The Cloud Roads

Chapter Nine

Moon woke to early dawn light and the cool air from the open door to the court. Chime, completely undeterred by their argument, was a warm presence against his back. Moon pushed himself up on one elbow and groaned under his breath. If Delin’s family decided against them, this was going to be an interesting day—interesting in the sense that he would like to just fly off and enjoy it in an entirely different part of the Three Worlds.

He could hear the others already stirring; Jade walked out into the main room first. She went to the doorway and glared out at the sky, already lightening to a clear blue. “It could have rained,” she said under her breath. “We’ve got no reason to stay here now.”

“It’s going to look suspicious.” Balm followed her and leaned in the doorway to look worriedly at the sky. She told the others, “The Gerent gave us a firm answer last night, and we’d already said we needed to return to the court as quickly as possible.”

She was right. The sky was almost cloudless. Everyone had eaten heavily yesterday, more than enough for the flight to the mainland; they should already be in the air. If the Islanders asked what they were waiting for, Moon didn’t know how Jade would explain it.

Root wandered over to the doorway and looked out uncertainly. “What do we do if they don’t come?”

“They’ll be here,” Jade said, turning away from the door. It was hard to tell if she was reassuring Root or herself.

Chime got the brazier lit in the main room and made tea. It gave them something to do, which helped a little, but Jade and Balm still stalked the empty rooms. The others were restive. Root kept climbing the walls and trying to hang off the door-frames, and Song and Branch bickered like bored children. After a while, Moon felt he had to do something with the younger warriors. Jade was so tense she hadn’t been able together spines down for half the morning. “Maybe I should take them fishing?” he said to Chime. He thought it was either that or kill them.

“You almost drowned yesterday,” Chime said, banging the iron kettle onto the holder. “You want to go out there again?”

“Yes.” Moon had been almost killed too many times to develop an aversion to anything. “I wasn’t planning to go fishing under the moss net.”

He looked up to find Jade standing over him, her frills stiff with exasperation. “If you would take them out of here for a while, I’d be grateful—”

Then Balm ducked through the doorway from the entrance hall. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered anxiously. “I think this is it.”

“Tell them to come in.” Jade turned to the younger warriors. “Go out to the court! Don’t make it look as if we’re waiting for something.”

Song, Branch, and Root scrambled to obey. Moon stayed where he was, sitting beside the brazier. After a moment of twitching uncertainly, Chime settled back down on his cushion. Jade shifted to Arbora, probably to get rid of most of her spines so they couldn’t flare out in agitation.

Then Balm walked in with Delin, Niran, and Endell-liani. Endell-liani inclined her head in greeting and said, “Forgive the intrusion, but Delin-Evran-lindel said that you were expecting him?”

Delin said, “We were invited for breakfast,” and winked at Moon. Niran flushed dark with mortification.

“What if they don’t come?” Root said. “What if they keep the pearls and cheat us?”

Moon, stretched out in the sun and trying to nap, hissed under his breath. They were at the metal ruin on the shore of the Yellow Sea, up on the top platform. They had arrived yesterday evening and stayed the night. It was now afternoon, another clear day with a bright sun and a good, cool wind off the water. With a dry edge to her voice, Jade told Root, “Then we go back home empty-handed and I look like a fool. Now be quiet.”

Delin had arranged to meet them here with three of his family’s wind-ships. The other Islanders might guess that the departure of the ships only a day after the Raksura had left had something to do with an arrangement to help move the court, but they wouldn’t be able to prove it. Delin seemed to think that was all that mattered. He had explained, “They may talk, but that’s all. We have always been explorers. We make the connections with other races that allow the trading guilds to open new markets and prosper, to let our scholars increase their knowledge. We go as we will and have never been under their direction.”

Moon hoped he was right.

At dawn this morning, Jade had sent Balm and Branch on ahead to the court, to let them know that the boats were coming. It was hard to believe that the entire court could make ready to move in just these few days, but Moon was willing to be surprised.

He had spent a lot of time last evening and this morning out scouting, going alone so he could stretch his wings and cover more distance. He had looked for signs that they had been followed by Fell or suspiciously low-flying cloud-walkers or anything else out of the ordinary, but he had found nothing. Just sea and dunes and salt marsh.

