He shoved Ceilinel away at the last instant so he wouldn’t crush her, then the ground slammed into him. Everything went dark.
He came to with a gasp, lying at the edge of a fountain. He could feel the damp cool stone through his clothes, on his groundlng skin, and realized he had shifted in the instant of unconsciousness.
Moon rolled over. The haze of rock dust hung in the air and chunks of a supporting arch lay scattered around them. Ceilinel stood beside him, bleeding from a scrape on her cheek, a sleeve of her robe torn. Five Hians confronted her, all armed with fire weapons. Ceilinel was saying urgently, “Avinan, you know me, you know whatever caused you to do this, it can be resolved—”
“We’re not interested in resolution,” Avinan said. She wasn’t looking at Moon, but her fire weapon pointed in his direction.
“It’s too late!” Ceilinel snapped. “I know what your plan is, I’ve told my retainers and they’ve gone to alert the conclave. You can kill us, kill yourselves for all I care, and it will be for nothing.”
Avinan said, “It’s not a very clever lie.” She took one hand off the fire weapon to gesture to someone on the balcony above. “Viniat, bury these creatures!”
Moon hunched his shoulders in reflex. Ceilinel stood there, her fists knotted in fury. But nothing happened.
Then Moon caught a scent. It was anxious sealing mixed with familiar Raksura, and the coppery hint of fresh blood that wasn’t his. He must have made a noise in his throat because Ceilinel glanced down at him, bewildered. Moon reached up and took her wrist. Someone had just opened Viniat’s throat up there on the balcony, but they weren’t out of this yet.
The other Hians kept their fire weapons trained on Moon and Ceilinel, but Avinan turned to look up at the balcony. “Viniat, what—”
The change in the air and the scrape of claws on tile were the only warning. Moon yanked Ceilinel down on top of him and rolled them both into the pool. He heard fire weapon disks strike the water. Then something huge and dark slammed into the Hians. Moon lifted his head to see one Hian still on her feet lift her weapon—Then Jade slung herself down off the stairs. The Hian collapsed in a heap. Jade had ripped away one of her arms and half her shoulder along with the weapon.
The other Hians had been flattened under Stone’s huge scaled body. Moon rolled off Ceilinel. She sat up, sputtering and coughing, just in time to see Stone shift back to groundling. She froze in astonishment.
Stone glanced around at the sprawled Hians. He still wore the dryland wrap over his clothes and Niran’s scarf tied loosely around his neck. He kicked a fire weapon away from one limp outstretched arm. “Any reason we need them alive?”
“Yes,” Moon croaked, and dragged himself to the edge of the fountain. He waved back at Ceilinel, who was shakily climbing to her feet. “She needs witnesses for the—”
Jade caught his arms and dragged him out of the pool. She snarled, “You’re hurt!”
“I know,” he told her. “I was afraid you were all dead.”
“I thought you were dead.” Jade’s spines flared in rage.
Moon went limp so she had to catch him and clutch him to her chest. This would keep her from killing anybody until he had a chance to tell her what was happening. He grabbed her collar flanges just to make sure she couldn’t put him down. “Did the others get out? Chime and Shade and—”
“The others are fine.” Jade stared down at him, her expression impossible to read, at least in Moon’s current state.
Rorra ran down the steps, a small fire weapon cradled in her arms. She stopped where she could watch the door and guard Stone’s back. “If we’re going, we need to get out of here.”
“We’re not going,” Moon said, because he had seen who was following Rorra. It was Kalam, who was going to be much better at telling their story to Ceilinel than Moon had been. “Where’s Callumkal?”
“In Kedmar,” Kalam said, hurrying down the steps. “Niran and Diar took him there, and we came here to look for you.” He looked from Moon to Ceilinel, who was stepping out of the fountain, her hair and robes dripping onto the tiles. “Are you all right? Who is this?”
Moon said, “This is Ceilinel, a speaker for the conclave of something. Ceilinel, this is Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court, Stone, our line-grandfather, Captain Rorra, and Kalam, Callumkal’s son.”
