Ash.
The sledge jolted and skidded to a halt. Heart stood still between the driver's rails for a moment. Then he climbed off, one jerky step at a time, holding his head rigidly still above his shoulders.
Eric set his jaw and tried to prepare himself for what he'd see. He knew it was was impossible, but he had to try anyway. Eric climbed out after his brother-in-law.
The wind was always strong in the Midway Breach, and even more so on the overlook. It hit him with a blast of heat that tried to drag his skin off his face. Eric screwed up his eyes and looked into the wind. Ash stung his cheeks and nostrils and he coughed, inhaling more ash.
Heart of the Seablade sank to his knees. Ash wafted over him, tracing long black trails around his shoulders. Eric waded through wind to stand beside him. He saw the stone house that had been built to hold the watch. Its shutters and door were flung wide-open, but no one stirred inside. He saw the eddies and whorls of the granite under his feet, washed by wind and water until there was nothing left but pink-and-black stone with an unevenly sculpted lip. Ash skittered across the stone.
Eric made himself look up.
He had only stood on the Narroways overlook once in his life. The Kings of Narroways did not welcome First City Nobility up here. He had never forgotten the long panorama of greens and browns, all of it framed by Broken Canyon's splendor.
Now night had fallen between the gold-streaked Walls. A roiling cloud blotted out the far reaches of the canyon. It spread out its tendrils until it stroked the Walls. Black streaks cut across the bands of mauve and maroon and silver that the Nameless had painted to make up for the quarrel they had had.
They were too far to away to hear any distinct noises. The vague thunder that was probably made up of roaring flames and crumbling stone still rumbled under the shriek of the wind around their ears. The same wind carried a stench to them. Thick and greasy and acrid, it drove itself straight to the back of Eric's throat. He tasted ash and death and he
"Mind was down there," said Heart. "Mind was still down there." He looked up at Eric like a bewildered child.
"This is how the Skymen value us," Eric told nun bitterly. "They value us so much that they'll kill some of us to frighten the rest of us into submission. Come on, Heart." He turned away. More than just ash stung his eyes now. "We have to find out if Aria is all right."
"And if she isn't?"
"Then we go back into the marshes and start looking for her mother," he said to the empty watch house, "or for her daughter, or for anyone who's related to her. The Servant went to one Notouch, didn't he? We'll go to all of them." He looked back grimly at the cloud of ash and smoke that had been a city whose name was used as a synonym for defiance. "On our knees, if we have to."
The toes of Jay's boots hung over the edge of the second drop. A dim light shone up from the shaft and turned his weather-browned skin the color of dirty paste. At his direction, Aria kept her penlight pointed the other way, so only the dimmest reflection touched the mouth of the well. Jay's gun peered down the well first, then his eyes followed.
Aria shifted her weight from foot to foot, trying to ease away the feeling of being watched. A shadow drifted up from the floor to the curved wall and paused right at her eye level. It hung there, almost as if it was expecting something.
No shadow did that for Jay. Aria swallowed hard and tried not to remember what Eric had said about finding the Nameless Powers down here.
Jay waved to her frantically. His own shadow made an opaque, black streak over the transluscent grey that surrounded them. Aria moved closer to his side, still keeping the light angled away from the well. Jay pointed at the ladder, then at himself, at his torque, back to the ladder, then to her. Then he pressed the side of his index finger against his lips.
Aria nodded, bridling at his insistence of trying to repeat the plan they had already worked out in the middle of the tunnel. Jay would go down the ladder first. If nothing happened, he would signal her through his torque. Aria was to follow, and to stay silent.
Jay bolstered the gun and gripped the sides of the rope ladder where amber blobs of industrial strength glue held it to the tunnel floor.
Aria sat down and switched off the light. Darkness dropped over her. Jay became little more than a silhouette as he took a deep breath and slid himself down far enough to reach the rungs with his boots. She heard the leather creak minutely under his weight, and creak again and again each time his foot settled on a new rung.
Aria wished he could have told her how many rungs there were, then she would have had some idea how long she would need to sit here in the darkness. Darkness itself didn't frighten her. She'd lived the better part of her life in the nighttime or in shadows. But this wasn't the living darkness of the Realm's night, or even the expectant darkness of the void between the stars. This was a muffling, confining darkness that wrapped around her and pinned her down, making it that much easier for whatever waited behind the walls to reach out and take her. The glowing well beside her didn't help. It just collected shadows around her, as if they were moths coming to peer at a candle.
All at once, Jay's voice echoed up the shaft. Her disk delivered nothing but a string of nonsense syllables. Aria drew her legs under her. A staccato noise like hail on granite rang against the walls. Light flashed brightly in time with the deafening sound. Aria threw herself away from the edge of the well and pressed back against the shadow-filled wall. She glanced back toward the entrance.
Run? I could, but where to? She gritted her teeth and clutched her sling. What I need is here.
Another flash of light and burst of hail shot out of the well. Then she heard Jay scream.
Aria picked a stone out of the sling's pouch and crawled over to the well's mouth. She raised her hand, ready to hurl it down. She peered over the edge.
Below her, Jay slumped against the tunnel wall. His eyes glistened brightly in the reflected light. There was no other movement visible, except for the restless shadows in the walls.
Aria dropped the stone back into the sling. She stuck the straps between her teeth and grabbed the ladder's rungs. She started down as fast as she could. The ladder twisted and wriggled under her hands and she cursed it under her breath, wishing for the steady metal rungs that had carried her out of Haron Station with Eric.
A shadow shot up the wall and stopped three inches from her nose. Aria gasped and almost lost her grip on her sling. The shadow hung in front of her eyes. Its edges expanded and contracted as if it was breathing. Aria swung her foot around to find the next rung. As her eye level dropped, so did the shadow. Aria felt her pulse flutter like a trapped wasp in her wrists, but she forced herself to keep climbing. The shadow followed her all the way down.
At last, she was close enough to the floor to let go of the wriggling ladder and drop the last three feet. Jay curled against the wall. His weapon lay on the floor at his feet. Down the tunnel, toward a lighted archway, lay three corpses. Human gore spattered the walls around them. Aria swallowed against the sweet, coppery scent that filled the tunnel.
Aria turned her eyes quickly back to Jay. His jaw was slack and a small trail of spittle trickled out over his lips. His eyes were open but he didn't blink, or track her as she leaned over him.
"Jay." She laid her hands against his chest and felt his shallow breathing. "Jay!" The spittle dripped onto the back of his hand, and Aria saw a dart with a sapphire blue shaft sticking out of his arm.
"Garismit's Eyes." Aria plucked the dart free. She bit her lip.
Probably not poison, or he'd be dead already. Probably just drugged. It'll wear off. She sniffed the dart carefully and smelled crushed leaves and antiseptic. She glanced down at Jay's paralyzed figure. In time.