As Callumkal drew Kellimdar toward Jade and Delin, Moon went over to stand with Stone. Rorra trailed after him.
Callumkal introduced Jade, whose expression was neutral though her spines were set at a skeptical angle. Kellimdar acknowledged the introduction with a bowing motion, then turned to Callumkal and said in Kedaic, “I’ll have to speak to the others. You were meant to return with more supplies, and more scholars if you could persuade any to come. That you have returned with—I feel this is ill-advised, and—”
Jade interrupted in Altanic, “I’ve told Callumkal, we’ll attempt to reach the top of the escarpment as soon as the mist burns away.”
Kellimdar hesitated, obviously caught between suspicion and pure greed at the chance to find a way into the city. “You can do this?”
Jade tilted her head. “We won’t know until we try.”
Callumkal said, “They had no trouble investigating the top of a sea-mount. And I assure you, we can use their assistance if any predators appear. And we found another indication of possible Fell presence on the way here—”
Kellimdar wasn’t impressed. “We haven’t had any trouble—”
“Nevertheless, you must speak of it and prepare,” Vendoin interrupted. “I wish to show the Raksura the glyphs and carved images in the structure along the foot of the escarpment. May one of the small boats be prepared?” She turned to Jade. “It isn’t a dangerous undertaking, only tricky, with the currents. The morning is the best time to attempt it.”
Delin rubbed his hands together briskly. “Yes, I would very much like to see these images.”
“Of course,” Callumkal said hastily. “Rorra, would you?”
Rorra started toward the ladder. Vendoin asked Jade, “Who would like to come? Delin, perhaps, and the young one, Merit?”
Jade turned to Moon and said in Raksuran, “I’ll stay here. You, Stone, Balm, and Chime take Merit and Delin. See if it looks anything like what we saw in the forerunner city.”
It was a relief to have something to do, and Moon was anxious to see the carvings himself.
From the railing, Moon watched Rorra and Vendoin climb down to the beach and secure the use of one of the two smaller sailing boats, then wade out to it with a couple of the Janderi expedition members. He didn’t know what explanations Vendoin was giving about the Raksura, though from the body language the Janderi were asking lots of questions. It was good of Vendoin to do this. Even if she could be a little condescending, she obviously wasn’t afraid of them, and she was doing a good job of smoothing their way with the others.
Rorra brought the little boat around, and Moon and Chime shifted and carried Merit and Delin down to the deck. Balm carried Stone so he didn’t have to shift and risk sinking the small boat. Moon lit on the soft material of the deck and set Merit down, then furled his wings and shifted to give the others room. Rorra, standing under the boat’s canopy and holding the rod that steered it, didn’t react, but the two Janderi stared in wide-eyed dismay.
Merit sat on his heels to peer down through the hatch in the deck, where Vendoin was banging around. “What’s down there?”
“Supplies and storage.” Vendoin’s armored head and shoulders appeared above the hatch, and she handed Merit a wooden tube. “That’s a distance glass.”
Chime landed and set Delin down, then shifted to his groundling form. He muttered in Raksuran, “I hope they don’t think we’re going to eat them. I hate that.”
Delin immediately went to the two Janderi. “I am the scholar Delin-Evran-lindel. What are your names?”
Both were women, one called Rasal and the older one Sarandel. Neither looked terribly reassured by Delin’s courtesy or Rorra’s stoicism.
Balm landed with Stone, who tugged his shirt back into place as Balm shifted to her groundling form.
Rorra called, “Ready?”
“Ready,” Moon confirmed. Rorra did something with another lever, and the boat started forward.
The small boat had a light metallic hull, much like the larger sunsailer, and was about twenty-five paces long. The sail seemed just for extra speed, and Rorra and the Janderi crew hadn’t bothered to unfurl it. The thing powering it was in the stern, a cross between a fungus and something Moon had heard called various names, most often a glass fish because it looked like a downturned crystal cup. Whatever it was drew the water in from the surface and expelled it below on command. They found this out because Chime immediately went to the stern to hang off the side and examine it. “Do you have to feed it?” he asked Rorra.
She shook her head. “It’s a plant, lives off the sun and the saltwater.” Leaning on the steering lever, she jerked her chin toward the escarpment. “The images are on a stone island right at the base.”
The boat glided steadily toward the escarpment, and Moon started to feel the disruption in the wind as it dashed itself against the rock. Even down here at the base, it was bad, making choppy waves as they neared the wall’s rocky feet. To reach the top, they might have to wait for a calm day. That wouldn’t make the flying any easier, but it would be safer. He tasted the air deeply, but there was nothing but salt and water and the sea wrack on the rocks.
Moon moved up toward the bow with the others, Chime with him. As he stepped past the two Janderi, Rasal moved uneasily aside. Stone, Balm, and Merit all looked toward the wall at the base of the escarpment, while Delin and Vendoin both used distance glasses. Delin swayed and Moon put his hands on his shoulders to steady him. “What do you see?”
Delin snorted. “Not as much as you, I suspect.”
Moon thought they were looking at the remains of a harbor, or at least a dock of some kind. From here he could see the cliff wall had been carved out, that the deep grooves and furrows were straight lines, vertical and angled in an abstract design. A short distance from the wall, pylons stood in the water, perhaps thirty paces above the surface, in a roughly rectangular arrangement with platforms between them.
Stone turned away and went over the railing, water splashing the deck as he vanished below the choppy waves. There were startled exclamations from the Janderi, and Vendoin lowered the distance glass to stare at Moon. Moon sighed. “He’s fine.”
From the stern, Rorra called, “How close are we?”
Sarandel told her, “About two boat lengths to the shallow. And careful, a rock shifted a few days ago and changed the currents.”
Rorra muttered a curse in Kedaic that probably no one but the Raksura heard. The boat bumped against something that bounced off the hull; the groundlings swayed, but Moon was fairly certain it wasn’t a rock. Balm muttered, “I hope that wasn’t his head.”
Moon called, “Rorra, can you stop?”
She worked the lever and the boat slowed. Something tugged gently on it to bring it nearly to a halt. Moon stepped to the side as Stone popped up out of the waves, back in his groundling form. He hooked an arm around the railing and said in Altanic, “There’s a lot of stuff down there.”
Delin stepped closer and Vendoin almost flung herself over the railing, demanding, “What?”
Stone shoved the wet hair out of his eyes and pointed toward the pylons. “There’s a set of steps coming down from the platform at the base of the pillars on the right. It goes down about thirty paces and stops, still above the bottom. Though it’s pretty shallow here.”
Everyone was leaning over to listen now, even Rasal and Sarandel. Stone continued, “There are a lot of broken pylons below the surface. This was a big docking area, probably.”