Chime was frowning absently. Jade said, “Maybe it really isn’t there.”
“Maybe. There seems no reason to hide it if it is. But it has made for some disagreement between the scholars of Hia Iserae and the Kish-Jandera.” Rorra blinked and rubbed her eyes. “I should go back to the bridge.”
As she got to her feet, she stumbled a little. Moon caught her hand to steady her. He said, “I’ll go with you. I’ll take another turn on watch so River can come in and rest.”
Jade gestured assent. Chime was already curling up to sleep, and Bramble and Merit were both yawning. Stone was still eating, frowning at his bowl.
Moon walked with Rorra to the stairwell. The corridors seemed quiet, but then everyone was probably eating while the food was still warm. As Rorra started up the steps, he told her, “You probably need more sleep, too.”
“Probably, probably.” She waved a hand absently.
Moon went on down the corridor toward the bow. He passed an open doorway to a cabin, but the several Janderan and Janderi inside were all asleep on the benches. Everyone breathed deeply, the sleep of the exhausted.
Moon was almost to the bow and the second stairwell when he caught a scent in the air. He couldn’t identify it immediately, which seemed odd in itself. But it was coming from the draft down the stairs. It was just strange enough to make him want to investigate. He started up the steps.
The scent in the air was blood, mingled with something else.
As Moon reached the top of the stairs, his shoulder bumped the wall as he swayed sideways. A wave hit us, he thought. But then his head swam and he realized it was him.
He grabbed a rope handle at the top of the steps, put there for unsteady groundlings, and pulled himself up. He blinked, not understanding why it was suddenly so hard to keep his eyes open. Someone lay in the passage, slumped against the wall. It was a Janderan, and Moon thought he recognized the red-trimmed jacket the figure wore. He stumbled forward and slid down the wall, and carefully lifted the man’s head. It was Magrim, and his dark eyes were open and staring; the warm fluid on Moon’s hands was blood, from the deep gash in Magrim’s throat.
A soft step on the deck made him look up. Vendoin stood there. She said, “Unfortunately, he didn’t like the food.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The world spun and Moon couldn’t sit up, couldn’t see, couldn’t shift; the feeling was terrifyingly familiar. It’s Fell poison, he thought. Somehow they have Fell poison.
He tried to shove the looming figures away but hands seized his wrists and dragged him down the corridor. The edge of a hatchway scraped his hip, then he was dumped onto the deck again. Footsteps moved away, then he heard the door slide shut. From the corridor there was quiet talk but he couldn’t make out the words. One of the voices was Vendoin’s. Then a set of footsteps moved away, but he could sense more than one groundling just outside the door.
Someone patted his face, whispering, “Moon, can you hear me?”
It was Rorra, her scent laced with anger and fear. He dragged his eyes open. She half lay beside him, supporting herself on trembling arms. Her gray skin had light and dark patches, and there were deep bruises beneath her eyes. She looked like she was dying. She said, “It was the Hians. Vendoin betrayed us. They poisoned the food.”
“I know,” Moon croaked. He managed to lift his arm and hold it close enough to his eyes to see his skin. His snarl came out as a weak groan. Yes, there was a faint ghost-pattern of scales, his scales, imprinted on the dark bronze of his groundling skin. He tried to shift again but nothing happened. It was like reaching for something that wasn’t there. This was Fell poison. It must have been in the food. It had no scent, and the weedy taste had been disguised by the spices.
He gripped Rorra’s forearm, and managed to lever himself up a little. Squinting, he made his eyes focus enough to see they were in a cabin he didn’t recognize, with cases built against one wall packed with Kishan books. He knew they hadn’t left the boat, so this must be one of the cabins on the top deck, just below the steering cabin. Then he realized that what looked like a blurry heap of clothing lying at the base of the wall was actually three unconscious Kishan. One was Kalam, and the other two facing away were Callumkal and Kellimdar, all sprawled on cushions pulled off the benches. Sickness tainted the air and their breathing was far too quick and shallow.
“It’s made everyone sick, or unconscious,” Rorra was saying, her voice thick and choked, as if she was controlling nausea by force of will. She twisted awkwardly to look toward Kalam and the others. “I tried to prop them up so they wouldn’t choke. The Hians just threw us in here.”
From another cabin somewhere nearby, Moon could hear someone being violently ill, and someone else groaning. Rorra seemed coherent enough even if she looked terrible, but she was sprawled awkwardly on the floor. He said, “Are you hurt?”
Her expression went from dismay to thwarted fury. “It wasn’t working on me fast enough so they took my boots.”
With the boots missing, there was no support for her fins and the missing part of her leg. He said, “They killed Magrim. I found him in the corridor.”
Rorra made a sound that was half-growl of rage, half-sob. “Why are they doing this?”
Moon was still trying to figure out how they were doing it. “Most simples meant for groundlings don’t work on Raksura. Fell poison shouldn’t work on groundlings.” This didn’t make sense. Jade, Chime, Stone, all the others ... Some of them had already been falling asleep when he had left the cabin. Delin had been unconscious already but everyone had still been so tired, Moon hadn’t thought anything was wrong.
Rorra shook him and he blinked, realizing he had almost drifted off. She asked, “What’s Fell poison?”
“It comes from the Abascene peninsula, from old Kiaspur. The groundlings there drank it and when the Fell ate them, it poisoned the Fell.” He couldn’t believe it had worked on Stone so easily. Maybe it didn’t. Maybe he’s hiding, planning something. And why am I still awake? His body felt like a useless pile of disconnected limbs, and the urge to just slump to the deck and sleep was powerful, but he could fight it. He should be unconscious, like the others. Maybe because he had been given the poison before, back in the east, he had some resistance to it.
Rorra made a noise of disgust. “Letting the Fell eat them? That’s mad.”
“I don’t think they knew that that was what was going to happen . . .” Moon shook his head, trying to hold back the creeping darkness at the edges of his vision. But where did the Hians get Fell poison? Unless they had had it all along. The Hians had supposedly gone to Kish to get away from the Fell attacks in their old home. “But it still doesn’t make sense. If Fell poison did this to groundlings, the Fell would know something was wrong, they wouldn’t eat them.”
Rorra winced, tried to drag one leg into a more comfortable position, and forced herself upright again. “Maybe the Hians used two different poisons, combined them. But why, I don’t, unless—” She froze. “They’re going to use us to kill the Fell.”
They stared at each other. Moon thought, If she’s right ... A voice in the corridor spoke and they both flinched, then Vendoin slid the door open.
She stepped inside, and another Hian moved past her, carrying a limp Janderi body. As the Hian deposited it beside Kellimdar, Moon saw it was Esankel. Her chest moved, though her breathing was rough and uneven. Rorra crawled to her immediately and rolled the woman onto her side. She glared up at Vendoin and demanded, “What did you give us?”