Moon caught the scent of outdoor air. “There’s a door open.” The Hians must have gotten here first.
“The main doors are kept propped open. It’s symbolic, so anyone can enter the archives at any time.”
The Hians still might have gotten here first. Moon held out an arm to Ceilinel. “We’ll go fast.” All he wanted to do was curl up in a corner and collapse. Just get outside, leave her where she can get help, and find a place to hide, he promised himself.
Ceilinel reached for his hand, then her face went still. “Someone’s performing an arcana.”
Moon hissed, thinking of the collapse that had blocked the shaft down into the docking structure. “Watch out for these arches. The Hians could bring them down and trap us in here.”
Ceilinel turned to stare at him. “Hians don’t have that kind of arcanic ability.”
Moon snorted. “Hians lie a lot.”
Something cracked overhead, a deep ominous reverberation. Moon grabbed Ceilinel around the waist and bounced to the balustrade. Below he caught a quick glimpse of the big foyer at the bottom of the stairs, the large oblong fountain pools to either side, and the heavy chased metal doors standing open just enough for a broad-shouldered groundling to step through. Someone shouted and just as Moon leapt the air moved around him, pushed by the sudden force of a heavy object’s plunge. He twisted to avoid it and knew he was about to fall badly.
He shoved Ceilinel away at the last instant so he wouldn’t crush her, then the ground slammed into him. Everything went dark.
He came to with a gasp, lying at the edge of a fountain. He could feel the damp cool stone through his clothes, on his groundlng skin, and realized he had shifted in the instant of unconsciousness.
Moon rolled over. The haze of rock dust hung in the air and chunks of a supporting arch lay scattered around them. Ceilinel stood beside him, bleeding from a scrape on her cheek, a sleeve of her robe torn. Five Hians confronted her, all armed with fire weapons. Ceilinel was saying urgently, “Avinan, you know me, you know whatever caused you to do this, it can be resolved—”
“We’re not interested in resolution,” Avinan said. She wasn’t looking at Moon, but her fire weapon pointed in his direction.
“It’s too late!” Ceilinel snapped. “I know what your plan is, I’ve told my retainers and they’ve gone to alert the conclave. You can kill us, kill yourselves for all I care, and it will be for nothing.”
Avinan said, “It’s not a very clever lie.” She took one hand off the fire weapon to gesture to someone on the balcony above. “Viniat, bury these creatures!”
Moon hunched his shoulders in reflex. Ceilinel stood there, her fists knotted in fury. But nothing happened.
Then Moon caught a scent. It was anxious sealing mixed with familiar Raksura, and the coppery hint of fresh blood that wasn’t his. He must have made a noise in his throat because Ceilinel glanced down at him, bewildered. Moon reached up and took her wrist. Someone had just opened Viniat’s throat up there on the balcony, but they weren’t out of this yet.
The other Hians kept their fire weapons trained on Moon and Ceilinel, but Avinan turned to look up at the balcony. “Viniat, what—”
The change in the air and the scrape of claws on tile were the only warning. Moon yanked Ceilinel down on top of him and rolled them both into the pool. He heard fire weapon disks strike the water. Then something huge and dark slammed into the Hians. Moon lifted his head to see one Hian still on her feet lift her weapon—Then Jade slung herself down off the stairs. The Hian collapsed in a heap. Jade had ripped away one of her arms and half her shoulder along with the weapon.
The other Hians had been flattened under Stone’s huge scaled body. Moon rolled off Ceilinel. She sat up, sputtering and coughing, just in time to see Stone shift back to groundling. She froze in astonishment.
Stone glanced around at the sprawled Hians. He still wore the dryland wrap over his clothes and Niran’s scarf tied loosely around his neck. He kicked a fire weapon away from one limp outstretched arm. “Any reason we need them alive?”
“Yes,” Moon croaked, and dragged himself to the edge of the fountain. He waved back at Ceilinel, who was shakily climbing to her feet. “She needs witnesses for the—”
Jade caught his arms and dragged him out of the pool. She snarled, “You’re hurt!”
“I know,” he told her. “I was afraid you were all dead.”
“I thought you were dead.” Jade’s spines flared in rage.
Moon went limp so she had to catch him and clutch him to her chest. This would keep her from killing anybody until he had a chance to tell her what was happening. He grabbed her collar flanges just to make sure she couldn’t put him down. “Did the others get out? Chime and Shade and—”
“The others are fine.” Jade stared down at him, her expression impossible to read, at least in Moon’s current state.
Rorra ran down the steps, a small fire weapon cradled in her arms. She stopped where she could watch the door and guard Stone’s back. “If we’re going, we need to get out of here.”
“We’re not going,” Moon said, because he had seen who was following Rorra. It was Kalam, who was going to be much better at telling their story to Ceilinel than Moon had been. “Where’s Callumkal?”
“In Kedmar,” Kalam said, hurrying down the steps. “Niran and Diar took him there, and we came here to look for you.” He looked from Moon to Ceilinel, who was stepping out of the fountain, her hair and robes dripping onto the tiles. “Are you all right? Who is this?”
Moon said, “This is Ceilinel, a speaker for the conclave of something. Ceilinel, this is Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court, Stone, our line-grandfather, Captain Rorra, and Kalam, Callumkal’s son.”
Ceilinel nodded, looking around at them all and settling on Jade as the leader. “Thank you for your timely arrival.”
Jade eyed her over Moon’s head. In Kedaic, she said, “Was she the one holding you prisoner?”
Moon tightened his hold on her. “I was nearly dead. She brought healers here for me.” Jade’s gaze jerked down to him. The cold fury didn’t leave her expression, but at least she was listening to him. He switched to Raksuran to say, “She had a Kishan magic to keep me from shifting. She destroyed it when the Hians came so we could get away.” He added, “Don’t kill her.”
Jade’s gaze went to Ceilinel again. It was a predator’s gaze, thoughtful and implacable. Moon wasn’t sure if Ceilinel knew how much danger she was in, but she said, “I think this can be resolved easily now, if you’ll remain here and speak to the conclave with me. The meeting will be soon, when a Jandera craft arrives from Kedmar. You could be on your way by morning, and the Hians’ lies would be exposed to all of Imperial Kish.”
Stone looked at Rorra, who glanced at Kalam. Kalam turned hopefully to Jade. Jade’s spines shivered with the effort of control, and she said, “No magics to prevent us from shifting. If you try to use one on any of us, I’ll know it. I don’t need to shift to kill you.”
Rorra added, “And Kalam and I keep our weapons.”
Ceilinel jerked her head in acknowledgment. “Agreed.”
Moon was impressed with Ceilinel. She dealt with the arrival of what seemed a large number of frantic and angry people who had noticed the archives were under attack, directed the armed Kishan to take the Hians away, calmed her scattered retainers, threw on dry clothes while waiting for a healer for Moon, and got them all on the way to the meeting. Though Stone had driven off the healer and taken his bag of supplies, no one had objected.
The method of transport was an odd little moss-driven craft about the size of a couple of large wagons set end to end. It was lined with cushioned benches and chairs, and the outer walls were mostly large latticed windows, letting in the cool night breeze. Lights at either end lit its way, but instead of flying, it moved along a narrow bridge that wound through the city. There were apparently a lot of the things, but this one had been reserved for Ceilinel’s use tonight. Vata stood in the front, guiding it with a steering lever.