Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura) (50 page)

“Hah.” He managed to uncurl his cramped legs. The escarpment didn’t look any smaller, but he could tell maybe an hour or more had passed. The sky was still empty and the clouds clearing away, only a few wispy ones to obscure the stars. The boat moved faster, the current still pushing it along. “You’re the one who needs more sleep.”

“When we’re a little farther away.” Jade leaned away from the cabin wall and rolled her shoulders to ease the tension in her furled wings. “I’ll send Stone and some of the others after you. Balm and River are in better shape than the others; they can take the first watch.”

Moon climbed awkwardly inside the steering cabin. Callumkal was holding the steering lever, and Esankel, Kalam, Vendoin, and Rorra sat on the benches against the wall, drooping with exhaustion. Kalam had fallen asleep, his head on Vendoin’s armored shoulder. Keeping his voice low, Callumkal asked Moon, “Nothing in the air?”

“No. Not so far.” He hesitated, not sure he wanted to know. “Are we in the ocean now?”

Rorra stirred a little and said, “We’re in the Blue Drop, where the sea meets the ocean. At dawn, you’ll be able to see it.”

Moon didn’t ask how she knew, whether it was because she was a sealing or a navigator. He stepped out of the steering cabin into the dark passage beyond, and found his way down the stairs.

On the lowest deck, where the cabins didn’t have windows, some of the lights were still lit. All the Kish-Jandera he glimpsed through the doorways were asleep, lying on bench-beds. In their cabin, Merit and Bramble were curled up together on a bench, and Delin sat on a floor cushion, a sheaf of papers in a leather folder on his lap. He was frowning intently at the wall. As Moon came in, he blinked up at him, as if he had been so absorbed in something, he had forgotten anyone else was alive. Delin shook his head a little, and said, “All is well?”

“So far,” Moon said around a yawn. He crossed the cabin and sank down onto an empty bench, and shifted. He winced; his shoulders ached, his back ached, everything ached. The wind had dried his scales, so at least there was no water to transfer to his clothes. But the salt made his skin itch. “Did you see the flower door? The forerunners must have made that whole passage for the builders.”

Delin still seemed distracted. “Yes, they were obviously allies. It is perhaps not as unexpected as we supposed.”

Moon nodded toward the papers. “What are you reading?”

Delin patted the papers. “Vendoin had some translations I wish to look at.” He pushed to his feet. “She is still in the steering cabin?”

Moon nodded, and lay down on his side. Delin said, “I will take it back to her room, then.”

Moon yawned again. “Did she figure out what the inscription on the wall said, the one up on the arch where we first came into the city?”

Delin paused in the doorway. “It said, ‘If eyes fall on this, and no one is here to greet you, then we have failed. Yet you exist, so our failure is not complete.’”

Delin slipped out while Moon was still trying to understand that. He fell asleep, wondering why Delin had chosen a time when everyone else was bracing for a Fell attack to read Vendoin’s translation.

Sleeping heavily, Moon was only vaguely aware of it when the sunsailer’s motivator thrummed into life. Not long after that, Jade climbed onto the bench and curled up with him.

He woke knowing that it was well past dawn. He sat up carefully and disentangled himself from Jade. Merit and Bramble were gone, but Chime, Root, and Briar occupied the other benches.

Moon managed not to wake anyone as he slipped out of the cabin, though he was still off-balance and bleary. He went down the passage toward the bow, found his way through a crew area filled with sleeping bodies, and then out the door onto the deck. Stone was out there, leaning on the railing, but it was the view that caught Moon’s attention first.

The water was a deep dark blue, and the sky above it a limitless horizon. The boat crested gentle swells and was moving southeast, its motivator fighting the current to keep them from being pushed farther out into the ocean. He moved to the railing and leaned beside Stone. The wind had changed and it was absolutely devoid of anything but water and salt. It made Moon realize just how much the scattered islands had added an undercurrent of sand and greenery and other scents to the sea winds. They had never been far from land or a reef or one of the shallow zones. Here, there was nothing.

Then motion caught Moon’s eye several hundred paces off the starboard stern. Water fountained briefly, then a great shape rose up. Sunlight glanced off bright silver scales and a delicate multi-colored array of feelers concealing the top of the creature’s head. There were three of the crab-like waterlings from the city clamped in its long jaw. It sank back below the surface before the ripples from its appearance reached the boat to gently rock it. Moon wanted to make a noise but his throat had temporarily closed up.

