“Telling it to leave doesn’t really work,” Moon admitted. “And it’s hard to kill it when it’s just standing there looking at you. And it keeps talking.” He hesitated, then asked, “What did you think about that alliance, about what Malachite’s doing?” He wanted to ask what Shade thought of Consolation, if he and Lithe had seen her for themselves. There were other half-Fell at Opal Night, the rescued children of the Arbora who had been captured by the Fell at the same time as Moon and Shade’s father Dusk. But Moon was wondering if Shade would have felt any special connection to Consolation. Thinking about it, it felt like a completely stupid thing to ask. Shade was more of a Raksuran consort than Moon was.
From Shade’s expression he was contemplating a much more complicated question. “I don’t know. It’s not like I want the other half-Fell to be . . . If they’re really going to ally with us and help us . . .” He leaned heavily on the railing. “Lithe thinks it could work out for the best.”
“But you don’t want to be near Fell,” Moon guessed. Considering what had happened to Shade when they had been captured by the Fell flight northwest of the Reaches, it was only rational.
“No, I don’t.” He looked at Moon hopelessly. “Is that weak?”
Consorts were supposed to be weak and delicate and to need everything done for them, but Moon and Shade were different, and nothing was going to change that. And “weak” wasn’t really the right word for what Shade meant. What he was trying to say was harder to express. It was giving in to feelings other people thought you were supposed to have about things that shouldn’t have happened to you in the first place, but were not like the actual feelings you did have. There wasn’t a word for that in Raksuran or Altanic or Kedaic or any other language Moon knew. Moon said, “It’s not weak.”
The wind-ship moved out over the plain of gorges and the rushing sound of waterfalls became audible over the wind. The cliffs were thick with deep green foliage, and there was no sign of any other ruins. Shade twitched a little, and said, “I’m glad we have Dranam. At least we know where we’re going.”
Moon nodded. But they didn’t, though. They only knew the direction.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
In the Eastern Reaches
Heart waited in the greeting hall, trying not to pace. She was going with Pearl and Malachite to talk to their new half-Fell allies, and she was trying to pretend as if this didn’t frighten her. Though it wasn’t the idea of the half-Fell that was the problem. Malachite had made it clear most of the flight were Fell, subordinate to the half-Fell queen.
The shared dream and visions of Fell attack had been bad enough. Heart took a deep breath to calm herself. This was different.
“Are you all right, mentor?” Celadon asked her. The Opal Night daughter queen waited a few paces away with three of her warriors. Floret had just arrived with Vine and Sage and Malachite’s warriors. Celadon herself would remain behind, since leaving a court without a queen present just wasn’t a good idea, especially under these circumstances.
No one smelled as nervous as Heart, which didn’t help. She said, “I’m fine, thank you. It was just . . . I was held prisoner by the Fell once, when they attacked our court to the east. Moon saved us.”
Celadon’s spines flicked in sympathy. “I haven’t heard that story. Will you tell me when we get back?”
For some reason it was easier to remember that Malachite was Moon’s birthqueen than it was that this sober, capable daughter queen was his clutchmate. Distracted, Heart dipped her spines in assent. “I will.”
Heart sensed movement overheard and looked up in time to see Pearl and Malachite launch themselves off the queens’ hall terrace. Apparently they had solved the question of precedence by simply going at the same time, though Heart somehow doubted if Malachite cared. Heart said, tentatively, “They’re getting along very well.” She wasn’t sure Celadon and the Opal Night contingent understood what a revelation that was for Indigo Cloud.
Celadon lowered her voice. “No one speaks to Malachite like that, especially not another reigning queen. She’s enjoying it.”
The two queens landed on the greeting hall floor before Heart had a chance to take that statement in. Then Pearl said, “Come on, let’s get this travesty started.”
Heart clung to Vine as they flew through the cool damp air. It was a long trip but it had been a while since she had been flown through the Reaches, so she didn’t mind. The sunlight that streamed through all the thick layers of the canopy was soft and green. Platforms made by the wild mountain-trees’ branches were covered with lush grass, vines, and flowers. Many supported glades of smaller trees or the swampy overflow of water drawn up through the mountain-trees’ roots. Heart caught glimpses of a dozen different grasseaters and predators that lived on the platforms, including the mottled gray-green tree-frogs bigger than she was, too shy to come near the colony tree.
Some of the mountain-trees were in strange shapes, bending down or curving around other trees, some were hung with curtains of moss big enough to drape over Indigo Cloud’s main garden platforms. It was all a much-needed distraction, until Vine said in her ear, “We’re nearly there. Can you scent them?”
With her next breath Heart caught the Fell stench laced through the air. It was like a thread of bitter rot creeping through all the intense green and flower scents. She tried not to react, but she must have tensed, because Vine tightened his hold on her.
Pearl abruptly signaled a landing and they banked down to a platform heavily overgrown with vines and small, purple-fern trees. Vine said, “This is one of our outposts. Well, one of Opal Night’s outposts, but we helped.”
Heart’s eye caught movement, and she realized there were warriors and a few Arbora under the cover of the ferny leaves, waiting for the queens to land. Huge branches that had fallen down onto the platform had been hollowed out and made into shelters. Heart studied it avidly, trying to spot and memorize all the details. It was an excellent concealed camp, and Blossom and Rill and the other teachers would want to hear about every trick and technique.
Pearl and Malachite lit on the broken remnants of a fallen branch and the warriors followed them down. By the time they landed, a female Opal Night warrior was reporting to the queens. Heart only caught the last bit as Vine set her on her feet. “—more of them, maybe another flight.”
Malachite said, “I need to see for myself.” She tilted her head at Pearl.
Pearl twitched her spines in annoyed assent.
Heart steeled herself, set her jaw, and said, “I should see them. In case it sparks a vision.”
Malachite tilted her head at Pearl. Pearl considered it, her spines flicking. She said, “Come here, then. The rest of you wait here.”
It wasn’t long before Heart began to glimpse brighter sunlight between the branches and platforms ahead. “They won’t be close,” Pearl had told her, “but we need to be careful of dakti scouts.” As they drew nearer to the edge, Heart found herself taking a firmer grip on Pearl’s collar flanges. It was a different experience being carried by a queen of Pearl’s size. It was like being carried by Moon, whose easy, unexpected strength in flight was always surprising, and so different from the warriors. Pearl was like that, except her larger body was more reassuringly solid.
Finally Malachite lit on a large branch on a mountain-tree sapling just at the edge of the wetlands. Pearl cupped her wings to land beside her. She didn’t set Heart down immediately, and Heart found herself clinging like a baby. You’re a grown mentor, you can handle this, she told herself, trying to settle her nerves.