“She might.” Shade leaned forward, hopeful and persuasive. “If you ask her.”
Persuading Malachite at all was going to be tricky enough without this complication. “I won’t. This is your idea. You ask her.”
Shade might have continued trying to convince him, but Chime came back with two Arbora bearing recently killed grasseater haunches, and Moon was obviously too distracted for conversation. Moon shifted to be able to eat more effectively, and tore through his weight in fresh meat.
Shade left by the time he finished, and Stone reappeared again. Chime, watching Moon settle into the blankets, said, “I talked to Auburn. He said they wouldn’t let me use their library, because I’m not a mentor. But he would have some of the younger mentors look up the stories he remembered about Arbora changing into warriors for me.”
“That’s good.” Moon wasn’t sure it was good, at least not for Chime’s peace of mind. “What do you think they’ll find?”
“Nothing important.” Chime absently carded his fingers through the fur. “I just thought I should learn all I can, and this is such an old court.” He hesitated, and Moon started to think this conversation wasn’t really what Chime wanted to talk about. Then Chime said, “So that was really your...”
“Half clutchmate,” Moon supplied. So Chime really had been uneasy around Shade.
Chime rubbed his arms, uncomfortable. “Do you trust him?”
Stone, already stretched out on the blankets on the other side of the hearth, made a disparaging noise. It was either an editorial comment on the trustworthiness of half-Fell Raksura or on Moon’s ability to trust anybody; it was hard to tell which. Moon ignored him, and told Chime, “I don’t know. I think so. But he’s just been living here. He hasn’t been put in a situation where he...” He tried to think how to put it. “Where he would need to be trusted.”
Chime didn’t look happy. He pulled a blanket around and arranged it into a nest next to Moon. “But Malachite won’t let him come along to help bait the trap, will she?”
“No. No, she won’t.” Moon felt fairly certain of that. The trouble was going to be getting her to let them do it at all.
Early the next morning, after a quick consultation with Stone to find out how to approach a queen in formal Raksuran fashion, Moon sent Chime to ask Rise to ask Malachite if she would speak to him alone in her bower. He wanted to keep the meeting private, just in case the mentors were wrong and there was someone in the court who had been Fell-influenced. He also thought meeting without the pressure of an audience would make it easier, maybe on both of them.
Rise returned with Chime with gratifying speed, and told Moon Malachite would see him. Trying to put all his nerves and unresolved anger aside, Moon followed her.
Malachite’s private bower was a little way past the queens’ hall. It was a big room with a ceiling that formed a peak, with carvings of queens arching up the walls. Like some of the others Moon had seen in Opal Night, the hearth was on a low pedestal of stone. There was a strong scent of waterfall spray in the air, and a fall of natural light indicated an opening to the central well somewhere above one of the upper level balconies. The spell-lights were made of clumps of vine, growing out of niches in the carving.
When Rise led Moon in, a few warriors sat around on the scattered cushions and furs; Malachite flicked a claw and they all scrambled to leave.
Rise waited until Moon had taken a seat on the furs across from Malachite, then she departed.
Moon took a deep breath, but before he could speak, Malachite said, “You’re wearing it.”
He knew she meant the ivory disk she had given him. It was still around his neck on a leather thong, a cool circle against his groundling skin. “It belonged to... your consort?” He couldn’t make himself say “my father” in front of her.
“Yes.” She didn’t seem to want to hear it from him anymore than he wanted to say it. “I found it—” She cut the words off.
Moon wasn’t sure what prompted him, but he said, “You can tell me.”
She rippled her spines, in a way he couldn’t interpret, but she said, “The progenitor had it.” She tilted her head to look at him, her gaze sharp and direct. “The others don’t know. You may tell Celadon, if you wish. But not Shade.” She added, “I gutted her, so she could watch me kill her favorite rulers before she died.”
