge of Worlds

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The stairs just kept going up, which at first was terrifying. Moon was certain they had escaped the neverending hallway just to be trapped in the neverending stairwell. Rorra gave Delin a lift on her harness, and the Raksura used their claws to climb. Stone, stuck in his groundling form while the stairwell was this narrow, was the only one who was relatively slow. The uneven steps and the way they made you want to lean to the left didn’t help, either. Ahead, Moon could see Jade’s spines getting even more rigid as she tried not to betray any emotion.

Then her spines twitched and she said, “There’s a landing!”

Moon hissed with relief. It meant they weren’t, or probably weren’t, in another trap. Moon crowded up onto the open space with Stone. It was a landing, with the stairs continuing to curve up on the far side. To the right was a large crystal-filled window, more than twelve paces wide and nearly taking up the whole wall. “This looks like a door that was filled in,” Jade said, tapping her claws on the crystal.

The glass was murky and clouded. Moon stepped up and pressed his light against it, trying to see what was on the other side. Chime leaned past him and chipped at the mortar on the edge with a claw. Rorra, taking advantage of her flying pack, hovered up over everyone else’s head to see. Just enough light permeated the glass to let Moon get a murky view of a larger room with a stairwell going down. There was a doorway, too, leading into darkness. He said, “You’re right, it was a door.”

“The edges aren’t smooth,” Chime reported. “It’s not like those other crystal panels, the windows down to the canal.”

Moon thought of the crystal that enclosed the top of the city. Maybe that had been added later as well, an extreme measure to protect against attack. Delin squeezed in around his arm to examine the glass and said, “They wanted to block access to something in this part of the city, so it may only be approached from this stairwell.”

It means they thought they might come back, that they might need whatever they left up here, Moon thought. It meant there might not be a dangerous creature trapped in an eternal prison, but something that had been useful, something to be protected. It might also mean the builders or whoever had already returned at some point in the dim past and retrieved it, and just not bothered to disarm the magical trap protecting it. Moon found himself hoping for the latter; it would be easier to deal with.

Jade made a fist and struck the glass. It made a dull thump. “Stone, can you break this?”

Stone glanced around the space and grimaced. “I’ll try. Everybody out of the way.”

Jade turned toward the stairs leading up. “Come on.”

It gave them a chance to rest, sitting around on the steps while Stone shifted and tried to first push the glass out, then to dig at the wall around it. After the first moments of hope, Moon could tell it wasn’t going to work. Rorra said tiredly, “I think the Kish might have tools that could get through there. Of course, they’re all back on the sunsailer.”

Stone shifted back to groundling and hissed in annoyance, tucking his hands under his armpits. “Can’t budge it.”

Moon hopped back down the stairs. “Are you all right?”

“Just broke a claw,” Stone said.

“Let me see,” Moon insisted.

Growling, Stone showed him. He had broken three claws, the wound showing on his groundling form as bleeding from under the fingernails. His knuckles were darkening with bruises. He glared over Moon’s shoulder as the others crowded around. “Not everyone needs to see.”

Bramble dug another cloth out of her pack and said, “Quiet, line-grandfather. Somebody hold a light for me.”

Chime got the healing simples out again and Bramble wrapped Stone’s hand while Stone hissed impatiently. Moon exchanged a look with Jade. There wasn’t going to be another way out. They would have to follow these stairs to wherever they led.

They continued upward, moving faster now that they had some confirmation that this wasn’t another trap. Climbing beside Moon, Chime said, “I don’t know why I’m not hearing or feeling anything. I should have some idea about this place, this magic that’s here. Not that I’m complaining about not being able to hear any frightening voices, for example. But if my stupid ability was ever going to be any help, you’d think now would be a good time.”

You would think that. Moon said, “It’s got to mean something.”

“Perhaps . . .” Delin said, holding to Rorra’s harness as she hovered behind them. “You sense magics which are inimical or simply strange, is that it? You don’t feel it when Merit scrys or heals, do you?”

Chime told him, “Right, it’s always something very different. Sometimes harmful, sometimes just different.”

“Perhaps this is not different,” Delin said.

“Yes, but . . . Huh.” Chime went silent, considering it.

“It would be nice if these people left some carvings of themselves behind,” Song grumbled. “Then at least we’d know if they were like us or not.”

“I don’t think they were like us,” Briar told her, hooking her claws around a wall carving to pull herself up. “If they were, they had very odd taste in stairs.”

Merit held onto Balm as they leapt from pillar to pillar, River following and Kalam and Vendoin using their flying packs. They found the junction of seven canals quickly enough. As Balm set Merit down on the ledge, he tasted the air deeply. He didn’t catch any scent but traces of Raksura, sealing, and groundling. But there was something about this place he didn’t like.

“They could just be lost,” Kalam said, as he maneuvered his pack down to the floor. He sounded more hopeful than Merit felt the situation warranted. “This place may be a maze past this point.”

“If they weren’t sure which way to go, they could have followed their own scent trail back here,” Balm told him. “And we can’t be confused about direction. We always know where south is.”

“Are you certain?” Vendoin directed her light up at the carvings. “This place seems very confusing. And these designs . . . They are so intriguing . . .”

