Chime, crouched behind Moon, whispered, “How big is this place?” Moon looked away from the ruin. Far below their perch, the dim morning light gradually revealed a landscape of lush green grass cut through with deep rocky gorges and clouds of mist. Like a plain had been dropped from a height and shattered, with streams of water finding their way through the deep cracks. To the west rose a low range of blue hills. Moon had never seen a flying island this large. “So we really are on the cloudwall,” he said, keeping his voice low.
“I didn’t want to believe it either,” Jade muttered from above. “Get ready. There’s no one at the fire weapon stations.”
She leapt into the air and snapped her wings out. Moon scrambled up the pod after her. Behind him, wings flapped and claws scratched across the pod as the others took flight toward the Hian boat.
Jade lit on the cabin roof above the nearest fire weapon balcony, on the port side above the stern. Moon landed atop the next cabin over. As the warriors dropped down, Jade made a sharp motion toward the fire weapon stations on either side of the stern. “Two of you get down into those balconies and make sure the Hians don’t get near the weapons.” Briar climbed into the one on the port side and Saffron motioned for Flicker to take the other.
Shade landed next to Moon and set Lithe on her feet, then Jade leapt over their heads to reach the next cabin roof. Lithe had shifted to her Arbora form, something she only did reluctantly. She still looked like an ordinary Arbora, except her scales were more prominent and were matte black, the color of a consort or a Fell ruler.
Moon leapt forward after Jade and followed her up to the steering cabin. Balm motioned for Root to take the remaining fire weapon station above the bow. The other was just a still-smoking hole in the upper hull, parts of its platform hanging from the ropey vines that must stabilize the boat’s exterior walls. Moon turned toward Jade, then realized Root hadn’t obeyed, and was still crouched on the cabin roof, as if hoping Balm would tell someone else to guard the remaining weapon. Chime and Saffron were watching the doors in the stern and hadn’t noticed.
He wants to go inside with us and kill Hians, Moon thought. He sympathized, but this was no place to argue or disobey Jade and Balm. If a Hian got to one of the big weapons, she could kill anyone still in the air. Balm hissed at Root, who ignored her. When Moon tried to catch his gaze, Root finally turned reluctantly and dropped into the weapon station.
Moon exchanged a frustrated look with Balm. Jade, engaged in hanging upside down to look through the windows into the steering cabin, didn’t notice the moment, or pretended not to. She straightened up to whisper, “It’s empty.” She signaled to the warriors in the stern, then swung down to land on the stairs leading to a hatch. Moon glanced back to make sure Shade and Lithe would stay put on the cabin roof for now. Shade acknowledged him with a flick of spines.
With the fire weapons secured, Stone swept in to circle the boat, then came in low above it. He shifted in midair and dropped lightly onto the roof of the steering cabin. Balm and the other warriors climbed down to enter a hatch in the stern. Moon followed Jade to the stairwell.
He swung down behind her just as she pushed the hatch open. It was made of the same green-gray moss material as the rest of the boat, but reinforced with metal. Moon hadn’t had much chance to observe details last night, but had noted how heavily armed this flying boat was compared to Callumkal’s.
Just inside a passage curved toward the steering cabin and a set of stairs led down. Light still came from the globes in the ceiling, and Moon couldn’t hear any movement. Jade tasted the air and flicked a spine in surprise. “Do you scent that?”
Moon tasted the air again, more deeply. It was so dry and still that it didn’t carry a lot of scent, but this time he caught it. It was blood, and burned flesh, and the foul scents when a body voided itself at death. There was more than he expected; he didn’t think he and Stone had killed that many Hians. “That’s odd,” he whispered back.
Almost soundless, Stone stepped through the hatch behind them. He said quietly, “Something’s funny with the bottom of the boat.”
Jade started down, her foot claws curling silently around the steps. “What do you mean, ‘funny?’”
“I mean a chunk of it’s missing,” Stone clarified. He told Moon, “Where we put the bug paste.”
Jade glanced back at them, baffled, then apparently decided not to ask. Moon said, “Does it look like something took a bite out of the boat?” He was wondering if the insect-lizards had been more virulent than they had seemed and had eaten away the moss. Or if it had attracted something bigger.
“It’s not a ragged edge,” Stone answered. “I think—”
Jade hissed at them to be quiet. She had reached the bottom of the stairs. Ahead the corridor curved around toward the interior of the boat. The scents of death were stronger, the odor of burned flesh mingled with seared moss. As they followed the curve around, Moon saw an open doorway ahead. Jade stepped to the wall to take a cautious look inside, then motioned for Moon and Stone to come forward.
Moon looked over her shoulder into a sleeping room with padded shelves for beds. On the floor three Hians sprawled, all dead, with ugly burn wounds. From their positions it was clear two had been caught by surprise and one had been fleeing into the room.
Jade looked at Moon, scaled brow lifted, as Stone stepped around them to see. They had been killed with Kishan fire weapons; nothing else could do that. Moon said, “It wasn’t us.”
Jade shook her head slightly. “Then either someone attacked the boat after it got here, or they turned on each other.” She stepped away from the door and moved down the corridor. “As if we needed more mysteries. Come on.”
Moon followed with Stone, listening carefully, every sense alert. The idea of the Hians turning on each other was hard to imagine, but it was also hard to imagine people living up here who had the same weapons as the Kishan. Had the Hians just been that shocked by the sudden transition to the cloudwall that it made them all go mad? That couldn’t be it, Moon thought. He was betting it was something Vendoin had done. Maybe some of the crew hadn’t been here willingly, and had taken the opportunity to turn on their captors.
They stopped at each room along the corridor, quietly snapping the locks if the doors were fastened. They found more dead Hians, all killed by fire weapons. Stone said, “We need to find Vendoin.”
Moon agreed. There had been no shouts, no alarm sounded, so the warriors searching the stern must not have met anyone alive yet either. Jade muttered, “If we can just find the weapon, I’ll be happy to leave this boat here to rot.”
The corridor ended in a junction with another stairwell, where a wide passage went toward the steering cabin. Another Hian body lay there, collapsed in a heap beside the wall. Jade kicked it over. Though part of the face was burned, Moon had a jolt of unpleasant recognition. He said, “I think that’s Bemadin.”
Jade flicked a spine in assent, frowning. “With any luck, we’ll find Vendoin next.” She started up the passage to the steering cabin.
They found a more lavish set of rooms just below it that had to be meant for the Hian leaders. There were thick braided grass rugs, and light silky drapes over the beds, and dishes of a thin glazed pottery with bright metal rims. They split up to search the rooms, looking in every container and cubby, at first certain the artifact would be here somewhere.
Except it wasn’t.
Moon opened a roll of paper and found the pages blank, then remembered that Hians could see colors that Raksura couldn’t. He shifted to groundling just long enough to run his more sensitive soft-skinned fingers over the top page, and felt the faint indentations in the pressed plant fiber where a pen had left tracks.