Robin Hobb - Mad Ship

The door to the Crowned Rooster Chamber hung ajar. No. A closer look revealed it had been forced out of its frame. He gazed briefly on the gaudy cockerel that had become his family's symbol. He slid Selden from his back to the floor. "Wait right here. This chamber is dangerous."

Selden's eyes widened. It was the first time Reyn had spoken aloud of the danger. "Will it fall down on you?" he asked anxiously.

"It crushed me a long time ago," Reyn admitted. "Stay here. Keep the candle."

If Malta were alive and conscious, she would have heard their voices. She would have called out. So. He would look for her body and hope the breath of life was in it yet. He knew she had come here. Without hope, he slapped the jidzin beside the entrance. A faint glow, lighting little more than itself, trickled like slow syrup away from his hand. He forced himself to stand patiently as it encircled the room.

The damage was immense. The domed ceiling had given way in two places, dumping wet earth in mounds onto the floor. Roots dangled down beside the hanging fragments of crystal panes. He saw no sign of Malta. Hand trailing on the light bar, he made a slow circuit of the room. When he came to the first fallen panel with its mechanisms inside it, he felt ill. Here was what he had known must exist. He had searched for it so long, only to have the random violence of the quake reveal it. When he reached the second panel, he scowled. He lit another candle for himself, to confirm what he already knew. Human hands had dug out the packed earth from around these mechanisms. A few small muddy footprints could be clearly seen within the glow of the candle. She had been here.

"Malta!" he called, but there was no reply.

In the center of the room, the immense log of wizardwood was a contained silence. He longed to know what the dragon knew, but to touch the wood would be to give himself back to her power. The leash she had had on him had been snapped. Soon the earth would collapse on her, burying her, and he would be free of her forever. She could not seize him if he did not touch the wood. She had only been able to reach Malta's mind through his.

"Malta!" he called again, far louder. His voice, which once would have rung in this chamber, was swallowed and damped by the wet earth.

"Did you find her?" Selden called anxiously from the door.

"Not yet. But I will."

Dread was in the boy's voice as he called out, "There's water coming. From under the wall. It will run down the steps soon."

Earth might press, but water devoured. With an angry roar, Reyn charged at the log of silent wood. He slammed his hands flat onto it. "Where is she?" he demanded. "Where is she?"

The dragon laughed. Her laughter boomed through his mind, slamming him with familiar pain. She was back, back in his head. He was sickened by what he had done, but knew he had had no choice.

"Where is Malta?"

"Not here." Insufferable smugness.

"I know that, damn you. Where is she? I know you are linked with her, I know that you know."

She gave him a faint waft of Malta, like waving a bit of meat above a dog's nose. He sensed her through the dragon. He felt her exhaustion, and knew the leaden ache of her sleep.

"This city cannot stand much longer. It is going to collapse. If you don't help me find her and get her out, she'll die."

"How excited you are about that! Yet it never seemed to bother you that that was my eventual fate."

"That's not true. Damn you, dragon, you know that is not true. I have agonized over your fate; I have begged and pleaded with my kind to help you. Through the years of my youth, I near worshipped you. There was not a day I did not come to you. I did not try to escape you until you turned against me."

"Yet you were never willing to surrender to me. A pity. You could have learned all the secrets of the city in a single night. As Malta did."

His heart stood still in him. "You drowned her," he said flatly. "You drowned her in the city's memories."

"She dove into them, most willingly. From the moment she entered the city, she was far more open to it than any other I have encountered. She dove and she swam. And she tried to save me. For your sake and the sake of her father.

You were the price I was to pay, Reyn. I was to leave you in peace forever in exchange for her freeing me. A pity for you that she did not succeed."

"The water is coming faster, Reyn!" The boy's shrill voice broke into the dialogue in his mind. Reyn turned to look at him. The candle illuminated his small gray face. He stood on the steps, just inside the door. The water flowed past his feet in a sheet and cascaded silently down the broad shallow stairs. It reflected the light of the boy's candle with an eerie beauty. Death gleamed in the darkness.

He smiled sickly at the little boy. "It will be all right," he lied ruthlessly. "Come here, Selden. There is a last thing for us to do, you and I. Then we'll be finished here."

He took the boy's gritty hand in his. Wherever Malta slept in the city, she slept her last sleep. The sheeting water told him all. It would all be over far more swiftly than he had ever feared.

He turned his back on the wizardwood log. He led Selden to the first panel on the wall. He fixed the candle to the wall with a bit of wax, then smiled at the boy in the darkness. "There's a great big door here. All we have to do, you and I, is open it. A lot of dirt will come down with it, as it opens. Don't be afraid. Once we get these cranks to turn, we just have to keep turning them. No matter what. Can you do that?"

"I guess so," the boy replied dubiously. He could not seem to take his eyes off the water.

"Let me try this one first. I'll let you have whichever one is easier to turn."

Reyn set his hands to the crank. He bore down on it with all his weight. It did not move. Remorselessly, he took a claw tool from his belt. He struck the main shaft of the crank mechanism several times, then tried his strength against it again. It resisted for a moment, then slowly the wheel turned, grating past some coarseness in its works. It would turn, but it would be hard work for the boy. Reyn took a pry bar from his belt and shoved it through the spokes of the crank. "You work it like this. Stick it through a spoke, brace it against this thing and then pull down. Try it."

Selden was able to move the wheel a notch. Reyn heard the thud of the counterweight inside the wall. He smiled with satisfaction. "Good. Now move the bar to the next spoke and get a fresh bight on it. That's right."

When he was content that the boy had the knack of it, he left him there and moved to the other panel. He worked quickly to clear more of the soil away from the workings. He refused to think about the results of what he was doing. He focused instead on how he would accomplish it.

"What are you doing?" The dragon's voice was soft in his mind.

He laughed aloud. "You know what I'm doing," he muttered to her. "You know every thought in my head. Don't give me doubts now."

"I don't know everything about you, Reyn Khuprus. I never foresaw that you might do this. Why?"

He roared with laughter this time. He pitied Selden. The poor boy stared at him in wonder, but feared to ask what was wrong or even to whom he spoke. "I love you. I love the city, and for me you have always been the heart of the city. I love you and so I strive to save what I can of it. What might survive."

"You believe you will die if you turn the crank. You and the boy both."

He nodded to himself. "Yes. But it will be more quickly than if we wait and let the water eat out the walls and bring them down on us."

"Can't you go back the way you came?"

"Do you seek to dissuade me from what you have begged me to do for years?" he asked her in amusement. Then he answered her question. "The way back is already gone. The Satrap's chamber was oozing water. That door is only wood. It could not hold. I suspect it is the source of the water that flows in even now. I am done, dragon, and the boy with me. However, if we collapse the ceiling, some light may break through. If it does, then you may survive us. If not, then we will all be buried together."