The dock area was lit by three hanging lamps, the wan light showing him the empty pier where Nobent had rested. Huh. Maybe he left as soon as we were out of sight. That was a little odd. If Nobent only wanted to take his next cargo of edilvine and rushes to the sea-goers, he should have waited until morning. His eyes hadn’t had the appearance of a nocturnal being’s.
He could be rushing off to tell the sea-goers that Raksura were searching for them, but Moon didn’t think Nobent could know about the theft. Nobent hadn’t recognized Moon as a Raksura, hadn’t seemed to know about the courts inhabiting the forest. But maybe the sea-goers were interested in anyone who asked about their whereabouts. That’s a good sign we’re looking in the right place.
Moon straightened up and pushed off the roof to catch the wind. He swept down low over the water, only ten or twelve paces above it. He cast back and forth over the sea in front of the city twice before he caught Nobent’s scent again, traces of it carried by the constant breeze blowing in off the water. It gave him a direction and a faint trail to follow.
He swooped up again and curved over the city. Chime, watching from the forest, arched up out of the canopy to meet him. Moon twisted into a tight circle, matched Chime’s slower speed, and said, “He’s left already. I’m going to follow. Tell Stone to go northwest.”
“Northwest,” Chime repeated. “Be careful. Don’t go too far!” Like all good advice, Moon didn’t think he was going to have much chance to follow it. He banked away and headed out to sea.
Moon flew low over the water, following Nobent’s scent on the wind. He lost it twice in crosswinds while it was still dark, and had to cast back and forth only a few paces above the water to pick it up again. After that he slowed his flight, going more carefully.
When the shore was far behind him, a dark band barely visible in the night, he realized this was the first time he had been really alone in… he had lost count of the days. Except for the day and night when he had tracked the kethel to the Dwei hive, he had been with other Raksura since Stone had found him in the Cordans’ valley. He had been alone for turns before that, for most of his life, isolated even when he was living with groundlings. It was strange how quickly he had gotten used to constant companionship.
The sky began to streak with dawn, the light reflecting off long fingers of cloud, lightening the water to a crystalline blue. Moon was only about ten paces above the waves when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, a shape under the surface. Concentrating on the scent, he reacted by instinct before the thought even formed. He twisted away just as something lashed up at him from below. It brushed his wing, hard enough to knock him sideways.
Badly startled, Moon flapped wildly through the spray, shooting upward as fast as he could. He looked down in time to see a white shape, an arm with a clawed hand, sinking slowly down below the waves. The palm was at least two paces across. Moon swore, gained some more height and caught the wind again. He could see a dim outline just below the crystal surface, something pale sinking out of sight.
That was… exciting, Moon thought, his heart pounding as he corrected his wobbly flight. At least he was wide awake now.
After that he was a lot more careful about his distance above the water.
Clouds moved in to paint the sky with gray, but there was no smell of rain yet. He caught up with Nobent about mid-morning, and swept up high into the air so there was no chance of the water traveler spotting him. Nobent swam determinedly northwest, his branches open around him like a big ugly gray flower. Whatever he was paddling with was hidden by the tendrils of his mat.
Nobent moved at a good pace for a water creature or a rowboat, but not for a Raksura. Moon was able to glide after him, riding the wind. He couldn’t see Nobent’s destination yet, though far ahead there were drifts of mist near the surface that might obscure a small island or fleet of large watercraft. If the sea-goers lived too far away, the warriors wouldn’t be able to make the flight.
Moon kept looking back, hoping to see Stone. When the sun was directly overhead, casting great cloud-shadows on the crystal-blue sparkle of the water, he was rewarded with a dark shape moving rapidly toward him. Finally, he thought. At least this part of their plan had worked.
Stone must have spotted Moon because he curved upward and vanished in the clouds. Moon shot up to meet him.
He passed up through the cold fog of a cloud and emerged in brilliant sunlight to find Stone circling overhead. “What took you so long?” Moon called to him.
Stone never spoke in his Raksuran form, so Moon was fairly sure he wouldn’t dignify that with an answer. Stone just rumbled and tapped his chest with one claw.
“I’m coming.” Moon hated being carried, but he wasn’t staying back here, plodding along after Nobent. He flew up to Stone, matched his pace, then grabbed onto Stone’s outstretched arm. Shouting to be heard over the wind, he said, “There’s waterlings as big as major kethel hunting this sea. I don’t know how Nobent survives.” Possibly he smelled too bad for anything to want to eat him.
Stone grunted thoughtfully. Moon pulled his wings in and folded them tight against his back, then climbed up Stone’s arm to hook his claws into the big scales across his chest. Stone reached up and closed a hand around him, holding Moon securely. Then they shot forward over the clouds.
At Stone’s speed, following the direction that Nobent had taken, it wasn’t long before Moon saw the outline of an island. It was a series of seven rising hills in a half circle, and it was inhabited. He could see the glitter of reflected sunlight on the regular shapes of tall octagonal towers. Stone gained altitude, skirting the bottom of the clouds to lessen the chance of anyone looking up and spotting them.
This wasn’t what I was expecting, Moon thought, as Stone tilted his wings to slow his flight. Maybe this was the sea-goers’ home port, and they had fast-moving vessels to travel in. They used something to move the seed away from the spot where the mentors saw it. They didn’t… Moon stiffened, eyes widening. What in the Three Worlds…
They were close enough now to look down on the island, to see that it wasn’t an island.
The seven low hills formed a half circle, and were completely covered with the stone buildings of the groundling city. But the water was so clear Moon could see what was just under the surface. From one end of the island a long curving tail stretched out, tipped with giant fins. On each coast were three massive flippers, angled down to vanish in the blue depths. And at the other end, a huge triangular head, tilted down so only the brow ridge just below the waves was visible.
Above Moon’s head, Stone hissed incredulously. Moon echoed the sentiment. He couldn’t believe that groundlings had managed this. But there was the city, mostly composed of towers and bridges and raised plazas, as if built to stand as high above the surface of the creature as possible. He could see the sparkle of fountains, people moving on the bridges between towers. There was even a harbor, formed by the curve of one haunch, with sailing vessels docked in it. They could have the seed. A creature this size could have easily swum the distance between the point the mentors had augured and here in only a few days.
Moon looked up, though all he could see was the scaled underside of Stone’s neck. “We need to talk to Nobent again.”
Stone must have agreed. He banked away and headed back toward the shore.
“While it sleeps, anyone can approach. When it wakes, it moves.” Nobent sunk down further into his mat, his knobby brow furrowed in sullen dismay. “That’s all Nobent knows.”