The Serpent Sea

Chapter Fifteen

They fell, dragged down by the powerful suction of the leviathan’s breath. Moon couldn’t even struggle, the pressure so intense he couldn’t breathe. He thought his body would snap in half before he had a chance to smash into anything.

At first the darkness was complete. Then Moon caught flashes of blue light, just enough to show him that he was falling past a dark-gray surface ridged by scaly bone rings. He had a hard time believing this was really happening. He had always thought he would probably die by being eaten. Being inhaled by a leviathan wasn’t a fate he had considered.

Then he slammed into something ropy and semi-porous, bounced off it with stunning force, and tumbled through an opening in the surface.

Knocked nearly out of his wits, it took Moon moments to realize he was falling free into a huge open space lit by an eerie blue glow, that the pressure was gone. He spread his wings and cupped them to slow his headlong plunge.

Thick webs stretched from all sides of the big chamber and formed a shadowy, complicated architecture, as if he were surrounded by the towers and galleries of a near-transparent city. The moving lights were small bundles of blue-tinged phosphorescence, suspended on long poles and somehow attached to the heads of creatures like giant slugs that crawled ponderously over the heavy cables of the webs. The light from those ambulatory bundles lit other shapes, big ones, small ones, that moved through the webs, hopped from strand to strand, or glided on ridged wings.

Oh, this is… different. Horrible and different. Moon’s throat was too dry to swallow, but at least he could breathe. He looked up, saw Stone not far above him, and the smaller figures of Chime and River. Chime had, somehow, managed to hold on to Esom. Moon wasn’t sure Esom was going to thank him for that; it might have been a kinder end to die in the fall down onto the leviathan’s skin.

Moon looked down and spotted a solid mass below, some distance from the walls. It was an oblong shape, a couple of hundred paces long and wide, suspended near the center of the space. Moon aimed for it and landed on the rubbery surface, then pulled his wings in and dropped to a defensive crouch. River and Chime landed on either side of him, Esom still clinging tightly to Chime. Stone reached it a few moments later. He snapped his wings in and crouched low.

The bulk of Stone’s body looming over them gave Moon what was probably a false sense of security. He peered into the dim blue light; nothing seemed to be coming for them, but that had to be just a matter of time. “What is this place?”

“Didn’t we fall into the monster?” River said, a thread of panic in his voice. “Where are we?”

“Parasites.” It was Esom who gasped it out. “Colonies of parasites…”

“He’s right,” Chime said, sounding near the edge of panic himself. “These creatures live inside the leviathan. They could be animals, or intelligent, I don’t know.”

Moon looked around again, his gorge rising, and wished he could unhear that.

“They carved out this space, out of its body? Wouldn’t that hurt?” River said, clearly still dazed from horror.

“Apparently they don’t care,” Moon snapped. Next to him, Stone made a low, soft growl and nudged Moon with a claw. Moon turned, saw Stone was staring at a thin column about twenty paces away. Glinting faintly in the blue light, it stretched up out of a ridged aperture in the gray rubbery ground. Moon looked up, traced its path upward… to where it connected with a thick strand of web crossing the chamber. Oh, no… This mass wasn’t suspended from the web; it was creating the web. “What are we standing on?”

Chime and River turned to look, just as the surface under them rippled. From the near end of the mass, an immense head suddenly loomed up. It had multiple glaring eyes and a round, fanged mouth. Spiked tentacles stretched up from its sides, as the whole creature started to curve up and inward toward them.

Stone surged over their heads and hit the creature’s face claws first. Moon yelled, “Up and over, now!” and sprang into the air.

He couldn’t tell if Chime and River understood his incoherent command or if they were just blindly following him. As they took flight, Moon saw a tentacle whip toward Chime, who was still burdened with Esom. Moon twisted toward it and slashed at the slick surface. It twitched at him, missing Chime, just as another tentacle slapped at Moon’s leg and knocked him into a sideways tumble.

He rolled, frantically tried to get his wings under control, and saw the tentacle dive toward him. Then River swooped past and swiped at the tentacle with his foot claws. It flinched, hesitating just long enough for Moon to drop out of reach.