Some distance to the north, he did stumble on a small camp of groundlings who were following a narrow river inland. They had white silky fur that rippled in the wind, and bony crests like sea birds. They also had good eyesight; they spotted Moon at a higher altitude than most groundlings could have managed, and stared with interest and not much apparent fear, shielding their eyes against the sun. Moon supposed that if he had been Stone he would have taken the chance to stop and chat—but he wasn’t, and he didn’t.

He had returned to find Chime hunting among the tidal pools, and Song and Root playing in the surf. Jade sat on the beach, her blue and gray colors vivid against the golden sand. As he landed next to her, she asked, “Any sign?”

“Nothing.” He shifted to groundling, feeling uneasy. The ruler who had taken control of the cloud-walker would have known they had reached the Islanders, but not what they had done there. If they were lucky, it hadn’t had a chance to pass on even that much information to the others. But Moon wasn’t willing to trust to luck. He said, “Fell don’t give up.”

“I know,” she said, absently drawing her claws through the sand. “They should be here looking for us. I’d worry less if they were.”

They had all eaten. Root and Song had played in the waves until they were half-drowned. Moon felt he knew every pace of the surrounding marshland. At this point, there wasn’t anything to do but sleep in the sun and wait. The metal of the platform was baking hot, and lying on it in groundling form felt like a luxury. Groundlings with skin unprotected by scales or fur shouldn’t be able to touch metal this hot without burns, so Moon had always been careful not to indulge in it in front of anyone.

“But what’s to stop them from keeping the pearls?” Root persisted. He was on watch, and he, at least, was wide awake.

Chime and Song, sprawled near Moon on the platform, both snarled in chorus. But with weary patience, Jade said, “Their people are traders. For them, baubles like that are a measure of trust.”

Baubles, Moon thought, grimly amused. There had been times when a few baubles would have made all the difference in the world.

At least it gave Root something to think about. He was quiet long enough that the sun lulled Moon to sleep again. The next time Root spoke, it was to say, “Something’s coming in from the sea.”

Moon rolled to his feet, almost shoulder to shoulder with Jade. In the distance, a shape danced on the horizon, but he couldn’t tell if it was on the surface of the water or flying above it. There was no distinctive scent in the wind, animal or otherwise.

“Wait here.” Moon shifted and jumped off the platform.

He had only made a third of the distance before he could see it wasn’t one shape but three: three long wind-ships, their fan-like sails spread, making their way towards the shore.

Moon had been on boats that sailed on the water, but he had never had the freedom to climb all over one in his shifted form and see how it worked. The wind-ship was bigger and more interesting than any he had been on before. Under the main deck toward the bow were two large holds, empty except for food stores for the crew and clay water jars. The holds took up most of the room, but toward the stern there were smaller cabins for sleeping and eating, and one solely for the storage of maps, drawn on thick reed paper and rolled into lacquered wood cases.

The wind-ship’s sails were like giant fans, unfolding out from the large mast when the sailors pulled and adjusted the ropes. A ladder on the mast ascended to a little wooden box at the very top.

“What’s in here?” Chime asked, leaning over to look in. “Oh, sorry,” he added in Altanic.

An Islander woman was inside, apparently acting as look-out. She was very young, dressed like the other sailors in pants cropped at the knee and a loose shirt, her white hair kept off her face by a patterned scarf. She looked startled by their sudden appearance, but not panicked or upset.

“Will these ships hold the entire court?” Moon asked, boosting himself up to cling to one side of the box. Up here, the view was unobstructed by the sails or the bulk of the ship below. The marshland spread out below them like a green carpet, the hills a brown and gold haze in the distance.

“It’ll be crowded, but I think we can do it.” Chime hung on to the other side of the box, lifting his head so the wind stirred his spines. “If they have to, the warriors can spend most of their time in the air.”

Jade was over on the second ship with Root and Song, speaking to Diar, who was in command of the expedition. Ten Islander sailors crewed each ship, most members of Delin’s extended family. Niran was in charge of this vessel, and hadn’t made any effort to speak to them. His attitude still made it plain that he would rather not be here at all.

Moon felt a light touch and looked down to see the look-out run her finger down one of his claws, as if fascinated by the smooth texture and the bronze and black banding. He didn’t move, too bemused to react.

“Delin’s waving at us,” Chime said, leaning out to peer down at the deck. “I think he wants us to come down.”

