by Martha Wells
If Tempest was supposed to make the formal introduction of Jade, Ice didn’t wait for it. She said, “Jade, sister queen of Indigo Cloud. You have a lovely young consort. May he come closer?”
Moon thought he was plenty close enough and had a moment to hope that this was another attempt to trick them into violating etiquette, that it was expected that Jade would refuse. Then Jade turned her head toward him, said in a breathless whisper, “Go on. Just sit in front of her, two paces away.”
Apparently she was serious. Moon managed to get up without fumbling or tripping over the cushion. He crossed over to Ice, his spine prickling with tension, and sank to the floor in front of her. His hand made a sweaty mark on the polished wood.
Ice regarded him. Her eyes were dark, with a faint rim of blue, and her gaze seemed to go right through him. She wore jeweled sheaths on her claws, the gems tiny sparks of blue and green. She said, “You remember nothing of your birthcourt?”
Shadow must have told her everything. At least Moon didn’t have to repeat the story in front of the other queens. He cleared his throat.
“No.”
Her brows arched. “Not what it was called, not the queen’s name?” Moon found her size daunting. He had to force himself not to lean back away from her. “Nothing.”
“Hmm.” She didn’t sound doubtful, just thoughtful. “And after so long alone, it was not difficult for you to… adjust, to living within a court?”
He should lie and say no, it wasn’t difficult at all. But her eyes were sharp, a wise old predator’s eyes, and he knew she wouldn’t believe him. He said, “Yes, it’s been… very strange.”
Ice smiled in dry acknowledgement. “I can imagine.” She lifted her hand, and the jewels on her claws glinted as she made a gesture of dismissal. “Go back to your queen.”
Relieved, Moon pushed to his feet and went to take his seat behind Jade again. He ignored the look Stone tried to give him. Jade touched his knee lightly, a reassurance.
Ice turned her attention to Jade. “This new knowledge of the Fell, and what they are capable of, is of import. I agree that it should be known as widely as possible and will send messengers to all the courts we are allied with.” Almost as an afterthought, she added, “Shadow has told me of the theft from your colony tree. Your mentor may speak to ours.”
Jade inclined her head to Ice. “I thank you.”
As Ice turned away to speak to Tempest, Jade gave Flower a meaningful glance. Flower got to her feet, murmuring, “Wish me luck.”
Moon felt a knot of tension evaporate from his spine. They’re going to help. They could get the seed and be gone by tonight.
Chapter Six
The sister queens made more pointed conversation, but mercifully none of it was about Moon’s lack of bloodline. They also talked about other courts in the Reaches, a subject which Moon found
fascinating. Stone apparently didn’t think so, and after a while exercised his right as a line-grandfather to just get up and wander off without a word to anyone. Moon found himself trying to calculate how many turns it would be before he could get away with that.
Ice finally claimed to be fatigued so they could all escape, and an Arbora came to show them to the guest chambers.
Moon and Jade were in a passage that spiraled down away from the hall, when Jade asked, “What did Stone mean when he said you got into a fight with a queen?”
Their Arbora guide, in groundling form with dark curly hair and an amber-colored dress, politely quickened her steps to get out of earshot. Moon slid a sideways look at Jade. Her spines were still under rigid control from speaking to the other queens, but the scales on her brow were furrowed. He said, reluctantly, “There wasn’t a fight. A daughter queen called Ash said something to me in the greeting hall. I said something back. Then Shadow came and sent her away, and asked me to come to the consorts’ bowers with him.”
Jade hissed through her teeth. Feeling the hiss was aimed at him as well as Ash, he said, “I know, I should have ignored her.”
She was quiet for a long moment, then said, “Well. Maybe nothing will come of it.”
The guest quarters were lower down in the colony, big round chambers hanging around the outer ring of the mountain-thorn. Jade and Moon climbed steps that wound up through doorways in the curved walls woven through with faintly glowing vines and moss. The Arbora led them to a room with a tile-lined pool set into the center of the floor. Four hanging bower beds were stuffed with blankets and the wood beneath them spread with striped grasseater hides.
