Edge of Worlds

CHAPTER EIGHT

For the first handful of days on the flying boat they were still traveling over the forests and meadows that bordered this fringe of the Reaches, and there wasn’t much new to see. Moon spent most of his time leaning over the railing watching the ground, or watching the crew cut back the plants that occasionally sprouted in the boat’s moss, or talking with Jade and Chime and the others, or watching Delin sketch, or trying not to be irritated by bored warriors. Napping on the sun-warmed deck quickly became a favorite pastime.

There was no good safe place for basking anywhere on or near the colony tree, and Moon had missed it. The cabin roofs and the ridge up the flying boat’s center were particularly good spots, as the mossy material seemed even warmer up there. Callumkal had explained that it was part of the process that kept the boat aloft on the lines of force that crossed the Three Worlds. It had to do with the moss and the way plants in general took in the sun to feed themselves and make themselves grow, and Moon hadn’t understood the explanation past that point, but it amounted to the fact that the moss produced excess heat which had to be released along the upper parts of the boat.

It made the deck pleasant for sleeping even in the evening, though Jade decided it was safer to keep to the cabin after full dark. Moon agreed, not liking the feeling of being exposed in the night, with the low deck lights to draw attention. The flying boat had what were called in Altanic “distance-lights.” They were big moss-lights that used reflective surfaces to direct the light for long distances. Rorra explained that they used them at night only to make sure they weren’t about to hit something, it not being a good idea to direct them toward the ground and antagonize anything they might be passing over.

Bramble kept trying to make friends with the Kishan, with little success. Merit made an augury every day, but got nothing besides some visions of an empty calm sea. He explained, “I think we’re just too far away from whatever it is, yet. Maybe when we get closer.”

Finally, Jade decided they needed to hunt. The Kishan were sharing their own supplies, but they weren’t big meat eaters. Raksura could last quite a while on fruit and grains and roots, but it was making the warriors cranky. Cranky warriors made queens and Arbora annoyed and made consorts, especially line-grandfathers, homicidal, at least in Moon’s experience.

Callumkal told them they could bring their kills up onto the deck at the flying boat’s stern, so Jade and Moon took the warriors hunting, and after a while managed to flush out a large variety of bando-hoppers. Moon had been taking short flights with the others every day just for exercise, but it was a relief to really stretch his wings and hunt.

It was twilight by the time they finished eating. Despite Callumkal giving permission, the crew was clearly disturbed by it. They avoided the area, except to gather in small groups at the windows, peer out quickly, and withdraw in horror. It was getting on Moon’s nerves, and everybody else’s.

“They could draw a picture, if they’re so interested,” the normally good-natured and oblivious Root muttered.

Delin had come out while they were eating and sat on the deck so he could continue a conversation with Chime, and had appeared completely undisturbed. That helped a little, but the warriors and Arbora were still self-conscious. Moon was used to being self-conscious, around both groundlings and Raksura, but he knew how unpleasant it was to feel as if your normal habits were somehow an affront.

“Now I know what you mean when you say you hate to be stared at,” Balm told Moon quietly, rippling her spines to release tension. “Do you feel like this all the time?”

“Yes,” Moon told her. Briar, crouched on Balm’s other side, looked horrified.

Root and Song tossed the bones and guts and other leftovers over the railing, and Bramble glanced uneasily up at the windows. “Maybe I should go down with the warriors next time. I could clean the kills and dress them on the ground before we bring them up.”

Moon wasn’t sure that would help. Jade said, “It’s dangerous, and unnecessary. We don’t know this area at all.”

Stone ruffled Bramble’s frills. He had been the only one who hadn’t shifted to eat, but fortunately he didn’t really seem to need to. “The groundlings will get used to it.” He paused to give Delin a hand up, and wandered down to the hatchway with him and Chime. Chime was saying, “That was just what Ocean Winter’s library had about it.” He had been so involved in the conversation with Delin that he hadn’t much noticed all the scrutiny.

“Yes, but it does align well with your findings at Opal Night,” Delin replied as they moved inside.