“I won’t tell Shade.” Moon tried to think how much control Malachite must have had over the Fell flight by that point to be able to torture the progenitor in such a leisurely fashion. “How did you do it?”
It wasn’t a very coherent question, but Malachite understood what he meant. Still holding his gaze, she said, “We took them at a vulnerable moment, when they were sated after feeding on a groundling city. It was built out of a rocky promontory, and had narrow corridors, small doors and windows. Not an ideal space for combat for the major kethel, or the dakti swarms. I caught one of the rulers outside and broke him, and he told me where the progenitor and the other rulers slept. I caught them unawares. The warriors started an avalanche that blocked the rest of the flight’s escape.” The claws of her right hand slowly flexed, almost involuntarily, the only hint that the memory affected her. “As they did to us.”
Maybe it was just that simple. Kill the rulers and the progenitor, and it didn’t matter if some of the infertile dakti or even the kethel survived. From everything Moon had seen and heard over the turns, the dakti and kethel lacked the ability to make mental connections with other Fell flights, and would not be offered shelter. “How do you break a ruler?”
She looked down at her hand and flexed her claws deliberately this time. It was a thoughtful rather than threatening gesture, as if she noticed they sometimes flexed on their own and was bemused by it. “The mentors believe that it’s impossible. But the Fell don’t lie when they say we were once the same species. And the rulers are used to obeying their female progenitors.” She met his eyes again. “That need can be used against them.”
Moon felt the skin creep right up his spine; it was partly uneasiness and partly a stir from his prey reflex. Thinking about killing Fell made his fingers itch. He said, “Is that what you’re planning to do to this Fell flight? Let them destroy Aventera and then attack while they’re vulnerable inside the city?”
Malachite tilted her head, but something in her otherwise opaque expression seemed more amused than angry. “It crossed my mind.”
“But the Fell know Opal Night is here, now. They won’t be vulnerable. They may use the city to set a trap for us.”
“True.” She had clearly considered the possibility already but just wasn’t much concerned by it. “What do you propose?”
Moon had been thinking about this since he had first seen the city. “The groundlings at Aventera have projectile weapons, and flying craft. If they had time to prepare, and our help, they could set traps for the Fell. Like a flying craft driven into the giant sac the major kethel carried here, that then bursts into flame.” He would bet that the Aventerans had things that could burst into flame on command; they seemed like that kind of people.
“It’s a possibility.” But Malachite didn’t sound as if it was a possibility she preferred. She studied him so intently, Moon wanted to twitch. Sensing she might be testing his resolve, he didn’t. “But the groundlings don’t trust us enough to take our counsel, let alone our direction in battle.”
It was hard enough to talk to a powerful Raksuran queen; this was like talking to a member of a completely different and unfamiliar species. Moon couldn’t tell if he had a chance of convincing her of anything or if she just kept replying because she liked looking at him and wanted the encounter to continue. He persisted, “But they might trust Delin, the groundling scholar from the Golden Isles. He’s used to speaking to all different species, and he knows a lot about Fell.” Moon wasn’t certain how much of a diplomat Delin was; possibly he was far too straightforward to be very good at it, at least with people like the Aventerans. But it was still worth a try.
“If we speak through him, they may listen.”
Malachite’s tail actually almost twitched. “Delin is the old groundling from the flying ship, who saved your life?”
Moon frowned. “He saved my life?”
“Lithe said the simple he gave you aboard the ship slowed the poison’s progress. It gave the mentors time to act.”
“That’s him.” Moon considered adding that Delin really wanted to speak to the Aventerans and would take Malachite’s approval of this as a personal favor, but resisted the impulse.
Malachite said, “Lithe also came to me with a plan.”
“She told us about that, too. We want to combine her plan and ours.”
Malachite didn’t move, didn’t flick a spine, didn’t blink, but Moon got the sudden strong sense that he had just lost his audience. Her voice perceptibly colder, she said, “Lithe has no need to prove herself to me.”
