seized her own plank, thrust it back into the water, and was amazed at the sudden strength of the current. She clutched the end awkwardly as she tried to oppose the flow of water that was sweeping them away from the shore. Morning light touched them as they emerged from the shelter of the overhanging trees. Suddenly the sunlight illuminated the water, making it unbearably bright after the dimness. Behind her, an annoyed exclamation coincided with a splash. She swiveled her head to see what had happened. The Satrap was empty-handed.
'The river snatched it right out of my hands!' he complained.
'You fool!' Malta cried out. 'How can we steer now?'
The Satrap's face darkened with fury. 'How dare you speak to me so! You are the fool, to think it could have done us any good in the first place. It wasn't even shaped like an oar. Besides, even if it would have worked, we do not need it. Use your eyes, wench. We've nothing to fear. There's the city now! The river will carry us right to it.'
'Or past it!' Malta spat at him. She turned from him in disgust, to focus all her strength and thoughts on her single-handed battle with the river. She lifted her eyes briefly to the impressive site of Trehaug. Seen from below, the city floated in the great trees like a many-turreted castle. On the water level, a long dock was tethered to a succession of trees. The Kendry was tied up there, but the liveship's bow was turned away from them. She could not even see the sentient figurehead. She paddled frantically.
'When we get closer,' she panted between strokes, 'call out for help. The ship may hear us, or people on the docks. Even if we are swept past, they can send rescue after us.'
'I see no one on the docks,' the Satrap informed her snidely. 'In fact, I see no one anywhere. A lazy folk, to be still abed.'
'No one?' Malta gasped the question. She simply had no strength left for this final effort. The board she wielded skipped and jumped across the top of the water. With every passing moment, they were carried farther out into the river. She lifted her eyes to the city. It was close, much closer than it had been a moment ago. And the Satrap was right. Smoke rose from a few chimneys, but other than that, Trehaug looked deserted. A profound sense of wrongness welled up in her. Where was everyone? What had become of the normal lively bustle along the catwalks and on the stairways?
'Kendry!' she cried out, but her breathless call was thin. The rushing water carried her voice away with it.
Companion Kekki seemed suddenly to understand what was happening. 'Help! Help!' she cried in a childish shriek. She stood up recklessly in the small boat, waving her hands. 'Help us! Save me!' The Satrap swore as the boat rocked wildly. Malta lunged at the woman and pulled her down into the boat again, nearly losing her plank in the process. A glance around her showed her that the plank was of no real use now. The little boat was well and truly into the river's current and rapidly being swept past Trehaug.
'Kendry! Help! Help us! Out here, in the river! Send rescue! Kendry! Kendry!' Her shouts trailed away as hopelessness dragged at her.
The liveship gave no sign of hearing. Another moment, and Malta was looking back at him. Apparently lost in deep thought, the figurehead was turned toward the city. Malta saw a lone figure on one of the catwalks, but he was hurrying somewhere and never turned his head. 'Help! Help!' She continued to shout and wave her plank while she could see the city, but it was not for long. The trees that leaned out over the river soon curtained it from her eyes. The current rushed them on. She sat still and defeated.
Malta took in her surroundings. Here, the Rain Wild River was wide and deep, the opposite shore near lost in permanent mist. The water was gray and chalky when she looked over the side. Overhead the sky was blue, bordered on both sides by the towering rain forest. There was nothing else to be seen, no other vessels on the water, no signs of human habitation along the banks. As the clutching current bore them inexorably away from the marshy shores, hopes of rescue receded. Even if she succeeded in steering their little boat to the shore, they would be hopelessly lost downriver of the city. The shores of the Rain Wild River were swamp and morass. Traveling overland back to Trehaug was impossible. Her nerveless fingers dropped the plank into the bottom of the boat. 'I think we're going to die,' she told the others quietly.