Ignoring them all, Merit sat down on the pavement, shifted to groundling, and pulled his pack around. “I need to scry. Can we tell which door they took?”

River was already casting back and forth between the doorways. He stopped in front of one to the left and said, “They took this one. With that sealing with them, they might as well paint arrows on the floor.”

“Everybody be quiet so Merit can scry,” Balm said, more pointedly than necessary.

Out of the corner of Merit’s eye he saw Vendoin start to speak and Kalam shush her. You could scry using a variety of things, shapes and patterns and movement in water, air, blood; it was all up to the individual mentor. Flower had liked to use wind shear, and birds in flight, if possible. You could also focus on individual objects, and Merit felt he was particularly good at that. This time he was scrying on a place, on this junction and the doorway the others had chosen. This place knew what had happened next.

His sense of his own body, of the cool damp air in his lungs, all the scents of salt and familiar Raksura and unfamiliar groundlings, the texture of the layer of cloth between his groundling skin and the chill stone, went away. The visions came between his eyes and the view of the dark doorways, the scraps of carving and the dust motes visible in the spell-lights and Kishan lamps. Balm sat with Kalam. River was a little distance away, his head drooping as he dozed. Vendoin had taken out a small book in a leather wrap and was writing in it. Merit felt the mental drift of scrying, and a sensation like a wall crumbling, as if something had stood between him and the visions and had now dissolved. As he slipped into the space where the images lay, ghosts of color crawled across the walls, the painted designs and writing only Vendoin could see. Not warnings, but a last message: it lies here, take care, you know our reasons ...

Merit twitched, aware he had just spoken. Balm sat up straight. River flinched awake and the groundlings watched him wide-eyed. “What did I say?” Merit demanded, his voice coming out in a dry croak. The words were still floating around in his head, and he didn’t think there was time for them to settle so he could recall them himself.

Balm told him, “You said, ‘Bramble’s wrong, it’s not a trap, it wants them to find it.’”

“Right.” Merit shook his head, trying to wake himself up. “Something was there, blocking me, but it’s gone now.” He scrambled to his feet and shifted. The others stood, confused, hopeful. Merit shook his spines out and asked, “How long was I scrying?”

River answered, “Maybe an hour, a little longer. You know where they are?”

Merit nodded. “They had to go up. We just have to figure out where they’re coming down.” This was going to take more scrying, but at least he knew he was on the right track.

Moon and the others kept climbing, passing more landings, all with blocked-off doors. They tested each one, more carefully this time, just to make sure none of the crystal barriers had been inserted badly and were weak enough to dislodge. Moon was frustrated almost beyond bearing and he knew Jade was as well. This stupid trap had herded them right into the place it was supposed to be protecting.

“Do you think the sunsailer is still where we left it?” Chime said wearily when they paused to rest.

“I hope they haven’t done anything stupid with it,” Rorra replied. She was sitting on a step, making sure the bandages cushioning the top of her boots were still in place. “They must be searching for us by now, and for the way out.”

Delin sighed, stretching his back. “They may think we have betrayed them, and are searching for artifacts.”

Moon had already thought of that earlier. The trust between the Raksura and most of the Kishan was still fragile, and this wouldn’t help. But apparently Rorra hadn’t. She stared, surprised and offended. “Why would I betray them?”

“Because they’re so obsessed with getting answers to their questions they can’t imagine anyone feels different,” Moon said.

Rorra shook her head, still upset. “I have worked with Callumkal since I—Since I came to Kish.”

Obviously trying to console her, Root said, “Maybe they think we killed you instead.”

“I’d like to kill every wall in this stupid city,” Jade muttered. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

They kept going up, and Moon started to wonder if they would reach the top, find an empty room, and have to start back down and try to defeat the neverending hallway again anyway. They were hoping there was a way into a different part of the city through here somewhere, but there was no guarantee of that. He thought mentioning this out loud would be more than Jade’s temper could take at the moment, so he didn’t. And he just hoped Root didn’t think of it and blurt it out.

Then he caught a scent of something different, cooler air, maybe a trace more salt. Ahead Jade’s spines flicked as she caught it too. She said, “There’s another landing up here. I think—It might—” Then she leapt ahead.

Stone took the last three stairs in one step. Lunging after them, Moon jumped up onto a landing that opened into a passage with a curved ceiling. The others crowded up behind him.

It was such a shock to see something different, they all just stood there. The glow of the spell-lights didn’t reach very far, but Rorra directed her distance-light around, revealing more carved walls and a dark space at the end of the passage.

Jade started forward cautiously. Moon tasted the air and caught more salt. There was something different, not quite fresh, but not as heavy with rock and stale water. There was a draft coming from somewhere ahead.

Moon felt the tension he had been holding in his back and shoulders ease a little. Whatever happened, at least they weren’t in a box-trap at the top of the stairs.

“How far up are we?” Delin asked softly.

Bramble answered, “Not near the top. We’re well above the sea, though.”

“And deep inside the rock,” Chime added. His spines twitched uncomfortably. “The city’s heart?”

Bramble drew breath and Jade said, “Let’s not speculate.” She started forward. “Chime, if you get any sense of something—”

“I’ll say so right away,” Chime assured her.

