“There are fledglings at Opal Night?” Frost asked when the story was done. “Consorts?” Thorn nudged her, and she added, “And queens?”
“Lots of them.” Moon could already see where this was going. “And when it’s time, if you’re good, you might meet some of them.”
There was a gathering in the greeting hall and an ongoing celebration through the colony, for their safe return and also for the alliance with Opal Night. Blossom told Moon that there had already been a couple of trading visits from courts who had previously ignored their overtures, so word was spreading through the Reaches and Indigo Cloud’s status was rising rapidly.
For Moon the celebrations mostly involved a lot of food and telling the story of what had happened over and over again for everyone who had been too far away to hear details the first few times. Moon was hoarse from answering questions about Opal Night, and about the underwater city. He left a group of mentors and other Arbora endlessly speculating on the creature’s origins and how the city might have been constructed, and looked for Ember.
As far as he could tell, Jade and Pearl hadn’t discussed the situation, and he had to admit that Pearl seemed more at ease and to be enjoying the party in a relaxed way he hadn’t seen her demonstrate before. River was still present in her group of warriors, though Moon had noticed that he spent most of his time sitting next to Drift and trying not to appear depressed. Moon felt a little sympathetic, but only a little. He thought this would be better for River in the long run than continuing to take the place of a consort. But he bet River didn’t think so.
He found Ember on one of the bigger balconies above the greeting hall, watching the celebration with some of Pearl’s warriors. Vine was one of them, though River and Drift weren’t there. Moon ignored them, and asked Ember, “Can I talk to you?”
Vine immediately leapt off the balcony, and the other warriors scrambled to follow his lead.
Ember looked worried. “I don’t want to be first consort,” he said immediately. “I don’t want to challenge you.”
Moon hadn’t even known that was an option, but he wasn’t concerned. “Not about that.” He sat down on the smooth wood of the floor. Below in the gathering hall, warriors and Arbora were still sitting around in groups, finishing off the last of the food. Jade, Balm, Chime, and Stone sat with Delin and some of his crew near the waterfall. Delin was writing furiously in his book, and Jade was explaining something that required her to wave her arms a lot and had made Balm and Chime almost fall over laughing. Stone looked unimpressed, so Moon assumed it was something about past exploits of certain line-grandfathers.
He looked up to see Ember watching him warily. He seemed less nervous and underfed, though to Moon he still looked barely older than Thorn. “Are you all right? I mean, Pearl didn’t…” Ember was now staring at him as if he had no idea what Moon was talking about. That was probably a good sign. “. . . trick you into this? Into accepting her?”
“Because she’s older? Oh, no.” Ember shook his head. “Young queens always frightened me a little. But Pearl is strong and beautiful, like them, but she’s so calm, too. And patient with me.” He smiled at Moon. “I’m happy.”
Pearl? Calm and patient? Moon thought, but managed to keep his expression neutral. Maybe it was just him that annoyed Pearl so much. “All right, then. That was what I wanted to ask.”
Moon started to get up and Ember said, “Wait. I wanted…” and halted in confusion. Moon sat down again, and Ember took a deep breath. “Even after being here for a while, I don’t feel like I know the court very well. While you were gone, everyone was very unsettled and upset, and then Jade was hurt, and the line-grandfather came back with the groundlings, and Jade left with him and the others and… I don’t think the line-grandfather likes me.”
“He doesn’t like anybody at first,” Moon said. He wasn’t sure what Ember was asking. “What do you want to know?”
“I guess I want to know…” Ember seemed to gather his courage. “What was it like when you first came here?”
Moon shook his head a little. In some ways it had been a lifetime, and in some ways he felt as if he had just arrived. And it was going to take some preliminary explanation about groundlings and what Moon’s life had been like before he knew he was a Raksura.
“It’s a long story,” he said, hoping Ember would change his mind. Instead, Ember wrapped his arms around his knees and settled back against the wall like a fledgling ready to be told a go-to-sleep story. It was hard to resist. And it occurred to Moon that for the first time in his life, he could tell the whole story.
“About forty turns ago there was a colony in the east, and a warrior named Swift, who had to change her name to Sorrow…”
Appendix I
Aeriat
Queens
Pearl—Reigning Queen.
Jade—Sister Queen.
Amber—former Sister Queen of Pearl, now dead.
Azure—the queen who took Stone, now dead.
Frost—a fledgling queen of the court of Sky Copper, now adopted by Indigo Cloud.
Indigo—the Reigning Queen who originally led the court away from the Reaches to the east.
Solace—a Sister Queen in an earlier generation of the court, who was the first to visit the Golden Isles.
Consorts
Stone—line-grandfather.
Rain—Pearl’s last consort, now dead.
Moon—Jade’s consort.
Thorn and Bitter—fledgling consorts of Sky Copper, now adopted by Indigo Cloud.
Cloud—the consort Indigo stole from Emerald Twilight.
Sable—Solace’s consort.
Dust and Burn—young consorts given away by Pearl when Rain died. Dust became the second consort to the reigning queen of Wind Sun.
Warriors
River—leader of Pearl’s faction of warriors. A product of one of Amber’s royal clutches.
Drift—River’s clutchmate.
Branch—River and Drift’s clutchmate, killed in a Fell ambush.
Root—young warrior from an Arbora clutch; a member of Jade’s faction.
Song—young female warrior; a member of Jade’s faction.
Spring—fledgling female, one of only two survivors from Amber’s last clutch of warriors.
Snow—fledgling male, Spring’s clutchmate.
Balm—female warrior, and Jade’s clutchmate. Jade’s strongest supporter and leader of her faction.
Chime—former Arbora mentor, now a warrior; a member of Jade’s faction.
Vine and Coil—male warriors of Pearl’s faction, though they chafe under River’s rule.
Floret—female warrior of Pearl’s faction.
Sand—a young male warrior of Jade’s faction.
Band and Fair—young male warriors of Pearl’s faction.
Sage—an older male warrior of Pearl’s faction.
Serene—a young female warrior of Jade’s faction.
Briar and Aura—young female warriors, inclining to Jade’s faction, but currently unattached.
Arbora
Mentors
Flower—leader of the Mentors’ Caste.
Heart—young female mentor, one of the Arbora rescued from the Dwei Hive by Moon.