by Martha Wells
As they limped after Malachite, Jade asked quietly, “Was it very bad?”
Chime said, “It was terrible.”
Moon said, “It could have been worse.”
Celadon met them at the bottom of the stairs. “Everyone’s all right?” she asked, her worried gaze going from Shade in Malachite’s arms to Moon, who leaned heavily against the wall to steady himself on the way down.
“Except for almost drowning,” Lithe told her, as she started across the cabin to where the wounded lay. She crouched down to touch Ivory’s forehead, looking anxiously over the others. “I need to make a simple for their lungs. And Shade’s been starved. Chime, could you—”
“I’ll start heating water.” Chime headed for the metal stove.
Malachite set Shade down and helped him sit. He still looked far too pale, the bruises under his eyes deep-set and his cheeks sunken. Moon sank down next to him and wheezed, “There’s food in that basket. Fruit and bread.”
Celadon hurried to get it. Jade started to pick up a blanket, then sniffed it and dropped it in disgust. Everything aboard the boat still stank from the combination of Fell and smoke, though the hold didn’t smell nearly as bad as it had before, with the mountain wind moving through the vents.
His voice a weak rasp, Shade said to Malachite, “I found out something I need to tell you. Forty turns ago the guide, that thing, told some Fell to go after the Opal Night colony in the east first.”
Malachite went still, staring at him.
Shade continued, “The progenitor told me. They weren’t related to that flight so they didn’t know much about what happened, only what the creature told them, though she tried to pretend like she did.” He turned to Moon. “You were right. They always lie the same way, and after a while you can tell.”
Celadon sat down, opening the basket of provisions, listening in increasing confusion. Her voice still rough, Jade said, “But why Opal Night?”
“Because it thought Opal Night had more in common with the forerunners, because of where the colony was outside the Reaches, that it was the oldest and closest one to the city where the creature was trapped.” Shade shivered, and wrapped his arms around himself. “The progenitor said the guide could sense a lot about Raksura, but we didn’t even know it existed. She seemed to think that was just because the Fell are superior.” He added, with irony, “I guess she didn’t think that at the end.”
Malachite took the provision basket from Celadon. “We’ll talk of it later. Eat.” Her voice was wheezy too, a reminder that she wasn’t invulnerable.
With thinly disguised impatience, Celadon said, “Can somebody tell me what happened?”
Moon started to speak, but the first breath turned into a coughing fit. Digging packets out of her satchel, Lithe said, “Chime and I will tell it. The rest of you be quiet and rest.”
It sounded like a good idea to Moon.
The simple Lithe made was one normally used for lung ailments, and it made Moon’s sore lungs and abraded throat feel better immediately. It also made the rest of the evening and night pass in a somewhat surreal sleepy haze.
He woke a few times to see Shade sleeping in a huddle under Malachite’s protective wing, and once to find himself curled up against Stone’s side. He remembered a vague conversation where Chime told him that they were going to owe Delin even more repairs, since while taking turns steering the boat, the two young daughter queens had scraped it against the rocks three times. Moon thought Delin was going to be more worried about the hole in the hull. But there was no sign of the Fell. The night was a dark one, with the half moon and the stars obscured by clouds, and the wind drove the boat hard.
Moon woke at dawn next to Shade, with Lithe, Saffron, and Floret sleeping nearby. He got to his feet, carefully picked his way around them, and went up to the deck.
The wind was like cool silk, scented with nothing but the sweetness of trees and the clean dust of the mountains falling away behind them. The sky was still cloudy but the morning sun broke through in spots, warming the wood of the deck under his feet. They were flying above foothills, sparsely forested with big fern trees and vividly pink thorn bushes. Moon thought he heard the distant high-pitched roar of a mountain skyling, but it was lost in the wind and might have been nothing.
