Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura) (54 page)

They reached the upper passage and Moon pulled away from her, and staggered down to the open cabin door.

He heard breathing. It was labored, but they were breathing. Jade lay slumped on the floor in front of the bench, in her Arbora form, as if she had been trying to stand and collapsed. Her chest moved with her panting breath. Relief let Moon manage a step forward.

The others were all in their groundling forms, their scale patterns visible on their skin. Stone had fallen over onto the bench and Chime was curled on the floor. Balm lay sprawled near Jade. He couldn’t see if they were breathing and lunged forward to land on his knees near Chime. Frantically he felt for the pulse at their throats, finding faint movement. They were all alive. He twisted around, looking for the others.

Root and Song lay behind the stove, stretched out on the floor.

At first his eyes refused to see it. Root lay on his back, his breath a faint flutter like the others, and Moon wanted to see Song the same way. But there was a stillness to her body, an awkward stiffness to the way her limbs lay.

He crawled to her and touched her face. Her eyes were open, blank and staring and beginning to cloud. Her skin was waxy, the scale pattern partially faded from the bronze. Her blood was already cooling. She had been dead before the Fell arrived. There was blood mixed with vomit on her chin and chest.

Not really aware of what he was doing, Moon took the tail of his shirt and started to clean her face. Part of his brain was still working and he thought,
Briar isn’t here. River isn’t here
. Had they escaped? He knew Briar had eaten the poisoned food. They might be lying in a corner somewhere, left there by the Hians . . . He hoped they hadn’t fallen off the sunsailer.

Another dakti slung into the room and Moon flinched away from Song. The other dakti gathered around flinched too. The newcomer chittered at the Fell queen and the others hissed in response. The queen pushed to her feet and looked down at Moon. “Another flying boat is coming. This one has Raksura.”

Moon stared at her, uncomprehending. A flying boat with Raksura?
Niran and Diar. It might be them
. But had someone from the court come with them?

“They were following us, like we followed the waterlings.” She hissed, but apparently at herself. “I was stupid.” She looked down at Moon. “You come with us.”

Panic penetrated the numb shock. “No, I need to stay here.”

She hesitated. The dakti who had brought the news chittered in alarm. She said, “Better if you come with us. You can tell us what to do.”

If he could reason with her . . . “The Hians who left on the other flying boat have the weapon that was hidden in the city. I have to tell the other Raksura so they can stop them.”

She stared at him, her brow furrowing, and blinked in distress. She looked at the dakti. The one that seemed to be her advisor said, “Possible.”

The queen stood there, frozen for a heartbeat. Then she flowed into her scaled form, and said, “Bring him.”

Moon tried to stand but the dakti surged forward and grabbed his arms. Panic took over and he fought, tried to bite, but they half-dragged, half-carried him out and down the stairs, out onto the deck.

Outside he couldn’t see anything in the air but the kethel circling overhead. He couldn’t believe the flying boat, whoever was aboard it, was coming toward them and not fleeing as fast as it could.

The dakti were too small to fly with him. They put him down on the deck and the queen started toward him. Moon yelled, “No, stay away from me!”

To his surprise she did stop. She shook her head, confused and determined all at once. “We won’t hurt you! We won’t eat groundlings! We’re not like Fell!”

“You’re stealing a consort, just like the Fell who made you!”

“No, it’s not—That’s not—We need—We need something!” She flung her arms wide, confused, hopeless, determined. “We need help!”

Moon said, desperately, “Not from me!”

She hesitated, breathing hard. Moon had a moment to think that she would listen to him, that she would leave. Then she lunged for him.

A flash of green scales exploded out of the hatch and struck the Fell queen in the back.
It’s River
, Moon realized in astonishment. She staggered forward, then tossed River off.

River rolled and came up in a crouch, just as the distinctive thunk-whoosh of a fire weapon sounded almost from above.

It was the big weapon just below and behind the steering cabin. The fire shot out in a long stream. The dakti shrieked and scattered off the rail as it moved toward them. The weapon swung up and pointed toward the kethel arrowing down from above.

