Rorra hauled her boots on, hurriedly buckling the straps. “But not Moon?”
“They tried; he’s still on deck.” Moon might have survived the fall, but River didn’t know how he could survive the dakti. “Are you still willing to use the fire weapon?”
She got her feet under her, and he reached down and caught her arm to help her stand. She wavered and he held on long enough to make sure she wasn’t going to collapse. “Yes, it’s our only chance.”
It was a terrible chance. River had himself and one sealing who had been poisoned half-unconscious. But the alternative was to sit here and wait for the Fell to eat them. “Come on.”
Fear gave Moon the strength to shove to his feet. He leaned on the wall to steady himself as the dakti surrounded him and the Fell queen moved down the deck toward the rear hatchway. He managed to get inside without falling but the stairway to the upper level loomed ahead. He grabbed the railing and tried to pull himself up but he was still so weak his muscles just refused to lift him. Hesitantly, the Fell queen reached for his arm. When he didn’t move to stop her, she took his arm and helped him up.
Moon swallowed with a dry throat and let her, gripping the railing to steady himself. Her skin felt dry and too warm. Not like Shade, who felt exactly like another Raksura.
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.