“Feel free to yell,” Moon murmured. Chime moved a spine in assent.

As they moved through the passage, the lights revealed stone shelves built out from the walls, though their placement seemed random and they were all empty. So did they store things here? Moon wondered. Again, it was hard to know what something might be meant for when you didn’t know what the people who had built it looked like.

The lights started to reveal glimpses of the chamber ahead. Moon was expecting carved stone and emptiness; it was all they had seen so far. But the lights glinted off broken ceramic and smashed fragments of stone. Rorra pulled the distance-light off her shoulder strap and held it up. Jade said, “So something else got here before we did.”

The chamber had apparently held a number of objects on carved stone plinths of various heights. The plinths had been overturned and most smashed, and all that was left of the objects was a mix of intriguing debris: broken crystal and pottery of all different colors, stained with mud and mold, and small scattered pieces of bright metal.

Delin groaned. “This is disappointing.” He sighed heavily. “I will hate to tell Callumkal of this.”

Stone stepped forward, picked his way carefully through the room. Moon followed with the others. Rorra’s light showed a doorway on the far side, so hopefully they could keep going until they found a stairwell down, or the source of that draft. His foot brushed something soft, and he nudged it cautiously with his claws. It was a pile of some disintegrating substance, with folds as thin as an insect’s wing. “This was fabric, maybe?”

Chime crouched over another moldy pile, studying it closely, holding his spell-lighted cup almost on top of it. “I see incised markings. I think these were books.”

Delin made a pained noise and clapped a hand over his eyes. Moon sympathized. And they didn’t even have anyone like Vendoin here, to tell them if there was writing on the walls that explained what these ruined objects were for.

Stone had almost reached the doorway. Normally Stone liked to poke through remnants like these, the abandoned remains of strange people, but now the path ahead seemed to hold all his attention. “This isn’t good. This is salt mud. It came from the sea bottom.”

That stopped Moon in his tracks. It couldn’t be a flood, not so far up in the escarpment. “So what’s it doing all the way up here?”

“Odd.” Bramble twitched, shedding nervous energy. “There wasn’t any mud in the stairwell.”

“Yes.” Rorra pivoted, shining her light over the walls. “Something got in here. But the mud is all dry, I think, so it wasn’t recent.”

Bramble nodded agreement. “And that’s a relief—Root, what have you got?”

Moon turned. Root stood near the center of the chamber, holding something of dull silver-colored metal that was shaped like a cage or a frame for a piece of glass or crystal inside. Root said, “This is pretty. We should take it.”

There was a moment of startled silence. Moon felt his spines prickle uneasily. They had no reason to suspect anything was wrong but . . . Moon thought something was very wrong. It was like the air in the room had changed. Chime said, “Uh . . . I don’t feel anything, but . . .”

“I feel something,” Stone said, and his tone made all the warriors twitch. Though Root seemed not to notice. “I feel anger. Root, put it down.”

“But the groundlings are going to take things,” Root said, not looking up. “Why can’t we take this?”

Watching warily, Delin said, “I would not recommend it. If it is a compulsion, like the call that drew groundlings and Fell to the forerunner city . . . Root, put the object down.”

Root ignored him, an extremely un-Root-like thing to do. Frustration and fear in her voice, Song said, “Root, you heard Stone, put it down!”

Moon took a step closer, wondering if he could knock the object out of Root’s hands without touching it.

“Root,” Jade said, and Moon felt the tug on his own heart. It was the queen’s power, the connection between her and all the court. He knew he must only be sensing the edge of it; all Jade’s concentration, sharpened by fear for his safety, was directed at Root. “Root, put it down.”

Root’s head jerked up and he stared at her, startled, his spines drooping. Then he looked at the thing in his hands and set it on the nearest broken plinth. He said, “That was weird. Why did I want that?”

Moon hissed in relief. There was a nervous flutter of spines around the room. Stone’s body still radiated tension. Jade said, “Root, come here. Everyone out, come on, this way.”

Root took a step forward and Moon moved, hooked his arm and pulled him away from the plinth. Chime and Song hurried to reach Jade and Stone, with Bramble taking a wide path around the plinth. Rorra, ever practical, used her pack to lift off the floor, picked up Delin, and navigated them both over the debris and down to the door beside Jade. Briar came last, shepherding Bramble ahead of her.

The passage past the room was wider but longer, and Moon could feel more moving air. He was still holding onto Root’s arm, and Root whispered, “Moon, I don’t know what happened. Am I in trouble?”

“Yes,” Chime snapped. “If that was the thing the trap was protecting, it’s dangerous.”

“I’m talking to the consort, not you,” Root said, sounding more like his normal self.

“No more trouble than usual,” Moon said. He hoped so. They might have just averted a disaster.

“Do we tell Callumkal about this?” Rorra asked Delin. Moon noted she hadn’t switched to Kedaic, which meant she didn’t care if the Raksura understood her. “If it’s dangerous, I’m reluctant.”

Delin said, “First we must escape this city, and the Fell. Perhaps they have followed the Kish to this city, believing it to be forerunner, and will leave it when we do. If so, Callumkal and the others will wish to return and examine this place in more detail. I also . . .” He hesitated, and then sighed. “This is a long-winded way of saying ‘I don’t know.’”

