The Siren Depths

Chapter Ten

Moon thought, sourly, Well, that could explain a lot. Why the Aventerans had been so reluctant to listen to Celadon’s warnings, for example. He felt a wave of tension pass through the warriors behind him, and Celadon cocked her head at Havram, her spines trembling with the effort not to rise. They were too late, and had been too late before Moon had even asked to come to the city; the Fell were already here.

Havram seemed to think Stone’s question was just an inappropriate joke. “Our guests are not in the habit of eating anyone. As far as we know.”

One corner of Stone’s mouth twitched in a brief smile, acknowledging the veiled insult. “You don’t know what he is, then.”

Ennia sat forward, frowning. “What do you mean?”

Stone said, “There’s a Fell ruler in your city, not far away from this room.”

Havram laughed, though he didn’t sound very amused. “Is this another attempt to convince us such creatures exist?”

Celadon’s spines twitched before she firmly pressed them down again. Havram didn’t understand the dangerous ground he was treading. Raksuran queens didn’t like to be called liars. Her voice hard, she said, “The last time we spoke, you were unwilling to acknowledge the danger, but you were not so contemptuous of my attempt to warn you. What has changed?”

Ennia said uncertainly, “My father meant no offense.”

Celadon didn’t bother to answer that. She asked Havram, “We exist; why do you doubt the Fell?”

Havram shook his head and smiled faintly. He’s too certain, too unwilling to listen, Moon thought. Either Havram was a stubborn bastard, or…The ruler’s already been planting suggestions. Confused, Ennia said, “But why do you think one of these creatures is nearby?”

“I can smell it,” Stone said, “in the draft around the edge of this room.” He nodded toward a small round opening at the top of the far wall. “That’s not outside air.”

Havram didn’t quite sneer. “Your senses are that acute?”

But Ennia said, “We do have a guest, a stranger who has never been here before. He came in with a cargo vessel from the deep west, to speak of trade contacts between Aventera and his city. But he was well known to the traders.”

Moon exchanged a look with Stone. Fell rulers had the ability to influence the minds of groundlings. They could do it to Raksura as well, though fortunately it seemed to take far more effort. Before the attack on the old colony, the Fell had done it to Balm, using her as a source of information about the court, though she had no memory of it and no idea what had happened. It had been a more exact way of learning the court’s plans than the divinatory visions of their crossbreed mentors. Moon asked Ennia, “How many traders were on the vessel?”

The skin of Ennia’s gray-tinged brow was furrowed with doubt. “Only five. There had been more, but they encountered disaster along the way, they said, and lost several members of their party to accident.”

Celadon hissed low in her throat. Moon said, “Fell rulers can make groundlings believe things that aren’t true, but they can’t do it to too many at once. It had to get rid of most of the group, so it could keep the others under control.”

Ennia smiled in relief. “But he isn’t with them anymore. If he had some power over them, they would have warned us when he left their presence—”

Moon held her gaze and willed her to listen. “They believe what he’s told them. They don’t remember that he killed their friends and forced them to take him on their ship. It should wear off, with time, but I bet he hasn’t been here very long.”

Ennia’s troubled expression deepened, and the other groundlings glanced uneasily at each other, but Havram was still skeptical. He said, “That is a very convenient power to have.”

Stone said, “You’ve spoken to him, spent time with him, but Ennia hasn’t.”

Havram turned to him sharply, suspicious. “Yes. How did you know?”

Celadon grimaced in realization. Moon looked at Stone, who rolled his eyes. Yes, we have to stop this. Right now. Before the ruler managed to increase his hold on Havram, and Havram handed the city over to the rest of the flight. Moon said, “Show us where he is, and we’ll explain.”

Celadon added, “If he is just a groundling trader, he has nothing to fear from us.”

Ennia started to speak, hesitated, and glanced sharply at Havram. Havram was obviously annoyed, and didn’t bother to conceal it. He said, “Find him yourself, if you can.”

Moon tightened his jaw, suppressing a frustrated hiss. Havram’s apparently natural arrogance combined readily with the Fell ruler’s influence; when Stone proved him wrong, he was just going to be that much more difficult to reason with.

