Stone was not pleased. “And mentors. As if we don’t have enough Arbora running wild out here.”
Moon would hardly describe what Bramble and Merit had been doing as running wild, but Stone clearly wanted a post-battle argument and Moon had no intention of giving him one. He nodded toward the Solkis. “The mentors can help with their wounded.”
“We asked, they said no,” Kalam said, clearly not happy with the answer. He wiped a smudge of singed moss off his face. “It’s stupid.”
“It’s Solkis,” Rorra said with a glare at the boat. She asked Stone, “How did you get them to stop shooting so the Raksura could come in?”
“Took Thiest off the Fell ruler that had her.” Stone’s gaze was on the flying boat. Thiest strode across the cabin roof to stamp out another smoking patch of moss. “I wasn’t sure if she’d keep her word.”
That was a frightening thought. Moon rubbed his face, realizing he felt a little dizzy. He probably wasn’t as recovered as he thought he was. Then Kalam pointed and said, “Look!”
Moon braced for more Fell. But a large Kishan flying boat loomed into view over the treetops. It was built more like Callumkal’s ill-fated craft, with the ridge up the center. There were two more flying boats much higher in the air, their course intended to flank the emplacement.
“Reinforcements,” Rorra muttered. “This could be good or bad for us.”
A figure came out of the tower doors, the warriors parting for him with only a few growls, and Moon was startled to recognize Kethel. The skin of his chest now had a rippling scar pattern from the healed burns, but he didn’t move like he was hurt or ill. He was wearing a braided cord like the dakti, but his was blue and brown.
“You live,” he said to Moon. He glanced at Stone. “Old consort.”
Stone eyed him. “So you found your flight.”
Kethel scratched the scars on his chest. “It was easy. They were following a lot of Raksura.”
Moon knew what he wanted to say and there was no point in delaying. “I’m sorry I nearly got you killed. It was a bad idea.”
“I’m not dead. I had the bad idea too.” Kethel appeared unbothered by the whole thing. “She thanks you.”
Moon hadn’t seen the half-Fell queen, but she had to be here somewhere. “For what?”
“For not killing me.” Kethel squinted up at the top of a tower. Moon followed his gaze. A number of dakti huddled in the lee of the roof, out of sight of the groundlings, with some Opal Night warriors perched beside them. The braided cords were bright against their black scales. Kethel added, “She would tell you herself, but the big queen will kill her if she speaks to you.”
Moon could imagine. “What are you going to do now? Chase more Fell flights?”
Moon had never seen a Fell look happy before, so it was something of a shock to realize that was the expression on Kethel’s face. Kethel said, “The big queen has said we can have a place to live. A big tree.”
“A big—” Moon bit his lip, turning that thought over. “That . . . will be interesting.”
“In the Reaches?” Stone said, floored. “What have they been doing while I was gone?”
As Moon carried Ceilinel down the stairs, Jade turned to Pearl. “I need to speak to both of you in private.” She knew she should ask to speak to Malachite alone, but even after all the turns of aggravation and distrust in their relationship, Pearl was still her birthqueen and Jade wanted her here.
Malachite eyed her without any hint of expression in her face or spines, then flicked her claws. All the Opal Night warriors leapt, scrambled, climbed, or bolted out of the room.
Pearl’s spine flare and eye roll said eloquently what she thought of this display. She turned to Floret, “Take everyone outside.”
Floret gathered the Indigo Cloud warriors with a glance and they dropped down the stairwell. Jade saw Serene cast a worried glance back at her and tried not to react. Then the warriors were gone and they were left alone in the stink of Fell and dead groundlings.
Malachite nudged the dead progenitor with a thoughtful claw, then fixed her gaze on Jade. “We had word of how Moon was injured, lost, and taken away by groundlings.”
Jade’s jaw tightened. “How?”
Pearl said, “The half-Fell flight is with us. The kethel that followed Moon and Stone rejoined it some days ago, and we had its story from Consolation.” Pearl watched her critically, with a trace of impatient confusion in the line between her scaled brows. “I assume you retrieved your consort since he was just here. What is it? Just tell me, you know how I get.”
The Kethel obviously didn’t know about the bargain Lavinat had offered Jade, anymore than Moon did. The urge to pretend she had nothing else to say was for a heartbeat overwhelming; but Balm and Stone and River and the others knew. Shade, as close and loyal to Malachite as if she was his bloodline birthqueen, knew. And Jade couldn’t ask them all to lie for her.
Jade didn’t clear her throat though it felt like there were ashes on her tongue. “The Kethel told you about the weapon, how he and Moon were trapped by the Hian groundlings?” When Pearl flicked her spines in assent, she continued, “The Hian leader offered me a choice: if I let her use the weapon, she would spare Moon. I could save my consort or I could save the Reaches. I chose the Reaches.”
Malachite made a noise, a huff of breath like something had punched her in the chest. Pearl met Malachite’s gaze, and for once there was nothing of irony in her expression. The silence went on long enough that Jade was tempted to attack one of them just to break it. Then Malachite whipped away and was suddenly on the other side of the chamber, facing the stairwell, breathing hard.
Pearl let out a breath, but there was nothing tense in her demeanor. She seemed more resigned than anything else. With a sense of shock, Jade recognized Pearl’s I hate dealing with your emotions face. Pearl said, “We were on the fringe of the Reaches, fighting the Fell, when it happened. We saw it come over them in the wetlands, and Heart said it was a wave of death. We fled and it stopped in the fringe.”
“So close?” Jade managed. Cold prickled her spines. If she had stood in that chamber for another moment of indecision, if she had tried to bargain for Moon, the weapon’s effect would have spread further across the Three Worlds. It might have killed Pearl and Heart and everyone with them. How many more moments until it would have reached Indigo Cloud and the other courts of the eastern Reaches? It had been an excruciating decision but she had thought it the right one. Now she knew it was, but it didn’t help. She turned to Malachite. “Even if you kill me, believe there was nothing else I could have done.”
“She’s not going to kill you and spoil all this fun we’ve had,” Pearl said, dryly. Malachite turned her head enough to give Pearl a look that would have dropped a warrior dead on the spot. Pearl barred her fangs in amusement, then told Jade, “Go now and make sure the warriors aren’t doing anything stupid.”
Jade took a half-step away, the accord between Pearl and Malachite enough to make her reel. Then Malachite’s voice rasped out, “Does Moon know?”
Jade’s whole body went cold with dread. She made herself say evenly, “No.” It came to her that it would be better if Malachite knocked her across the room. This restraint was somehow more devastating. She wanted to say, “I’ll tell him,” but the words dried up in her throat.
Pearl flicked her spines in a clear order to go, and Jade went.
The flying boats had dropped to approach low over the treetops, so it was hard to see any detail from this angle. “We’re going to have to leave soon,” Moon told Stone.
Stone threw an impatient glance toward the tower and growled with annoyance. “When they’re done.”