“I don’t, because it’s a bad plan,” Stone said. Then he shrugged in resignation. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t think we should do it. She’s right; the court has to know how the Fell found out about the crossbreeds. We’re not going to be able to get Malachite to let you have Moon until this is all settled.” He gave Moon a grim glare. “You haven’t helped with that at all.”
That part at least was not Moon’s fault. “I’ve been busy almost dying,” he pointed out.
Lithe sat up, hope in her expression. “Then you’ll help me?”
Jade’s spines flicked in annoyance at all of them. She turned to Moon. “You and Celadon already tried to warn the groundling city and they didn’t listen, even when they saw they had a Fell in their midst.”
“But Delin said he would try to talk to them. If they don’t listen to him… Then they’re on their own.” Moon rubbed his face. “I just want to try one more time.”
Jade pressed her lips together, clearly not happy. “Is this about Saraseil?”
He glared at her. “Of course it’s about Saraseil. It’s about every groundling settlement that was ever attacked by Fell.”
Jade growled under her breath, but said, “And how am I going to talk your birthqueen who hates me into this?”
“I’ll take care of that part,” Moon told her.
Malachite had already refused to speak to Moon about any of this until tomorrow, so he spent the rest of the day trying to shake off the last effects of the poison. This involved mostly sleeping, drinking water and tea, eating small quantities of fruit and bread to make sure his insides could handle it, and being poked at by various mentors.
At Moon’s insistence, Jade brought Delin back to the consorts’ hall so Moon could talk to him about the Aventerans. They met up in Moon’s bower for privacy.
Delin had brought his book of notes and sketches and added to it as he sat beside the hearth and listened to Jade describe Lithe’s plan. The idea so far was to take Delin’s flying boat to the city so he could speak to the Aventerans about the Fell. Then on the way back, Lithe and the other Raksura would stop at a flying island to camp for the night while the boat returned to the colony. Hopefully the Fell would take the chance offered to try to capture Lithe. But Stone, Malachite, and a number of warriors would already be concealed nearby. That was the plan, if they could get all the people involved to cooperate.
There had been some discussion of whether they should try to set the trap on the way to the city, and what would happen if the Fell attacked the ship before they reached the spot where the others would be lying in wait. It was a risk, but Stone thought that if they were likely to be attacked at all, it would be after the ship had visited the city. There hadn’t been any hint of Fell presence in the fringe of the Reaches, only on the city’s plateau and the plains beyond.
When Jade finished describing this, Delin said, “I agree, under one condition.”
Moon had been expecting this. Delin had come a long way across largely unknown territory for the chance to see the Reaches and to visit Raksuran colonies. He would have been shocked if the old man had shown any sign of turning back now. Jade nodded, and said, “You want to be paid? We can give you more pearls.”
Delin gave her a look that combined amusement and pity. “My family are traders and explorers; I am a scholar. My payment is to be allowed to stay at your temporary camp and see the Fell with my own eyes, and to watch your interrogation of the ruler.”
Yes, that was what Moon had thought. He said, “You want to end up like what’s-his-name who visited the Ghobin?”
Delin snorted. “You mean Venar-Inram-Alil, who was a very famous scholar of predatory species.”
“From what you said, he’s a very famous dead scholar of predatory species.”
“He was not accompanied by Raksura,” Delin countered. “But this is not a risk I would ask the rest of my young crew to take. Or allow them to take, even if they asked. I would stipulate that the crew remain here under the care of this court. And that if I do not return and the ship cannot be salvaged, that a message be carried to our family on the Golden Isles, so a new ship can be sent to retrieve them.”
The scales above Jade’s brow furrowed. Possibly she was doing the same as Moon, and envisioning an outcome where this went so wrong that Delin ended up dead and his flying boat destroyed. She said, “I agree that the other groundlings on your boat should be left behind, if you stay with us to bait the trap… But I wish you wouldn’t stay with us.”
“I’m an old man,” Delin said seriously. “I cannot allow these chances to understand more of our worlds pass me by.”
Jade tried, but Delin wouldn’t change his mind. Moon gave up, told him he could stay to draw the carvings in the consorts’ bowers and hall, and curled up in the furs to go back to sleep.
Moon woke sometime later, clear-headed and ravenously hungry. He threw back the blanket that covered his head and sat up, rubbing bleary eyes. “I need to eat.”
Chime said, “Uh, there’s someone here who wants to see you.”
Moon looked up. Shade sat on a cushion near the doorway, while Chime sat near the bowl hearth and watched him nervously. No one else was in the room, and their attitudes seemed very awkward. It dawned on Moon that Chime might not have trouble with Lithe, who looked like any other young Arbora, but that Shade’s pale skin was just too close to how a Fell ruler appeared in groundling form. Moon said, “Chime, go ask them to bring me something to eat. A grasseater.”
Chime glanced at him, worried. “Are you sure?”
Moon hissed. He was starving. “Yes, go.”
Chime reluctantly got to his feet. “You want me to get Stone first?”
“Not unless he has a grasseater.”
Clearly still unhappy, Chime stepped out of the bower. From scent and sound, Moon and Shade were the only ones here. The mentors had eased off their vigilance in the late afternoon, when it had become clear that Moon was improving at the right pace. Jade had left to go to the flying boat at sunset, it having been made clear to her through a fairly diplomatic Celadon that staying overnight in Moon’s bower would occasion a violent reaction on Malachite’s part. Moon had no idea where Stone was.
Shade asked, “Are you all right?” He looked uneasy. “They told me what happened. I wanted to see you last night but they said it wasn’t a good idea.”
“I’m fine.” Moon ran his hands through his hair and scratched his scalp vigorously. He felt better now than he had all day, except for being about to starve to death. “If you’d come last night, I wouldn’t have known you were here.”
Shade nodded, then carefully broached the uncomfortable topic everyone who came to the bower wanted to talk about. “About Russet… I don’t understand how something like that could happen.”
Moon started to speak, hesitated, then decided there was no point in withholding it. He said, “The Fell made her do things she couldn’t live with, so she didn’t. She became a different person.”
Shade took that in silently. After a moment, he said, “Your warrior was afraid of me.”
“The Fell crossbreeds he’s seen weren’t like you.”
Shade lifted his shoulders as if shaking something off his back. “I think of it, sometimes. What I’d be like if Malachite hadn’t rescued us. It’s not just that they live so differently. No stories, no books, no carving, no drawings. The mentors say the Fell don’t feel things like we do. I feel things all the time. I feel a lot of things. I just don’t…” The words came out in an impulsive burst, as if he had held them back for a long time. “I don’t see how I could be part of that. I know I am, I mean, I know it’s not some mistake and I’m just a funny-looking Raksura, but…”