was getting worse; Moon couldn’t have scented a major kethel if it was breathing down his neck. The regular rush of wind grew louder as well. Moon reached the bottom of the shaft and hung there, trying to see what lay below.
The drop was about two hundred paces to an uneven surface that looked like pitted and scarred paving. Heavy round pillars and blocky columns supported the foundations of the tower. In the dim green light he could see they were heavily covered with patchy molds and odd dark growths. Rift and Esom arrived just above them, and Esom said, “Karsis, are you all right?”
“Quiet!” Karsis snapped, before Moon could. He listened intently to the wind. It had been repeating the same pattern the entire time they had climbed down the shaft: the sound would stop, there would be a long low rush, like something drawing breath, then it resumed. Like something drawing breath, Moon thought. Right.
Karsis whispered, “That’s not what I think it is, is it?”
“The leviathan. We’re right above its back.” Now that Moon knew what he was looking at, he could see that the pitted, scarred paving was actually the giant scaled hide of the leviathan.
Karsis made a noise eloquent of disgust.
From above them, Rift whispered, “It’s all right to walk on it. Its hide is too thick, it won’t feel us.”
“How do you know that?” Esom asked.
Rift didn’t reply, and Moon said, tightly, “Answer him.”
Rift said in annoyance, “I’ve been down here before. How do you think I knew the way?”
“That’s reassuring,” Moon said under his breath. He would just have to trust Rift now and beat the truth out of him later.
Holding on with one hand, Moon wrapped his arm around Karsis’ waist again. Then he let go of the wall. As they dropped he snapped out his wings to soften the fall. They landed on one of the big scales. He was braced to leap back up to the shaft, but nothing happened. The whistling rush of the creature’s breathing continued undisturbed.
He set Karsis on her feet. It took her a moment to unclench her hands from his collar flanges, and she wobbled on the uneven surface. He turned and scanned the dark space. It went on for a long distance. Apparently this area was the underpinnings of the city. It wouldn’t be the leviathan they had to worry about, but the parasites that might live down here, feeding off the garbage dropped from the buildings above and the growths on the leviathan’s hide. The creature’s stench made Moon effectively scent-blind, and the rush of its breathing masked slight sounds of movement.
Rift dropped to the ground a few paces away, and dumped Esom on his feet. Esom staggered into Moon, jerked away, then self-consciously straightened his jacket. Rift pointed roughly east, back toward the tail of the creature. “That way. There’s a passage to the outside up there.”
“Lead the way,” Moon said, pointedly.
Rift flattened his spines in a way that suggested he was hurt at Moon’s distrust, and started away through the shadows. Moon controlled the urge to slap him in the head and followed.
It was a long walk, nearly half the length of the city. They had to go at the pace of the two groundlings, who were moving as fast as they could, but the rough scales made for uneven and difficult footing. The vast support pillars loomed overhead, blossoming with ugly, bulbous growths, and several times they crossed broad, slimy trails, though they never saw the creatures that were leaving them. There were also gray shapes clinging to the ceiling that looked like giant tree frogs, like the ones in the suspended forest. They might be just as harmless, but Moon doubted it on principle. Nothing attacked them, but Raksura were different and unexpected enough that the predators here might be cautious. For now, at least.
Ardan’s men would have had to fetch ropes to get down the shaft, so they had a good lead by the time Moon caught the sound of voices. And unless Ardan had a way to magically detect them, there was nothing to show which way they had gone.
Finally the space around them became more closed-in, the foundation pillars and supports much closer together.
“There it is,” Rift said, “Do you smell it?”
“Smell what?” Esom asked, stumbling.
“Fresh air,” Moon told him. It was a draft scented of outside air, damp and fresh, an intense relief after the leviathan’s stench. “There’s an opening somewhere ahead.”