He leaned against her and rubbed his cheek on her shoulder. “I don’t think we need luck. I think we just need... some time to relax.”
She glanced back to make sure Malachite was out of sight, then put an arm around his waist and pulled him against her side. “That would be wonderful.”
It took several days to reach Opal Night, though fortunately they were uneventful. As soon as they were certain the Fell weren’t following them, Stone went hunting with Floret and Saffron. They stopped the boat at a small lake at the edge of the foothills to butcher the carcasses and to change and refill the water stores and flush out the latrine, but ended up using the chance to bathe and rinse the blankets and their clothing as well.
It lost them most of the morning, but it was better for everyone, especially those still in healing sleep, to get rid of as much of the Fell stench as possible. Moon felt better about being able to hand Delin back a flying boat that though battered, didn’t stink and was reasonably clean. Malachite and Lithe were able to coax Shade to eat a little meat later that day, so maybe the lack of stench had helped him, too.
Moon was sitting with Shade on the railing near the bow, watching the ground go by, when Shade said, “I told Malachite what happened. The part about what the Fell made me do.”
Below, the fern-thorn forests of the lake country were gradually giving way to the high grasses of the plains. Moon said, “What did she say?”
“That it wasn’t my fault. That I did what I had to do to keep us alive.” Shade’s shoulders were still slumped. “She also said what you said, that I shouldn’t tell anybody else about it.”
Moon thought that over, about lies and protective concealment, and how it might fester for someone like Shade, as opposed to someone more used to it, like him. At the moment, Shade thought he was the only one who had had to do something repugnant to survive. Moon said, “I don’t think you should tell anyone. Unless you need to, to help them.” And he told Shade about how he had met the Fell in Saraseil, about how he had killed Liheas, the real story that he had told only to Jade, and not the abbreviated version he had told to others.
The wounded continued to heal under Lithe’s care, and two of Ivory’s warriors woke from the healing sleep and were able to move around a little. Root woke a day later, still too injured to sit up and having difficulty speaking, but able to indicate to Floret and Chime that he wanted a blow-by-blow account of everything he had missed.
When they crossed the plain between Aventera and the Reaches, Stone caught sight of a bladder-boat, but it didn’t try to approach. Everyone else ignored it, but Celadon and Moon leaned on the railing, speculating on what the Aventerans were doing now and secretly hoping the bladder-boat would come this way in a threatening manner so they could start a fight with it. After a time, Celadon said, “Thank you for trying to save Dare. I saw part of what happened. We had ended up in some sort of small passage, and there were slits in the outer wall we could see through, but they were too narrow to climb out of.”
Moon thought not being able to get outside at that moment had probably saved all their lives. And he didn’t want to talk about poor Dare. “How did you get out?”
“We went down through the city, trying to find a way out that was so far below the bladder-boats that they wouldn’t be able to shoot us. The Aventerans trapped us at one point but Delin got one of their weapons and started shooting it at them. After that, they backed off and we made it out through an opening down near the statue’s feet. The sac had already left by then, so I sent the warriors and Delin to tell the queens and I started after it. Malachite and the others caught up to me that night.” She rippled her spines, as if shaking off the angry memories. “Hopefully this will be the end of the Fell trying to make crossbreeds.”
“Hopefully,” Moon said.
She eyed him. “You don’t think so?”
“How many flights did this thing talk to? Some of them must have ignored it, but... there’s no telling how far the idea spread through the flights in the east.”
Celadon sighed. “Pessimism is one of your more annoying qualities.”
Moon wasn’t going to argue that. He added, “But at least that thing is dead and we don’t have to worry about it getting out and going on a rampage.”
“At least,” Celadon said pointedly. “I wish our ancestors had killed it when they had the chance.”
So did Moon. “They wanted to torture it more than they wanted to kill it.”
She shrugged her spines. “Sometimes it’s easy to remember that they were the Fell’s ancestors, too.”
Warrior scouts met them a day’s flight out from Opal Night, and some rode the rest of the way in on the flying boat, while others flew ahead to give the good news to the colony.
It was late afternoon when the boat glided over the ridge and into the shadow of the standing half of the split mountain-tree. The wind was a little high and gray clouds threatened rain in the distance, but Opal Night was more active than Moon had ever seen it before. The Arbora were out on the landing platform, climbing up the branches of the fallen half of the mountain-tree. There were so many warriors in the air, the boat could barely navigate through them.
As the boat drew closer, Moon spotted Delin, surrounded by the other members of his crew. They stood on the landing platform with some of the older Arbora, all waving wildly. Moon shifted to his winged form, leapt the railing, and glided down to land beside them.
Delin threw his arms wide in greeting. “You live! I am so pleased!”
Wanting to get this over with quickly, Moon said, “I’m glad you’re alive too. There’s a hole in the bottom of your boat.”
Chime landed behind him, and added, “And we used all your lamp oil. And all the fire packets for your shooting weapon got burned up.”
Delin smiled. “This will be a story worth hearing.”
That night, Jade and the warriors were offered one of Opal Night’s better guest bowers, next to the rooms where Delin and the Islanders had been staying.
