his forehead. “I thought we were going to be stuck down here forever.”
“I’d prefer it to going back to Ardan,” Karsis added.
“Now do you trust me?” Rift said.
“We’ll see.” Moon had no intention of committing himself on that point.
Finally they were close enough for Moon to actually see the opening. The chamber narrowed to end at a bulwark of heavy stones, and there was an irregular patch of lighter darkness about midway up, just above a mound of rubble.
But as they drew closer, Moon realized he could hear something else besides the rushing wind of the leviathan’s breath. It was a deep, hollow sound, regular and even. “Do you hear that?” he asked the others. His first thought was that it was something the leviathan was doing, though he didn’t even want to guess what bodily function could produce that sound.
Rift stopped to listen, then said, startled, “It’s the bell. The warning bell. The leviathan’s going to move.”
Esom swore in a strange language, then added in Kedaic, “There’s no telling how long it’s been ringing.”
The magisters’ enspelled bell, that rang to warn the city that the leviathan was about to move. It would call the fishers to lift their boats out of the water and the traders to cast off. Moon said, “How long does it—”
The ground lurched under him; he and Rift swayed, using their foot claws to stay upright. Esom and Karsis both stumbled and fell.
The whole underground shook, moss and debris rained down from the ceiling. Beneath them the leviathan’s hide pulsed and shuddered. Moon leaned down, caught Karsis around the waist, and started up the pile of rubble. Rift followed, hauling Esom with him.
At the top, they climbed out through the jagged gap into a windy night, alive with the crash of the surf. There were hanging vapor-lights below them, rocking wildly with the leviathan’s motion. Moon squinted to see, realizing they were at the far edge of the city. A giant stone bulwark rose up behind them, and the leviathan’s immense tail stretched out below, like the surface of a reef. It moved now, migrating back and forth across the waves and tossing up fountains of spray as the creature swam.
“What do we do now?” Karsis shouted in his ear.
The leviathan moved at a good speed, but not faster than a Raksura could fly. The sky was starting to gray towards the east and they didn’t have much darkness left. They would be fighting the wind the whole way, but they had to go now. Moon turned to Rift, and shouted, “You take him, and follow me.”
Esom’s “Where are we going—” was cut off with a yelp as Rift grabbed him. Moon tightened his hold on Karsis, snapped his wings out, and jumped into the wind.
Both he and Rift were blown backwards, out over the moving tail. Hard flaps took them back over the creature’s hindquarters, Moon leading Rift upward to gain altitude.
Moon played his wings against the wind, riding it to keep moving forward. Karsis clung to him, her hands gripping his collar flanges tightly, and buried her face against his scales. A few vapor-lights were lit in the streets and in the windows of the towers, but the city looked empty; everyone must be huddling inside.
Moon banked away to avoid the area near Ardan’s tower. The wind drove him further than he intended, and he skirted the harbor. It was empty of the big trading ships, the pontoon docks churning up waves as they were dragged through the water. Little fishing boats swung from the cages that had lifted them to safety. The metal ship, the Klodifore, had been moved close to the dock, but was still floating… No, it’s hovering, Moon thought, realizing it had no wake. When the bell had started to sound, Ardan must have sent someone to the harbor to raise the ship.
He fought the wind to curve toward the abandoned tower where he and Stone had camped.
The wind sheared around the roof of the tower and Moon made a dive for the open terrace on the top floor. He made it and bounced lightly off the tower wall. Rift managed it too, though he bounced a little harder and staggered across the terrace.
Moon stepped between the columns into the shelter of the big room, expecting to find an impatient Stone. It was too dark to see much, but the Raksuran figure waiting there was much smaller. It said, “Moon?”
“Song?” It couldn’t be Song, except it was. Startled and