Moon said to the young woman, “You have to leave now. Do you have somewhere to go? Your family’s house, maybe?”
She stared at him in confusion, the light blue skin around her eyes bruised with weeping. But some of the panic in her face subsided. If she had met Rift, she had to know Raksura could look like groundlings, but maybe she was only seeing Moon as a slender young man in dark clothing, and not a potential monster. Or maybe what he had said was so far from her worst fear that it had shocked her back to her senses. She said, hesitantly, “May I take anything?”
“Sure.” Moon figured she would probably need money. She glanced at the chest and Moon saw jewelry spilled across the top, silver chains with polished gemstones. He said, “Take all that.”
Moon waited while the woman and the two servants hurriedly swept the jewelry into a bag and collected clothing and a few other possessions. The activity seemed to calm them down, and he ended up helping one of the children extract a cloth doll from under the bed. He led them out to the foyer, where the woman flinched at the sight of the lurking Raksura, who all fled up the stairwell when Moon grimaced at them.
He shepherded the groundlings down the stairs, through the lower exhibit hall. Stone, in his groundling form, was standing beside the passage to the outer doors. The adults avoided looking at him, as if they were afraid to see some outward sign of what he was. But the children stared curiously, and Stone quirked a smile at them as they passed.
Moon pushed the outside door open for them. The sun was shining, the miasma that usually hung over the leviathan torn away when the creature had jolted into motion. The plaza and the surrounding walkways were empty, though somewhat protected from the rush of wind. The woman blinked at the daylight as if she had never expected to see it again. Moon said, “Will you be all right?”
“It’s not far,” she said, automatically. Then she focused on him, her eyes intent. “Thank you.”
He shrugged uneasily. “It wasn’t your fault.”
She nodded tightly, then turned away. He watched the little group walk away across the plaza and take a path toward the nearest cluster of towers.
Moon went back inside, and helped Stone pull the door shut and lever the locks and bars into place again.
As they came back out into the exhibit hall, Jade leapt down from the gallery. She caught Moon by the shoulders, her expression worried and preoccupied. “Moon, you should rest. We’ll need you when the groundlings are ready to talk. We can’t try to get to the harbor until after nightfall, anyway.”
That was true. They needed to make a plan to reach the harbor and steal back Negal’s flying boat. Moon considered it, wavering back and forth, then thought, Why not? He might as well give in to his consort’s privilege to rest while everybody else was working. “All right.”
Jade pointed him toward the back corridor of the tower. “Go back there. Flower is resting and Chime’s watching over her.”
Moon found his way toward the back of the first floor of the tower, to what must be the servants’ and guards’ quarters. A short stair led up to a big common room. There were thin rugs, not nearly as nice as the ones upstairs, padded benches, and a few stray floor cushions. A couple of narrow corridors and several small rooms opened off it. He looked into the first room to see Flower lying on the bed with Chime sitting beside her. She was in groundling form, curled around a pillow with the seed tucked under her arm; she looked tiny and almost withered. “Is she all right?” Moon whispered. She looked terrible.
Chime glanced up, his expression uneasy. “I don’t know. She’s just so tired. Rift is showing Root where the food is kept. I was going to try to get her to eat.”
Without moving, Flower hissed, “Both of you, hush.”
Moon hastily backed away. He went to one of the padded benches in the common room and sat down, then lay down for a moment to rest his eyes.
He wasn’t aware of falling asleep, though he was dimly aware of the others coming and going through the room, or lying down to sleep on the floor. He smelled dried fish at one point, but was too tired to wake and look for his share. Then he woke abruptly, with Song leaning over him. She was in her groundling form, and her expression was anxious and a little frightened. “Moon. Flower says it’s time.”
Moon blinked, having trouble dragging himself out of sleep. “Time for what?”
Song seemed startled to be asked. “She’s dying.”
That jolted him fully awake. He sat up, pushed to his feet, and followed Song into the bed chamber.
Flower still lay on the bed, propped up on some cushions. Her eyes were closed, and her skin looked almost translucent under the vapor-light. Jade sat beside her, in her Arbora form, her spines twitching anxiously. Stone stood nearby, the seed absently tucked under one arm. Chime sat on the floor by the head of the bed, hunched in misery. The other warriors were gathered around in groundling form, all grim and sad.
Jade glanced up as Moon came in. Keeping her voice low, she said, “Sorry. I would have sent for you sooner, but she wasn’t sure until just now.” She looked around, taking stock of who was here. “Root, Vine is guarding the outer door. Go take his place so he can have a chance to see her. Hurry.”
As Root darted out of the room, Stone sat down on the bed. He touched Flower’s limp hand, but she didn’t stir.
“What’s wrong?” Moon asked. Nobody seemed to be doing anything. “What happened to her?”
Balm said softly, “Nothing. It’s her age, it’s caught up with her.”
Moon couldn’t believe that they were just standing here. It had to be some stupid Raksuran custom, maybe because there was no other mentor to help her. Chime might have an ability to sense things about the leviathan and Ardan’s magic, but he couldn’t use mentor skills to heal anymore. Moon said, “Karsis is a healer. Let me get her.”
With a trace of impatience, Jade said, “Moon, it’s no use. It’s Flower’s time.”
Moon bit back his first angry response. He had to convince them that a groundling healer would be better than nothing, and losing his temper wouldn’t help. “It doesn’t have to be.”
Flower spoke, her voice a bare whisper, “Moon doesn’t know.”
Jade frowned and shook her head slightly, not understanding. Chime looked up at Moon then, blinking, startled. The other warriors stared at him, confused. Stone winced, but didn’t look away from Flower. Frustrated, Moon said, “Know what?”
Chime said, slowly, “She’s been dying. We’ve known for most of the turn. Since before you came.”
Stunned, Moon looked around at the others. It was in all their expressions. This hadn’t been a surprise to anyone but him. He sank down on the end of the bed. “How did you know?”
“When her skin and her scales lost all their color, it’s the sign. It means your time is coming…” Jade said, then hissed in realization. “But you didn’t know that.”
Moon couldn’t answer. Of course he hadn’t known. Before Indigo Cloud, all the Raksura he had known had died by being torn apart by Tath, not from old age.