And then everything went black.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
For a heartbeat the darkness was burning cold and absolute. Then suddenly dim cloudy starlight shone, the wind moving cool and sweet.
Moon clutched at Callumkal, relieved he hadn’t dropped him in that strange instant of deprived senses. He tilted his wings to slow and control his fall. The sudden darkness was baffling. He still couldn’t see the gleam of waves breaking on the beach, or on the verdigrised metal of the old ruin, or . . . He couldn’t hear the waves, either. That can’t be good, Moon thought, a knot of fear growing in his chest. Something had happened and he wondered if this was what the Fell at the river trading city had felt, right before their bodies had come apart.
But the sky was still there. Faint stars, obscured by far more clouds than there had been when he and Stone had flown to the flying boat. When he looked down, his eyes had adjusted enough to make out a shape below, like the bulb of a giant flower. It was in about the same spot as the edge of the ruin, but it hadn’t been there earlier. Wary, he banked sideways away from it.
Overhead, from the direction of the flying boat, Moon heard someone shout in Kedaic, but the voice cut off abruptly. He registered the difference in the air: there was no scent of the sea, and it was dryer and cooler. As his body adjusted to the abrupt change, something told him they were much higher above the ground now, as high as a snow-covered mountaintop, at least. We moved, we went up, he realized.
That took a little of the terror of the unknown out of the situation. It must be something the ruin had done, maybe not that different from the forerunner tunnel that had given the sunsailer such a violent exit from the foundation builder city.
His throat dry, Moon took a deep taste of the wind and caught the scent of familiar Raksura.
Moon hissed in relief and adjusted his course, heading toward the scent’s origin. Another bulbous shape caught a gleam of light. Something dark moved against it and Moon took the chance and called out, “Stone!”
Bramble’s voice, ragged and frightened, answered, “Here!”
Moon dropped toward her and landed on the curve of the bulb, his claws skittering for purchase on the strange soft material. From here he could just see the outline of Stone’s dark shape. Guessing that Stone was perched on something, Moon hissed, “Look out, I’m coming down.” He jumped, cupping his wings in case the surface was closer or farther than he thought.
He landed on a ledge that felt like smooth rock. He whispered, “Stone, you all right?”
Wings scraped the ground as Stone moved. Delin groaned, and Bramble said, tentatively, “Moon? Where are we?”
“I don’t know.” Moon edged toward her voice and brushed against the tip of Stone’s wing. “I’ve got Callumkal. He’s unconscious.” He carefully put Callumkal down on the paving and patted his face, but there was no reaction. At least Callumkal was still breathing. “Delin, are you all right?”
“It’s my head,” Delin said, thickly, “and my stomach. I’ll be well in a moment.”
Moon felt the displaced air as Stone shifted to groundling. Stone said, “Something’s wrong with Merit.”
Moon hissed in dismay. Above them wispy clouds fragmented and more stars shone, just enough light for Moon to make out the shapes of Delin and the Arbora. Stone crouched in front of Merit, who was folded up into as small a ball as possible, his arms wrapped around his head. Bramble huddled nearby and Delin wavered beside her.
As Stone leaned over Merit, Moon turned to face out into the darkness. With the slightly brighter starlight, he saw they were at the edge of a large ruin.
More flower-like blubs stood at different heights across an open space that formed a deep pool of shadow a few hundred paces wide. He tasted the air again, and caught the scents of rock and dust and fresh water, and the more distant hint of greenery and dirt. It was quiet except for faint high-pitch sounds that he could identify as water insects. This had to be a forerunner ruin. Something had happened to the ruin on the beach, it had made some sort of magic and sent them inland, to another ruin on top of a mountain. He remembered Lavinat had been holding the weapon right before he had leapt off the boat, and hissed under his breath. It must have other uses than just killing. If she caused this . . . It would be typical.
They needed to get to cover; if the flying boat used its remaining distance-lights, it could find them easily.
Bramble crept up beside him. He felt her tremble against his scales and put his arm around her. She huddled into his side and said, “I thought you were all dead. Vendoin said you weren’t, and the way she was so worried about someone coming after her, it didn’t make sense if you were. But I was still so afraid.”
Moon hesitated, but he felt waiting would be worse. “Song is dead, from the poison the Hians gave us. They killed Magrim, and Kellimdar, too.”
Bramble made a noise like all the air had been knocked out of her. Behind him, Delin groaned, and muttered a curse. In a small voice, Bramble said, “Where’s Jade?”
“She’s following us with the warriors, probably on Niran and Diar’s wind-ship.” Moon just hoped they hadn’t been transported beyond the moss’s direction-finding range.
Bramble curled tighter into Moon’s side, and Delin said, “Ah. Niran must be beside himself.”
“You could say that,” Moon admitted. “Diar isn’t thrilled about it either.”
Behind him, he heard Merit say weakly, “I’m all right, it’s just my head. I heard—I thought I heard—I don’t know.”
Moon felt his spines try to lift. Strange voices in your head while you were in a forerunner ruin were never a good thing. Bramble slipped away from his side to go to Merit. Stone said, “We need to find shelter.”
Moon agreed. They had the Hians to worry about, and there might be any number of predators stalking this place. He eased to his feet. “Try to get inside this bulb thing?”
Stone grunted an assent. Bramble said, “I’ll carry Callumkal.”
It was best, as it would leave Stone free to shift. As Stone helped her sling Callumkal over her shoulder, Moon pulled Delin to his feet, then steered him to Merit. “Delin, take care of Merit.”
Delin took Merit’s arm and tucked it into his own. “I have him.”
Moon followed last as Stone led the way to the wall and then along it. He could see the shape of other structures outlined against the sky, curving up from the ruin’s base. Moon wondered if the buildings had sprouted from the floor of the bay somehow, if the whole ruin had lifted up into the sky. No, from the scents they had to be inland.
Ahead, Stone hissed, “Doorway.”
They passed under an overhang that blocked the faint light and Moon sensed it was an open cave-like space. His spines twitched with nerves. He didn’t scent any living things, but in a strange place anything could be possible. Merit said, “Wait, I think the Fell poison’s worn off. I can make a light.” He still sounded weak, but the more you were exposed to the poison, the quicker it seemed to wear off. And Merit and Bramble must have been given a lot of it in a fairly short time.
“Are you sure you should?” Bramble asked Merit, her voice raspy with nerves.
“Well, no, but . . .” Merit sounded a bit more like himself. “We need to see.”
Delin handed Merit something, and after a moment, it began to gently glow. Moon lifted his wings to block the light, in case anyone was watching from the nearby flying boat. The object was a knotted up head scarf, and either the cloth just couldn’t be made to put out much light, or Merit wasn’t able to put much power into it. It revealed a pitted stone wall of dark blue, and the edge of a curved doorway. Stone took the scarf and stepped inside, saying, “Wait here.”