The Serpent Sea

Chapter Sixteen

Moon led the way across the dark space, finding the way back toward the mortuary temple. They moved in long bounds, and Chime carried Esom. That had to be rough on Esom, though.

Chime had partially extended his wings so he could make each landing a fairly light one. Esom didn’t complain, but kept a grimly tight grip on Chime’s collar flanges. There wasn’t another choice. They had to move fast and they couldn’t leave Esom behind down here.

The foundations and heavy buttresses above them dropped even lower, the columns grew wider. Then Stone came to an abrupt halt, head cocked as he listened. They all stopped and froze into place. Moon tasted the air, but all he could scent was rot and leviathan. It was hard to hear over the rush of the leviathan’s breath, but he was certain there was a voice from somewhere to the east, not far away. An oddly familiar voice. Incredulous, Chime whispered, “Is that Root?”

Before Moon could answer, River interposed, “Of course it is. He’s the only one who can’t shut up.”

“He’s not the only one,” Moon told him. Stone growled low in his throat and bounded away to follow the thread of sound.

The supporting pillars were closer together through this area, blocking the view, but as they traveled Moon started to make out some movement in the hazy light ahead. At least it was no mystery how the others had gotten down here. Vine and Drift would have seen Ardan’s men enter the mortuary from the main entrance, and had gone back to the tower-camp for help. Now they must be trying to find the underground entrance to the temple, which was what Moon would have done in their place.

Ahead, dim light glittered off scales and Moon spotted the Raksura, gathered with their backs to a pillar. He couldn’t tell what threat they faced… Then his eyes adjusted and he thought in disgust, Oh, that’s typical. The Raksura confronted a large group of the pale armored Thluth.

Moon shot ahead of Stone, River, and Chime. Coming up behind the Thluth, he swarmed up the nearest pillar, hopped to the next to get above them. In the group of Raksura he saw Vine, Floret, Song, Root, Drift… And Balm! She was leading the others, and faced the Thluth leader, her spines bristling. Relief was sharp and almost painful. Balm was alive; he just wished he could tell Jade.

And there was one extra Raksura: Rift was here, too.

Moon saw enough to tell the confrontation with the Thluth was angry. The Thluth seemed to be demanding tribute and Balm and the others weren’t taking it much better than Moon had. The Thluth leader spoke, pushed forward aggressively. Balm lunged to swipe him back.

Then Stone slammed between the pillars and sent the Thluth scrambling frantically away. Moon leapt down behind the leader.

He wasn’t certain if this was the same tribe of Thluth, but apparently it didn’t matter. The leader spun around, saw Moon, and bellowed a wordless warning. It wasn’t needed, since the other Thluth were already loping rapidly into the shadows. The leader bolted away, desperate to catch up with the others.

Chime and River arrived, and Esom staggered away as soon as Chime set him on his feet. Then Karsis darted out from behind the pillar and flung herself at Esom. They hugged each other, speaking rapidly in their own language, Karsis laughing with relief. Moon tried not to be envious.

“Balm!” Chime shouted. He grabbed her in a hug, and released her immediately when she gasped, “Ow!”

“Are you all right?” Chime asked her worriedly, holding onto her arm to steady her. “We couldn’t find you. We thought you were dead!”

“No, I’m fine,” Balm insisted. At close range, she didn’t look fine. She had scratches and dark patches in her golden scales, and her left wingjoin had a dark, livid scrape. She asked, “But what happened? I thought you were trapped.”

“We got out the hard way,” Chime told her. “It was horrible, but it worked.”

Drift greeted River enthusiastically, Root bounced around trying to greet everybody, and the others gathered around, excited, relieved, and demanding immediate answers. Only Rift hung back, watching them uneasily. “We thought the groundling sorcerer had you,” Floret said to Moon. “Balm saw—”

Balm frowned suddenly. “Wait, where’s Jade and Flower?”

Moon said it quickly, to get it over with. “They didn’t get out. They were trapped in that dome we found. We opened it, but then the warden-creatures attacked, and the door slid shut.”

That put an end to all the relieved excitement. Balm hissed in dismay, and looked from Moon to Stone. “Are they all right? Can the sorcerer get to them?”

“We don’t know.” Moon didn’t want to think about that right now. “How did you get away?”

Balm’s spines flicked in agitation, but she let her question go. “The waterling threw me back toward the other side of the chamber, and I hit the wall and fell to the floor. I must have been knocked out for a time. The next thing I knew, some groundlings ran right past me. When I managed to stand, those warden-creatures swarmed me and I flew up the first passage I found. It was the one that went outside to the plaza, where the guards were. They shot darts at me, but I got past them.” Her expression was bleak. “I found Vine and Drift, and we tried to get back in through the entrance in the flooded area, but the magical barrier was still there. So we went to the tower to get the others, and we decided to come down here to look for an underground passage into the temple.”