The others were standing on the deck, looking at Jade, somewhat dispirited. Moon knew part of it was boredom. This terrain just hadn’t been that interesting to look at, and the Kishan’s nervousness of them was beginning to wear. Jade’s expression was sympathetic. “Stone’s right, they’ll get used to it. In the meantime—”

A thump from below shook the flying boat. Jade spun, scanning the sky, and Moon tasted the air. The offal that was still staining the deck was all he could detect. No, maybe that wasn’t offal.

Further down the deck, a heavyset Janderi dropped the bucket he carried and stared around, startled. Briar and Song started toward the railing and Jade snapped, “Stay where you are.”

The Janderi took a step toward the railing to look down. Then something loomed up beside the flying boat.

It was big, with a green mottled hide, and it fastened tendrils around the railing. One tendril snatched up the Janderi and lifted him into the air. The hide split into a mouth a good ten paces wide, lined with writhing feelers.

Moon didn’t have a chance to do more than hiss when Jade launched herself off the deck. She hit the base of the tendril and closed her foot claws around it. Green fluid spurted and the creature flung the Janderi away. Balm bounced straight up in the air, caught him, and landed on the deck again.

More tendrils shot up from all around to grab at the railing. Moon heard a terrified yell from the bow. He looked and saw more tendrils wrapped around the steering cabin. He bounded down the deck, leapt and landed on the wall next to one of the windows.

Inside he saw the tendril had broken through the window on the opposite side and wrapped around a tall Janderan. It tried to drag him out the narrow opening, a process that would surely tear him apart. Rorra held on to him while frantically stabbing at the tendril with a pointed navigation instrument. Moon shoved the window open, slithered inside, and slammed past Rorra. He jammed himself in between the desperate Janderan and the broken window, and bit into the tendril. It tasted terrible, but he jerked and twisted, ripping into it.

Rorra wrapped her arms around the Janderan and yanked backward. Moon braced his legs against the frame of the broken window and pushed.

The tendril gave way and they all fell away from the window to land on the cabin floor. Rorra, still holding on to the gasping Janderan, scrambled back, dragging him with her. More tendrils shoved into the room, waving angrily, blocking the way to the door. Moon pushed Rorra and the Janderan back into a corner and braced himself in front of them.

Then the tendrils all flinched in unison, a sudden sharp movement. They jerked backward out of the window and disappeared from view. Moon waited tensely, but they didn’t reappear. “What happened?” Rorra whispered hoarsely.

Moon figured that Stone had happened. He eased to his feet cautiously and looked out the window. Below on the deck, a few confused Kishan ran around with their fire weapons, but no one was shooting at anything. The warriors and Jade perched up on the railing looking down. Moon spotted Stone, in his groundling form, casually sling himself back over the railing. Jade turned, saw Moon, and waved an all-clear.

“It’s gone now.” Moon waved back and crouched down to help the Janderan sit up.

“It?” Rorra got her boots under her and rolled into a sitting position. “There was only one?”

“I think so. I think most of it was on the bottom of the boat,” Moon told her. He was worried about the Janderan. There were light gray circles under his eyes and around his mouth, standing out against the dark brown of his skin. It wasn’t normal and it couldn’t mean anything good. Moon untangled the tendril fragment still around the man’s waist and helped Rorra hold him upright. He was gasping for air and it was usually easier to breathe while sitting up. Rorra asked him anxiously, “Magrim, are you hurt badly? Your ribs, your chest?”

Magrim moved his head uncertainly. “I’m—Ribs feel broken . . .” He grabbed Moon’s arm and said in Altanic, “Thank you, thank you.”

Rorra said, “Yes, thank you.” She added, a little wryly, “Now I know why your queen brought you.”

Her communication scent was strong, but knowing what it was and that it was there made it much easier to ignore. And some groundlings would have found a way to interpret the whole thing as Moon helping the creature try to eat them, so he appreciated Rorra and Magrim’s clear-headed view of the situation. He said, “You’re welcome.”

Callumkal burst through the door, exclaiming in alarm, and Moon moved away so he could get to Magrim.

Kalam stood in the doorway, asking breathlessly, “Is everyone all right in here?”

“Magrim might need a healer,” Moon told him.

“I’ll get help,” Kalam said, and ducked back out the doorway.

