The Serpent Sea

Chapter Two

Moon helped fly the first group of Arbora, including Bone, Knell, forty or so other hunters and soldiers, and the two young mentors, Heart and Merit, from the boats to the tree’s knothole entrance. With all the warriors joining in, it didn’t take long, though the steadily increasing rain drumming on their wings and the deepening gloom under the canopy reminded them that time was limited. The other Arbora still stuck on the boats weren’t happy with the delay, but they had to make certain the tree was safe.

Once they were assembled in the greeting hall, Pearl told them, “The Aeriat will search upwards, the Arbora will go down. Move quickly, make certain there’s nothing dangerous here. You can stop and gawk at it all later.” She jerked her head at Knell. “You stay here with the soldiers and make certain this level is safe.”

Flower turned to Merit and Heart, both bouncing with barely restrained excitement. “One of you go with Chime, and light the lamps for the Aeriat. The other stay here with Knell and light the rest of this hall and the passages around it.”

“I’ve never done shells before.” Merit looked anxious. “Just moss and wood.”

“You’ll learn as you go,” Chime said firmly, and caught Merit around the waist. He sprang up after the warriors who were already climbing the central well.

Moon hissed to himself in frustration, torn between wanting to join the warriors who were heading upward, and wanting to be a good consort. Stone had already disappeared and was unavailable to give advice; possibly he was making his own search or getting reacquainted with the place. Not wanting to admit to insecurity, even to himself, Moon followed Jade, Flower, and the Arbora exploring party down the stairway that led below the greeting hall, to the section Stone had said they should make their camp for the night.

They followed the curving stairs down into another large, central chamber with a high domed roof and round doorways leading away. Only a little light from above fell down the stairwell. The room was a dark pit, even to Raksuran eyes. But the only scent was of must and leaf rot, and the space felt empty. Moon ran his hands over the wall as high as he could reach, feeling for light shells. Groundlings would have brought a candlelamp or a torch, he thought, frustrated. The hunters went down the steps, spread out along the wall in the dark, searching, until someone said, “Here’s one!”

After a moment, a shell further down the steps started to glow, revealing Flower standing on tip-toes to reach it. Jade and the hunters turned to look around the room.

The light crept up the wall onto carvings of trees that curved up across the ceiling. It was a forest, picked out in detail, with plumes, spirals, fern trees, many others Moon couldn’t name. Their branches entwined overhead, and their roots came down to frame the round doorways that led off to different rooms, as if you were standing in an enclosed and protected glade. The hunters murmured in appreciation, and Bone said in a hushed voice, “If every part of this place is as beautiful…”

Flower nodded, amusement and awe mingled in her expression. “If this is just the teachers’ gathering hall, I can’t wait to see the queens’ level.”

“We’ll see it later.” Jade stepped over the edge of the stairs to drop down to the floor. “We need to find all the approaches to this section, make certain we can guard it tonight.” She turned to Bone. “And there have to be more passages outside, and a better place to land the boats and unload them.”

“We’ll find it,” he told her. He turned for the nearest doorway and made an abrupt gesture. The other hunters scattered, and Flower hurried after them to light the shells. Moon and Jade followed more slowly, lingering to look. The other doorways led into an interconnected, multileveled maze of rooms, smaller stairways winding up, with balconies extending out over the wells. Without the sound of moving water it was too silent, haunted, much of it lost in darkness. Moon tried to shake off his uneasiness as he followed Jade through the empty place.

In one of the first rooms, they found something hanging from the ceiling, a big wooden thing like half a nutshell, only it was nearly ten paces across. It swayed gently when Jade pushed at it. “It’s a bed,” she said, sounding startled. “Stone’s right—I think they grew this. Or made the tree grow it.”

Moon felt the thick rope supporting one end of the bed, and realized it wasn’t rope but a heavy vine. It joined the wood seamlessly, with no knots. The basket beds made for the old colony were obviously an attempt to duplicate this.

