He changed into them, and was draping his wet clothes over the chest when Chime walked in.
“Why are you so angry?” Chime demanded. “Did you even see him, he’s practically a fledgling. He’s probably not even fertile yet—”
Moon rounded on him and Chime fell back a step, startled into silence. Gritting his teeth to keep from shifting and biting Chime’s head off, Moon said, “That’s Jade’s problem. I’ll be gone tomorrow and I don’t give a piss what you all do with him.”
Chime just looked bewildered. “Gone tomorrow? What?”
“Tomorrow, the next day, whenever.” Moon couldn’t believe that Tempest would spend one more moment at Indigo Cloud than she absolutely had to, or that Jade and Pearl would let her.
Chime’s jaw dropped and his expression turned appalled. “You can’t leave, not over this! That’s crazy. Moon, it’s not worth it.” He waved a hand in exasperation. “You just don’t understand; it doesn’t mean what you think it does. Just because Jade takes another consort doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you—”
“Stop it,” Moon snapped. It was impossible that Chime didn’t know. But Chime was still staring at him, confused, hurt. “I’m not leaving. They’re taking me to another court. It’s a trade, Chime, me for a new consort.”
“What?” Chime’s expression now clearly said that he thought Moon was out of his mind. “No, you must have misunderstood.”
Hearing it put like that made Moon realize just how badly he wanted it to be a misunderstanding. Watching his face, Chime’s eyes widened. “But—”
“Moon.” It was Jade, standing in the doorway.
Moon stepped away from Chime, looking toward the basin hearth. He had been expecting Jade to appear, but he had no idea what she was going to say to him, or what he wanted to say to her.
Jade said, “Moon, come with me.”
His throat went dry, then he told himself not to be stupid. They couldn’t be leaving now; it was dark, raining. “Where?”
Irritation colored her voice. “To my bower, where do you think?”
Anger boiled, mostly at himself for that moment of fear. As if he had never been a helpless fledgling fighting for his life on a stormy night; this was nothing. He said, “Why? Do you want to make sure I don’t run away?”
Jade’s spines flared as she stepped forward. “Then we’ll talk here. Chime, get out.”
Chime hesitated, but then he fled, slipping out the door.
She came further into the bower and stopped a few paces away. She folded her arms, but her tail was twitching, betraying nerves. “They didn’t know. I told Heart and the others not to speak of it yet. They thought you were angry because I accepted a new consort from Tempest.”
“You didn’t think they’d notice when I left?” Moon didn’t think it would make a difference whether the court knew or not. If the leaders of the Arbora castes weren’t going to make any objection, then it didn’t matter what the warriors thought. Not that he had many friends among the warriors.
The nervous flicking of Jade’s tail turned into an outright lash. “Moon, this is nothing. I’ll appease Opal Night by formally asking for you, and we’ll come home. I promise you—”
Opal Night, Moon thought. If he had been hoping for a long-buried start of recognition, it didn’t come. The name meant nothing. “If it’s that simple, why did Tempest bring you a consort to replace me?”
“He’s not a replacement!” The words came out as a snarl, and Jade took a deep breath before she continued, “He’s an apology from Emerald Twilight. What happened with Halcyon was embarrassment enough, but when their attempt to make up for it turns into this—”
“You knew they were bringing him. When Tempest came here before, that’s what she told you. You knew…” Moon let the words trail off. The wristband. The one he had caught Gold and Merry making. Gold’s embarrassment and Merry’s sly question. It was a gift for him, the new consort. It was another twist in his heart.
Jade turned away and paced a few steps toward the hearth. That told Moon everything he needed to know. Her voice low, Jade said, “She came to warn us. I didn’t want to tell you. I wanted to…wait.”
He didn’t ask for what. Of course she wanted to wait to tell him. Better to keep him quiet and obedient and in her bed until the new consort arrived. It wasn’t unprecedented. Every bleak day he had been kicked out of a groundling camp or town was parading through Moon’s memory, every time his willingness to fit in had been taken advantage of, every small betrayal, every time someone had said, You’re a good worker, but…
Jade’s spines shivered. “Zephyr said Opal Night is a powerful court, the largest in the far west Reaches. She and Tempest haven’t been there. Emerald Twilight hasn’t had trade with them for turns, and Ice sent her messages to them through other courts.” Impatient at his silence, she said, “You aren’t the least bit curious to know your family?”
That was the wrong tack to take. You’re my family, he wanted to say. But it didn’t feel true anymore. “No.”
She watched him, her frown deepening. “Why not?”
Moon closed his eyes, forcing the anger down enough to give her a real answer. He had been better off thinking they were all dead, that he was the last remnant of a destroyed court. Now he knew the bitter truth. “Sorrow was carrying four baby Arbora and a fledgling. How far from her colony do you think she got?”
Jade didn’t answer. He opened his eyes, in time to see the flicker of doubt in her expression. She admitted, “Not far.”
“They could have searched. They could have found us. That’s what she was waiting for. She waited turns for them to find us.”
“Maybe they thought there were no survivors. Maybe they gave up.”
“You and Pearl didn’t give up.” When the Fell had taken the old Indigo Cloud colony, trapping most of the court, Jade and Pearl had been determined to free them or die with them.
“Pearl and I didn’t have a mother court to run back to.” Jade hissed out a breath and looked away. “You won’t know their reason unless you ask them.”
“You want me to go.” It was as close as he could come to speaking the thought at the center of the biggest knot of pain in his chest. Jade had said she still wanted a clutch and he believed her. If they had had one by now, they wouldn’t be in this situation. She had to realize the problem was with him, that he could contribute nothing to Indigo Cloud’s future. Turning him out of the court or even out of her bed might have seemed too harsh, especially after the way he had helped them find the stolen seed, and the promises she had made him. But this was a way to be rid of him with a clear conscience.
It would almost be easier if she admitted it. Almost.
But Jade, as if annoyed at his obtuseness, said, “Of course not. Queens don’t give up consorts.”
“Cloud’s queen gave him up. That’s why you’re all here.”
“You know only one story from our history and that’s the second time you’ve thrown it in my face.” Anger hardening her voice again, she said, “I told you, I’ll follow you there, and make them give you back. I won’t leave there without you.”
“Follow me?”
Jade’s jaw set. “Tempest refuses to let me travel with her. She thinks it would only antagonize Opal Night further. But I’ll only be a day behind you.”