Moon followed him down the interior passage and out to the deck. Toward the stern, the warriors gathered around Jade, and the Kishan were at the rail now, aiming their weapons toward the ground. The man that Jade and Balm had rescued was on his feet, being helped to a hatchway by a Janderi woman. Chime and Delin had come out of the hatchway further down, and looked bewildered by the confusion. The wind held a fading trace of the creature’s predator musk, the rotted-flesh scent that had been masked by the offal of their kills. Moon asked, “Was anyone else hurt?”

“Not badly,” Kalam said, waving to a woman midway down the deck. “We’re doing a count now, to make sure everyone’s still . . . here.”

The Janderan woman strode toward them, a heavy bag over her shoulder that Moon assumed carried her healing simples and supplies. Kalam told her hurriedly, “Serlam, it’s Magrim, in the steering cabin. He may be injured.”

“It squeezed him around here,” Moon added, motioning to his rib cage.

As Serlam headed inside, Vendoin reached them. She said, “We saw Stone—How did he do that? Can you all do that?”

It sounded like the emergency had caused Stone to give up his effort to keep the size of his winged form a secret. “You mean . . .” Moon prompted, just in case he was wrong.

“With wings he’s almost as large as a small major kethel,” Vendoin said. He couldn’t read her expression but she seemed more awed than agitated.

“It was amazing,” Kalam said, turning to Moon. “The predator was all around us, reaching for us, and he leapt up, and changed, and tore it right from the ship—”

Vendoin persisted, “The rest of you, can you do that?”

“No, it’s because he’s so old,” Moon told her. “Our other forms get larger as we get older. No one else here is anywhere near as old as he is. Delin knows all about it.”

“Ah.” Vendoin seemed unsatisfied with the explanation. She hesitated, but someone shouted for Kalam, and Moon took the opportunity to escape, following him down the deck and heading over to where Jade and Stone waited near the rail.

Looking down, Moon spotted the remnants of the predator, scattered on the tall grasses of the wetlands they were passing over. There was a broad river visible through the trees some small distance away, and the flying boat’s course paralleled it. He didn’t see any groundling bodies, so hopefully Kalam was right and no one had been flung overboard. “Do we know what that was?” he asked them.

Stone shrugged. “There was a small shallow lake bed below us, a little too round, no streams feeding it. I think that was its burrow.”

“It must have felt the boat’s shadow pass over it.” Jade’s spines and tail still moved restlessly. “Callumkal said he’d tell them to fly higher until we get past this area.” Her voice lower, she added, “And from now on I’m going to have the warriors fly the offal away from the boat before they drop it.”

Moon admitted it was probably a good idea.

Chime moved to the railing beside Moon and peered down. “I’m glad I missed that.”

Jade sent Song and River up to the top of the boat to keep watch, and Moon and the others stayed out on deck, waiting for the flying boat to clear this stretch of country and move over the sparse forests closer to the river.

Soon, Callumkal came out on deck to tell Jade, “I wish to thank you. No one aboard was killed or badly injured and this is solely due to your intervention.”

Jade clearly hadn’t expected such fervent gratitude. Moon figured she was probably still thinking about the offal and the possibility that it had attracted the creature’s attention. She managed, “I’m glad none of you were badly hurt.”

Callumkal turned to Moon. “Rorra told me what you did for Magrim. He would have been torn to pieces without your help.”

It was Moon’s turn to feel uncomfortable, but Callumkal had already turned to stride off down the deck.

Over the next few days, things grew steadily better between the Raksura and the crew. Moon and the others kept careful watch and spotted a couple more possible nesting sites for large ground predators, and directed the boat to steer wide of them. They were also able to help when it came time to refill the boat’s large water tanks. Bramble and Stone managed to have conversations with various Kishan, and Rorra and the recovering Magrim spoke easily to them. And, oddly, Kalam, who seemed too shy to talk much himself, made sure to invite the Raksura to sit in the common room or to share meals with them or to see how various parts of the flying boat worked. He even demonstrated the flying packs for them, which were powered by the same moss that provided the lift for the boat.

There were no more horrified or fearful looks, and Moon noticed there was no more reluctance to get close when he passed crew members in a corridor. Moon felt the Kishan had at least gone from thinking of them as “those Raksura” to “our Raksura.”