Jade perched on the railing, looking down at the ground passing below, and Stone was up in the bow. Chime was in the steering cabin, yawning and leaning on the control pillar. Malachite sat in the center of the deck, facing back toward the way they had come, her eyes on the sky. She wore her Arbora form, though she didn’t look much less formidable. On the softer Arbora scales, it was easier to see her scars.
Moon went to sit near Malachite. She acknowledged his presence with a flick of a spine and tilted her head to regard him.
He started to speak, had to clear his throat, and said, “I’m sorry I said those things to you, back at the court.”
Malachite acknowledged the apology with a nod. “You’re angry at what happened. You’ll be angry for a long time. So will I. All we can do is try not to let it rule us. Or hide it better, when it does.”
Moon thought she was probably right. He looked into the wind, squinting against the dawn light. “I want to be with Jade.”
It was encouraging that Malachite’s reaction was a resigned snort. Her voice dry, she said, “I gathered that.”
“Ivory seems like a good queen, but I don’t want her.”
Malachite’s spines rippled in annoyance. “Ivory is presumptuous.” So no one had been behind Ivory’s offer for him except Ivory. That was also encouraging. Malachite added, “I could get a queen for you from any court in the Reaches you wanted.”
Moon said, “I want Indigo Cloud.” He was aware that Jade had been listening intently to the conversation from the beginning, and that Malachite knew it. Now Stone strolled back from the bow and sat down several paces away, keeping his expression carefully neutral. In the steering cabin, Chime had shifted to his Raksuran form so he could hear them better.
Malachite turned to face Moon, her head cocked skeptically. “Because she lets you do whatever you want?”
“She trusts me to take care of myself, even when she doesn’t want to. I can’t be like a normal consort; I’ll just cause trouble. Look what I did at Opal Night, and I wasn’t even trying.”
Malachite didn’t dispute that. Then she asked the question Moon had been dreading. “Why haven’t you had a clutch?”
Moon sensed Jade react, a flinch that rattled her spines. He set his jaw, gathering his resolve. If he admitted it, Malachite would have to realize no other court would take him. Jade apparently still wanted him, but there was no telling what the rest of Indigo Cloud’s reaction would be. Let’s just concentrate on getting back there first. He said, “Because I’m infertile.”
Malachite’s eyes narrowed in disbelief, a reaction that was not what he had been expecting. She also gave the impression that this was the first thing he had ever said that surprised her. “You’re not infertile.”
Jade said, “Of course you’re not infertile!” She hopped down from her perch and came to sit across from him. She hissed in exasperation. “We’re queens, we know.”
“How am I supposed to know that?” Moon floundered for a moment. He had been so certain. He blurted, “Then why haven’t we had a clutch?”
Jade folded her arms and looked away. “I don’t know.” From her expression, it cost her something to say the words aloud, but after they were out she seemed almost relieved. Her spines twitched anxiously. “I was afraid it would be blamed on you, that the court would think you weren’t trying.”
It had never occurred to Moon that Jade might be as insecure as he was, that she might have wanted to avoid the subject for reasons of her own, that she had been just as afraid as he had been. “But—” He began, then cut the word off with a yelp when Stone clipped him in the back of the head.
Obviously caught between fury and exasperation, Stone said, “It didn’t occur to you to ask me?
”
“You were gone!” Snarling, Moon moved out of arm’s reach. He saw Chime, in the steering cabin, clap a hand over his eyes. Celadon, who had wandered up from the stern at some point and leaned against the railing, shook her head. He protested, “I was waiting for you to get back!”
Stone flung his hands up to the sky as if asking it to witness what he had to put up with. He turned to Jade. “You didn’t ask Pearl?”
“Of course not.” Jade sounded as if that was the most idiotic thing she had ever heard. “I can’t talk to her about anything.”
Stone glared. “Can’t or won’t?”
Malachite hissed, and everyone abruptly stopped talking.
Malachite tapped her claws on the deck. She didn’t look like she was struggling to hold on to her patience, but then she wouldn’t. She asked Jade, “You’ve suppressed your fertility in the past?”