As they wandered through the level, they found more beds hanging from the ceiling or extending out from the walls. There were also shallow metal basins set into the smooth wood floors. Flower scratched experimentally at one, and said they were probably for the stones that mentors spelled to give off heat. She added, “I hope it means they had a forge, somewhere lower down.”

“Did they bring the anvils?” Moon asked, remembering there had been some concern about that at the old colony.

“I left with Stone before they settled all that,” she told him, looking around distractedly. “Niran thought they would plummet right through the ship’s hull, and he may have been right.”

Moon kept finding bits of debris, things left behind that hinted at the life once lived here. A spill of beads in the dust, each carved like a tiny flower; a curved wooden comb, some of the tines missing; a scrap of faded fabric caught on a carving; a white-glazed bowl, set aside and forgotten on a ledge.

Finally one of the hunters called Jade to come and look at another entrance on a lower level. It was a large round doorway closed by a heavy wooden panel that slid into place and sealed with bolts. After some tugging and pushing, they had got the panel open, and found the doorway sat just above a big branch nearly forty paces across, that lay nearly atop one of the old garden platforms. The Arbora thought it would be a good spot to secure the two boats, and would make it easier to unload them. Moon followed them out the doorway into the rain and picked his way across the big muddy expanse. It felt like solid ground, barely trembling in the wind, and was covered with rambling root vines, probably all that was left of the crop that had once been planted here. He watched as, with careful maneuvering and a lot of shouted instructions, Niran and Blossom brought the two ships close in to the massive trunk. Arbora scrambled under Niran’s direction to cast ropes over the huge branch at both ships’ bow and stern.

As the Arbora finished fastening the ships into place, Pearl and some of the Aeriat flew out of the knothole entrance above them and spiraled down to land nearby. To Jade, Pearl said, “The upper levels are empty.” Chime came over to Moon, squelching in the mud, his tail twitching with excitement. “It’s the best colony we could ever have,” he said. “There’s so much room!”

Bone came out to report that he and Flower and the other hunters had ventured nearly down to the roots, to the bottom of the habitable areas, and found no sign of anything big enough to threaten them. “There’s a lot of dirt and beetles, and tiny treelings that eat beetles, but that’s all,” Bone finished, the rain dripping off his spines. “The roots and the ground may be a different story, but the doors down there are sealed, and we didn’t want to chance opening them without more help.” Lightning cracked somewhere overhead, and everyone ducked and winced. Jade said, “Even if there’s a Ghobin colony down there, we still need shelter now.”

Pearl didn’t look at her, but she told Bone, “Call back the searchers and tell them to start unloading the boats. Have everyone keep to the teachers’ level for tonight. We’ll worry about the rest of the place tomorrow.” Everyone scattered to obey. The Arbora started to climb off the boats, all carrying loads of baskets and bags. Tired of feeling useless, Moon jumped up to the Valendera’s railing to help. Rill, a teacher who was organizing the activity on the deck, called to the cluster of Arbora around her, “Take these first! We’re bringing in the food stores and the bedding now, we’ll worry about the rest later!”

Moon took the basket someone handed him, and flew it back to the doorway. He landed to carry it into the foyer, and was directed up the passage to a larger chamber where they were putting everything until they could decide what to do with it. He thought it was too small for even the goods stored on the two ships’ decks, but he knew how quick the Arbora could be to arrange and organize, so he decided to keep his mouth shut and let them handle it.

As he came back down the passage, a group of teachers carefully carried in the clutches and fledglings. Moon passed Bell carrying the Sky Copper clutch. The little queen Frost was in one arm and Thorn, the consort, was in the other. The smaller consort Bitter was wrapped tightly around Bell’s neck, and from Bell’s expression it wasn’t comfortable. As they passed, Frost informed Moon, “This place is dark and wet and it smells funny!”

It was hard to argue with that. Moon said, “It’ll be fine.” Just keep telling yourself that, he thought.

But in the rush to unload the Valendera and Indala, Moon forgot his misgivings. Once the rest of the Aeriat returned, it was easier for them to move things from the decks down onto the platform, where the Arbora could then carry them into the tree. The wind was rising, but the two ships had been as well fastened to the giant branch as they could manage, their sails tightly folded. They vibrated, but did not show any sign of movement that might cause damage.