The fourth day after the attack, Moon was lying out on the stern deck with Stone. Song, Root, and Chime were back against the nearest cabin wall, napping, and Jade and the others were inside. The terrain below was flattening out as they neared the coast, grassy plains with the occasional lake or stream or rocky outcrop, and a few stretches of low forest.

Moon heard steps through the soft material of the deck and sat up and stretched, thinking it was Jade. But it was Bramble, with Kalam, Magrim, and the other navigator, Esankel, who was one of the Janderi.

“Won’t we be bothering them?” Esankel was asking Bramble cautiously.

“Oh no, it’s fine, come and sit down.” Bramble plopped down on the deck next to Moon.

Kalam hesitated a little, then leaned on the railing nearby. Magrim, who still had a wrap around his cracked ribs, settled down on the deck with Esankel’s help, and she sat next to him.

“Are you going to be a scholar too?” Bramble asked Kalam, apparently continuing a conversation. “Is that why you’re here with your father?”

“I don’t know.” Kalam looked out into the distance. “I’ve been studying the foundation builders, and the water builders, and some of the others, since I was very young, and it’s interesting.”

Moon thought that was the least enthusiastic response possible. That opinion seemed to be shared, because Bramble asked, “What about your mother?”

“Jandera only have one primary parent,” Kalam explained. “I have several secondary parents, and they’re all scholars too.”

Esankel said, “You could be a navigator. You’re good with the maps.”

“Or an explorer, like Scholar Delin,” Magrim added.

“I could,” Kalam agreed, clearly being polite. He asked Bramble, “Was your job decided for you by your parent?”

His eyes still closed, Stone snorted. “Bramble does what she wants.”

“I do not.” Bramble nudged his ankle. She told Kalam, “It’s not really like that with us. When you have a clutch, you’re very happy about it, and you’re close to them, of course. But the teachers raise them, and you don’t tell them what to do once they’re out of the nurseries. The queens do that.”

Kalam took all this in like it wasn’t a way of living that he had ever considered. Esankel and Magrim were listening closely as well. Kalam asked, “Then how do you decide what role to play in your society?”

“If you’re an Arbora, you just decide.” Bramble shrugged. “You can try being a teacher or a hunter or a soldier, and change your mind if you don’t like it. For Arbora, the only caste you have to be born into is mentor, like Merit. And you don’t have to be a mentor if you really don’t want to, though I think it’s pretty rare for someone to not want to be one.”

Kalam turned to Moon. “Is it like that with you?”

“No, not for consorts, or queens. Or warriors,” Moon told him.

“If you could be anything you wanted, what would you be?” Kalam asked.

Moon thought it over for a moment, watching a flock of brightly colored birds swerve away from the flying boat. “A hunter.” All of the Arbora hunters but Bramble were home with their clutches, and not traveling on flying boats having to make hard decisions.

Bramble gave him a sympathetic nudge. Stone muttered, “Ingrate.”

Ignoring that, Moon asked Kalam, “What do you want to be?”

Kalam hesitated again, then smiled down at Moon. “I would like to stay in Kedmar and build places for people to live. Finding new ways to use the shape-moss, and maybe ways to build out onto the old water platforms in Kedmar bay.”

“That’s a good job,” Magrim said, wincing a little as he stretched. “Surely your father would approve.”

“I’d have to ask him first,” Kalam said, but it sounded noncommittal, as if he was hoping everyone dropped the subject as fast as possible.

Moon did, and was glad when the conversation wandered into a comparison of various Kishan family structures, and Bramble trying to explain how she was related to Jade via a long list of clutchmates and half-clutchmates and cross-clutchmates.

That night, Kalam invited them to sit in the common room after the Kishan had eaten, and Moon ended up in a corner with a few of the others, listening to Vendoin and Callumkal argue politely about the city.

Jade sat on the padded bench next to Stone, her tail curled up around her legs. Moon was on the floor, leaning against the bench, Chime next to him with Bramble sprawled on her stomach. Delin, Kalam, and Rorra sat nearby, listening too, though most of Delin’s attention was on the sketch he was making. Rorra’s scent wasn’t noticeable, and Moon suspected that the more relaxed she became around them, the less it would appear.