Jade gritted her teeth. “Yes.”
Malachite tilted her head. “With other consorts?”
“No!” Jade bared her fangs briefly. “Moon is the only consort I’ve ever been with.” After a moment, she explained, “The Fell attacked our old colony. I couldn’t risk a clutch.”
Malachite sighed, though the tension in her body didn’t ease. She said pointedly, “We can’t get clutches at will, even at your age. And suppressing your fertility your first time with the consort you plan to breed with can delay conception later. Especially if the court is under stress.”
Jade frowned, but her spines gradually relaxed. “But it’s been three changes of the month.”
Stone buried his face in his hands and growled.
Malachite said, “The line-grandfather is right. Three changes of the month is not a long time. Especially under these circumstances.”
“Oh.” Jade looked at Moon. He looked at her. She said, “Next time, ask me if you think you’re infertile.”
“All right,” he agreed. “Next time, ask Pearl how long it takes to get a clutch.” She hissed at him.
Stone cut to the point. He asked Malachite, “So? Can we have him?”
She stood. She said, “I’ll consider it,” and walked toward the stern, collecting Celadon on the way.
Jade let her breath out in a long sigh. Watching Malachite’s back, she said in a low voice, “That’s an improvement.”
With a hiss of relief, Stone said, “Just both of you stay out of it now. Give her time, and wait till she makes the first move before you talk about it.”
“Oh, you’re going to help, now?” Jade asked him, lifting her brows. “I noticed you being conspicuously silent before.”
Stone gave her a dark look. “If you think me sticking a claw in would have helped, you’re wrong. Since you got here, it’s been between you and her.” He jerked his head toward Moon. “And she’s just like him. In her head, that Fell attack on the eastern court happened yesterday. We’re lucky we’re getting out of this with so little trouble.”
Stone walked away. Moon and Jade regarded each other. Moon said, “Little trouble?”
“I suppose it could have been worse,” Jade admitted.
There were a couple of things Moon still wanted to get straight. He asked, “What about Ember?” If she said “Who?” like Stone had…
“I didn’t know they were bringing him.” Jade met his gaze directly. “I told you, he was Emerald Twilight’s idea of an apology. And I didn’t take him in your place. I don’t think I exchanged two words with him before we left. I was busy trying to keep the hunters from being eaten.” Her voice softened, and she added, “I tell you now, if I ever take a second consort, it will be with your approval.”
Moon immediately felt guilty. He didn’t want Jade to change to accommodate him, and he didn’t want to hurt Ember’s feelings. But this was something that should probably wait until they got back to Indigo Cloud. He said, “It should be someone older, and not as pretty as me.”
Jade’s mouth quirked. “We’ll see.”
There was one thing more Moon needed to ask. “At Indigo Cloud, I saw Merry and Gold making a bracelet or something. It had little Aeriat figures. They acted… twitchy, like I wasn’t supposed to know about it.”
“Well, you weren’t. A consort is supposed to get a gift when his first clutch is conceived.”
“Oh.” Apparently Stone had been right all along: Moon was an idiot.
Jade added, “It takes a long time to make something like that, so I told them to go ahead.” She shrugged her spines in resignation. “I was hoping it would give me luck.”
He leaned against her and rubbed his cheek on her shoulder. “I don’t think we need luck. I think we just need… some time to relax.”
She glanced back to make sure Malachite was out of sight, then put an arm around his waist and pulled him against her side. “That would be wonderful.”
It took several days to reach Opal Night, though fortunately they were uneventful. As soon as they were certain the Fell weren’t following them, Stone went hunting with Floret and Saffron. They stopped the boat at a small lake at the edge of the foothills to butcher the carcasses and to change and refill the water stores and flush out the latrine, but ended up using the chance to bathe and rinse the blankets and their clothing as well.
It lost them most of the morning, but it was better for everyone, especially those still in healing sleep, to get rid of as much of the Fell stench as possible. Moon felt better about being able to hand Delin back a flying boat that though battered, didn’t stink and was reasonably clean. Malachite and Lithe were able to coax Shade to eat a little meat later that day, so maybe the lack of stench had helped him, too.
