“Well, that’s good.” Jade’s tail moved restlessly, betraying her nerves.
“How are Frost and Thorn and Bitter?” Moon asked, because he wanted to know and it was a less fraught subject. “Did Frost make trouble?” The last time Moon had left for any length of time, Frost had kept the nurseries in chaos with dire predictions.
Jade said, “She did at first, but I told her that another queen had stolen you and I was going to fight her for you, and she was happy with that. Thorn and Bitter seemed to be withholding their approval until I actually brought you back.” She added, “Your birthqueen hasn’t met with me yet, but your clutchmate seems reasonable. Have they tried to make you accept another queen?”
“No.” Moon absently scratched the back of his head, still trying to get his mind around the fact that Jade had come up with an elaborate plan to rescue him. “I don’t think they’ve thought that far ahead. They just keep saying they wanted to see me.”
“What a strange thing to say.” Jade mocked him gently.
Moon heard someone rustle outside in the hall, and remembered they didn’t have much time. “I need to tell you what’s going on here.”
She frowned. “That sounds ominous.”
“It is.”
They sat down on the furs, and he told her about the crossbreeds, the Fell, and what the ruler in Aventera had said.
Jade listened with growing consternation. “I can’t believe your birthqueen kept the crossbreeds. I can’t believe she managed to get the court to accept them. She must be… very strong-willed.”
Moon agreed. “That’s one word for it.”
“But if the Fell can hear them…”
“If they can, I don’t think it’s on purpose.” Jade gave him a look, and he said, “I know, but…” He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. “I don’t know. The point is, we have to stop the Fell here. If they take Aventera, they’ll head into the Reaches.”
“Yes, but I can’t bring the court into this. There’s just not enough of us to fight off another Fell flight, even if we’re acting in concert with another court. We can’t afford to lose more warriors. We’re barely large enough to survive as it is.” She made an annoyed gesture. “Please don’t repeat that to your clutchmate or your birthqueen. I’m going to have trouble enough getting you back without them thinking they’re sending you off to starve.”
He hissed in annoyance. “Of course I won’t repeat that. And the court won’t starve. I can bring in enough game to feed a lot of Raksura.” And Ember can’t, he didn’t add. He didn’t want to mention Ember, since Jade hadn’t, but the other consort’s presence in Indigo Cloud was hanging on him like a weight. There was something else he had to mention, though. “So you still want me back, even though I have half-Fell relatives?”
“It’s not your half, that’s all that matters.” Distracted, Jade tapped her claws on the wooden floor. “I have an idea.”
That was a relief. “What?”
She hesitated. “I’d better save it for the meeting with your birthqueen.”
Before he could press her to tell him, Balm stepped into the doorway and cleared her throat. She said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there’s a warrior here who says if you want to speak further to Onyx, you need to go now.”
Jade’s spines twitched in annoyance. She told Moon, “Better warn Delin about the Fell.”
Moon agreed, still reluctant, and Jade and Balm left to return to the awkward meeting with Onyx. Moon wondered if Celadon would help Jade or argue against her, or just stay neutral. He still wasn’t sure how Celadon felt toward him, or how he felt toward her.
As soon as the queens had gone, Russet and a few other Arbora came in. Russet said, “Would you like something to eat? Or perhaps to rest?”
Moon was beginning to share Stone’s opinion of interfering Arbora. He said, “No,” and walked out before they could argue with him.
Moon returned to the colony’s main entrance. The flying boat still had an audience, the Arbora sitting on the rocks below it and the warriors clinging to the crags of the ridge or lying on the broad branches of the slanted mountain-tree. Ignoring them, Moon shifted and reached the ship’s rail with a couple of bounds.
Chime and the others were still out on deck, and now Delin was with them. As Moon landed and shifted back to his groundling form, Delin came forward eagerly. “So you are well! When we arrived at Indigo Cloud and heard you had been carried off, we were very worried.”
Delin was elderly but had all the determination and stubbornness of his grandson Niran, and that was saying something. His hair, beard, and mustache were silky white, a contrast against gold skin weathered by many long voyages on his family’s wind-ships. He had a pad of paper tucked under one arm, with a half-completed sketch of Opal Night’s split mountain-tree and the wall and valley. “I’m glad you’re here,” Moon said, and was a little surprised to discover how much he meant it. It would be a relief to have someone around who understood about Raksura but wasn’t one. “Can we talk somewhere?” Delin also knew a great deal about the Fell from an Islander scholar who had made a study of predators. That particular scholar hadn’t survived his obsession with various groundling-eating species, but he had passed along a lot of his knowledge before he died.
Delin eyed him sharply, then motioned for him to follow. “This way.”
As Delin led them across the deck, Chime asked anxiously, “Did you see Jade? What did—Uh, I mean, how did—”
“It’s fine.” Moon hoped that was enough of an answer for now. “She’s trying to talk to them about getting me back.” He had to add, “So the plan to steal me is off for now.”
Chime twitched, embarrassed. “Oh, she told you about that.”
“It was a good plan,” Song said from behind them. “It’s almost a shame to give it up.”
Delin took them down the hatch near the deck’s steering cabin, into the ship’s hold. There were multiple chambers down here, and cargo space for storing water jars and food. They went from the passage into a long room the ship’s crew used for eating. There was a low table down the center with stools, and in an attached cubby was a small metal cooking stove carefully insulated from the wooden floor and walls with thin sheets of slate.
Delin chased out two women who were talking at the table and a man who was chopping up root vegetables, then gestured for the Raksura to sit. In Raksuran, he said to Moon, “I have been learning your language, somewhat.” His accent was terrible, but he managed to make the words understandable; Moon was impressed. “But if it is a complicated subject, we should perhaps speak in Altanic.”
“Wait,” Chime said. He jerked his head significantly toward Root. “Is it private? You know what he’s like.”
Root hissed at Chime. “I won’t tell anyone.” He turned to Moon in appeal. “Don’t make me leave! We’ve been wondering what happened to you, and if you were all right, and—”
“Root, you can stay.” The problem was that Chime was right; Root did have a tendency to blurt out whatever was on the top of his mind. And he also had a tendency to say things that were true but that no one particularly wanted said aloud. “Just don’t say anything in front of anyone from Opal Night. I don’t want them to know I told you.”
Root nodded, solemn and serious. “I won’t.”
Song pressed Root’s hand. “Just don’t say anything.”
Moon turned to Delin. “There’s a part of this story that other Raksuran courts can’t know. Will you promise not to tell anyone about it?”
Delin considered this seriously. “What I learn I put into my books. But they are written in the old language of the Golden Isles, and not a trade language. If it is nothing that directly affects my people, I will give my bond not to speak of it to any Raksura, excepting yourselves.”