horror. “I thought we were done with these things!”
Big beetle-like parasites climbed up through the opening from below. The creatures had armor, spines around their mouths, big fangs. They must be coming up out of the area around the leviathan’s blowhole, driven by the water. Stone dodged around, slapped them back down into the opening.
“How long can he keep that up?” Chime wondered.
Not long enough, Moon thought, sick. At least Stone didn’t have to fight in water; it was all pooling down towards the other end of the chamber. The only other advantage seemed to be that the creatures only came up on one side of the opening, the side that was mostly in shadow, the side furthest away from the nearest vapor-light.
“I’ve got an idea. Light, they must hate light—”
Chime caught on immediately. “We get the lights, dump them down the opening—”
“Come on!”
They went back, unhooked the metal vapor-light chambers from the tops of the nearest poles, carried them to the opening, and flung them down into it. The parasites shied away from the light, shrieking in dismay, and proving the theory correct.
Fortunately, the big chamber had a lot of vapor-lights, and Ardan’s men must have lit more when they arrived. Moon’s world narrowed down to finding, carrying, passing Chime, throwing, and dodging the flailing claws of the parasites. Balm came to help, and Moon saw Rift at one point, carrying a lamp. He was glad Jade had stayed to guard Flower, and almost wished Balm had remained with her. He wasn’t counting Ardan out of this game yet.
The tide of parasites slowed, then stopped, and Stone clung panting to the sloping floor. Then abruptly the entire chamber rolled.
The pillar Moon had perched on suddenly changed from a slanted surface to a vertical one, and he slipped off and landed badly. A foulsmelling wave washed over him as the water that had collected at the other end of the chamber flowed back this way.
Nearby, Stone abruptly shifted back to groundling. Still sprawled on the floor, he demanded, “What was that?”
“The leviathan lifted its head,” Moon explained. Air thundered through the blowhole again as the creature expelled a breath, and they all hastily retreated from the edge of the opening.
“The floor’s still moving,” Balm said, stumbling a little as she joined them. “No, wait, the whole thing is moving.”
“Ardan must be sending the leviathan somewhere,” Moon said. “I gave him the bridle so he could stop it from going underwater.”
“I thought he couldn’t tell it where to go without the seed,” Chime said.
They all stared at each other, stricken. Stone dropped his head into his hands, and muttered, “Not again.”
“No, it can’t be.” Moon shook his head and dismissed the momentary fear. “He couldn’t have gotten back across the mortuary on his own, let alone gotten the seed from Flower and Jade.”
Stone said grimly, “I’ll make sure. And I’ve got to get Esom. I left him around here somewhere.” He jerked his head at Moon. “You three find out where Ardan’s sent this thing.”
Moon turned back for the sanctum with Balm and Chime, making slower progress through the big chamber now that it was in almost complete darkness. Most of the vapor-lights were down below on the leviathan’s skin, lighting the area around the blowhole.
The sanctum’s door was still open, and light shone out of it. They dropped silently to the floor about twenty paces away. Moon motioned for Balm and Chime to hang back. He went forward slowly, and eased up to the doorway to look inside.
Moon hissed, startled. Wasn’t expecting this.
Ardan lay curled on the floor near the plinth. His eyes stared in blank surprise, and he still held the bridle in one hand, his fingers clutched around it. Moon stepped closer and knelt, touched the body lightly, then moved the head. Blood pooled on the floor beneath it. He thought Ardan had been hit from behind, cracked with force on the lower part of the skull, below the protective crown of bone and pearl. The angle was wrong for a fall. He might have somehow struck the edge of the plinth, but he had died facing it.
Worry about it later, Moon thought. On impulse he took the bridle, gently freeing it from Ardan’s nerveless fingers, and then fled the sanctum.
Chapter Seventeen
With the leviathan mostly level again, the water had drained out of the tunnel, so they were able to escape the mortuary that way. But the passage out to the flooded street was now completely under water.