"I'm off to my post on the walls," Kaneth said quietly to Jasper. "Zigger-killing. You take care, Jasper." He hesitated, as if he didn't quite know what to say. Finally, he settled for, "You deserve better than this, but it's all you've got. I'm sorry."
The lump in Jasper's throat was painful. "I know," he said. "Don't worry, I know."
Kaneth nodded, and then he was gone. Jasper entered the room, just in time to hear Granthon mutter, "A stormlord shouldn't have to leave his city."
"I know, dear," Ethelva said. "But you have to live for us all to survive. Now lie down, and these good men will carry you down to the pede."
"I don't feel well," he said.
"Then lie down," she repeated.
Instead, he doubled over. His hands clutched at his upper body and his face contorted. Then, silently, he toppled from the litter onto the floor. Ethelva tried to catch him but wasn't strong enough to break his fall. She ended up on her knees beside him.
Jasper stared. Granthon's eyes were wide open in a sightless gaze.
Oh waterless damn, he thought, aghast. That can't have just happened.
Before anyone reacted, there was a high-pitched whine outside the window. Lord Gold glanced that way, then knelt at the Cloudmaster's side.
"Is Grandpa dead?" Senya asked, her eyes large and round.
"I rather think so," Laisa said, sounding more exasperated than upset. "And those are ziggers whining at the shutters."
"Lady Ethelva, his spirit has left him," Gold confirmed.
Ethelva looked at him blankly.
Jasper remained stunned with horror. The Cloudmaster of the Quartern is dead. Which meant he, Jasper, was now the only stormlord the land had. He pushed away the terror of that. His heart thudded in his chest.
Later, I'll think about it later.
Laisa moved to touch Ethelva on the shoulder. "We should go," she said.
Ethelva looked up at her, not understanding. "Go? And leave him? I cannot do that."
"There is nothing you can do here." Laisa pointed out with calm logic. "He is dead. And he would want you safe in Portennabar."
Ethelva, leaning heavily on Lord Gold's arm, stood up. She said, with heartbreaking dignity, "My husband has just died. I will do my best for his city, and I will attend to the proper disposal of his water. That is my duty. It is yours to protect the next generation, Laisa." She beckoned to Senya and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "Be the best rainlord you know how to be, my dear." Then she turned back to Lord Gold. "Can you protect us from the ziggers while we accompany the body downlevel to the House of the Dead? I wish the ceremonies to take place there, as is customary."
Laisa shrugged and turned to Jasper. "You ready?"
He returned her look numbly. "The ziggers?"
Senya gave him a scornful look. "We don't have to go out into the street. Don't you know anything?"
"Nealrith had all contingencies covered," Laisa said. "Follow me."
"My father has had this planned for ages," Senya told him smugly as they hurried along the passage. "An escape route we can use if there are ziggers in the city. The waterhall first, then down through a tunnel to the thirtieth level. There's a secret room there where we can hide until the fighting is over and we've won."
He blinked, wondering if she could believe that. Won? Could a handful of rainlords and a few hundred guards win against hordes of Reduners with ziggers? And didn't she even care her grandfather had just died? In the waterhall, lit by an extravagance of oil lamps, workmen were constructing a stone wall to block most of the tunnel leading to the mother cistern in the Warthago Range. A hole at the bottom of the barrier allowed water to pour through. The waterhall's two reeves watched the workers in a worried fashion. Ryka Feldspar was leaning against a wall with her eyes closed. A number of guards lounged about, fidgeting in edgy boredom.
"Are there Reduners out there?" Laisa asked, addressing her question to Ryka.
Ryka looked up wearily. "Not now. At least not within range of my powers. Their damn ziggers killed three of my men, though." She indicated the floor, and Jasper saw that the flagstones were littered with dried-up zigger bodies.
"Where's your father?" Laisa asked.
"Up on the North Wall. Trying to kill ziggers before they cross the wall into the city." She shrugged. "Not easy in the dark." She glanced at a wall niche where sand sifted through a sandglass. "Another two runs till dawn. I don't know that he'll make it. He's not alone, but there are only four of them up there." She meant four rainlords. "Four for the whole of the Level One wall, plus the Level Two escarpment wall." She smiled wanly. "I don't think they are going to make all that much difference, do you?"
Jasper licked dry lips.
Laisa didn't comment. She was already turning to the nearest of the guards, asking him to open the trapdoor in the floor close to where the man stood. "Disguise the entrance after us," she added to one of the reeves as the guard pulled up the cover. He nodded, as if he had been briefed on that already.
Nealrith planned for all this, Jasper thought. The wall across the tunnel, our escape routes, every rainlord knowing where to go and what to do. Even the pack I carry was prepared for me beforehand. And yet they scorn Rith as a weak ruler.
Ryka asked Jasper, "Kaneth? Did you see Kaneth?"
He nodded. "He went to the walls. I don't know which part."
She nodded, as if that was what she had expected to hear. Jasper turned away, unable to face the panicked expression in her eyes. She really cares for him, he thought in surprise. She's sick with worry, but it's for him, not herself.
With the lantern in her hand, Laisa climbed into the hole and Senya followed, fussing about her skirts. Jasper climbed down after her and found himself in a dry brick tunnel. The reeve shut the trapdoor after him.
"It leads to the groves with one exit between," Laisa told him, "on the thirtieth level. We aren't going to bump into anyone coming up the other way. At least I hope not, because that would mean that the Reduners have found the outside entrance in the groves."
"They won't, will they?" Senya asked. Any semblance of scornful superiority had vanished. The sight of the dead ziggers had shaken her.
"Unlikely," her mother said. "The entrance is under the water in one of the grove cisterns."
"I don't like this," Jasper said. "We shouldn't be running away. If the Reduners are using ziggers, only rainlords-you and Senya included-can stop them."
Laisa turned on him in a fury. "Do you think I want to run? If we don't win tonight, I lose everything I've ever worked to have. I'd rather be up there killing ziggers than down here hiding. But you and Senya are the future, the only future we have. And I've been elected the one to secure that future. If Breccia City loses the battle tonight-tomorrow-I'm the one who has to escort you to safety. Now get going."
He paused, torn. She walked away down the tunnel, taking the lantern with her. Senya trailed behind, white-faced.
Jasper thought, Laisa believes we will lose. Sighing, he followed.
It was a long and silent trek, often steeply downhill, sometimes stepped. Jasper pondered his options as he went. He could not spend too long hiding underground. He was the only stormlord the Quartern had now. He didn't think he could make clouds at all without Granthon, but he had to try. Perhaps, in Portennabar, close to the sea… If he could see the water, reach out to it.
Deep inside, he knew it was unlikely.
At last they came to a manhole lid in the bricked floor of the passage that had the figure 30 painted on it.
"This is it," Laisa said. "Open it up, Jasper."
He did as she asked, and she knelt to lower the lantern inside. He peered in. A ladder went down a cistern wall into water deep enough to be over his head.
"I don't want to go in there," Senya protested. "I'll get wet."
"You're a rainlord, you fool girl," her mother said, her contempt scathing. "Who ever heard of a rainlord getting wet if they didn't want to? Jasper, you go first. Here, take the lantern. We'll follow. Go down to the bottom and walk to your right along the cistern wall. There is a watertight metal door at the end. That leads into our hiding place."