Ceilinel nodded, looking around at them all and settling on Jade as the leader. “Thank you for your timely arrival.”
Jade eyed her over Moon’s head. In Kedaic, she said, “Was she the one holding you prisoner?”
Moon tightened his hold on her. “I was nearly dead. She brought healers here for me.” Jade’s gaze jerked down to him. The cold fury didn’t leave her expression, but at least she was listening to him. He switched to Raksuran to say, “She had a Kishan magic to keep me from shifting. She destroyed it when the Hians came so we could get away.” He added, “Don’t kill her.”
Jade’s gaze went to Ceilinel again. It was a predator’s gaze, thoughtful and implacable. Moon wasn’t sure if Ceilinel knew how much danger she was in, but she said, “I think this can be resolved easily now, if you’ll remain here and speak to the conclave with me. The meeting will be soon, when a Jandera craft arrives from Kedmar. You could be on your way by morning, and the Hians’ lies would be exposed to all of Imperial Kish.”
Stone looked at Rorra, who glanced at Kalam. Kalam turned hopefully to Jade. Jade’s spines shivered with the effort of control, and she said, “No magics to prevent us from shifting. If you try to use one on any of us, I’ll know it. I don’t need to shift to kill you.”
Rorra added, “And Kalam and I keep our weapons.”
Ceilinel jerked her head in acknowledgment. “Agreed.”
Moon was impressed with Ceilinel. She dealt with the arrival of what seemed a large number of frantic and angry people who had noticed the archives were under attack, directed the armed Kishan to take the Hians away, calmed her scattered retainers, threw on dry clothes while waiting for a healer for Moon, and got them all on the way to the meeting. Though Stone had driven off the healer and taken his bag of supplies, no one had objected.
The method of transport was an odd little moss-driven craft about the size of a couple of large wagons set end to end. It was lined with cushioned benches and chairs, and the outer walls were mostly large latticed windows, letting in the cool night breeze. Lights at either end lit its way, but instead of flying, it moved along a narrow bridge that wound through the city. There were apparently a lot of the things, but this one had been reserved for Ceilinel’s use tonight. Vata stood in the front, guiding it with a steering lever.
Moon sat on one of the cushion-stuffed chairs while Stone bandaged the parts of him that were still bleeding. Jade, Kalam, and Rorra were up in the front of the craft with Ceilinel, and right now Rorra was the one doing the talking. Jade had shifted to her Arbora form, since it looked less threatening and the lack of wings made it hard to identify her as a Raksura, or willfully mistake her for Fell. She kept glancing back at Moon, and he thought there was more to it than just normal concern for him.
He asked Stone, “What’s wrong? Is somebody dead?” Jade had said everyone had made it out, but not what had happened to them afterward.
“You were dead,” Stone said with a grimace. He poked through the bag of healing supplies and pulled out another clean cloth.
“Right, but I’m not anymore.” Moon lowered his voice, even though he was speaking Raksuran. “What about our kethel?”
“That’s how we knew where to look for you. I found him in the ruin, and he’d seen the Kish take you away. He was gone the next morning. I’m guessing he headed to the Reaches to find the Fell queen.”
That was a relief. At least Moon hadn’t gotten him killed. “Do we know what’s happening in the Reaches? Have the mentors gotten any visions?”
“Not before we left the wind-ship.” Stone sat back on his heels, eyeing Moon critically. It was reassuring, because what might b
e going on in the Reaches was clearly a less fraught topic.
They were passing over a narrow valley or gorge filled with trees, lights glinting here and there under the canopies indicating houses and pathways. The sound of water flowing over rocks and the scent of a clean river rose up from it. The valley bisected this section of the city, domes and other structures rising up to either side. Moon asked, “If the wind-ship went to Kedmar, how did you get here?” The Kish protections against Fell would make traveling across it equally dangerous for Raksura. It was why Moon had never ventured much past the borders and outer trade routes.
“Flew at night, hid during the day, circled around any settlements.” Stone squinted into the distance. “We got here four nights ago, maybe. It feels like longer.”
