The Harbors of the Sun

CHAPTER NINE

Bramble and Delin came up with a plan, sort of. She asked him, “Do you think we can get Vendoin to let us see Callumkal?”

“It would be a relief to know for certain that he lives.” Delin tapped a pen absently against the deck. “I have asked before, but have had no success.”

“You might have to trade her something.” Bramble was reluctant to suggest this. Mostly because she could think of too many ways it could go horribly wrong. The Fell poison’s scale pattern had finally faded from her skin and she had been able to shift for the first time in what felt like forever. The Hians had to realize this and she was terrified they would decide to give her more poison. But they couldn’t just sit here huddled in Delin’s cage hoping no one hurt them. “I think you need to maybe hint that you might help the Hians with whatever they’re doing, if they’ll let us all go.”

Delin’s golden brow furrowed as he considered it. “What if she agrees? Or pretends to agree, as is more likely?”

“Don’t help her. But if you could get her to tell you what she knows about the artifact . . .” Bramble flicked her fingers. “We’d have her talking, at least. Once she’s talking, she might say more than she means.”

The next time Aldoan came with their food, Delin dropped the hint that he might be more amenable if Vendoin asked. A few hours later, as the long day was stretching into afternoon, Aldoan reappeared and told Delin that Vendoin wanted to talk.

“Bramble will come with me.” Delin stood and tugged a tangle out of his long white hair.

Aldoan hesitated. “Vendoin did not say—”

“It will save you the trouble of guarding us separately.” Delin stepped to the doorway and waited expectantly.

After a moment of indecision, Aldoan gave in, and she led them away down the corridor.

They went forward along the curving corridor toward the steering cabin, trailed by Hians with fire weapons. But this time Aldoan turned into the wide passage that ran below the steering cabin, and led them to a room just off it. Delin stopped in the doorway and Bramble peeked over his shoulder.

It was a workroom, the stem-beams that supported the ceiling arching to give it more height. There were shelves and cabinets built against the moss walls, holding all sorts of ceramic jars, bound stacks of paper, rolls of paper protected by leather or wooden covers, and small devices made out of metal and glass that must be tools of some kind.

Vendoin stood beside a table in the center, where a scatter of papers lay next to a gray rock. The rock, the one Bramble had seen with Vendoin, Bemadin, and Lavinat up in the flying boat’s common room. Bramble tried not to react. Vendoin glanced up and didn’t seem surprised to see Bramble. Vendoin said, “Aldoan said you wished to speak to me. But perhaps you left it too late.”

“Perhaps I did,” Delin said, unperturbed. “It is a fine day; I appreciate the walk about the ship.”

Vendoin’s mouth shaped something that Bramble, back on the sunsailer, would have confidently interpreted as a smile. Now she wasn’t so sure. Vendoin said, “What do you make of this, then?”

Delin stepped into the room and moved to the table. Bramble followed, glancing back to note that Aldoan and the others stayed in the corridor. She stopped a few paces to one side of Delin, and got enough of a glance at the papers to see it was a translation into Kedaic. The other language looked like the glyphs of the foundation builder writing they had seen in the escarpment city. Delin frowned down at it. “Another translation of a builder work? From the city?”

He spoke Altanic, and Vendoin answered in the same language, “No. The inscriptions in the city were all fairly utilitarian, though interesting in their way. The foundation builders enjoining visitors to dock their craft correctly is still a work of poetry to modern Kish. They were useful to Callumkal only because he wished to reconstruct more of the language.”

Delin flicked a grim look at her. “Which you had already reconstructed in Hia Iserae, and simply withheld.”

She made a throwaway gesture, as if it was of no importance. “Have you ever encountered a reference to a forerunner place that indicated some sort of transportation, or transference, took place there? Something to do with the docking of ships, perhaps.”

Delin’s expression was thoughtful. Bramble’s armpit itched and she was sweating under her ragged shirt, but she was afraid to move, to distract Delin. He said, “This is something you need to know in order to use your new weapon?”

Bramble controlled a wince. She wasn’t sure that Delin should have revealed how much they knew, not yet.

