Jade tilted her spines in a negative. “Just stay where you are.”
The warriors looked at each other uncertainly, and Song crept back a discreet distance from Moon and Stone. Jade had told all the warriors except Chime to stay in their winged forms, though Moon, Heart, and Stone were in their groundling forms. Except for Stone, who didn’t make an effort for anybody, they had dressed like they would to greet another court, in their better clothes and jewelry. Moon was wearing pants and a shirt of a dark silky material, with a red patterned sash Rill had made for him, and his consort’s bracelet and the anklet that Jade had given him when the clutch was born. He should be wearing a lot more jewelry, but the groundlings wouldn’t know that. Well, Delin would, but he didn’t care.
Stone sighed. Jade glanced at him, brows lifted. “What?”
Stone said, “Nothing, that was me breathing. Why don’t you sit down?”
Jade bared her teeth at him but at least moved to stand near Moon.
The ship drifted to a halt about a hundred paces away from the platform. Groundlings of different sizes moved on the deck, then four lifted off into the air. Moon could see one was Callumkal, and that another groundling carried Delin. Again, it made his skin itch watching it. He had carried plenty of Arbora and groundlings, but seeing someone who was not a natural flyer do it was nerve-racking. He said, “If that one drops Delin—”
“I’ll catch him,” Vine said, reassuringly confident. Spines signaling alert attention, he watched Delin and the groundling who carried him. “I’m sure I can get him before he hits the mist.”
The packs that held the spell or device that allowed the groundlings to fly were bulky affairs, constructed of a rough brown material and attached to their wearers with harnesses. It explained the harness that Callumkal had worn under his clothing. The groundlings must rely on the packs a great deal if they wore the harnesses all the time. Moon didn’t know why that bothered him. Did they lack confidence in their flying boat?
The groundlings reached the platform without anybody plunging to their death and landed at the edge. Moon saw Delin had actually been in a harness too, an extra one that attached to the side of the flying pack-wearer. That was something of a relief, but it still looked like a risky method. One of the groundlings stayed near the edge of the platform, while Delin and the other three came forward.
Callumkal was in the lead, and the groundling beside him was shorter and slighter but otherwise looked almost identical to him, with the same tightly curled hair and pebbly dark skin. His open jacket and pants were of the same rich materials in browns and golds. The third groundling was a different species, wide and muscular, and had silvery gray skin that was studded with round and oblong patches of a rougher hide that looked almost like craggy rock. These patches stretched up its long legs and arms, up to its neck and face. Its skull was covered with one large patch like a helmet. Moon couldn’t tell if the patches were part of the groundling’s body or were an armor that had somehow been attached directly to its skin. Though if it was, it seemed inefficient to leave bare patches in between. The groundling’s eyes were wide and silver gray, and its nose was just a faint indentation above its mouth. It wore a light tunic and kilt of a soft material that seemed very at odds with the partially armored hide, and had a bag slung over its shoulder.
Before anyone else could speak, Delin stepped forward and said, “This is Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court.” He performed all the introductions, naming Moon, Stone, Heart, and all the warriors. He finished, “And this is Callumkal, Master Scholar of the Conclave of the Janderan.” He gestured toward the smaller version of Callumkal. “His offspring, Kalam.” He nodded to the silver armored person. “And Vendoin, she is Scholar of the Hia Iserae.”
Jade jerked her chin toward the groundling who had hung back on the edge of the platform. Delin had been speaking Altanic, and Jade used the same language as she said, “Tell your companion she won’t need that weapon.”
“Ah.” Delin turned to look, smiling a little. “That is Captain Rorra.”
Captain Rorra was female, very slender, with pale green skin and thick gray hair braided tightly back from her face. There was something about her tall body and the proportions of her arms and legs that made her look a little like the groundlings of Aventera. Her clothes were practical, pants and a shirt of some tough dark brown fabric, with belts and a strap across one shoulder to hold various items, and she wore heavy boots instead of sandals like the others. An oblong canister with a tube running along the top was cradled in her arms. It had a trigger, and the tube looked not unlike the Aventeran projectile weapons Moon had seen, and Delin’s device that was used to fire signal lights. He knew such weapons were more common in Kish. They shot a tiny projectile, coated with a substance that caused a stream of fire to shoot out of the weapon to strike whatever the projectile landed on. They were one of the reasons the Fell tended to avoid Kishan territories.
Delin added pointedly to Callumkal, “Captain Rorra should come and sit with us. She may have insights.”
“Captain Rorra prefers to keep her distance,” Callumkal said, with some irony in his voice. Moon got the impression that it had been decided ahead of time that Rorra would stay back and watch them with her weapon, and Delin clearly knew that and wanted to get it out in the open.
“Is she so afraid of us?” Jade asked.
Next to Moon, Stone breathed out, a near-silent hiss of annoyance. Moon didn’t know why Jade was pushing this, but he thought it had the potential to disrupt everything before the meeting even got started. If Rorra fired her weapon, she could only get one of them, and the warriors waiting above would reach her before she could fire again. That was why the weapons were best used in groups, all firing at once. Rorra had to know that, and Moon didn’t think Callumkal was a fool.
Callumkal hesitated. Kalam looked up at him, waiting, and Vendoin made a gesture with one hand, possibly signaling that it was Callumkal’s decision. Callumkal said, “Very well.” He turned. “Rorra, please join us.”
It was Rorra’s turn to hesitate, but then she walked forward, picking her way through the low grass. There was something tentative about the way she walked, as if her boots were awkward on the uneven ground. As she reached Callumkal, she said nothing, and just gave Delin a grimace. This close Moon could see her pale green skin was lightly scaled, her long-fingered hands had claws, though the tips had been filed down, and there were patches of loose skin on either side of her throat. She’s a sealing, Moon thought, or at least she had been at one time. Groundlings who had sealing in their ancestry didn’t tend to have the gills. Full-blooded sealings didn’t stay out of the water for long periods, or come this far inland. He glanced down at her feet, noticing now how her boots were oddly bulky at the bottom and might be built up to account for fins. She caught him looking and frowned.
Delin said, “Now, show them the artifact.”
Callumkal gave Delin a look that suggested he didn’t appreciate being given instructions, but gestured to Vendoin. She pulled the bag off her shoulder and carefully drew out something wrapped in coarse cloth. She knelt and unwrapped it, then tilted it up to show them. It was a cracked stone tile, stained and weathered, with a forerunner carved on it, clearly the original of Delin’s drawing.
Jade’s spines moved in reaction, and she nodded grimly to Delin. “I see.”
Vendoin glanced around, making sure everyone had gotten a look, then began to wrap it up again.
Callumkal said, “As Delin must have told you, some of us believe that the city this came from belonged to the species we call foundation builders, who lived in the Kishlands in the distant past. But some believe this object means it was a city of the people Delin calls forerunners. He told us you had discovered an ancient forerunner city, and that you had some words of caution.”