The Siren Depths

Chapter Twenty-One

Malachite had to send Chime up to the entrance of the cave to bring Floret, so she could help them get out. In the end, Chime carried Moon, Floret carried Lithe, and Malachite carried Shade. Jade managed to fly on her own, out of pure stubbornness.

As they crossed back to the mainland, Moon still felt woozy and sick. He spotted the sac, resting in the waves some distance along the beach. The smoke had decreased to a thin stream and only a few dakti circled above it. The flight would have felt the deaths of its progenitor and what was probably most of its rulers. The young progenitor might have a chance to rebuild, or the remaining kethel might just kill her in a frenzy of grief and confusion. Either way, the flight was in no shape to make the long journey south to tackle Opal Night. And we’re in no shape to tackle it, Moon thought. He hoped the Fell decided to cut their losses and leave.

It took them some time to find the flying boat, even though Malachite knew in what direction it had been traveling. The sky was darkening toward evening when they located it; the strong wind off the sea had pushed the little craft swiftly inland. As they banked down toward it, Moon saw Stone on the deck, watching their approach. Two daughter queens of Onyx’s bloodline were on look-out, one perched on the small basket atop the mast, and the other on the steering cabin roof.

Chime followed Malachite and Jade down to land near the cabin, where Saffron gripped the control pillar with a determined expression. She sagged against it a little, profound relief crossing her normally hard expression. Stone just looked them over briskly, checking for wounds. “Are the Fell following you?” he said. “This damn boat stinks so bad, I can’t tell if their scent’s on the wind.”

Chime carefully set Moon on his feet. Keeping one hand on Chime’s shoulder to steady himself, Moon shifted to groundling. He didn’t immediately collapse, so he took that as a good sign. He said, “Don’t think so,” and his voice came out in a rough, barely audible wheeze.

Jade rubbed her eyes, her spines drooping from exhaustion. “I haven’t caught any Fell scent since we left the coast.” Her voice was better than Moon’s but not by much.

Stone frowned. “You need to get below.”

Moon couldn’t agree more. Malachite was already carrying Shade down to the hold, Lithe at her heels. With a worried frown, Jade glanced at Floret, who had shifted to groundling and stretched full-length out on the deck. “Floret, are you all right?”

Floret assured her, “I’m fine. I just don’t want to go down to the hold right now. We spent enough time there.”

Stone said, “I’ll keep an eye on her.”

As they limped after Malachite, Jade asked quietly, “Was it very bad?”

Chime said, “It was terrible.”

Moon said, “It could have been worse.”

Celadon met them at the bottom of the stairs. “Everyone’s all right?” she asked, her worried gaze going from Shade in Malachite’s arms to Moon, who leaned heavily against the wall to steady himself on the way down.

“Except for almost drowning,” Lithe told her, as she started across the cabin to where the wounded lay. She crouched down to touch Ivory’s forehead, looking anxiously over the others. “I need to make a simple for their lungs. And Shade’s been starved. Chime, could you—”

“I’ll start heating water.” Chime headed for the metal stove.

Malachite set Shade down and helped him sit. He still looked far too pale, the bruises under his eyes deep-set and his cheeks sunken. Moon sank down next to him and wheezed, “There’s food in that basket. Fruit and bread.”

Celadon hurried to get it. Jade started to pick up a blanket, then sniffed it and dropped it in disgust. Everything aboard the boat still stank from the combination of Fell and smoke, though the hold didn’t smell nearly as bad as it had before, with the mountain wind moving through the vents.

His voice a weak rasp, Shade said to Malachite, “I found out something I need to tell you. Forty turns ago the guide, that thing, told some Fell to go after the Opal Night colony in the east first.”

Malachite went still, staring at him.

Shade continued, “The progenitor told me. They weren’t related to that flight so they didn’t know much about what happened, only what the creature told them, though she tried to pretend like she did.” He turned to Moon. “You were right. They always lie the same way, and after a while you can tell.”

Celadon sat down, opening the basket of provisions, listening in increasing confusion. Her voice still rough, Jade said, “But why Opal Night?”

“Because it thought Opal Night had more in common with the forerunners, because of where the colony was outside the Reaches, that it was the oldest and closest one to the city where the creature was trapped.” Shade shivered, and wrapped his arms around himself. “The progenitor said the guide could sense a lot about Raksura, but we didn’t even know it existed. She seemed to think that was just because the Fell are superior.” He added, with irony, “I guess she didn’t think that at the end.”