Moon didn’t know either. The silver and crystal object was the only thing in the shattered room that had stood out, and it had been near the plinth left of the center. Whatever had destroyed the books and other objects hadn’t taken it, but then maybe whatever had dragged that sea bottom mud up here wasn’t sentient, and had just been looking for food. If that thing is what the Fell want ... The Fell queen had seemed to imply that it was something specific, that the Fell weren’t just chasing rumors of power associated with ancient ruined cities. But then how did they know it was in here? Unless Callumkal and the other Kishan had known, and had kept the knowledge from Rorra, and the Fell had discovered it from them somehow.

“There’s dried mud on this floor,” Stone said. Moon could feel it underfoot, but just as a slight gritty texture. Stone was in his groundling form and the skin on the bottoms of Raksuran feet was tough, but still more sensitive than scales.

Bramble stopped to examine the mud on her foot claws. “It’s got to be turns old. Doesn’t it?”

“Doesn’t mean what brought it in isn’t still here,” Stone said.

“We know waterlings can get in here,” Moon said. You would think they would stay in the lower part of the city, in the canals, but maybe some had gotten curious. “If they can get in, we can get out.”

The passage slanted toward the left, and they passed several smaller rooms, the floors covered in layers of dried mud but empty of debris. Chime said, “I’m still afraid we’re going to turn a corner and there’s going to be . . . one of those things.”

“I think if we were going to find one, it was going to be in that room,” Jade said. She glanced back and Root’s spines drooped again.

Then Stone said, “Wait.”

Everyone stopped. Moon tasted the air and caught a trace of rotting sea wrack. Stone turned to Jade. “It’s close.”

She tilted her head to listen. Moon couldn’t hear anything from ahead. But the draft felt stronger. Jade said, “Stay here.”

Moon stepped past Chime and Bramble, just as Stone drew breath to speak. Jade said, “I was talking to the consorts, too.”

Stone subsided with an annoyed hiss. Moon managed not to object as Jade started ahead down the passage, a single spell-light to guide her. As the passage curved to the left, her light disappeared.

Stone tasted the air again, his head tilted to listen. Moon glanced back at the others, their worried expressions and the tired angle of everyone’s spines. Delin’s face was drawn and Rorra seemed more gray than she had before. He didn’t think it was a good sign. Chime leaned against the wall, Bramble rested her head on Song’s shoulder, her eyes half-closed. Briar was last behind Root and Song, keeping a wary watch back down the passage. They needed rest and more substantial food than the rations in their packs. They needed to not be trapped in this endless maze.

The movement of air in the passage was the only thing to signal Jade’s return; she had shoved her light into her pack. Moon saw her expression and the grim set of her spines and knew things had just gotten even worse. Her voice low, she said to Moon and Stone, “Something is getting in and out of this place, but I’m not sure we’re going to be able to.”

Lying on his belly, Moon looked over the edge of the air shaft. He swallowed back a hiss. Yes, it’s worse.

They had left the others and he and Stone had followed Jade as the passage narrowed and they began to see faint natural light ahead. The passage met a large vertical shaft, with a little light falling down it that must originate at the top of the escarpment and the crystal-sealed portion of the city. From the quality and scent of the air, it wasn’t open to the outside. But below this level, the shaft was occupied.

The inhabitants clung to the sides of the shaft, and at first Moon could only see thick, rough, scaled bodies of silver and blue, glowing with prickles of blue light, like burning coals buried in their flesh. And claws, like the kind crabs and shellfish had, big bulky razor-sharp things on the ends of their limbs. And there were a lot of limbs, some with hand-like structures with smaller claws, which they used to hook themselves to the wall. As Moon watched, an eyeless head lifted up and yawned, and revealed that the distended jaw was full of a myriad of needle-like teeth. These must be the creatures who had explored these rooms, destroyed the objects left behind. Fortunately, they all seemed to be asleep, or drowsing. The few who were moving were languid and seemed barely aware.

Moon wriggled silently back from the edge to where Jade and Stone waited. They retreated farther down the passage, out of earshot of the air shaft’s occupants, and Moon said softly, “At least we know there’s no neverending hallway trap at the bottom of that shaft. They have to be eating something.”

Stone said, “They’re probably from the ocean. Eyeless waterlings don’t live in seas this shallow.”

Moon nodded. “They must have washed up here in storms, and got in through the passages that are letting the water in. They probably only go out at night.”

Jade hissed impatiently. “I really don’t care how they got in, or what they do when they aren’t blocking our way out. How do we get down past them?”

“We don’t,” Stone told her. “We go up. If there’s one air shaft, there’s more. Before they sealed off the top of the city, that’s how they kept the air moving through here.”

“We have to go while it’s still daylight,” Moon added. “They probably start moving around at dark. There’s a chance they might clear out and go to some other part of the city, or go outside, but we just can’t risk it.”

“That makes sense.” Jade dropped her spines in chagrin. “I should have thought of that.”

