had the seed, carefully wrapped in Flower’s old pack, securely fastened between her wing join and her shoulder. Vine, the largest male warrior, had shouldered the big pack that contained the urn. It was a heavy burden, more than four paces tall and two wide, but Stone was going to be too occupied to carry it.
Negal glanced back at the others. All of them except Karsis and Esom watched the Raksura with suspicion. They kept looking at Rift and then looking away. Negal had said they wouldn’t want to be carried through the air, an attitude that Moon could understand given their experiences with Rift. But that wasn’t going to make getting to the port any safer. “Unfortunately not,” Negal said, a little wryly. “Though we are certain it would be a unique experience.”
“I hope your walk to the harbor doesn’t turn out to be a unique experience,” Jade said, and nodded for Stone to go ahead.
Stone pushed open the doors and stepped out into the daylight. He shifted and his dark form blocked the doorway for a heartbeat. There was a chorus of gasps and startled flinches from the groundlings who hadn’t seen him before. Then he sprang into the air so fast he seemed to vanish.
Moon followed Jade to the doorway, the warriors behind them. The plaza looked empty from here, but Stone circled overhead to scan for ambushes or hidden traps. He tipped a wing to show it was clear.
Turning back to Negal, Jade said, “Follow us. We’ll make certain your route is safe.”
Negal gripped his bag and said, “We will.”
Jade stepped out and leapt into flight; Moon and the warriors followed her. As soon as they were above the surrounding buildings, the wind hit them like a hammer. The warriors dropped back low over the rooftops, but Moon fought it, tried to ride it without being slammed into anything, until he caught Jade’s signal. Then he angled off and made for the harbor.
Jade and the others would stay with the groundlings, following them roof to roof to make sure they weren’t attacked on the way through the city. They had decided that Moon and Stone would fly ahead to the ship to see if there were guards or magisters lurking aboard.
Buffeted by the wind, Moon saw mostly empty streets below, with only a few moving figures. He had to circle around to hit the harbor, but saw it was almost deserted too, the big slips for the trading vessels empty, the small fishing boats swinging in their raised cradles. The Klodifore was still there, tied to its pier, suspended several paces above the water. The leviathan’s motion was causing the water in the harbor to churn, kicking up huge fountains of spray along the piers.
Stone circled overhead, and as Moon dropped down for a landing on the roof of the ship’s top steering cabin, he turned and dipped down toward the water, abruptly vanishing behind the fishing fleet’s cradles. I hope he knows what he’s doing, Moon thought.
He crouched on the edge of the cabin roof, the wind tearing at his frills. A door on the lowest deck opened and three groundlings hurriedly exited to climb carefully down the narrow ramp that connected the ship to the pier. Those must be Ardan’s men, the ones who had been taught to make the ship lift itself out of the water when the leviathan moved. Moon glanced across to the docks. A small group of groundlings waited in the shelter of one of the rickety buildings, as far away from the churning water as possible. One was Magister Lethen.
So far so good. Moon climbed down to the deck just below, found a door, and stepped inside.
To be out of the wet wind was a relief. He flicked his spines, shaking off the spray, and tasted the air. He caught a scent of nervous groundling, but it was fading fast, probably from the men who had just left.
Still, he searched the ship quickly, looking into every room and cubby, but found no one hiding aboard. He came back out onto the main deck in time to see Jade and the warriors above the harbor, about to make the difficult aerial approach to the boat. Negal, Karsis, Esom, and the other groundlings were just coming down the steps onto the dock.
Lethen and his men moved out from the shelter to meet them. Moon jumped down to the pier. From this angle he could see the bottom of the Klodifore, its