Vendoin inclined her head, as if conceding a point, but Bramble thought she had just tensed with surprise. “You knew of it, then. You were after it too?”

On the other hand, it was nice to have confirmation that their suspicions were right.

Delin said, “I learned of it from your own writings, which I took from your bag before we left the sea-mount city. I suspected you of deception, but not that you would attack us with poisons.” He added, “If you let me speak to Callumkal, I will answer your questions about the forerunners.”

“Hmm.” Vendoin clearly wasn’t certain if she believed him. “But surely you wish to know how I learned about the weapon.” She put her hand on the rock. With a rasping sound it moved, expanding, pieces of it fanning out like folded paper. Bramble couldn’t help a twitch; though she knew better, a rock that moved was too much like a disguised predator, and part of her wanted to snatch up Delin and flee out of the room.

Delin eyed Vendoin. “You have arcane powers.”

“No. But there are Hian practioners who can move rock the way Jandera horticulturals can manipulate the sun moss. This fact is not commonly known, but is handy for examining buried foundation builder sites.”

“Not commonly known,” Delin repeated. “You have concealed these abilities from your own Kish allies.”

Vendoin was impatient. “Do you wish to see it or not?”

Delin leaned forward. Bramble stood on her tiptoes to see. The inside of the rock was inscribed with more of the foundation builder writing, etched deep into its surface. Vendoin said, “This was found in the ruins beneath Hia Iserae. There are hundreds of them, containing different writings, most referencing places we can’t identify or species with names we have no record of, filled with words we can’t translate. They are correspondence, messages sent from other foundation builder sites to Hia Iserae.”

Delin looked up at her, eyes narrowed. “The message in this rock spoke of the artifact.” Bramble heard the faint tremor in his voice that he couldn’t control, the thrill of scholarly excitement.

“It described it, and the city where it was hidden. But there was no way to discover where that city was, though there were indications it lay somewhere in the sel-Selatra.” Vendoin touched the rock and it twisted and folded itself closed. “Until we heard of Callumkal’s map. Will you answer my question now?”

Delin said, “Perhaps I and Callumkal together will be able to answer.”

Vendoin sighed. “I can trade you knowledge. The imprisoned creature your Raksuran friends found in the underwater forerunner city; would you like to know what it was, and why it was there?”

Bramble’s eyes went wide, though she managed not to gasp. Delin went still and she could have sworn his scent changed, he was so shocked. And greedy. Vendoin had known exactly what to offer. Then he wet his lips and said, “You cannot know that for certain. There are theories—”

“When I first read your account, I recognized it. There were passages in the Hia Iserae message-stones which could only refer to it.” Vendoin lifted a hand. “It was a weapon as well.”

Delin glanced at Bramble, his brow furrowed. “A weapon? That being?”

It could be true, Bramble thought, turning this new information over. From what Jade, Moon, and Chime had described, the thing had been as deadly to the Fell as it was to Raksura and groundlings.

Vendoin said, “A weapon, bred by one of the enemies the forerunners and foundation builders united against. It was there to be studied, so the forerunners could understand it.” She nodded at Delin’s expression of consternation. “The creature was described in detail, though again there was nothing to tell us its location. But the depiction in your monograph was too exact to be referring to anything else.”

Delin watched her, the conflict in his expression obvious. Bramble caught Delin’s eye and nodded, just slightly. It was worth the risk.

He eyed Vendoin. “After questioning the Raksura about the forerunner city they were able to briefly examine, I could conclude only that the forerunners must have craft that could travel below the water, as well as the means of building beneath it. As we saw demonstrated in the foundation builder city. That is all I know of the forerunners’ method of transportation. I have encountered no writings that mention it in connection with them.” He shrugged. “In short, I have no answer. I know far less of the forerunners than you know of the foundation builders.”

The moment stretched as Vendoin met his gaze, then she looked at the papers again. “Perhaps later you’ll wish you had been of more help to me.”

“Perhaps,” Delin said.

Once Aldoan took them back to their cage-room and locked the door on them again, Delin said, “That went badly.”

Bramble had to agree.