“The Fell took the citadel first, in the center of the city, and the groundlings were all running away, or trying to. Everything was falling apart. The dakti and kethel were killing people in the streets, digging through the walls of the houses to get to them. I didn’t want to think I was a Fell, that I came from things that would do that. But I had to know.” He realized he was shivering, and rubbed his hands on his damp shirt. He felt an incredible distance between then and now, as if he were telling a story that had happened to someone else. Maybe he had been someone else then, the way he had been someone else before Sorrow and the others died. “I flew to the roof of the citadel and got inside through a window. But I couldn’t get close enough to see anything, so I let the dakti catch me, and they took me to the ruler in the council hall. I asked what I was.”
Jade’s expression could have been carved out of the mountain’s bedrock. He couldn’t tell what she thought. She said, “Did it tell you that you were a Fell?”
“Yes.”
Jade’s eyes narrowed. “And you believed it?”
“No. I knew it was lying. As soon as I saw it...” Moon tried to think how to describe that moment of realization, of relief and horror all mixed together. As soon as he had looked into the ruler’s eyes, he had recognized the lie. That whatever he was, it wasn’t this. And he had understood just how big a mistake he had made in going to the citadel and drawing the Fell’s attention. “I knew it would never tell me what I was.”
Jade looked away, the tense lines of her shoulders and spines relaxing minutely. “How did you escape?”
“The ruler took me up to the rooms where the Saraseil lords lived. Everything was torn apart, like they had looted the place but hadn’t taken anything. There was a dead woman there, a groundling woman. Everything smelled like death.” The memory was like a particularly vivid dream image: the torn silk drapes, the fine glitter of shattered wood and ivory, the woman’s blood on the bed cushions.
“I went out on the balcony, and the city was burning.” He had liked that city, too. It had had a busy port, and drew groundlings from far across the Three Worlds. Moon had blended right in, and he had done well there. “The ruler said I belonged with him, that he was going to keep me forever.”
Like Kathras, Liheas’ groundling form had been beautiful, dark hair like silk and unmarked skin and eyes such a deep, vivid blue. Moon had known then why so many groundlings let the Fell in. The beauty of the rulers, and their power to influence, hid the horror of the kethel and the dakti until it was too late.
Liheas had said he loved him. Moon hadn’t believed it, but he had been caught enough in the spell to let the creature take him, out there on the balcony while Saraseil burned.
“I waited until he went to sleep. Then I snapped his neck and set the room on fire, and then I flew away.”
Jade stared, startled, then shook her head. Her voice dry, she said, “That must have been a shock for the Fell. That’s usually their role.” She sat back, watching him thoughtfully. “And you didn’t tell us because...?”
“How could it matter? It was turns ago.” It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about Saraseil in a long time; it was that he hadn’t thought about it ever, except to take it as a lesson to stop looking for his past. The whole thing had been a nightmare. “I never thought about it.”
She was giving him that look again; he couldn’t tell if she believed him or not. She said, “So if you don’t think about it, it’s as if it never happened?”
Moon shrugged helplessly. “It worked until now.”
Jade sighed, obviously giving up on that point. “So that ruler is dead, but before you killed it, it must have... shared the memory.”
“I didn’t know they could do that, then. I found out more about them after-ward, by talking to groundlings in Kish.” Moon rubbed his face, trying to banish the images. His hands were still painfully numb and his skin felt like ice.
Jade nodded understanding. “When you were looking for us.”
“I stopped looking for what I was. After that, I just didn’t care anymore. It didn’t seem as if there was any point.” The room must be warm. Wisps of steam still came from the heating pipes. But the bone-chilling cold had settled into his body to stay. At least it made it easier to think. “This can’t be the same Fell flight that attacked Saraseil. It was too long ago, on the far coast.”
Jade waved a hand, her mouth set in a rueful line. “Their bloodlines range far across the Three Worlds. If it was a related flight, they could still share memories.”
That was a frightening thought, but it was the only thing that made sense, the only explanation for how Kathras could know Moon. He protested, “But the Fell couldn’t have come to Indigo Cloud because of me. They were talking to Pearl before Stone found me.”
Jade didn’t look convinced. She said, “If it is you they came for, they would’ve had to know that you would eventually come to Indigo Cloud, that if they waited long enough, they would find you there. That’s a mentor’s power again.”
If the Fell had come to Indigo Cloud because they had somehow known that Moon would eventually go there... They could have been following me for turns and turns. The thought made him sick. All the places he had been, where Fell or rumors of Fell had followed him. If they were looking for me... No, that can’t be true. They would have found him before now. They would have found him when he had come out of Kish again and gone back toward the east. He had enough trouble. He didn’t need to borrow more.
He looked up to see Jade watching him with a frown. She said, “You’re still shaking.”
“I can’t get warm.” The ice was inside his skin, in his thoughts. He supposed if Jade was going to kill him, she would have done it by now. If he was going to be alive in the morning, he needed to be able to fly. “I’ll go downstairs.” He started to push to his feet.
Jade caught his arm and pulled him back down beside her. He twitched in a half-hearted attempt to escape, but she wrapped a strong arm around his waist, pulling him back against her chest.
“No, just stay,” she said, but her voice was gentle. He was so cold and tense that his body felt brittle, and her hands, even through his damp clothes, were pure heat. Then he realized the cloud of warmth enfolding him was from her half-furled wings, that she had just shifted out of her Arbora form. “No, if anybody sees—”
“Everyone’s asleep,” she said into his ear. She waited patiently until he subsided, then gave him a reassuring squeeze. Moon gave in, sinking back against her.
She held him close, and ran her palm over his arms, his chest, soothing his shivers away. Her scales caught against his groundling skin, and the effect was hypnotic. Then she nuzzled his ear, soft and warm, and her teeth grazed the back of his neck. The gentle bite sent a shock right down his spine. Moon made a noise embarrassingly close to a squeak.
Jade pulled back, startled. “Sorry.”
After everything that had happened tonight, he hadn’t thought he could feel anything. Suddenly he could feel everything, everywhere. Something had broken free inside him. He said, “No, don’t... don’t stop.”
She gripped his shoulders and turned him around to face her, moving him as if he didn’t weigh anything. He had never been more vulnerable. He was in groundling form, and she could keep him from shifting. It should have been frightening, but it just made him want to wrap himself around her and bite her neck. “Moon, do you know what you’re saying?”
“Yes. What?” His senses had been stifled by the cold buther scent was suddenly overwhelming. He tried to lean in toward her.