Stone’s expression didn’t change. He got to his feet and started for the door.

Havram and Ennia followed them out of the chamber, and a few members of their entourages trailed along after them. Celadon told the warriors to stay behind, much to their dismay. Ennia ordered some of her groundlings to stay behind with them, also much to their dismay.

Stone stopped on the gallery. Moon had a bad feeling; the wind was entering the big market chamber below, right off the flying boat landing platform. If the Fell scent came from outside the city, carried by the wind…

But Stone turned toward an archway that led further into the mountain.

It opened into a big corridor and then a stairwell cut out of the rock, leading up. It wasn’t as cave-like as Moon had expected. The mottled gray walls were carved to look like plastered panels, and more bronze lamps hung from the curved ceiling, with the little glass balls glowing with light.

Behind him, Havram said, “So far this could be a lucky guess.”

Stone didn’t pause. “If that ruler thinks you’re an easy target, the others will come to this city and kill and eat everyone they can catch. That’s how Fell survive.”

Ennia said, “We are not an easy target,” but her expression was troubled. Havram squeezed her hand in reassurance.

In Raksuran, Celadon said to Stone, “Sending them into a panic won’t help. Just find the damn Fell.”

Stone stopped to regard her directly, forcing the rest of the party to abruptly halt. “I’m not part of your court, and even if I were, you wouldn’t have the authority over me, little daughter queen.”

Celadon bared her teeth at him. Moon hissed, “Stop it.”

Amazingly, it worked. Celadon stepped back, and Stone gave her one last hard glare, then continued.

The stairs opened into the middle of another wide corridor that angled back into the depths of the mountain. It was two levels high, with galleries running along the upper section. Doorways lined the galleries, and the lower level held archways opening into more passages. It looked like the connecting center of a number of living areas.

Groundlings walked along the upper and lower levels, or stood in groups and talked. Most were the tall, elongated Aventerans, but a few were shorter and wider, though with the same coloring, probably a related race from somewhere further west.

There were small fountains in the wall, designed so someone could hold a container under the spigot, meant to supply the inhabitants of these rooms with drinking water. An older woman sat on a blanket on the floor, with dozens of cups, a dipper, and a big copper pot, apparently selling the smoky-scented liquid inside. As Moon and the others appeared, everyone nearby stopped talking and stared.

Stone turned right without hesitation, moving purposefully down the corridor. Havram, about to make a comment, frowned instead. Ennia explained, “These corridors are where traders, air vessel crews, and visitors are quartered.”

Watching Stone, Celadon asked, “Does this trader know about us?”

That was a good question. Moon glanced at Ennia to gauge her tone as she answered, “I believe my father told him we had spoken to people calling themselves Raksura.”

“And what did it say?” Celadon sounded as if she had a suspicion already.

“It—He spoke to my father and some other traders.” Ennia made a throwaway gesture. “I’m not really certain…” Which probably meant the ruler had filled Havram’s head with suspicion about Celadon’s motives and possibly stories of Raksuran betrayals and perfidy.

Stone reached a set of wrought metal stairs leading to the second level gallery and started up. Moon didn’t need to look at Havram to know they were on the right track. He felt his shoulders tense and his back teeth itch as he scented the Fell taint, carried on the cool damp draft from above. It came from one of the doors along the gallery.

“Stone…” Moon lengthened his steps and started up the stairs after Stone, Celadon behind him. He’s too big. He can’t shift in here. Even with the corridor’s width and tall ceiling, the supporting rock-carved columns were too close together. “Wait, don’t—”

Don’t open the door, he meant to say, but didn’t get the chance. Just as Stone reached the top step, the nearest door burst open and a Fell ruler shot out.

In the east, Moon’s shifted form had been mistaken for a Fell ruler more times than he could count. This creature was about the same size and color as a young Raksuran consort, but it had smoother scales and webbed, leathery wings. Instead of spines, a rigid bone crest fanned out behind its head.