Malachite took the provision basket from Celadon. “We’ll talk of it later. Eat.” Her voice was wheezy too, a reminder that she wasn’t invulnerable.

With thinly disguised impatience, Celadon said, “Can somebody tell me what happened?”

Moon started to speak, but the first breath turned into a coughing fit. Digging packets out of her satchel, Lithe said, “Chime and I will tell it. The rest of you be quiet and rest.”

It sounded like a good idea to Moon.

The simple Lithe made was one normally used for lung ailments, and it made Moon’s sore lungs and abraded throat feel better immediately. It also made the rest of the evening and night pass in a somewhat surreal sleepy haze.

He woke a few times to see Shade sleeping in a huddle under Malachite’s protective wing, and once to find himself curled up against Stone’s side. He remembered a vague conversation where Chime told him that they were going to owe Delin even more repairs, since while taking turns steering the boat, the two young daughter queens had scraped it against the rocks three times. Moon thought Delin was going to be more worried about the hole in the hull. But there was no sign of the Fell. The night was a dark one, with the half moon and the stars obscured by clouds, and the wind drove the boat hard.

Moon woke at dawn next to Shade, with Lithe, Saffron, and Floret sleeping nearby. He got to his feet, carefully picked his way around them, and went up to the deck.

The wind was like cool silk, scented with nothing but the sweetness of trees and the clean dust of the mountains falling away behind them. The sky was still cloudy but the morning sun broke through in spots, warming the wood of the deck under his feet. They were flying above foothills, sparsely forested with big fern trees and vividly pink thorn bushes. Moon thought he heard the distant high-pitched roar of a mountain skyling, but it was lost in the wind and might have been nothing.

Jade perched on the railing, looking down at the ground passing below, and Stone was up in the bow. Chime was in the steering cabin, yawning and leaning on the control pillar. Malachite sat in the center of the deck, facing back toward the way they had come, her eyes on the sky. She wore her Arbora form, though she didn’t look much less formidable. On the softer Arbora scales, it was easier to see her scars.

Moon went to sit near Malachite. She acknowledged his presence with a flick of a spine and tilted her head to regard him.

He started to speak, had to clear his throat, and said, “I’m sorry I said those things to you, back at the court.”

Malachite acknowledged the apology with a nod. “You’re angry at what happened. You’ll be angry for a long time. So will I. All we can do is try not to let it rule us. Or hide it better, when it does.”

Moon thought she was probably right. He looked into the wind, squinting against the dawn light. “I want to be with Jade.”

It was encouraging that Malachite’s reaction was a resigned snort. Her voice dry, she said, “I gathered that.”

“Ivory seems like a good queen, but I don’t want her.”

Malachite’s spines rippled in annoyance. “Ivory is presumptuous.” So no one had been behind Ivory’s offer for him except Ivory. That was also encouraging. Malachite added, “I could get a queen for you from any court in the Reaches you wanted.”

Moon said, “I want Indigo Cloud.” He was aware that Jade had been listening intently to the conversation from the beginning, and that Malachite knew it. Now Stone strolled back from the bow and sat down several paces away, keeping his expression carefully neutral. In the steering cabin, Chime had shifted to his Raksuran form so he could hear them better.

Malachite turned to face Moon, her head cocked skeptically. “Because she lets you do whatever you want?”

“She trusts me to take care of myself, even when she doesn’t want to. I can’t be like a normal consort; I’ll just cause trouble. Look what I did at Opal Night, and I wasn’t even trying.”

Malachite didn’t dispute that. Then she asked the question Moon had been dreading. “Why haven’t you had a clutch?”

Moon sensed Jade react, a flinch that rattled her spines. He set his jaw, gathering his resolve. If he admitted it, Malachite would have to realize no other court would take him. Jade apparently still wanted him, but there was no telling what the rest of Indigo Cloud’s reaction would be. Let’s just concentrate on getting back there first. He said, “Because I’m infertile.”

Malachite’s eyes narrowed in disbelief, a reaction that was not what he had been expecting. She also gave the impression that this was the first thing he had ever said that surprised her. “You’re not infertile.”

Jade said, “Of course you’re not infertile!” She hopped down from her perch and came to sit across from him. She hissed in exasperation. “We’re queens, we know.”