“That’s why you have us,” Moon said, and thought, we really need to get out of here. They were all getting too exhausted to think straight. Jade had told the others to eat and rest while they were waiting, but that wasn’t going to be enough. And it was never good to stay too long in enclosed spaces with no fresh air. If this place had been originally designed to be ventilated from the outside, then having all those openings closed off wasn’t helping.

Jade squeezed his wrist. “Right. I’ll go up and see if I can find an opening to another level.”

“Let me do it,” Moon said, keeping his voice casual. The image of Jade slipping and falling because she was too tired to climb made his chest constrict. “This is why you brought me.”

Jade said, wryly, “I brought you for sex.”

“Ha.” It was good she could still joke but he hoped it didn’t mean she was getting loopy. “Sex and climbing walls.”

Stone said, “Jade, he’s right. The warriors are exhausted, and if the connecting passages are this size, I can’t fit into them. We can’t risk losing the queen.”

Jade growled under her breath. “I don’t care if he’s right, I’m going. You two get ready because if I wake the waterlings it’s not going to matter.”

Moon drew breath to argue and Stone punched him in the chest. Jade, already turning to creep back to the edge of the shaft, didn’t see. Rubbing the injured spot, Moon waited until she was out of earshot to whisper, “You said I was right!”

“She doesn’t need an argument right now. Neither do I,” Stone said pointedly.

“Fine.” One reason to send someone ahead was that they needed to know if moving into the shaft would rouse the waterlings. If it did, it would be very, very bad. “Why don’t you go back to the others and get ready to die horribly when the waterlings swarm us?”

“Why don’t I,” Stone said, and turned back down the passage.

Moving quietly, Moon went to the edge of the shaft. Jade had slipped out to cling to the side and cautiously moved upward. The rock was heavily pitted and made for easy climbing. It was just the sleeping waterlings that were the problem.

Moon gripped the edge and leaned out, trying to see if there was an opening to another passage. The light from above was faint, but it was just enough to throw shadows. And there, about fifty paces up and on the far side of the shaft, was a door-sized square shadow.

Jade had seen it too and climbed toward it slowly, obviously being careful not to make any noise louder than the gusty exhalations of the sleeping waterlings. Like sealings, they probably weren’t scent hunters, and hopefully their senses weren’t as acute out of the water as in it.

Jade reached the door and swung inside, and Moon retreated back down the passage. He let his breath out in relief and scrubbed his face with the heels of his hands. Time passed excruciatingly slowly, then Jade climbed back inside the passage so suddenly and silently Moon flinched. She drew him further back, and said quietly, “That’s it. It leads to an open hall with several stairwells heading down. There were other openings farther up, but the less time we spend in that shaft the better.”

It was good news, until Jade stumbled and caught Moon’s arm to steady herself. When she pulled away he caught her wrist and said, “On the boat, did you sleep? Don’t lie.”

She bared her teeth and he bared his back. Then she hissed, frustrated. “The sunsailer’s crew was starting to panic and Callumkal needed help. They had to see we weren’t afraid, they had to see—I slept for a little while.”

Moon hesitated. He was trying to think how long that meant Jade had been awake. They had all napped in the boat on the way back from searching for the Fell nest, but that hadn’t exactly been undisturbed rest. She said, “It was a mistake, I should have slept more. There’s nothing I can do about it now,” and pulled away from him.

They followed the passage back to where the others waited. Moon’s mind was racing for a solution, anything to make it easier for Jade. They just couldn’t afford to stop here longer, not so close to the waterlings. I should have made sure she had a chance to rest, he thought, furious at himself. The terrible thought of returning to the colony and his clutch without Jade stopped his breath for a moment. He couldn’t let that happen.

Stone had already told the others about the air shaft and what was in it. While Jade described the climb and the potential way out, Moon crouched down beside Bramble. “Do you still have some food? Jade hasn’t eaten.”

Bramble, far more expert than Moon at reading spines and expressions, went still for a moment, then pulled her pack around to dig through it. “There’s some of that dried seaweed, and Acama on the sunsailer said this bread stuff with the red flakes is supposed to be a stimulant but I don’t think it works on us.”

Jade was saying, “It’s not a long climb, but we’ll need to move fast.”

Rorra leaned forward. “You all can’t fly in that shaft, but I can. I can take you up one by one. It will perhaps be quieter.”

Jade tilted her head in acknowledgment. “We can start climbing, and you can come back for each of us in turn. That should cut down on the time, and the faster we get away from those waterlings, the better.”

Delin frowned in concern. “Will your pack last? The substance within will need to be renewed at some point.”

Rorra shifted around. “Check the levels for me. We weren’t long getting to the junction, so it should still be at least half full. It’s a good thing I didn’t try to use it in the endless corridor, or it would be empty.”

As Delin tugged at various things or peered into parts of the pack, Moon told Jade, “Eat something. Everyone else did.”

Jade grimaced but didn’t argue. She bit into the piece of dried seaweed Moon handed her and said to the others, “Just be quiet, and everything will be fine.”

While Jade was chewing, Bramble turned to the others and said, “Rorra, you’re going to have to take Stone.”

Stone growled in annoyance but didn’t protest. With the passages too small to accommodate his shifted form, it was the best solution. Rorra just nodded. Bramble added, “And I think Jade should go first.”