“That’s where we’re headed now,” Chime told her.

“You brought the solitary and the groundling woman?” River demanded, with an angry gesture at Rift. “What was the sense of that?”

“I told her not to do it,” Drift said. He sounded self-righteous about it, despite the fact that he had a fist-sized swelling around his left eye and another one low on his jaw. Moon hadn’t seen any of the Thluth land a blow, so it had to have happened earlier.

Rift, who had been hovering in the back to listen, twitched uneasily and looked away. Unexpectedly, it was Floret who rattled her spines and said, “The groundling woman showed us where the entrance to this place was, the one above the leviathan’s tail.”

Her voice flat and angry, Balm added, “We couldn’t leave them there. Rift would run away, and if we were all killed, Karsis would be stuck up in that tower unable to get out. I was going to just let her go, but she said she wanted to come along to find her brother.”

Moon flicked his spines at River, and told Balm, “No, you did right.” Stone touched her frills lightly with one claw tip, sympathy and reassurance combined. Moon looked around at the others. “We need to go.”

Balm nodded. “We think it’s this way.”

As the others moved away, Moon stopped her with a hand on her arm. He asked quietly, “What happened to Drift?” If Rift had tried to escape and Drift had gotten hurt stopping him, Moon needed to know.

Balm’s spines twitched at the memory. “He tried to take over the group, so I had to fight him. I didn’t trust him to do the right thing, and I knew we had to get back to Jade fast.” She hesitated, then in a mix of pride and relief said, “When I won, I was still afraid the others wouldn’t follow me, but they did.”

Moon thought that was the important part. Balm had to know that she could physically beat Drift. It was the fact that the others had not only stood by and let her, but supported her over him afterward, tacitly acknowledging Balm’s status in the court, even over one of Pearl’s favorites. He said, “Good.”

It was better hidden than Moon had anticipated, and they found it only because Stone was able to follow the stench of the fermenting edilvine and rot, buried in with the leviathan’s pervasive scent.

The tunnel entrance was in the deeper shadow up near the city’s foundation, in a buttress that joined two pillars, about fifty paces above the leviathan’s skin. When Moon climbed up to investigate, he found a broad walkway along the buttress, with the tunnel just above it, opening into a dark passage up through the layers of rock and metal.

Moon made the others stay below and climbed up with Chime and Floret, Chime in front to sense any magical barriers. The city’s foundation was much thinner here than it had been under Ardan’s tower. Barely twenty paces up, Chime hissed for them to stop, then climbed back down to report, “There’s a tunnel up there, pretty narrow. It stinks of those vines. It’s coming from the direction of the mortuary, going off toward the east.”

River hovered impatiently under the passage opening. “Come on, let’s go,” he said. “We have to find out what the sorcerer did with Jade and Flower.”

Moon, who hadn’t been able to think of anything else except what the sorcerer might be doing to Jade and Flower, managed not to give in to the impulse to drop back down and tear River’s head off. He said, “No, we scout first.” He didn’t intend to make any mistakes, or to let them all rush up there and find themselves running right into Ardan. “Floret, follow the tunnel back toward the mortuary, as far as you can without being seen. See if there’s anyone guarding it. Take Chime, to check for barriers.”

Floret flicked her spines in acknowledgement and started to climb. Chime, nervous but determined, followed her. Moon dropped back out of the passage to wait, as River stomped away to sulk with Drift. But no one questioned the decision.

Stone settled under the opening to wait and Moon paced uneasily. It didn’t help that the others were all sitting or standing there staring at him, even Karsis and Esom. This was much easier when Jade was here to take all the responsibility, and all Moon had to do was have the crazy ideas. It had been easier having responsibility only for himself.

Rift hovered a little apart from the others, his whole body suggesting reluctance to be anywhere near them, though he hadn’t tried to run away. Seeing him again made Moon realize just how confused his feelings were. He felt sorry for Rift, he was deeply suspicious of him, he wanted to help him, he just wanted him to go away. Rift was a miserable reminder that there were pitfalls to living with the Raksuran courts that Moon hadn’t even stumbled into yet. None of it was going to matter if they didn’t get the seed back and get off this damn leviathan, but he couldn’t stop his thoughts from drifting in that direction.

Balm looked up at the passage, worried and preoccupied. She said, “You think the sorcerer knows Jade and Flower are trapped in the dome?”

“He has to.” Moon thought it was dangerous to assume anything else. “He would have wanted to open it to see if the seed was still there.”

“Maybe they can fight him off,” Song said. “There’s two of them, and Flower’s still pretty strong.” She flicked her spines nervously, a young and deceptively delicate predator.

“Your friends might have been able to lock the door from the inside,” Esom pointed out. “Or dismantle the mechanism that opens it, if it’s not too complicated.” Karsis elbowed him and he blinked and added, “Not that I think they wouldn’t be able to figure out something complicated—”

“It’s all right,” Moon cut him off before he made it any worse. “We know what you mean.”