“How am I supposed to know that?” Moon floundered for a moment. He had been so certain. He blurted, “Then why haven’t we had a clutch?”

Jade folded her arms and looked away. “I don’t know.” From her expression, it cost her something to say the words aloud, but after they were out she seemed almost relieved. Her spines twitched anxiously. “I was afraid it would be blamed on you, that the court would think you weren’t trying.”

It had never occurred to Moon that Jade might be as insecure as he was, that she might have wanted to avoid the subject for reasons of her own, that she had been just as afraid as he had been. “But—” He began, then cut the word off with a yelp when Stone clipped him in the back of the head.

Obviously caught between fury and exasperation, Stone said, “It didn’t occur to you to ask me?”

“You were gone!” Snarling, Moon moved out of arm’s reach. He saw Chime, in the steering cabin, clap a hand over his eyes. Celadon, who had wandered up from the stern at some point and leaned against the railing, shook her head. He protested, “I was waiting for you to get back!”

Stone flung his hands up to the sky as if asking it to witness what he had to put up with. He turned to Jade. “You didn’t ask Pearl?”

“Of course not.” Jade sounded as if that was the most idiotic thing she had ever heard. “I can’t talk to her about anything.”

Stone glared. “Can’t or won’t?”

Malachite hissed, and everyone abruptly stopped talking.

Malachite tapped her claws on the deck. She didn’t look like she was struggling to hold on to her patience, but then she wouldn’t. She asked Jade, “You’ve suppressed your fertility in the past?”

Jade gritted her teeth. “Yes.”

Malachite tilted her head. “With other consorts?”

“No!” Jade bared her fangs briefly. “Moon is the only consort I’ve ever been with.” After a moment, she explained, “The Fell attacked our old colony. I couldn’t risk a clutch.”

Malachite sighed, though the tension in her body didn’t ease. She said pointedly, “We can’t get clutches at will, even at your age. And suppressing your fertility your first time with the consort you plan to breed with can delay conception later. Especially if the court is under stress.”

Jade frowned, but her spines gradually relaxed. “But it’s been three changes of the month.”

Stone buried his face in his hands and growled.

Malachite said, “The line-grandfather is right. Three changes of the month is not a long time. Especially under these circumstances.”

“Oh.” Jade looked at Moon. He looked at her. She said, “Next time, ask me if you think you’re infertile.”

“All right,” he agreed. “Next time, ask Pearl how long it takes to get a clutch.” She hissed at him.

Stone cut to the point. He asked Malachite, “So? Can we have him?”

She stood. She said, “I’ll consider it,” and walked toward the stern, collecting Celadon on the way.

Jade let her breath out in a long sigh. Watching Malachite’s back, she said in a low voice, “That’s an improvement.”

With a hiss of relief, Stone said, “Just both of you stay out of it now. Give her time, and wait till she makes the first move before you talk about it.”

“Oh, you’re going to help, now?” Jade asked him, lifting her brows. “I noticed you being conspicuously silent before.”

Stone gave her a dark look. “If you think me sticking a claw in would have helped, you’re wrong. Since you got here, it’s been between you and her.” He jerked his head toward Moon. “And she’s just like him. In her head, that Fell attack on the eastern court happened yesterday. We’re lucky we’re getting out of this with so little trouble.”

Stone walked away. Moon and Jade regarded each other. Moon said, “Little trouble?”

“I suppose it could have been worse,” Jade admitted.

There were a couple of things Moon still wanted to get straight. He asked, “What about Ember?” If she said “Who?” like Stone had…

“I didn’t know they were bringing him.” Jade met his gaze directly. “I told you, he was Emerald Twilight’s idea of an apology. And I didn’t take him in your place. I don’t think I exchanged two words with him before we left. I was busy trying to keep the hunters from being eaten.” Her voice softened, and she added, “I tell you now, if I ever take a second consort, it will be with your approval.”

Moon immediately felt guilty. He didn’t want Jade to change to accommodate him, and he didn’t want to hurt Ember’s feelings. But this was something that should probably wait until they got back to Indigo Cloud. He said, “It should be someone older, and not as pretty as me.”

Jade’s mouth quirked. “We’ll see.”

There was one thing more Moon needed to ask. “At Indigo Cloud, I saw Merry and Gold making a bracelet or something. It had little Aeriat figures. They acted… twitchy, like I wasn’t supposed to know about it.”