Moon shifted in reflex as groundlings screamed. Stone ducked aside but the ruler slammed into him and knocked him over the railing as it leapt from the gallery. Stone hit the rock floor below and landed in an ungainly sprawl.

Celadon dove over the stair railing, claws outstretched, but the Fell’s tail whipped out of her grasp. She landed in a crouch and sprang after it.

Moon started for Stone first, but Stone waved him away, shouting, “Go, go after it!”

Moon spun and bolted after Celadon. An older, larger queen would be more than a match for a ruler, but with a young queen like Celadon it might get the upper hand.

He rounded the corner ahead in time to see Celadon disappear down a side passage, leaving a trail of shouting, terrified groundlings. Moon went down the passage in three long bounds and tore around the corner after her.

At the end of the corridor, over the heads of fleeing groundlings, he saw that the wall opened into a big hollow shaft with chains hanging down. The Fell climbed up them, Celadon in close pursuit. Moon leapt up to the gallery, raced along it to the end, then flung himself off the railing and into the shaft. He caught the chains and climbed after Celadon.

After a few moments he realized one of the chains was moving down and the other was moving up, and that the wood and metal ceiling overhead was coming toward them. This is a cargo lift. The Fell must have realized it too, as it leapt to a stationary chain hanging to the side of the shaft, a guide line for the platform coming closer and closer. Celadon followed, leaping to catch the swaying chain, and Moon leapt after her. His weight swung it even further and it bounced him off the wall.

Above, the ruler glanced down, snarled, and climbed the last few paces to the platform, caught the edge and slung itself over. A chorus of groundling shrieks erupted from overhead.

Moon followed Celadon over the edge, his claws scraping painfully on the platform’s metal surface. Bails and boxes were stacked on it, with three terrified Aventerans huddled together and staring in wide-eyed terror. One bigger man lay sprawled near them, breathing in choked gasps, bleeding from claw rips across the chest.

Fortunately the Fell had been too busy fleeing Celadon to stop and tear them all apart; it climbed the chains away from the platform, toward the square of daylight in the side of the shaft another hundred paces or so up. Celadon followed it and Moon followed her.

It reached the opening and vanished outside. Moon drew breath to shout a warning, but Celadon stopped just below the lip of the square doorway and clung to the chain; her tail lashed in frustration. Good, Moon thought in relief. Celadon was experienced enough to realize the Fell would be waiting above the opening to drop on her as soon as she came out. It knew the two of them could catch it in the air, so it had to kill or wound them before it flew away from the city. As Moon climbed up below her, she bent down to him and mouthed the words, “I’ll go out first. When he drops on me, you get him from behind.”

Moon had a better plan. He shook his head and mouthed back, “I’ll go first; you get him from behind.” She glared at him, baring her teeth. He persisted, “You’re stronger.” Celadon could rip the ruler’s head right off; Moon didn’t have that kind of upper body strength. The ruler might have time to bite Celadon’s throat out while Moon was trying to get his claws through its hide.

Celadon hesitated, then grimaced in frustration and motioned him to go.

Moon climbed around her and clung to the chain above her head. The view out the square window was of empty sky and the outer edge of the lake. Moon took a deep breath and flung himself off the chain, caught the edge of the opening, and dove out.

It would have worked, if Moon hadn’t been a consort. The ruler saw his black scales and twisted away, realizing there was a queen about to hit him from behind. Moon spun in midair, clawed for the ruler. The ruler yanked his wings out of Moon’s reach and dove past him.

Celadon shot out of the opening, snarling in thwarted fury, and passed Moon, who angled his wings and rolled to get reoriented. They were just below the curve of the giant statue’s shoulder, balconies dotting its chest below them.

Celadon tried to cut upward to get above the Fell but a powerful gust of wind tossed all three of them like leaves. Then patches of the rock facing on the statue exploded in little bursts of dusty fragments. What—Moon had time to think, then Celadon shouted, “Projectile weapons!”

Moon saw one of the flying bladder boats hung in the air several hundred paces off. Two groundlings were out on one of its balconies, pointing long tube-like weapons at them. Right, that’s all this situation needed.

