The tunnel behind the camouflaged entrance is like the fire-rock tubes of Telu, only much wider. Much smoother, too. I expect to dodge sharp rock teeth on the walls the moment I'm inside, but then the Karu-Kel shuts the door behind us, and I flick on my lights instinctively. The walls around me wear a carpet of shellfish, but the stone beneath looks cut, not natural. Well, some parts look natural, but they've been joined and smoothed and widened into a passageway large enough for Ruka to turn around in, even with Sar.
"Vibi, can you look after these two for me?" she says.
Vibi is behind us, and I don't see her response, but it must be affirmative. Ruka vanishes down the tunnel, navigating easily even without lights. Ande and I are left with Vibi, a woman who looks Ruka's age or older—old enough to be our parent—and clearly battle-scarred. But she has a kind smile, and gives us both a Karu greeting that I return automatically because I'm nervous and everything seems to be going okay, and I want it to stay that way.
Vibi's eyebrows shoot up. "You know Eni-Karu?"
"Yes. I haven't spoken in a while, but..."
But I spent three years on Lix'i. Some part of me still catches and panics when I'm about to say it, but Vibi identifies my accent and finds her answer anyway. "You sound like you're from from the Sand-Coral cluster. South side?"
"Lix'i."
"Thought so."
I'd forgotten this about the Karu. They're so diverse—so many Kel peoples living together in such a small area—that they learn to identify one another from nuances as small as accent intonations and the patterns of spots on tails. Anyone here who's Karu will be able to identify my Karu origin the moment I start speaking, and maybe even from my mannerisms or the way I hold my hands when I return their greetings. There's no keeping Lix'i a secret among other Karu. Then again, for all my fears, I doubt they'll care.
"And your friend?" asks Vibi, her eyes drifting to Ande next. "Islander, yes? Does she understand?"
"Islander, yes. And no. I'll have to translate."
"Do that, then. And come with me. We should stop blocking the entrance."
Ande's watching me, waiting for that translation as Vibi slips past us and beckons us down the tunnel. I catch Ande up on the conversation as we follow. I want to leave out the part about being identified as Lix'i Karu again, but that's not fair when Ande doesn't know and doesn't hear the language. So I give her the whole story and just put up with her smile when I mention the... my island. My other home. Even if I haven't lived there for years now.
Vibi leads us through a dizzying maze of tunnels, further into the heart of the island. All of them are shellfish-lined, which I'm now starting to suspect is intentional. Many twist like fire-rock tubes, but others break off at odd angles, and now and then, there are pockets—little caves—off the sides that also look too clean to have been carved by the mountain itself. It must have been inactive for a long time now. I know there are Karu who build their nests in the rock like this, but this complex is so big, it must have taken generations to carve. They wouldn't do such a thing unless the seamount's fire was well and truly dead.
But more than that, this doesn't seem to be a usual burrowing-Karu nest. For one, there are lights on a few of the walls. The Karu who build these kinds of dens don't need those: like the one who opened the door for us, they have long, thread-like whiskers trailing down their arms, sensory probes to find the walls of the tunnels they're swimming through. They use sound, too: clicks that bounce off the walls, and variations of their language that can be whistled or shouted for use in these stone tunnels.
If there are lights here, it means there are more people than just the ones who built the nest. I could have guessed that, really, with Ruka being so familiar here, but it's driven home as other Kels begin to pass us in the tunnels. Vibi greets all of them. They're Karu—all of them that I can see—but they come from more than ten different Karu peoples, and only two are burrowing. Which means they're here for something else.
Then there are the shellfish. By the time we're deep in the seamount, I've decided that some massive level of effort has gone into keeping the walls so covered in shellfish. They keep the water in the tunnels clean and moving, despite the bits of food I see caught on some of their shells. Someone has been feeding them. Some patches are smaller than the rest, too, like everything there was harvested, then re-seeded with baby shellfish and left to regrow. This isn't just water-cleaning. This is food production on an epic scale, completely self-contained, and managed expertly from the inside.
But the real giveaway is that all of the people we cross paths with are armed. Many Karu are naturally armed already. They're the most likely of all Kel peoples to have spines or stingers or poison, as well as natural defenses like tough scales or slimes. But this is more than that. Even the vividly striped, fan-finned Karu-Kel who pulls all his fins in to scoot past us—almost certainly venomous—has a dagger at his hip. Other Kels carry spears made from the spines of sea-goddess tails, or daggers of bone or glass, or pouches of darts that are almost certainly poisoned. All the weapons are pointy, which means they're meant for close combat, which means everyone here is ready to defend this place in a bitter, brutal fight.
That's not how Burrower Karu usually operate. They build their dens with back doors and escape hatches and hidden rooms where they can bunker down and hide, and so few other Kels know how to live in the stone that nobody who drives them out can really take over. The Burrowers just wait for the attackers to leave, then come back again. These people don't look ready to leave.
All of it points to this being some kind of stronghold held together by a collaboration of every Kel people on the surrounding islands. And if that wasn't enough, I'm back to the first thing that should have told me that: Ruka's here. She's here, and she knows her way around, and people seem to respect and respond to her. Given that Ruka was almost certainly a Glauclin spy embedded in the Sandsingers before she crossed spears with Makeba and left, that's another point in favor of this being a resistance.