Making their way through a strange, enormous, crowded groundling city, with Stone in his groundling form and Jade in her Arbora form, where even Rorra and Kalam must have been off balance. Moon didn’t have to imagine how unnerving that had been. “Where are the others?” He hoped they were hiding somewhere outside the city; it would give them less scope for finding trouble.
“Jade sent Balm and three warriors to the Reaches, to tell the queens what happened. The rest are with the wind-ship. Niran and Diar are trying to get help from the Jandera in Kedmar.” Stone looked at Jade, a line between his brows. “Chime wanted to come, but Jade wouldn’t let him. They all wanted to come.”
That made sense, but Moon wasn’t sure why Jade hadn’t brought Chime. His erratic ability to sense groundling magic might have come in handy, and he was good around groundlings. “I was mostly unconscious until yesterday. You caught my scent?”
“Finally.” Stone rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I picked it up in the morning, and followed it until I was sure which dome it was coming from, then sent Kalam to our meeting place to get Jade and Rorra.”
“I wish the wind-ship was here. Having Delin would help with this speakers assembly.” Moon was still worried about having to tell their story to a bunch of disbelieving groundlings.
Stone made a noncommittal noise. “Whatever happens, we’re leaving.”
Moon had been expecting something impressive, but the bridge curved toward a dome that dwarfed all the others they had seen. It was at least as big as the Indigo Cloud colony tree’s canopy, though not nearly so tall. There were so many lights around it might as well have been daylight, illuminating the giant carvings of dozens of different species, climbing over, or maybe building, the walls of a city. Two openings big enough to guide flying boats through pierced the dome, with bridges and walkways leading to doors lower down. Even one of the water bridges for boats led to it, ending in a large pool on stilts with docks. Moon craned his neck to look down and saw multiple roads ended at the dome, that there was a plaza surrounded by smaller structures and trees down there.
Their craft rolled along its bridge directly into one of the big openings. Moon stood as it slowed and slid to a stop. Stone put a hand on his arm to steady him.
Inside the dome, several small Kishan flying boats were moored around the upper part of the chamber, where a walkway allowed access to their boarding ramps. Lights on tall poles shaped like flowers lit the big expanse of the mosaic tile floor. Small spiral stairways led up to the walkways around the dome’s walls, and larger stairwells in the floor led downwards.
A number of groundlings waited near the moss wagon’s track, including Gathin. Moon spotted a group of Hians standing under a lamp, but something about them suggested they were uncomfortable and embattled. They didn’t have fire weapons, though some of the Kishan near them did.
Moon and Stone followed the others out of the wagon. Gathin hurried immediately to Ceilinel, asking, “Are you injured? When we heard—”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Come, you need to hear this.” Ceilinel drew her away a little.
Moon leaned against Stone’s shoulder and yawned. The intense relief at being with the others again left him wrung out, like he couldn’t feel anything else except exhaustion. He kept an eye on Jade, who stood a little distance away, flexing her foot claws. He said, “I just want to get out of here.”
Stone put an arm around him. “I just want to eat. You’d think with all these people, they’d sell food here.”
Gathin turned to look back at them a few times in a way that made Moon want to ripple the spines he wasn’t wearing. He wasn’t the only one who noticed. Keeping her voice low, Rorra said to Kalam, “We should insist on seeing the speakers for Jandera. We need someone to contact the others if we have to remain here and answer to the conclave.”
Kalam said, “I can’t believe it’ll come to that,” but he seemed uneasy, watching the Hians like he expected an attack.
Moon started to make plans. He didn’t think he could fly yet, but he could hold onto Stone’s collar flange, leaving Stone and Jade free to carry Rorra and Kalam.
Rorra turned and said softly to Stone, “Do you think we should try to leave?”
His gaze on the groundlings, Stone answered, “It might be a good idea.”
Rorra nodded. “Do you want to ask Jade?”
Stone shrugged. Rorra gave him an exasperated punch in the shoulder. Before Moon could ask what that was about, Ceilinel turned and came toward them, trailed by an obviously reluctant Gathin. As she approached, Jade’s spines flicked once and she said, “Well?”