Still falling away, Moon looked up at the creature. From the bottom it had a beetle-like carapace, the edges bristling with tentacles. It roared as Stone whipped over its head and gave it one last swipe with his tail. Stone tore through the tentacles that reached for him and dropped out of its range.

There was movement all over the web as the big creature turned ponderously on its supporting strand to follow them. There was no place to go but down, and Moon dove.

He dropped until the passage narrowed again and the lighted webs were left behind. He had no idea where he was going, and the light was running out, when Chime shouted, “Wait, stop!”

Moon swerved in toward the wall and found a perch to cling to. Chime hit the wall next to him and gripped it tightly. River landed on the far side of Chime, and Stone slammed into a spot just above them.

“There!” Chime pointed urgently at something about ten paces below. “We’ll be safe if we go that way!”

“Safe?” River growled. “We were standing on something’s belly!”

“But we have to go that way!” Chime sounded frantically certain. “All right, it’s not safe, but it’s better than this!”

Moon had no intention of arguing. He swung down, scrabbled along the wall, and felt the edge of an opening. It was a rough-edged hole in the creature’s flesh, about ten paces across. “This way, come on!”

Chime climbed down and slipped past him into the passage, as Esom gasped something in his own language. River hissed reluctantly as he followed. Stone’s large form moved down, and hung onto the wall over the opening. “You’re too big,” Moon told him. “Shift, I’ll catch you!”

For a long heartbeat he didn’t think Stone would do it, from stubbornness or fear of being so vulnerable here or both. “Come on!” Moon yelled. “There’s no other way!”

Then Stone shifted. Moon lunged forward and grabbed his arm; the sudden weight nearly jerked him off the wall. Stone managed to grip Moon’s shoulder and dragged himself up. Moon heaved, lashed his tail, and hauled them both through the opening.

They tumbled down over a bumpy surface, into complete darkness, and landed hard with Stone on top. Moon felt Stone sit up, heard him fumble in his pack for their light. Esom’s harsh breathing sounded from a few paces to Moon’s left, and Chime and River were putting out such a fear-scent he could smell them even over the leviathan’s stench. Stone managed to get the rock uncovered and the light glowed from between his fingers as he held it up.

They were in a passage maybe fifteen paces wide, the rough, lumpy walls and floor a sickly blue color. Stalactites covered the ceiling, leaking a chalky-colored ichor. Moon pushed away from Stone and shoved to his feet. The passage wound off into the creature’s body and split into multiple tunnels, each disappearing into darkness. He could still hear, distant and muffled, the familiar rush-pause-rush of the leviathan’s breath.

Chime and River crouched nearby, Esom huddled between them. “So where are we now?” River said. From his expression, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to know.

Chime turned to the nearest wall and ran his hand over it. “I think these are teeth marks. I think something gnawed its way through here.”

Moon looked down the dark tunnel again. Revulsion made his skin creep under his scales. “Another parasite?”

Chime nodded, his eyes wide and frightened. “Maybe more than one.”

Stone pushed to his feet with a half-snarl. “We’ll follow it. Maybe it got out.” He paused and glanced at Moon, his expression opaque. “Thanks.”

Moon flicked his spines in a half-shrug, avoiding his gaze. “We need to move.”

River started forward and hissed in disgust as his frills brushed against a dripping stalactite. Chime followed, but Esom still huddled on the floor. Moon reached down, caught him by the shoulders, and pulled him to his feet.

Esom stared blankly. The right lens of his spectacles was cracked and his eyes were shocky. “Esom, you have to stay with us.” Moon couldn’t think of anything reassuring to say. They were trapped inside a leviathan, standing in a tunnel gnawed out by giant parasites. Going blank with terror was a perfectly rational way to react, especially for a groundling.

Esom blinked, took a gasping breath. “I— Yes, of course.” Awareness came back into his eyes, and he nodded sharply. “I’m fine, I’m really fine. I just had a moment there.”

If they ever got out of this, Moon was going to have a moment of his own. A long one. Tugging Esom along, he moved after the others.

