The Harbors of the Sun

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Moon woke with Niran leaning over him, saying, “We found the Hians.”

He sat up abruptly and bumped his head on the bench built out from the wall. He had fallen asleep on the floor of their cabin, curled between Jade and Chime. From the light falling through the narrow windows, it was nearing dawn. Bramble and Merit were wound together nearby, still asleep. On the other side of the room, Shade was a lump under the blanket and Lithe yawned and rolled over. Root, Flicker, and some Opal Night warriors were in a pile near the door. Jade, already on her feet and shifted to her winged form, asked, “Where’s Stone?”

Niran pointed up. “Sleeping on the roof.”

Chime groaned and sat up. Moon managed to reach out in time to catch his head before it hit the bench. “Thanks,” Chime croaked, and struggled upright.

Moon climbed to his feet, aware his back was stiff and his throat was raw from the dry air. Niran had turned to point. “Their ship is that way, at the far end of this ruin. River and Spark went atop the masts just before dawn, and were able to spot them.”

Jade hissed out a breath. “Let’s go say hello.”

Not long later, when the sun was just starting to break above the horizon, Moon perched on the back of a flower-pod. Behind him was Chime, Shade carrying Lithe, and most of the warriors. Stone curled below the pod to keep his larger form out of sight, and Jade had climbed further up to get a better view over the top. They had left River and two of Malachite’s warriors behind on the wind-ship with the Arbora and groundlings. Though there had been no scent or sense of anything stalking the wind-ship, there was no point in not being careful.

Speaking of careful, the kethel had followed them, though it hadn’t voiced any intention of participating in the fight. It was in its scaled form, tucked behind the next pod, waiting and watching.

Moon peered around the nearest fluted edge, trying to get a better view. The outline of the Hians’ flying boat was just visible where it floated above a pod at the far end of the structure. No lights showed in the cabin windows and no one moved on deck.

Moon lifted up a little for a better angle. In the growing light the ruin was even larger than they had thought, with dozens of the huge flower-pods forming a curving forest around the open central area. It looked a little like the docking stalks of the swampling port, and Moon wondered if those had been built in imitation of this strange place. A causeway like the one that had extended out over the bay lay a few hundred paces below, and led to a large building like a pile of domes and spheres. It had obviously been deserted a long time, with scars and jagged holes in its white stone. Bands of carving decorated it, faint colors still visible on the reliefs, and steps led up from the causeway to a large round doorway at its base. Platforms extended out from the sides supporting clumps of vegetation, including a few tall trees with long elegantly curved branches, bare of all but a scattering of leaves.

The building didn’t look like it was made of the same material as the flower pods. It looked like someone else had come in after the forerunners and plunked it down. Which was exactly what happened to so many old ruins, everywhere Moon had traveled, new people moving in and adding things to what was already there and using it for new purposes. So maybe it was a little reassuring to see.

Chime, crouched behind Moon, whispered, “How big is this place?” Moon looked away from the ruin. Far below their perch, the dim morning light gradually revealed a landscape of lush green grass cut through with deep rocky gorges and clouds of mist. Like a plain had been dropped from a height and shattered, with streams of water finding their way through the deep cracks. To the west rose a low range of blue hills. Moon had never seen a flying island this large. “So we really are on the cloudwall,” he said, keeping his voice low.

“I didn’t want to believe it either,” Jade muttered from above. “Get ready. There’s no one at the fire weapon stations.”

She leapt into the air and snapped her wings out. Moon scrambled up the pod after her. Behind him, wings flapped and claws scratched across the pod as the others took flight toward the Hian boat.

Jade lit on the cabin roof above the nearest fire weapon balcony, on the port side above the stern. Moon landed atop the next cabin over. As the warriors dropped down, Jade made a sharp motion toward the fire weapon stations on either side of the stern. “Two of you get down into those balconies and make sure the Hians don’t get near the weapons.” Briar climbed into the one on the port side and Saffron motioned for Flicker to take the other.

Shade landed next to Moon and set Lithe on her feet, then Jade leapt over their heads to reach the next cabin roof. Lithe had shifted to her Arbora form, something she only did reluctantly. She still looked like an ordinary Arbora, except her scales were more prominent and were matte black, the color of a consort or a Fell ruler.

Moon leapt forward after Jade and followed her up to the steering cabin. Balm motioned for Root to take the remaining fire weapon station above the bow. The other was just a still-smoking hole in the upper hull, parts of its platform hanging from the ropey vines that must stabilize the boat’s exterior walls. Moon turned toward Jade, then realized Root hadn’t obeyed, and was still crouched on the cabin roof, as if hoping Balm would tell someone else to guard the remaining weapon. Chime and Saffron were watching the doors in the stern and hadn’t noticed.

