“Good, then we can get this over with,” Stone said, and stretched.
There was a cough outside the door, and Vata said in Kedaic, “If you need anything, please ask.”
“Food and tea?” Moon asked, remembering the others had had a long day looking for him. “Like what you brought me at Ceilinel’s house.”
Vata seemed relieved at the commonplace request. “How much?”
Moon eyed Stone. “A lot.”
Vata withdrew hurriedly. Rorra sat down heavily on the bed and took out the fabric map again. Moon crawled over to look over her shoulder as she estimated distance on it with her fingers. The scrawled writing on the cloth was in a language he didn’t recognize, and Moon wondered if she had been keeping track of her route since she had first left Kedmar with Callumkal. She said, “The question is, did Malachite encounter Fell on the way to the Reaches and stop to attack them, or did she pursue them from the Reaches, or is this an entirely different group of Raksura and Fell?”
Stone sat down on her other side. “Sounds like too many warriors to be the first option. I’m betting on the second.” Then he leaned over and nipped Rorra on the ear.
Rorra smiled at her map, distracted. Deciding to leave them to the conversation and whatever else they were going to do, Moon rolled off the bed and headed for the innermost chamber.
From that window he could see Jade and Kalam with Ceilinel, Gathin, and a Jandera. Everything looked calm, and Kalam gestured toward the Hians emphatically. It was tempting to stand here and watch the activity in the dock, but being horizontal again was also tempting, and Moon fell into the bed.
The next time he woke late afternoon light streamed in through the window, and the warm body against his back was Stone’s.
Moon shoved upright. Stone growled in his sleep but didn’t wake. The boat was moving and he climbed to his feet and padded across the floor to the window. The sky was streaked with clouds and the wind scented with distant rain and dust. They were traveling over lush open country marked by long stretches of planted fields, gardens, and orchards. In the distance were the tall conical rooftops of a small settlement, partially shielded by a stand of trees.
Stone had rolled over and buried his face in the cushions, suggesting he wasn’t planning on getting up anytime soon. Moon went through to the next cabin and found Kalam asleep on that bed, and Rorra sitting on the floor, cleaning a disassembled moss weapon. Her boots were off, and her legs were folded, the stump at the end of her right leg propped on the remaining fin on her left. Moon asked, “Where’s Jade?”
“She’s asleep in the front room.” Rorra glanced up at him, brow furrowed. “Are you all right? You slept like a dead body.”
“Sure.” He was still achy in places, and the burns still pulled at the muscles in his chest, but it was an improvement over the last couple of days. He stretched, wincing as his back protested.
Moon went into the front room and found Jade curled asleep on the bed in her Arbora form, her spines softened in sleep. His first impulse was to get in with her, but empty plates were stacked near the doorway and a carafe with some tea still in it sat on a low table. Moon had drained it and set it with the other empty dishes when Jade suddenly sat bolt upright, spines flared, already shifted to her winged form.
She stared at him as if she thought she was dreaming, then slumped back on the bed, burying her face in her hands. Moon went to sit beside her, asking, “Are you all right?” She didn’t look all right.
“I’m fine. Just tired of talking to groundlings.” She slid an arm around his waist, but he could sense the tension in her muscles.
He leaned into her warmth. There were things he wanted to talk about, like what had happened in the forerunner ruin, and where the wind-ship might be now, and how likely it was that Malachite was involved with these Raksura chasing Fell on the Kish border. But her scent overwhelmed him and all he wanted to do was nuzzle her neck. She didn’t react, except to squeeze his waist.
There was a cough and an embarrassed rustle from the door. Vata, who must have been hovering in the corridor waiting for signs of life, said, “Ceilinel would like to speak to you, please.”
It took them a while, since Stone and Kalam were slow to wake and everyone needed a little time in the bathing room, but Vata made it clear the summons wasn’t urgent. They hadn’t brought Moon’s pack from the wind-ship, so he was wearing the clothes he had left Ceilinel’s house in. Stone was still wearing the drylands robe over his own clothes. Rorra apologized for her scent and not having time to wash her clothes, and Moon managed not to tell her it was all right because she mostly smelled like Stone.
Vata led them up the spiral stair and forward down a corridor to a steering cabin. It had large windows giving it a good view off the bow, and from its position the two forward fire weapon emplacements must be atop it. Two doors opened to the main deck and the breeze, heavily scented with wet foliage and loam, was cool and welcoming. They were passing over scattered trees and gardens around another small settlement, but a river gleamed in the distance with a heavy jungle beyond it.
Three crew members operated an elaborate set of steering levers at the back of the cabin. Near the front, Ceilinel waited with a tall, heavily muscled Solkis. Ceilinel greeted them all formally, then said, “This is Captain Thiest. She has fought Fell before, mostly along the Karad border.”
“It was some turns ago,” Thiest said, her expression cool. She nodded to Jade. “The two males are also Raksura?”
Jade’s spines, which had been resting at neutral, twitched in pure irritation. Rorra made an annoyed snorting noise. Her Kedaic icily correct, Jade said, “They are consorts.”
Thiest said, “May I be permitted to see their other forms?”
Silence radiated off Jade in a cold wave, and her spines started to lift and spread. Ceilinel’s brow was beginning to furrow and she said, “Perhaps this is not permitted.”
“Jade.” Moon said in Raksuran, “She’s trying to provoke you to see if you can be provoked.”
“I know that,” Jade said, tightly, in the same language.
Kalam said, “I know it seems like a rude request,” this was pointedly aimed toward Thiest, “but maybe it would help. All this talk of the resemblance of Raksura to Fell rulers is exaggerated.”
“I agree,” Rorra added.
Stone hadn’t reacted. He said, in Kedaic, “I wouldn’t fit in this room.”
Thiest’s mouth drew down, as if she suspected it was a bad joke. Ceilinel explained, “He is a line-grandfather, and his other form is . . . very large.”
This was getting ridiculous, and Moon was torn between just shifting and possibly making Jade even angrier than she already was, or standing here while the tension with Thiest grew. He wished he had shifted earlier, before it became a battle of wills between Jade and the Solkis captain. Finally Jade said in Raksuran, “Moon, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
Moon shifted, snapped his spines out and partially extended his wings, then furled them.
Thiest blinked, though Moon couldn’t tell if she was impressed or not. She said, “I see. Thank you.”
Impatiently, Ceilinel said, “Now that that’s done, can we move on?” She turned to Jade. “We wished to speak with you about the Hians, and what they did in the floating ruin to cause the deaths in Jandera.”
Jade flicked a look at Moon and said in Raksuran, “Go out on deck.” Her gaze went to Stone, but she didn’t say anything. Stone was wearing his opaque face.
Moon didn’t want them to look any worse in front of Thiest than they already did, so he shifted to groundling and went out on deck. Stone followed, and after a moment so did Kalam. They leaned on the railing in the bright sunlight as the Solkis on watch in the bow and the fire weapon stations studied them with wary hostility. “Rorra made me leave,” Kalam reported, sounding annoyed. “She says I’m too emotional. I don’t know what they could say that I shouldn’t hear; I’ve been with all of you almost the whole time.”