They picked their way cautiously along, the light making shadows leap across the weird shapes of the stalactites. The tunnels formed a honeycomb, split off, then rejoined again. Whatever had chewed out all this, it hadn’t needed to make an even surface to walk on, and they had to clamber over lumps and broken chunks. Esom had the most difficulty, stumbling and breathing harshly. Stone, hampered by his groundling form, couldn’t move fast either.

The quiet wore on Moon’s nerves, and he couldn’t stop thinking about Jade, and Flower. And poor Balm. And it was his fault they were down here. He said, “Ardan did this because he thought I knew he’d been lying all this time. He can do more than just keep the leviathan from sinking, he’s steering it, telling it where to move and when and how far.”

Chime said, “It’s not your fault. He was going to get rid of us anyway. He was just making sure Rift wasn’t with us.” He glanced at Moon. “He must really like Rift. That’s very creepy.”

Esom said, slowly, “He wouldn’t be afraid of the people. He’s too powerful.” He sounded better, calmer, though his voice was still shaky. “It’s the other magisters, like Lethen. They must not realize he can send the leviathan anywhere he wants. He’s doing it to keep control of the traders, moving it so the ones who don’t pay him off can’t find it.”

Too bad we can’t tell them about it, Moon thought bitterly. The resulting battle would be interesting to watch, but not much help to them. The other magisters wouldn’t want to give the seed back, either.

Then Stone said, “Chime, how did you know this passage was here? Did you feel it?”

“Yes. As we got closer, I just knew it was there in the wall. It hurt, like a—” Chime waved a hand beside his head. “I can’t describe it.”

“I thought you weren’t a mentor anymore,” River said, making it sound like an accusation. “That’s what you told Pearl.”

“I know what I told Pearl. I’m not a mentor anymore.” Chime’s spines flicked in irritation. “This is different. It’s not augury, it’s… flashes of insight.”

Stone said, “Can you tell if that big spider thing is coming down here after us?”

“The one we landed on?” Chime shook his spines uneasily. “No, I can’t tell.”

“But it’s too big to get into these passages,” Esom protested, stumbling after them.

Moon wasn’t going to explain, but River said, darkly, “It could eat its way through here, just like the things that made this tunnel.”

Esom didn’t reply for a moment. Then he said, bleakly, “Of course it could.”

It was hard to judge the passage of time, but Moon didn’t think they had traveled much of a distance when Stone said, “Here we go.” He stopped and held the light high. It fell on an irregular hole in the top of the passage that led upward. “That could go all the way to the outer skin.”

“It’s worth a try,” Moon said in relief. It might be the way this particular set of parasites had gotten down here in the first place. Even if it didn’t go all the way through the outer skin, if there was room for Stone to shift, he might be able to tear an opening for them to slip through.

“Wait.” Esom’s expression was pained and reluctant. “As much as I want to get out of here… there’s a magical source that way.” He pointed down the bigger tunnel that wound off through the leviathan’s flesh. “If it’s your seed, I don’t know how or why it would be down here, but—”

No, Moon wanted to say, we need to get out now, we need to go after Jade and Flower. “Are you sure?”

Esom winced in resignation. “Unfortunately, yes. Believe me, I’d rather go up.”

Stone turned to Chime. “Is he right? Can you feel it?”

Chime’s spines ruffled again. “No. I’m not a mentor anymore.”

Stone eyed him deliberately. “You knew there was a barrier over the outer door.”

A muscle worked in Chime’s jaw. He said, flatly, “I can’t do magic like Esom does.”

“How do you know you can’t?” Esom challenged. “Did you ever try?”

Chime hissed at him, and Esom drew back, affronted.

“I hate trusting the groundling, but we have to look.” River faced Stone. “We can’t come all this way and—”

“We know,” Moon snapped. He looked at Stone. “We’ll take the other tunnel.”

Stone gave him a grim nod.

They followed the bigger tunnel, passing two more passages that led directly upward. Moon gritted his back teeth and resisted the urge to alter their course.

