Lavinat made a negative gesture. She said, “The weapon opened the other doors for us, and the passage started to form as soon as we brought it into this chamber. There is no point to opening the passage if the weapon doesn’t work.” Navin laid the weapon in the cradle and stepped back. Lavinat reached up to touch the flat plate of stone overhead, and continued, “I think the door will open when we reach the correct position.”
Moon wasn’t sure what door she meant. Then he realized the floor wasn’t just etched with a flower petal design, the whole thing was one of the large flower petal doors.
Moon eased back from the crack. He didn’t know why Jade and Stone and the others hadn’t gotten down here yet. He hoped they were just stuck in the blocked shaft, but whatever had happened, he couldn’t wait for them. Keeping his voice to a bare whisper, he said, “We can’t count on her being wrong about that. Before the door opens, we need to get down there and get the weapon.”
Kethel whispered, “We both attack at once.”
It was a tempting plan, but Moon could see one big disadvantage right off. This tube curved down to open into the chamber, but the opening hadn’t been designed for kethel-sized beings. “You’re too big to get out of the tube fast enough. They’d burn you to death before you got close to the weapon.”
Kethel grimaced, showing his clipped fangs. “I know that. You get the weapon then.”
A kethel bursting onto the scene suddenly, even in its groundling form, would certainly be a distraction. But Moon didn’t think he would have time to get around to where the weapon was and remove it from the cradle before the Hians saw him. “Then they burn me and take the weapon back. One of us has to stay alive long enough to hide the weapon somewhere they can’t find it.”
Kethel stared at the crack, its big brow furrowed in frustration. Moon thought it was going to argue, but it said reluctantly, “Maybe so.” Then it cocked its head. “What about the thing they put the weapon in? If one can get close and destroy it, then it doesn’t matter if they kill both.”
Moon considered it, stepping close to the crack again to look at the cradle the weapon was nestled in. The curved metal vines looked jewel-like and vulnerable. It would be better to get the weapon out of the chamber entirely, but if that was impossible . . . “That could work.”
Jade snarled in frustration. Stone had tried to push the door in, shoving his entire weight against it. They had tried to burn it with the Hians’ fire weapons until the moss canisters stopping working and the fire ran out. It hadn’t weakened the door at all. She had sent the warriors to explore the tunnel above again in case she had missed a doorway or opening in their haste, but there were no branching passages.
Balm growled but said, “At least we aren’t dead yet. Maybe something went wrong and the Hians can’t use the weapon.”
Jade glared at her and Balm added in frustration, “I know we can’t count on that.”
Balm was right, though. Maybe making the weapon work was a longer and more involved process than they had assumed. “This thing is still moving down, though,” Jade said, mostly to herself. She could feel the continuing drop in altitude. They were going toward the continent below, somehow. But if they had been given a temporary reprieve, they couldn’t waste it standing here beating on this immovable door. “Stone, stop!”
Stone whipped around and all the warriors and Merit flinched back. Jade bared her fangs and Stone shifted down to his groundling form. Breathing hard, he covered his face with his hands and ground out the word, “Sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Jade said, and tried to sound as if she meant it. The last thing they needed was to turn on each other. “We have to go back up, get past the block in the shaft, and look for another way down.” She ignored the agitated twitching of the warriors’ spines. Yes, I know it’s a bad idea, but it’s the only idea left, she snarled to herself.
The crash from above made her twitch. Stone shifted to his winged form and River grabbed Merit as all the warriors braced to flee or fight. Jade pinpointed the source of the sound past the confusing echoes. “That was from the shaft. Someone got through the block.”
“It has to be Moon and Chime,” Balm said, hopefully.
Jade said, “Balm, Saffron, with me. The rest of you stay here.” She didn’t want to leave the door unguarded, just in case the Hians opened it from the other side for some inexplicable reason.
Jade leapt for the tunnel entrance, the rush of Balm’s and Saffron’s wings behind her. They made it only partway up before she detected Rorra’s distinctive scent wound through with familiar Raksura.
Moon whispered, “Now.”
Shifted to its winged form, coiled awkwardly in the too-small tube, Kethel roared.
It staggered Moon and deafened him; he just hoped it had a similar stunning effect on the Hians. He took a deep breath and flung himself forward, rolling down the tube and falling out into the chamber.
He hit the floor and rolled, shifted to his groundling form and let himself land in an awkward sprawl. He got a quick view of the astonished Hians. Across the chamber two Hians shot their fire weapons ineffectually at the tunnel mouth. Kethel roared again, then retreated up the tube, thumping and scraping its wings on the walls to make as much noise as possible.
Moon held his breath. This was the point where the Hians might just burn him, and Kethel would be on its own. He knew he looked wounded; the bruises and scrapes from being knocked off the docks transferred to his more vulnerable groundling body. He had hurt the skin under his claws and his hands and feet smeared blood onto the silver-veined petals of the floor.
Lavinat stepped toward him and said, “The Fell?”
Moon shoved himself up on his elbows, and gasped, “They’re all over this place. They followed the Golden Islanders’ wind-ship.”
Lavinat’s fingers curled around the stock of her fire weapon and Moon got ready to shift and leap. He couldn’t make it to the cradle from here without being hit by one of the others’ fire weapons, and he wasn’t sure he could damage it enough on his own. No, he needed Kethel. But he wasn’t going to lie here and let her burn him.
Then Lavinat said, “Two of you, go up that tunnel and see if there are rulers coming.”
Moon dropped his head to conceal his slump of relief. That might be even better, Moon thought, as two of the Hians lifted up in their flying packs and cautiously advanced on the tunnel. If Kethel was able to pull off the deception.
The other Hians watched Moon nervously and Lavinat made a gesture, apparently telling them to pay attention to their surroundings. She said, “I have never seen a Raksura like you close up, before. You’re very different from the Arbora, but not as much like the rulers as I’ve heard.”
Moon eyed her warily. “If you do this, I might be the last one you see.”
As if it was nothing, as if they were discussing what she planned to eat that day, Lavinat said, “I don’t expect to survive this either.” She added after a moment, “I regret the other damage this will do. But it’s necessary.”
“We’re never going to agree on that.” Moon made his voice hoarse. “Has it started yet?”
“Not yet.” She stepped back. Without moving the nozzle of the fire weapon away from Moon, she nodded toward the slab of slate-like rock above the cradle. “That’s how we know it will work. It was unrecognizable at first, then I realized it was a map. But the hills, valleys, even the rivers and mountains it marks have all changed over time. It’s a map of the world below as it was, when this place was constructed. I’ve adjusted the cradle so the passage will open there, on the plain just outside the western border wall of Imperial Kish.” Her mouth thinned, an expression of annoyance or anger. “I couldn’t make it go any closer.”