He wants to go inside with us and kill Hians, Moon thought. He sympathized, but this was no place to argue or disobey Jade and Balm. If a Hian got to one of the big weapons, she could kill anyone still in the air. Balm hissed at Root, who ignored her. When Moon tried to catch his gaze, Root finally turned reluctantly and dropped into the weapon station.

Moon exchanged a frustrated look with Balm. Jade, engaged in hanging upside down to look through the windows into the steering cabin, didn’t notice the moment, or pretended not to. She straightened up to whisper, “It’s empty.” She signaled to the warriors in the stern, then swung down to land on the stairs leading to a hatch. Moon glanced back to make sure Shade and Lithe would stay put on the cabin roof for now. Shade acknowledged him with a flick of spines.

With the fire weapons secured, Stone swept in to circle the boat, then came in low above it. He shifted in midair and dropped lightly onto the roof of the steering cabin. Balm and the other warriors climbed down to enter a hatch in the stern. Moon followed Jade to the stairwell.

He swung down behind her just as she pushed the hatch open. It was made of the same green-gray moss material as the rest of the boat, but reinforced with metal. Moon hadn’t had much chance to observe details last night, but had noted how heavily armed this flying boat was compared to Callumkal’s.

Just inside a passage curved toward the steering cabin and a set of stairs led down. Light still came from the globes in the ceiling, and Moon couldn’t hear any movement. Jade tasted the air and flicked a spine in surprise. “Do you scent that?”

Moon tasted the air again, more deeply. It was so dry and still that it didn’t carry a lot of scent, but this time he caught it. It was blood, and burned flesh, and the foul scents when a body voided itself at death. There was more than he expected; he didn’t think he and Stone had killed that many Hians. “That’s odd,” he whispered back.

Almost soundless, Stone stepped through the hatch behind them. He said quietly, “Something’s funny with the bottom of the boat.”

Jade started down, her foot claws curling silently around the steps. “What do you mean, ‘funny?’”

“I mean a chunk of it’s missing,” Stone clarified. He told Moon, “Where we put the bug paste.”

Jade glanced back at them, baffled, then apparently decided not to ask. Moon said, “Does it look like something took a bite out of the boat?” He was wondering if the insect-lizards had been more virulent than they had seemed and had eaten away the moss. Or if it had attracted something bigger.

“It’s not a ragged edge,” Stone answered. “I think—”

Jade hissed at them to be quiet. She had reached the bottom of the stairs. Ahead the corridor curved around toward the interior of the boat. The scents of death were stronger, the odor of burned flesh mingled with seared moss. As they followed the curve around, Moon saw an open doorway ahead. Jade stepped to the wall to take a cautious look inside, then motioned for Moon and Stone to come forward.

Moon looked over her shoulder into a sleeping room with padded shelves for beds. On the floor three Hians sprawled, all dead, with ugly burn wounds. From their positions it was clear two had been caught by surprise and one had been fleeing into the room.

Jade looked at Moon, scaled brow lifted, as Stone stepped around them to see. They had been killed with Kishan fire weapons; nothing else could do that. Moon said, “It wasn’t us.”

Jade shook her head slightly. “Then either someone attacked the boat after it got here, or they turned on each other.” She stepped away from the door and moved down the corridor. “As if we needed more mysteries. Come on.”

Moon followed with Stone, listening carefully, every sense alert. The idea of the Hians turning on each other was hard to imagine, but it was also hard to imagine people living up here who had the same weapons as the Kishan. Had the Hians just been that shocked by the sudden transition to the cloudwall that it made them all go mad? That couldn’t be it, Moon thought. He was betting it was something Vendoin had done. Maybe some of the crew hadn’t been here willingly, and had taken the opportunity to turn on their captors.

They stopped at each room along the corridor, quietly snapping the locks if the doors were fastened. They found more dead Hians, all killed by fire weapons. Stone said, “We need to find Vendoin.”

Moon agreed. There had been no shouts, no alarm sounded, so the warriors searching the stern must not have met anyone alive yet either. Jade muttered, “If we can just find the weapon, I’ll be happy to leave this boat here to rot.”

The corridor ended in a junction with another stairwell, where a wide passage went toward the steering cabin. Another Hian body lay there, collapsed in a heap beside the wall. Jade kicked it over. Though part of the face was burned, Moon had a jolt of unpleasant recognition. He said, “I think that’s Bemadin.”

Jade flicked a spine in assent, frowning. “With any luck, we’ll find Vendoin next.” She started up the passage to the steering cabin.

They found a more lavish set of rooms just below it that had to be meant for the Hian leaders. There were thick braided grass rugs, and light silky drapes over the beds, and dishes of a thin glazed pottery with bright metal rims. They split up to search the rooms, looking in every container and cubby, at first certain the artifact would be here somewhere.

Except it wasn’t.