As Moon lifted a cask off the deck, a warrior with gold scales passed him, carrying a basket. He glanced up in time to see her face. “Balm?”

She was Jade’s clutchmate. She had been staying on the Indala and while Moon had asked after her, he hadn’t managed to see her during the trip. Startled, she hesitated, as if about to speak. But the wind gusted and knocked a smaller warrior off the railing right toward Moon. He dropped the cask in time to catch the warrior, but when he set him back on his feet, Balm had already moved away. Moon collected the cask, giving up for the moment. It wasn’t as if he knew what he was going to say to her, anyway.

They had gotten everything off the open decks of both ships, and moved part of the contents of the Valendera’s hold, when the rain suddenly increased from an annoyance to a drenching torrent. The wind was still rising, hard enough to stir the branches of the lesser trees, and it was getting darker as night drew in.

A gust knocked another Aeriat off the railing and the smaller Arbora were getting stuck in the mud. Moon thought it was time to halt for the night. The last thing they needed was for an Arbora to get swept off the platform or an Aeriat to be slammed into the trunk. He caught Song, and told her to pass the word to the others to go inside. Then he shooed a last few Arbora off the Indala and braved the wind to fly over to the Valendera’s deck.

Arbora ran around helping Niran close and fasten down the hatches so the ship wouldn’t fill with water. Moon found Bead pulling down the last of the waterproofed awnings and helped her bundle it up. “We need to get inside. It’s too rough out here,” he told her.

She nodded distractedly, water streaming off her head frills. She trembled with exhaustion. “We’ve got everything off the decks, all the food stores. I think everything else can stay for now.”

“Good.” Moon saw Floret and Root perched on the branch, and waved them down. As they dropped down onto the deck, he handed the bundled awning to Root and handed Bead to Floret, telling them, “Make sure she gets inside. Tell the others we’re done for tonight.”

Floret scooped up Bead and leapt back to the branch. Root said, “You know, consorts aren’t supposed to do things like this, not unless they’re line-grandfathers like Stone.”

Moon, about to turn away, paused and stared down at him.

Root stepped back, saying defensively, “That’s what I always heard.”

Moon lifted his spines. “Get in the tree.”

Root got.

Moon stalked across the deck, caught a last few Arbora and Aeriat and sent them after the others. The problem was that Root might well be right. But for most of Moon’s life, traveling from groundling cities to settlements to camps, joining in for community work was one of the best ways to be accepted. For smaller settlements, it was sometimes required for travelers who wanted to stay for even a few days. And he found it hard to believe that a real consort raised in a court would just stand around and do nothing while everyone else worked frantically. You could ask Stone or Jade or Flower, he told himself. But they might answer you. And it might be the wrong answer. He had no idea what he would do if Jade told him to just sit to one side and watch. Besides die of boredom and frustration. No, it was better to keep pretending he just didn’t know any better, at least for now. Hopefully he could keep it up for a long time.

Moon found Blossom and Niran in the bow, arguing. Or at least he thought they were arguing; the rain was so heavy now they might just be shouting to hear each other. He got their attention by lifting and spreading his wings, shielding them from the downpour. Blossom turned to him and waved a hand in exasperation. “Niran thinks he should stay out here tonight!”

Moon should have seen that one coming. Stubbornness in the face of implacable odds was Niran’s specialty, and he was determined to bring both ships home intact to his family, whether it killed him or not. Moon would rather get Niran home intact to his family. He said, “Niran, we don’t know this place at all. Something could climb up here, crack this boat like a nut, and eat you.”

His clothes dripping and his white hair plastered to his scalp, Niran shook his head. “I’ve spent many nights in strange places aboard these ships…”

“Yes, with your people. Not alone.” Moon had seen how the Islanders had reacted when the Fell had threatened them. They had been more than willing to abandon the ships to save the crews. “You’re telling me your grandfather and sister would think this was a good idea?”

