The sealing, a young female, stared at Moon in what was probably supposed to be a provocative way. Moon was still irritated from the encounter with the maybe-Aventeran, and it just made him want to bite through someone’s neck artery.
Apparently this was obvious. The sealing turned to Stone and said in Altanic, “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s in a bad mood,” Stone explained, “he was born that way. Does the one who’s down there with you want to talk too?”
The sealing sank into the water a little, swishing her fins in exasperation. “I take it you’re not here for the usual.”
Stone said, “I don’t know what that is. I want to know if you’ve had any news from the waters in the direction of the place the groundlings call sel-Selatra.”
Scaled brows drew down in thought. “Toward the wind passage? The land of the sea-mounts?”
“That’s it.”
“There was some—” The sealing’s whole body jerked, as if something had grabbed her from below and tugged. Moon’s instinct said predator and he almost shifted, catching himself just in time. The sealing said, “Ah, someone else wants to talk to you,” and sank below the surface and out of sight.
Stone gritted his teeth and gazed up at the damp ceiling. He said in Raksuran, “I hate talking to sealings. Everything’s a damn bargain.”
“You hate talking to everybody,” Moon said, in the same language. It didn’t help, but Moon felt he had to point it out.
“Shut up. Why is he here?” Stone jerked his head toward Kalam.
Moon said, through gritted teeth, “So I don’t have to shift and kill everybody in this stupid stinking place.”
Stone sighed. Another sealing broke the surface, and water lapped up over the edge of the pool. This was an older female, or at least the faint dull sheen at the edge of her scales made her look older.
She studied them both thoughtfully, with an edge of contempt in her expression, then said in Altanic, “We sell isteen. If you want to buy that, stay. If you don’t, get out before you regret it.” She bared fangs. “We don’t sell information.”
Moon didn’t know what isteen was and he didn’t care. Considering the other groundlings in here, it was probably a simple that made you stupid. Stone just said, “That’s good, because I wasn’t planning to pay you.”
She swayed in the water, as if considering. “Buy isteen, and perhaps I’ll give you the information you want.”
Stone said, “I don’t want isteen, and I’m not giving you anything.”
“If I give you information, I need to be paid.” She nodded toward Moon. “I’ll take that one.”
After having to rescue Kalam from drunken groundlings who couldn’t control their own genitals, this was too much. Moon said, “Try.”
The sealing focused on him, really looking at him for the first time. Whatever she saw made her scales ripple. Whether it was aggressive or defensive, Moon didn’t know, but it nearly set off his prey reflex. Stone tilted a sideways look at him and made a noise in his throat, just a faint growl, not enough to vibrate through the floor. “Moon. No.”
The message was clear. Moon hissed at him, and laid down on the damp floor, head propped on his hand, as if prepared to wait as long as it took.
The sealing relaxed a little, the water splashing toward Kalam’s side of the pool as she flexed her fins. She said, “I had to ask. What else have you got to pay me with?”
Stone smiled. Most groundlings wouldn’t have recognized what was behind that expression but it would have made the warriors scatter like startled lizards. “You want me to come down there and ask?” he said.
The sealing stared hard at him, eyes narrowed, as if trying see past his skin. “What are you?”
Moon swallowed an annoyed snarl and said, “She wants to scare us. Why don’t you just act scared?”
Kalam kept looking from Moon to Stone to the sealing, wide-eyed and deeply fascinated. At least somebody was having fun.
Still smiling easily, not betraying any impatience, Stone said, “I’m terrified. Want me to come down there and be terrified?”
The sealing looked from Stone to Moon to Kalam. Then she kicked once to glide to the far side of the pool. She leaned back against the edge and stretched her arms along it, claws displayed but relaxed. “Most of the groundling traders who come here defer to us. They’re afraid of sealing females.”
No one said we’re not groundlings though Moon felt it hang in the air. He said, “Our females would have pulled you out of there and ripped your skin off by now.”
“And that’s why we can’t be friends,” Stone said. “Now do you know anything about the waters in the sel-Selatra or do I need to go to the next pool and start over?”
She exhaled, a salty breath that made Moon wince. “We speak to the Viar, who live mostly on the surface, in floating colonies. They say they’ve seen an island that should have groundlings that is now empty. It was on the edge of the first sea-mount. The Viar are not . . .” She made an elegant gesture with her claws. “Like us. They have no limbs or ears, they see in different ways, they care about different things. But these groundlings gave them powdered grain they like in exchange for driving fish into their nets during a certain season, so the Viar noticed when they went there and found them gone. There is no taste of them in the water anymore. It was a strange story to hear, so it was passed on through our nets of speech.”
Moon thought that it meshed unpleasantly well with what they had already heard. Stone took it in thoughtfully. “Where did this happen?”
It took some time to figure out the location, as the directions and landmarks the sealings referenced were completely different from those used by water or air vessels, and were often seen only from below the surface. Both Stone and Moon had to ask a lot of questions, and Moon just hoped Kalam didn’t realize that they had a suspiciously accurate picture of the sel-Selatra considering they were only supposed to have seen the map once and briefly. But Kalam seemed more interested in the sealing’s descriptions of the sea bottom.
Finally they were able to leave, and climbing back up the stairs into the sunlight and clean wind and the crash of waves against the dock felt like stepping into a completely different world. It made Moon feel like they might just escape the port without anyone being murdered.
On the dock, Kalam hesitated. “Can we go to the trading station too? We’re so close and I hate to miss it—”
Moon started to say no but just then a groundling walked up from the station’s nearest stairwell carrying a paper wrap of something that smelled of sweet grease and salt. Stone shrugged and turned toward the station. “Sure.”
Moon was about to protest, but inspiration struck. He caught up with them and said, “If the Arbora find out we took Kalam to the trading station and not them, they’ll be furious.” This had the virtue of being completely true.
Stone paused, catching on immediately. He told Kalam, “You have to promise not to tell anybody we were here with you.”
Kalam, wisely realizing this would mean his father wouldn’t hear about his adventure in the sealing drug bar, said, “I won’t say anything to anyone.”
Moon didn’t expect their absence would go unnoticed, and when they had walked back up the tower’s ramp to the flying boat, Callumkal was waiting for them on the deck. His expression of relief on seeing Kalam was obvious. He said, “I was beginning to worry.”
“Sorry, it was so interesting, I stayed longer than I meant to,” Kalam said as they crossed the plank to the flying boat. He nodded to Moon and Stone. “I met them at the base of the tower.”