Moon opened a roll of paper and found the pages blank, then remembered that Hians could see colors that Raksura couldn’t. He shifted to groundling just long enough to run his more sensitive soft-skinned fingers over the top page, and felt the faint indentations in the pressed plant fiber where a pen had left tracks.

From across the passage, Stone said, “In here.”

It was a room for storing the devices groundlings used for navigation. Stone stood in front of the open cabinet where the maps were kept, some on wooden panels, others in fabric rolls, and more recent ones sketched on thick paper. Stone had done a quick search, opening all the cabinets and any bags or boxes, even the ones that weren’t large enough to hold the artifact. The rock Bramble had described sat in a padded container. Moon ran his hand over it but there were no seams, nothing to indicate there was anything inside.

“Found this.” Stone pulled a wooden box out of the cabinet. It was about the right size, empty, with its lid smashed. Stone sniffed it, then shook his head. “Can’t tell.”

“It could still be aboard,” Moon said, but it was beginning to look like whatever had killed the Hians had been after the artifact, too. And while something might have come silently out of the plain during the night, it was far more likely these dead Hians had brought their enemies with them.

Jade came down from the steering cabin, frustration quivering in her spines. “It’s not there, either.”

They returned to the lower level to check the rooms along the curve of the passage, and found a few more dead Hians, but still no sign of Vendoin. Hissing in frustration, Jade turned down the stairs toward the stern.

This corridor was wider and ran straight through the ship. Jade reached the first junction in one bound, and cocked her head to listen. Catching up with her, Moon heard the faint voices of the warriors. Jade called out, “Balm, did you find anything?”

A flutter of movement came from the stairwell, then Saffron poked her head up through it. “We just found a barricaded door. Something’s alive on the other side.”

At the bottom of the stairs was a wider junction with two passages and a large door that probably, from Moon’s memory of Callumkal’s flying boat, went to a common room. Metal bars had been braced across it, keeping it from sliding open. Unlike the sealed door Moon had broken open to free Callumkal, these looked hastily and sloppily shoved into place.

Balm stood beside the door, while Deft and Saffron kept watch on the other passages. Chime crouched on the floor and dug at the moss along the bottom with his claws. Balm told Jade, “We found dead Hians scattered all through here.”

Jade moved a spine in acknowledgement. “So did we. Any sign of Vendoin?”

“Not yet.” Balm added, “We found bodies in the supply stores, like they’d been forced in there and then killed by fire weapons. The jars and boxes had been dragged around, like someone had removed some supplies. There was a room up on the level above this one where ten Hians were laid out, all with broken necks or like they were smashed against something—”

“Uh,” Moon interrupted. “That was us. Probably. When we got the Arbora and the groundlings out.”

Saffron twitched her spines but didn’t otherwise react. She had seen Moon and Stone fight before. Deft turned to stare, then hastily looked away when Stone met his gaze. Jade flicked a spine impatiently, and Balm continued, “This is the only room we found blocked off like this.” She glanced down at Chime.

He sat up and reported, “Still just breathing, no movement.”

Moon crouched down with Chime, and helped him pry up another section of moss. “If they locked themselves in last night, and then had some of the water Bramble poisoned, they might be still unconscious.” Or the Hians inside could be lying in wait with their fire weapons, a possibility no one needed to mention.

Jade’s tail lashed once in decision. “Balm, Saffron, pry the bars off. Don’t get in front of the door.”

Moon pulled Chime up and out of the way. Balm and Saffron got the first bar off, then the second. They braced themselves as Jade stepped forward. Chime stirred uneasily, and Moon held his breath, every nerve going tight. If one Hian was awake, pointing a weapon at the door . . . Then Jade slammed through the barrier. Balm and Saffron lunged after her.

Something clattered inside, but there was no characteristic whoosh-thump of a fire weapon. Moon pulled Saffron out of the way and looked in.

It was a big common room, with a small square stove for holding heat-spelled moss. Jade had landed on the far wall, and Balm stood in the broken remains of the door. Several Hians sprawled on the floor and one on a padded bench seat, all apparently unconscious. At first glance, none had been wounded, though some had been messily sick. Moon looked for the water source and spotted it on the far wall: a narrow copper-colored pipe, running down from the ceiling and ending in a curved tap with a lever.

Jade leapt down from the wall and used her foot claws to roll the first Hian over. Balm said, “This door was braced from the inside, too.” She nudged a stool which had been taken apart and jammed into the door.

Chime leaned in behind Moon. “So these Hians barricaded themselves in here and whoever shot the others blocked the door from the outside, so they couldn’t get out? And then left them here?”

“Nice people,” Saffron commented succinctly.

Moon looked around but there was nowhere to conceal anything, no containers or cabinets, and the Hians’ light clothing left no hiding places. The artifact’s continued absence was making his back teeth itch. It was gone for a reason, and it wasn’t going to be a good reason.