The queen snarled and pounced at River. River ducked the first blow, tried to lunge in at her belly. Blindingly fast, she clawed him across the chest and flung him away. River slammed into the wall, then fell forward and hit the deck boards so hard he bounced. The queen tensed to strike again. Moon shoved forward and flung himself over River. “No!”

Caught in mid-lunge, the queen stopped, her claws scraping against the deck. Moon stared up at her, expecting her to tear them both apart. River might already be dead. He wasn’t moving and the coppery odor of fresh blood hung in the air.

But Moon saw the instant when the blank rage went out of the Fell queen’s eyes and her expression turned to turned to confusion again. She stumbled back a step and looked up at the kethel. The one stooping over the ship immediately broke off, and the others circled back upward.

A dakti perched on the rail chittered to her. Her head jerked up and her gaze went to something in the sky to the west.

She snarled, threw one last look at Moon, then surged for the railing. She leapt into the air, the dakti leaping with her.

Watching them catch the wind and shoot upward toward the waiting kethel, Moon stared in bewilderment. He didn’t understand what could have made her give up and leave.

Then a large queen and half a dozen warriors thumped down on the deck from above. For an instant, Moon didn’t recognize any of them. Then the queen turned to him and he saw it was Malachite.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-THREE

M
oon tried to stand, but he was lying on River and there was no place to put his weight without hurting him. Then a male warrior caught him around the chest, lifted him up, and helped him to his feet.

Moon stumbled toward Malachite. “We need mentors. The Hians gave us all Fell poison, and a sleeping simple for the groundlings, it killed Song, they took Merit and Bramble away on a flying boat—They have a weapon from the city—”

Malachite lifted a hand and two warriors bounced into the air, flapping up to catch the wind. Moon thought they were going after the Fell, which was suicidal. Then Malachite said, “I’ve sent them for Lithe. The wind-ship isn’t far away. Which way did the flying boat go?”

Moon pointed. Malachite selected two warriors with a flick of her tail and said, “Locate it.”

They took to the air, but Moon knew it wouldn’t help. The flying boat was already out of sight, it would have changed direction as soon as it was away from the Fell. Warriors couldn’t possibly fly fast enough to find it. “They won’t catch it, you have to go after it!”

“If I leave, the Fell will return within moments,” Malachite said. Her tail flicked again. He had never been able to read her expression, even after spending time at Opal Night. It would have been easy to say she was unconcerned, unaffected, except for the fact that here she was, having travelled from across the Reaches and the coast and the sea and halfway into the ocean to be here when he needed her.

The warrior who had helped Moon had been leaning over River, trying to find breath or pulse. Now he reported, “He’s alive.”

Malachite reached to touch Moon’s face, and he stepped back. A female warrior caught his arm and steadied him, and he dimly realized it was Rise, Malachite’s chief warrior.

Malachite said, “Are there still Fell aboard, or Hians?” Six more warriors dropped down to land on the flying boat’s upper decks.

Moon started to say no, then realized he had no idea. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’s any Fell, but I don’t know if all the Hians were able to leave. The Hians—They’re silver gray, with patches like rock on their heads and skin.” He remembered something else she needed to know. “The Fell were part Raksura. They had a queen.”

Malachite took this information in with opaque calm, and stared off into the distance, the direction the Fell had fled. She said, “Search this craft.”

Warriors on the upper decks scattered to climb down and enter the hatchways and open windows.

Rorra stepped out of the nearest hatchway, slowly, wary at all the strange Raksura. She saw Moon and the relief on her face was obvious as she limped toward him. She still looked sick and exhausted, but had one of the smaller fire weapons slung across her back. “Is River—” She saw him lying on the deck, the warrior crouched beside him.

“He’s alive,” Moon told her. He pointed to Malachite. “This is my mother.”

Rorra stared at Malachite. “Oh.” She turned back to Moon. “Are the Fell coming back? I can get to the larger weapon stand now—”

Malachite said, “The Fell won’t come back while I’m here.”

Rorra hesitated, eyed Malachite, then said, “That’s good, then.”

A dark shape that might have been the model for the forerunner depicted on the foundation builder city’s tiles dropped to the deck suddenly, and Rorra flinched. It carried a small Arbora still in her groundling form.