Delin stood on the deck with Niran. Moon let go of the box, leapt out, and cleared the sail to glide down to the deck. Chime landed beside him a moment later and they both shifted to groundling. Niran’s jaw was set and his golden skin flushed with irritation. That’s going to be a problem, Moon thought. It was also going to become annoying. Both he and Chime knew better than to pull on ropes or touch anything else that looked delicate; if Niran had difficulty dealing with them, it was going to be interesting to see how he handled it when curious Arbora were climbing all over the place.

Delin just smiled. “You like our ship? It is the Valendera, the oldest of our craft, built by my father’s father. The others are the Dathea and the Indala.”

Chime said, “Yes, but how do they fly?” Earlier, he had climbed over the side and down under the hull, trying to see what kept the ship in the air. Moon had just figured that some things flew and some didn’t, and since the ship was from a flying island, its chances of doing so were better than most.

But Delin said, “I’ll show you,” and led them back toward a small deck cabin in the stern. Niran followed with an air of unspoken protest.

When Delin opened the heavy door, Moon saw that crystals in the walls and roof allowed in light while blocking the weather. Built-in benches along the wall doubled as storage chests. A shelf held lacquered map cases. But in the center of the cabin was a wooden pedestal with a heavy metal lid. It was etched with glyphs in the Islander language, and other symbols Moon hadn’t seen before. Metal handles stood out from the top of the pedestal, apparently so it could be turned, allowing the symbols to point to different directions.

Delin touched the lid, smiling reverently. “This contains the sustainer, the engine which controls the ship’s speed and direction.” He slid a bolt aside and opened the top of the pedestal. Inside was a chunk of gray rock, shot through with glittering metallic elements. He looked at them, brows lifted inquiringly. “Do you know what this is?”

Moon had no idea. He guessed, “A magic rock.”

Chime’s face was rapt. He looked up at Delin, smiling. “A piece of a flying island.”

Delin nodded. “A small piece, a very important piece, from the heart of an island. One of the things we search for in our explorations are fragments of islands, uninhabited and too small to be of use. We excavate and look for these rocks, which are buried throughout them.”

Chime looked like he desperately wanted to touch the rock, but knew he shouldn’t. “So you turn the case—”

“And the ship turns with it.” Delin carefully closed the lid again. “The force of the sustainer propels us. It allows the ship to float on the waves of invisible force that cross the Three Worlds. The sails are only to take advantage of the wind for extra speed. We can’t be becalmed like an ocean-going ship.”

It was probably a stupid question, but Moon couldn’t help himself. He asked, “When you take the rocks out, do the islands sink?”

“If we take too many, yes,” Delin told him. “There is a plateau in the north that is said to be a large flying island that fell to the ground. They believe several civilizations fought over possession of it, and that their attempts to drive each other away caused the power inside the rock to stop working.”

Chime stepped around the pedestal, examining the rest of the cabin. In the back wall, a small compartment held a heavy bowl of water with a sliver of metal shaped like a fish floating in it. Chime touched the bowl. “What’s this?”

That one Moon recognized. “It always points to south, so they can navigate.” He touched the fish, making it spin and bob.

“How do you navigate when you fly?” Delin asked.

“I always know which way south is.” The words were out before Moon remembered that he didn’t actually know if that was a Raksuran trait or not. He slid a glance at Chime.

But Chime nodded as he leaned down to study the little metal fish. He said absently, “It’s a pull toward the heart point of the Three Worlds. We all feel it, including the Arbora.”

Delin was already opening his writing box, but Niran stared, disbelieving. He repeated, “You always know where south is.”

Moon and Chime both pointed. A moment later the metal fish steadied in its bowl, seconding their opinion. Niran folded his arms, his face still skeptical. Exasperated, Moon had to ask, “Why would we lie about that?”

Delin sat down on one of the benches built into the wall, smiling mildly as he got out his writing instrument. “I’m sure a test could be arranged.”

That took up the rest of the afternoon.

Below them, the marshes gave way to plains studded with scrubby trees. The wind changed as they traveled further inland, and the sailors folded the sails up; the ships then moved with only the sustainer to power them. It was slower, but they still made good progress. Another benefit of traveling on a flying boat was that you didn’t have to stop to sleep or eat; Moon thought the steady progress of the ships would come close to making up for their slower speed.

