This part of the deck was brightly lit and littered with metal tools of obscure purpose and coils of various sizes of line, and several jars of the moss. The Kishan had obviously been working on the lock for a while. At least we won’t starve now, Moon thought wearily. He just hoped the waterlings tasted good.
The others followed them up the ramp and a Janderi woman started to help Rorra take off her harness. Delin staggered toward the hatchway, and Merit hurried to help him. Callumkal stood with his arm around Kalam’s shoulders, obviously nearly overcome with relief that he was alive. He said, “What did you find? Was Merit right about the trap?”
Jade turned to answer, though her spines were drooping and she had clearly used up every ounce of energy she had left. Moon decided he was going to take drastic action. He stumbled a little, then shifted to his groundling form and collapsed. Jade caught him with a startled hiss, and Moon went limp. It wasn’t difficult. Losing the weight of his wings after all this time made him dizzy, and every muscle ache acquired in all the previous hours increased tenfold.
He heard Callumkal, Kalam, and Vendoin make exclamations of concern and dismay, and Jade said, “I need to—”
“Of course, go on,” Callumkal urged her.
Jade lifted Moon and he heard the hatch swing open. The light visible through his eyelids faded and he felt the change in the air as she carried him inside. He heard the others trailing after her, then Chime asked worriedly, “Is he all right?”
“Yes,”Jade said, her voice tired but dry. “I was particularly impressed by how he rolled his eyes back in his head before he fell over.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” Moon said under his breath.
They turned into a cabin and a moment later Jade deposited him on one of the padded benches. He opened his eyes and caught her arm. She shifted to her Arbora form and he drew her down next to him. She curled around him, said, “Balm, wake me if something happens,” and fell instantly asleep.
Balm smiled in relief. “I will.” She squeezed Moon’s shoulder and left the cabin.
Stone and Chime had followed them in. Now Chime said, “I think I’ll be right here,” and pulled a cushion down to curl up on the floor. He shifted to his groundling form and groaned.
Bramble ducked in, glanced around as if counting them, and then ducked out again. Moon wasn’t sure where the others had ended up and had to resist the knee-jerk urge to get up and check on them.
Stone leaned over for a close look at Jade. Satisfied, he said, “I’m going to go collapse dramatically on Rorra,” and walked out.
“I think Stone likes her,” Moon said through a yawn.
Already half-asleep, Chime sighed. “It wouldn’t be the oddest thing that happened on this trip.”
The next thing Moon knew, Merit was leaning over him, saying, “Are you awake?”
“No.” Moon rubbed his face. To his relief, Jade was still curled around him, breathing heavily. He knew it was night outside the city again, that they had only been asleep for a few hours. The bright liquid lights hurt his eyes and his throat felt raw. He managed to rasp, “What?”
Merit was in his groundling form, frowning with worry. “The Kishan think they might be able to get the lock open. I have to talk to you and Jade before we leave the city.”
From the floor, Chime said, “Why do they call it a lock? Why would you build a river for a boat and then put a lock on it?” He sounded woozy and half-conscious.
Merit ignored him. “It’s about my vision. I need Chime to hear this too. And Stone, but he’s still asleep and I’m afraid to wake him.”
Chime wondered, “He’s sleeping with Rorra?”
Merit’s jaw set. “Hold on.” He turned around, leaned over Chime, and shook him hard.
“All right, all right,” Chime protested. “Stop, I’m awake!” Chime sat up, his hair sticking out in all directions. He blinked and groaned. “What were you saying?”
Moon carefully moved the arm Jade had around his chest and sat up a little. “What about your vision?”
Merit crouched beside the bench. “You all thought that trap you ran into was meant to keep anyone from going up into that part of the city, right?”
Moon nodded. Jade stirred and muttered in her sleep. Scratching his head vigorously, Chime said, “Mmmhmm.”
“But instead you realized you could climb or fly out of it, that only someone who could climb or fly like a Raksura could get out of it,” Merit said. “From what I saw in the vision, it wasn’t a trap, it was a—a trail sign. It was telling you where to go.”
“But—” Moon hesitated. It took us to a place where there was only one way to go, and once we were through it, there were open stairwells and halls. “Go on.”
“That’s what I saw in my vision,” Merit said, his expression anxious. “Any groundlings who walked into it would be stuck. I think there might be a way out for them, I’m not sure what it is. But if you knew to take one of the paths through the city, and you were told that at the right point, something would show you the way . . .”
Chime was wide awake and staring. “I didn’t have any warning. I mean, my . . . power, my sense, whatever it is, I didn’t have any warning.”
Merit turned to him. “Because it wasn’t a trap. And I think maybe it was hiding from me, from my scrying. The closer we came to this city, the less I could see. It was like I’d forgotten how to scry. Once you all walked into that hall, suddenly my vision was back.”
“So you think it was meant for Raksura?” Moon said. His skin was prickling with unease.
“Or forerunners.” Merit shook his head and shrugged. “Maybe the foundation builders were their allies, and something happened, and the builders had to leave. But they left something here for the forerunners, and left a way to show them where it was. Maybe what the tiles with forerunners on them at the outside dock area were saying was ‘if you’re a forerunner, go down one of the halls above the canal and you’ll find it.’”
Chime frowned, frustrated. “But what was supposed to be up there? The waterlings destroyed everything in that room we found, except that thing Root picked up.”
Moon said, “Uh . . .” They all stared at each other.
Jade said, “This shitting city,” and sat up. “Are the waterlings still out there?”
Merit told her, “Stone said they were in the hall above the boat. He’s up on the roof of the top cabin, so he could listen to them while he slept.”
Jade prodded Moon to move. “I have a bad feeling.”
Moon had a bad feeling too. He sat up and moved over for her. This would explain why the waterlings had woken so suddenly, when they had done nothing to disturb them. “You think it made the waterlings come after us? That whatever attracted Root to it also attracted them?”
Jade climbed over him. “I think for an ancient object that had a magical trap guiding Raksura-like beings straight to it, it gave up way too easily when a Raksura picked it up.”
They went to the upper deck common area, the one with the cooking stove, where the others had gone to rest. Balm and River had been keeping watch out on the deck, but the other warriors and Bramble were here. They were all mostly awake now, in their groundling forms and still bleary-eyed. Delin was here too, awake and making notes in one of his books, half-lying on a bench with his bare feet propped up on a cushion. A pot of water was heating on the stove and there was a bowl of something that smelled like pickled melon that Bramble was trying to get the warriors to eat.
First Moon had gone up to the top deck of the ship to get Stone, who reluctantly rolled off the cabin roof, yawned, and stretched. “Now what?” he asked.
“Are the waterlings still up there?” Moon asked. “Because we think we know why.”