Thankfully, Jade let Bramble sort out the order everyone should go in. Moon figured as an Arbora she was the one in the group most likely to still be able to think straight. Arbora were stronger than groundlings or sealings and didn’t need nearly as much sleep as the Aeriat. At least, he hoped this was the case. It would be nice to have someone in the group who could still think straight.

Everyone put their lights away in their packs, and they moved quietly up the passage toward the opening. When Jade slipped out into the shaft, Moon felt every nerve in his body tense. Rorra tugged on her pack’s strap, lifted off the floor of the passage a little, and turned to Stone. His voice low, he said, “I’d rather you go out first and then I’ll jump to you.”

Rorra whispered, “Hah, no thank you.” They managed a very awkward embrace and Rorra ducked out into the shaft.

Chime pulled Moon back a little, and whispered, “Is something wrong with Jade?”

“Just tired,” Moon said, with a grim I’ll tell you later look.

Chime winced, said, “Oh,” and didn’t ask anything further.

Bramble, crouched at the opening, motioned for Root to go next, then for Chime to follow him. Moon let out the breath he had been holding when she signaled that Jade had reached the doorway successfully. Rorra came back for Delin, and Song and Briar moved forward for their turn. Below the waterlings murmured in their sleep, and Bramble turned around to Moon and mouthed the words, “This is terrifying.”

Moon nodded. His nerves were so tight he thought his spines were going to snap. Song went next. Rorra returned, and Moon pointed for her to take Bramble. Bramble glared, because her plan had included Moon going with Rorra, but Moon wasn’t going to leave an Arbora in this passage alone, even for a few moments.

Once Rorra and Bramble were moving upward through the shaft, Briar climbed out. Moon waited for her to get far enough away, then started his climb. The air in the shaft was heavy with the acrid scent of the waterlings, far more so than the passage. Moon realized it was their breath, rising in the cool unmoving air, and his spines twitched involuntarily. He concentrated on not letting his claws slip on the pitted rock.

Rorra and Bramble floated up to the opening and Stone reached out to take Bramble, then to pull Rorra inside. Then Song reached the doorway and climbed in. With some way still to go, Briar climbed silently, her pack slung back over her shoulder so it wouldn’t bump the wall. They made it around the curve of the shaft and Briar was almost within reach of the doorway. Moon was about ten paces behind her. Then from below, something groaned.

Moon flinched and froze. It was a low wail that rose in pitch as it rose in volume. It ended in a gasp, and Moon looked up at Briar. There was just enough light to see her wide-eyed expression. Our luck just ran out, Moon thought. He flicked his spines and tail, telling her to keep moving, and Briar resumed her climb, moving with less caution and more speed.

Below, bodies slid over each other as the waterlings stirred. Another groan split the air and it was answered by a chorus of breathy exhalations.

Moon climbed, glancing down. Light glinted on the scaled forms as they stretched and uncurled, their claws clicked on the rock. Above, Briar swung into the opening and then Rorra suddenly dove out. She maneuvered down level with Moon, and he flattened his spines so she could put an arm around his waist. Forcing himself to let go of the wall to grab onto her shoulders took an extra moment of effort he knew they couldn’t afford. His weight made her sink down for a breathless heartbeat, then her pack lifted them both up.

Something seized Moon’s lower leg, a weight dragged them down. Snarling, he looked down to see a waterling clung to the wall just below them. Rorra must be looking down too because the distance-light on her shoulder shone down on the creature. Its upper half was vaguely groundling-shaped, with a blue-scaled torso and an oval eyeless head. The two largest claws, one of which had closed around Moon’s leg, were where a groundling’s arms would be, but more limbs sprouted below them, and the lower body was much wider, extending out to accommodate six clawed segmented limbs. Moon raked the claws of his other foot across the creature’s claw, but they glanced off the hard surface. He growled, “Rorra, let go.”

Rorra, struggling to support his weight, gasped, “No.”

There was no time to argue. Moon grabbed her shoulders and shoved out of her grip. The waterling yanked him down straight toward its mouth, its distended jaw opening wide, fangs gleaming. Moon flung his weight sideways and grabbed the clawed limb at the joint, then twisted it down. He fell and hung upside down, supported only by the creature’s abused joint. The waterling screamed as its joint popped out and Moon slammed into the wall, dangerously close to the creature’s lower limbs. He jerked free of the slack claw and scrabbled away along the wall.

More waterlings scrambled up the wall toward him and he climbed rapidly up past the screaming injured one. It flailed at him with its remaining claw then abruptly fell backward and down the shaft. Moon looked up and saw Jade on the wall just above where the creature had been, snarling in fury.

“Go, I’m coming,” Moon yelled and climbed faster. Then Rorra dropped down and this time Moon let her grab him. As they lifted up, Jade turned and climbed toward the opening.

Jade reached the edge and pulled herself inside. Rorra lifted up even with it, and Jade caught Moon’s arm and dragged him in. As Rorra caught the edge to pull herself after him, a waterling rose up behind her and claws snatched at her waist.