The warriors were already there, sitting near the edge of the pool. They all looked bored and worried, and Chime even jumped to his feet when he saw them. “Well?” he demanded.
Jade quelled him with a look and he sat down with a thump. She turned to the Arbora and thanked her formally, then waited for her to leave before she turned back to the others.
“How did it go?” Balm asked, too anxious to wait longer.
As Jade took a seat on the furs, she asked, “Are we alone here?” Moon settled next to her and glanced around. The woven walls didn’t provide much of a sound barrier; he could see through the gaps to the walkway.
Vine jerked his chin toward the far side of the chamber. “There’s a group visiting from a court further west, but they’re down at the other end.”
Jade kept her voice low. “Ice acknowledged us, and Flower went to speak to their mentors. We should know soon.”
Floret and Vine exchanged a look. There was definitely an undercurrent there, but Moon couldn’t tell if they thought Jade had done too well, or not well enough. Balm nodded thoughtfully, and Chime slumped in relief. Song blurted, “So we just wait?”
“Yes.” Balm gave her a stern look. “We wait.” Song subsided reluctantly.
It should have been a good time to nap, but everyone seemed too tense to settle down. Moon shifted and jumped up to the top of the chamber, and wrapped his tail around a strong vine to hang upside down. It was a position that helped him relax.
The others aimlessly wandered the chamber or pretended to rest. Jade and Balm had drawn together to talk quietly, which was probably a good sign. If they could get back their old relationship, from before the Fell had changed everything, it would be a relief for Moon.
Chime shifted and climbed up to join him, clinging with his claws to the vines. He whispered, “Does Jade know about that queen, in the greeting hall?”
“Yes.” Moon looked at him over the edge of his wing. “Why?”
“Nothing. If—” Chime shrugged and settled his spines. “I guess that’s going to be all right, then. We talked to some of their warriors. I can’t believe how big this court is.”
Chime had never been to another court before either, and wanted to talk about it. Fortunately he didn’t really need a response from Moon, who just listened and made thoughtful noises occasionally.
Sometime later they heard someone coming up the steps to the chamber, and everyone tensed in expectation, thinking it was Flower returning. But it was only another Arbora, come to tell them there was to be a formal dinner later in the day and that they were invited to attend. This seemed to please Vine and Floret and Song, at least, but it just made Moon more impatient. Does it really take that long to say “yes” and hand over a seed? Maybe it did, but if there was some lengthy process the mentors had to go through to get the seed ready, it seemed like Flower could have sent a message to tell them so.
Finally, they heard someone on the walkway again, and this time it was Flower and Stone.
As they came up the steps Moon dropped to the floor again and shifted back to groundling. He didn’t think the news was good. Flower’s expression was tense and thoughtful, and Stone didn’t look relieved. The others gathered anxiously around, and Jade pushed to her feet. “Well?”
Flower took a deep breath. “They can’t give us a seed.”
Moon hissed a frustrated breath and glanced at Jade. Her spines lifted and she asked dangerously, “Can’t or won’t?
”
Stone answered, “Can’t.” With a weary groan, he sat down on one of the furs. “Their mentors thought that a new seed wouldn’t work on a mountain-tree that had already been implanted.”
Flower added, “Our tree would keep dying and the seed would be wasted. They’re looking back through their lore on the seeds to make certain.”
Her voice tight, Jade said, “So they can’t help us.”
“I didn’t say that.” Flower hesitated, as if not certain how much she wanted to explain. “They had a suggestion. This court has a number of mentors, with several elders. They think we can all augur for the location of our seed.”
Augur for it? Caught between disappointment and hope, Moon glanced at Stone, who just shrugged slightly. Moon took that to mean that Stone had no idea if this was possible and wasn’t going to give an opinion on it. Jade asked Flower, “And what do you think?”
