“Kethel?” Bramble whispered. “The Fell are here?”
“A kethel from the flight of the half-Fell queen has been following us,” Moon explained wearily. “We told it to stay back off the beach, but it must have followed us into the ruin.”
There was silence from the other three. Delin lifted his head to stare blankly at Moon. Merit said finally, “You . . . told . . . it?”
“It’s a long story,” Moon said.
Below, they heard Stone’s voice, too low to catch the words, and the kethel’s deeper voice replying. It sounded defensive. Moon rubbed his face. “I didn’t know kethel could talk,” Bramble said. “Oh, it must be part Raksura?”
“No. It was raised by the Fellborn queen.”
“Is Stone going to kill it?” Merit asked hopefully.
“He hasn’t so far,” Moon said. He thought of trying to explain to the others that it would be weird to do it now, unprovoked, when the kethel had been persistently helpful. It sounded even stranger in his head so he decided not to try. “We’re pretty certain the kethel was sent to get the weapon for the Fellborn queen, but it keeps talking to us, and . . . it’s a long story.”
Stone was returning, and they could hear him say, “—stay down here, or I’ll tear your head off.” Stone climbed the steps again, snarling in exasperation.
“Where was it?” Moon asked.
“It said it was on the causeway.” Stone took a seat. He sounded resigned and furious. “It said everything went dark and it was falling through the air, until it could land on one of these pod-things.”
“I need to tell you something,” the kethel said from below.
Merit flinched in alarm and edged closer to Moon. “That’s a kethel?” Bramble whispered, astonished.
“‘Need’ or ‘want’?” Stone asked.
There was a pause while the kethel thought that over. Then it said, “Another flying boat.”
Startled, Moon said, “What?”
“Where?” Stone demanded.
“Another flying boat in the ruin, before the ground went strange.” The kethel added, “Is that need or want?”
Moon had the feeling Stone was inadvertently teaching the kethel how to be sarcastic. That wasn’t going to work out for anybody.
Stone said, “Where in the ruin?”
“The edge,” the kethel repeated. “Back near where I was.”
“What did it look like?” Moon asked.
There was a moment of silence. “A boat that flies,” the kethel said pointedly.
Stone hissed under his breath. Moon gathered his patience for another try. Then the kethel’s head popped up between the pillars suddenly and everyone flinched back. It blinked in the light from the glowing scarf, taking in Merit, Bramble, Delin, and the unconscious Callumkal without any reaction. Merit warily drew back, edging behind Moon. Bramble whispered, “That’s not a kethel. That can’t be. It’s not—”
“It is,” Delin whispered back. “His face. The fangs. They have been shortened, but—”
Merit made a noise in his throat and tucked himself against Delin’s side.
The kethel seemed to ignore them. It said, “I could show you.”
Stone didn’t respond immediately. Moon didn’t like the idea of having to move the Arbora and Delin in the dark, while following a kethel. Even this kethel.
Then Bramble said, “Oh, there’s something I forgot to tell you.”
Still watching the kethel, Stone tilted his head toward her. “What?”
“I put poison in the cistern on the Hians’ flying boat.”
Moon turned to stare at her. “Poison?”
“You managed it?” Delin was startled.
“What poison was it?” Merit asked.
“We’re not sure. Delin figured out the symbols on the waterskins but—”
Moon caught her shoulders and turned her to face him. “When did you do this?”
“It wasn’t long before you got there,” Bramble said. “I don’t know if it’s had time to work. With everything that happened, they probably weren’t thinking much about eating and drinking.” She gasped and looked at Callumkal. “You don’t think—Maybe that’s what made him sick—”
Maybe, but there was no point in worrying about it when there was nothing they could do. Moon said, “No, it’s probably the drugs the Hians gave him.” He looked toward Stone. “They won’t all get it at once, like we did. If everyone who has a drink of water passes out, the others will realize it’s in the cistern.”
“It depends on how long it takes them to realize it.” Stone sounded thoughtful. “Vendoin told you most simples don’t work on Hians, so it might not do much to them.”
Sounding frustrated, Bramble said, “I was in a hurry, and we didn’t know what else to—”
Moon told her, “We’re not criticizing you, Bramble. We’re trying to think what to do next.”
Bramble dropped her head and said miserably, “I had a really hard day.”
Moon squeezed her wrist. “It’s all right.” He still thought the first thing they had to do was find the other flying boat. It could be more Hians, coming to help Vendoin, but he was betting it was Jade and the others. He stood and went to the edge of the platform, crouching to get eyelevel with the kethel. “Will you show me where the other flying boat is?”
Stone shook his head. “No, we can’t risk—”
Moon told him, “I’ll go alone. We have to find out if it’s the wind-ship or not.”
Stone glared at him, lifting his brows. Moon hissed, “I know.” He knew he was going off alone in the dark with a kethel in a strange place that might be on the cloudwall to look for a possibly non-existent flying boat that might actually be full of Hians instead of their friends.
The kethel looked from Moon to Stone and back. It said, “I’ll show you.”
Stone turned to meet its gaze. He said, “If you don’t come back, I’ll come find you.”
Stone kept his voice even, but he managed to convey his message. The kethel recoiled a little, and said reproachfully, “We come back, old consort.”
“Moon . . .” Bramble whispered in protest. Merit’s eyes were huge and Delin’s brow furrowed in worry.
“It’ll be all right,” Moon told them, and leapt down the steps.
The kethel dropped lightly to the floor near him, and went through the door out to the ledge.
Moon followed. His eyes adjusted quickly, and he could see the kethel’s outline against the starlit darkness, the light glinting on its pale skin. “Walk or fly?” he said.
“Walk along here. I came this way.” The kethel sounded just like a groundling, and Moon reminded himself not to treat it like one. It didn’t make sense for it to betray them, at least not until it got a chance to grab the weapon for itself. But just because it didn’t make sense didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen.
As they followed the curve of the pod, the ruin opened up and the starlight illuminated the graceful shape of the flower-pods across the well, where they arced up above the bowl of shadow. Moon still couldn’t catch any glimpse of the Hians’ flying boat. It must be prudently keeping its lights out, hiding from them. Or from whatever else was here. He tasted the air deeply, but at the moment couldn’t scent anything but kethel. He said, “How did you find us?”
The kethel said, “I told old consort I saw you leave the Hian flying boat and fall on the flower thing. We have to go down now.”
Moon stopped abruptly as the kethel shifted. Its huge dark shape blotted out the light for an instant and flight reflex almost made Moon fling himself backward off the walkway. But its body flowed forward as it made the jump to the curve of a lower pod. The kethel climbed down the curve to the walkway. It paused there, then shifted back down to its groundling form.
Moon set his jaw and made the leap, landed on the curve and half-climbed half-skittered down the steep surface. The kethel faced toward the flower opening, trying to peer inside. It made a huffing noise that Moon realized was its version of tasting the air. Fell weren’t the best trackers; feeding on groundlings trapped in their settlements didn’t encourage the development of high level hunting skills. Moon could already tell that if there was anything alive in the darkness under the pod’s overhang, it wasn’t moving. He didn’t feel they were being watched, either. Just to test the kethel, he asked, “Anything there?”