It was Shade and Lithe. Moon thought he was clearly hallucinating all this, but if he was, he didn’t think everything would hurt quite so much. Shade set Lithe on her feet, shifted to his groundling form, and flung himself at Moon. He caught Moon in a hard embrace, buried his face in Moon’s neck, and said, “Are you hurt? You look terrible.”

Moving toward River, Lithe demanded, “Is that your blood or his?”

“His, he needs help. The others are inside, unconscious from Fell poison,” Moon told her, gripping Shade’s shoulders to steady himself. Shade smelled of clean Raksura and salt wind and something indefinable that was somehow clearly the court of Opal Night, or maybe their shared bloodline. If Moon had been able to feel relief, he would have felt it then. Lithe knelt beside River, motioning a warrior to help her roll him over so she could get at his wounds.

A shadow fell on the deck and Moon twitched and looked up. But it was a wind-ship, coming around above the sunsailer’s bow.

This one was easily twice the size of the sunsailer, the hull long and slim, made of what looked like lacquered wood but was a plant fiber, much stronger. The fanfolded sails on the two central masts were closing as it came about above them.

Then things started to happen very fast and in a dream-like fashion that Moon found vague and unpleasant.

Golden Islanders in climbing harnesses dropped from the railing of the wind-ship and Moon had a confused memory of trying to explain to Niran about the object Vendoin had said was a weapon and what had happened to Delin and about Rorra’s distinctive scent while simultaneously introducing her to all his relatives. Lithe had River carried inside and went to help the other Raksura.

In the common room, Moon insisted on showing Malachite what had happened to Song. Malachite had hissed in regret, and made Moon let Rise gather Song up and carry her away. Moon had followed her, aware the Golden Islanders moved through the ship with the warriors, trying to help the Kishan crew. At some point Shade cupped Moon’s face and said clearly, “Moon, you need to lie down.”

Moon ended up back in the common room with Jade and the others. They were all still unconscious, and even with Lithe tending them, Moon didn’t feel easy until he had checked to make sure each was still breathing. With the help of a couple of warriors and Shade, Lithe had moved everyone except Stone to pallets on the floor. Stone had been left stretched out on the bench, with a couple of cushions tucked around him. “I don’t have any experience with line-grandfathers,” Lithe said, “but I feel like it’s not a good idea to move him.”

Briar had been found and brought in to recover with the others, and River had had his wounds cleaned and been put into a healing sleep in a nest of cushions and blankets. Shade made Moon sit down on a cushion near Stone, while Lithe tried to get him to drink a cup of something. He said, “Is that a simple?”

“No, it’s just tea. More simples are the last thing you need,” Lithe assured him.

Moon took the cup. When he drank it he realized how abraded his throat was. No wonder he sounded so hoarse. It was suddenly a little easier to think, and he asked, “How are the Kishan?”

Lithe’s expression told him it wasn’t good news. She got to her feet and said, “Ivar-edel, the Golden Isles healer, said that so far she’s found four dead, and some of the others seem very badly off. I’m going to go help her now.”

As she went out the door, Moon tried to get up and follow her. He had no idea why, or where he thought he was going. Shade caught his arm and urged him to sit again. Moon said, “Where’s Song?”

Shade winced. “They took her to an empty cabin, where they’re putting the others who died.”

Moon sank back down on the cushion. “Right.” He closed his eyes and his head swam. “How did you find us?”

“We went to Indigo Cloud, and then we caught up with Diar and Niran. We followed the map out here, then we caught Fell stench. It was from the ocean, so we knew the Fell had to be looking for groundlings or Raksura.”

Moon managed to get his eyes open again. He didn’t want to sleep yet. “You wanted to come? Malachite didn’t make you?” He was too groggy to put it into the right words, but if any consort should want to stay far away from the Fell, buried in the safety of a powerful court, it was Shade.

“She didn’t want me to come, I insisted.” It would have been an unbelievable statement from anyone else, but Shade was one of the few people who could actually talk Malachite into things. Shade lifted his shoulders a little, half-shudder, half-shrug. “Our mentors had the same vision as yours, right before Jade’s message arrived. I thought, if we need to get into the city, and it’s like the other one and I’m the only one who can open it, I have to go.” He added, a little reluctantly, “And . . . I just had to do it to make sure I could.”