Root was doing much better, but Song still spent most of her time asleep. They made pallets of furs and blankets for them on the floor, and Moon carried Song in himself. The wound across her throat was already white with scar tissue, though her skin was so bruised her chest and throat looked more green-black than dark bronze. She blinked and woke, startled, and clutched at his chest. An instant later she recognized him and relaxed, tucking her face into the crook of his arm. It made Moon’s heart flutter, and reminded him of how much he missed Frost, Thorn, Bitter and the other children.
Once everyone was settled, Jade told him, “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Where are you going?” he asked, startled.
“You are going back to your bower,” Jade told him. “I don’t know if this is another one of Malachite’s tests for me, but if it is, I have no intention of failing it.” She bit him lightly on the neck. “Now go.”
Stone went with him, and when they reached the consorts’ hall, Moon found the young consorts of Malachite’s line, the ones descended from her long-dead sister queen, had moved back in. They were keeping Shade company in his bower, and watched Moon with wide-eyed curiosity and awe when he came to check on Shade. The fact that Shade was in the middle of the story of Moon ripping the underwater window open with Chime and Lithe’s help may have had something to do with that.
Moon found his temporary bower undisturbed, though Malachite had sent over some more clothes for him, which meant he was going to leave Opal Night with a lot more than he had arrived with. He was glad he had left the ivory disk that had belonged to his father behind in his pack. There had been too many chances to lose it on their adventures. He put it on now, looping the leather cord over his head.
Stone watched him do it but didn’t comment. As they settled down to sleep, he said, “It’ll be a relief to get home.”
Moon stretched out on the fur. “I hope nothing’s happened while we’ve been gone.”
Stone growled under h
is breath. “That’s what I said, too, coming back on that damn boat.”
“None of this was my fault,” Moon pointed out.
Stone made a noise eloquent of derision.
Moon woke sometime later, aware he hadn’t slept for very long. The air was filled with sound; the blended harmony of high and low notes, a chorus of voices. The Court of Opal Night was singing.
Moon slipped out of the furs, stepped around Stone, and went to the doorway.
The sound didn’t echo through the colony so much as fill all the available space like water poured into a bowl. He shouldn’t have been able to tell the source, but he could. It was coming from the colony’s central well.
He went down the corridor to the nearest opening, the one near the waterfall and the lake. He stopped in the doorway and leaned against the wall in the shadows.
There was movement all through the well, the light from windows gleaming off scales or skin. All of Opal Night was gathered here, sitting on the terraced platforms or along the stones lining the water, clinging to the walls. Singing.
It was the first time the song didn’t sound frighteningly alien, didn’t seem like something foreign was trying to invade Moon’s mind. It sounded warm and welcoming and right. He could distinguish individual voices in the chorus, in a way he never had before at Indigo Cloud. He could hear Celadon, and Onyx, Umber. There was Shade, not far above Moon’s head, sitting in the window of his bower, the other consorts around him. He could tell which voices were Arbora, and pick out Feather and Lithe. And Malachite’s voice was woven all through the others, like a pillar supporting the rest of the colony.
Moon leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, and thought, All right, I get it now. And then he joined in.
They spent nearly a month at Opal Night.
It was a busy time, since Malachite wanted Moon to meet all the other members of his line that he was closely related to, which amounted to something close to three hundred Aeriat and Arbora. The delay also gave Auburn time to fulfill Chime’s request for a search of the Opal Night mentors’ libraries for any past stories of Arbora who had transformed into warriors.
When Moon asked Chime about it one night, Chime said, “There was only one story about it happening to a mentor, and that was nearly a hundred turns ago as far as Auburn could tell.” Chime sighed.
“And?” Moon prompted. Chime’s depressed expression was beginning to worry him.
“It didn’t go into a lot of detail, but it said her healing skills and ability to make heat and light never came back.”
“Oh.” Moon hadn’t realized that Chime had still been holding onto that hope. “But did it say anything about hearing things?”
Chime turned his teacup around. “It said that she got ‘older skills’ and her auguries were different, but ‘often useful.’”
“It sounds like they didn’t want to give much detail.” That wasn’t encouraging.
“Exactly. I think ‘older skills’ mean things that our Ancestors could do.” Chime shrugged uneasily. “I’m not sure how I feel about that. I don’t think I like our Ancestors much anymore.”
“You’re still you,” Moon pointed out. “And your older skills keep helping us stay alive.”
“However I got them.” Chime waved those words away. “I mean, I know I can still be useful, and I’m glad about that. I just wish I had more control over it. Though at least now I know I’m not some weird aberration, that this has happened before.” Chime didn’t look entirely cheered by that thought, but he did seem less worried.
They finally left for Indigo Cloud, and had a thankfully uneventful trip through the suspended forest. Days ago, Jade had sent a message through Opal Night’s allied courts, telling Pearl that they would be returning as soon as negotiations for Moon were completed. They had received a message back that all was well at Indigo Cloud, but it was still a relief to approach the colony tree on the repaired flying boat and see the platforms were all intact, the Arbora moving through the gardens and the warriors circling the clearing.
