“I noticed that.” Moon was tracking the presence of the kethel by scent and sound, knowing it was about thirty paces from the base of their tree. It was sleeping next to the stream where they had talked. “You’d think the Fell would pass the word around and stop doing it.”
“I think it’s a little late for that.” Stone scratched his chest. The insects left them alone but the tree pollen was thick in here. “Lithe and Shade said they and the others at Opal Night couldn’t hear the Fell. Shade couldn’t hear that thing in the forerunner city that was speaking to the Fell.”
Moon saw where that thought was going. “So maybe some Fell-Raksuran crossbreeds can’t hear the progenitor, even when they’re raised as Fell, so the progenitor can’t control them. The progenitors are so used to having absolute control over the flight, they don’t realize it until it’s too late.”
“And something happened when the Fellborn queen took in that baby kethel,” Stone added. “The progenitor lost control over it.”
Consolation, Moon thought. The captive consort who had sired her must have had very few choices, but Moon couldn’t imagine the progenitor had forced him to name his offspring. “Don’t call it a baby,” he said. He had enough problems handling all of this. Stone didn’t reply, and after a moment Moon added, “The Fellborn queen is maybe more queen than Fell. Maybe . . . It sounds like what Malachite did to destroy the flight that attacked Opal Night’s eastern colony. She took control of the progenitor.”
Stone let out a frustrated sigh. “Go to sleep.”
Jade stood in the hold of the wind-ship, contemplating the meal of dried fruit and grain that the Golden Islanders were preparing. The sun was setting and she was going to have to try to sleep, though it was the last thing she wanted to do. She was so tense it took effort just to keep her spines from flaring.
Most of the others were already asleep, except for the warriors outside on watch. Or at least she hoped they were asleep. Since Malachite had left with Consolation and the half-Fell flight, they had all had nothing to do but worry about what might be happening in the Reaches. It almost overwhelmed her worry for Moon and Stone. Almost. But she wasn’t angry at the Reaches for racing off alone into unknown territory knowing it was being followed by Fell, which added a whole different level to the emotion.
Along with Shade and Lithe, Malachite had left them with five of her warriors, Flicker, Saffron, Flash, Spark, and Deft. Jade had sent the whole bunch hunting early this morning, and then made them and her own warriors eat their fill. They had to stay fed and rested, ready for flight at any moment, in case they came upon the Hians or the Fell found them. Now she needed to take her own advice. She grimaced to herself, admitting it was unlikely.
Diar had warned them that the maps indicated a nearby groundling trading town in the forested hills, so Jade couldn’t even do a fast flight around the wind-ship to work off some of her nerves. Dranam had said the tracking moss for Moon and Stone had split again, so they must have left another message somewhere in the town. Jade just hoped the horticultural could locate it quickly; if they were delayed by a long search, her last nerve would snap.
Lithe wandered in from the corridor, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders, but she looked wide awake. “Anything?” Jade asked her.
Lithe shook her head, frustrated and weary. “I keep seeing the sea breaking on a beach, and having the feeling that we should hurry. And I can’t tell if the latter part is from the vision or just common sense.” They both spoke Altanic, for the benefit of the Golden Islanders in the cabin, but the groundlings were more interested in preparing the meal than listening. Probably because Jade and Lithe had been having this same conversation for the past few days. “I’m still not getting anything about the Reaches, either.”
That might be good news, Jade thought. It might mean Malachite still had time to beat the Fell there.
Lithe added, “I was going to make tea. Would you like some?”
“You should try to get some rest,” Jade said. She didn’t expect Lithe to listen. It felt like she had been telling mentors to rest all her life and none of them ever listened. They were as bad as feral consorts and line-grandfathers.
“So should you.” Lithe smothered a yawn. “And I need to be awake, so I can have more useless visions.”
Those words pricked a memory, and Jade said, “You know, Merit kept getting visions of the sea, when we were close to the foundation builder city and he had trouble scrying—”
Then River leaned in the doorway and said, “Jade? Something’s wrong ahead. Rorra said to get you.”
Jade hissed and whipped out of the cabin. She passed River on the steps up to the deck.
Outside the breeze carried the scent of running water, greenery, and wood smoke with something foul under it. Rotting flesh, Jade realized, startled. The fires were consuming dead bodies. She went first to the rail and saw they approached a groundling settlement built across a series of tall hills or mounds, set between the curve of a river and two raised stone trade roads. The sun was sinking past the horizon, turning the clouds cloaking the huge flying island formation to the south every shade of gold.
The flicker of fire seemed to be mostly on the outskirts of the town, but it was in orderly rows. Lights gleamed in windows and doorways in the hills and in the tents below. Boats and barges were tied up at the river docks. Jade tasted the air deeply. There might be some Fell stench, but it was too faint to be nearby, or buried under the harsh wood smoke.
She reached the steering cabin and found Rorra and Niran. Diar was in the bow, focusing a distance-glass on the town. “Was it a Fell attack?” Niran asked her. “Can you smell them?”
“A little, maybe. They’re not here now,” Jade said, concentrating on the scents, trying to sort them out. “And if they were here, I don’t know why so many groundlings are still alive.”
Rorra’s expression was tight with worry. “Maybe Moon and Stone drove the Fell away.”
Jade imagined the two of them taking on a whole Fell flight and suppressed a growl of unease. If they had fought the flight and one of them had been captured, and that was why the moss showed a split again . . .
Diar turned away from the bow. “We’ll know soon. There are trade flags for a caravanserai, and I think I see message poles.” She explained to Jade, “We saw these in Kish. Messages are tied to the tops of the poles to make it easy for flying craft to collect them. If the consorts left us a message, it may be there.”
“Yes, it’s a handy system,” Rorra added.
“I will recommend it for ports in the east, if we survive long enough to return there,” Niran said.
Diar sighed. “My sibling the optimist.”
Jade turned at a faint sound. Lithe had followed her to the steering cabin. The mentor stood, one hand on the wall, and the dying sunlight made her eyes into white reflective pools. No, that wasn’t the light, that was a mentor caught in a vision. Jade said softly, “Lithe? What do you see?”
Lithe hissed out a slow breath. “Fast,” she said. Then she shook herself and blinked, her eyes a soft brown again. “We need to move fast. We have to get to the coast before—Before something happens.” She grimaced. “I don’t know what.”
Niran turned the steering device and the wind-ship angled down to the message poles.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Court of Indigo Cloud in The Reaches
Frost was hiding in the little chamber adjacent to the queens’ hall, the one consorts were supposed to wait in before they went out to greet visiting royal Aeriat. Her plan worked well, until Ember came down the steps from the upper passage and there was nowhere to go.