Jade prodded another unconscious body with a foot. “Tie them up. And collect any of those small fire weapons you find. We’ll take some onto the wind-ship and dump the rest overboard.”

Chime said, “So where did the people who did this go?”

Stone said, “I think I have an idea about that.”

While the warriors continued to search for the artifact, Moon and Jade followed Stone to the bottom of the boat, finding a single small stairwell that led down. The hull curved in here, and there were no cabins, just cubbies and storage racks mostly filled with moss canisters and the supplies for making moss grow. A heavy acrid scent clouded the air.

Then the passage ended in a narrow circular stair, and Moon caught the scent of outside air laced with death. A slow draft drifted up the stairwell. Stone crouched to look. “This is it,” he said, and started down the steps.

Below was another dead Hian, with fire weapon wounds in her chest and the side of her face. The fire had actually burnt away the armor plate on her skin.

Stone had already stepped past her and stood beside an open section in the floor. “This wasn’t here last night.”

Moon stepped to the edge. The opening looked down on the curving stem of the nearest pod and the rising mist that concealed the bottom of the ruin. He crouched down to stick his head through.

“Careful,” Jade said.

He felt her hand in his frills, ready to jerk him back. “There’s nothing down here,” he said. He could see the hull on either side, where it extended down to frame a whole section of the flying boat that just wasn’t here anymore. Stone was right, this was the spot they had put the bug paste on, but it hadn’t been eaten away by anything. He drew back to look up at Stone. “So there was a separate piece of the boat here?”

Stone nodded. “Has to be. And the missing Hians are on it.”

“How could that happen?” Jade’s expression was baffled. “A piece of the boat couldn’t fly by itself, not unless it had a motivator . . .” She trailed off. “Unless it did have a motivator.”

Moon had a sudden realization. “The little flying boat on the island, the one that the Fellborn queen stole. Maybe it was like this, part of a bigger flying boat. Callumkal must have left it there for Kellimdar and the others when he went back to Kish-Jandera for help.”

Jade snarled, “No one told us these damn things could come apart.” She controlled her spines. “We need to find the artifact. If it’s not here, and it probably isn’t, at least Dranam can still track the smaller boat. It’s made of the same moss as this one.”

Looking thoughtfully down toward the misty expanse below, Stone added, “At least they left some Hians to tell us what happened.”

When the captive Hians started to wake, Jade sent Flicker, Deft, and Saffron back to the wind-ship to report to Diar and Niran. Shade and Lithe came down inside the boat to help with the search for the weapon, though it seemed more and more unlikely that it was still here. But as Chime put it, “We have to search every handbreadth of this boat. If the Hians who left didn’t take it with them, we’re going to feel awfully stupid.”

Moon and Jade went up on deck when the warriors landed with Bramble, Kalam, and Delin. Setting Delin down, Saffron reported to Jade, “The wind-ship is following us, and the other groundlings are doing the thing they need to do with the moss to track the Hians.”

Moon was glad to see that Bramble and Delin looked better than they had last night. Bramble’s eyes were clear again and her scales were bright. Delin’s face seemed less sunken and bruised, and he headed down the deck toward Chime with more of his old energy.

Kalam still looked furious. “They told us what you found,” he said. “Stone is right, some larger air-going craft have small portions that can be steered independently. Dranam can still follow it with our moss samples, so unless the motivator on this ship is damaged, I don’t know why they would take the smaller craft.”

“The Hians we found alive were barricaded in a room, so we think the others had to take the small boat to get away,” Jade told him as they started down the deck. “We need you to help talk to them, so we can find out what happened.”

“The weapon is not here?” Delin asked. “You are sure?”

“We’re still searching the hold,” Jade said, “but it’s more likely they took it with them when they left.”

Jade led the way through the hatch and down the first set of stairs. Moon found himself beside Kalam and asked, “Is Callumkal any better?” They had left the wind-ship so quickly at dawn, Moon hadn’t had a chance to find out.

“No. Not yet,” Kalam said. “Ivar-edel and Merit said this morning that there hasn’t been enough time for the poisons to wear off.” It was an optimistic answer, but Kalam didn’t seem as if he believed it himself. He added, “At least he is with us now, and cared for, and not in the power of that lying traitor.”

Moon tried to think of something encouraging to say that didn’t sound like he had no concept of reality. Ivar-edel, Merit, and Lithe might all be very good healers, but none of them had any experience with Jandera.

They reached the room with the captured Hians. Balm stood on guard outside. Inside, Stone leaned casually against the wall, the Hians clustered on the far side of the room. A big one was on the floor, cradling an injured arm. They stirred uneasily when Moon and Jade stepped in. The air was tainted with sickness and some Hians slumped against the wall, as if too ill to sit up straight. Jade glanced at the one with the injured arm, and asked Stone, “Something happen?”

“Idiots tried to rush me,” he said.