Moon sensed the change ahead before he saw or heard anything. He halted abruptly. The others froze in place behind him, but Esom stumbled. It didn’t matter. Moon had the feeling that whatever blocked the airflow ahead already knew they were here. Nothing came at them, but after a moment he heard movement, scraping, a low grunt.

Moon eased forward. As the tunnel curved, he saw another narrow passage that intersected with it at a sharp angle. A group of beings climbed up it toward them.

They had mottled gray-white bodies, heavily muscled, with oblong heads, eyes protected by heavy folds, and wide mouths. Their skin was made up of tough armor plates, overlapping like scales. Moon realized these were the same pallid creatures he had seen in the space below the city, that bore a superficial resemblance to the big tree frogs from the suspended forest. So the tunnels that lead upward probably do go all the way out, he thought. Several pushed forward to block the main tunnel, the creatures in the back jostling each other for a look at the Raksura.

“What do they want?” Chime whispered nervously.

He had spoken in Kedaic, which everyone except River had been speaking for Esom’s benefit. It was a surprise when the creature in the lead rasped in the same language, “These tunnels belong to the Thluth. What do you want here?”

“We need to get past,” Moon said, his voice tight with tension. “That’s all.”

“You use our tunnels?” The leader’s mouth split in a wide, fanged grin. It had the largest, sharpest teeth Moon had ever seen in something groundling-sized, well-suited for gnawing through leviathan hide. It nodded toward Esom, who stood frozen behind Chime. “We let you—if you give us something to eat. One of them will do.”

Moon heard Chime’s and River’s spines rattle in reflex, and Stone made a derisive hiss. The skin under Moon’s claws started to itch. He said, “That better be a joke.” He had had a bad day, and this was about all he could take.

The leader surged forward aggressively and grinned, its hot, foul breath washing over him. It said, “No joke. Give us food.”

Moon slashed it across the throat, his claws sliding between the armor plates to sink into the thin line of vulnerable white skin. Hot blood splashed on his scales as the creature gurgled and staggered back. The other Thluth caught it as it sunk to the ground. Moon said, “You want any more, or is that going to be enough for you?”

The other Thluth drew away, watching him warily, and some prudently scrambled back down the side passage. Moon stayed where he was, flexing his claws, as Stone prodded Chime and Esom past. River eased by after them. Moon followed, watching as the Thluth dragged their leader’s body away.

They continued up the tunnel. After a moment, Esom said shakily, “Thank you for not feeding me to them. I appreciate—”

“Later,” Stone told him, and flicked a look back at Moon. “Don’t talk right now.”

They didn’t pass any other intersecting passages. The tunnel itself began to get smaller, rougher, and they had to duck under the stalactites. Moon set his jaw, and suppressed the urge to go back and kill a few more Thluth. They had demanded tribute for passage to a dead end.

But as the tunnel narrowed to a point where Moon thought they would have to turn around, they came to a large hole chewed out of the wall.

Stone stopped in the entrance and tasted the air as he held up the light, though all Moon could smell was rotting leviathan.

“This could be something,” Stone muttered, and stepped through the opening.

Moon followed with the others, and climbed through into a round chamber. It stretched upward, far beyond their light, the ceiling lost in darkness. A round column in the center plunged down into the leviathan’s flesh.

Moon paced impatiently around the chamber to make certain it was a dead end. He didn’t know why the Thluth had chewed this space out, but there was nothing here for them. “This isn’t it. We need to keep moving.”

“No, we’re in the right place,” Esom said. He had stepped to the edge of the center shaft to examine the column. “I don’t think this is the source, but arcane emanations are echoing through it.” He glanced at them. “I meant the source of the magical power—”

Teeth gritted, Chime said, “They understood you.”

“—must be in contact with it,” Esom finished stubbornly.

Stone tilted his head, staring hard at the column. “He’s right. That’s metal under there.”

“What?” Moon came back to his side and squinted to see. He had thought it was just another part of the leviathan’s flesh. Looking more closely, he saw verdigrised metal glinting between calcified lumps and dried ooze.

Chime went to the wall of the chamber and ran his hand over the surface. “I don’t see any teeth marks. I don’t think the parasites made this chamber. Maybe the groundlings cut it out so they could put that thing here.”