Flower spread her hands. “I’ve never done anything like that before, but I think we have to try. We don’t have any other path to take at the moment.”
Vine said, “But what if whoever took the seed destroyed it?” Song nodded anxiously.
Flower betrayed some exasperation. “Then the augury won’t work.”
Watching Flower intently, Chime said, “Do they really think it’s still somewhere around here, and we can just go and get it?”
“They have no idea.” Flower’s voice was wry. “But we don’t know why the groundlings took it, and anything could be possible.” She looked around at them all. “They aren’t certain, but they think a colony tree would only be able to last two or three turns without its seed. It will rot from the inside out.”
And it’s already been gone a turn, at least. Moon folded his arms, trying to contain his impatience. They had to try this. The groundlings had been traveling on the forest floor, and that had to be dangerous. They might have been killed, the seed left to lie forgotten in the moss somewhere. If it hasn’t been eaten by a grasseater. If it hadn’t… How far could groundlings on foot travel in a turn, through hard country? Not nearly as far as we can.
“Of course you’ll have to try,” Jade said. “But will it be hard on you?”
“Yes,” Flower admitted. “But it’s not something I can leave to others.”
Jade nodded, acknowledging the necessity. “We’ll wait for word from you.”
As Flower left, Chime looked after her, his expression miserable. Then he shifted and jumped up to the ceiling of the chamber, and curled himself into a tight ball among the vines.
Floret snorted derisively. “What’s that about?”
“He wants to help,” Moon said it deliberately, keeping his tone just short of threat. He wasn’t in the mood to hear any garbage from the warriors, about Chime or anything else. “He can’t.”
Floret twitched uncomfortably. To her credit, she said, “I forgot.”
Song sighed. “I want to help too, but there’s nothing we can do but wait.”
“No.” Jade tapped her claws impatiently. “We have to go to this stupid dinner.”
Moon had never been to a formal meal in a court before. Usually eating meant either tearing apart a kill outside, or sitting around with everyone talking while they passed around food. This was a little different.
It was held in a well that wound up around the central trunk of the mountain-thorn, its walls ringed with wide platforms and crossed at intervals by bridges for the Arbora. The light emanated from living cascades of blue and purple flowers, growing from vines woven through the branches that supported the structure. Moon and Jade shared a balcony with Tempest, her three sister queens, and their consorts, everyone sitting on furs and cushions covered with rich fabrics. The younger unattached queens and consorts were confined to separate platforms across the chamber.
Ice and Shadow sat on another platform with the leaders of their Arbora. Stone had vanished again at some point on the way to the well. Most of the court, including Balm and Chime and the others, were seated on the platforms below. From what Moon could hear, it was a lot more lively down there. The only ones not present were Flower and the Emerald Twilight mentors.
Earlier, Moon had asked Jade why Emerald Twilight was putting itself out to entertain them. She had said, “They probably don’t get many sister queens and consorts as visitors. Usually it’s young daughter queens, or warriors acting as messengers or bringing Arbora to trade crafts.”
It explained Shadow’s curiosity about Moon. As reigning queen, Ice probably never left the colony, which meant Shadow never left either. He probably got few opportunities to talk to consorts he didn’t already live with.
Before the food was brought, the queens sat to one side of the platform to talk, with the consorts taking the other. On their side, Jade and Tempest and the others made pointedly polite and occasionally cutting remarks at each other until it was apparent that no one was going to be lured into an embarrassing outburst.
On the other side, the consorts stared at Moon, and he stared back. These were the consorts taken by the sister queens, the ones with important bloodlines who represented important alliances. Finally, one said, “They said you threatened Ash in the greeting hall.”
None of the queens had mentioned the incident. Moon was starting to suspect that if one of them brought it up, Jade might have to do something about it, like fight Ash. Which would be a stupid waste of a fight, considering how easily Shadow had dealt with it. He corrected, “She threatened me.”