Jade turned to Bramble and Delin. “Do you know anything about them?” She spoke Raksuran.

As first Bramble, then Delin looked in, the Hians seemed startled to see them. One turned to another and said in Kedaic, “It’s the prisoners.”

Bramble leaned in the doorway and eyed them thoughtfully. She pointed. “That one, the small male, served food to Vendoin. And that female, she was a guard on our cage sometimes.”

Delin nodded agreement. “I have seen them in passing, only, when I was taken to the steering cabin to speak to Vendoin.” He pointed to one. “She is called Vinat, and seemed to be in charge of the other guards.”

Jade flicked a spine in acknowledgement and switched to Altanic to speak to the Hians. “Where is Vendoin?”

They stared at her with that same apparent lack of expression that had made Vendoin so hard to read. Moon shared an irritated glance with Stone.

Then Kalam slipped through the doorway past Bramble and Delin. “Do you know me?” he asked Vinat. He was trembling a little. The Hians might interpret that as fear or nerves, but Moon knew Kalam well enough to tell it was anger. “Callumkal, who you held prisoner, is my parent. You poisoned our companions, and killed five of them.”

Vinat’s gaze went to the fire weapon slung across Kalam’s back, then strayed to Bramble and Delin, but she said nothing.

Kalam’s fists clenched. “Where is Vendoin? Where is the artifact she stole?”

Vinat said in Kedaic, “Why are you with these animals?”

Moon was unsurprised, and Jade’s spine flick showed bored annoyance. Kalam quivered, as if the desire to fling himself at Vinat’s throat had just passed through him. He turned to Jade and said in clear Altanic, “If they don’t answer, we should kill them.”

Jade tilted her head, pretending to consider it, but Moon saw the doubtful angle of her spines. He didn’t think that was the right path to take. The Hians expected Raksura to be savage and kill them. If that was the case, there was no motive for them to talk. On impulse, Moon said in Altanic, “Did you know they locked you in here?”

The Hians all stared blankly at him. He continued, “There were metal bars fixed over the door. Is there another way out? Because I don’t see one. I don’t see any way to control the boat from in here, either. It looks like they couldn’t make you come out, so they took the small flying boat and left you to die on this one, trapped in this room.”

Stone stepped out, then returned with one of the bent metal bars. He tossed it on the floor.

Jade said, “Who left you here? Was it Vendoin? We know it wasn’t Bemadin. We found her dead in the corridor below the steering cabin.”

Two Hians flinched. Moon noticed the small male had fixed his gaze on the corner, not reacting. Moon said, “Did you kill Bemadin?”

Vinat made a faint noise that sounded like derision, but the male seemed to shrink in on himself. Then the male said, “If you agree to release us, I’ll answer.”

Vinat sat up and said in Kedaic, “It will do no good. The animals mean to kill us anyway.”

The male answered in the same language, “The others turned on us, killed so many, why protect them?” He waved at the bent metal bar. “They meant us to starve to death in here, drinking poisoned water.”

Vinat leaned back against the wall. It was hard to tell if the argument had swayed her or not. The one who seemed the most ill stirred a little and said, “We owe them nothing, now. You’re the highest rank. Act to help us who are left, not those who abandoned us.”

“She is right,” Delin said, watching them. He had lost enough weight that his features were sharper, and it made the degree of calculation in his expression more evident. “Vendoin has left you behind in this strange place. Did she know there was some power in the ruin that would take her flying craft to the cloudwalls?”

The response to this seemed to be blank astonishment.

From the doorway, Chime whispered in Raksuran, “They don’t know where they are.” There was a stir as Balm nudged him to be quiet.

“Yes,” Delin said to the Hians’ silent shock. “The darkness that fell abruptly was a magic, which has taken this ship up to the flying island formation called the cloudwalls. Our friends’ ship was taken as well, and we have no notion how to return the same way, or if it is even possible for a flying craft to make its way down from here.”

Vinat hesitated, apparently disbelieving. Kalam added, “It’s true. And we don’t care about you, or what you do after this, or where you go. It’s Vendoin we want.”

The male said, “Lavinat betrayed Vendoin and Bemadin.” Vinat turned toward him as if she might try to stop him. Then she slumped against the wall, clearly realizing the words were out and nothing could call them back. The male continued, “Lavinat killed Bemadin.”

Not that the words were that helpful. Moon remembered Lavinat from the confrontation in the bow, but he wasn’t sure what it meant that she had betrayed Vendoin.

Jade turned to Bramble and Delin for an explanation. Brow furrowed in confusion, Bramble said in Raksuran, “That was the other Hian leader. I don’t think she was here the whole time. I got the impression she wasn’t with Bemadin when they caught us in the ocean.”

Delin was nodding. “I agree, I think perhaps she was on the Hian ship—this Hian ship—that we met at the port city, when we left the original ship behind.”