Moon turned back to the column. Maybe they had found something after all. “So this is anchoring part of the city to the leviathan?”

“Maybe,” Esom said, “But it must be in contact with something magical—”

“Up there somewhere?” River demanded, looking up into the space above them.

Stone held the light up, but all they could see was the column stretching up into darkness. Stone said, “River, take the light, climb up there. Not the column, go up the wall.”

River took the light-rock, clutched it in his teeth, and started up the chamber’s wall. It was the first time Moon had ever seen him do anything without a bad attitude. They watched his progress, the light growing smaller, until they stood in heavy darkness. Moon estimated River had gone about a hundred paces up the wall when he stopped. Moon hissed out a curse. River’s light shone on the roof of the chamber, where the leviathan’s flesh had grown back to enclose the column and close off any passage or opening. “If there was anything up there, we can’t get to it,” he said, frustrated.

Then Chime said, “Look, look at this!”

Moon turned around. It was too dark to see Chime, but it was obvious what he was pointing at: a faintly glowing shape outlined against the column. It was round, like a panel in the metal, with something behind it giving off a faint illumination.

Moon stepped close, stumbled on Chime’s tail, and moved him out of the way. He ran his hands over the panel to feel for seams under the encrustations. “Careful,” Esom said anxiously. “An arcane power source could be very dangerous.”

“The seed wouldn’t glow, would it?” Chime said, sounding doubtful. “Unless they did something drastic to it.”

Stone growled in frustration. “Get it open.”

Moon growled back at him and dug his claws into the crusted ooze to strip it off the old metal. River climbed back down the wall, bringing the light-rock. The glow from behind the panel faded as the chamber grew brighter, but Moon found the seams. He worked his claws in and yanked on the panel. It gave way so abruptly he stumbled backward. River pushed off the wall, landed beside Moon, and held out the light-rock. Behind the panel was a small compartment, and mounted in it was a discolored metal plaque set with rough crystals, about the size of Moon’s palm.

Esom said, “That’s it, that’s the arcane source I’ve been sensing!”

Moon paced away, too angry to speak. That’s not it. Jade and Flower are still trapped up there, Balm could be dead, and we don’t even have the damn seed to bargain with.

Behind him, Stone hissed with bitter disappointment. “It’s not the seed,” River said, pointedly speaking in Kedaic so Esom could understand him.

“I never said it was your seed,” Esom said, exasperated. “I said—”

“What is it doing to the leviathan?” Stone asked him, cutting across the budding argument. “It has to be doing something, or it wouldn’t be down here.”

“I don’t know.” Esom lifted his hands helplessly. “It could be helping to control the creature—”

“It has to be,” Chime broke in, his spines shaking with excitement. “Think about where we are. We went a long way down, but we’re not that far from where we started.”

“Maybe five hundred paces, give or take.” Moon tilted his head, and found that place inside himself that always knew where south was. “We’re below the mortuary temple, just in the center—”

Chime finished, “We’re under that dome, under that steering device.” He thumped the column. “This thing could be part of it.”

“Huh.” Stone looked up the column again.

“But we can’t get out that way,” River said impatiently. “There’s no opening. The flesh closes in around the top of this pillar-thing.”

“Yes, but…” Moon stepped back to the column, reached into the compartment and touched the crystal thing gingerly.

“I still think you should be careful,” Esom persisted.

Moon nudged the device a little. It wiggled back and forth, but didn’t seem to do anything. “Could this be how they control the leviathan?”

They all looked at Esom, who wiped his forehead wearily. “I don’t know. Our ship the Klodifore works by arcane power, using the metora stone as fuel. But it still has a wheel, a steering mechanism. There wasn’t anything like that on the device we saw. Not that I could tell, anyway.”

“But it’s not a ship, it’s a creature.” Chime eased forward and leaned close to the compartment. “Maybe the device controls a spell that lets the groundlings communicate with it.”

Esom nodded, preoccupied. “Oh, that’s a thought. Yes, I think that’s likely.”

