More Cordans gathered round, drawn by the appearance of a stranger, but no one seemed agitated or upset. After a short time, Jade walked with them into the camp, heading toward the elders’ tent.
Moon settled back, hissing in anxious frustration. He had nothing to do but wait.
The afternoon wore on, and Moon watched the hunters return, recognizing Kavath from a distance by his pale blue skin and crest. There had been no unusual disturbance in the camp. He caught the occasional glimpse of Jade, walking between the tents. It was too far away to recognize anyone else. He would have liked to know where Selis was living, if she had found a better place. He wondered how he would feel if he saw Ilane, and twitched uncomfortably.
When night gathered in the valley, Moon uncoiled out of the branches and jumped to the next tree, and the next, working his way through the forest, down the hills and toward the river. It helped that he knew where all the Cordans’ hunting trails lay so there was little chance of encountering anyone. It was dark by the time he reached the river bank, well above the Cordan camp.
Still in his Raksuran form, he slipped down into the water and let the current carry him along, just a dark, drifting shape. As he drew near the camp, he went under, swimming into the thick reeds. In that concealment, he surfaced just enough so that his ears, eyes, and nose were above the water.
He heard the normal evening sounds of the camp, conversations, children shouting and laughing as they played. He smelled wood smoke and once-familiar people, and the greenroot they boiled or baked for dinner. A few women came down the sandy bank to wash cooking pans, but the time for bathing and swimming was past, and most of the camp would be sitting outside their tents to eat.
Then he caught Jade’s scent. Unexpectedly, it stirred sudden heat in his belly. He told himself not to be an idiot. He had only been away from her half a day.
A few moments later, she appeared over the top of the bank. She moved idly, as if she was only here to enjoy the cool breeze off the river. Moon splashed, just loud enough for her to hear.
She walked down the sand to the shallows, wetting her feet, then wandered casually toward the reeds. When she was close enough, she whispered, “I assume that’s you.”
Moon swam a little closer, lying flat in the shallows, still mostly concealed by the reeds. “Well?”
She hissed between her teeth, controlled and angry. “We have a problem. I don’t think they’ll give it to me.”
Moon was so startled he almost sat up. “What? Why not?”
“I’ve told them our settlement is under attack by the Fell, that we need the poison to help fight them off. I offered to buy it, I tried to give them my rings, but they wouldn’t take them. They seem sympathetic, they told me stories of what happened to their cities, but they say the poison won’t help me. They keep hinting that I should stay here and join them.” She kicked at a clump of weeds, every line of her body tense with frustration. “It’s partly the timing. They know there are no other groundling tribes or settlements close by. I’ve had to make them think I’ve been walking for days and days, over dangerous territory. They think it will be too late by the time I get back.”
“Stupid bastards.” Moon sunk under the water to keep from growling. Even if they thought Jade would be too late to help her people, withholding the poison just seemed cruel. Better to let her have it and at least try to get back in time. And it was for their own damn good; killing Fell benefited everybody. Especially these Fell, with the odd abilities they seemed to have. He surfaced again. “Damn it.”
“I’d try to steal some, but I can’t get them to give me any clue where they keep it, or how they make it, or even if they have any on hand.” Jade shook her head frills. “Any ideas?”
Moon could only think of one possibility. “There’s a woman named Selis. I lived with her, and she knew what I was. If you can talk to her alone, tell her... Tell her the truth.”
Jade hesitated, drawing her toes through the sand. “Are you certain? If she betrays us to the others, there’s no chance left of getting it by stealth. We’d have to fight them for it.”
“I don’t know,” Moon had to admit. Anything was possible. Especially with Selis. But she had been openly contemptuous of the elders and pretty much everyone else in the camp. And she had had plenty of opportunity to betray him before, and hadn’t. “She’s the only one who might be willing to help us. If she wants to talk to me, tell her to come out to the forest tomorrow morning.” Women often went outside the camp in the mornings to pick bandan leaves, dig roots, and collect whatever nuts and fruit were ripe. It was the best opportunity to speak unobserved.
Jade thought about it a moment more, staring thoughtfully off across the river. “All right,” she said finally. “I’ll find her.”
“I’ll watch for you. Good luck.” Moon slipped under again, and pulled himself along the bottom until he could swim upstream.
Moon caught his own dinner in the river, since it was easier than hunting the forest in the dark. After that he went back through the trees to his perch, watched the dark camp, and slept in snatches. It was a nerve-racking wait.
Finally, just before dawn grayed the sky, Hac pushed the gate open and stood in the gap, scratching himself. The hunters left first, a long straggling column of men taking the trail that led up the slopes into the forest. Then, as the morning light grew brighter, the women and older children started to come out.
They were in small groups of three or four, carrying baskets, wandering across the field to the fringes of the forest. Trailing after one group was Jade, taller than the others and distinctive even in the brown smock. Beside her was a short, sturdy Cordan woman with a basket on her hip.
They let the others draw ahead, then angled toward the fringe of the forest. Careful not to rustle the branches, Moon climbed down the tree, and made his way through the forest toward the point where they would enter it.
He waited for them a couple of hundred paces into the trees, screened by the tall fronds of the ground plants. He finally heard footsteps in the bracken: Selis’ steps. Jade, even in Arbora form, moved in near silence. He shifted to groundling.
As they drew closer, Moon heard Selis say, “Are you sure he’s here? He’s not reliable.”
Moon stepped out of concealment, and Selis stopped short. Moon made himself stand still, though he was suddenly aware that his heart pounded with tension. Seeing Selis again was stranger than he had thought it would be.
They stared at each other. Then Selis said, with deliberate irony, “It’s all right. I made sure Ilane didn’t follow me.”
It caught Moon by surprise, and he snorted in bitter amusement. “That makes one of us.”
“It’s not funny.” She took a few steps closer. “I’m living with my sister now.”
Moon winced sympathetically, for the sister and for Selis. Selis hated her family and, from what he had been able to tell, the feeling was mutual.
Making it sound like an accusation, she said, “They said you were dead, that you got carried away by a Fell.”
“It wasn’t a Fell.”
Her expression suggested he was still just as stupid as she remembered. “That I figured out for myself.” She sniffed and added, “Ilane is living with Ildras.”
Moon folded his arms, feeling his jaw tighten. Ildras, the chief hunter, had been a friend. And he had already been living with two women. Somehow Moon didn’t see Ilane taking third place. “What about Fianis and Elene?”
“They’re practically her servants now.” Selis and Moon shared a look of mutual disgust. A little tension went out of Selis’ shoulders, and she tossed her basket on the ground. “So you want the poison.”