It was a queen, a queen bigger even than Stone’s shifted form, her outspread wings stretched across the walls to circle the entire hall, finally meeting tip to tip. Her carved scales glinted faintly in the dim light, and as Moon moved closer he saw they were set with polished sunstones.
High above her head there was another open gallery. The rooms off this level had to be the bowers and halls for the reigning queen and her sisters, and he was guessing that the level directly above was for the consorts.
The gallery was a little high, but Moon crouched and made the leap up, caught the ridged edge, and swung up onto the floor.
The open space was ringed with doorways into a series of interconnected rooms. Moon shifted back to groundling, and wandered through the empty spaces, finding bower beds, heating basins, and dry fountainpools, easily deep and wide enough for swimming. He found a couple of small stairways that led to the queens’ chambers just below, and then another one that seemed to wind down a long way, probably to join the main stairs in the central well. There was an opening to the outside somewhere, because the air moved with the rush of wind, damp and fresh. With the place cleaned and swept, with warming stones and running fountains, furs, and rich fabrics, it would be ridiculously comfortable. Moon couldn’t imagine being born into this kind of luxury.
In a room against the outer trunk, he finally found Stone. He stood at a big round opening to the outside, looking out into the rainy gloom. The opening had a heavy wooden sliding door, like the one they had found on the lower entrance. Stone must have opened it, dislodging the dirt and rotting leaves now scattered across the floor.
Moon stepped up beside him. A giant branch blocked the view directly overhead, but the doorway looked down on the platforms far below, now sodden under the pouring rain. In the failing light, he could just make out the old irrigation channels and ponds filling up, making a ghost outline of the gardens that had once been there.
Stone didn’t look around. His expression was, as usual, hard to read. He said, “It feels… wrong. It’s too quiet.”
The rain was a rushing din, but that wasn’t the kind of noise he meant. Moon said, “It’s not quiet downstairs.” He leaned against the wall beside the opening. The air smelled rich with the rain, the dark earth, and loam. “Were you here when they built… grew this place?”
His eyes still on the drowning gardens, Stone’s brow furrowed. “I’m not that old.”
Thunder rumbled, not quite close enough to make Moon twitch. “But you lived here.”
“For a while. I was a boy when Indigo and Cloud led the court away.” From his expression, it was hard to tell if it was a good memory or a bad one. “I was too young and stupid to see it as anything but an adventure.”
Then these rooms had been filled with light and life, when there had been so many Raksura here they had had to leave for more open territory. It had to be strange to see it like this, dark and empty, scented of nothing but must and stale water. Moon had never gone back to a place he had lived before, unless he counted the Cordans’ camp, and he hadn’t felt anything there except impatience.
Still lost in memory, Stone added, “No one ever thought I’d get a queen, but Azure picked me out of the lot.”
Moon frowned at him. “Why didn’t they think you’d get a queen?”
Stone tapped his cheek, below his clouded right eye. He said, dryly, “I wasn’t born perfect.”
Moon had always thought that was a fighting injury, like the rest of Stone’s scars. He knew consorts often went to other courts; Stone had been trying to get one from Star Aster when he had found Moon. But he supposed another court wouldn’t want an imperfect consort either. “What do consorts do, when they can’t get a queen?”
Stone thought about it for a long moment. “It depends on the court. Here… it wouldn’t have been so bad. All the benefits of being a consort, and none of the responsibilities.”
Moon was still working out what he felt about the benefits and responsibilities of being a consort. Before Jade, he would have been more than happy with the less complicated life of a warrior; all he had ever wanted was a place to live. Finding a place to live without having to hide what he was had been a completely unexpected turn of luck. But he could imagine how someone raised with the idea that the point of his life was to be a queen’s mate and to make clutches would see things differently. “That could seem… pointless.”
Stone didn’t look away from the ruined gardens. “It depends what you make of it.”
Thunder crashed, near enough to send a tremble through the wood underfoot, and Moon flinched back from the flash.
Stone glanced at him, lifting a brow. Moon was prepared for some sort of remark, but all Stone did was drop a hand on the back of Moon’s neck and shake him—affectionately, not hard enough to rattle his teeth. “Let’s go.”
Stone shoved the door into place, slid the bolts home, and they made their way down again. They took the long stairways through the silent spaces, since Stone didn’t seem to want to shift. The light-shells had been sporadically lit, giving glimpses of balcony-bowers hanging out over circular wells, dry fountains and pools, and carvings of Aeriat, Arbora, strange plants and animals mixed in with the more familiar. Much of it was inlaid with polished shell or glittering stones, or clear crystal. The singing had died away. Most of the court must have settled into sleep.
When they reached the greeting hall they found Knell sitting at the hearth with the other soldiers. He nodded to Stone. “The hunters are at the stair just below the teachers’ bowers, with Pearl and some warriors. Jade’s just below us, outside the nurseries.”
Stone looked around the hall thoughtfully. “I’ll come back up later and sleep here.”
Moon saw the flicker of relief cross Knell’s face. This was the only entrance they had found so far that wasn’t sealed, and if anything was going to object to their presence, it would probably choose to enter that way. Stone would be a big deterrent.
They took the stairs down to the teachers’ hall. Vine, Floret, and Sand had joined the others there, all in groundling form, and settled into a pile of bedding on the other side of the chamber. Root, demonstrating a youthful lack of nerves, was already curled up asleep.
Sand had always been in Jade’s camp, but Moon had thought Vine and Floret were closer to Pearl. Either they had changed their allegiance or they were just here to help guard this side of the nurseries and the Arbora’s bowers. It made him a little edgy not to know.
Moon sat down on one side of the hearth. Stone took the other and settled into place with a groan. Flower dipped cups of tea out of the steaming pot for them, asking Stone, “Are you all right?”
He gave her a sour look. “I’m old.”
Flower smiled. “We’d noticed.”
Jade came in from the passage, and Chime asked her, “Are we settled for now?”
“Finally.” Jade shook out her head frills and shifted to Arbora. “Everyone is convinced that we need daylight to finish exploring, and we need rest before we make plans and argue about where to put everything.”
Song said, “Your consort got your bed ready.”
Lifting his cup, Moon froze, self-conscious. He had made the sleeping place without even thinking about it. When he and Jade had flown to the east together, they had quickly got into the habit of taking turns, one finding and preparing a place to sleep and the other hunting for food. Aboard the flying ship, he had been recovering from his injuries and staying in a cabin with the mentors and Chime, who had been taking care of him. He realized he had no idea how to live with Jade inside a colony, and he kept running into subtleties of Raksuran behavior that he had no idea how to react to. He knew the others were staring at him, and made himself take a sip of tea as if nothing was wrong.