Daal stiffened as the threat echoed to them. He tried to picture the monster that made that noise. He prayed it kept away from them—but his plea was ignored.
The rumbling swept closer, growing into a shuddering roar, coming from all around. The waters surrounding the boat trembled, then shook into a boil. The walls cracked with thunderous snaps.
“A quake!” Graylin warned.
They all clutched the skiff’s rails. Daal ducked low. He lifted an arm and held his palm over the water, trying to calm the panic of the orksos. They thrashed in their harnesses, tossing the boat about in their terror.
Then Nyx was there.
She grabbed his forearm, her fingers clutching hard. She drew some of his fire and cast it forth with a burst of brilliant song. He watched its melodic chords cast over the seas like a glowing net. It settled over the two orksos. He felt the calmness and comfort suffuse into those boiling waters, steeping the beasts with reassurance and encouragement. A chorus echoed to the orksos—through him, from her.
All is safe … all is safe …
Neffa, then Mattis, slowly quieted within the embrace of that song.
Nyx nodded to him and let his arm go. Still, her palm lingered over his skin for a tentative breath. He watched his fire snuffing from beneath her fingertips. She almost followed those last flames back to his arm, but she pulled her hand away.
Around them, the quaking continued, rumbling and shaking.
It seemed to go on forever, but it finally ended with a resounding crash ahead of them. A huge swell of water rushed around a turn in the tunnel and shoved the skiff high.
Daal lifted a palm protectively over his head. His hand struck the smooth cold roof. Then the boat fell under them as the wave departed. He was lifted from his feet for a breathless moment, then crashed with the others to the deck. They all lay flat as the skiff was tossed to and fro until the waters calmed to an uneasy rocking.
But at least the quake had ended.
They all regained their seats, breathing hard. Except for Shiya, who looked unfazed by it all.
Jace’s voice still held a tremble from all the shaking. “Let … Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.” He searched behind them, then to the front. “Before we left the Crown, Frell had suggested such violence might be a sign of moonfall’s approach.”
All eyes fell upon Nyx, as if she were to blame.
Graylin finally waved ahead. “Keep going.”
They set off again, wending down the tunnel. The smoothness of the blue walls hinted that this was not the first time that warm waters had flooded through these tunnels, melting the ice to the slickness of an orkso’s flank.
Could this be evidence of prior quakes?
Over his life, Daal had felt them periodically in Iskar. And they did seem to be coming more often, causing great slabs of ice to calve from the cliffs that bordered the beach.
Nyx gasped and stiffened.
Her shock drew his attention forward. Ahead, tunnels, fissures, and chasms coursed away in different directions, which was not unusual in this icy labyrinth.
Then he recognized what had shaken Nyx.
In his mind’s eye, the fiery path stretched forward—only to hit a massive slab of ice that had crashed down, surrounded by a floating blue raft of shards and pieces. The quake had collapsed a large section of the roof, closing off multiple tunnels.
Including the one marked in Daal’s head.
He fought against the sight, but there was no denying the truth.
We’ll never reach the Mouth now.
66
AS NYX GAPED at the wall of broken ice, she battled between fury and despair. They had risked so much to get here. She had argued so forcibly to rescue Bashaliia, only to be stopped by fate—and, if Jace and Frell were correct, by the damnable moon itself.
Maybe the world was never meant to be saved. Maybe my vision of defeat and failure was as prophetic as moonfall itself.