Stone said, “Some of the waterlings followed us from the city, but that keeps happening.” He added, “Rorra says we’re still on the fringe.”

Moon reminded himself they had traveled over water this deep before, water also filled with menace, in the freshwater sea, but somehow it wasn’t the same. Even if it was vast, the freshwater sea was surrounded by land, and fed by rivers, and somehow that made a difference. He fought his flight instinct down and managed to say, “Did you sleep?”

Stone rolled his shoulders and stood up straight, still propping himself up on the railing. “Out here. The Fell missed us completely. Getting out of there unnoticed was what that underwater tunnel was meant for.”

Moon tried to remember that last harbor basin and what had been in it, if there had been any more clues they hadn’t had time to notice. “The Kishan were right; there was a door in the outer wall of the city, like the one we came in through. So the tunnel was added after the city was built.” Maybe at the same time the top of the escarpment had been sealed off. “And the foundation builders knew the forerunners, and they were friendly enough for the forerunners to build that for them.”

Stone turned and leaned his back against the railing, to look up at the steering cabin. Moon was still a little too edgy to turn his back on the deeps yet. “Delin and Callumkal and the others have been discussing that. They don’t know what it means, but they’ve been discussing it.”

Speaking of the city and what they had found there . . . “We need to drop the . . . thing soon.” Moon glanced around the deck. There were still Kishan at the weapons’ posts and on watch for the Fell. “Is it deep enough?” If they were lucky, maybe one of the giant oceanlings would eat it.

“I don’t know.” Stone jerked his chin toward the cabin. “Rorra’s up now.”

Moon turned. Rorra was on the deck above, gazing out toward the ocean. She had a map case tucked under her arm. “I’ll go talk to her.”

Moon shifted and leapt to the railing. Swinging over it, he shifted back to groundling. Rorra rubbed her eyes and said, “I’m glad I’m used to that now.” She still looked tired, though her face was less gray and her eyes not so sunken. She had clearly slept in her clothes, and her hair was unraveling from her braids.

“Are we in the ocean or still on the fringe?” Moon asked.

“We’re still in the fringe.” Rorra opened the map case and propped it against the railing to unfold light wooden pieces. “We’re here.” She pointed to a spot some distance from the escarpment and traced it along the big wavy path that marked the transition between the sea and the ocean. “We’ll be moving in this zone until we get to this point.” She tapped the map. “It would be safer to stay in the fringe, but to do that we’d have to turn back landward. If we keep our heading and cut across this section of the deeps, we can reach the sea again much more quickly, and we’ll be moving away from the escarpment and hopefully the Fell the entire time.”

Moon nodded. “When will we get to the deeps?”

“Probably around sunset, and we’ll make the crossing during the night, hopefully reaching the sea again by morning.” She began to fold up the map, a grim set to her expression. “I hope the deeps aren’t as dangerous as the rumors say. Ocean-going ships should be much bigger than this one.”

It sounded perfect. By the middle of the night they would be well into the deeps, and too far out for the Fell to reach. Someone could easily stroll out on deck and drop the object over the side. As long as nothing appeared to eat the boat, this would be easy. “You should get some more sleep.”

“I don’t—” Rorra yawned, wide enough that Moon could see the characteristic sealing fangs in her side teeth. “Probably.” She frowned down at the lower deck. “Why is Stone staring at us?”

Moon leaned on the railing, and decided since they were lying-by-avoidance to Rorra about the object, he might as well tell the truth about this. “I don’t know. We think he likes you, though.”

Rorra stared at him, astonished but oddly not appalled. Then she got her frown back into place. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing.” Moon shrugged, a little. “He’s always liked groundlings. But he’s just so old, he doesn’t usually get that interested in people we meet.”

Rorra’s frown was now confused. “How old is he?”

“Older than all of us put together. But not as old as the escarpment.” He pushed away from the railing. “I’ll let Jade know what we’re doing.”

Moon met with Jade in the cabin they had been sleeping in. Stone had come in from the deck, and Chime, Balm, and Delin sat around on the benches, with Merit and Bramble on the floor. It was a little crowded, but the cabin on the upper deck with the stove was also used by Callumkal and the others, and taking it for a private conference would be a lot more noticeable.