KEFFRIA'S HAND ACHED ABOMINABLY. SHE GRITTED HER TEETH AND FORCED herself to seize again the handles of the barrow the diggers had just finished loading. When she lifted the handles and began to trundle her load up the corridor, the pain in her healing fingers doubled. She welcomed it. She deserved it. The bright edges of it could almost distract her from the burning in her heart. She had lost them, both her younger children gone in one night. She was as completely alone in the world as she had ever been.
She had clung to doubt for as long as she could. Malta and Selden were not in Trehaug. No one had seen them since yesterday. A tearful playmate of Selden had sobbingly admitted that he had shown the boy a way into the ancient city, a way the grown-ups had thought securely locked. Jani Khuprus had not minced words with Keffria. White-faced, lips pinched, she had told Keffria that the particular passage had been abandoned because Reyn himself had judged it dangerously unstable. If Selden had gone into the buried corridors, if he had taken Malta with him, then they had gone into the area most likely to collapse in an earthquake. There had been at least two large tremors since dawn. Keffria had lost track of how many lesser tremblings she had felt. When she had begged that diggers be sent that way, they had found the entire corridor collapsed just a few steps inside the entry. She could only pray to Sa that her children had reached some stronger section of the buried city before the quake, that somewhere they huddled together awaiting rescue.
Reyn Khuprus had not returned. Before noon, he had left the diggers, refusing to wait until the corridors could be cleared and shored up. He had gone ahead of the work crews, wriggling off through a mostly collapsed tunnel and disappearing. Not long ago, the work crews had reached the end of the line he had left to mark his way. They had found several chalk marks, including the notation he had left on the door of the Satrap's chamber. Hopeless, Reyn had marked. Thick muck oozed from under the blocked door; most likely the entire room had filled with it. Not far past that door, the corridor had collapsed completely. If Reyn had passed that way, he either had been crushed in the downfall, or was trapped beyond it.
Keffria started when she felt a touch on her arm. She turned to face a haggard Jani Khuprus. 'Have you found anything?' Keffria asked reflexively.
'No.' Jani spoke the terrible word softly. Her fear that her son was dead lived in her eyes. 'The corridor is mucking in as fast as we try to clear it. We've decided to abandon it. The Elder ones did not build this city as we build ours, with houses standing apart from each other. The ancients built their city like one great hive. It is a labyrinth of intersecting corridors. We will try to come at that section of corridor from a different approach. The crews are already being shifted.'
Keffria looked at her laden barrow, then back down the excavated corridor. Work had stopped. The laborers were returning to the surface. As Keffria stared, a flow of dirty and tired men and women parted to go around her. Their faces were gray with dirt and discouragement, their footsteps dragged. The lanterns and torches they carried guttered and smoked. Behind them, the excavation had gone dark. Had all of this work been useless, then? She took a breath. 'Where shall we dig now?' she asked quietly.
Jani gave her a haunted look. 'It has been decided we should rest for a few hours. Hot food and a few hours of sleep will do us all good.'
Keffria looked at her incredulously. 'Eat? Sleep? How can we do either when our children are missing still?'
The Rain Wild woman matter-of-factly took Keffria's place between the barrow handles. She lifted it and began to push it forward. Keffria trailed reluctantly after her. She did not answer Keffria's question, except to say, 'We sent birds out to some of the closer settlements. The foragers and harvesters of the Rain Wilds will send workers to aid us. They are on their way, but it will take some time for them to arrive. Fresh workers will shore up our spirits.' Over her shoulder, she added, 'We have had word from some of the other digging crews, also. They have had more luck. Fourteen people were rescued from an area we call the Tapestry Works, and three more were discovered in the Flame Jewel corridors. Their work has progressed more swiftly. We may be able to gain access to this area of the city from one of those locations. Bendir is already consulting with those who know the city best.'
'I thought Reyn knew the old city better than anyone,' Keffria said cruelly.
'He did. He does. That is why I cling to the hope that he may be alive.' The Rain Wild Trader glanced at her Bingtown counterpart. 'It is why I believe that if anyone could find Malta and Selden, it is Reyn. If he found
