They had talked about a plan for one of the young hunters to try to get in through the openings under the colony’s platform, where the structure crossed the river. That would at least tell them if the others still lived. If the hunter could bring someone out, or get some idea of what had stopped the court from shifting to fight or escape, it would be even more useful. Of course, if the young hunter vanished into the colony and never came back, it would tell them nothing, and they would lose yet another Arbora.
As Moon circled around to the west, he was conscious of the warriors up in the trees, of Drift’s gaze following him, resentful and suspicious. Moon passed a hunter crouched among tree roots, the dark brown of his scales fading to invisibility against the wood. The hunter made a clicking noise in his throat. Moon nodded to him, not sure how to respond. A few steps later, a slight deliberate swish against the undergrowth told Moon another hunter was nearby. Then Bone stepped out of the ferns.
Bone walked along with Moon for a few paces. He looked up into the trees and said, deliberately, “We need everyone. Can’t waste our blood fighting among ourselves.”
Up in the branches, Drift tried to stare Bone down, failed, and retreated with a resentful hiss. Moon wouldn’t want to fight Bone either, at least on the ground; though short, he was twice the width of the other Arbora and his throat scar showed just how tough he was.
“Can’t argue with that,” Moon said dryly.
Bone walked with Moon most of the way around the area then, with a grunt of acknowledgement, split off to rejoin the other hunters. Heading back toward the blind, Moon caught Jade’s scent, and found her waiting impatiently just past a stand of reed-trees.
“You need a bath,” she said, and motioned for him to follow her.
Moon had dried kethel blood on his scales, as well as the accumulated sweat and dirt of his groundling form, but he was sure there was a little more to her request than that. He followed her down the slope of the hill, through the trees to a little spring. Barely three paces wide and probably not more than knee deep, it cut through the forest floor among mossy rocks and waterweeds. Flower sat on the bank, leaning over the water to wash out a shirt.
Jade sat down near her, and Moon stepped past them into the stream. He scooped up the cool water and scrubbed it against his scales, aware someone else was nearby. Then leaves whispered overhead and Pearl climbed down the trunk of the nearest tree like a great gold insect, moving deliberately, in near silence.
She took a seat on the bank and coiled herself up. Moon gauged the distance between them and decided he was safe enough for the moment. Jade said softly, “We’ve agreed that we need to keep this conversation away from the others. We wanted to talk more about the poison.”
Moon nodded. It might mean Pearl wasn’t as sure of River and her other warriors as she pretended, or that she suspected they were somehow inadvertently betraying her. This way, it would at least narrow the suspects down to... Me, Moon realized. Well, the solution had the virtue of being multi-purpose. It lessened the chances that the Fell would find out about any plan involving the poison, and it gave Pearl the opportunity to get rid of him, both at once.
“I asked Niran about the poison,” Flower said, frowning as she wrung water out of the cloth. “He had never heard of it. He said their exploring ships are always on the look out for such things, but that they haven’t gone toward the far east for generations.”
Flicking her tail in agitation, Jade asked Moon, “Did it work on all the Fell, rulers as well as dakti and kethel?”
“I don’t know.” Moon crouched down to splash water on his face, tipping his head back to let it trickle down through his spines and frills. He was too conscious of just how much he didn’t know about the poison. “I didn’t even know they had it until they used it on me.”
Pearl’s expression was opaque. “You said the Fell destroyed their lands. How well could this poison have worked?”
But Flower shook her head. “It depends on when they first started using it. Were the Fell still pursuing them?”
“Not while I was there.” Moon hesitated, dripping, trying to remember the stories the Cordans had told about Kiaspur and the Fell attacks. “They had to abandon their cities, but the Fell didn’t follow the refugees.”
“Fell don’t like to give up on prey, as we well know.” Flower sat back to add the shirt to a pile of wet clothes on the bank. “If these groundlings didn’t discover the poison themselves until the Fell had destroyed most of their territory, it may be what let them escape.”
Jade leaned forward, her face intent, looking from Flower to Pearl. “We could put it into the river, so it’s drawn up into the colony’s water supply. Then we could go through and kill all the Fell.”
Flower asked Moon, “I don’t suppose you know how to make it?”
“No. If I brought some to you, could you make it?”
“I’d be able to tell what was in it. It just depends if we can get the ingredients.” Flower squeezed the water out of her own skirt. “How far away is this place?”
“Stone and I flew from there in nine days, but he carried me the last day.” Moon closed his eyes, trying to call up an image of the map they had looked at when they planned the journey to the Yellow Sea. On the way to Indigo Cloud, he and Stone had cut sharply north to stop at Sky Copper. A more direct route would save some time, avoiding the plains and taking them straight back to the Cordans’ valley. Call it eleven days. “I can go there and bring some back.”
Flower bit her lip, and said to Pearl, “This fits the vision I had, better than sending him to warn the groundlings. I think we have to do this.”
Pearl said skeptically, “We’re supposed to trust him to come back with this poison? How do we know he won’t take the opportunity to run away?”
Moon controlled a hiss. “You don’t. You just have to trust me.”
Pearl turned her head to regard him coldly. “You haven’t earned our trust.”
Moon set his jaw. “You’re the one who told me to leave.”
Flower lifted a brow, and said pointedly, “Queens have a right to change their minds.”
Pearl fixed an angry glare on Flower.
Moon hissed in annoyance. This was pointless. He would have liked to take Chime, both for the company on the journey and the help when it came time to figure out how to get the poison from the Cordans, but that wasn’t possible. He would be flying at his fastest pace, and none of the warriors could keep up with him. “If I take a warrior, it would make the trip nearly twice as long.”
Flower said, “But it would be safer to send someone with you. If you fail just because you needed another pair of hands—”
“Then we won’t send him alone,” Jade said, tense and frustrated. “I’ll go with him.”
From what Stone had said, a queen should easily be able to keep up with a consort. But her offer still gave Moon pause. He wondered if she suspected him of wanting to run away, or if the Fell Kathras’ accusation had had more effect on her than it had seemed.
Pearl gave her a withering look. “So we should send the only other queen away?”
Jade bared her fangs in a grimace. “If we don’t drive out the Fell and free the others, there’s no court for either of us to be queen of. And yes, you mean to ask Wind Sun for help, but we both know how unlikely it is that they’ll answer.” She settled back on the bank, coiling her tail around, and added almost wearily, “I’m the sister queen. It’s my task.”
Pearl hissed out a breath, turning away. After a long moment, she said, “Our only other choice is to attack the colony now and die, or be caught like the rest of the court. That’s what the Fell want us to do.” She looked at Jade. “Go with him.”