In the early evening, Moon took Root and Song hunting, and they brought back a couple of big flightless birds, similar to vargit, for the Islanders. By the time they got back, the setting sun was turning the sky a warm gold.

Diar, on the Dathea, thanked them with genuine enthusiasm. “We usually live off grain porridge and dried root crops on these trips, and at home every meat other than fish is imported, costly, and not fresh.” She was older than her brother Niran, short and strongly built. She didn’t seem to share Niran’s reservations or, if she did, she hid it better.

While the crew carried their catch away, Moon remembered something he had meant to tell the younger warriors. “Don’t eat in your shifted form in front of the Islanders.” Some of the crew were openly nervous of them, some curious, and others cautious. Watching warriors eat would appall most groundlings, and it was too easy to imagine Root dragging a fresh kill up onto the ship’s deck.

Song nodded understanding, but Root had to ask, “Why not?”

“Because you’re disgusting,” Chime told him. “Even we think so.” Moon didn’t think he was exaggerating; Chime had been an Arbora for most of his life, and the mentors and teachers ate more like groundlings than Raksura.

Root bristled, then looked at Moon, and meekly lowered his spines.

Each ship had a special room below for cooking, with a fire in a heavy metal container. The Islanders cut the birds up, mixed them with root vegetables from their stores, and cooked it all in clay pots. Moon was still full from eating this morning, but it smelled so appetizing that accepting a bowl to be polite was no hardship.

Afterwards, he went up on the deck. Big lanterns were lit on the prow, but most of the ship was in shadow. Many of the Islanders on the Valendera had gone below to sleep or sit at the long table in the crew’s common room. The decks of the other two ships were empty except for a couple of sailors on watch. Root and Song were over on the Dathea, and Chime had gone up on top of the steering cabin to sleep. Moon didn’t know where Jade was until he caught a glimpse of blue and gray in the light of the bow lantern.

He took a step in that direction, then made himself turn back. He was leaving after they moved the court, and there was no point in... There was just no point.

He wandered back down the deck, to a platform where coils of rope were stacked. Sitting there, he had a good view over the railing.

The night air was like cool silk against his skin. The other two ships were half-lit shapes to either side, moving in near silence. When he flew under his own power, the terrain flashed by; at the slower pace and lower altitude of the ship it was much easier to see and oddly fascinating to watch. He caught flickers of movement in the tall grass and the trees, and hints of scent in the breeze, but he was too well fed to feel any urge to obey the reflexive impulse to hunt.

Then he heard a light step on the boards. Jade climbed onto the platform and sat near him. She wore her Arbora form, her colors soft and muted in the shadow. She curled up her tail, wrapped her arms around her knees, and said, “If you stand by the ladder, you can hear them talking below. I was listening to what they said about us.”

Moon lifted his brows. It was always a good idea to be cautious, but her expression didn’t seem urgent, so she must not have heard anyone plotting against them.

Jade continued, “They say we’re not nearly as savage as Niran led them to believe.” One corner of her mouth lifted in a smile. “They think Root is cute.”

Moon twisted around to look over at the Dathea. The moonlight illuminated Root and Song sitting on the railing in groundling form. Root flicked at Song’s hair, apparently in an attempt to get her to shift and rip his head off. Moon considered intervening, but he figured the situation would work itself out in a moment. “Would they like to keep him?”

“I may ask.” Jade sounded amused. “They call you ‘the quiet one.’”

Moon supposed it was true. Over on the other ship, Song pushed Root off the railing. He tumbled, shifting in mid-air, and caught himself before he crashed into a tree. As he flapped back up to the ship, Moon said, “It’s hard to believe he’s related to Branch.”

“He isn’t. Though they’ve always been close. Root’s other clutch-mates were all Arbora.” She absently rubbed at the polished wooden boards, looking thoughtful. “Sometimes there’s a division, among the warriors, between those whose mothers were Arbora and those whose mothers were queens. Branch’s clutch-brother is a good example of that.” Her voice turned dry. “He’s too clever to push me, so I have no excuse to give him the beating he deserves.”

Moon turned back to look at her, frowning. If Branch wasn’t related to Root, then his name might not mean tree branch, but... He said, warily, “Branch’s clutch-brother is River? And there’s another warrior called Drift?”