“I think she knows that.” Moon knew the ground underfoot had suddenly turned treacherous, and he had no idea why. “But she wants to prove herself to the others.”
“What others?”
“I don’t know.” Moon added, “Maybe she wants to prove it to herself.”
He thought that was a pretty good answer, but Malachite evidently didn’t. “Lithe has never shown any need for this before.”
“The Fell never came here before.” Maybe he needed to put this on a less personal level. Moon had known Lithe for only a few days; he couldn’t claim to be an expert in what she needed or wanted. “Auburn told us the mentors are looking for people from the eastern colony who might have been influenced by the Fell, but they can’t find anyone. You need to know how the Fell found out about your crossbreeds.”
Malachite showed the tip of one fang. “How many of these thoughts came from the Sister Queen of Indigo Cloud?”
Moon felt his skin go hot with anger. “You’re insulting me.” He couldn’t keep the growl out of his voice.
“She has insulted both of us.” Malachite’s spines lifted. “She thinks to use this as a way to force me to acquiesce to her claim on you.”
“It’s not a claim. I’m taken. She asked me and I consented.”
“You had no idea what you were agreeing to.”
“I did in every way that mattered.”
“You had no right to consent—”
“Because you own me?” Moon’s patience snapped and he pushed to his feet. She wouldn’t let him shift, so he didn’t try. “You gave up any right to me when you left me behind.”
It was possibly the most deliberately cruel thing Moon had ever said to anybody, and he knew the instant the words were out he would regret them, but in this moment they were deeply satisfying. He saw Malachite take the blow and steel herself against her own reaction. Her spines rattled like a death knell, and the muscles in her jaw tightened, suppressing a growl or a hiss or the urge to bite his head off. But her anger was less frightening than the iron control in her voice. “Nevertheless. Indigo Cloud took advantage of you, knowingly.”
Moon had the sudden impulse to make that control snap. He hissed bitter amusement. “You’re lucky it was Indigo Cloud that found me.”
That did it. Malachite’s tail lashed. A real full-length lash clearly expressive of her angry consternation. “What does that mean?”
“I didn’t know what I was. I could have become anything. I would have, if someone had promised me a place to belong. The first time I saw Fell, I thought I was one. Of course, in your court, that wouldn’t be a problem.” His voice rose and he couldn’t stop it. “You have no more right over me than that dead progenitor has over Shade!”
He turned toward the doorway. Malachite landed in front of him in a near-silent bound; Moon jerked back, hissing. She lifted her hands, claws retracted. “Wait.”
He stepped back, watching her warily.
“This changes nothing.” Malachite stepped away from the door. She had gone from rage to cool composure in less than a heartbeat. Her self-control was daunting, infuriating, and completely intact. “If your groundling agrees, let him ready his craft to go to Aventera. I’ll speak to Lithe and the other mentors about the rest.”
At the moment, all Moon wanted to do was yell more. He stepped past her and went through the passage out of the bower. When he reached the larger room just outside, he found several warriors sitting around the hearth staring at him in various degrees of shock. They had heard that last shout, and it would be all over the court by this afternoon. Growling under his breath, Moon shifted and tore out of the room.
He found Chime waiting for him in the passage back to the consorts’ hall. Chime took in his expression as Moon shifted back to groundling, and said, “You lost your temper?”
“Yes.” Moon made himself take a deep breath.
Chime’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. “So she won’t let us talk to the groundlings or trap the Fell?”
“No. She’ll do that.” Moon was fairly sure of it. She would give that to him, because he wanted it. Malachite was willing to give him anything he wanted except Jade and Indigo Cloud.
Chapter Fifteen
As Moon predicted, Rise came to him around mid-morning to tell him that Malachite had agreed to Lithe’s plan.
After that, there was a flurry of preparations.
