Jade snarled, “No one told us these damn things could come apart.” She controlled her spines. “We need to find the artifact. If it’s not here, and it probably isn’t, at least Dranam can still track the smaller boat. It’s made of the same moss as this one.”
Looking thoughtfully down toward the misty expanse below, Stone added, “At least they left some Hians to tell us what happened.”
When the captive Hians started to wake, Jade sent Flicker, Deft, and Saffron back to the wind-ship to report to Diar and Niran. Shade and Lithe came down inside the boat to help with the search for the weapon, though it seemed more and more unlikely that it was still here. But as Chime put it, “We have to search every handbreadth of this boat. If the Hians who left didn’t take it with them, we’re going to feel awfully stupid.”
Moon and Jade went up on deck when the warriors landed with Bramble, Kalam, and Delin. Setting Delin down, Saffron reported to Jade, “The wind-ship is following us, and the other groundlings are doing the thing they need to do with the moss to track the Hians.”
Moon was glad to see that Bramble and Delin looked better than they had last night. Bramble’s eyes were clear again and her scales were bright. Delin’s face seemed less sunken and bruised, and he headed down the deck toward Chime with more of his old energy.
Kalam still looked furious. “They told us what you found,” he said. “Stone is right, some larger air-going craft have small portions that can be steered independently. Dranam can still follow it with our moss samples, so unless the motivator on this ship is damaged, I don’t know why they would take the smaller craft.”
“The Hians we found alive were barricaded in a room, so we think the others had to take the small boat to get away,” Jade told him as they started down the deck. “We need you to help talk to them, so we can find out what happened.”
“The weapon is not here?” Delin asked. “You are sure?”
“We’re still searching the hold,” Jade said, “but it’s more likely they took it with them when they left.”
Jade led the way through the hatch and down the first set of stairs. Moon found himself beside Kalam and asked, “Is Callumkal any better?” They had left the wind-ship so quickly at dawn, Moon hadn’t had a chance to find out.
“No. Not yet,” Kalam said. “Ivar-edel and Merit said this morning that there hasn’t been enough time for the poisons to wear off.” It was an optimistic answer, but Kalam didn’t seem as if he believed it himself. He added, “At least he is with us now, and cared for, and not in the power of that lying traitor.”
Moon tried to think of something encouraging to say that didn’t sound like he had no concept of reality. Ivar-edel, Merit, and Lithe might all be very good healers, but none of them had any experience with Jandera.
They reached the room with the captured Hians. Balm stood on guard outside. Inside, Stone leaned casually against the wall, the Hians clustered on the far side of the room. A big one was on the floor, cradling an injured arm. They stirred uneasily when Moon and Jade stepped in. The air was tainted with sickness and some Hians slumped against the wall, as if too ill to sit up straight. Jade glanced at the one with the injured arm, and asked Stone, “Something happen?”
“Idiots tried to rush me,” he said.
Jade turned to Bramble and Delin. “Do you know anything about them?” She spoke Raksuran.
As first Bramble, then Delin looked in, the Hians seemed startled to see them. One turned to another and said in Kedaic, “It’s the prisoners.”
Bramble leaned in the doorway and eyed them thoughtfully. She pointed. “That one, the small male, served food to Vendoin. And that female, she was a guard on our cage sometimes.”
Delin nodded agreement. “I have seen them in passing, only, when I was taken to the steering cabin to speak to Vendoin.” He pointed to one. “She is called Vinat, and seemed to be in charge of the other guards.”
Jade flicked a spine in acknowledgement and switched to Altanic to speak to the Hians. “Where is Vendoin?”
They stared at her with that same apparent lack of expression that had made Vendoin so hard to read. Moon shared an irritated glance with Stone.
Then Kalam slipped through the doorway past Bramble and Delin. “Do you know me?” he asked Vinat. He was trembling a little. The Hians might interpret that as fear or nerves, but Moon knew Kalam well enough to tell it was anger. “Callumkal, who you held prisoner, is my parent. You poisoned our companions, and killed five of them.”
Vinat’s gaze went to the fire weapon slung across Kalam’s back, then strayed to Bramble and Delin, but she said nothing.
Kalam’s fists clenched. “Where is Vendoin? Where is the artifact she stole?”
Vinat said in Kedaic, “Why are you with these animals?”
Moon was unsurprised, and Jade’s spine flick showed bored annoyance. Kalam quivered, as if the desire to fling himself at Vinat’s throat had just passed through him. He turned to Jade and said in clear Altanic, “If they don’t answer, we should kill them.”
Jade tilted her head, pretending to consider it, but Moon saw the doubtful angle of her spines. He didn’t think that was the right path to take. The Hians expected Raksura to be savage and kill them. If that was the case, there was no motive for them to talk. On impulse, Moon said in Altanic, “Did you know they locked you in here?”
The Hians all stared blankly at him. He continued, “There were metal bars fixed over the door. Is there another way out? Because I don’t see one. I don’t see any way to control the boat from in here, either. It looks like they couldn’t make you come out, so they took the small flying boat and left you to die on this one, trapped in this room.”
Stone stepped out, then returned with one of the bent metal bars. He tossed it on the floor.
Jade said, “Who left you here? Was it Vendoin? We know it wasn’t Bemadin. We found her dead in the corridor below the steering cabin.”
Two Hians flinched. Moon noticed the small male had fixed his gaze on the corner, not reacting. Moon said, “Did you kill Bemadin?”
Vinat made a faint noise that sounded like derision, but the male seemed to shrink in on himself. Then the male said, “If you agree to release us, I’ll answer.”
Vinat sat up and said in Kedaic, “It will do no good. The animals mean to kill us anyway.”
The male answered in the same language, “The others turned on us, killed so many, why protect them?” He waved at the bent metal bar. “They meant us to starve to death in here, drinking poisoned water.”
Vinat leaned back against the wall. It was hard to tell if the argument had swayed her or not. The one who seemed the most ill stirred a little and said, “We owe them nothing, now. You’re the highest rank. Act to help us who are left, not those who abandoned us.”
“She is right,” Delin said, watching them. He had lost enough weight that his features were sharper, and it made the degree of calculation in his expression more evident. “Vendoin has left you behind in this strange place. Did she know there was some power in the ruin that would take her flying craft to the cloudwalls?”
The response to this seemed to be blank astonishment.
From the doorway, Chime whispered in Raksuran, “They don’t know where they are.” There was a stir as Balm nudged him to be quiet.
“Yes,” Delin said to the Hians’ silent shock. “The darkness that fell abruptly was a magic, which has taken this ship up to the flying island formation called the cloudwalls. Our friends’ ship was taken as well, and we have no notion how to return the same way, or if it is even possible for a flying craft to make its way down from here.”