They were all drinking the clear liquid the Kishan preferred in the evening. It was supposed to be an intoxicant, but the only groundling drug Moon had encountered that had any effect on Raksura was Fell poison, and no one would ever consider drinking it for fun. But the Kishan liquor did have a pleasant taste, vaguely reminiscent of the big pomegranates that grew in the upper Abascene.

“I appreciate all your arguments but I still think we will find it is the foundation builders,” Vendoin was saying to Callumkal.

“If you would share your reasons for that, perhaps I would agree with you.” Callumkal’s tone was wry.

Vendoin made a throwaway gesture. “It is in the same style as the other ruins we have found. Even the tile with the image of the forerunner is similar.”

“Why do you want it to be forerunner?” Moon had to ask Callumkal. “What are you hoping to find?”

“Well. I hope not to find a tremendously dangerous trapped predator, as you did.” Callumkal paused to gather his thoughts. “There are many other species who have lived where we live now, over thousands of turns. This is clear to anyone who steps outside their own doorway. Many of them surely earned their own destruction, like the flying island races who destroyed each other in their wars, the Tsargaren tower people, and the Varirath to the west, or the island builders to the south. Many others have left behind little or nothing to tell us who they were or why they fought. Others are still here, in some other guise, with their origins forgotten. There are others who should still be here. Why are they gone? How could they fade away and leave no sign of the cause? Will their fate befall us? Those questions occupy me.”

“Those questions are why I study the present,” Delin said, not looking up from his drawing. “I hope to leave the knowledge to be passed down to others.”

Callumkal made a gesture of agreement. “This city may be a sign that the forerunners and the foundation builders existed at the same time, that they knew of each other and interacted. Which could provide clues to why each one disappeared.” He said to Moon, “If the forerunners truly are your ancestors, then perhaps the foundation builders have descendants as well. There are many who believe the Janderan and Janderi are descended from them.”

“Even with our flying ships, distances defeat us.” Vendoin stared absently at the floor, lost in thought. “There may be gatherings of scholars to the far west, or far around the ocean, who have these answers already.”

Chime had been listening intently, leaning forward to follow the discussion. “Or who have the missing pieces to answer your questions, and you have theirs,” he said.

“Just so,” Callumkal agreed. “Perhaps this city will provide some answers, perhaps it won’t. But I also feel it is worth seeing the interior for its own sake.” He eyed Vendoin. “To settle our debate about its origins, for one thing.”

Vendoin shook off her reverie and signaled agreement, her mouth folding up into an approximation of the Janderan’s smile.

Her head propped on her hand, Bramble said thoughtfully, “I think we need to carve our history into the colony tree, to make sure it’s still there even if something happens to the books. There are a lot of empty walls in the lower levels. I’ll get started on that when I get back.”

“And how long will the project take you?” Vendoin asked, intrigued.

Bramble shrugged. “If the others help, maybe about a month.”

“She isn’t joking,” Jade said, probably to stave off any comments that they might have to take offense to. “The Arbora are very . . . efficient.”

She was right. Moon thought the enthusiasm for a new major carving project would already be high; once Bramble explained why she wanted to do it, it would probably take over all the castes.

Stone, obviously thinking along the same lines as Moon, sighed. “It’ll be the damn drains all over again.”

Eyes narrowed as she planned the carving, Bramble said, “I’ll include a Raksuran-Altanic translation.”

Callumkal told Bramble seriously, “You should do this. Future generations of scholars will praise your name.”

Lithe sat bolt upright, her heart ice inside her chest and a scream trapped in her throat. She knew she was in her bower, that her body lay in the comforting shell of the hanging bed, the chamber softly lit by the flowers she had spelled to glow. But her mind was trapped in a battle with a Fell flight as it attacked the Reaches.

It wasn’t real, she told herself, her heart pounding. Curled next to her, eyes still closed, Reed’s throat worked as if she struggled to speak. Lithe pressed her hand to Reed’s forehead and concentrated briefly, the method used to rouse someone from a too-deep healing sleep. Reed snapped awake and blurted, “Fell. There were Fell—”

“You saw it?” Lithe demanded. “It wasn’t just me?”

