“Yes,” Shade said. “And right before your warriors arrived, we had a shared dream, just like the one described in Jade’s letter. Except the Fell weren’t at Opal Night, they were coming from the east, attacking all the courts on this side of the Reaches.”
Ember stopped, turning to stare at him. “Really?”
Shade nodded. His brow creased in worry, and his oddly pale skin was flushed. Their gazes met for a long moment. Ember felt a chill wind its way up his spine. He was suddenly glad Malachite had come here. He said, “We haven’t heard from our other allies yet, but . . .”
“We can’t be the only courts this has happened to,” Shade said. “There must be others. Lithe—she’s the mentor with us—said the visions might be spreading slowly, because the other courts aren’t as close to what’s happening as we are.”
Ember turned and started up the stairs again, considering it. “Lithe needs to talk to Heart, and our other mentors.” As they walked, he told Shade about the Kishan flying boat and what Delin had said, which carried them up to the consorts’ level and to the now carefully arranged seating area outside his bower, and through the first cup of tea. Having something substantive to talk about made the whole situation less awkward. After the second cup, Shade paused as if to gather his courage, and asked, “Did Pearl not want to let us in?”
“Pearl . . .” Ember tried to think of a way to explain it. Pearl was always gentle with him, though with the rest of the court she had good days and bad days. He didn’t think she had ever really recovered from her consort Rain’s premature death, and it had seemed to make a lot of things hard for her. “Pearl often thinks things are difficult, and you have to show her that they really aren’t.”
Shade seemed to understand. “So you made the decision to let us in for her. Is she going to mind?”
“No,” Ember confessed. “If I handle it right, she’ll think it was her idea, sort of.” It was hard to explain. Pearl could make decisions all day when lives were at stake; it was only when they weren’t that she had trouble. This complicated question of etiquette and the future of part-Fell Raksura in the Reaches was absolutely the kind of decision she hated. But now that it was made, he thought Pearl would find it much easier to go along on the path Ember had nudged her toward.
By the time Floret came down the passage, Shade seemed at ease and Ember was certain he had made the right decision. It was a relief to have another consort to talk all this over with.
Floret said, “Ember, Pearl wants you to come to the queens’ hall now.” She smiled at Shade, and Ember remembered they had actually met before, that she was one of the warriors who had been at Opal Night with Jade and Moon. “Malachite’s there too.”
“How is it—Are they—?” Shade tried to ask.
“It’s going pretty well,” Floret assured him. “Much better than before.”
Ember led the way to the steps down to the passage that led through to the queens’ hall, and he and Shade made what Ember considered to be a very decorous and correct entrance. Ember liked and admired Moon a great deal, but he wasn’t very good at entrances. He entered formal meetings looking either like a captive dragged there against his will or like he was coming to murder someone.
Pearl and Malachite were now seated, facing each other over the court’s best blue glazed tea set, a few warriors arrayed around them. Malachite had the mentor Lithe with her, and someone had had the forethought to summon Heart and Bone to sit with Pearl. Arbora tended to be a calming presence anyway, and Bone disliked conflict almost as much as Pearl, but he was much better at defusing it.
As Ember and Shade took seats on the cushions left for them, and the introductions were made, Ember had a chance to get a close look at Malachite.
She was bigger than Pearl, clearly more physically powerful, and her scales were a green so dark it was almost black. There was light gray scarring across her scales, concealing what should be the second color of her webbing. Her only jewelry was silver and crystal sheaths on her claws. Ember thought she looked like a very fine ceramic bowl that had been broken and repaired with silver in the cracks, to make it stronger.
Continuing the conversation, Pearl said to Malachite, “Staying the night would be more sensible. It’s almost twilight and you’ll have to stop and camp anyway.”
As opaque as the queen carved into the wall above Pearl’s head, Malachite said, “Perhaps you’re right.”
It was ridiculous to embark on another long flight now when you had the chance to leave rested and fed in the morning. Malachite and Pearl both knew that; they were just doing an elaborate dance of politeness and respect.
Malachite twitched one spine. It wasn’t a nervous gesture, but Ember couldn’t read it. He could see Heart and some of the warriors betraying little twitches of anxiety. Ember understood; Malachite was by far the most intimidating queen he had ever seen, and at close range the effect was even more daunting. He had no trouble believing she was Moon’s birthqueen. She said, “And it will give me the chance to see the new royal clutch.”
Pearl tilted her head slightly, obviously trying to think of a way to deny or postpone this perfectly reasonable request. Ember sighed. Maybe it wasn’t so much of a dance as it was a fight. Finally Pearl said, grudgingly, “Of course.”
Then Bone intervened with, “Do you plan to try to join the Golden Islanders? Niran and Diar are Delin’s descendants, and I think they would welcome you.”
Malachite turned her attention to him. One of the others might have quailed a little under that intense regard, but Bone weathered it without a twitch. It was impossible to tell if Malachite was aware of the effect of her presence. She said, “It’s the best solution. The map shows a route from island to island, presumably the way the Fell managed it, but going directly will be faster.”
Ember looked at Shade, startled. The mention of the Fell was a reminder of how dangerous this trip would be. “Surely you’re not going—Are you returning to your court after this? Or you could stay here until Malachite returns.”
Ember knew Pearl would have words with him for issuing the invitation without speaking to her first, but half-Fell or not, Shade was a consort, a young inexperienced one, as unlike Moon as Ember was, and he should not be taken into such a situation.
Malachite’s attention fell on Ember. His skin twitched involuntarily, his mouth went dry, and he dropped his gaze to the teapot. Then she said, “Shade, it’s your decision.”
Shade seemed pleased by the invitation, but he said, “No, thank you, I have to go. It’s something I have to make myself do.”
Malachite tilted her head back toward Pearl. “The augury suggests that none of us have a choice in this.”
“That has not escaped me,” Pearl said, dryly, her spines conveying disgruntled resignation. “Now I assume your mentor will wish to consult with ours about the possibility of Fell attack.”
Malachite set her tea cup aside, her claws clinking on the delicate ceramic. “First I want to speak of precautions.”
Pearl’s spines tilted suspiciously. “What sort of precautions?”
Malachite said, “I have two hundred warriors I can spare for the defense of the Reaches. I’d like to bring them here.”
The flying boat traveled over open sea for the next stretch of days, passing only the occasional uninhabited island, and only a few flying island fragments. Callumkal had explained that the winds tended to blow them inland.
Moon passed the time by teaching the warriors how to fish on the wing. Then they came within sight of a set of sandbars where the skeleton of a sea creature so large it could have eaten the flying boat whole lay scattered. The water was clear and shallow enough that they saw the ribs and vertebrae and jaw hinge on the sea floor. It made Moon think of the giant waterlings of the freshwater sea. A small group of sealings played among the bones and paused to watch the flying boat pass overhead with no alarm.