But this one had coppery skin and curling light-colored hair, a narrow face and eyes as brown as Blossom’s. It was wearing a scrap of cloth wrapped around its waist, like the kilts Arbora wore for outdoor work, but not well-made, and not decorated. Heart tried to conceal her surprise, though it was hard not to blink. She said, “You’re half-Fell.” It wasn’t what she had been expecting. Lithe’s groundling form looked no different from any other Arbora and her scaled form was a combination of Fell and Raksura. But there had been nothing unusual about the dakti’s scaled form.
It said, “How did you guess?” Heart bared her teeth, fairly sure it would understand the gesture. It dropped its gaze, its brows drawing together. “I meant, what do I look like? Like you, a mentor?”
Now Heart understood. “An Arbora.” She hesitated. “You haven’t seen many Raksura.”
“Not close,” it said. “Our consort, your consort. Your warriors. The blue queen, the gold queen. The big green-black queen.” It shuddered, apparently at the memory of Malachite. “Not the Arbora, unless from a great distance.” It gave her another sideways look. “You.”
The Fell queen had tried to take Moon in the sel-Selatra. Malachite had told them about it, but it hadn’t seemed real until now. A ball of rage built in Heart’s chest, so intense it seemed to be coming from outside her body, from her connection to the court. She ground out the words, “You tried to take our consort.”
The dakti pulled back and stared at her. It said, “It was a mistake. I told her. She knows, now.” It added, “She was afraid that she couldn’t keep us alive without help.”
If Malachite felt a tenth of what Heart felt, Heart couldn’t believe she had left the Fellborn queen alive. She said, “Don’t make mistakes.”
“Raksura are always angry,” the dakti said, and tried a small smile.
“Because Fell exist,” Heart said.
The dakti regarded her a moment, then sighed. “I’m First.”
Heart tried to parse that and couldn’t. “What?”
“My name,” it said. “I’m First. I was first, the first one born.” It tilted its head at her. “It wasn’t easy, until Consolation came.”
Heart drew breath to speak, and the words fled. The vision struck her like a blow to the face.
She came out of it to warm sunlight and a circle of agitated dakti. Consolation knelt in front of her, pointing at First, still crouched worriedly next to Heart. “What did you do? Tell me exactly,” Consolation demanded.
“It wasn’t him,” Heart gasped. “I had—I saw—It was a vision.” She wasn’t certain how much Fell knew about mentor’s sight. None of the half-Fell in this flight appeared to have inherited any mentor abilities. They were falling, all falling, and something tremendous fell with them, and there was burning ice, and fire burning through scales, and nothing could stop it. “Something terrible is about to happen. Merit’s there.” She had a clear sense of him through the vision. “Jade’s there. And Stone, and Moon.”
The dakti stirred in alarm. Consolation’s spines flicked wildly. First said, “And someone else? Who else is there?”
“The warriors are there, others . . .” The brilliant images slipped away. She shook her head. “I don’t know, I don’t know.”
Consolation stared at First, and it stared back, its brow knit in consternation.
Then a dakti landed with a thump on the ground behind Consolation. She flinched around, suddenly on her feet. All the others twitched.
The newly arrived dakti pointed to the east. Consolation turned to the others. “They’re coming,” she hissed. The dakti scrambled into position and First shifted back to its scaled form. Heart almost shifted with it, then remembered not to just in time.
As Consolation moved away, Heart spotted the dark shapes against the blue of the sky, arrowing down toward them. She shuddered and wiped at her face. She was sweating all over her groundling skin, but the chill she felt went bone deep. At least she was going to look convincingly distraught for the progenitor.
Two kethel landed on the outer edge of the ruin. Then a scatter of dakti and rulers. Then a huge dark figure dropped to the ground in front of Consolation.
Terror seized Heart like a predator’s teeth. She froze, her chest too tight to breathe. There was no mistaking the progenitor, though Heart had never seen one before. She was larger even than Malachite, maybe at least a head taller and more broad, the largest progenitor Heart had ever heard of. Her scales were as black as the rulers, but with a softer texture, and she held her leathery wings angled back.
Heart thought, you’re just here to look like a terrified captive, remember that. She shouldn’t have any trouble playing that part. But something built behind her eyes, a confused urge to flee or throw herself at the progenitor’s throat, and she struggled to control herself.
The progenitor didn’t seem to notice anything except the Fell queen, but Heart knew she was aware of every movement. The progenitor didn’t make a gesture, but one of her kethel turned suddenly and plunged into the pool. It sloshed through the stagnant water, searching, then turned and flung itself out. It shook itself, sending torn vines and waterweeds flying. Heart kept her gaze on the ground. Malachite had said the Fell would be alert for that deception. Beside her, First made a restless movement.
The kethel settled into a guard position. The progenitor said in Raksuran, “The little abomination knows where a colony is.” The progenitor’s gaze fell on Heart, pretending to notice her for the first time. “The little abomination has a captive.”
Fell always spoke in the language of their prey, and the progenitor’s attention made Heart’s skin creep.
“Proof I don’t lie,” Consolation said. The kethel behind Heart stirred restlessly. Consolation added, “Don’t come any closer.”
The progenitor’s gaze fixed on Consolation. “Stupid to take an Arbora. They will know you are close.”
“They know you’re close,” Consolation retorted. “You’re all over the fields.”
There was a moment of silence. Heart realized the progenitor was trying to impose herself on Consolation’s mind, the way the rulers could on groundlings and unlucky Raksura. Consolation didn’t look away, but she let out a bored hiss. “Satisfied?”
The progenitor drew back as if repulsed. “Abomination.”
Consolation’s spines moved and she made a noise that might have been a laugh. “That’s what my mother said before I killed her.”
Heart bit the inside of her cheek and thought Careful. They didn’t want the progenitor’s mind to go to traps. Beside Heart, First’s claws sunk into the moss, a gesture of anxiety that Heart fully sympathized with.
The progenitor apparently decided there was no point in more games. “Tell us where the colony is.”
Consolation shook her mane of frills. “You haven’t heard what I want. You agree first.”
“I don’t bargain with an abomination.”
Consolation stared at her, her spines trembling. She turned abruptly. “We’re going.” First reached for Heart’s arm. She twitched away from him in startled reflex.
The progenitor didn’t betray any anger. “You play with us like prey.”
Consolation snarled, “I want what I want. You give it to me or I don’t give you what I have.”
The silence stretched. Two of the progenitor’s rulers moved forward to flank her, the dakti and kethel drawing closer. The kethel behind Heart reared up. She felt it towering over her and quailed convincingly, though she was mostly relieved. The Fell had finally been lured into the right positions.