Karsis cleared her throat. Obviously trying to distract everyone from Esom’s gaffe, she asked Moon, “Is Jade your wife?”

In groundling terms, it was close enough. “Yes.”

With bitter emphasis, Rift said, “He’s a consort. It’s not like he had a choice. It’s not like anyone in a Raksuran court has a choice.”

And having Rift speak for him didn’t decrease Moon’s irritation. Moon said, pointedly, “I had a choice.”

Rift threw a glance at him, half-angry, half-wary. “To compete for a queen or to be a useless burden to the court?”

If Stone had heard that, he ignored it. Balm hissed and Song and Vine bristled angrily. Glaring at Rift in annoyance, Karsis said, “You know, I don’t think anyone here cares for your opinion. I know I never have.”

Rift barred his teeth at her. Then Root, seething with indignation, said, “Moon was a solitary, too, and he stays with Jade because he wants to.”

Rift stared at Moon, so incredulous his spines flattened. Vine thumped Root in the side of the head, and hissed, “No more talking. Ever.”

Moon set his jaw. Rift had always had a hold on him; now he would know what it was. Rift said, “That’s… Consorts don’t leave their courts…”

“Tell him the story,” Moon said. He walked away and circled around Stone to take up a position under the passage. Stone, proving that he had been listening, heaved a deeply annoyed sigh.

There was a long moment of awkward silence from the other side of the walkway, then Moon heard Balm speak quietly to Vine. Vine gestured and Rift, still badly shocked, followed him down the walkway to talk. Song shook her head grimly at Root, whose spines drooped with embarrassment.

Time seemed to drag. Standing still, without immediate danger as a distraction, Moon could feel every cut and slash that had penetrated his scales, the exhaustion dragging at him like a net, making his wings feel like they were iron weights. It had been a long time since he had shifted to groundling, but if he did it now he might fall down and not be able to get up again.

As they waited, everyone showed signs of fatigue: Balm’s spines were drooping, Root had trouble keeping his eyes open, and River leaned against a pillar, trying to pretend it wasn’t holding him up. There was only so much more of this they could take without a chance to eat and rest. He hoped Ardan was tired too, and feeling the strain of doing so much magic at once. But Moon was willing to bet Ardan had had time to stop for a meal, and they hadn’t.

There was a scrabbling in the passage above them, then Floret and Chime dropped out.

The others bounded over to gather around, Esom and Karsis hurrying after them. Floret reported, “We got all the way up to this room full of stinking vines in barrels. There were two blue groundlings in the corridor just past it. Chime said they belonged to the sorcerer.”

“I didn’t feel any barriers,” Chime added. “I bet Ardan doesn’t know about this way out.”

Moon nodded, thinking it over. Ardan must believe that the people who were trading with the water travelers only used that doorway to the flooded street. “If the guards are there, then Ardan is still in the mortuary. Maybe he didn’t get the dome open yet.” And everyone on the leviathan must have felt the jolt when Moon had removed the crystal piece. Maybe Ardan had more to deal with at the moment than just the Raksura.

“But he must be trying to get it open,” Chime said. “Even if we can get past the guards and get into the mortuary, he’ll be right there.”

“So how do we get past him?” Balm said, frustrated.

Moon shook his head. “We can’t. We have to talk to him.”

River snarled skeptically. “What, so he can feed us to the leviathan again?” Drift hissed agreement.

Moon didn’t bother to argue that. The trick was going to be to make Ardan want to talk more than he wanted to get rid of them. He looked at Esom. “That spell you did, the one that made it so no one could see you and Karsis when you were trying to get out of the tower. Can you do that again?”

Esom straightened his cracked spectacles, and nodded. “Yes. You want me to use it so we can get back into the mortuary without anyone knowing we’re there?”

“Will that work? Can you get past Ardan?”

“I… think so. I know I can hide myself and one other person, reliably.” Esom hesitated, his expression uncertain. He admitted, “Ardan was always distracted when I tried the spell inside his tower.”

“I can distract him,” Rift said. He bristled his spines uneasily as everyone turned to stare at him. “He’ll listen to me.” He looked at Moon. “You know he will.”

Behind them, Stone shifted to groundling. Esom flinched and cursed, Karsis just stared in fascination. Stone folded his arms and regarded Rift thoughtfully.

Rift threw him a frightened look but held his ground. Still focusing on Moon, he said, “You know it’s true. He wants me back, doesn’t he? He’ll talk to me.”