The ruler realized it too, and angled into a steep dive. Moon banked down and saw it was headed for a balcony a couple of hundred paces straight down where several groundlings stood. As Moon dove after the ruler, he caught a glimpse of Havram and Ennia among the shocked, upraised faces. He had time for the sour thought, Maybe this will finally convince Havram.

Groundlings scattered and Ennia shoved Havram out of the way, but the ruler landed on the balcony and snatched one of the smaller Aventerans.

Moon hit the paving in a half crouch, braced to leap on the ruler. Celadon landed a few paces away. The ruler’s captive was a young male Aventeran, his expression terrified and desperate, his hands already bloody from his instinctive grab at the clawed fist around his throat. Moon glanced at Celadon. She was breathing hard, and from her narrowed eyes it was from rage rather than exertion. The ruler’s intent was clear. If they came at him, he would gut the boy.

The ruler said easily, “How unusual, to see a consort outside a court, only one young queen for protection. So vulnerable.” He was speaking in Kedaic, the way Fell always spoke the language of their prey.

Moon showed his fangs. This close, more sheltered from the wind, the Fell stench was thick. “Free the groundling and you can have me,” he said, not that he thought it would work. Presumably the ruler would realize that Moon hadn’t chased him through the city because he was reluctant to fight.

Celadon’s spines rattled in threat. She said, “Take us both.”

“Perhaps later.” The ruler laughed.

Behind them, Ennia said, “Free the boy, and we will not pursue you. Or you can have trade goods, precious metal. You know how wealthy we are—”

The ruler ignored her. He said to Moon, “You must not be a particularly valued consort, for a queen to use you as bait.”

Celadon hissed, but Moon had heard it too often to be bothered anymore. He made himself look away from the boy, whose gray skin was going white from shock, and focus on the ruler. Moon said, “You had the groundlings fooled until you ran. Your flight will be disappointed. You could have handed this city to them, and instead you’re going to die in it.”

“I told the groundlings nothing but the truth. They have nothing to fear from me.” Fell never admitted to lies, almost as if they thought truth was whatever they said it was; arguing with one about what was true and what wasn’t was as pointless as talking to a well. “And perhaps I have accomplished everything exactly as planned. I am Ivades. What court are you from?”

Celadon flicked a glance at Moon, and answered, “What does it matter to you?”

He’s young, Moon thought suddenly. The question had been too direct, not subtle enough. Young and curious and overconfident, bored with pretending to be a trader among people who had never heard of Fell before and were easy prey. If this flight came from the east, maybe this ruler’s never been this close to a Raksura before, let alone a consort. Surely they could use that, somehow.

Then Ivades said, “Is it perhaps Opal Night?”

Moon went still. Celadon snarled, “How did you know that?”

Ivades’ tail lashed in amusement.

Putting contempt into his voice, Moon told Celadon, “It’s nothing. The groundlings told him about us.”

That had the desired effect. Ivades answered, “We know much about the machinations of the Raksura.” It looked from Celadon to Moon with that unnerving intensity, then its gaze settled on Moon. It was probably trying to affect Moon’s thoughts somehow, the way it could affect a groundling’s, but Moon didn’t feel anything. “We know Opal Night has more in common with us than it will admit.”

Moon had heard this before, and Ivades was nowhere near as frightening as Ranea. “I know—Aeriat Raksura and Fell were once the same species. Is that what you told the groundlings?”

Ivades was clearly enjoying this, though wasn’t distracted enough to loosen his grip on the boy’s throat. “But our relationship with Opal Night is closer than that.”

“It can’t be,” Celadon said.

“But you have Fell children. You are part of us.”

Oh, no, Moon thought, his heart sinking. This was worse than just Fell coming to the Reaches. The dead flight couldn’t have shared that memory. The progenitors and rulers had died without knowing that Malachite would keep their crossbreed children. Celadon demanded, “Who told you that? How did you know?”

