Jade regarded him with cocked spines, and Moon said in Raksuran, “Nobody got eaten.”
She snorted, and said in Altanic, “The others say the clouds generally burn off by later in the day. Callumkal says they’ll give us a tent.” She added in Raksuran, “The Kish here are ‘uncomfortable’ with the idea of sharing their camp with us, but other than that, they don’t seem openly hostile.”
Stone muttered, “Hmm,” and wandered off toward the trees.
“Will he be all right by himself?” Kalam asked Moon, worried. “I know his other form is very large, but . . .”
“He’s fine,” Moon said. “Just try to ignore him.”
Callumkal turned to Delin. “Did you get a good look at the images on the structure?”
Delin nodded. “Yes. We agree it is the remains of a docking point for the city. Stone was able to see steps and some continuation of the docking structure below the surface.”
Callumkal stared after Stone, startled. “Below the surface. Like the underwater city the Raksura discovered?”
Delin eyed him. “Possibly. Possibly also this sea was more shallow, or entirely absent, in the time of the city’s occupation and what we think is a dock is actually for land-going craft.” He frowned at the escarpment. “There is no evidence to draw conclusions at this point.”
Moon looked toward the escarpment again, the summit still wrapped in clouds. There was so little evidence that they couldn’t draw the conclusion that there was a city there at all, except for the Kishan’s word for it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
As predicted, it was mid-morning when the wind changed, and the clouds began to dissolve into shreds. Moon and the others went down to the beach for a better view.
They had spent the remainder of the morning setting up their camp. The tent the Kish had given them was at the edge of the main camp, and looked like it had just been pitched. Bramble and Merit had immediately taken it down, dug trenches to give it better drainage, and put it back up again in a different configuration. The warriors’ attempts to assist them with this process were not appreciated. Chime dodged a swipe from Bramble for trying to help her hold a pole, and retreated over to Moon. He called back to her, exasperated, “Fine, you do it! I’ll never help you with anything again!”
“Is that a promise?” Bramble called back.
Moon had just stood there, arms folded. To the Kishan watching from a distance, it would just sound like growls and hisses. If it was Moon’s decision, he would have been a great deal more circumspect around strange groundlings. But it wasn’t his decision.
Stone had flown out from the island, but hadn’t been able to detect any Fell stench. If the Fell were nearby, they had retreated to whatever island they were using as a nest, and weren’t in the air. Kalam had said that while the Kishan here had waited for Callumkal to return, they had spent the time searching this island, and all the others surrounding it, for signs of the foundation builders. They had found a few fragments of stone platforms and support pillars, but that was all.
Now, as the clouds dissipated, Moon saw the top of the escarpment. It was a flat plateau that curved up into a sharp pointed peak at the western end. The peak formed a graceful curve, like a horn. The edge of the city was visible as a partial line of conical towers along the top of the cliff. Still obscured by shreds of cloud, they were hard to make out even with Raksuran eyes, but the shapes of the pointed rooftops were distinctive. They didn’t line the entire escarpment, just the portion of it directly above the docking structure.
“It’s not centered,” Chime said. “That’s kind of odd.”
“It ruins the effect,” Bramble agreed, tilting her head as she stared at the escarpment. “That peak doesn’t look natural, either.”
Now that they had pointed out the tilted effect, Moon noticed it too. The escarpment itself was roughly square, like the sea-mounts, and faced the island. But while the ruined docks at the foot and the towers along the top were aligned with each other, both were set closer to the western end of the escarpment than the eastern, clearly off-center and leaning toward the peak. He had seen some natural rock formations that were almost as odd as the peak, though he had to admit that the elegant curve of it above the plateau did look artificial.
Jade turned to them. “I’ll go up, with Moon and Stone. I want the warriors to stay behind for now.”
Chime and Balm exchanged frustrated expressions. River looked insulted, and the others disappointed. Bramble sighed and kicked at a lump in the sand. Moon knew they were all considering the angle of Jade’s spines, and deciding not to voice any objections.
“Do we take Merit?” Moon asked Jade. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not. It would be good to have a mentor’s opinion of whatever they found up there, but the flying was going to be dangerous already.
“Stone can carry me,” Merit said, bouncing anxiously. “If he has to let go to climb, I’ll hold onto him.”
Jade’s brow furrowed. Moon had the feeling she was contemplating Merit losing his hold and falling some untold number of paces to his death. Depending on how bad the wind was, they might not hear a scream for help.
Balm suggested, “What if the warriors follow you, but stop about halfway up. That way if something happens, we can help.” She clearly meant, catch Merit if he falls.
Jade nodded a reluctant agreement, but said, “That won’t do much good once we’re over the city.”
“Getting over the edge of the escarpment should be the hard part,” Balm countered. “It’ll be less tricky once you get past it.”
We hope, Moon thought.
Jade eyed all the warriors again. “All right, we’ll take Merit. Root and Chime will stay here with Bramble. The others will follow Balm, and stop at the halfway point.”
Merit slung his bag over his shoulder and shifted to his scaled form. Bramble gave him a nudge to the shoulder. “Careful.”
Callumkal and Delin slogged through the sand toward them from the camp. Callumkal called, “Are you going to try for the city?”
Delin called, “You will take me?”
“Not this time,” Jade said. She nodded to Stone, and he stepped back and shifted to his winged form. Callumkal slid to a halt, startled. Apparently seeing Stone do it in midair a couple of times didn’t prepare you for a sudden close-up view. Delin continued to trudge through the sand and stopped beside Bramble.
Stone extended an arm and Merit scrambled up to tuck himself in under Stone’s collarbone. Stone curled a protective hand around him, then leapt into the air. Moon, Jade, and the others followed.
The farther up they went, the worse the wind got, and riding it up the cliff without smashing into the side became increasingly difficult. Soon Moon was breathing hard and concentrating so intently on playing the wind on his wings that he had no time to look at their surroundings.
A little after the halfway point, Jade signaled the three warriors to stop and they all dropped back. Moon kept flying, though his wing joins hurt, his head was pounding from the constant wind pressure, and his lungs ached. An interminable time later, Moon realized they had reached the edge of the escarpment, that weather-stained white towers were dropping away below them. With Jade and Stone, he let the wind carry him forward.
Reflected light blinded him. The next instant he thought the city was gone, or had never been here. The top of the escarpment was empty, just a huge open space.
He didn’t realize what he was looking at until Jade landed on it and furled her wings, and he saw her reflection. Moon lit on the crystal surface beside her, staggering with the sudden cessation of wind. The peak and the towers were acting as a windbreak. Behind him Stone slipped sideways out of the wind current and dropped down to land.