Lithe slipped up beside Moon, and he put an arm around her. Rorra shivered, her face pinched with cold, and Moon remembered that her clothes had always been much heavier than the Kish-Jandera’s. She stood next to Stone, leaning on him.
“I wanted to make certain before I told you,” Dranam said, “but the Hians are slowing down. I think we’re only a few hours behind them at most. I can’t be more exact.”
Jade sat on her heels to look and for once Dranam didn’t try to unobtrusively edge away. Jade’s claw tapped the point Diar had marked on the mostly empty chart. “Can you show me how far this is? Compared to how far we’ve come.”
Diar leaned forward to point. “It’s about as far as it was from the ruin to this point here, where that big waterfall was.”
Watching thoughtfully, Stone said, “We can reach that.”
Jade nodded and pushed to her feet. “I think it’s time we flew ahead.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It would be a long flight in cold weather, so they made some quick preparations first. Jade told everyone to eat, so they had some dried fruit and fish paste from the boat’s stores. Moon finished eating before the warriors and went to find his pack where it was stored in the sleeping cabin. He was bringing some food, a knife, a waterskin, flints, and a couple of extra blankets. Rorra was preparing some of the smaller fire weapons for the warriors to carry.
Kalam came in with a small pile of folded cloth. “Moon, please take these with you. For you or the others, or Jade, when she takes her smaller form.”
“Are you sure?” Moon asked, as Kalam sat on the floor beside him. “Don’t you need them?”
Kalam made a negative gesture. “Our clothes are mainly for show. Merit used some pots to make heat in the cabins for the Islanders, and they say they have enough blankets and clothing to stay warm.”
If the Raksura had to spend the night on one of those ice islands, more clothing to wrap up in wouldn’t hurt. Moon took the pile to hand out to the warriors, and asked, “Callumkal?”
“I think he’s better.” Kalam smiled a little wryly. “I know I keep saying that, but he swallowed water on his own and squeezed my hand. Ivar-edel thinks the poisons may be wearing off.”
“That’s good.”
They looked at each other for a moment, then Kalam reached over and squeezed Moon’s arm. “Be careful.”
Moon said, “We’ll try.” There wasn’t anything else to say.
Kalam left and Chime, Briar, and Saffron came in to make their own preparations. Bramble followed Jade, saying, “I know I could help. I know all about the Hians now. And I—”
“No,” Jade said. She took Bramble by the shoulders and said, “We don’t know what we’ll find and I don’t want to risk you. It’s bad enough that we have to bring Merit, but we may need both mentors.”
Bramble sagged in defeat. Then Root slammed into the cabin and demanded, “Why not me? I’m a better flyer than Chime, and I’ve been to more places than them.” He made a gesture toward Briar and Saffron. Briar, pulling on a borrowed Jandera jacket, turned and stared at him, startled. Saffron’s expression was already verging on the homicidal.
Chime was more shocked than offended and Bramble snarled. Moon hissed in reflex, too startled to do anything else. Root knew better than to speak to Jade like that.
Jade looked down at Root, her spines starting to spread and lift. Her voice hard, she said, “You’ve got your own behavior to blame for that. I can’t use a warrior who won’t obey.”
“I should be there.” Root barred his teeth. “I want to—”
Jade’s spines flared and she suddenly had Root pinned against the wall beside the door, her hand curled around his throat. He shifted to groundling, staring up at her, his eyes wide.
Briar and Saffron twitched back a step, Bramble flinched, and Chime made a squeak of alarm. Jade ignored them all, and said evenly, “Root, you need to think very carefully about your behavior, because I will not tolerate this.”
After a long moment, Root dropped his gaze and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Jade released her grip and moved back. “Go be sorry somewhere else.”
Root slipped out of the room. Saffron turned and busied herself with her pack while Chime and Briar stared uncomfortably at each other. Moon controlled a surge of fury; it was every Raksura in the eastern Reaches and beyond they were fighting for, but Root didn’t understand that. Maybe it was too much to get his head around and he was using Song as an excuse not to try. Whatever it was, they didn’t have time for it. He asked Jade, “Are you all right?”
She settled her spines. “It’s fine. We need to go.”
They took flight, following Dranam’s directions. As one of the stronger fliers, Moon kept to the back of the group, watching to make sure the warriors didn’t have any trouble with the harsh gusts of wind. He also wanted to keep an eye on the kethel, who trailed them at a distance. In a way it was a relief that it was following them. Moon wouldn’t have wanted to leave it on the boat with the groundlings and Bramble, with only the warriors left behind to guard them.
Before they left, Chime had said, “I’m hoping the Hians just stop out there. Maybe their moss will quit working, or they’re lost and wandering.”
Moon nodded, checking the fastening on his pack. “Sure.”
Chime sighed, his shoulders slumping. “But you don’t think so.”
No, Moon didn’t think so.
Jade had spoken last to Niran, Rorra, and Delin, telling them, “If it happens, if we don’t stop them, I think you’ll know immediately.”
She meant that the Raksura still onboard and the Jandera would drop dead. Moon was trying not to think about that. Just the idea made him want to minutely examine every sensation in his body, wondering if that was it or not. That was a quick way to drive yourself mad.
Delin stepped forward and took her hands, wrapping his soft-skinned fingers around her claws, and looked up at her. He said, “If it happens, we will not stop. We will take the artifact from them and find a way to destroy it.”
Niran had grimly agreed but Rorra had said, “It won’t happen. You’ll catch them.”
Moon hoped she was right.
The wind was rough at first, whisking away any warming effect that the bright sunlight on Moon’s scales might have. Lithe was being carried by Shade and Merit by Briar. Moon hoped they weren’t suffering too much in the cold; being carried was never easy but it was worse in bad weather.
Below them, the icy islands were further apart, but still seemed to form a loose spiral, if Moon wasn’t just seeing a pattern in a random arrangement. If it was really there, maybe the Hians had followed it to their destination, whatever it was.
As they flew, the islands grew more frequent and closer together. The larger ones were still surrounded by ice but shards and slopes of black rock were visible. They looked as cold and inhospitable as it was possible to be, but at least they were a place to land in an emergency.
It was late afternoon when Stone suddenly banked and turned aside. He’s spotted it, Moon thought, his heart starting to pound. Jade signaled the warriors to follow and they curved down toward a cluster of islands. Moon circled once, trying to glimpse what Stone had seen. He couldn’t make out the small flying boat but far ahead, there was a large gray shape on the water.
The others had gathered on an island, the warriors perched on the sharp columns of ice. Stone, shifted to groundling, stood on the gentlest slope with Jade. Moon rode a tricky draft down to the rocks below the slope and scrambled up to join them.