He stopped, startled to see her. “Frost, what are you doing here?”
Disgruntled, Frost said, “I’m waiting for the queens.” She realized Ember must also use this room as a quick private route down from his bower in the consorts’ level to Pearl’s. She should have thought of that. He was dressed for the greeting, in a sleeveless dark blue shirt and pants of the best silky cloth Indigo Cloud could produce, with armbands, a heavy gold bracelet, anklets, and gold chains with sunstones braided through his hair.
“Why?” he said, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
Frost stirred mutinously. Ember wasn’t First Consort like Moon, but being rude to him would definitely fall under the category of something an immature fledgling would do, and not a daughter queen ready for responsibilities. And he was always nice, and she didn’t want to be rude. But she knew he would tell her to go back to the nurseries. She said, unwillingly, “Jade’s not here and there’s no other sister or daughter queens.”
Ember folded his arms. “You were just going to walk in on a formal meeting of queens making an alliance to defend the Reaches and demand to participate?”
Put in those terms, it did sound bad. “I wasn’t going to jump out at them. I was going to wait until Pearl came out, and then ask her.” She had meant to do it just before the other queens came in, when it was too late to order her to leave without causing a disturbance. Looking up at Ember’s disapproving expression, Frost decided not to explain that part. “Pearl can’t meet them alone. We’ll look bad.”
Ember pointed out, “Celadon is here.”
Frost knew that. It was the flaw in her otherwise carefully thought out reasoning. She said, “She doesn’t live here. She’s Malachite’s daughter queen, not Pearl’s.” Of course, Frost wasn’t, either. The bloodline tie through Moon made Celadon more part of Indigo Cloud than Frost. But Sky Copper and everyone in it was dead, and Frost would be a daughter queen of Indigo Cloud. Frost added, “I live here.”
Ember studied her a moment. “You know it’s a bad idea to surprise Pearl.”
Frost didn’t know that. She didn’t see Pearl much, except when Pearl came to the nurseries to visit the new clutches. “I like surprises,” Frost said.
“Grown-up queens usually don’t,” Ember said.
Frost flicked her spines, glumly resigned. Maybe it hadn’t been a very good idea. Then Ember added, “You should ask her if you can be present. Come on.”
He took her wrist and walked her out into the queens’ hall. The teachers Dream and Bead stood near the hearth, studying the arrangement of the cushions and the tea service with critical eyes. They were too occupied to notice Ember and Frost. Which was good, because Frost’s spines had started to flick nervously and if they saw that they would tell Rill and no one would believe she was grown enough to be a real daughter queen.
Ember led her into Pearl’s bower. Some warriors were there, and so was Gold, the teacher who was best at making jewelry. She was sorting through a pile of polished gems with silver settings, choosing pieces for Pearl to wear. Pearl was curled on a cushion near the hearth. Everyone looked up at Ember and Frost.
The first time Frost had seen Pearl was burned into her brain, when Moon had told them to run and Frost had known the Fell would kill him, when suddenly Pearl and Jade had slammed down out of the sky to rescue them all. But seeing her here, resting in her bower with warriors and Arbora in attendance, Frost remembered being brought to her birthqueen’s bower to listen to the Arbora read stories, and the scents came back to her, of the court and the members of their mingled bloodlines who she would never see again. She couldn’t do anything but stand there and hold on to Ember. He nudged her forward, gently.
Frost gathered herself. “Reigning queen, I—” Her voice came out high and squeaky, and she had to force it lower. “I want to be at the meeting with you. Jade isn’t here. I want to be—Like a daughter queen.” She gave up and stood there miserably. The prepared speech in her head sounded much better; she had no idea how it had come out that way.
Everyone looked at Pearl. Her spines flicked in annoyance, which Frost didn’t think was a good sign. She looked over Frost’s head, at Ember, then down at Frost. Frost’s spines tensed and she braced herself.
Then Pearl said, “Your behavior has not always warranted such favors.”
Frost felt her spines sink. Then Pearl added, “But Blossom has told me how much you’ve improved. If you can keep quiet, and speak only when you’re spoken to, you may stay.”
So not long later, Frost sat on a cushion next to Celadon, with Bone, Heart, Bell, and Knell, all watching Pearl as they waited for the other queens. Frost’s frills were still wet because once Pearl had given her permission to stay, Gold had hauled Frost over to the bathing pool at the back of Pearl’s bower and made her wash all over. Mindful of staying on her best behavior, Frost hadn’t even protested that she was already clean. Frost had put on all her good jewelry back in the nurseries, but Gold had made her take off two bracelets and had quickly polished the copper disks of her necklace for her. Then Gold had hugged her and whispered, “Your first time at a formal greeting! It’s so exciting!”
Frost was beginning to realize how lucky she was that Ember had caught her. It was better to have this given to her instead of trying to take it. Once the other queens came, she would have to move over to sit with the Arbora, but Celadon had said Frost could sit with her until they arrived.
The lights caught the polished blue stones of Celadon’s belt and necklace, and the deep green of her scales. She had three warriors with her, who waited in the back of the hall with Floret and the Indigo Cloud warriors. Celadon’s close resemblance to Moon was reassuring and Frost had already met her in the nurseries when Ember had brought her down to visit the new royal clutch. Celadon said, “I was much older than you when I went to my first formal meeting.”
Frost tried not to show how gratifying that was. “Was there a war with the Fell?”
“No.” Celadon’s spines flicked a little in amusement. “It was about trading ball fruit.” She looked down at Frost and said a little cautiously, “The Fell war happened when I was much younger.”
Frost said, “Moon told us. They came and killed everyone. It happened to us, too.”
Celadon squeezed her wrist. “It will never happen again.”
Frost’s spines flicked and her throat went dry suddenly. It won’t, it won’t happen again, she thought fiercely. She was bigger now, and she could fight them if they came to the nurseries. She leaned against Celadon’s solid warmth and thought, never again.
Bone was saying to Pearl, “Don’t forget to talk about supplies.”
Pearl tilted her head toward him. “Somehow I’ll manage to recall it, being reminded of it every other breath.”
Then Coil came in and whispered to Floret, and she told Pearl, “The other queens are coming.”
Frost had moved over to sit with the Arbora, and not long later, she was suppressing the urge to yawn. After getting through the greetings, they had been talking about supplies, the way Bone had wanted, and how many warriors each court would send to defend the Reaches. Frost hadn’t seen any of the queens before, except Zephyr of Sunset Water, who had come several times for trade visits. She was an older sister queen, with a strong build, her scales amber webbed with green. Flame of Ocean Winter sat beside her, and had light green scales with a silver web. Tempest of Emerald Twilight was the most intimidating, but also the youngest, the same age as Jade, with light blue scales and a gold web.