“Fell attacking the Reaches.” Reed struggled to untangle herself from the blanket. “Where—Not here. The east?”

“I think so.” Lithe slung herself over the side of the bed and landed on the floor as Reed flung cushions aside. She found her shirt by tripping on it in her lunge to the doorway, stopped to drag it on, and ran out into the passage.

Sounds of disturbance echoed off the polished wood walls, worried voices and someone’s startled outcry. Lithe’s bower was deep in the old section of the colony tree, on a wide corridor with one end leading down into a spiral of teachers’ bowers and the other with an open balcony onto the central garden well. There was no Fell stench in the cool night air, no screams, no sound of fighting. Lithe’s heart unclenched a little. “It wasn’t an augury. It was a dream.”

The auguries within the past month had been frightening enough. All the portents hinted that Fell were moving somewhere, though nothing indicated that they were near the Western Reaches. The reigning queen Malachite had sent messages to their nearest allied courts, but their mentors had seen nothing similar yet. But this had been more painfully real than any augury.

“But we both had it,” Reed said, stepping out of the bower behind her. She tilted her head, listening to the voices echoing down the corridor, from the bowers above and below them. She met Lithe’s gaze, startled. “Everyone had it.”

Then Auburn ran past them down the passage, calling, “Come on!”

They bolted after the older mentor, following him through the winding passages, past the teachers’ and hunters’ bowers and down toward the main greeting hall. The large domed chamber was carved with warriors in flight, swirling around the image of a queen in the center, her body curled to follow the curve of the dome. It was already crowded with anxious warriors and Arbora, but one figure instantly commanded all the attention.

Malachite stood in the center of the room under that image, her scales so dark they didn’t show green until the light struck them, the gray tracery of her scars like silver gilt. She was a cold still presence, as formidable as the mountain-tree itself, and just seeing her calmed the frantic pounding of Lithe’s heart.

The sister queen Onyx stalked around Malachite as warriors and the Arbora soldiers came forward to report to them. Her dark copper scales flashed angrily as her tail lashed. Malachite’s daughter queen Celadon stood beside her, while Onyx’s daughter queens waited nearby, along with Umber, Onyx’s consort.

The only other consort here was Shade, sitting to one side with his warrior Flicker and a worried group of teachers. Lithe hoped he hadn’t had the dream too. She glanced at him, but he smiled reassuringly at her. She and Shade might have Fell blood themselves, but they had never seen a real one until last turn. The thought of a Fell attack on the colony made Lithe’s skin turn to ice. Looking around the chamber, it struck her how many of the court were scarred by the Fell, on their bodies or their minds, even those who had been born later, or whose bloodlines had never left the Reaches. It can’t happen again, Lithe told herself. Not here. Please not here.

Tail lashing as she paced, Onyx spotted Lithe and said, “Perhaps Lithe has insights the other mentors lack.”

Lithe pressed her lips together. Most of the time no one commented or much thought about the fact that she was half Fell. Lithe never thought much about it herself, and was fairly sure Shade and the others didn’t either. When Malachite had brought them to the court, she had said they were a sign that the Fell had taken nothing from them that couldn’t be taken back, and everyone had accepted that. But Onyx had a sharp temper and liked to poke at Malachite through others, as poking directly at Malachite was a game too dangerous for even another queen to play. Still, when Lithe stepped forward to answer, she was relieved when Reed and Auburn stepped with her. She said, “We think it was a shared dream.”

There was a puzzled murmur from the watching Arbora and warriors. “But what caused it?” Malachite asked. Her voice was neutral and colorless, as if they were discussing a minor crop blight.

“The same cause as the auguries,” Onyx said, with another tail lash.

Celadon betrayed some impatience in the angle of her spines. “Probably, but we still don’t know what caused the auguries—”

Moth, one of the warriors on guard patrol, burst in from the opposite passage and scrambled to a halt in front of Malachite. He said, “A group of warriors are at the entrance platform. They say they have an important message from Indigo Cloud.”

“Indigo Cloud, in the east Reaches.” Lithe didn’t realize she had said the words aloud until Reed turned to her and said, “Whatever sparked the dream, it’s coming from the east.”