Jade nodded to the young male. “Go on.”

He said, “After everything went dark, Vendoin and Bemadin were trying to decide what to do.” He looked at Stone and Moon and lifted his shoulders in a gesture that conveyed wariness and fear. “They were afraid you would come back. There was a place they had to look for, but Lavinat said they should wait for daylight. I went to Bemadin’s cabin to sleep. Then I heard weapons, I came out. I found her . . .” He looked at the others.

Vinat said, “Lavinat’s cohort were moving through the ship, killing anyone they saw. We made it in here, and barricaded the door.”

“Vendoin isn’t here,” Jade said. “Maybe she betrayed you too.”

“Why?” The male asked. “She was leader, we followed her.”

Jade eyed him skeptically. “Then what caused the fighting?”

There was another hesitation. Moon glanced at Jade, got a spine flick that told him to go ahead. He said, “We know about the weapon. We know Vendoin is going to use it to kill all the Fell, Raksura, Jandera, and any species related to them from here to the eastern sea.”

The others all looked at Vinat. She said, “It was Fell, when we started this. It was all meant to kill Fell, that’s what they told us. Then the Fell appeared and Aldoan had the weapon on the deck, and they took her, and . . . It killed Aldoan, and the scholar who was going to help Vendoin, and all her family. Bemadin and Vendoin became afraid that it meant the weapon would kill Hians as well. There seemed no other reason for Aldoan’s death. Our physician examined her body and there was no wound made by the Fell. She said there was bleeding in the brain, but no sign of a break to the skull, nothing else that could have caused it.” Vinat looked at the wall, her body going stiff and stubborn. “That is all I know.”

Thoughtful, Delin twisted his fingers in his beard. “Does the physician live?”

Another Hian said, “We don’t know. But she was in Bemadin’s cohort, not Lavinat’s.”

The little male said, “Bemadin was angry at Lavinat.”

The others turned to stare at him, but more in surprise at what he said than anger that he was talking. He continued, “Bemadin came to her quarters the night before—” He threw a clearly nervous look at Moon and Stone. “The night before all this happened, before we reached the sea. She said Lavinat had abandoned her senses. She wouldn’t tell me why. That is all I know.”

Jade waited, but none of the others spoke. She motioned for Bramble and Delin to retreat, and stepped back through the doorway, tugging Kalam with her. They went a few steps down the passage, out of earshot of the Hians. Moon followed, with Stone pushing off from the wall to stroll after them. Moon said, softly, “‘Why’ is a good question.”

“If Lavinat and Vendoin disagreed over how or when to use the weapon, and it turned to violence, it could work in our favor,” Delin put in, as Chime stepped closer to listen.

“It can’t work in our favor yet,” Jade said. “We’ve still got to find them.”

Flicker called from the stairwell, “Jade, the wind-ship is here.”

“We need to go.” Stone’s voice was an impatient growl. “We can’t wait around here to figure this out.”

“I know.” Jade tilted her head at Kalam. “What should we do with them?”

Kalam didn’t hesitate. “Leave them. It’s Vendoin I want to find. But we should take the levitation packs they have aboard, and disable the ship’s weapons. Rorra will know how to do that quickly.”

“Go with Flicker and tell Rorra to get started,” Jade said, and Kalam moved hurriedly to the stairwell.

Once he and Flicker had climbed out of sight, Jade turned to Bramble and Delin. “What do you two think we should do?”

Jade had given Kalam the impression she was letting him make the decision, but Moon knew she had only been asking for his opinion. Kalam wasn’t the only one injured by the Hians.

Chime stood with Bramble and Delin, watching, while his spines flicked uncertainly. The other warriors were still by the door, keeping guard on the Hians. Only Balm had her head tilted in their direction, unobtrusively listening.

Delin glanced at Bramble, then said, “Not kill them, not on my account at least. I don’t see how we can wrest the weapon from Vendoin without killing her and perhaps the others with her. That will be a necessity, this is not.”

Bramble stared at the deck, flexing her foot claws. Then she said, “I’m not mad enough anymore to make it easy.” She lifted her head. “So we should do what Kalam said, and leave them.”

Jade met Stone’s gaze. “Well?”

Stone lifted his brows at Moon. Moon didn’t want to leave the Hians alive. Except then he pictured himself killing the little male, and knew that just wasn’t going to happen. That one might be considered a mature adult by Hian standards, but there were too many things about him that read “fledgling” to Moon. And leaving him alone without the others was worse. Vinat seemed to be the only capable one left, and without her, the others would die. They might die up here anyway, but that was their doing for following Vendoin in the first place. He said, “Leave them.”

Stone shrugged. “It’s Vendoin I want.”

Jade’s spines moved in assent. “All right, we’ll leave them.”

Moon felt he had to ask, “What about Root?” He wasn’t even sure if a warrior got any say in something like this.