Jade nodded absently. “They were one of Amber’s clutches. The other two clutch-mates were consorts, but they didn’t survive. Why do you ask?”

Moon considered not answering, but he didn’t owe River any favors. “My first day at the colony, River and Drift told me to leave.”

Jade tilted her head, eyes narrowing in annoyance. “Did they.” She looked out across the dark forest. “River is one of the warriors who sleeps with Pearl.”

That... somehow isn’t a surprise, Moon thought. It certainly explained River’s attitude.

Still sounding irritated, Jade said, “Queens and consorts always have warrior and Arbora lovers; that’s not the problem. And it isn’t as if I think she should be alone. But with Pearl’s consort dead, it’s as if River thinks he’s taken that place. He’s not a consort, and sleeping in her bower doesn’t give him a higher place in the court.”

Moon had noticed that sex among the Arbora seemed informal, and he had assumed it was that way among the Aeriat as well. When Moon was younger, he had always made it a point to try to figure out the local customs. It had taken him some time to realize that just because someone offered to have sex with you didn’t mean he or she was supposed to or that accepting wouldn’t get you killed. But every groundling settlement had different rules, and often there were different customs even within individual tribes and cities, and after a time he had just given up on it. It was something else that had made the Cordans’ camp an easy place to live; it had all been decided for him.

“The last place I lived, the elders chose who lived together. People didn’t always listen,” he added, remembering the rumor about Kavath and Selis’ cousin. “But it mostly worked out.”

Jade hesitated, her claws working absently on the wooden platform. “Stone told me he found you living in a groundling settlement.” She tilted her head, watching him directly. “Was it very hard to leave?”

“In a way.” Moon couldn’t keep the irony out of his voice; Stone obviously hadn’t told her the whole story. “One of the women I was living with saw me shift, and thought I was a Fell. She poisoned me and told the others. They took me up into the jungle and staked me out to die.” He heard her startled hiss, and finished, grimly, “They were Cordans. The Fell moved across their land, from city to city, town to town, killing and eating and moving on. They have reason to be afraid.”

She was still a moment, watching him. “You’re defending them.”

Moon bit his lip and said nothing. He couldn’t defend them, but he didn’t want to listen to anyone else condemn them, either. Until you had seen a groundling settlement ravaged by the Fell, you couldn’t understand. “If she hadn’t seen me, I’d still be living there.”

Jade shook her head a little. “But would you be happy?”

When Moon left the Indigo Cloud court, it would be so people wouldn’t ask him questions like this anymore. Being warm, dry, able to find food, shelter, in friendly or at least not openly hostile company, were the only things that had ever mattered. He said, “That was never the point.”

She was quiet for so long he thought she would leave. Moon couldn’t see the point in talking to him, either. Then he felt a gentle touch, as Jade drew her fingers through his hair.

The touch moved to the back of his neck, drifting over the vulnerable skin that Pearl had scratched. Her hand slid down his back, and he realized she was giving him time to escape. But when she pressed against his side, he leaned into her warmth.

She brushed her cheek against his. In Arbora form her softer scales had the texture of rough velvet. Every muscle in his body went tense, heat coiling through him. You told yourself you weren’t going to do this, he thought. Except it was hard to hold to that with Jade’s arm around his waist, her breath in his ear, her teeth gently nipping the back of his neck. And if he didn’t stop now, he wasn’t going to stop.

He jerked away from her, scrambling to his feet. He rasped out, “I can’t,” and shifted. He leapt up and away, clinging to the mast for a moment before pushing off.

He landed on the cabin roof with a loud thump. Chime, lying on the warm wood in groundling form, started and blinked at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked sleepily.

“Nothing.” Moon folded his wings and started to sit down.

Then Jade thumped down onto the planks. Badly startled, Moon went into a defensive crouch. Chime yelped and curled into a ball, arms over his head. Jade whispered rapidly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. But it’s just that you’re here.” She hissed in frustration and leapt into the air.

Moon eased back to sit down and shifted to groundling. Chime sat up, breathing hard, one hand pressed to his chest. He gasped, “I thought you were going to fight.”

“No. Not fight.” Moon didn’t intend to explain further.

From somewhere below, he heard Niran’s voice, demanding wearily, “What are they doing up there?”

