“No, I should stay here with you.” Bramble’s voice was hoarse and determined. “I’ll help you find Callumkal.”
Moon hissed at her, but there was no time to argue. Watching for Stone, he said, “If you jump, I’ll give you a clutch whenever you want.”
Bramble, clearly braced for snarling and orders, blinked, distracted. “What, really?”
“Really.” As Stone appeared in the cloud of insects, Moon gave Bramble a shove. She flailed and fell. Stone caught her neatly in one hand and turned to come around for his next pass.
Delin groaned. “I am not looking forward to this.”
Just as Stone appeared below again, a scatter of wooden disks landed on the platform. Moon shoved Delin off with more force than he had originally intended. Then he crouched and flipped down to land on the lower hull just as fire washed the platform above him. The heat warmed his scales and he climbed rapidly, knowing he would blend in with the dark green moss and make a poor target.
He hadn’t seen Stone catch Delin, but Stone’s big form vanished into the insect cloud with a flip of his tail, so Moon hoped for the best.
Jade rode the wind, scouting ahead with Balm. The sun had set and it was too dark to see much ahead, and they would need to return to the wind-ship soon. At least stretching her wings and fighting the strong salt-scented wind helped keep her anxiety and irritation in check. The last thing Jade needed to do was bite a warrior’s head off.
They passed into an open valley where the ground rose up to form rocky hills, all of it shrouded in deep shadow. “We should go back,” Balm called.
Jade could feel her spines twitch impatiently. Draman had said they were close, that the two moss samples, the Hians’ and Moon and Stone’s, had been converging at a point not far ahead. Jade had hoped to find the two consorts before they found the Hians, but flying around aimlessly in the dark wasn’t going to help, even though it gave her the illusion of doing something.
She began, “Right, let’s—” then she saw the flash of light above the cliffs. She hissed in a startled breath.
Balm slipped sideways in her excitement. “There! That was a—”
“Kishan distance-light,” Jade finished as it flashed again. “Go back, warn the wind-ship! I’ll wait here.”
Balm banked to head back to the others and Jade tilted her wings to land on the rocky crag of the hill overlooking the beach. Finally, their quarry was in sight.
The Hians would be watching the starboard side of the boat, where they had last spotted Raksura, so Moon climbed down, claws sinking into the thick moss, all the way under the hull. The still-working starboard distance-light swept the cloud of insects, catching iridescent reflections off carapaces and wings, as Moon climbed up the port side.
Moon reached the deck and flattened his spines to cautiously poke his head up over the railing. He spotted movement atop a cabin roof; there were Hians up there, but they faced away from him, clearly still expecting him to appear on that side. He wasn’t sure whether they had seen Stone or not. They must be aware that their captives were escaping but there was no telling how many Raksura they thought were on the boat.
He eased over the railing and dropped to the deck, then crawled to the nearest hatch and slipped inside. This corridor ran parallel to the deck, and was for the moment empty. Stone had been cut off from the stern stairwell, so Moon went forward, this time trying to make as little noise as possible. Stone had also been hampered by having to stay in his groundling form in order to fit inside the boat, and trying to keep Bramble and Delin from being recaptured. Moon hoped for better luck.
He heard movement and stepped into the nearest door, a cabin with narrow beds and cabinets built into the walls. The footsteps ran past. Moon slipped out and made it to the next stairwell. He crouched at the foot, listening and tasting the air.
The lower corridor and the cross-corridor that branched off the stairwell were empty. Most of the Hians would be up on the decks where they expected the next attack to come from. Moon moved rapidly down the cross-corridor, looking for cabins with sealed and reinforced doors.
The moss scent was strong, especially the further toward the stern he went, nearer to the moss-driven motivator that kept the boat aloft, and Moon had to filter it out of the other scents. Stone had probably been able to find Delin because his senses were so much more acute than Moon’s, and because he knew Delin’s personal scent. Moon knew Callumkal’s, but Janderan and Janderi had skins nearly as tough and thick as scales; they didn’t sweat like soft-skinned groundlings, and it made their scent less easy to detect.
But Moon had been close enough to Delin to scent illness on his skin and clothing. He was betting Callumkal wasn’t in much better shape.
At the next intersection he caught the bitter scent of recent sickness. He followed it around to another winding corridor. As he started down it he heard movement and voices from the direction of the stern. That had to be the stairwell Stone had found guarded. Moon turned away from it first, but the scent faded. Hissing to himself in irritation he turned back and crept toward the stern. Barely ten paces from the bottom of the stairs he found a door reinforced with embedded bars. Bracing himself, Moon thought, this is going to have to be fast. And if it wasn’t Callumkal in there, Moon would lose his chance to rescue him.
Moon took hold of a bar, braced his foot against the wall, and yanked it with all his strength. Something snapped inside the door, far too loudly, and half the door came out of the wall. Moon dropped it and flung himself into the room.
Callumkal lay on a padded bench, unconscious and stinking of sickness. A Hian, either guard or nurse, had been sitting on a stool and was just now standing, scrabbling for the fire weapon lying on the floor. Moon snapped out the end of his wing to punch her in the face with the tip. As she fell back against the wall and slid to the floor, Moon snatched up the fire weapon, looped the strap over his arm, and then grabbed Callumkal.
He darted into the corridor and raced away as the Hians from the stairwell shouted the alarm. Callumkal felt like a dead weight in his arms, but there was no time to stop and see if he was breathing. Moon reached the stairwell, slung Callumkal’s limp body over one arm, pointed the fire weapon down the corridor and triggered it twice. The fire roared just as the Hians dashed out of the cross-corridor. They retreated in a mad scramble and Moon ran up the stairs.
He reached the landing and heard movement from both corridors in the junction; he was cut off from the outer door on the port side. He went the only way left, and burst out through a hatchway onto the lower bow deck. Vendoin, Bemadin, and the other Hian, Lavinat, stood on the platform just above.
There was a frozen instant where Moon stared at them and they stared at him. Then Lavinat lifted a silver and crystal shape. Moon recognized it instantly. It was the foundation builder weapon, the crystal inside its cage of metal.
He turned to go over the railing but the boat’s deck shuddered under him, and he staggered sideways. Looking down he realized the boat was barely twenty paces from the top of one of the ruin’s metal rings. The night, which had still been filled with the hum of the insect-lizards, abruptly went quiet as the whole swarm shot away down the beach. So Moon had lost his cover and he and Callumkal were probably about to die anyway, from the foundation builder weapon or the fire weapons of the Hians running across the bow deck toward him. There was no other option, and Moon would rather die in the air, so he crouched and leapt off the boat into the sea wind.