Ceilinel didn’t flinch under Jade’s steady regard. She said, “I’ve been informed of the reason the conclave wanted to summon your consort here. They have had a report of a movement of Fell along the eastern border of Kish.”
It wasn’t what Moon had expected to hear. Maybe the half-Fell queen had been wrong, and the Fell hadn’t headed toward the Reaches, but toward Kish instead. But that didn’t make any sense. It was the Raksura they blamed for the death of the flight that had followed Callumkal’s expedition to the sel-Selatra. Stone muttered, “Huh.” Rorra and Kalam exchanged a startled look, and Rorra reached into her jacket to pull out a folded fabric map.
Jade was the only one who didn’t react, at least in any visible way. “That isn’t our concern.”
Still calm, Ceilinel said, “It appears they’ve been driven there by Raksura.”
Jade’s brow furrowed in confusion. It didn’t make her look any less intimidating. “What do you mean?”
Ceilinel said, “A Kish-Nakatel border patrol craft sighted a Fell attack on a small settlement. They approached to give assistance but saw what at first appeared to be a group of brightly colored Fell driving the flight away.” She glanced at Moon and the others. They were all staring blankly at her. At least, Moon knew he was staring blankly at her. “These brightly colored Fell harried the flight directly past the patrol craft and continued southeast. I’m told there are other reports of this group, or similar groups, attempting to drive the Fell toward the Kish border.”
“Brightly colored Fell,” Jade repeated, her voice flat. Moon recognized it as a determined attempt not to react. At least it meant the foundation builder weapon’s influence hadn’t gotten as far as the Reaches, if Raksura were chasing Fell this far south. He hoped that was what it meant.
Ceilinel turned one hand palm up. “Obviously, once the reports arrived at Kish-Karad, our scholars of winged predators determined these were more likely to be Raksura.”
Gathin said, “Why are Raksura sending the Fell to Kish?”
Rorra blinked and muttered, “Is that person serious?” Moon hissed under his breath. He hated Gathin. He understood the questioning thing as a way to get to the facts and provoke people to speak, but he hated it and it was the absolute worst way to approach a Raksuran queen who was already angry.
Jade’s head tilted dangerously. Before it got any worse, Kalam said in exasperation, “The Raksura didn’t bring the Fell. The Raksura must know about the border defenses in that region. They’re driving the Fell into the fire weapon emplacements.”
Gathin turned toward him. “How do Raksura know of our border defenses??
??
Kalam folded his arms. “I’ve never heard anything about it being a secret.”
She eyed him. “Perhaps not in Jandera.”
Rorra’s brow quirked. “You know the weapon emplacements are in the open along the trade roads. Anyone can see them.”
Especially if you made sure your warriors engaged a Kishan flying boat crew in conversation about those weapon emplacements and how they worked, just in case you ever needed that information, Moon thought. He was betting these Raksura had gotten the idea from Malachite. Then he wondered, Could it actually be Malachite?
“That aside,” Ceilinel said, frowning at Gathin. She turned back to Jade. “We would like to ask for your help. You are a queen, you have a consort with you, we understand that that makes you a diplomatic envoy, for Raksura. If you could speak to the Raksura at the border—”
“Most of whom we may be related to,” Stone said under his breath, fortunately in Raksuran.
The more Moon thought about it, the more likely it sounded. It didn’t explain what the Raksura might be doing, but hopefully it meant Indigo Cloud and the colonies in the eastern Reaches were safe.
Jade still didn’t betray any reaction. “What about the Hians?”
“They won’t trouble you,” Ceilinel said. She glanced at the group across the chamber floor. “A Hian faction, separatist or not, attacked a conclave speaker and a public archive, there is no explanation they can give that makes it your doing.”
“What about our explanation?” Jade said. “Do your people believe us?”
Ceilinel looked expectantly at Gathin. Gathin said, “They will by the time you return.”
One of Jade’s spines flicked. “Give me a moment.”
Ceilinel nodded and withdrew, pulling Gathin along with her. Jade waited until they had returned to the group of watching groundlings, then turned around and hissed. Keeping her voice low, she said, “It will be easier to escape from the border.”