Vibi stops at a tunnel-branch and whistles some kind of signal down it. A reply drifts back a moment later. Vibi beckons us into the branch, which turns out to be another self-contained network of tunnels. We soon emerge into a cave lit by the cool, blue glow of slime patches on the walls. The whole cave is almost spherical, so the middle of it swoops down like a bowl beneath the entrance we now hover in. Four Kels look up from the rocks below. There's one other Glauclin, one Saru shark, one red signal squid, and one Ashianti.
The Glauclin Kel leans back to peer past Vibi, an amused smile on his face. "Who's Ruka finding for us this time?"
"New friends." Vibi shifts aside to let us into view. Ande and I both move reluctantly, though her less so than me. She's peering intently at the Saru-Kel.
The Glauclin's forehead creases when he sees us. "She sent these two here? The Shalda pocket is right around the corner."
"They're with Sar."
The Kel leaps up, unleashing a stream of words in the same language Ruka used with Sar. The Saru-Kel beside him looks stunned. The squid Kel flops back in her seat with a breath of such intense relief, I almost feel it from here.
"Where are they?" asks the Ashianti Kel, speaking for the first time. He hasn't moved a finger, poised on the edge of his seat and gripping the rocks so tightly, his knuckles go pale.
"With Ruka in the Keep. Finika should be there by now, too; he passed us in the branch tunnel. The kid's in rough shape."
"Hurt?"
"No." Vibi glances at the two of us. "Unless you had something to do with that."
I don't know how to explain that Sar's injuries were most recently healed by a giant clam demigod on the bottom of the ocean on our way to find the Seers, and I suspect that's too long a story anyway. I opt for the easier option. "Only after we found them. After the coup."
"You were there?" asks the Ashianti Kel.
"We escaped after the riot started."
He doesn't un-tense at all, but he does loosen his grip on the rocks a little. He turns back to Vibi. "Do they need our help with anything?"
"I think Ruka's got it under control. If she sends a message, I'll let you know."
I finish translating for Ande. She gives me a half-distracted thanks, then goes right back to staring at the Saru-Kel with an ever-intensifying look of familiarity. The Kel's eyes keep darting to her, lingering, then skipping to the other ongoing conversation. Then Ande lifts her hands.
"Have we met?" she signs. "You were the guard I talked to in Rapal, weren't you."
I stare at her. She talked to a Saru guard at some point? I have no idea when this happened. But the Saru-Kel's whole expression shifts. "Andalua's teeth, that was you."
She knows Shalda-sign. They're both talking in Shalda-sign. And Ande looks... angry. There's a frigid kind of fury in the stiffness of her signs: the kind that makes her eyes burn dark, like her gaze alone could stab someone.
"Explain," she signs.
The Kel's whole body seems to wither, though she's bigger and broader than Ruka, and could likely snap a Kel's neck with her bare hands. "It's complicated."
"Say that to Sar's face."
"She's a defector," signs the Glauclin Kel. Ande's eyes drag to him instead. This Kel's Shalda-sign is much choppier, but he knows enough to have followed the conversation. "She joined us after Arcas took over."
Ande doesn't reply. She continues to glare daggers at the Saru-Kel, but crosses her arms, making it clear she won't be replying.
"Is everything alright?" asks Vibi, her gaze flicking from Ande to the Saru-Kel and back again. The Glauclin Kel nods.
"We appreciate your care," he continues, with a slight nod to Ande. "But she is not the enemy here. She would not be with us if she was."
The Saru-Kel has made herself small, avoiding everyone's eyes now. Silence and tension thicken the water in the room for several long, uncomfortable moments. It's the signal squid Kel who finally lifts her head and asks, "So, do we get to make introductions, then? Now that we've gotten potentially killing each other out of the way?"
She's not joking. Vibi nods once and makes a gesture like she's leaving this to all of us, but she doesn't leave. I'm starting to think she must hold status in the colony, if she's here mediating while we get to know one another.
The squid Kel tips us a casual greeting sign—a Shalda one. "Yaz."
She adds a sign name, confirming my guess: she'll be able to talk to Ande directly.
"Innis," says the Glauclin, then nods to his Saru-Kel companion. "That's Casin."
That just leaves the Ashianti Kel, who looks reluctant to introduce himself. But he seems reluctant about a lot of things, so I doubt that's anything to do with us specifically. "El."
Ande and I introduce ourselves, too, then look to Vibi for guidance on what we're supposed to do next. Well, I look to Vibi. Ande hasn't torn her eyes off Casin yet.
Vibi doesn't seem phased by this. "You two will need to stay in here for now. These are the only people besides Ruka and Finika who can know that Sar is here, at least until we get the rest of the colony in order." She pauses to let me translate. "I understand this might be a lot to take in, and you're probably tired. There's plenty of space here for you to sleep, and Ruka or Finika should stop by at some point with an update on your friend. The Kels here can show you where to find everything else."