Niran just set his jaw and didn’t try to answer that. “If the wind grows worse…”

“You won’t be able to do anything,” Blossom insisted. “If something happens to the ships, we can always give you their value, or fix them. We can probably fix them.”

Moon considered just grabbing both of them and dragging them inside, but Niran seemed to be swayed by Blossom’s argument. Water streaming down his face, he grudgingly assented, “Very well.”

Niran and Blossom still wanted to check over both ships, but finally they admitted both were as secure as possible. Moon picked Niran up and jumped down from the railing to land on the grassy platform, now awash in mud. He set Niran down as Blossom swung down the side of the ship after them and landed with a splash.

They squelched through the mud, Niran staggering in the wind, and made their way toward the circle of light that marked the doorway. Blossom scrambled through, and Moon gave Niran a boost, then climbed in after him.

Niran sat down on the floor with a gasp of relief, and Moon resisted the urge to shake the water out of his spines. The foyer was still crowded with wet, muddy Raksura; no one had shifted to groundling, since that would just transfer the mud to their clothing. Others were carrying the last of the baskets and bundles away down the passage.

“That’s everyone!” Bone called out. He and two other hunters put their shoulders to the heavy door, sliding it closed and shutting out the rain and wind.

Blossom took Niran’s arm and helped him up. “Come on, let’s find Bead and Spice. They were supposed to make up a bower for us.”

“A what?” Niran said, wringing his shirt out as he followed her.

Someone handed Moon one of the pieces of scrap cloth being passed around, and he used it to scrape the mud off his feet and claws. As he finished, he glanced up in time to see Balm slip unobtrusively down a passage. He tossed the cloth back onto the pile and followed her.

He caught up with her just past the foyer, where the passage divided into three directions, all heading up into different parts of the teacher’s level. “Balm, where are you going?”

She stopped, her spines twitching uneasily. “To find somewhere to sleep.” Three young warriors slid past, carefully not looking at her, and Balm hissed. “I’m tired of feeling like I did something wrong.”

Balm hadn’t done anything wrong, except be unlucky enough to be used by the Fell to spy on the colony. Fell could influence groundlings, cause them to believe anything the Fell told them, and to do things they would never do in their right minds. They could use this power to a lesser extent on Raksura, but it didn’t work as well. The Fell had been able to make Balm tell them about the court’s plans, but she had had no memory of it, no awareness of what she was doing. Moon had seen enough groundlings in this same state to know it wasn’t her fault. But it had put Balm at a severe disadvantage in the maneuvering for dominance between Pearl’s faction of warriors and Jade’s. He said, “Then stop acting like it. Don’t let them treat you like this.” Jade’s influence could only protect Balm so far. River and his cronies couldn’t attack Balm outright; now that Pearl was taking more interest in the court, the last thing River wanted was to make her angry enough to intervene. But they could make Balm’s life a misery, and know that they were hurting Jade by proxy. And Balm just didn’t deserve it. “You belong with Jade.”

Balm hesitated, obviously torn. But she said, “I’ll… think about it,” and turned away.

Moon hesitated, half-tempted to follow, but he didn’t know what else to say to persuade her. He turned to the passage to the teachers’ hall.

As he walked through the bowers this time, they were anything but haunted and silent. Flower and the other mentors had been renewing the spells on every light-shell they could find. The warm light caught red and yellow highlights in the wood, chased the shadows away, threw the wall carvings into high relief. Arbora and Aeriat were everywhere, cleaning dirt and debris out of the bower beds, hanging wet clothes off the stairwell balconies, pulling bedding out of baskets. Their voices echoed through the rooms. They were excited to finally be here, relieved to be free of the cramped quarters on the boats.

Moon wanted to check on Bitter, Frost, and Thorn, and see the other clutches, so he followed the sound of squeaking and chattering. He had been the one to find the three Sky Copper fledglings in the Dwei hive, where the Fell had been keeping them as part of their plan to make more Raksuran crossbreeds. He wasn’t sure if the clutch had gotten so attached to him because of the rescue or because he was the first Raksura they had seen after their colony had been destroyed. Whatever the reason, Frost persisted in telling everyone that they were Moon’s clutch now.

