They would have to make their way out through the underground.
They found the others waiting for them on the buttress below the edilvine tunnel opening, wet but otherwise unhurt. There was some water below on the leviathan’s hide, but not much, and it rapidly drained away.
There was a general expression of relief as Jade and then Flower dropped out of the tunnel. Then River, his spines and wings still dripping from the flood, demanded, “Did you get the—”
Flower held up the seed. That shut everyone up. They all gathered around and studied it reverently.
“It’s not hurt?” Vine asked, and elbowed Root aside to get a better look. “The groundlings didn’t ruin it?”
Flower tucked it securely under her arm and patted it fondly. “It’s fine.”
“But now what?” Still worried, Floret looked at Jade. “Is the sorcerer going to come after us for it? How do we get away from here?” “Ardan’s dead,” Moon said. He had told the others briefly on the way out, but he hadn’t gone into detail. He had his suspicions, he just wasn’t sure what to do about them yet.
There were murmurs of relief. Esom must have already told Karsis, because the two groundlings stood further down the buttress, talking excitedly in their own language. Jade said, “We still need a way off the leviathan.” Watching Esom and Karsis carefully, she stepped past the others to ask them, “You have a boat. Would you be willing to share it with us?”
Esom said, “If we go back to Ardan’s tower first.” His clothes and hair dripped from the flood, and he had taken off his cracked spectacles.
“Our people are still trapped there. With Ardan and his guards gone, we can free them. But only if we hurry and get there before the other magisters try to take it over.”
“If you help us, we can all get away,” Karsis added anxiously. “Our ship can take you all the way back to the forest coast, if you need it to.” Jade lifted a brow at Moon. In Raksuran, she said, “It’s a fair offer.” He nodded, and answered her in the same language, “They’ve helped us so far. And realistically, I don’t know if we could figure out how their ship works without their help.” And he didn’t want to strand them here. From what they had said, an ordinary boat wouldn’t be able to get
them back through the dangerous waters surrounding their homeland.
He switched to Kedaic to ask Esom, “What about Ardan’s spells, the warden-creatures, the barrier?”
“Those would have died with him,” Esom said. Then he grimaced uncertainly and added, “That’s how it generally works.”
Jade looked at Flower, who shrugged, then at Rift. She asked him, “Is that true?”
Rift seemed startled to be consulted. He said, “I don’t know.” Moon watched Esom, who looked tired and earnest. He could be lying but… But it would be stupid to lie about this, Moon thought. And he had never had the image of Esom as a very good liar, despite the fact that he had concealed his abilities from Ardan. He exchanged a look with
Jade, who hissed out a breath. She said, “Then we’ll go to the tower.”
They traveled through the dimly-lit underground, back to the well in the city foundations that led up into the lower level of Ardan’s tower. Moon led them up through the lichen-illuminated passage, back to the panel that opened into the first floor of the exhibit hall. It had been sealed again, and Esom stepped forward to whisper, “Wait, let me make sure…”
“I thought he said the magics would all be gone,” Root muttered in the back.
Moon snarled absently. If Esom was wrong about the tower being undefended, he didn’t know how they were going to free Negal and the other groundlings. Esom frowned, touched the door lightly, then ran his hand over it. Relieved, he said, “There was something here, I can feel the resonance, but it’s gone now.” He turned to Moon. “Ardan must have been hoping to catch us if we tried to come back this way.”
“Good.” Moon stepped past him to push on the door and felt it move just a little, enough to tell him there had been no attempt made to block it off from the other side.
“Wait.” Jade turned to face the others. Stone had had to shift back to groundling to fit through the last part of the passage. Everyone looked exhausted, wet, and worried, including the groundlings. She said, “Don’t kill anyone. We don’t want a