After a time, Chime grumbled and lay back down, moving around, trying to get comfortable again. He had just settled down when Moon heard a rush through the air as someone glided over. Root landed lightly on the cabin roof and folded his wings. Sounding embarrassed, he said, “Jade threw me off the other boat. Can I stay here with you?”

“No,” Chime snapped.

“If you’re quiet,” Moon told him.

Root shifted to groundling and curled up on Chime’s other side, despite Chime’s hissing at him. Moon wasn’t sure if Jade was fed up with Root or just fed up with male Raksura in general.

His reaction to her had caught him off guard, frightened him. Self-control, making decisions and sticking to them, had always been important to his survival.

Since the moment he had met Stone, he felt like he didn’t know what he was doing. He couldn’t afford to be like this.

The ship was quiet, nothing moving near them except the wind, but it was a long time before Moon could relax enough to lie down and sleep.

The next day dawned cool and damp, with gray clouds obscuring the sky and ground mist winding through the trees below. Moon managed to communicate to the others, even Chime, that he preferred to be alone, and went up to sit on the railing of the prow. From there he could watch the forested valleys roll by under the ship.

The trees were tall with heavy foliage at the very top, with clumps of dark blue fruit. Big crab-like creatures with colorful shells clung to the top branches, eating the fruit. They were smaller than branch-spiders, but Moon found the resemblance close enough. They might be good to eat, though.

Absorbed in the view, he was still aware that one of the Islanders had come to sit on the deck ten paces or so behind him. He didn’t realize it was Delin until he heard the rustle of paper. He looked to see the old man sitting cross-legged, a light wooden tablet braced on his knees, sketching something with close concentration.

Moon hopped down to go look at it. He could scratch out the characters for Altanic and Kedaic in ways that were readable, but he had never been able to draw an image that even he could recognize. He crouched beside Delin, studying the sketch. It was the ship’s prow, with someone perched on it, and it took him a long moment to realize who it was. “That’s me?” He had seen his groundling form in clear water or glass or polished metal, but never from the side like this. Stone was right—he was all skin and bones.

“It is.” Delin smiled, adding a last few strokes with the charcoal stick. “I will add it to the book, and title it ‘Moon, Consort of Indigo Cloud.’”

He wanted to be in the book, but it should be the truth. “Maybe just title it ‘Moon.’”

Delin’s look was thoughtful. “You are not of the same court as the others?”

“No. I’m just... visiting.” There was no reason to say anything more, but Moon found himself admitting, “I don’t have a court.”

“I thought your people did not live alone.”

Moon shrugged. “They don’t, apparently.”

Delin nodded, taking that in. “I have read that young consorts are usually shy creatures, who do not venture far from their homes.” Moon couldn’t help a derisive snort. Delin added, with a touch of irony in his expression, “Perhaps they do not understand you.”

He was probably right, and it probably worked both ways.

After a while Delin went below, and Moon went back to the view.

Towards afternoon they were over the hills and the heavier jungle. Moon thought they were nearly to the river, with only a short distance to go.

Then Chime, who was taking in the view from the top of the mast, called out, “Someone’s coming!” Moon snapped around to look, and saw Chime pointed towards something ahead of them in the distance. A shape in the air headed their way. Moon shifted, standing up to taste the air. It was a Raksura.

Chime glided down from the mast to land next to Moon. “I can’t tell who it is yet.” He squinted into the distance, frowning. “I don’t know why they’re sending someone to us. They should know we’re on the way.”

Good question, Moon thought. Either Balm and Branch hadn’t arrived, or... something else had.

The warrior finally drew close enough for Chime to identify him as a young male called Sand. Jade, Root, and Song were waiting with Moon and Chime by the time Sand landed on the Valendera’s deck. He shifted to groundling, breathing hard from what must have been a hard, fast flight, and said to Jade, “Stone said not to bring the groundling boats any closer. The Fell have been to the colony again.”

Jade’s spines were already flared with agitation. At this she went deadly still. “What do you mean ‘been to the colony?’ They attacked?”

Sand shook his head hurriedly. “No, no. A ruler came again, with dakti. Pearl wanted to let them in to talk, but they wouldn’t. Flower said it was because they knew Stone was there. Then they left.”

Chime hissed; he looked sick. “You could have said that first.”

Moon looked away, keeping the relief off his face. Not too late; just hovering on the edge of disaster. As usual. He turned back to Sand. “Who knows about the wind-ships? Who did Balm and Branch tell?”

