Jade nodded, swallowed, and added, “We need to start as soon as you’re ready.” She watched Moon for a moment. “Are you ready?”
He was a lot more ready now than he had been before the food. “Sure.”
Bramble was refilling everyone’s cups with tea. “About that. You need to let me help you.”
Merit seconded that, collecting empty bowls to pile back on the tray. “Bramble figured out which symbols to look for to get in here, and you might need her help figuring out other things.”
Delin said, “I will help, as well.”
“You don’t look so good,” Chime told him, before Moon could. “I think you need to stay here and rest.”
“I will look worse if I am eaten by Fell,” Delin countered.
Jade eyed them, and finished chewing. “Well, you’re right. We’ll take Bramble and Delin.”
With Callumkal watching worriedly, the Raksura leapt from the deck down onto the nearest dock. The party was Moon, Jade, Stone, Song, and Briar, with Root and Chime carrying Bramble and Delin. Rorra was a last-moment addition and was travelling under her own power, with one of the flying packs salvaged from the wreck of the flying boat.
As Moon landed, his spines wanted to shiver and he refused to let them; it was too easy to imagine something waiting in that dark, watching them. The warriors set Bramble and Delin down so they could get their lights out and so everyone could stare warily around at the immense shadowy space. Rorra had a small version of a distance-light mounted on the shoulder of her pack, and it cut sharply through the darkness. Merit had spelled a collection of the metal cups and the Kishan had contributed some net bags of glowing moss. Bramble whispered, “It’s scarier without the groundling boat,” and Briar hushed her.
“I think I agree,” Rorra murmured, tugging the strap of her pack.
Rorra was here because Kellimdar and Vendoin had seemed to want a member of the Kishan party to go along, and Callumkal had given in to placate them. Moon thought they were more suspicious of Delin than the Raksura, not wanting a rival scholar to have a chance at any discoveries. Kalam had volunteered to go, but in the face of Callumkal’s obvious fear for his safety, Rorra had offered to go instead. This was actually helpful, since if they found anything underwater that needed exploring, it would be easier for her to do it.
Merit had stayed behind with Balm and River, to give them time to recover fully in their healing sleep. He also intended to scry. Moon had heard him tell Bramble, “You go find some more doors you shouldn’t and I’ll stay here and fail to scry anything worth knowing.”
On the far side of the boat, Vendoin, Kellimdar, and their guards were lifting into the air with their flying packs, going to copy the writings on the walls above the other docks. Though Vendoin had told Jade, “From what I see so far, these inscriptions may be standard greeting texts we’ve seen before, in the builder ruins in Kish. But it’s that inscription—” She had nodded up toward the broad arch above the central hall, her armor plates cracking with her excitement. “—that may truly prove the most valuable. It’s in a prominent spot, and I am sure I have never seen it before.”
Stone was in his winged form, and had paced a short distance down the dock to the ramp. Jade said, “Forward first.” It was obvious that the likeliest spot for another opening was at the opposite side of the escarpment from this one. If they were lucky, the canal leading away from the basin would cut straight through the city to another hidden doorway. Of course, the Fell were bound to think of that, too. “Bramble, you go with Stone.”
Bramble shouldered one of the moss-light bags and went to Stone. He held out his hand and she scrambled up his scales to a secure position next to his collar flange. Stone leapt up to the first pillar along the edge of the canal, and then to the next, just out of range of the sunsailer’s lights. Bramble’s lighted net swung wildly, then stilled as she steadied it. Moon squinted to see, but couldn’t spot anything but the carved surface of the pillar, and the water stretching beyond.
“Ready,” Jade said. Moon glanced back at Delin and Chime. Rorra tugged at the strap on her pack, and it pulled her upward, her boots hovering a few inches above the pavement.
“Here we go again,” Chime muttered as he picked up Delin.
Jade sprang into flight and Moon leapt after her with the others.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Moon took the last position in the group, wanting Chime and Delin to be closer to Jade and Stone, and wanting to keep an eye on Rorra in case her pack failed. And to make sure nothing came out of the dark to snatch anyone away.
After several jumps from pillar to pillar, the light from the sunsailer faded, making the hall ahead look like a dark and slowly shrinking tunnel. The rest of Moon’s senses could tell they were still moving through a cavernous space. The lap of water against rock, the click of claws finding purchase on the stone, an occasional half-heard sound from the ship behind them all struck faint echoes from distant walls.
Then Bramble’s light jerked and Stone hissed. Moon froze, his claws gripping the edge of a pillar. Everyone stopped. Carrying Delin, Chime had landed just above Moon. Rorra maneuvered her pack close to his shoulder.
After a moment, Moon heard what must have alerted Stone. Claws scrabbled on rock below them, near the edge of the canal. Jade, on the pillar just ahead, turned back and tapped the spell-light hooked around her pack, and then pointed toward Rorra. Interpreting this, Moon whispered, “She wants you to use your light and try to see what it is.”
Rorra hovered closer, gripping the light mounted on the shoulder of her flying pack. Her voice low, she said, “Where is it?”
Holding on with one hand, Moon pointed to where he thought the scrabble had come from. Rorra angled the light and squeezed it, and the illumination suddenly doubled. It formed a thin shaft, throwing light down onto the edge of the canal. It showed only empty pavement and lapping water, but movement just on the edge of the darkness made Rorra twitch the light over.
Something huddled on the pavement, something at least the size of a small warrior. It had multiple spiky limbs, and a protective shell in bright colored stripes, red, yellow, blue. So many antennae stood out from the head that Moon couldn’t see any features, if it had eyes or a mouth. Two curved claws so sharp the light glinted off their edges shot out from the tangle of limbs, then the creature slid off the pavement into the water.
Rorra moved her light around, searching for more, but as far as they could see there was no movement. That still left a lot of dark space down there that they couldn’t see. “Well, we’re not alone in here,” Chime muttered.
“No swimming,” Moon agreed. They hadn’t seen any waterlings like that around the island, so the creatures might live in the city. All this water was coming in from the open sea some way, probably through channels buried deep in the rock. “Seen anything like that before?” he asked Rorra.
Eyeing the dark water, she said, “No, not that large. There’s a tiny version something like it in the shallows near Vesselae that can snip your fingers off if it gets the chance. I would think a large creature with claws like that would be extremely deadly.”
Moon thought so too. Ahead, Jade hissed a command and they continued on.
They passed a long section where there were no archways leading off into the depths of the city, just the supporting pillars and the ledge running along the side of the canal. Moon could tell the hall wasn’t quite straight, but curved gently toward the left and the eastern end of the escarpment. Then Bramble’s light jerked up suddenly and stopped. As Moon drew closer, he saw Stone had landed on a bridge or gallery, stretching across the hall. The canal extended below it, but seemed to open up into a large space. I really hope this doesn’t dead-end into another basin, Moon thought. But this city was huge; surely it couldn’t function with just one entrance.