Jade looked at Pearl, her spines half-lifted in challenge. “Well?”
Pearl inclined her head, as if conceding a point to Jade. “We’ll go at nightfall.”
Moon hung around the fringes of the clearing as the others hurried to get ready. Strike was carried back to the blind to recover. Some of the hunters left to take a kill so everyone could eat before the battle. The others organized themselves to transfer the poison to waterskins, a messy and dangerous job. After the first one got woozy and had to stagger off, they sent for Niran and reorganized, with him being the one to fill the skins from the pit. The fumes didn’t seem to have any effect on him at all.
The others crouched on the ground nearby. Chime sketched a map of the river and the colony in the dirt. Moon leaned against a tree, just close enough to hear their plans. If they didn’t want him there, they could tell him to leave. Chime was saying, “We need to distract the kethel guarding the river, or we won’t be able to get close enough to get the poison into the channels that draw up the water.”
“We still don’t know if we’ll be able to shift once we get near the colony,” Pearl said, still sounding skeptical of the entire thing.
“We know that,” Jade said, her frills ruffled with tension. She turned to Bone.
“Exactly how close were the Arbora to the colony when they realized they couldn’t shift?”
Bone frowned, looking around at the others. “What did Blossom say? They were below the first terrace? Or closer?”
Balm stood. “I’ll go to the blind and ask her.”
Jade waved a distracted assent, and Balm headed out of the clearing.
Moon watched her go, mostly to have something to look at besides Jade. So he saw Balm glance back before she stepped into the undergrowth.
Huh, Moon thought, not sure what it was about that glance that set off a warning. As if Balm had wanted to make sure she wasn’t followed. Moon was standing back against the thick trunk of the tree, at an angle, and he didn’t think she had seen him watching her.
It seemed unlikely. But there was no point taking chances. He pushed off the tree and picked his way through the ferns after her.
He realized almost immediately that she wasn’t walking toward the blind. She moved at an angle to it, to pass it at some distance and wind her way deeper into the forest. She avoided the sentries, the hunters posted in the trees near the blind and the clearing.
Even as he followed her, Moon couldn’t believe she was doing what it looked like she was doing. She wouldn’t betray Jade, let alone the rest of the court. Not in her right mind, he thought uneasily. There had to be another explanation.
They were perhaps a hundred paces past the blind, where the spiral and plume trees grew close together, linked by vines to form an almost impenetrable canopy overhead. She shifted, half-extending her wings to leap partway up the trunk of a plume tree.
Moon shifted too, sprinting through the undergrowth to catch up with her. He reached the base of the trunk and looked up to see her climbing rapidly; she was trying to get past the canopy to take flight. He still couldn’t believe it.
“Balm,” he called. “Where are you going?”
Her claws slipped on the wood as she twisted around. She stared down at him and her face was empty of expression, as if she hadn’t heard him, couldn’t see him.
Moon froze for one startled heartbeat. All right, now I believe it. He scrambled up the trunk after her. She climbed frantically, showering him with fragments of bark. She fought her way past the heavy branches, then jumped, flapping to get height. Right behind her, Moon planted both feet on the trunk and shoved off.
She rose over the trees with strong wing beats but Moon was stronger. He slammed into her from behind and caught her around the waist. She shrieked in rage, clawing at his arms, but he snapped his wings in and twisted to the side, using his weight to pull her off balance.
She flailed. A buffet from her wing caught him a stunning blow to the head, and they tumbled toward the ground.
They crashed through the leafy branches, and Moon made a desperate grab, catching hold of one. The branch bent under their weight, swinging them into the bole with a brutal thump, but it didn’t break. Balm abruptly stopped fighting and pulled her wings in, survival instinct overriding everything else.
Moon kept hold of her, not sure if the fall had shocked her back to her senses enough for her to save herself. He looked down and saw flashes of color through the undergrowth and the lower branches as all the Aeriat and most of the hunters crashed through the forest toward them. Wonderful, Moon thought sourly. This explanation wasn’t going to be easy. He picked out a mostly clear area of mossy ground, and dropped.
He extended his wings just enough to control their fall. They landed hard but intact. He let go of Balm and she stumbled away a step, then sat down on the moss, making no attempt to get away. The Aeriat and hunters arrived in a rush, surrounding them, most of them growling, others just baffled. Jade landed in front of Moon, her mane flared, and flung her arms up. “Quiet!” The others went silent. “Moon, what—”
“The Fell did something to her.” Moon said it rapidly, staying focused on Jade, trying to get the words out before somebody jumped him. “She was going to them.”
Balm looked up, shaking her frills back, staring at him incredulously. “How could you—I was not!”
“They must know we’re back, the same way they knew we left,” Moon insisted. “Now they’re calling her to them to find out why.”
The others muttered to each other again. Flower and Chime, at least, watched Balm worriedly. Pearl’s expression was completely opaque. River stood beside her, looking confused but vindicated. Struggling to her feet, Balm shouted, “I was not going to the Fell!”
The hard part was that Moon didn’t think she had any idea that she was lying. She looked more hurt and angry than anything else.
He said, “Then why didn’t you go to the blind like you said? Why didn’t you answer me?”
“Quiet, both of you.” Jade’s growl silenced the whole group again. She stepped forward, catching Moon’s wrist. He flinched, almost pulling away, but she was looking at the claw marks on his arms. Balm had torn into him hard enough to pierce the tough skin between his scales, leaving long scratches deep enough to sting. Jade looked at Balm, at her golden scales, unmarked.
Balm stared down at her claws as if she had no idea how Moon’s blood had gotten there. Jade asked quietly, “Where were you going, Balm?”
“I was—” Balm took a sharp breath, as if she couldn’t finish the sentence and didn’t know why. Her anger gave way to confusion and she shook her head. “I was just going to scout.”
“You don’t know where you were going,” Moon said, driving the point home. If she would admit it, maybe it would help break whatever hold the Fell had on her.
“I was going to scout!” Balm snarled.
Jade watched Balm carefully. “You said you were going to the blind to speak to Blossom. And I told all the Aeriat to stay on the ground until we left for the attack.”
Balm spread her hands, helpless and frustrated. “I know that, but I wasn’t going far.”
As an explanation, it wasn’t much, and Moon saw the doubt in Jade’s eyes. He said, “It’s not her fault. She doesn’t know they’ve done this to her.”
Pearl turned to Flower, sounding thoughtful. “Is that possible? That she could be under the Fell’s power without knowing it?”
“They do it to groundlings,” Moon said in exasperation. “It doesn’t look like this; it’s much easier to tell. The groundlings do whatever the Fell want, and they don’t know why.”