There had been no question that Indigo Cloud would adopt them; at the moment the court had no other royal fledglings. If Moon and Jade didn’t produce any fledgling queens of their own, Frost could end up as reigning queen of the court. Moon knew that wasn’t anyone’s preference, but it was a relief to have the option available. And it would be twenty or thirty turns at least before Frost would be old enough to even be considered a sister queen, which gave him and Jade plenty of time to have their own clutches.

He found a round doorway with the lintel carved with baby Arbora and Aeriat tumbling in play, and stepped through into a big, low-ceilinged chamber.

At the moment, it was a chaotic mess, with Arbora children and a few warrior fledglings, all overexcited and shifting at random, as the teachers tried to calm them and put them to bed in nests of blankets and cushions. It was even more obvious here that there had been far more Arbora births than Aeriat. Hopefully things would even out, now that the court was in this new colony and free of the Fell influence that had haunted it for so many turns.

Circling the chamber as he looked for the Sky Copper royals, Moon passed a maze of smaller rooms opening off the main area, and several shallow fountain pools, now dry. The place had been meant to house far more children than Indigo Cloud could boast.

“Moon,” Bark called, a little desperately. Her arms were full with a crying Arbora toddler. She nodded down toward her feet, where Bitter, in Raksuran form, tried to hold onto Bark and two very young and squirming Arbora. “Could you—”

Moon crouched down, untangled Bitter’s claws from Bark’s skirt and coaxed him to let go of the toddlers. “Bitter, if you want to hold them, you have to shift otherwise you could scratch them.” From what Moon had seen, Arbora at that age shifted randomly back and forth, but their claws and spines were still soft; Bitter’s had already hardened, and he was still learning how to handle them.

Bitter looked up at him with big eyes, then reluctantly shifted. As a groundling he was a thin little boy, with dark bronze skin and a thatch of dark hair, dressed in a shirt that was too big for him.

Moon sat Bitter down on the nearest cushion, put one of the Arbora in his lap and the other next to him. Now that they weren’t being accidentally prodded by Bitter’s claws, they settled comfortably against him and shifted back to groundling.

“Thank you,” Bark said in relief. The baby she held settled down too, and sniffled and hooked claws into her shoulder. Bark nodded toward a bundle of blankets nearby. Frost and Thorn were curled up asleep there, Frost in her wingless form and Thorn as a groundling. He clutched her tail in one hand. “Those two went right to sleep, but Bitter’s been upset about the storm. Haven’t you, sweet baby?”

Bitter looked up at her and nodded solemnly, keeping a firm grip on the Arbora. Moon suspected it wasn’t the storm. Any upheaval had to be frightening for him. Bitter, Frost, and Thorn had seen their entire court killed, the queens and consorts, the other children in the nurseries, the Arbora who had taken care of them, everyone they had ever known.

Something similar had happened to Moon. He just didn’t remember it. He told Bitter, “I won’t be far away. Jade and I are just out there in the central hall. All right?”

Bitter nodded solemnly again, and allowed himself to be tucked into a nest with the Arbora babies.

Moon left the nurseries. Bitter obviously remembered what had happened to his court, all too clearly. Moon’s earliest memory was of living in the forest with Sorrow and the others, so he must have been even younger than Bitter when his court had been destroyed.

Just down the passage, he found Chime, Flower, and Rill in the teachers’ hall, all in groundling form, unpacking baskets and laying out bedding. Root and Song were already there, vigorously drying off their scales. With the glowing shells casting light on the carved forest, surrounded by the noise and scents of the rest of the court, the hall was much more welcoming.

Moon’s scales were dry enough now, and he shifted to groundling and stretched, trying to ease his sore shoulder. Chime looked up, still flushed with excitement, and told him, “Jade’s staying in here tonight, and Pearl is near the stairs on the level below with some more warriors. That way if anything tries to get in, it’ll run into one of us first. One of them. You know what I mean.”