Ivades seemed to realize he had said too much. Or perhaps he had said exactly as much as he had meant to. He whipped away, leapt to the top of the railing in a blur of motion, dragging the boy with him.

The groundlings shouted in dismay. Moon and Celadon lunged forward, but Ivades jumped and flung the boy off the balcony. Both vanished.

Then two large dark-clawed hands shot up over the railing. One crushed the Fell ruler, the other carefully held the groundling. Moon hissed in relief as he skidded to a halt. Stone must have been under the balcony the whole time, holding on by his foot-claws.

Moon neatly caught the groundling as Stone released him. The boy was limp but still breathing. Then he backed away as Stone used his now free hand to pull himself up by the balcony railing. Stone leaned forward and slammed the ruler into the paving, once, twice. The third time, the ruler shifted to groundling.

Stone let go and Celadon pounced to pin the battered body to the ground. Stone shifted to his groundling form and hauled himself over the railing to stand on the balcony. Moon said, “So that’s where you were.”

Stone dusted his hands. “I expected the damn thing to come out further down.”

The other Aventerans staggered to their feet, peered out from behind the columns. Moon shifted to groundling so hopefully no one would shoot projectiles at him, and handed off the unconscious boy to the first Aventeran brave enough to come forward.

He went to where Celadon had Ivades pinned to the floor, and crouched about a pace away. In groundling form, Ivades’ skin was white and smooth, his long dark hair a tangled bloody mess. Moon saw his eyelids twitch. “He’s still alive.”

Celadon shook the limp body. “Why do you want the crossbreeds?”

Ivades snarled, but it was weak and breathy. “To eat.”

Ennia and Havram came forward, staring down at the creature. Ennia’s gray skin was pale, and Havram’s face was a mix of fury and chagrin.

Celadon put more pressure on Ivades’ neck. “You can eat anywhere in the Three Worlds. How did you know to come here? How did you find out about Opal Night?”

Ivades made a noise of bitter amusement, choked out dark-colored blood, and died.

Celadon’s warriors had been perched below the balcony with Stone, waiting for a chance at the Fell. There was some hysteria from the Aventerans when they climbed onto the balcony, but a few sharp words from Ennia calmed them down.

As Celadon explained the necessity of removing the ruler’s head and burying it somewhere, Moon went inside to look for the injured groundling boy. He found him in a large sitting room with a colorful mosaic floor, lying on a couch with several groundlings gathered around. A man pressed a cloth to the bleeding scratches on the boy’s neck, and a woman crouched anxiously beside him.

“Is he all right?” Moon asked. The boy blinked up at him, then his eyes widened in recognition. He had been staring at Moon’s face through the entire tense conversation with the ruler, and must have seen enough to recognize him in his other form.

The man who was tending the boy, presumably a healer, eyed him sharply and said, “It depends. Are your claws poisonous?”

Moon set his jaw and managed not to hiss. It was good to know the groundling world hadn’t changed any. “No, and if they were, it wouldn’t matter, because I’m not the one who clawed him.”

The woman said fiercely, “They offered themselves in my son’s place. None of the rest of you did.”

Moon decided Aventeran gratitude was even more uncomfortable than ingratitude, and retreated to the balcony.

Out there, Ivades’ corpse still lay on the paving, but someone had tossed a blanket over it. From the outline, the head was still there. Havram faced Celadon and Stone, while Ennia stood by. Some of the other groundlings gathered at a wary distance, but one stood next to Havram, a young man dressed in the same rich style. This didn’t look good.

His voice tight as wire, Havram said, “Livan is an archimaster. He has never heard of this barbaric practice.”

“Livan has never heard of the Fell.” Celadon’s whole body was tense, her spines trembled with the effort to stay flat, and she looked almost more angry than when facing down the ruler. “So his opinion on the best way to dispose of their remains is irrelevant at best.”

“What?” Moon asked Stone.

In Raksuran, Stone replied wearily, “That’s their magic-maker, here to tell everybody how this is all our fault.”

“What?” Moon repeated.

“Perhaps you should go for now,” Ennia told Celadon. “Later, after we speak of this—”

“Just go,” Havram interrupted. “And stop trying to involve us in your disagreements.”

