“For vines?” Jade added skeptically, hanging from the wall as she waited for Chime to climb down.
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet,” Stone admitted, and turned to lead the way along the flooded street.
Behind them, Chime muttered, “The more I hear about this place, the less I like it.”
If this was true, the vines had to be something the city wanted or needed, badly. “Maybe they make a drug out of it. Like that smoke, and whatever it is that Dari drinks.”
Stone made a noncommittal noise and turned a corner to follow the street as it passed under a high, curved archway. It led into what had been an open court with a covered terrace at the back, supported by pillars carved in the shape of giant lily stalks. Like the street, it was flooded, the water washing the broad steps up to the deeply shadowed terrace. “How did you find this place?” Chime asked.
Stone said, “Once Dari mentioned water travelers, I just followed the scent.”
Moon tasted the air as he and Jade followed Stone up the steps and past the columns. The scent of water traveler was much heavier here, clinging to the damp mortar and the furry plants growing across the vaulted ceiling. Stone dug in the pouch at his belt and pulled out a faintly glowing object—one of Flower’s spelled rocks.
It cast a dim light over the cracked, stained paving and up to the far wall, revealing a carved scene with life-size groundlings in a procession, carrying a body on a bier. The carving framed a doorway, rusted metal figured with elaborate curving designs. “It’s locked, maybe barred on the inside.” Stone tugged on the handle, demonstrating.
“Let me see. If you shift under here, you’ll break the roof.” Jade stepped forward and took the handle.
“Don’t break it off,” Moon said.
“Moon—” Jade jerked at the door and it yielded with a loud crack. Pieces of a broken lock fell to the ground as the door swung open. Stone lifted his light and it shone down a long ramp that led into darkness.
Stone started to step forward and Chime snapped, “Stop!”
They all froze. Moon flicked a quick glance around the doorway, but he didn’t see anything but dark patches of mold. He whispered, “What?”
“A mentor feeling?” Jade asked, and crouched down for a closer look at the pavement just inside the door. Careful not to let any of his frills fall past the threshold, Moon joined her.
“Maybe,” Chime admitted.
“I thought all that didn’t come back after you changed,” Stone said, his tone carefully neutral.
Jade nudged Moon and nodded toward something on the pavement inside the doorway. “No, you’re right,” Moon told Chime. About a pace past the threshold was a line of dirt and flotsam that had washed up under the door. It had formed a straight line across the ramp, as if it had encountered some solid object, except there was nothing there. “It’s one of Ardan’s barriers, like the one around the tower.”
Jade sat up, her spines flicking impatiently. “This could be a trap. If they trade with the water travelers, groundlings must come and go through here, and the lock would be enough to keep thieves out. The only reason to put a magical barrier here is to catch us.”
“Trap or not, we still have to get in there,” Stone said.
“Esom said he could get past the tower barrier without Ardan knowing,” Moon said. “If he wasn’t lying.”
“We’ll find out.” Jade turned to Chime. “Bring him here.”
“It’s an untested theory,” Esom said, though at least he kept his voice low as he sloshed through the water up the terrace steps.
“Then we’ll test it,” Chime told him as he climbed down a column from the roof.
Balm and River waited here now too. Drift was on watch, posted on a rooftop above the flooded street, and Vine on the roof of the terrace.
“Finally,” Jade muttered, and pushed to her feet. It hadn’t really been that long. Moon and Stone had spent the time exploring the terrace, carefully not speaking to each other. Moon had found wilting scraps of a plant that smelled like the vegetation that had grown all over the Kek town on the coast, more evidence for the idea that the water travelers traded here.
River hadn’t been in favor of the plan. “You’re trusting a