The spot chosen to set the trap was a flying island floating over the plain less than a half day of warriors’ flight from Aventera’s plateau. The group who would go and wait in hiding near it was small: Stone, Malachite, two of Onyx’s daughter queens, and some of their warriors. The Opal Night warriors were among those who had been examined by the mentors for Fell influence, but they wouldn’t be told where they were going or why until they reached the spot.
Jade and Balm were also going, though Moon wasn’t certain how Jade had managed it. He doubted Malachite had changed her opinion of Jade over the course of the morning.
Before they left, Moon managed to see Jade alone for a moment, catching her attention from a cubby off one of the colony entrance passages while the others assembled outside.
Jade glanced down the corridor cautiously as she stepped into the cubby. Moon asked her, “How did you get Malachite to let you come with her?”
Jade bared her teeth in frustration. “I didn’t, I’m just going. As a queen, I have every right to help defend the Reaches. If she tries to stop me, it’ll cause more trouble than it’s worth to her.” She hissed. “Of course, it’s hard to tell if she knows I’m going or not because she’s pretending I don’t exist.” She squeezed his wrist and said, “Are you really staying behind?”
There had been some discussion over whether Moon was well enough to go on the flying boat to Aventera or not, or if he should stay here. Moon was handling it by waiting until everyone with the authority or physical prowess to stop him had left to set the ambush, then he was going to join Delin and the others on the boat. This seemed to be the best way to avoid loud, emotionally-charged arguments. He had had too many of those lately.
“Probably... not,” Moon admitted reluctantly.
Jade twitched her spines, but didn’t object. Possibly she didn’t feel she had much right to argue with him, considering how she had inserted herself and Balm into the ambush portion of the plan. “Just be careful around those groundlings. You don’t know what the Fell have made them believe about us. And remember that Lithe is the bait, not you.”
It meant a great deal at that moment that she hadn’t tried to order him to stay behind or to talk him out of it. He managed to say, “You be careful, too. And Balm.”
Jade said, “We’ll be fine.” She pulled him close, nipped his neck gently, then slipped away.
Moon waited until Stone and the queens left, then went to the flying boat.
Delin’s crew of twelve young Islanders, most related to him, were not keen on the idea of letting him sail to Aventera alone, even with the help of friendly Raksura. Moon wasn’t sure how Delin convinced them or forced them, but they were reluctantly leaving th
e boat by climbing down a long rope ladder to the platform in front of the colony’s main entrance. Most of them carried small bags of belongings.
Feather and a few other Arbora waited for them down on the platform. Moon asked her, “Have you ever spent time with groundlings before?” He had suggested Feather be the one to take charge of Delin’s crew while they were here, to make sure they were comfortable and had access to food they could eat. Moon had chosen her because she was the only Arbora he felt he knew here. It also helped that she spoke enough Altanic to be able to communicate with them.
“No.” She smiled a little, glancing up at him. “It’ll be a good distraction, while we’re waiting.”
She meant waiting to see what the Fell would do. The court knew Malachite was acting on some sort of plan, but not the details. He said, “Hopefully it won’t be long.”
He shifted, and sprang up to catch hold of the boat’s railing. Below, Feather called out, “Be careful! We’ll see you in a few days!”
Moon swung down onto the deck and found himself facing Chime. “You’re going?” Chime stared. “I thought you were staying behind because you still needed to recover.”
“That’s what everybody thought,” Moon told him, and changed the subject before Chime could argue. “Where’s Celadon?”
Chime swallowed his objections with effort, and said, “Down in the hull.”
Moon went down the steps and found Celadon in the large common room with Delin. They had a piece of the pressed reed the Islanders used as paper spread out on the table, and Delin was drawing a rough map to Aventera from Celadon’s directions.
As Moon walked in, Celadon glanced up, surprised to see him. Then she frowned. “We should be leaving soon. Did you come to see us off?”
“I changed my mind,” he said. “I’m coming with you.”
Making a notation on the map, Delin raised a brow. “There was a question? I assumed you had always intended to accompany us.”