Stone made an exasperated noise. He looked from Celadon to Moon and said, “Have you two seen enough? Are you happy now? Can we leave?”

Moon was more than ready to get out of this place. He was almost as tired of Ennia’s attempts to pretend all was well when she clearly knew better as he was of Havram’s obstinacy.

Celadon growled in her throat. “Yes, we can go.” She stepped over to Ivades, tossed the blanket aside, planted her foot on the corpse and ripped its head off with one twist. She straightened up and said to Ennia and Havram, “The Fell will come. I hope at least some of your people survive.”

They took flight from the balcony, leaping off it to fight the wind.

Celadon guided them over the plateau, out of sight of the city and its patrolling bladder-boats, to one of the flying islands. It was a small one, only a few hundred paces long and wide, and almost buried in wind-blown greenery. There was an old ruin on it, but it was just a few roofless stone walls covered in vines. One side was open to a sheer cliff where the rest of the structure had fallen away when the island had broken apart. Moon wondered if the people of Aventera knew about the stone at the heart of the islands that contained the magic to keep them aloft. He doubted it, since they used the awkward bladder-boats for air travel.

They landed, and the warriors busied themselves finding dry wood for the crude firepit already constructed against the outer wall of the ruin. Apparently this was where Celadon had stayed on her previous visits to the city. One of the warriors told Moon, “There’s a better ruin on one of the other islands, but it has flying snakes.”

Moon nodded absently, then realized that the warrior had been apologizing for the lack of accommodation. Moon had slept in much worse places, but it was always interesting to be treated like a real consort.

Once a fire was built, Celadon sent the warriors away to bury the ruler’s head on the plain and to hunt. Then she sat down beside the hearth with Moon and Stone. She looked weary, dispirited, and worried. To Moon, she said formally, “Thank you for insisting we go to the city again. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t know…about this.”

Moon shrugged uncomfortably. He wasn’t particularly proud of his performance in the city. He felt it would have turned out better if he had been more persuasive, if he could have given more examples of how the Fell preyed on groundlings. The whole thing had seemed to start out well and then devolve into a disaster almost before he noticed. Not that that’s unusual. But there was nothing they could do about it now. “You were right, about attacking the ruler. You should have gone out first. It wouldn’t have been expecting me to follow you.”

She gestured that away. “That wasn’t your fault. Next time we’ll both know better.” She hesitated. “It’s very odd, to think of fighting Fell with a consort’s help.”

Moon wanted to talk about the more important point. “If Malachite and the warriors killed all the rulers from the flight that attacked the colony in the east…”

Celadon said, “They did. All the rulers would have died, and they must have believed that Malachite also meant to kill the crossbreeds. There is no way another Fell flight could know she took them to the west with her,” she finished, her expression grim. “Someone would have had to tell the Fell afterward. Someone from our court.”

Stone said, “Then it looks like you’ve got a problem.”

Celadon met his gaze. “It wasn’t one of the crossbreeds. If they had heard the Fell speak in their heads, they would have told us.”

“They might not know,” Moon pointed out. “We know the Fell rulers share memories from flight to flight, but we don’t know how they do it. Or if it would work differently between rulers and crossbreed Raksura. Once this flight got close enough, the rulers could have sensed the crossbreeds without them knowing.”

Celadon frowned, thinking it over. “That could be it.”

Stone gave Moon an exasperated look. “That doesn’t explain why the flight came here in the first place.”

“Because they’re Fell.” Celadon gestured impatiently. “They go everywhere looking for groundlings to eat.”

“And they like soft eastern cities best. It’s not like there’s any shortage of groundlings back there.” Stone rubbed his forehead. “I don’t have any answers. I’m just trying to get you to realize these are important questions.”

“Yes. Yes, they are.” She looked away, letting out her breath in a long sigh. “I just don’t know what we should do.”

Neither did Moon.

Stone just groaned under his breath and moved over to lie down on a soft patch of grass. “I need a nap. Wake me when the food gets here.”