Once Moon told everyone what Rorra had said about their route, Jade moved her spines in agreement. “Good. We’ll drop the thing overboard tonight, once we’re well into the deeps and out of the Fell’s range.”

Stone said, “Are you sure you don’t want me to fly it out now and do it?”

Jade exchanged a look with Balm, and lifted her brows. She asked Stone, “Do you think it’s safe? From what we’ve heard, it isn’t.”

Delin agreed. “You may call attention to us from whatever dwells further out, and the large waterlings who float on the surface, waiting for prey.”

Sounding horrified, Chime said, “Are there really waterlings like that?”

Delin nodded. “The stories of the Kish and sealings and others who mapped this coast in the past turns are not pleasant reading.”

Merit, holding the satchel with the object in it, clutched it nervously. “I don’t think you should do that, Stone. I could scry, but—”

“It’s too obvious for scrying. What are you going to tell Callumkal?” Moon asked Stone. “That you’re going to sightsee?”

Stone sighed. “Fine, we’ll wait till tonight.”

Jade told Merit, “If you’re rested, try scrying anyway. Maybe we’re close enough by now that you can see whether this is a good idea or absolutely the worst thing we can do.”

Bramble sat forward. “Is that settled? Because there’s another problem.”

Jade said, “It’s as settled as it’s going to be right now. Go ahead.”

Bramble’s expression wasn’t encouraging. “There isn’t much food left. Igalam, the Janderi who’s in charge of the supplies, and I went down into the hold to sort out how much to bring up. He wanted me to show him how much we’d need. But when he opened the door, the smell was rank. Some of the ceramic containers of the pickled fish and the grain flour for bread had broken on the bottom, probably when the boat fell getting in and out of the tunnel. The Kishan can’t eat them now. I don’t think our stomachs are as delicate, but they don’t smell like they’d be fit for us, either.”

There was a moment of worried silence. Chime said, “Did everyone get hungry when she said that, or is it just me?”

It wasn’t just Chime. Moon said, “We’ll be back in the sea by tomorrow, and it’ll be safe to go fishing.” Safe but maybe not too profitable. From what he had seen on the way out here, the big fish that made good meals tended to be in the currents between the islands. It might be two or three more days before they found a good spot to fish. It had been more than two days since their last big meal, and while the smaller meals of fruit, bread, and fish helped, they couldn’t live on them and still fly and fight.

Bramble said, “That’s what I told Igalam, that when we could hunt, we could bring in enough food for the whole boat.”

“Does he think if we get hungry we’re going to eat the crew?” Stone asked, and not sarcastically. This question had occurred to Moon, too. They had been getting along well enough with the ship’s crew, helped by the fact that the more familiar flying boat crew were aboard. The number of Kishan who shied away from him when he passed them in a corridor had dropped drastically since they had fought off the Fell and taken refuge in the city. But this was the kind of fear that could destroy that limited trust.

Bramble winced, but gave the question serious thought. “I don’t think so. He seemed more annoyed that this had happened, and wondering what to do about it. He’s still trying to figure out how long what we have will last.”

Then someone rattled the door and slid it open. “Jade.” Root peered inside. “There’s another flying boat coming.”

Delin sat up, hopeful. “Perhaps it is Diar and Niran.”

Root flashed his spines in a negative. “It’s not a wind-ship.”

Delin grimaced and swore. “That would have solved several problems.”

Moon thought Delin meant something more than the shortage of food. Though it probably wasn’t obvious to anyone who didn’t know him, Delin seemed more rattled now than he had when they were being attacked by Fell. Moon started to ask what was wrong, but Esankel came down the corridor to tell them about the flying boat, and there was no time for it.

The flying boat hung in the air about fifty paces above the sunsailer’s stern. The Kishan were all happy to see it. “It’s from Hia Iserae,” Callumkal told them, leaning on the railing as if the relief had made his legs weak. “The Hians, Vendoin’s people.”

This flying boat was shaped differently than the expedition’s ruined one, and was longer and sleeker, without the ridge up the middle, but was made of the same mossy material. Vendoin and Kellimdar had already gone up to it in the flying packs to explain their situation.