“Good.” Even if nothing else had taken up residence in the tree, there was always the chance their presence would attract predators.

Flower carried a basket over to the heating basin and dumped out a load of small, flat river rocks. She sat beside the basin and held out her hands. After a moment, heat started to rise. She sat back with a sigh and tucked her skirts under her feet. “That’s better.”

Rill nodded, pulling out more blankets to hand to Song and Root. “It’ll get the damp out of the air.” She glanced around and pointed to one of the baskets. “Moon, those are some things from Jade’s bower, and we put yours in there too.”

As far as Moon knew, he didn’t have any things except the clothes he was wearing. Everything he had owned had been left behind in the Cordans’ camp. He went to open the basket.

On top were heavy quilted blankets and bed cushions, in shades of dark blues and sea greens, with patterns picked out in gold. He lifted those out and set them aside, figuring that was what they would be sleeping on tonight. Next there were a few rolled leather wraps. Peeking inside one, he saw it held jewelry, silver strands wound with polished green stones and deep-water pearls. Jade had used all the jewelry she had been wearing on their trip to the east to pay for supplies and to give to Selis in return for helping them. Apparently there was plenty more where that came from. He was beginning to realize that the Raksura didn’t measure wealth in gems or even the sturdy, colorful fabrics the Arbora made. He wasn’t sure what they did measure wealth in. “That’s a lot of jewelry.”

Flower sounded wry. “It’s nothing to what Stone’s collected over the years.”

“I only hope we found it all.” Rill, unpacking a copper-chased kettle, made a helpless gesture. “He had it hidden all over the colony. After everything that happened—”

“Don’t worry about it, not tonight.” Chime took the kettle away from her and set it on the warming stones.

Looking for more bedding, Moon pushed the leather rolls aside. The fur blanket beneath, the long soft hair dyed to the purple haze of twilight, looked familiar. He pulled it out to find it was bundled around a belt with a sheathed knife, the dark soft leather tooled with red in a serpentine pattern, with round buckles of red gold. These were the consort’s gifts Jade had left at the bower he had been using in the teachers’ hall at the old colony. The knife’s hilt was carved horn, the blade was a tooth, sharp as glass but as strong as fine metal. He hadn’t accepted them at the time, having no idea what he would be getting into and mostly certain that he hadn’t wanted to get into anything. Now… Now it’s different, he reminded himself. And he still really wanted that knife.

He left it and the belt on top of Jade’s jewelry and added the blanket to their nest of bedding. Suddenly self-conscious, he looked around to make sure no one was watching him, especially Stone. Then he realized he hadn’t seen him since they arrived. “Where’s Stone?”

Flower, carefully unwrapping a cake of pressed tea, said, “He went up to look around the queens’ level. That was a while ago,” she added, frowning.

Chime dropped a last cushion onto a pile of bedding and glanced up, worried. “You think something’s wrong?”

“No, not wrong, just…” Flower hesitated. “This place was his home, a long time ago.”

She was right; this had to be strange for Stone. Moon put the lid back on the basket and said, “I’ll find him.”

He took the stairs up to the greeting hall, where the soldiers had spread their bedding out around a hearth basin near the fountain. Merit was still with them, looking small next to the bigger Arbora. Merit waved, but the soldiers just stared at Moon with wary curiosity.

He shifted and jumped to climb straight up the wall, finding plenty of handholds built into the carving, rough from where generations of Raksura had hooked their claws. He followed the spiral well up and up, climbing past open balconies and galleries.

Somewhere far below, he heard a voice raised in song that echoed up through the passages of the tree. Moon winced. Please, not tonight. He hoped they were too weary for a full chorus.

The court had sung once aboard the flying boats, one night when they had been passing over a grass plain. It had been a dirge for the dead members of the court, and for the colony ruined by the Fell. The mingled voices had been so low and deep, so heavy with pain and loss, the deck of the Valendera had trembled like a sounding board.

Moon had slipped away from Jade’s side, retreating to the deck cabin. The door was partly open, and he ducked his head inside. Light came from glowing moss stuffed into the glass candlelamps, and Niran sat on the bed, which folded out from one of the benches along the wall. He said, “You might as well come in. Everyone else does.”