Moon let out his breath. Yes, Ardan wanted Rift back. Moon just wasn’t sure what Rift wanted. “If you tell him about Esom’s spell, what we’re planning—”

“You’ll kill me, I know.” Rift glanced around at the others, spines lowered. “I didn’t mean to hurt your court. I thought the colony tree was abandoned forever. If I’d known you were coming back—”

“That’s not the point.” Stone’s voice cut across Rift’s, silencing him immediately. It was the first time Stone had spoken directly to him. “That colony tree is our court.”

Rift flattened his spines but said, “A court is Aeriat and Arbora, not the empty shell of a tree. For all I knew, your court had died out and I was doing the tree a favor, letting it die so it wouldn’t live forever alone.”

Stone grimaced, equal parts irritation and disgust, probably because Rift had given him an answer that was hard to argue with.

Moon asked Rift, “What do you want in return?”

If Rift said “Nothing,” Moon wasn’t going to believe him. Rift wasn’t the self-sacrificing type, even if he did feel sorry about the colony tree. But Rift said, “When you find a way to leave the leviathan, take me with you. I want to go back to the forest Reaches. Ardan may want me back, but he’ll never trust me again, and I can’t trust him.” His scales rippled uneasily. “And I’m sick of this place.”

Moon thought it rang true, but he didn’t quite trust his own judgment when it came to this. The others watched Rift with varying degrees of skepticism, doubt, and even a little sympathy. Moon looked at Balm. She studied Rift carefully, her eyes narrowed. She caught Moon’s gaze, and gave him a grimace of doubt and a slow reluctant nod.

That summed up Moon’s feelings accurately. He told Rift, “All right, we have a deal. Don’t make me regret it.”

Moon and Rift crept up the tunnel, climbed through a doorway that had been knocked out of the wall and into the edilvine chamber. Making their way silently past the stinking barrels, Moon saw there were now three blue-pearl guards in the passage. Most of their attention was on the upper part of the passage, as if they were expecting someone to try to come in through the smugglers’ entrance. Which made it easy when Moon and Rift barreled in among them and knocked them flat.

Moon kicked a dart gun away from the one that was sprawled on the ground but still conscious, and told him, “Go tell Ardan that Moon and Rift want to talk. We have something he wants. Say that to him.”

The man scrambled back, shoved to his feet, and ran.

Then they waited, Moon still and Rift pacing and lashing his tail. “What if he doesn’t—” Rift began, and Moon hissed at him to be quiet. If Ardan didn’t take the bait, he had no idea what they were going to do.

He heard the groundlings coming back, at least six of them. They approached cautiously up the passage, one carrying a small vapor-lamp. Another craned his neck, trying to see the two men still lying unconscious in the shadows. Moon said, “They’re alive.”

The guard stared, startled. Either by the fact that the Raksura hadn’t killed and eaten the men as a matter of course, or that Moon had thought the other guards would care. The one in the lead said, stiffly, “The Magister will speak with you.”

The others moved back against the walls. Moon walked past them and Rift followed. Moon caught a whiff of fear-sweat, but no one pulled out a dart gun at the last instant. As he and Rift went toward the passage into the mortuary, he heard the guards move to collect the unconscious men.

Esom and Stone would be waiting down in the edilvine tunnel, and would follow them under the concealment of the spell. Esom could only make the spell big enough to conceal Stone in his groundling form, but Moon hadn’t thought there would be any possibility of Stone sliding the dome’s door open without Ardan noticing. But if Ardan tried to turn on them, Stone would be there. And Moon wasn’t leaving without Jade and Flower.

They reached the doorway, where more nervous guards waited, and went past them, down the steps into the huge chamber. Moon had asked Rift if Ardan would have been able to make more warden-creatures by this time. Rift had said that even if he could, he wouldn’t be able to let the creatures run loose with his guards here. Moon hoped he wasn’t lying.

Shadows still clung to the upper half of the room, concealing the vaulted ceiling and the tops of the huge pillars, but more vapor-lamps had been lit. Moon spotted Ardan immediately. He waited under a lamp stand, about fifty paces from the doorway, with a large group of his guards spread out behind him. Beside Moon, Rift twitched uneasily.

Moon couldn’t see the dome from here. It was somewhere past the shadowy outline of the undead waterling’s tail. He couldn’t see the spot on the far side of the chamber where Ardan had made the floor dissolve, either.

He started across the wide expanse of pavement toward Ardan, and tried not to look as if he was thinking about it disappearing under him at any moment. He and Rift stopped ten paces away from the sorcerer.

Ardan said, easily, “Rift, it’s good to see you well. I hope they haven’t treated you badly.”

Rift twitched again, uncomfortable. He couldn’t seem to meet Ardan’s gaze. “No. Not… No.”

Ardan turned to Moon and assessed him cautiously. “I didn’t expect to see you alive.”

It was nice of Ardan to admit it. “We’re hard to kill,” Moon said. “But it turned out for the best.”

Ardan’s mouth tightened. Moon thought, he guessed we were responsible for the jolt, but he was hoping he was wrong. Ardan said, “I felt the leviathan’s distress. I take it that was something you did?”