"Thank you," I say. I think Ande will have a harder time sharing space with Casin until we're allowed out of this pocket—the local word for cave or living-quarters, I think. But if it's to protect Sar, I don't think either of us are complaining. "We can stay here."
"Make yourselves comfortable. The rest of you, make them feel at home."
"Not a problem, boss," replies Yaz. Vibi rolls her eyes, but that just makes Yaz grin wider. She gives Vibi a departure wave that's either made-up or Sami, and Vibi takes her leave. That leaves us in the pocket with four other Kels, only two of whom seem friendly enough to make this easy for us.
Then again, two might be enough. Yaz still hasn't sat up again since melting on the rocks at the news about Sar. From her half-reclined position, she signs, "This okay for both of you?"
She's using her people's dialect, but without the flickering light. It's an interesting adaptation, but it works, especially with the room already lit. Ande nods, and I confirm it.
"Cool," signs Yaz. She waves around the cave. "Welcome to our pocket. It's us four and Ruka in here, though Finika sometimes drops in and out when he's trying to catch a break. We're a resistance of about a hundred and forty people in here, led by mostly Vibi. Maybe half? Anyway, Finika and Vibi are the other two who've been involved in trying to track down Sar, which I'm sure you've guessed already."
I nod.
"Oh, and this whole place is called Underfarrow." She signs, then says it. "Farrow's the seamount. Island-ish. Don't think I actually know how far up it goes."
"It varies," says Innis. He can definitely understand Shalda hand-languages better than he can use them. "The water rises and falls depending on the year."
"Neat. Anyway. Underfarrow. Resistance. Started with Vibi and a bunch of Karu banding together, but Farrow's always been a Glauclin stopover, so they brought news of the Ashianti takeover. So everyone's braced for war now? Most people here are chill with the Ashianti because they've got kin in Ashianti territory, and they're chill with the Glauclins, and Vibi's really got the situation under control, so we're hiding important people as we sneak them out of Arcas's new regime. A few here"—she gestures around the room, and I wonder who here is so important that Arcas might be looking for them—"and at least one more when we find her. You'll meet her when it's safe for you to leave the pocket."
"Safe?" signs Ande, and crosses her arms again.
"Most of Underfarrow is against the local invasion Arcas is trying to start, and willing to fight for it. This whole region has been a conflict zone for years, obviously, but Vibi struck a deal with this place last year? I think? Anyway, we've been aiming for a more active role, so we're meeting with our members one by one to ask if they want to be a part of that. If they don't, we give them a safe escort to another seamount in the area that's more of an attack shelter. Long story short, the last bit of that process is about to be drastically accelerated."
Because Sar is here now. If Underfarrow is sheltering important Kels from Rapal, they just picked up the most important one of all.
"But I reckon we'll have a few days yet," finishes Yaz. "Both to wrap up the screenings, and because I can't imagine your friend there is in any mental shape to leave the Keep for the next few days."
"How do you know that?" signs Ande.
"Believe me when I say Ruka doesn't often respond to these things personally. Let alone respond to them and call Finika in as backup. Also, why don't you come take a seat. Most of us don't usually bite."
El gives her a look. Finally, though, Ande's shoulders un-tense. She tips forward and swims down to to join the other Kels. I don't like being left alone up here with a dark tunnel at my back, so I join her.
"I keep hearing people mentioning the Keep," I sign.
Yaz nods. "That's the core of this place. Leaders' quarters."
"Isn't the core the most connected to all the tunnels?"
"Not the top part of it. There's a bubble. Very defensible. Easy to escape if the rest of Underfarrow is breached. Also, are you guys hungry?"
I should be hungrier than I am. We barely stopped for food all the way through the archipelago. I think we've all been too stressed to feel hungry.
Yaz waves around. "Food's on the walls. Try to thin them, or take from a patch that's already being used. They get marked when they're being left alone to regrow again. Sleep anywhere you like, but there's slings on the walls if that's your preference. Just don't take the smooth ledge by the door. That's Finika's. Umm... waste room's at the back; just follow the stone trail on the floor. Other rooms here are mostly at your disposal, though there's not much in most of them. Don't touch anything important-looking. I think that's everything."
"When will we be able to see Sar?" signs Ande.
"When we get a go-ahead from the Keep. Which will come from Ruka, if that makes any difference."
Ande nods once. "Well, I'm tired," she signs then, and pushes herself up. "Any claimed slings I should avoid?"
Yaz points out a few. They're all woven like fish-nets, some soft and loose, others stretched out along the walls. Ande picks a stretched one by the ceiling, swings herself into it, and drops the buoyancy of her tail. She doesn't even check in with me. It's well after dawn, I guess, but I suspect she's also sulking. I'll have to find out what happened between her and Casin eventually.
As soon as she's settled, all eyes turn to me. Yaz props her head on one hand and regards me with a lazy smile. "So," she says. She's switched back to Eni-Karu. We're more than half Shalda here, so it has to be intentional. "I'm not going to ask how you guys picked up the literal Ashianti heir after the coup in Rapal, because Vibi and Fin are going to want to be here for that. But I have to say... I don't think I've ever met another Shalda-Kel outside the Network who knows Eni-Karu as well as you do. What's your story?"