“And you offered to fight her,” another consort said, his derision obvious. “That was foolish. What if she was hotheaded enough to accept?”
Moon looked away, knowing his expression was sardonic. “Then maybe next time she’d think twice.”
“You’d fight a queen?”
“If I had to.”
“They claimed he fought Fell.” This was said with deliberately provoking skepticism.
Moon turned his head just enough to eye the speaker. Apparently he was being asked to prove it. The trick was to do that without disrupting the dinner.
He was still young enough that his wounds had healed without scars. All except one. He pulled his shirt down his right shoulder and twisted around. At least two of them gasped.
Only the very top of the red ridge of scar tissue was visible, where it curved up along his shoulder blade. It marked the spot where Ranea had broken his wing joint in his other form. It hadn’t made an open wound, but when he had shifted to groundling, it had transformed into broken bones and this ridge of damaged skin. Flower had said it would probably fade a little over time, but it didn’t hurt often now and it wasn’t where he could see it, so it didn’t much concern him.
He pulled his shirt back up and turned around. They were all staring, this time with shock rather than disdain.
After that, the consorts talked to each other, but not to Moon.
Jade had said Indigo Cloud had had consorts fight to defend the colony, but Emerald Twilight was too secure to need defending. Moon had proved he was different from them. Too different. You are your own worst enemy, he told himself. Not that that was a new revelation; it was just that he was starting to notice it more.
Emerald Twilight warriors started to bring food, and the consorts got up to join the queens. Moon took his place next to Jade and settled on her cushion. She leaned against him, her scales a welcome warmth. Her voice pitched low, she asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” He had thought he had his expression under control, but maybe not. “Do I look upset?”
“You look angry.”
That was funny, because all he felt was weary resignation. He looked away and she didn’t press the point.
The warriors who were probably clutchmates or lovers of the queens and consorts were invited to stay and eat with them, and the conversation became more cordial, but that was a mixed blessing. Moon had already been stared at enough. Now he had the warriors sneaking curious glances at him.
At least the food
was good. There was meat, raw and fresh, cut into small pieces so you didn’t have to shift to chew it, and piles of cut and peeled fruit. There were also various roots, some raw and some spiced and baked in coals to soften them and bring out the flavor. There wasn’t any flatbread like the Arbora in Indigo Cloud made, but there was a pressed seedcake that was almost as good.
It had been a long, anxious day, and once Moon had a full stomach, it was hard to stay awake. He tried to find a position where he could lean against Jade’s shoulder and doze off without falling over, when she said, “Was that true, what you told Ice? That you don’t remember anything about your birthcourt?”
She kept her voice low. The others were still occupied in talking or eating. “You thought I was lying?” He had to admit, he did lie a lot. Turns and turns of lying his way into groundling settlements, lying about what he had done and where he had been and how he had gotten from here to there so fast, had made it second nature.
“It occurred to me,” she said, her voice a little wry. “Well?”
“No.” His earliest memory was of sleeping in the bole of a tree, warmly tucked in with the four young Arbora. Leaf, Bliss, Light, and Fern. He hadn’t let himself think their names in a long time. “I don’t remember anything. I told Shadow that, too.”
“Hmm.” Using her claws with delicate precision, Jade picked a pit out of a piece of fruit. “Maybe Ice just wanted a close look at you, then.”
“Why?”
“She might have thought she could recognize what court you came from. Sometimes queens and consorts from the same bloodlines have a strong resemblance to each other.”
He looked at her closely, trying to see it, but she just looked like Jade. “You don’t look like Pearl.”
“To another queen, I do.” She straightened, frowning. “What’s this?”
Moon pushed himself upright to see someone glide over from the platform where the unattached queens had been seated. Moon recognized the gray and green pattern of her scales and cursed under his breath. It was Ash.