Moon and Jade were off-balance, in the wrong position, and even as Moon tried to lunge for Rorra, he knew neither of them would be able to reach her. Then Stone stepped on him, flattened him to the floor, and leaned out the opening. He reached past Rorra, seized the creature’s head, and twisted sharply. The audible snap echoed off the walls and the creature dropped, lifeless. Stone snatched Rorra out of its grip, Jade grabbed Stone around the waist, and they all tumbled forward into the passage on top of Moon.

Smushed on the bottom, Moon couldn’t do anything but hold his breath as the weight was lifted. When Jade climbed off him, he gasped to fill his empty lungs and staggered to his feet. Chime grabbed his arm and pulled him down the passage. Jade was hissing, “Go, go, move, hurry!”

Moon followed the others down the dark passage. Beside him, Rorra muttered, “I didn’t know Stone could do that. Not as he is, I mean. Not large.”

“That’s why we try not to argue with him,” Chime told her, breathless with nerves.

Behind them, Stone snorted derisively.

Moon said to Rorra, “He’s got really good hearing, too.”

Light bloomed ahead as Song and Briar dug their lights out of their packs again. They were in a passage larger than the one below, and the others made way for Jade as she moved forward to lead them. Root glanced back, whispering, “That wasn’t fair! We did everything right, nobody made any noise, and they know we’re here anyway.”

“This place is awful,” Bramble agreed.

“Keep moving,” Moon urged them. Behind them, he could hear a sliding, scraping movement growing louder, closer. They’re following us.

Something had woken the waterlings, but Moon would swear they hadn’t made enough noise to wake a sleeping fledgling. Maybe the waterlings had felt faint vibrations through the rock. Or maybe they were sensitive to Rorra’s distinctive scent and interpreted it as an attack.

Jade led them past several dark doorways, then the corridor suddenly opened up into a large chamber and the welcome sight of an open stairwell leading down. Jade said, “We need to keep going, I don’t want to risk this one.”

“You don’t think we came far enough from the trap in the hall below,” Delin clarified, breathing hard as he jogged after Bramble. “That we might enter it again if we go down now.”

Rorra directed her distance-light across the space and they saw it was only the first of several large chambers. “She’s right, we should keep going, there are more stairwells ahead.”

“Faster,” Stone said. “They’re not far behind us.” Then he shifted.

Rorra used her pack to lift up and shoot forward to scoop up Delin. The warriors and Bramble started to bound, covering ten to twelve paces in a single jump, and Stone was careful not to outpace them. The combination of stronger flying muscles and fear could have let Moon outpace all of them but he stayed in the rear, making sure the rest didn’t fall behind. He was sure Jade would have objected to this but fortunately she was a little too busy at the moment.

They crossed two large halls, their lights revealing half-seen carvings and shapes. In the second, Bramble yelped a warning and they slid to a halt. Rorra’s light swung around to catch a giant face looming from the end of the hall, but it was made of stone. “Statue,” Jade said. “Keep moving!”

They surged forward again and Moon was left with an impression of a smooth triangular head, no visible nose, with small eyes to either side. It might have been a sculpture of a builder, or maybe just something from a story. And now he could hear the rasp of claws on the stone floor, the swift slide of heavy bodies. “They’re in the first hall,” he said aloud. They could hide the lights, look for a doorway to another route, but the chances of being trapped in one of these dead-end passages or rooms was far too great.

Ahead, Jade reached the next stairwell. She called out, “Down, down this way! It’s got to be far enough.”

Moon threw a glance back and saw roiling movement in the shadows. It had to be far enough, because the waterlings moved too fast. With Delin still holding onto her, Rorra dropped down. Bramble, Chime, and Root dove after her. Jade motioned for Song and Briar to follow. From below, Bramble called, “Stone, the stairs turn down here and it’s too narrow for you!”

Stone snarled, and shifted to his groundling form, saying, “This shitting place!”

Jade caught Moon’s arm and half-shoved him down the stairs. She grabbed Stone and jumped after him.

Moon hit the first landing in a crouch, waited for Jade, then dove down the next set of stairs with her. The lights flashed sporadically as the Raksura jumped and dove and scrambled and jumped again. Rorra’s distance-light was mostly steady, Delin directing it toward the stairs so they at least had some idea where they were going. This would be a bad time for someone to run into a wall and stun themselves.

Moon heard the rush of movement above them, the scaled bodies slapping into the walls, claws scraping as the waterlings flowed down the stairwell like water. An acrid stench of rot and fish filled the air.

Below, Bramble took a tumble down the stairs but rolled to her feet at the bottom and kept going. The waterlings were gaining on them. We’re going to have to stop and fight to give the warriors a chance, Moon thought, then Rorra shouted, “Light ahead! Someone’s down there!”

I hope it’s someone we know. Moon hit two more landings, as ahead Song missed and catapulted herself shoulder-first into the stairs. Root stopped and half-started back. Briar yelled, “Keep going!” and scooped Song up and jumped down to the next landing.

Two more landings and there was just enough light for Moon to glimpse a familiar scaled face looking up at them from the bottom of the stairwell. That was Balm, he thought. He wondered if he was hallucinating. How did they find us? And it really didn’t matter, because even if River and Merit were with her, three more Raksura weren’t going to be much help against what was after them. Beside him, Jade gasped, “No, no, not them too—”

Rorra and Bramble yelled warnings, and Balm’s voice echoed up, “Come on, it’s all right, just hurry!”