A dozen warriors landed on the boat to greet them, and Moon saw a couple members of the Islander crew exchange grins. He knew how they felt; he didn’t think he would ever get over the thrill of seeing a large group of Raksura in flight at once, either.
One of the young female warriors who had landed on the deck came to Jade, shifted to groundling, and said, “Jade, I need to tell you something.”
Moon knew she was one of the warriors attached to Jade’s faction and that her name was Serene, but he hadn’t spoken to her much. She looked worried, and he immediately noticed that Sand and some of Jade’s other warriors, while they greeted Balm, Chime, and Floret and the others, were clearly keeping an eye on Serene.
Jade took Serene’s arm and led her away a short distance to the far side of the boat. She didn’t object when Moon followed.
Serene lowered her voice to a whisper, “Pearl took Ember.” She winced in anticipation of Jade’s reaction.
“What?” Moon said. He stared at Jade.
Jade didn’t even seem surprised. “That’s all right; I expected it,” she assured Serene. “Everything’s fine. Tell the others.”
Serene let out her breath in relief and smiled. “Oh, good. We’ve been so worried, and no one wanted to tell you. We drew lots for it and I lost.” She shifted to her winged form and bounced over to the other warriors.
Jade seemed genuinely unconcerned. She told Moon, “If I hadn’t wanted it to happen, I would have brought him with me.”
“But... He’s a kid.”
“If he was still a child, Emerald Twilight wouldn’t have sent him.” At his expression, she said, “He’s sweet, and biddable, and comes from a prestigious bloodline. He’s exactly what she likes. It’s been turns and turns since Rain died, and when you showed up was the first time she’d expressed interest in another consort.”
“Expressed interest? Is that what you call it?”
“This is a good thing,” Jade told him. “Now Pearl will pay more attention to the colony. And mind her own business, instead of mine.”
Moon thought that was optimistic. And he also thought he would reserve judgment until he talked to Ember.
He didn’t see Ember until later that night.
The first thing Moon did was visit the nurseries. It was a relief that this homecoming was a good deal less fraught than the last one. Frost had taken this absence much better, apparently solely due to Jade’s explanation that she had to fight a rival over him. Once the hysterical joy of the fledglings and Arbora children had settled down a little, Moon sat with Bitter and Thorn in his lap and told a rapt Frost and the others the story of how Jade had fought other queens and Fell rulers and a progenitor for him, until his mother had finally agreed to allow her to formally take Moon as her consort.
“There are fledglings at Opal Night?” Frost asked when the story was done. “Consorts?” Thorn nudged her, and she added, “And queens?”
“Lots of them.” Moon could already see where this was going. “And when it’s time, if you’re good, you might meet some of them.”
There was a gathering in the greeting hall and an ongoing celebration through the colony, for their safe return and also for the alliance with Opal Night. Blossom told Moon that there had already been a couple of trading visits from courts who had previously ignored their overtures, so word was spreading through the Reaches and Indigo Cloud’s status was rising rapidly.
For Moon the celebrations mostly involved a lot of food and telling the story of what had happened over and over again for everyone who had been too far away to hear details the first few times. Moon was hoarse from answering questions about Opal Night, and about the underwater city. He left a group of mentors and other Arbora endlessly speculating on the creature’s origins and how the city might have been constructed, and looked for Ember.
As far as he could tell, Jade and Pearl hadn’t discussed the situation, and he had to admit that Pearl seemed more
at ease and to be enjoying the party in a relaxed way he hadn’t seen her demonstrate before. River was still present in her group of warriors, though Moon had noticed that he spent most of his time sitting next to Drift and trying not to appear depressed. Moon felt a little sympathetic, but only a little. He thought this would be better for River in the long run than continuing to take the place of a consort. But he bet River didn’t think so.
He found Ember on one of the bigger balconies above the greeting hall, watching the celebration with some of Pearl’s warriors. Vine was one of them, though River and Drift weren’t there. Moon ignored them, and asked Ember, “Can I talk to you?”
Vine immediately leapt off the balcony, and the other warriors scrambled to follow his lead.
Ember looked worried. “I don’t want to be first consort,” he said immediately. “I don’t want to challenge you.”
Moon hadn’t even known that was an option, but he wasn’t concerned. “Not about that.” He sat down on the smooth wood of the floor. Below in the gathering hall, warriors and Arbora were still sitting around in groups, finishing off the last of the food. Jade, Balm, Chime, and Stone sat with Delin and some of his crew near the waterfall. Delin was writing furiously in his book, and Jade was explaining something that required her to wave her arms a lot and had made Balm and Chime almost fall over laughing. Stone looked unimpressed, so Moon assumed it was something about past exploits of certain line-grandfathers.
He looked up to see Ember watching him warily. He seemed less nervous and underfed, though to Moon he still looked barely older than Thorn. “Are you all right? I mean, Pearl didn’t...” Ember was now staring at him as if he had no idea what Moon was talking about. That was probably a good sign. “. . . trick you into this? Into accepting her?”
“Because she’s older? Oh, no.” Ember shook his head. “Young queens always frightened me a little. But Pearl is strong and beautiful, like them, but she’s so calm, too. And patient with me.” He smiled at Moon. “I’m happy.”