Page 23 of City of Stone and Silence

“Are those people?” I ask.

“I don’t … think so.” Meroe squints. “Should have brought my glass. But they’re too big. Look, beside the trees. That thing must be the size of an ox.”

She’s right. Whatever the distant creatures are, they’re not human. I’m not sure if that makes me more or less worried.

Toward the horizon, the sun gleams off a solid white mass. It takes me a moment to realize that I’m looking at snow. The misty dome we’d seen from Soliton’s deck is invisible from the inside, but the boundary line is still obvious. It’s warm enough here that I’m considering shedding some of my leather armor, but somehow this whole jungle has been grafted into the middle of an icy wasteland.

“It has to be the same people,” Meroe mutters.

“What people?”

“The people who built Soliton.” She waves a hand excitedly. “Look at this place. A tropical forest, here in the far south. And those docks! Someone made all of this.”

I nod slowly. It seems logical—well, not logical, but plausible—that people who could make a steel monstrosity the size of Soliton might be able to use magical power on a scale big enough to create a place like this. I’ve never heard of anything like it, but that doesn’t mean much; I would have said Soliton itself was impossible before I’d seen it with my own eyes.

“It’s all powered by Eddica,” I tell her. “I can feel it. Power is running out from Soliton and into … something else, but there’s smaller flows all through the place.”

“That makes sense.” She sighs. “As much sense as anything makes, anyway.”

I pause. “Are you okay?”

“Fine.” She leans against me. “Just don’t … scare me like that. Last night, I thought…” She swallows. “Be careful.”

“I’ll do my best.” We kiss again, more leisurely this time, although it reminds me how long it’s been since I cleaned myself up. But there are more important things to worry about, for the moment. “Shall we see what our guest has to tell us?”

“I think so,” Meroe says. “Though to be fair, we’re the guests, aren’t we?”

Back down in the belly of the ziggurat, the crew has started to explore. It looks like there’s not much to find—just more big, empty rooms, striped with light from the narrow windows, any furnishings long since decayed. People spread out what blankets and cloth they have, though few had salvaged much in the rush to get off the ship. We have water, but food is going to be a problem pretty quickly. If those are fields out there, it might be worth an expedition to see what’s growing in them.

First things first, though. Veldi, looking somewhat the worse for wear, sits on a blanket with Zarun standing behind him, backed up by a couple of armed crew. He looks up at me imploringly, tugging nervously at his braid-knot.

“I warned you that you were in danger!” he says. “I don’t understand this suspicion. I’m only trying to help.”

“Since I have no idea what in the Rot is going on here,” I tell him, “you’ll forgive me for being a little paranoid. I take it those monsters last night weren’t friends of yours?”

He shudders. “Of course not. Those are Prime’s creatures.”

“Who is Prime?” I remember a withered face and dark eye sockets. “For that matter, who in the Rot are you?”

“Perhaps it would be better,” Meroe says gently, “if you began at the beginning.”

“Right. Yes.” He straightens up a little and risks a smile in her direction. “We call this place the Harbor. Because the ship docks here, you see? It’s … a city, I suppose, though somewhat overgrown now.”

“Who’s we?” I say.

“The Cresos clan.” He gives a slight bow. “Servants to my lady Catoria.”

“You arrived on Soliton?” Meroe says eagerly.

He nods. “Perhaps five years previously. At least, this is the fifth time the ship has returned. There are no seasons here, so time can be hard to judge.”

Meroe frowns. “And the ship brings more people every time it comes back?”

“Not every time. Twice it has brought no one, and twice only a handful of souls. Yours is the first large group we’ve seen.”

“The Rot,” I mutter. “When the ship sails past the Vile Rot, the crabs and diseases kill everyone, unless they hide in the Garden.”

“My lady believes that to be the case, yes,” Veldi says. He seems to have relaxed a little, or at least forgotten Zarun looming ominously behind him. “I only followed her directions, so I know little of such matters.”