“Well, you weren’t. A consort is supposed to get a gift when his first clutch is conceived.”

“Oh.” Apparently Stone had been right all along: Moon was an idiot.

Jade added, “It takes a long time to make something like that, so I told them to go ahead.” She shrugged her spines in resignation. “I was hoping it would give me luck.”

He leaned against her and rubbed his cheek on her shoulder. “I don’t think we need luck. I think we just need… some time to relax.”

She glanced back to make sure Malachite was out of sight, then put an arm around his waist and pulled him against her side. “That would be wonderful.”

It took several days to reach Opal Night, though fortunately they were uneventful. As soon as they were certain the Fell weren’t following them, Stone went hunting with Floret and Saffron. They stopped the boat at a small lake at the edge of the foothills to butcher the carcasses and to change and refill the water stores and flush out the latrine, but ended up using the chance to bathe and rinse the blankets and their clothing as well.

It lost them most of the morning, but it was better for everyone, especially those still in healing sleep, to get rid of as much of the Fell stench as possible. Moon felt better about being able to hand Delin back a flying boat that though battered, didn’t stink and was reasonably clean. Malachite and Lithe were able to coax Shade to eat a little meat later that day, so maybe the lack of stench had helped him, too.

Moon was sitting with Shade on the railing near the bow, watching the ground go by, when Shade said, “I told Malachite what happened. The part about what the Fell made me do.”

Below, the fern-thorn forests of the lake country were gradually giving way to the high grasses of the plains. Moon said, “What did she say?”

“That it wasn’t my fault. That I did what I had to do to keep us alive.” Shade’s shoulders were still slumped. “She also said what you said, that I shouldn’t tell anybody else about it.”

Moon thought that over, about lies and protective concealment, and how it might fester for someone like Shade, as opposed to someone more used to it, like him. At the moment, Shade thought he was the only one who had had to do something repugnant to survive. Moon said, “I don’t think you should tell anyone. Unless you need to, to help them.” And he told Shade about how he had met the Fell in Saraseil, about how he had killed Liheas, the real story that he had told only to Jade, and not the abbreviated version he had told to others.

The wounded continued to heal under Lithe’s care, and two of Ivory’s warriors woke from the healing sleep and were able to move around a little. Root woke a day later, still too injured to sit up and having difficulty speaking, but able to indicate to Floret and Chime that he wanted a blow-by-blow account of everything he had missed.

When they crossed the plain between Aventera and the Reaches, Stone caught sight of a bladder-boat, but it didn’t try to approach. Everyone else ignored it, but Celadon and Moon leaned on the railing, speculating on what the Aventerans were doing now and secretly hoping the bladder-boat would come this way in a threatening manner so they could start a fight with it. After a time, Celadon said, “Thank you for trying to save Dare. I saw part of what happened. We had ended up in some sort of small passage, and there were slits in the outer wall we could see through, but they were too narrow to climb out of.”

Moon thought not being able to get outside at that moment had probably saved all their lives. And he didn’t want to talk about poor Dare. “How did you get out?”

“We went down through the city, trying to find a way out that was so far below the bladder-boats that they wouldn’t be able to shoot us. The Aventerans trapped us at one point but Delin got one of their weapons and started shooting it at them. After that, they backed off and we made it out through an opening down near the statue’s feet. The sac had already left by then, so I sent the warriors and Delin to tell the queens and I started after it. Malachite and the others caught up to me that night.” She rippled her spines, as if shaking off the angry memories. “Hopefully this will be the end of the Fell trying to make crossbreeds.”

“Hopefully,” Moon said.

She eyed him. “You don’t think so?”

“How many flights did this thing talk to? Some of them must have ignored it, but… there’s no telling how far the idea spread through the flights in the east.”

Celadon sighed. “Pessimism is one of your more annoying qualities.”

Moon wasn’t going to argue that. He added, “But at least that thing is dead and we don’t have to worry about it getting out and going on a rampage.”

“At least,” Celadon said pointedly. “I wish our ancestors had killed it when they had the chance.”

So did Moon. “They wanted to torture it more than they wanted to kill it.”

She shrugged her spines. “Sometimes it’s easy to remember that they were the Fell’s ancestors, too.”

Warrior scouts met them a day’s flight out from Opal Night, and some rode the rest of the way in on the flying boat, while others flew ahead to give the good news to the colony.