Jade hissed in mingled annoyance and resignation. “He’s in no state to give his opinion on anything, that’s why I left him on guard on the deck. Come on, let’s go.”

Not long after, the wind-ship was underway, following the direction Dranam was able to tease out of the moss samples. Moon had heard her tell Rorra, “It’s a relief. I was a little afraid it wouldn’t work in this strange place.”

While they were waiting for Dranam to work on the moss, there had been a discussion about how best to pursue the small flying boat. Stone was in favor of flying ahead to try to catch it. Moon had to admit that it sounded like a good idea to him, too. The night had seemed long, but the little boat couldn’t have more than a few hours head start.

But Jade had refused to consider that. “Not here. We don’t know anything about this place.”

Niran agreed. “There could be anything out there. And now that we have managed to retrieve everyone who was missing, I feel we should stay together.”

Stone folded his arms. His expression would have still been opaque to most observers but Moon recognized the stubborn set to it. Stone said, “We don’t know how far they have to go. If they get there ahead of us and use this thing, the first we’ll know of it is when we drop dead.”

Niran grimaced down the deck at the young Golden Islanders who were sorting through the fire weapons taken from the flying boat. They didn’t know yet if the artifact would affect the Islanders.

Moon had to point out, “The Hians don’t know how to use it. We don’t even know if they know where they’re going with it.” Obviously the Hian scholar in the river trade city had been an important part of Vendoin’s plan. Not having access to her or her writings had already thrown Vendoin into confusion. That was probably the reason that Lavinat had seized control, not any change of heart on Vendoin’s part.

Rorra, who had been listening quietly up to this point, said, “Jade is right. You and Moon crossing the outskirts of Kish and the far south is one thing. But we’ve already seen one forerunner ruin and we know the forerunners and the foundation builders fought something terrible. Something could still be trapped up here.”

Stone eyed her for a long moment, while Rorra glared at him. Moon could tell she was actually glaring this time, that it wasn’t just her habitual frown. Then Stone said, “All right.”

Rorra lifted her chin a little self-consciously. “Then will you come and tell the kethel to get away from the stern hatch so we can set up a weapon placement?”

“Sure.” Stone followed her away down the deck.

Jade watched them go, brow furrowed. “What just happened?”

“He likes her,” Moon said. Stone would have obeyed Jade, though there would have been more arguing and growling first. But while Stone listened to groundlings and gave their opinions weight, he had just given Rorra’s fear for his safety the same consideration that he would have given to a queen. His queen.

Chime nodded agreement. “He does.”

Jade stared blankly at them. Niran shook his head and turned for the door to the steering cabin. “Don’t tell grandfather, he’ll write a monograph on it.”

As Niran left, Jade said, “But Stone wouldn’t sleep with a groundling.”

Moon snorted.

Jade turned to him. “What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Chime was still thinking it over. “How would—I mean, what if your parts aren’t compatible?”

Moon told him, “There are ways around that.”

Jade was still watching Moon, scaled brows drawn down. Moon wasn’t sure if it was Raksuran sensibilities being offended or the fact that Stone was a consort, even if he was a line-grandfather. He sighed and clarified, “In all the turns Stone’s been away from court, wandering around, you don’t think he’s ever done that.”

Jade had looked down the deck toward where Stone and Rorra had disappeared. “This is not something we’re going to tell Pearl. Or anyone. Whatever happens on this wind-ship, it doesn’t get back to the court.”

Now Jade had gone up atop the cabins to take over the watch so Balm could get some rest. Moon thought it was also so she could see as much of this strange place they were traveling through as possible, to get some idea of the dangers. It was why he was out on the bow deck.

As the wind-ship angled further from the ruin, it was more apparent the structure stood on tall narrow pillars that stretched up out of a lake. The mist still lay across the water, an indication that there wasn’t much air movement near the ground. At least finding water isn’t going to be a problem, Moon thought. It was a lack of game he was worried about. They couldn’t even start looking for a way down until they got the artifact back, and they had no idea how long they would be stuck up here.

He heard a faint scrape of claws on the deck behind him, and turned. It was Root.

His spines drooped as he stared at the receding Kishan boat. Moon said, “You all right?” Moon hadn’t really had a conversation with him since he and Stone had left the others to search for the Hians. Maybe since Song had died.

“Yes.” Root absently dragged his claws over the deck. It left faint scars on the tough plant fiber.

“You don’t look all right.” Moon wasn’t good at this. He hated to talk about what was wrong with him, and so never felt inclined to make other people talk about what was wrong with them. Stone was better at it, but he was down in the stern staring intimidatingly at their kethel. He wrestled with his reticence, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Root was quiet for a long moment, the wind playing with his frills. Hesitantly, as if he had to choke the words out, he said, “It’s like no one thinks about Song but me.”

Moon turned all the way to face him, startled. “That’s not true.”

