Malachite’s ironic head tilt suggested that Lithe’s attempt at emotional manipulation had failed. But she admitted, “Very well, little one. You’ll come with me.”
Her voice cool, Jade said, “I’ll follow in another hut. It’s safer, if something goes wrong.”
Malachite’s tail twitched with annoyance, but she was obviously impatient and arguing the point would be speaking directly to Jade. She ducked and stepped into the hut. Chime blurted, “Make sure the door seals tight.”
Lithe gave him a grim nod, and pulled the door closed. The handle spun as she tightened it from the inside. Jade murmured, “This may be a short trip if these things don’t work like we think they do…”
Then the chains jerked and the metal beam above them groaned and made a whooshing noise. The hut sank slowly into the water. Moon said, “It works.” He hoped it worked. The Fell and Shade might be dead somewhere below, trapped in the missing huts. We’re going to feel really stupid if that happens.
Jade turned to the next hut, caught the handle, and pulled it to the platform. Moon held it steady as she got the door open. It looked the same as the other, if a little more moldy.
Jade stepped inside and said, “You two wait here—”
Moon stepped in after her, holding his hand under the vine growing through the roof to make sure the air was flowing. “I can come with you, or follow in another one.”
Chime groaned in dismay and stepped in after him. “Me, too. Let’s all go together. Then when—if we die, it’ll be less… lonely.”
Jade snarled. “Fine.”
They pulled the door shut and closed it tightly. Then Jade took a deep breath and pushed the lever down.
There was a jolt as the hut hit the water and sank into it. A chill crossed Moon’s scales, sinking down into the skin beneath as the water rose outside the thin metal walls. It covered the crystal window with murky darkness. The only light was the glow from the stone Lithe had made; it flickered, since Chime held it and was shivering hard enough to make his spines rattle. Jade said under her breath, “If we survive this…”
“You didn’t have to come,” Moon said. It came out harshly, mostly because his throat was tight with dread that the huts would burst too far underwater for them to find the way to the surface. To clarify, he added, “I’m glad you did.”
Jade met his gaze. “I told you I would bring you back to Indigo Cloud, whatever it took.”
Moon felt his spines twitch involuntarily. It warmed his heart, and other parts of him, to hear her say it. He shouldn’t need to hear it after everything she had done for him, but apparently he did.
She added, “And if Malachite had really wanted to stop me, she’d just break my wing, so I’m taking that as an encouraging sign. If we get out of this alive, you might put in a word for me.”
Moon nodded. “I’ll try.”
Chime moaned. “This is the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
“I don’t know about that.” Wary of moving too much on the unsteady floor, Moon eased toward the crystal window. He thought he had seen a flicker of light and wondered if it was from Malachite and Lithe’s hut. “The parasites inside the leviathan…”
“That’s true,” Chime admitted, still shivering. “But—”
Moon lost the rest because of what he was seeing outside the window. Jade leaned over to look and gasped in amazement.
They had passed out of the dark water of the cavern and into sunlit blue-green depths. They must be traveling down the outside of the island, with the rocky cliffs that concealed the cavern above them. But light shone from the rock itself.
It was studded with round or oblong windows set into the shapes of pointed arches, or curved towers topped with domes. It was a city, carved into the rock roots of the island. A living city. Moon hissed in awe.
“A sea kingdom,” Jade whispered. Then more uncertainly, “Is it?”
“I don’t see any sealings.” Moon couldn’t take his eyes off the city. Chime pressed against his side and Moon moved back a little so he could get a better view. “I always thought sea kingdom cities would be more… open, more spread out. This looks like it’s all enclosed.” As if it was designed for people who couldn’t breathe water.
“Why would groundlings build this?” Jade said, then answered her own question. “Unless they wanted a city completely safe from the Fell.”
Lost in wonder, Chime murmured, “It has been, until now.”
Or something worse than the Fell, Moon thought.
The hut drew closer to the city, or the rock base of the island sloped outwards toward them. They passed a long curved gallery with large windows, but Moon didn’t glimpse any movement inside. Light glowed up from below, and the hut sank into a stone shaft. The water dimmed from blue-green to a deeper blue, then suddenly bubbled and frothed. Moon felt his ears pop.
The hut jerked suddenly. Moon grabbed Jade’s arm in reflex and Chime grabbed his. In instinctive reassurance, Jade said, “Easy, it’s all right,” but her spines were twitching.
The water suddenly vanished from the window and Moon glimpsed a rounded light-colored wall, lit by a dim blue-white glow. The wall had folds and sinuous curves, like fabric, or an intricate flower. Then the hut landed hard with a hollow thump and the shock made them stagger.
Moon peered out the window. “I think we’re there.” He flinched at movement outside the hut, but it was Lithe, waving to him. “We’re definitely there.”
Jade turned to the door and twisted the handle. The seal around the door popped with released air and it swung open.
They climbed out into a large round chamber, the floor slick and wet, the air damp and smelling strongly of salt and distinct traces of Fell. The faint blue light came from polished jewels like sapphires set into the curving walls, but much of the place was in shadow.
Malachite stood a few paces from her hut, which sat in a puddle of water. She glanced pointedly at Moon, then gave Jade a dark look. She must blame Jade for bringing Moon, not that anybody would have been able to stop anybody else from coming down here, with several huts still working. Jade ignored her.
Chime stared around, then looked up and gasped.
Lithe nodded in agreement. “It’s amazing.”
Moon and Jade followed his gaze, and it was their turn to gasp.
At the top of the chamber, some fifty paces above their heads, water hung suspended, rippling faintly. A curious fish passed in a glimmer of silver. It was like looking up into a giant bowl filled with water.
Chime whispered, “Whoever built this place had powerful magic.”
Lithe said, “And it’s shaped like a flower. It’s like we’re standing at the bottom where the pollen is, and the petals are arching up around us. This must be what I saw when I tried to scry where we were going. From the outside, I bet it looks like the drawing I made.”
Moon pivoted. The floor was flat here where the huts had landed, but towards the center of the chamber it gently sloped down toward some sort of rounded carving. The walls around them arched up in fanfolds that formed multiple petals, up to the opening at the top where the invisible barrier held back the water. Moon felt his back teeth ache with tension. He had been to places where giant flowers ate people. While this one seemed to be constructed of stone or some smooth coral, the resemblance made his nerves itch.
“Look for where the Fell went,” Malachite ordered.
Jade headed for the far wall, and Moon managed to tear his gaze away from the water hanging above their heads. A short distance away, three more huts stood in drying puddles, metal surfaces still dripping with seawater, their doors open. But one hut had clearly been here much longer.