It was late afternoon when the boat glided over the ridge and into the shadow of the standing half of the split mountain-tree. The wind was a little high and gray clouds threatened rain in the distance, but Opal Night was more active than Moon had ever seen it before. The Arbora were out on the landing platform, climbing up the branches of the fallen half of the mountain-tree. There were so many warriors in the air, the boat could barely navigate through them.

As the boat drew closer, Moon spotted Delin, surrounded by the other members of his crew. They stood on the landing platform with some of the older Arbora, all waving wildly. Moon shifted to his winged form, leapt the railing, and glided down to land beside them.

Delin threw his arms wide in greeting. “You live! I am so pleased!”

Wanting to get this over with quickly, Moon said, “I’m glad you’re alive too. There’s a hole in the bottom of your boat.”

Chime landed behind him, and added, “And we used all your lamp oil. And all the fire packets for your shooting weapon got burned up.”

Delin smiled. “This will be a story worth hearing.”

That night, Jade and the warriors were offered one of Opal Night’s better guest bowers, next to the rooms where Delin and the Islanders had been staying.

Root was doing much better, but Song still spent most of her time asleep. They made pallets of furs and blankets for them on the floor, and Moon carried Song in himself. The wound across her throat was already white with scar tissue, though her skin was so bruised her chest and throat looked more green-black than dark bronze. She blinked and woke, startled, and clutched at his chest. An instant later she recognized him and relaxed, tucking her face into the crook of his arm. It made Moon’s heart flutter, and reminded him of how much he missed Frost, Thorn, Bitter and the other children.

Once everyone was settled, Jade told him, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Where are you going?” he asked, startled.

“You are going back to your bower,” Jade told him. “I don’t know if this is another one of Malachite’s tests for me, but if it is, I have no intention of failing it.” She bit him lightly on the neck. “Now go.”

Stone went with him, and when they reached the consorts’ hall, Moon found the young consorts of Malachite’s line, the ones descended from her long-dead sister queen, had moved back in. They were keeping Shade company in his bower, and watched Moon with wide-eyed curiosity and awe when he came to check on Shade. The fact that Shade was in the middle of the story of Moon ripping the underwater window open with Chime and Lithe’s help may have had something to do with that.

Moon found his temporary bower undisturbed, though Malachite had sent over some more clothes for him, which meant he was going to leave Opal Night with a lot more than he had arrived with. He was glad he had left the ivory disk that had belonged to his father behind in his pack. There had been too many chances to lose it on their adventures. He put it on now, looping the leather cord over his head.

Stone watched him do it but didn’t comment. As they settled down to sleep, he said, “It’ll be a relief to get home.”

Moon stretched out on the fur. “I hope nothing’s happened while we’ve been gone.”

Stone growled under his breath. “That’s what I said, too, coming back on that damn boat.”

“None of this was my fault,” Moon pointed out.

Stone made a noise eloquent of derision.

Moon woke sometime later, aware he hadn’t slept for very long. The air was filled with sound; the blended harmony of high and low notes, a chorus of voices. The Court of Opal Night was singing.

Moon slipped out of the furs, stepped around Stone, and went to the doorway.

The sound didn’t echo through the colony so much as fill all the available space like water poured into a bowl. He shouldn’t have been able to tell the source, but he could. It was coming from the colony’s central well.

He went down the corridor to the nearest opening, the one near the waterfall and the lake. He stopped in the doorway and leaned against the wall in the shadows.

There was movement all through the well, the light from windows gleaming off scales or skin. All of Opal Night was gathered here, sitting on the terraced platforms or along the stones lining the water, clinging to the walls. Singing.

It was the first time the song didn’t sound frighteningly alien, didn’t seem like something foreign was trying to invade Moon’s mind. It sounded warm and welcoming and right. He could distinguish individual voices in the chorus, in a way he never had before at Indigo Cloud. He could hear Celadon, and Onyx, Umber. There was Shade, not far above Moon’s head, sitting in the window of his bower, the other consorts around him. He could tell which voices were Arbora, and pick out Feather and Lithe. And Malachite’s voice was woven all through the others, like a pillar supporting the rest of the colony.

Moon leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, and thought, All right, I get it now. And then he joined in.

They spent nearly a month at Opal Night.