“I don’t think the leviathan was distressed. I think it was relieved.” Moon hoped they were right about what the crystal piece did. If Ardan laughed in his face at this point, they were going to be in a lot of trouble. “The thing that was telling it what to do is gone.”

Ardan’s self-control wasn’t quite perfect, and Moon could hear the tension in his voice. “What thing?”

“The metal piece with the crystals. The one down there, in the pillar that cuts through the leviathan’s hide. The one that lets you use the power in the seed to send the leviathan all over the sea, anywhere you want.”

There was an uneasy ripple among the guards, but no one seemed surprised or appalled—as if they suspected Ardan had been lying to the whole city but didn’t like to hear it mentioned aloud.

Ardan’s expression hardened into annoyance. He glanced at the guards, and said, “You’re wrong, of course, no one can steer the leviathan. But that device, the leviathan’s bridle, is almost a legend. I’ve seen drawings, but…” With grim urgency, he said, “This creature could decide to sink at any moment. You could kill us all.”

Yes, that’s the point, Moon thought. He said, “Then give us the seed. It’s useless to you without the bridle, isn’t it? You’ve got a choice: lose all of your control over the leviathan, or just part of it.”

Ardan took a deep breath and watched him appraisingly. “You don’t have it with you.”

Moon flicked his spines, though Ardan couldn’t read that as a gesture of dismissal. “Of course not.”

“The others have it,” Rift said suddenly. “I’ve seen it.”

Ardan gave Rift a slight nod of thanks. Still thoughtful, he said to Moon, “As you must have guessed, I wasn’t able to open the sanctum. There is a wheel on the inside that operates the door, and whoever is in there was clever enough to find a way to jam it.”

Moon was fairly certain that a queen and a mentor working together had had absolutely no difficulty finding a way to jam the mechanism. Especially since they would have felt no need to be careful with whatever materials were available inside the dome. He just said, “They’ll open it for me.”

Ardan lifted a brow. “And would your companions trade both the seed and the bridle for you?”

Moon showed all his teeth. “If you try that, they’ll smash your bridle and scatter the pieces in the sea.”

“Why should I believe you?” Ardan smiled thinly. “Perhaps you’re too valuable to them. You are a consort. I know what that means.”

Rift said, “No. He’s like me, he was a solitary. His queen is the only one who wants him and she’s trapped in the sanctum. They won’t trade for him.”

Moon flinched. It wasn’t true; it was just Rift trying to help, melding truth with lies, which was apparently what he did best. It was just an accident that he had hit so close to the bone.

Ardan’s brow furrowed. His sharp gaze hadn’t missed Moon’s reaction. He said, “You’re certain?”

Rift had nothing in his voice but complete conviction. “They would never have sent a consort they cared about into your tower. Not even to save a colony tree seed.”

Moon set his jaw, and tried to ignore the sinking sensation in his stomach. They didn’t send me, I sent myself. Jade would never have agreed to the plan if she had been there to object. Somehow knowing that didn’t help.

Ardan hesitated, his face hard. He doesn’t want to make the trade, but he can’t see another way out, Moon thought. You hope he can’t see another way out.

Then a guard approached from out of the shadows in the direction of the mortuary’s main entrance. He moved forward cautiously, saluted Ardan with a half bow, and said, “Magister, please.”

Ardan said, through gritted teeth, “Excuse me a moment.” He turned and moved back to the line of guards to talk to the man. They faced away, speaking in whispers, and not in Kedaic.

Quietly, in Raksuran, Moon asked Rift, “Can you understand them?”

Rift glanced down. “Yes, they’re speaking Ilisai, a trader’s language. He said Magister Lethen is at the gate with Magisters Giron and Soleden. They have all their guards with them, and they say they have firepowder.”

“What’s that?”

“A weapon. It makes a big burst of fire. The fishermen use it to keep the giant waterlings away.” Rift listened a moment more. “The guard says that the people are gathering in this area, too. When they felt the leviathan jolt, someone ordered the traders to cast off and the fishing boats to be secured for a move, so everyone knows something is wrong.”

“Good.” Moon rippled his spines, trying to release the tension in his back. That explained why the guards had been in the passage. Ardan had known the other magisters would be trying to get inside, and if any of them knew about the smuggler’s entrance, they might have enough magic of their own to get through his barrier.

Ardan turned away from the messenger. From his expression, none of this was welcome news. He said to Moon, “Very well. I’ll return the seed in exchange for the bridle. If Rift will be good enough to go and get it now.”

That hadn’t been in Moon’s plans. “After you let us go with the seed.”

Ardan’s expression was derisive. “I’m not a fool. Then you’d have both.”

Moon bared his fangs. “I don’t want both.”

