“Lavinat had a map, found in one of the message stones that she concealed from us.”
“The map led you to the ruin on the coast,” Niran said.
“Lavinat attempted to use the weapon, and it caused the . . . transition here.” Vendoin looked around again. “The existence of this place was a surprise.”
Rorra grimaced. “How does this Lavinat know where to go now?”
“She said the artifact was telling her where to go.”
A chill went up Bramble’s back. Niran said, “Is she right? Or is it delusion?”
Vendoin said, “I don’t know. When I said I wouldn’t help her, she abandoned me on the rocks.”
Rorra eyed Vendoin. “If you can’t help us anymore, what should we do with you?”
Bramble thought it was another prod to make Vendoin talk more. But Kalam answered immediately, “Put her back on the island.”
Vendoin said, “No. Lavinat let me look at the writings she brought with her, the ones she couldn’t interpret. I was able to understand some of it, but I withheld the information from her.” Her gaze met Rorra’s. “I can tell you how to stop the artifact.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
They flew low, not far above the floating ice, from island to island as the gray shapes grew on the horizon. The sea was relatively calm, though Moon felt windblown ice chips catch in his frills.
When they reached a narrow rocky ridge just above the waves, Jade signaled a halt. Moon crouched with the others on the frozen rock, and got a good look at their goal.
They had found the metal ship Merit and the others had seen in their visions, but it wasn’t out here alone. It sat at what had to be the ruin of a forerunner docking structure.
It loomed up out of the sea, the flower-like pods for docking flying boats arranged around a central stalk, like the fluted curving bell of a flower. It was a mountainous structure that dwarfed even the great metal water ship moored at it.
Huge half-moon shaped sails stood on narrow pillars above a wide hull as big as a small city. The stern was high and square and the bow came to a curving point. Above the hull were dozens of towers like big spheres piled atop each other, with darker shapes in their discolored metal that might be doors or windows. Bridges connected the towers with other scaffold-like structures with a less obvious purpose. There was no sign of life or activity, and from the metal debris embedded in the chunks of ice surrounding it, bits had been falling off for some time.
Merit and Briar had landed further down the ridge. Moon saw Merit look toward Jade and signal assent with his spines. This was the place from the vision. It better be the right place, Moon thought. There surely couldn’t be more giant ships on this frozen sea. He hoped.
Chime whispered, “It’s so big. Maybe the mentors were right the first time, and it’s a city. Was a city.”
“Maybe.” Moon didn’t think it mattered what it was, as long as it was the place the Hians were looking for.
Shade crawled up on Moon’s other side to say, “The ship doesn’t look forerunner.”
Chime leaned across Moon to tell him, “I don’t think it is.”
“How can you tell?” Moon asked.
Frowning at the ship, Chime said, “The shapes and the angles and curves aren’t right. Especially when you compare the ship to the docks, or whatever that flower thing is. The curves and shapes on it definitely look like the forerunner ruins we’ve seen.”
Moon asked Shade, “Do you understand that?”
Shade twitched his spines in assent. “Sure. The forerunners built the flower docks, but somebody else built that ship.”
Moon gave up. Chime still had an Arbora’s eye for this sort of thing, and Shade was the only Aeriat who was able to draw, at least as far as Moon had seen. Shade hadn’t gotten the ability from his progenitor mother, so maybe it was a forerunner thing, like the way he had been able to open the doors in the forerunner city.
Balm scrambled up the rocks behind them and said, “Did you see it?”
Moon stared at her. Baffled, Chime pointed at the giant ship. “Uh, yes?”
Balm’s spines flicked in exasperation. “The little flying boat! It’s caught on top of that big flower dock, towards the middle.”
Moon had been too struck by the water ship to see it. Squinting against the wind, he spotted the flying boat tied off to the top of a flower-shaped docking pod near the lip of the central stalk.
The little boat was a gray-green oblong of moss, with a small deck in front, one hatch, and several windows in the upper portion. About twenty paces long or less, it didn’t look able to hold many Hians. Whoever was aboard had presumably used the Kishan flying packs to get down from it to the dock or the ship. The important point was that there was no large fire weapon mounted on it.
Balm continued, “Jade is going to check it out. She said for the rest of us to stay here.” At Moon’s expression, she grimaced, “I know.”
Moon twisted around to look for Jade. She crouched atop a higher boulder at the edge of the ridge, shaking the ice out of her spines. She leapt upward, caught the wind, and flapped up toward the flying boat.
Moon hissed in pure nervous fear. Chime said, softly, “They might not even realize we’re here, so they probably didn’t leave anybody behind in the boat.”
At least Stone was up there somewhere in the clouds on watch. Jade navigated the drafts and rode one above the central stalk, then dropped down atop the flying boat. She crouched there for a tense moment. Shade said, “I think Chime’s right, no one’s inside.”
Jade slipped down to the deck, then disappeared into the hatch. After what felt like one of the longest stretches of time in Moon’s life, she reappeared and signaled for them to follow.
Balm made a hiss of relief and turned to the warriors. “Let’s go.”
Shade hopped down to pick up Lithe, and Moon leapt into the air. He immediately slipped sideways and had to play his wings on the wind to rise toward the top of the dock structure.
The stalk loomed like a mountain, discolored and streaked by uncounted turns of weather and sun. It must be standing on the floor of the sea; the base was mired in an island of ice, washed by the freezing waves. Moon swept past a stained metal sail of the deserted ship and it vibrated with the wind, a low-pitched sound that resonated in his bones.
Moon banked and dropped to light on top of the Kishan flying boat. He furled his wings as Shade and the warriors landed around him. Jade perched on the railing, looking down at the curving edge of the docking stalk about fifty paces below. Moon hopped down to her side. A flat curved walkway ran around the fluted edge, its icy coating broken from the impact of several sets of feet. “They didn’t care that they left a trail,” he said, keeping his voice low. Maybe Vendoin and Lavinat had thought the magic had only worked on the Kishan flying boat. “They don’t know we’re here.”
“We can hope,” Jade muttered. She straightened and waved up at the clouds. Stone’s dark shape appeared immediately and dropped toward them. Kethel followed at a respectful distance. Moon leaned out to try to see down the shaft as Chime came to stand near the rail. Like the flower the dock was meant to resemble, the interior twisted into a spiral, increasingly narrow and dark. There were ledges built into the inside, circling down, but it was an impossible entrance for groundlings. If the Hians hadn’t had their flying packs, there was no way they could have taken this route. And they had gone this way; fresh scrapes scarred the ice on the ledges all the way down.
Stone landed on the curve of the flower pod below the flying boat. The kethel caught the broad stem lower down and curled itself around it.
Jade raised her voice so the warriors could hear. “I’ll go first. I want Stone with Merit behind me. Moon, I want you and Shade last.”