Knowing Niran, Moon took that for the invitation it was. He stepped in and sat cross-legged on the deck. For a normal voyage, Niran would have quarters below deck, but all those rooms were stuffed with supplies and Arbora. The waist-high wooden pillar in the center of the cabin held the fragment of flying island that kept the boat aloft, and let it travel the streams of force that crossed the Three Worlds. There were also a couple of clay water jars, and baskets of supplies, one with a pottery bowl and cup stacked atop it. Niran had a few bundles of paper next to him on the blankets, and a wooden writing tablet in his lap. He said, dryly, “I’m keeping a record of our travels, for my grandfather. He would never forgive me if I didn’t.”

Moon settled his back against the wall to support his sore shoulder. “It’ll help him get over missing this trip.”

“Hopefully.” Niran nodded toward the door. “You don’t participate in the… concert?”

Moon hesitated, debating several different excuses, then settled for, “I don’t know how.” Not counting the court’s stupid rules and customs, everything else about being Raksuran he had either learned from Sorrow or figured out for himself. The singing was alien, and it made him deeply uneasy. In its own way, it was as disturbing as the queen’s connection to every member of her court, the connection that let her keep you from shifting, or draw you in and make you feel like you were sharing a heart. It was too much like the Fell’s power to influence and cloud the minds of groundlings. Jade hadn’t shown any evidence of that ability yet, but that might be because she wasn’t the reigning queen. Moon wasn’t looking forward to the time when she did.

Niran lifted his brows and made a note. “I forget sometimes that you have only recently joined them.”

Moon had wondered if anybody else would ever forget it. And you’re worse than all of them, he told himself now. He hadn’t even tried to sing, just run off to hide with the only available groundling.

Climbing the wall of the mountain-tree, he pushed the uncomfortable thoughts away. They were all here now, and it was time for new beginnings.

The greeting hall was far below him when the ceiling finally curved up to form a wide circular gallery. He climbed up onto it and found it opened into another hall.

A few wall-shells glowed, enough to chase away some of the shadows. More round doorways led off into other chambers, and there was a dry fountain against the wall, the basin below it empty and stained with moss at the bottom. The carving above it made him hiss in appreciation.

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.

Jade tilted her head to study Song thoughtfully. Song’s eyes widened and she said, “I was just teasing!”

“Hmm,” Jade commented. She went over to the baskets and opened one to dig through it.

Chime gave Song an exasperated look, then turned to the others, obviously changing the subject. “How much food do we have left?”

“Enough for several days, plus the fresh meat from the hunt this morning,” Rill answered. “We still have about half the dried meat, because the Aeriat were refusing to eat it. We’re getting low on dried fruit, sava flour, dried sava, and roots.”

Stone said, “There are a lot of plants in this area that we can eat. Since no one’s been eating them for who knows how many turns, there should be plenty around.”

Jade sat down next to Moon, then leaned over to put something on the floor in front of him. It gleamed red-gold against the wood, catching the light: it was the bracelet that Stone had taken to Star Aster, the token to be given to the new consort. Moon picked it up. Having seen more of the Arbora’s artwork, he could tell now that the fluid serpentine shapes etched into the band were two entwined Raksura. He looked up to see Jade watching him, the scales on her brow faintly creased with worry.

Moon put the bracelet on, just under the knobby bone in his wrist. Jade pulled his head down and her teeth grazed the skin behind his ear in a gentle nip.

Flower cleared her throat and smiled faintly. “At least there should be plenty of game around here, too.”

Stone set his cup down. “We’ll need to reestablish our territory. I should be able to find the old boundaries.”

Jade glanced up. “Our territory? I wouldn’t think we’d need to worry…” She eyed Stone more sharply. “Unless there’s another court in this area?”

“There are several. This is the home forest, where our bloodlines were first born. There used to be colonies everywhere through here. Too many.” Stone shrugged. “Now there’s plenty of room.”