Ardan held out for a long moment, then took a sharp impatient breath. “Send Rift for the bridle. You and I will go and get the seed. We’ll make the exchange here.”

Moon controlled a frustrated hiss. He could continue to argue, but he didn’t want the other magisters to break this up anymore than Ardan did. He told Rift, “Go and get it.”

Rift flicked his spines in assent, threw an opaque look at Ardan, and bounded away toward the doorway to the tunnel.

Ardan started toward the dome and the guards hastily moved out of his way. Moon followed him, forcing himself not to twitch under the suspicious regard of a large group of hostile groundlings.

He took in a quiet breath and tasted the air. There was no hint of Stone or Esom, but then the air was thick with rot, the leviathan’s stench, and decaying preserved waterling. Using Esom’s concealment spell, the two of them should be working their way around the outer perimeter of the big chamber, as far away from the guardsmen and Ardan as possible.

Once they were past the bulk of the dead waterling, Moon could see the dome. Ardan hadn’t lied; it looked undisturbed, except for some new scratches and scuffs at the door seam where the guards must have tried to pry it open.

As they reached the dome, Ardan said easily, “Continue to speak in Kedaic, please. I wouldn’t want reason to doubt our arrangement.”

Moon didn’t argue. He stepped up to the door and tapped on it. “Jade, it’s me.” He couldn’t hear anything from inside, but after a long, fraught moment, something creaked in the wall and the door began to slide open. It stopped, leaving a gap only a pace or so wide. Jade stepped into the opening.

Moon realized that until that moment he hadn’t been certain that she and Flower were really still inside the dome, that this hadn’t been an elaborate ruse by Ardan. She was still in her winged form, her spines bristling. Moon heard muted exclamations from some of Ardan’s men. They sounded startled and uneasy, as if Jade was more formidable than they had expected. Jade kept her expression neutral, though her gaze flicked over Moon briefly, possibly looking for open wounds. Then, with a slight narrowing of her eyes, she regarded Ardan.

He said, “I had never expected to see a Raksuran queen in the flesh.”

Jade tilted her head inquiringly. “Have you seen many dead ones?”

Ardan smiled, acknowledging the hit. “I’ve seen the wall carvings.”

Moon said, “We’re giving him the thing that he needs to keep the leviathan from sinking, and he’s going to let us leave with the seed.”

“Is he.” Jade sounded unconvinced, but she lifted a hand.

Flower stepped into view behind Jade, and she held something tucked under her arm. It was a light brown object the size of a melon, with a ribbed outer shell. Flower said, “It was in a holder in the altar, or whatever it is, in here.” She peered past Jade at Ardan. “That’s him, is it?”

Ardan frowned at Flower. “I’m sorry. You’re not a Raksura, surely?” Apparently he couldn’t contain his curiosity even under these circumstances.

Flower’s brows quirked. This was probably not a question she had ever been asked before. “I’m an Arbora.”

Ardan didn’t look convinced. “You don’t resemble the carvings.”

That was possibly an attempt at a polite way of saying that the carvings showed Arbora to be stocky and heavily muscled, and not raw-boned thin and fragile. Flower said, dryly, “I’m old.”

Jade took Flower’s shoulder and moved her away from Ardan, putting Flower between herself and Moon. Ardan gave her a polite nod. He stepped back, and said, “Very well. We’ll go and make the exchange.”

Jade lifted a brow at Moon, but didn’t object. Ardan wasn’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but he was desperate, and Moon was fairly sure he would try something to keep the seed. He might believe now that the other Raksura wouldn’t trade the seed and the bridle for Moon, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to make them trade for Jade’s release. But that wouldn’t happen until Ardan had his hands on the bridle. They started to follow the sorcerer back toward the tunnel entrance, where Rift would be waiting.

As they walked, Ardan said, “I was told that your consort is not accepted by your people, that he has the same disadvantage as Rift.”

Flower looked up, startled. Jade’s spines were already bristling and didn’t betray her reaction. She flicked a look at Moon, who couldn’t afford to do anything but stare back at her. He hoped she just played along and agreed, but some traitor part of him wanted her to argue with Ardan even if it did wreck their plan. She said to Ardan, “I think it’s laughable to expect a groundling to understand our customs.”

Ardan wasn’t willing to let her avoid the issue. “I think anyone of feeling can recognize a despicable custom. And if you support it, why make an exception for your consort?”

Flower hissed quietly to herself. Jade’s spines rippled. She said, “You have your own share of despicable customs.”

Unperturbed, Ardan said, “I’ve offered Rift a refuge here. Your consort would be welcome as well.”

Jade’s claws flexed. Flower gave Moon a look of pure consternation, but Jade only said, “I think your refuge comes with a price.”

Then they were past the bulk of the dead waterling, and Ardan abruptly lost interest in the argument. He stopped, and said, grimly, “Speaking of Rift, it seems he has returned with company.”