If they were right… it didn’t matter how many seeds Ardan stole, they were all useless without this. This could be the whole key to Ardan’s power, the power of all the magisters. Moon reached for the crystalstudded metal piece, gripped it, and twisted it free.

As it snapped loose he felt the ground underfoot tremble. The rhythmic rush of the leviathan’s breath halted mid-inhale, the silence sudden and absolute. Stone cocked his head thoughtfully, listening. Esom and Chime were wide-eyed in alarm, while River’s spines twitched nervously. The moment stretched, then the creature’s breath whooshed out in a long sigh.

As the breathing resumed, Chime said, “It felt that. I don’t know what happened, exactly, but it felt that.”

Moon weighed the metal piece in his hand. “Good. Maybe Ardan felt it too.”

They went back down the Thluth tunnel, and took one of the vertical passages upward. The Thluth didn’t appear to demand tribute again.

The passage worked its way up through the leviathan’s hide along a narrow and twisty path. After a short distance it turned into a vertical shaft, too steep for Esom or for Stone in his groundling form.

Esom groaned but didn’t otherwise protest being carried by Chime again. River hesitated, looking dubiously at Stone. Stone hissed in annoyance and turned to Moon.

Moon supposed that if Stone had to be carried, he would rather it be by another consort, no matter how awkward. So they started up with Stone’s warm weight hanging on to Moon’s neck, and it was just as awkward as Moon could possibly have imagined.

The pocked surface was slick and pieces chipped off under their claws, but the leviathan’s breathing grew steadily louder, a welcome sign that they were nearing an opening to the surface. River, unencumbered, got a little ahead. They climbed in silence for a while, until Stone muttered, “I remember why the Arbora hate this.”

“It’s not like we have a choice,” Moon answered, concentrating on feeling for the next good claw-hold.

There was another long silence, broken only by whispers from somewhere below, where Esom seemed to be interrogating Chime about mentor abilities. Chime’s answers were tinged with irritation. Then Stone said, “I don’t kill solitaries just because they’re solitaries. And I would never have killed you.”

It was so unexpected, Moon’s claws almost slipped off the wall. Stone waited until he recovered, then continued, “If I’d decided you were crazy, or lying to me, I would have left you behind. I wanted you with me at Sky Copper so I could watch your reaction, make sure you’d never seen a court before. But by the time we got there, I’d already made my decision.” He added, “You little idiot.”

Moon hissed reflexively. After a moment, he said, “Sorry.” Deeply reluctant, he admitted, “I’m still not… good at this.”

“You’ll get over it,” Stone told him.

Above them, River hissed to get Moon’s attention. He looked up and realized they were very near the top. The space above them was dark, and the hole through the last layer of hide was small. A little ahead of Moon, River stopped just below the opening. He pointed to himself, then up. He was saying he should go first, since he was the only one not carrying someone. I hate it when he’s right. Moon nodded for him to go ahead.

River climbed to the lip of the opening, stopped to peer out, then scrambled over the edge.

After a tense moment, he leaned back down to whisper, “Come up.”

Moon gave Stone a boost, then followed him. As he climbed out, he knew where he was by scent and sound before his eyes adjusted to the dim green glow from the phosphorescent molds. They were in the underground space below the city, the stone of its foundations high above, supported by giant pillars and columns. The foundations were much lower here than in the area below Ardan’s tower, which was closer to the midpoint of the leviathan. The highest supporting arch was barely fifty paces above their heads.

Esom scrambled out with Chime right behind him. Chime stood and looked around, his spines flicking uneasily. Esom collapsed on the lumpy leviathan hide and said in relief, “I never thought I’d be glad to see this place again. Now it looks homey and welcoming.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Moon said. He turned to Stone and pointed north, toward the leviathan’s head. “The mortuary temple is back that way.”

Stone’s mouth twisted in an ironic grimace. He said, “Let’s hope Ardan’s not expecting us.” Then he shifted.

Stone’s larger body flowed into being so fast that Esom yelped and bumped into Chime as he flinched away. “Sorry,” he muttered. “I’m just not used to it when he does that.”