It was a busy time, since Malachite wanted Moon to meet all the other members of his line that he was closely related to, which amounted to something close to three hundred Aeriat and Arbora. The delay also gave Auburn time to fulfill Chime’s request for a search of the Opal Night mentors’ libraries for any past stories of Arbora who had transformed into warriors.

When Moon asked Chime about it one night, Chime said, “There was only one story about it happening to a mentor, and that was nearly a hundred turns ago as far as Auburn could tell.” Chime sighed.

“And?” Moon prompted. Chime’s depressed expression was beginning to worry him.

“It didn’t go into a lot of detail, but it said her healing skills and ability to make heat and light never came back.”

“Oh.” Moon hadn’t realized that Chime had still been holding onto that hope. “But did it say anything about hearing things?”

Chime turned his teacup around. “It said that she got ‘older skills’ and her auguries were different, but ‘often useful.’”

“It sounds like they didn’t want to give much detail.” That wasn’t encouraging.

“Exactly. I think ‘older skills’ mean things that our Ancestors could do.” Chime shrugged uneasily. “I’m not sure how I feel about that. I don’t think I like our Ancestors much anymore.”

“You’re still you,” Moon pointed out. “And your older skills keep helping us stay alive.”

“However I got them.” Chime waved those words away. “I mean, I know I can still be useful, and I’m glad about that. I just wish I had more control over it. Though at least now I know I’m not some weird aberration, that this has happened before.” Chime didn’t look entirely cheered by that thought, but he did seem less worried.

They finally left for Indigo Cloud, and had a thankfully uneventful trip through the suspended forest. Days ago, Jade had sent a message through Opal Night’s allied courts, telling Pearl that they would be returning as soon as negotiations for Moon were completed. They had received a message back that all was well at Indigo Cloud, but it was still a relief to approach the colony tree on the repaired flying boat and see the platforms were all intact, the Arbora moving through the gardens and the warriors circling the clearing.

A dozen warriors landed on the boat to greet them, and Moon saw a couple members of the Islander crew exchange grins. He knew how they felt; he didn’t think he would ever get over the thrill of seeing a large group of Raksura in flight at once, either.

One of the young female warriors who had landed on the deck came to Jade, shifted to groundling, and said, “Jade, I need to tell you something.”

Moon knew she was one of the warriors attached to Jade’s faction and that her name was Serene, but he hadn’t spoken to her much. She looked worried, and he immediately noticed that Sand and some of Jade’s other warriors, while they greeted Balm, Chime, and Floret and the others, were clearly keeping an eye on Serene.

Jade took Serene’s arm and led her away a short distance to the far side of the boat. She didn’t object when Moon followed.

Serene lowered her voice to a whisper, “Pearl took Ember.” She winced in anticipation of Jade’s reaction.

“What?” Moon said. He stared at Jade.

Jade didn’t even seem surprised. “That’s all right; I expected it,” she assured Serene. “Everything’s fine. Tell the others.”

Serene let out her breath in relief and smiled. “Oh, good. We’ve been so worried, and no one wanted to tell you. We drew lots for it and I lost.” She shifted to her winged form and bounced over to the other warriors.

Jade seemed genuinely unconcerned. She told Moon, “If I hadn’t wanted it to happen, I would have brought him with me.”

“But… He’s a kid.”

“If he was still a child, Emerald Twilight wouldn’t have sent him.” At his expression, she said, “He’s sweet, and biddable, and comes from a prestigious bloodline. He’s exactly what she likes. It’s been turns and turns since Rain died, and when you showed up was the first time she’d expressed interest in another consort.”

“Expressed interest? Is that what you call it?”

“This is a good thing,” Jade told him. “Now Pearl will pay more attention to the colony. And mind her own business, instead of mine.”

Moon thought that was optimistic. And he also thought he would reserve judgment until he talked to Ember.

He didn’t see Ember until later that night.

The first thing Moon did was visit the nurseries. It was a relief that this homecoming was a good deal less fraught than the last one. Frost had taken this absence much better, apparently solely due to Jade’s explanation that she had to fight a rival over him. Once the hysterical joy of the fledglings and Arbora children had settled down a little, Moon sat with Bitter and Thorn in his lap and told a rapt Frost and the others the story of how Jade had fought other queens and Fell rulers and a progenitor for him, until his mother had finally agreed to allow her to formally take Moon as her consort.

“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…”