Onyx lashed her tail again and said to Malachite, “Of course, it would be something to do with your offspring.”

Malachite didn’t flick a spine. She told Moth, “Tell the Indigo Cloud party that I’ll hear their message in the queens’ hall now.”

A few days later, Moon woke during the night to the faint scent of smoke in the air. He nudged Jade gently until she rolled off him, and sat up. The light and his internal sense of the sun’s position said early pre-dawn; the window crystal was open and the air was just barely tinted with wood smoke.

They had seen some small settlements in the distance, mostly too far away to discern any detail, and once a structure stretching between two low hills, a little like a Dwei hive. The skylings who lived in it had fled the flying boat and hid inside before they could get a close look at them. But now the complexity of the scent on the wind told Moon they were approaching a much larger habitation.

He slid out of the narrow bed and picked his way over sleeping bodies to the nearest window. Briar, sitting by the door on watch, whispered, “What is it?”

“I think we’re coming up on a groundling city,” Moon whispered back. He paused and did a quick body count. “Where’s Stone? And Bramble?”

“They stayed with Delin.”

Stone had probably needed a break from the warriors. Moon reached the window and leaned out, but the sky was still dark enough to show stars, and he couldn’t make out anything in the distance. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep anymore. He told Briar, “I’m going up on deck.” He shifted, and climbed out the window.

He scaled the hull easily, pausing to peer cautiously over the railing to make sure none of the crew were in eyeshot. They were more used to Raksura now, but still easily startled. The deck on this side of the ship’s spine was empty, so he slung himself over the railing and shifted back to groundling. He stretched and rolled his neck. The air was cooler, the steady breeze tugged at his clothes. He went toward the bow, tasting the air. He could scent the salt of the sea now, part of the complicated blend of odors.

He went forward, the deck still warm under his feet. Two crew members spoke in Kedaic on the other side of the spine, an idle conversation about someone’s relative’s prospects. There was a lamp hanging outside the hatch in the spine, one of the bright fluid lights, and Moon circled around the pool of illumination.

He reached the bow and leaned against the railing. Trying not to think about the clutch, the court, and what might be going on at the colony was easier up here than while lying in bed staring sleeplessly at the ceiling.

The sky was lightening, and soon he could see that they were traveling over coastal plain, with tall grass and stretches of marsh. The great dark expanse ahead started to show flickers of light. Trying to decide which sparks were in the port, which were on islands, and which were ships occupied him until he heard a step on the deck behind him.

He leaned back into the railing and watched Callumkal approach. He didn’t think Callumkal realized there was a Raksura standing in the shadows. To test the theory, he said, “We’re nearly there.”

Callumkal flinched and fell back a step. Then he made a rueful huffing noise. “I hope you were concealing yourself with some power of invisibility.”

At least Callumkal wasn’t taking it badly. Rorra would probably have never forgiven herself. “No, I was just standing here.”

“Well, it’s early.” Callumkal leaned on the railing. “You can see it from here?”

“Just some of the lights.”

“Hmm.” Callumkal squinted into the darkness. Most groundlings couldn’t see that well at extreme distances. “We’ll reach it by full dawn. It’s than-Serest, the largest trading port along this stretch of the western coast. We didn’t come this way before, of course. We went through the smaller port of Yukali, on the sel-Selatra. We’ll stop here briefly and purchase supplies.”

“Have you ever been here before?” Moon asked.

“No. Have you?”

“No.” Moon had never come this far north on his own. “Stone might have, but he hasn’t said anything.”

Callumkal considered the view for a moment. “We shouldn’t be there long.”

“You’re not worried about taking a bunch of Raksura into a groundling city?” Moon asked. Even if they all stayed on the boat, the idea made him uneasy. They had no idea if the people in than-Serest knew about Fell, and someone catching a glimpse of a shifted Raksura might prove awkward. Or worse than awkward.

Callumkal gave him a sideways glance. “Perhaps I wasn’t until just now.” He looked back toward the clusters of buildings along the coast, slowly forming out of the dark horizon, that he probably couldn’t see yet. “We won’t be staying long. And you don’t have to leave the ship, if you don’t care to.”