Root’s spines flicked. “I know it’s because you’re busy. But no one talks about her but Briar and that’s just because she feels guilty.”

Moon felt that needed to be unraveled. “So we don’t think about her because we don’t talk about her and Briar talks about her but that means she doesn’t care?”

Root glared at him. “I’m not stupid.”

“I know you aren’t.” Moon let out his breath, trying to think how best to handle this. Jade had said Root’s behavior was uncertain at best. But he hadn’t had to come over here and loiter around Moon, hoping Moon would start a conversation. Which meant Root wanted to talk, if Moon could just think of the right things to say. “Not talking about her doesn’t mean we don’t think about her. Jade and Balm . . . You know how they felt about Song. They trusted her like . . .” Jade had other favorites, but Song had been with her on her most harrowing trips away from the colony. Queens were always closer to female warriors than to the males, and Jade had trusted Song, been sure of her, in a way she wasn’t with most of the others. And Balm had felt the same.

It was why Jade and Balm had gotten so angry when Song had challenged Jade back on the foundation builder city’s island. And Moon knew how responsible Jade felt for Song’s death, how Pearl might react when they got back to the court and Jade had to tell her how Song had died. Not in battle with Fell, but in a trap set by groundlings. “But Jade can’t show things like that, and neither can Balm. Not while we’re still out here.”

Root twisted away, as if he couldn’t bear to hear it. He stepped back from the rail. “I have to go. It’s my turn on watch next.”

“Root—” Moon called after him, but Root pretended not to hear, and leapt up to the cabin roof and disappeared.

Shade stepped out of the cabin doorway and moved to stand at the railing beside Moon. “Is he all right?” Shade asked.

“No.” Moon let out his breath in exasperation, mostly at himself. He had made a bad job of that, but he had no idea what to say to make anything better for Root or anyone else. Shade was in groundling form, so Moon shifted to lose his scales and wings. The damp cool air settled on his skin and clothes. “He thinks we don’t care about Song.”

Shade winced in sympathy. “It’s not as if you can have a ceremony for her until you get back to your court. Your Arbora would be furious.” He shook his head a little, looking out over the view. “I don’t think warriors that young really understand how queens feel about their warriors and Arbora. There’s a connection that they just haven’t lived long enough to feel and understand, yet. And Song was in Jade’s bloodline, wasn’t she? She looks—looked like Balm. Jade and Balm can’t afford to show weakness now, no matter how upset they are. They have to be strong to show the rest of us that everything is all right, or at least under control. Even if it isn’t. Especially if it isn’t.”

Moon wished he had been able to say all that to Root. Though he wasn’t sure it would have helped. He said, “Are you all right?” He jerked his head toward the stern, where the kethel lurked under Stone’s watchful eye. “After the thing with the . . . Last night.”

Shade lifted his shoulders, uncomfortable. “Not really.” He glanced down the deck. “I guess we can’t just tell it to leave, since Malachite’s made an alliance with the Fellborn queen.”

“Telling it to leave doesn’t really work,” Moon admitted. “And it’s hard to kill it when it’s just standing there looking at you. And it keeps talking.” He hesitated, then asked, “What did you think about that alliance, about what Malachite’s doing?” He wanted to ask what Shade thought of Consolation, if he and Lithe had seen her for themselves. There were other half-Fell at Opal Night, the rescued children of the Arbora who had been captured by the Fell at the same time as Moon and Shade’s father Dusk. But Moon was wondering if Shade would have felt any special connection to Consolation. Thinking about it, it felt like a completely stupid thing to ask. Shade was more of a Raksuran consort than Moon was.

From Shade’s expression he was contemplating a much more complicated question. “I don’t know. It’s not like I want the other half-Fell to be . . . If they’re really going to ally with us and help us . . .” He leaned heavily on the railing. “Lithe thinks it could work out for the best.”

“But you don’t want to be near Fell,” Moon guessed. Considering what had happened to Shade when they had been captured by the Fell flight northwest of the Reaches, it was only rational.

“No, I don’t.” He looked at Moon hopelessly. “Is that weak?”

Consorts were supposed to be weak and delicate and to need everything done for them, but Moon and Shade were different, and nothing was going to change that. And “weak” wasn’t really the right word for what Shade meant. What he was trying to say was harder to express. It was giving in to feelings other people thought you were supposed to have about things that shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place, but were not like the actual feelings you did have. There wasn’t a word for that in Raksuran or Altanic or Kedaic or any other language Moon knew. Moon said, “It’s not weak.”

The wind-ship moved out over the plain of gorges and the rushing sound of waterfalls became audible over the wind. The cliffs were thick with deep green foliage, and there was no sign of any other ruins. Shade twitched a little, and said, “I’m glad we have Dranam. At least we know where we’re going.”

Moon nodded. But they didn’t, though. They only knew the direction.