Three Raksura waited on the steps below the tunnel entrance. From the colors of their scales, it was Rift, Balm, and Chime. Moon hoped the others waited past the doorway, just out of sight, and the men that Ardan had stationed there had been chased away down the tunnel.

“They don’t trust him,” Moon said. There were so many things that could still go wrong, he couldn’t count them. “Just like you don’t trust us.”

“True.” Ardan hesitated, his expression still, and Moon could practically see him turning over the decision whether to betray them or not. He didn’t let himself tense. They had the seed and a mostly clear shot to the tunnel entrance, and Stone and Esom should be nearby. His only worry was if Ardan could do some sort of magic before they all reached the tunnel. Then Ardan said, “Tell Rift to bring it—”

An explosion shook the chamber, sent a tremor through the paving. A shower of dust and rock chips rained down from above. Jade halfflared her wings. Moon ducked instinctively and threw a protective arm around Flower. She shifted to Arbora under his hand, crouching to shield the seed.

Someone shouted, “Magister, they’re coming, they broke through the wall—”

The firepowder, Moon realized. The waterling weapon. Ardan staggered to his feet, shouted at the guards. Moon looked back, trying to see through the dust, and spotted Esom stumbling barely thirty paces away. Stone, still in groundling form, tackled him down, and rolled them both out of sight behind a pillar. Moon grimaced, stricken. The shock of the explosion must have made Esom lose control over his spell. The guards were going to see them any moment. He told Jade, “Go for the tunnel, go now! We’ll distract him—”

Jade hissed agreement, grabbed Flower, and leapt for the tunnel.

Then suddenly the ground underfoot dipped and turned, threw Moon sideways as the paving lifted under them. He thought it was Ardan opening a passage down to the leviathan again, and snarled in fury. But Ardan staggered as the floor tilted, trying to stay on his feet. Water rushed in through the tunnel entrance, down the stairs, and bowled over Ardan’s guards. Jade changed her direction in mid-leap and flared her wings. She whipped around to land on the nearest pillar, Flower and the seed still tucked under one arm. Chime, Balm, and Rift jumped up through the spray as the wave rolled across the floor.

The water had to be coming up the flooded street, obviously not hampered by the magical barrier over the door. But the floor still tilted down at a sharp incline. The leviathan is lowering its head, Moon realized in horror, getting ready to go under…

As the wave hit, Moon lunged forward, grabbed Ardan around the waist, and jumped down the incline to the side of the nearest pillar. Water washed over him, stale at first and then fresh. Moon shook Ardan and shouted, “What are you doing?”

“It’s not me!” Ardan gritted out, his hands digging into Moon’s arm. “It’s the leviathan! Those fools, when they used the firepowder so close to its head, they must have woken it. Without the bridle it’s free to do whatever it wants.”

It sounded horribly likely. The leviathan had lowered its head immediately after the explosion. “Can you stop it?”

“I can try. Get me the bridle, take me to the sanctum, and I’ll try!”

Moon looked around. Balm and Chime had joined Jade, perched on a pillar about a hundred paces away. They all stared this way, doubtless wondering what Moon was doing with Ardan. He couldn’t see Rift… No, there he was, holding on to the corbelled ceiling high overhead. Moon bellowed, “Rift, come here!”

Rift hesitated, long enough for Moon to think about where he would have to put Ardan while he flew up to drag Rift out of the ceiling, to wonder where Stone and Esom were. Water poured continuously in from the tunnel entrance, roared down the slope of the floor. Then Rift dropped down to the pillar and cupped his wings to land on it a few paces above Moon.

“Give him the bridle,” Moon said. “I’ve got to take him to the sanctum to try to stop this.”

Rift handed the bridle to Ardan, and said, “Good luck.”

Rift ducked away as Moon flared his wings and leapt for the next pillar. The sloped stone surface made for a difficult landing, and his claws slipped. He slid down a few paces before he caught hold of the carving. Ardan grunted in alarm, but didn’t struggle or panic. Moon pushed off again, more carefully this time, and crossed the room in long bounds. Halfway across, Chime caught up and landed above him on a slanting pillar. He said breathlessly, “Jade says to hurry up and do whatever it is you’re doing.”

Moon didn’t need to be told that. He leapt into the air again. He finally splashed down beside the sanctum’s open doorway. A moment later Chime landed atop the dome. Water poured down the slope of the floor, most of it flowing past the angled doorway, so the sanctum wasn’t flooded yet. He set Ardan on his feet. The Magister staggered, caught the wall to steady himself, and said, “Thank you. You can send your friend for the seed.”

Moon wasn’t buying that. “You said you could do it with the bridle. It’s a little late to change your story.” The man was as bad as Rift. Another wave washed down and sloshed partly into the sanctum. Ardan smiled tightly. “It was worth a try.” He pulled himself inside and staggered across to the plinth.

