With a tremendous splash, Stone slung his big body up onto the pier, making the wood groan. He snapped the stern cable between his claws, then shifted to groundling. Rolling to his feet, he wrung out his shirt and crossed the walkway onto the deck.
Damison shouted orders in his own language and strode away toward the nearest hatch. Two men scrambled to cut the walkway loose, while the others bolted along the deck. Negal followed Damison, and Esom and Orlis hurried inside to clatter down the first stairwell into the bowels of the ship. Karsis stood with Moon and Stone.
Drifting loose, the ship was already moving over the pier. Or the pier was moving under the ship as the leviathan pushed forward. Moon felt a tremor through the metal deck underfoot, and there was an answering rumble from somewhere deep in the hull. Then the ship rose a little higher and jolted into motion.
Moon swayed and Karsis caught the rail to steady herself as the Klodifore pulled rapidly away and turned to head for open water. As they came about, Stone muttered, “Uh oh.” They were nearing the giant ridge of the leviathan’s leg, which pumped rhythmically as the creature swam, water swirling in a dangerous whirlpool around it.
That could be a problem, Moon thought, glancing up to where Jade and the other Raksura climbed down from the top deck. If the ship was struck, the Raksura could get into the air, but the ship would be sucked under before they could get the groundlings out. And then the Raksura would be trapped out here. As aware of the danger as he was, Karsis leaned forward on the railing and said grimly, “We can make it. I know we can make it.”
The big chimneys atop the ship belched white smoke, then it suddenly surged forward. The thrashing leg fell behind them and they angled sharply away. The city passed them rapidly, the creature’s mountainous body moving forward with powerful strokes of its legs and tail.
Moon let out his breath in relief and shifted to groundling. They were going to miss the tail by a good distance. The wind fell away with the sound of the churning water. The sun was moving toward evening and then there was only the ship chugging along, a few paces above the gentle waves.
Karsis slumped, and her expression revealed relief and all the raw emotion she had been holding in check for all the months of her captivity. “I didn’t think we’d ever get away.”
“I didn’t either, and we were only there for four days,” Stone told her.
“It was a long four days,” Moon admitted. Jade swung under the railing on the deck above and dropped down next to him. The others were all lined up there, watching the mountainous leviathan grow slowly smaller in the distance. The ship turned and Moon could feel they were heading east, as promised, back to the coast of the forest Reaches.
Karsis pushed her hair back, her voice thick, as she got herself under control again. “If there’s anything else we can do for you…”
“Show us a place where we can sleep,” Jade said.
Karsis showed them to two small cabins, side by side, on the first deck above the water. Moon suspected they might have belonged to her and Esom, but he was too tired to care where the groundlings were going to sleep. Jade claimed the narrow bed in the first room, then divided the warriors up and made certain they would take turns on watch, just in case any groundlings decided to kill them. Moon was only dimly aware of most of that, since Jade had claimed the bed by dumping him in it, and as soon as his body was horizontal he had started to fall asleep.
He woke much later, with Jade in her Arbora form warm and heavy on top of him, her head pillowed on his chest, a knee pushed between his thighs. The room smelled of Raksura in groundling form who needed to bathe and wash their clothes. He was aware that the sun was now rising over the sea, that they had slept from the late afternoon through the night. Flower’s dead, he remembered suddenly, with a spark of pain that brought him fully alert.
He could feel the ship still heading east, pulling a little toward the south, but that was probably the wind. The Klodifore vibrated in a way that the Valendera hadn’t, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Soon they would be close enough to the coast to fly the rest of the way. There was something he needed to take care of first.
He nudged Jade gently, and she tightened her hold on him. “I have to get up,” he whispered, and tugged on one of her head frills. She hummed low in her throat and rolled onto her side without really waking. He sat up and then had to spend a moment just looking at her. You’re lucky, he told himself. He didn’t think there were many young sister queens who would have willingly shouldered this responsibility, or who would have let their consorts take the risks he had. I hope we’re done with that now. He was more than willing to get back to the colony and try living the normal Raksuran way.
Moon climbed out of the bunk and picked his way across the floor, where Chime, Balm, Song, and Vine were curled up on the spare cushions and blankets they had found in a cabinet. He opened the door quietly and stepped out into the corridor.
Floret sat on a cushion on the floor, leaning back against the wall. “Are you hungry?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “We saved you some food.”
“Not yet.” Moon sat on his heels and glanced through the partly open doorway of the other room. Stone was sprawled in the bed, with River, Drift, and Root in a comfortable pile on one side of the room, and Rift on the other. “Has Rift tried to leave?”
“No. Everyone’s been quiet.” Floret sat forward, stretching her back. “Most of us woke up in the middle of the night to eat. The dried fish wasn’t as bad as Drift said it was. Karsis and the older one, the leader, came by once to see if we needed anything, but that’s it.”
“Good.” Moon pushed to his feet. “I’ll be back.”
The ship was quiet, but Moon could smell cooking odors, some kind of grain porridge. He followed the scent down a corridor and then a set of stairs, to a sitting area. There were couches against the walls, and Esom sat on one reading a leather-bound book. He was dressed in fresh clothes, and had replaced his broken spectacles with a different set. In the far wall was an open doorway leading to the room with the big metal stove and the storage for dishes and food supplies. A couple of crewmen were in there, eating at the table.
Esom looked up, blinking, startled out of deep concentration. “Oh, hello, Moon.”
Moon pulled a padded stool closer and sat down, facing Esom. “Can I talk to you?”
“Yes. Is something wrong?”
Moon couldn’t think of any way to ease up on the subject. He asked, “Did you kill Ardan?”
“What? No. What?” Startled, Esom closed the book and sat up. “I thought you said he fell and hit his head when the leviathan moved?”
“He might have. But the way he fell, it would make more sense if someone hit him from behind.” The men at the table in the next room had stopped eating, and watched them with a mix of suspicion and curiosity. They were a little too far away to hear the conversation.
“It wasn’t me.” Esom seemed earnest and baffled. “Stone left me on the west side of the chamber. I was trying to work my way over to the door to the tunnel, but with the water and the angle of the floor, it was slow going. I kept sliding down and ramming into the pillars. I’d just gotten within sight of the door when Stone came back for me.”
That sounded true, unfortunately. “I was hoping it was you.” Esom had plenty of reason to hate Ardan, and his friends had still been trapped back in the tower; he might have seen it as the best opportunity to free them.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I see what you mean.” Esom looked thoughtful. “If not me, then who? Do you think it was one of his own men? I don’t think most of them knew he was in control of the leviathan. They may have suspected it, but…”