Maybe they had a plan. Moon hit the next landing with Jade and said, “Just trust her!”

Stone gritted out, “Listen to him.”

Jade growled in despair and they jumped for the last landing. The others reached the bottom and bolted through a tall archway out into a hall. Moon spotted Balm, Merit, and—Kalam, braced just outside the door holding a Kishan fire weapon that was almost bigger than he was. River was braced behind him, ready to steady him when he fired the weapon.

Moon and Jade dove down the stairs together, Moon breaking left and Jade to the right. She let go of Stone as they rolled across the pavement of a broad hall, and Stone came to his feet, already shifting into his scaled form. Moon landed hard and rolled into a half-crouch. Still by the doorway, Balm looked up the stairwell. Merit stood a short distance away, doing a hasty headcount of warriors, Arbora, sealings, and groundlings. “They’re all here!” he called.

“Wait, wait,” Balm said, then, “now!” She leapt back from the doorway.

The waterlings flooded down the stairwell, claws hooked into the rock, their jaws open to reveal maws filled with spiny teeth. Kalam pulled the lever back on the weapon and released it. Little wooden disks shot out of the tubes below the big barrel and struck the stairwell and the first group of waterlings. As they surged forward, the weapon erupted in a bolt of fire.

It washed up the stairwell and waterlings shrieked in agony; the stench of burned fish filled the air. The force of it shoved Kalam backward and River caught him, keeping him on his feet.

Vendoin was suddenly standing over Moon, saying, “Quick, quick, this way!”

Moon shoved to his feet, yelling, “Jade, this way!”

Jade started to drag warriors upright. “Come on, that way, follow Vendoin!”

Rorra, still floating on her pack with Delin, came toward them. “Where are we?”

“In that hall, where the trap was, but further on, a good distance past it,” Vendoin said. She started away, flashing her distance-light into the darkness ahead. “Merit had a vision—”

The warriors and Bramble staggered up and after Vendoin and Rorra, Merit urging them on. The waterlings retreated up the stairs, away from the bodies caught in the blast. The fire lit up the stairwell, the sticky substance of the bolt still burning in scattered clumps stuck to the walls. “Again?” Kalam asked over the screaming waterlings. “I have three more shots.”

“No, let’s go,” Balm said, waving him away. River helped Kalam lift the weapon and sling it over his shoulder. Then Kalam used his flying pack to lift off and head down the hall. Moon motioned for River to follow the others and fell into step with Balm and Jade as they started to run. Stone guarded their retreat, backing away from the stairwell and keeping his bulk between it and the Raksura.

They bounded down the hall, following the others’ lights, and Moon hoped it wasn’t far. Behind him, Stone growled, and he knew it meant the waterlings were still coming. Though hopefully far more slowly.

Ahead, lights swung around and started to disappear down another stairwell. Moon, Jade, and Balm reached it to find Kalam and River waiting. Kalam asked, “Should I shoot again from here?”

“No, the boat’s not far,” Balm said, with a glance at Jade. “We’d have to wait for those things to catch up.”

Jade’s spines signaled agreement. “Keep going, maybe they won’t follow us to the boat.”

Maybe, though Moon doubted it. But Balm was right that this wasn’t a good place to make another stand. The stairwell was much wider, and the waterlings could spread out across it and avoid Kalam’s weapon.

They started down the uneven stairs, Balm telling Jade, “You were right about this hall being the way through the city, but you have to go along the canal to avoid the trap. There’s a lock, though, and the Kishan are trying to get through it. The other canals are connected, but they all dead-end—”

“Merit scryed all this?” Jade asked as they hit the next landing.

“Not all of it. We thought it would be Fell chasing you,” Balm said.

Moon hissed as he cleared the next set of stairs. He hoped Merit hadn’t actually scryed Fell inside the city. They had about all they could handle now.

They reached the archway at the base of the stairs and found Vendoin already there, waiting with four Janderi, all armed with smaller versions of the fire weapons. “Are those creatures still coming?” Vendoin called as the Raksura spilled out onto the pavement. They were on a walkway paralleling a canal, and Moon’s sense of direction said it was the one they had tried to follow from the hall above. That had certainly seemed like a good idea at the time.

“They’re still coming, but not as quickly,” Jade answered. The Raksura gathered around, breathing hard from exertion, spines twitching. Rorra and Delin hovered nearby. To the watching Kishan crew, they probably seemed unmoved. To Moon, everyone looked exhausted and half-shattered by nerves. Jade shook her spines out. “Where’s the boat?”

“It’s up this canal, not far.” Balm glanced at her, obviously worried.

“We need to hurry,” Kalam said. “They said if they get the lock open before we get there, they’ll go on without us.”

“Your father is going to leave you behind here?” Jade asked, startled and skeptical. Moon found the idea unlikely too.

“Well, no,” Kalam admitted. “But I don’t want him to have to go against everyone.”

“Fair enough,” Jade said. “Let’s go.”