Moon appreciated the fact that Callumkal hadn’t attempted to make that an order. Jade, who probably didn’t want any of them, especially the Arbora and the more inexperienced warriors, leaving the boat anyway, would not have taken it well. “What kind of people live there?”

“Many kinds; it’s a very active trading port. I can’t pronounce the name of the main race, but they are from a group of species called Coastals. They run most of the ports along here and populate the closer islands. They come from an older groundling species that interbred with the shallow and deepwater sealings.” He added, “It is an interesting place. The port is still closely allied with the shallow-water sealing colonies just beyond the islands, and there is actually a great deal of interaction between them, with special trading areas in the docks.”

It did sound interesting. Moon asked, “Are you going there?”

Callumkal lifted a hand, making a negative gesture. “I’ll be occupied with obtaining supplies, and local maps.”

Moon turned that over thoughtfully. Sealings should have contacts all along the coast, and out into the archipelagos, and maybe beyond. It might be useful to see if they had heard anything about Fell.

By dawn the port city was fully visible. There were a great many spiral stone towers of different sizes—or at least Moon thought they were stone. The surfaces caught the light in a way that showed they were oddly smooth and polished, and might be treated with some other material. Between the towers were small dwellings and winding streets, leading up to the curve of the shoreline. Islands studded the harbor, and beyond them lay the limitless sea, the sun glinting off the white-capped waves, even as high clouds threw shadows across the gray-blue water.

The shore toward the north end was open beach, dotted with small houses or buildings. The other end was all docks, extending out far into the harbor, some turning into bridges reaching to the nearest islands. And there were boats and ships of every size and shape imaginable. Moon spotted a couple of flying bladder-boats tied up to a smaller tower, but didn’t see any Golden Islander craft, or anything else similar. He wondered where Niran and Diar were, if they had been able to follow as Delin hoped.

Earlier Callumkal had gone into the steering cabin, and Jade had come up to the bow to watch the city appear on the horizon, trailed later by a still sleep-bleary Chime. The others had followed them, Merit and Bramble lining up along the railing with Delin and Stone, and the other warriors perched up on the center ridge. Jade stirred now and said, “Did Callumkal say where he was planning to put this thing?”

“He said we’re going to dock on one of those, with the bladder boats.” Moon jerked his chin to indicate the smaller towers that seemed to work as air-docks.

“We’re leaving by dark, right?” Chime asked. He watched the approach of than-Serest uneasily. “The last time we went to a groundling city like this, they tried to give us to the Fell.”

“And Delin was with us then, too,” Moon pointed out.

Chime glared at him, not appreciating the humor. Moon nudged his shoulder in apology. “You don’t have to get off the boat if you don’t want to.”

“None of us have to get off the boat.” Jade eyed him. “Do we?”

Moon hesitated, considering his half-formed plan. “I’d like to hear if there’s any news, especially any news of Fell. Or things happening that might mean Fell are somewhere around. And I’m not sure if the Kishan know how to ask for it.”

Jade made an annoyed noise in her throat. “Where would this news be?”

“Callumkal said there were trading places where you can talk to the sealings that live in the shallows. They may have heard something from the sealings further out in the sel-Selatra.”

“That . . . doesn’t sound like a bad idea.” Jade’s brow furrowed thoughtfully.

“Would they have contact with sealings so far away?” Chime asked.

“I don’t know, but we can ask.” Moon didn’t know much about the sea kingdoms, but a city where groundlings and sealings were allies seemed like a good way to find out. And it wouldn’t seem odd for a flying boat heading toward the sel-Selatra to ask if anyone had heard about any trouble out there. Or at least it wouldn’t have seemed odd back in the Abascene, where Moon had done most of his traveling.

Chime nodded slowly. “I suppose asking Rorra for help would be out of the question.”

Moon winced at the thought. “Right, no.” They had been getting along with Rorra fairly well, getting used to her scent and learning to treat it as just part of the scents associated with the flying boat. But Rorra was still a difficult person in her own right, and it was obvious her past as a sealing was a subject to be avoided.

Jade was still doubtful. “Have you ever talked to sealings before?”

“No, but someone you’re related to has.” Moon turned to look back along the deck where Stone leaned against the railing with Delin. Stone saw them all staring and narrowed his eyes.