He was lying on a woven surface of leafy branches, more branches arching over him, latticed with big broad fern fronds. Chime lay beside him, sprawled on his back with one arm over his eyes. They were both in their groundling forms. The reason for the shelter was obvious; rain pattered gently on it. The light coming through the leaves was much darker, and it felt close to early evening. Moon rubbed his forehead, frowning. I don’t remember… anything. How they had gotten here, building the shelter, where here was.
Something stirred behind him; there was someone else in here with them. He managed to roll to his side and shove himself up on one arm.
A young warrior in groundling form sat near the mouth of the makeshift shelter. He was heavily built, with light copper skin and red-brown hair, and wore a faded gold vest and pants, and copper armbands with polished grey-white stones. Moon stared, trying unsuccessfully to recognize him.
Then the warrior smiled complacently and said, “Don’t be afraid.”
“What?” Instinctively, Moon tried to shift. But he felt the pressure, the constriction that halted the change, that meant there was a queen nearby deliberately preventing him from shifting. That doesn’t make sense… wait. Memory returned. The strange warriors. They drugged me. The liquid the warrior had thrown at him had been a simple to cause sleep. Moon snarled, lunged forward, and slammed the heel of his hand into the warrior’s face.
Moon had moved too quickly for the warrior to shift. He reeled back with a yelp and clutched his bloody nose. Moon shoved him aside, scrambled out of the shelter, and pushed to his feet.
They were on a platform high in the suspended forest, in a small camp in a clearing surrounded by fern tree saplings. The mountain-tree supporting the platform arched and twisted above them, the giant branches deflecting most of the rain, so it fell on them only as a light drizzle. There were two other shelters, just lean-tos, with warriors scattered around, all staring at Moon. He counted at least seven, all still in their winged forms. It looked like a semi-permanent camp. They had dug a small firepit in the center, and there was an embossed metal kettle on the coals. Then a queen stepped out from the shadow of one of the shelters. Moon had been half-expecting Ash, young, arrogant, foolishly persistent Ash. But it wasn’t her.
For a moment he thought it was Tempest. Her scales were the same light blue, the webbed overlay the same tint of gold. But this queen’s build was a little slighter, her features sharper. Moon tried to shift again, just on the off chance she would let him, but the pressure preventing him was still there.
She eyed the warrior with the bloody nose, who stumbled to his feet, then cocked her head speculatively at Moon. She said, “So that rumor about you being a fighter wasn’t all talk.”
Chime crawled out of the shelter, tried to stand, and sat down hard. He focused on Moon, and said, worried and wary, “What happened?”
Moon shook his head to show he had no idea. He asked the queen, “Who are you?” She hadn’t been introduced with the other queens at Emerald Twilight; he would have remembered her. Unless that was her out on the balcony when Ash fought Jade, and not Tempest. At that distance, it would have been hard to tell them apart. “You were with Ash, at Emerald Twilight?”
She inclined her head. “I’m surprised you noticed me. I’m Halcyon.”
Halcyon. From her appearance, and her name… “You’re Tempest’s clutchmate?”
“Yes. And I’m afraid I’m the one who provoked Ash to challenge your queen. It was her own impulse to confront you in the greeting hall, but I decided to make use of the opportunity. Ash has always been easily led.” Halcyon stepped toward him, casually rippling her spines to shed the rainwater. “And she’ll be blamed, when word of your disappearance is carried to Emerald Twilight.”
Moon’s head was beginning to clear, enough to realize just how much trouble they were in. Chime said, incredulously, “You’ve been out here all this time, waiting for us?”
“No, only for the past three days, since your line-grandfather stopped at Emerald Twilight,” Halcyon tilted her head, still studying Moon. “All we had to do was search the direct routes from the coast to Indigo Cloud.” She added, “You were easy to find, but we won’t be. We’re a half a day’s travel away from where my warriors found you, not in the direction of Emerald Twilight.”
They wouldn’t have caught us, if we hadn’t stopped for the rain. Moon bet Halcyon had forced her warriors to fly through it. “Why? What do you get out of this?” He couldn’t believe that besting Indigo Cloud, small and struggling as it was, would be any kind of triumph for an Emerald Twilight queen. And he couldn’t believe that an ex-feral consort from an unknown bloodline was that big a prize.
Halcyon took another step toward him. “Ice is nearing the end of her reign, and the last thing she wants is trouble from another court. She’ll have to punish Ash, and Tempest will step forward to shield her, and be disgraced.”
Moon exchanged a look with Chime, who grimaced in dismay. Moon turned back to Halcyon. “And that will leave you as sister queen? What about all the others?”
Halcyon flicked her spines, this time in a shrug. “Ice knows I’m the only one who could replace Tempest. I’m not worried about the others.”
I’m worried about us, Moon thought. This plan wouldn’t work with a live consort or warrior around to explain that Ash wasn’t the guilty party. He wasn’t sure why they were both still alive now. Wait, we weren’t alone. He looked around and didn’t see any sign of a third prisoner. He demanded, “What did you do to Root?”
“The young warrior who was with you?” Halcyon glanced at one of her warriors, the big green-scaled woman.
The warrior snorted with contempt. “Nothing. He ran away.”
Chime hissed at her. “He wouldn’t run away, he’s too stupid. You hurt him.”
“We didn’t,” the warrior said, and her spines ruffled angrily. She repeated with emphasis, “He ran away.”
Moon didn’t believe it either. Root might be dead. But if he had run back to the others, all he could tell them was that strange warriors, possibly from Emerald Twilight, had taken Moon and Chime away. Which would suit Halcyon’s purpose completely.
Maybe she had planned to kill them, but when it came down to it, found it hard to take that final step. Especially with a consort. Maybe she just wasn’t certain if her warriors would go that far. Moon didn’t think pretending he didn’t understand that would do any good. “When are you going to kill us?”
Chime made a faint noise. Either he hadn’t realized this inevitable component to Halcyon’s plan, or he just didn’t want Moon to mention it aloud.
The warriors stirred a little uneasily, but Halcyon hissed with amusement. She stepped close, close enough for Moon to feel her breath. Every muscle tensed and the back of Moon’s neck prickled, but he didn’t step back, didn’t drop his gaze.
She said, with dry amusement, “I didn’t say I’d kill you.”
“Then what did you plan to do with me?”
“That’s up to you. You could cooperate.” Halcyon trailed the back of her claws against his cheek, sending a shivering pulse down Moon’s spine.
“What do you mean?” Moon was fairly certain he knew exactly what she meant, but he wanted to stall. It had to take extra concentration to keep Moon and Chime from shifting without affecting her own warriors. All they needed was a chance to escape. Moon thought he could outfly a queen, especially a queen who hadn’t been doing much of anything but sitting around Emerald Twilight plotting against her clutchmate. It was Chime he was worried about; with all the long distance flying they had been doing lately, Chime might have an advantage over the other warriors. But a queen could catch a warrior easily. Which was probably why they had bothered to drug Chime and bring him along, as a hostage for Moon’s good behavior.