Moon was sitting with Shade on the railing near the bow, watching the ground go by, when Shade said, “I told Malachite what happened. The part about what the Fell made me do.”
Below, the fern-thorn forests of the lake country were gradually giving way to the high grasses of the plains. Moon said, “What did she say?”
“That it wasn’t my fault. That I did what I had to do to keep us alive.” Shade’s shoulders were still slumped. “She also said what you said, that I shouldn’t tell anybody else about it.”
Moon thought that over, about lies and protective concealment, and how it might fester for someone like Shade, as opposed to someone more used to it, like him. At the moment, Shade thought he was the only one who had had to do something repugnant to survive. Moon said, “I don’t think you should tell anyone. Unless you need to, to help them.” And he told Shade about how he had met the Fell in Saraseil, about how he had killed Liheas, the real story that he had told only to Jade, and not the abbreviated version he had told to others.
The wounded continued to heal under Lithe’s care, and two of Ivory’s warriors woke from the healing sleep and were able to move around a little. Root woke a day later, still too injured to sit up and having difficulty speaking, but able to indicate to Floret and Chime that he wanted a blow-by-blow account of everything he had missed.
When they crossed the plain between Aventera and the Reaches, Stone caught sight of a bladder-boat, but it didn’t try to approach. Everyone else ignored it, but Celadon and Moon leaned on the railing, speculating on what the Aventerans were doing now and secretly hoping the bladder-boat would come this way in a threatening manner so they could start a fight with it. After a time, Celadon said, “Thank you for trying to save Dare. I saw part of what happened. We had ended up in some sort of small passage, and there were slits in the outer wall we could see through, but they were too narrow to climb out of.”
Moon thought not being able to get outside at that moment had probably saved all their lives. And he didn’t want to talk about poor Dare. “How did you get out?”
“We went down through the city, trying to find a way out that was so far below the bladder-boats that they wouldn’t be able to shoot us. The Aventerans trapped us at one point but Delin got one of their weapons and started shooting it at them. After that, they backed off and we made it out through an opening down near
the statue’s feet. The sac had already left by then, so I sent the warriors and Delin to tell the queens and I started after it. Malachite and the others caught up to me that night.” She rippled her spines, as if shaking off the angry memories. “Hopefully this will be the end of the Fell trying to make crossbreeds.”
“Hopefully,” Moon said.
She eyed him. “You don’t think so?”
“How many flights did this thing talk to? Some of them must have ignored it, but… there’s no telling how far the idea spread through the flights in the east.”
Celadon sighed. “Pessimism is one of your more annoying qualities.”
Moon wasn’t going to argue that. He added, “But at least that thing is dead and we don’t have to worry about it getting out and going on a rampage.”
“At least,” Celadon said pointedly. “I wish our ancestors had killed it when they had the chance.”
So did Moon. “They wanted to torture it more than they wanted to kill it.”
She shrugged her spines. “Sometimes it’s easy to remember that they were the Fell’s ancestors, too.”
Warrior scouts met them a day’s flight out from Opal Night, and some rode the rest of the way in on the flying boat, while others flew ahead to give the good news to the colony.
It was late afternoon when the boat glided over the ridge and into the shadow of the standing half of the split mountain-tree. The wind was a little high and gray clouds threatened rain in the distance, but Opal Night was more active than Moon had ever seen it before. The Arbora were out on the landing platform, climbing up the branches of the fallen half of the mountain-tree. There were so many warriors in the air, the boat could barely navigate through them.
As the boat drew closer, Moon spotted Delin, surrounded by the other members of his crew. They stood on the landing platform with some of the older Arbora, all waving wildly. Moon shifted to his winged form, leapt the railing, and glided down to land beside them.
Delin threw his arms wide in greeting. “You live! I am so pleased!”