Moon climbed the side of the dome, up to where Chime crouched. The big room was even darker; the vapor-light stands in the lower part of the chamber had been swamped. Though it didn’t douse them, they didn’t put out much light under water. “Did you see Stone and Esom?”

Chime watched the swirling water below. A drowned groundling floated by, one of the blue-pearl guards. Chime grimaced. “No, where were they?”

“Behind a pillar, not far from the tunnel entrance.” Moon squinted to see through the shadows. “Esom lost the spell when the firepowder went off. They should have—”

A high-pitched roar echoed across the chamber. “Uh oh,” Chime said, nervously. “Now what?”

It came from the direction of the hole in the floor, the one Ardan had made above the leviathan’s blowhole. Moon had a bad feeling about that. “I hope that’s not what I think it is. Come on.” Moon jumped off the dome and headed toward the sound.

As they made their way from pillar to pillar, Moon saw Stone first, in the big dark shape of his Raksuran form. He was at the edge of the jagged opening in the floor, and struggled with something. Then they reached a pillar overlooking it, and the scene made Chime gasp in horror. “I thought we were done with these things!”

Big beetle-like parasites climbed up through the opening from below. The creatures had armor, spines around their mouths, big fangs. They must be coming up out of the area around the leviathan’s blowhole, driven by the water. Stone dodged around, slapped them back down into the opening.

“How long can he keep that up?” Chime wondered.

Not long enough, Moon thought, sick. At least Stone didn’t have to fight in water; it was all pooling down towards the other end of the chamber. The only other advantage seemed to be that the creatures only came up on one side of the opening, the side that was mostly in shadow, the side furthest away from the nearest vapor-light.

“I’ve got an idea. Light, they must hate light—”

Chime caught on immediately. “We get the lights, dump them down the opening—”

“Come on!”

They went back, unhooked the metal vapor-light chambers from the tops of the nearest poles, carried them to the opening, and flung them down into it. The parasites shied away from the light, shrieking in dismay, and proving the theory correct.

Fortunately, the big chamber had a lot of vapor-lights, and Ardan’s men must have lit more when they arrived. Moon’s world narrowed down to finding, carrying, passing Chime, throwing, and dodging the flailing claws of the parasites. Balm came to help, and Moon saw Rift at one point, carrying a lamp. He was glad Jade had stayed to guard Flower, and almost wished Balm had remained with her. He wasn’t counting Ardan out of this game yet.

The tide of parasites slowed, then stopped, and Stone clung panting to the sloping floor. Then abruptly the entire chamber rolled.

The pillar Moon had perched on suddenly changed from a slanted surface to a vertical one, and he slipped off and landed badly. A foulsmelling wave washed over him as the water that had collected at the other end of the chamber flowed back this way.

Nearby, Stone abruptly shifted back to groundling. Still sprawled on the floor, he demanded, “What was that?”

“The leviathan lifted its head,” Moon explained. Air thundered through the blowhole again as the creature expelled a breath, and they all hastily retreated from the edge of the opening.

“The floor’s still moving,” Balm said, stumbling a little as she joined them. “No, wait, the whole thing is moving.”

“Ardan must be sending the leviathan somewhere,” Moon said. “I gave him the bridle so he could stop it from going underwater.”

“I thought he couldn’t tell it where to go without the seed,” Chime said.

They all stared at each other, stricken. Stone dropped his head into his hands, and muttered, “Not again.”

“No, it can’t be.” Moon shook his head and dismissed the momentary fear. “He couldn’t have gotten back across the mortuary on his own, let alone gotten the seed from Flower and Jade.”

Stone said grimly, “I’ll make sure. And I’ve got to get Esom. I left him around here somewhere.” He jerked his head at Moon. “You three find out where Ardan’s sent this thing.”

Moon turned back for the sanctum with Balm and Chime, making slower progress through the big chamber now that it was in almost complete darkness. Most of the vapor-lights were down below on the leviathan’s skin, lighting the area around the blowhole.

The sanctum’s door was still open, and light shone out of it. They dropped silently to the floor about twenty paces away. Moon motioned for Balm and Chime to hang back. He went forward slowly, and eased up to the doorway to look inside.

Moon hissed, startled. Wasn’t expecting this.

Ardan lay curled on the floor near the plinth. His eyes stared in blank surprise, and he still held the bridle in one hand, his fingers clutched around it. Moon stepped closer and knelt, touched the body lightly, then moved the head. Blood pooled on the floor beneath it. He thought Ardan had been hit from behind, cracked with force on the lower part of the skull, below the protective crown of bone and pearl. The angle was wrong for a fall. He might have somehow struck the edge of the plinth, but he had died facing it.

Worry about it later, Moon thought. On impulse he took the bridle, gently freeing it from Ardan’s nerveless fingers, and then fled the sanctum.