“There’s something to the south, something big, drifting on the surface.”
Magrim turned immediately to call to someone, “Find Callumkal!”
Jade made the decision to investigate immediately, but Callumkal was out on deck by then and tried to convince her to wait until morning. “Surely it is too dangerous now,” he said.
The Kishan had covered the deck lights and they were standing in the dark. It made the shape of the hive easier to see, floating on the sparkling water. Moon kept his gaze on it; it made his spines prickle nervously.
Jade replied, “There’s no movement. Whoever they are, or whatever it is, they don’t know we’re here.”
They were unconsciously keeping their voices low, though they were too far away for any potential inhabitants of the hive to hear them. They hoped. Moon sympathized with Callumkal’s concern, but they still needed to do this.
“Probably don’t know we’re here,” Delin corrected. “This may be a trap.” Bramble and Merit stood in mutinous silence, though it wasn’t quite as mutinous as Briar, Root, and Song, who had been ordered to stay behind with them.
“We’ll be fine,” Jade said. She swung up onto the railing. “Just don’t bring the boat any closer.”
She dropped over the railing and Moon, Chime, Balm, and River followed.
Moon tilted his wings to ride the wind down and circle above the structure. He heard the whoosh of air behind him, the distinctive sound of Stone’s wings. Stone had jumped off the stern of the boat and shifted in midair.
There was still no stench of Fell, but no scent of anyone else, either. The light was just enough for Raksuran eyes to make out the domed shapes of multiple hives, though Moon couldn’t see anything in detail. Then they flew over a structure like a flat open cup that stood out from the side of the larger hive.
They came around for another pass, and Jade said, “I’m going to try to land on that flat spot.”
Behind them, Stone made a noise between a snort and a growl. Moon said, “Jade, no. That could be the mouth,” but she was already diving down.
As Moon landed beside her, she said, “It’s not the mouth.”
The platform, whatever it was, crackled underfoot. Its scent was more plant than animal but plants could be predators too. Moon said, “It could still be the mouth.”
“This is dried seaweed.” Jade moved cautiously forward. “And that’s a door.”
Moon was tempted to argue that it was a throat, but managed not to. He was starting to think she was right. There were faint crunches behind him as the warriors landed. Something dark loomed over them, vanished abruptly, then Stone dropped down onto the platform in his groundling form. Startled, the warriors flinched away and Moon hissed.
Jade snapped, “Stop that. Who has a light?”
Chime dug a lighted object out of the bag around his neck and handed it to Moon. It was one of the metal cups from the flying boat, spelled for light. Merit must have been in a hurry. He passed it to Jade, and she stepped into the opening and held it up.
The glow showed them walls made of dark seaweed, the long fronds woven and braided together. Jade furled her wings and moved further in. Moon followed, with the others behind him.
The opening led to a passage spiraling down into the structure. Moon started to scent other odors. Rotting fruit, rotting vegetation. Jade said, “Something with hands made this. It wasn’t . . .”
“Extruded,” Chime supplied, from behind Moon. “That’s what I was thinking.”
Stone said, “Jade, hold the light up higher.”
Jade stopped and lifted the cup. Looking up, Moon realized the roof was high and net bags hung from it. His mind still on Fell, for a moment he tried to see their contents as dead groundling bodies. But while he was looking at a larder, it wasn’t for the Fell. The bags held various water plants, ropey vines, the kind of melons that grew under the sand of both fresh and saltwater beaches. There were crustacean shells also, and pieces of driftwood. “Their supplies,” Balm said softly. “They must be sealings, or some kind of waterlings.”
It was reassuring, but . . . Where are they? Moon thought. This place felt empty.
Jade moved on. After two more spirals down, she stopped. “I hear something. Breathing?”
Stone said, “It’s below us. There’s a little movement, too.”
Moon felt prickles of unease crawl up his back under his scales and spines. Chime twitched nervously.
They continued on, following those faint traces of sound through the maze of the structure. Then Jade said, “There’s something ahead.” She raised her voice a little and added, “We apologize for entering your craft, or dwelling.”
Moon stepped up beside her, head tilted to catch any faint sound. Just past the edge of the light was a doorway. Past it something was breathing. Or a lot of somethings were breathing. It was a muted rushing sound, like a hundred little puffs of wind.
There was a long pause, and then a faint vibration through the woven floor as something moved in the room ahead. Moon twitched a little, realizing Stone was standing at his other shoulder, having stepped up from behind in complete silence.
Then a hesitant, raspy voice spoke. It was clearly a language, but Moon couldn’t pick out individual words. It sounded like modulated rushes of air. More voices joined in.
Jade said, “I can’t understand you,” and stepped into the doorway. Her spines twitched in surprise. Behind her, Moon angled for a view, and stared. All right, that’s new.
The inside of the room was filled with niches, and more than half of them were occupied with different beings. They were all small, the biggest no more than a pace high, and all translucent, with various arrays of tentacles, pincers, or fins. Some had bulbous heads, some had no head at all. Some toward the top of the room began to glow, gradually lighting the room with a faint blue illumination. A large group tumbled out of their niches, but instead of coming toward the Raksura invading their domain, they gathered in a tight clump in the center of the room.
They clung to each other in a heap, then stood up.
Jade hissed in wonder. “Have you ever seen—”
“No.” Moon had never seen anything like this.
Behind him, Chime whispered, “What is it?”
Moon said, “There was a bunch of them, and they got together and made a person.”
“It’s not as disgusting as some things we’ve seen,” River pointed out. He was right about that.
The sturdier beings had formed three legs, others clung to each other atop them to form the torso, and two longer ones hung off it to make arms, the short tentacles at the ends of their bodies acting as fingers. A bulbous one at the top seemed to be the head. It spoke again, from a mouth that opened in the center of the torso, and this time Moon could hear individual words, though he still didn’t understand them.
Stone said, “That’s a sea-trade language.” He moved Moon out of the way by the shoulders and stepped into the room. He spoke a few words. “I told it—them—we’re travelers.”
The tentacle-hands, glowing faintly, the fingers connected by translucent wisps of skin, moved in an open-handed gesture. It spoke for a time. Stone said, “It’s asking us if we’ve seen others like them.”
“That’s an easy answer,” Balm said softly.
Stone spoke again. The other beings came closer to listen, several fluttering down from the upper portions of the room on filmy wings. Stone frowned, glancing back at Jade. “I told it we hadn’t seen any others. It asked me how long we’ve been traveling in the air.”