Sand looked uncertainly from Jade to Moon. “Just Stone and Flower, and me, so I could carry the message. They said not to tell anyone else.” He turned back to Jade. “Stone wants you to leave the boats out here and come in to meet him at the Blue Stone Temple.”

Chime told Moon, “That’s near the valley where we went hunting.”

Jade’s tail lashed. “Good. We’ll need a chance to make plans.” Moon hoped she meant, make plans so that we can load the ships without giving Pearl a chance to tell the Fell about it.

“What are we going to tell the Islanders?” Song asked, looking around the deck. They had been speaking in the Raksuran language, so no one had overheard. All three ships had stopped, and the Dathea and the Indala had drawn up alongside the Valendera. The crews were out on deck, waiting for news.

“The truth,” Jade said. She turned to where Delin, Niran, and Diar waited near the deck cabin.

They took the news well, though Niran folded his arms and looked as if this was no more than he had expected. But as Delin pointed out, if there were no danger from the Fell, then none of them would be here in the first place.

Diar seemed undisturbed as well. She said, “We can rig the ships the same way we do for storms. We find a clearing and tie off to sturdy trees or rocks, then winch the ships down out of the wind.”

“We’ll send someone to you soon,” Jade told her.

The Blue Stone Temple lay in the forest, just over the hills from the plain with the statues. It was a big square structure buried in the trees and half-covered by flowering vines. Made from solid slabs of stone, it was open on all four sides, with a large skylight in the flat roof. The large pool it was built over was its most unique feature. Its square edges had been softened by the forest’s mossy carpet. The blue-tinted stone blended into the shadows under the trees, and Moon would have been hard pressed to find it on his own.

As they circled down to it, Moon caught a strong stench of death; a large bloated carcass of a waterbeast floated in the pool.

As they landed on the temple’s roof, Moon spotted Stone’s distinctive shape dropping down out of the clouds. Two smaller shapes accompanied him.

“That’s Balm and Branch,” Jade said, sounding preoccupied. “If we can start the journey tomorrow...” She turned away and dropped down through the skylight into the temple.

Jumping down after her, Chime said, “I was thinking, if we can use the ships to cache some of our supplies away from the colony, then come back later—”

Root, Song, and Sand followed and Moon stood there a moment, shaking his head. None of them seemed to be thinking about what they were going to do about Pearl. They seemed to believe she would snap out of it once they got her away from the colony and her visits with the Fell.

He stepped over the edge of the opening and dropped down into the temple. Inside it was just a big empty space supported by square pillars, high-ceilinged and open. The light was tinted green by the screens of foliage, the stone stained dark with moss. The reliefs on the walls had been rubbed away by time and weather. Chime, shifted to groundling, was crouched on the paving, sketching out a map in the leaf mold while Jade, Song, Sand, and Root watched.

Moon walked toward the open side that faced the pool and stood at the edge of the platform. The water was dark green, thick with scum, the bloated waterbeast lying at the far edge. It looked as if something had killed it, dragged it here, then discarded it, and their arrival had driven away any scavengers. Insects skated across the water, but nothing else moved. The stench of the carcass was worse than the hunters’ tanning court.

Moon shifted to groundling so his sense of smell wouldn’t be as acute. If they were going to spend much time here, it might be worth it to try to move the thing, but if it fell apart it would be worse.

He heard the rush of air above as Stone arrived, and turned to see the dark shape dropping through the skylight. He carried Flower in one big talon. He set her down and shifted to groundling. As Flower shook her hair out of her eyes and straightened her smock, Balm landed beside her. “I’ll keep watch up here,” Branch called to them, looking down through the skylight.

“You’ve done it,” Flower said to Jade, smiling. “We knew you would.”

Jade smiled back. She had tried to seem matter-of-fact about all this, but now she couldn’t help betraying a little pride over their achievement. She said, “So far. Now we’re trying to think how to get everyone on the ships as quickly as possible, before the Fell return.”

Chime looked up at Flower. “I thought we could get the hunters to cache the heavier supplies, maybe in the upper river caves. Then—”

Flower sat down opposite Chime to examine his map. Balm shifted to groundling and looked over her shoulder.

Stone stood apart, and Moon went over to him. He said, low-voiced, “They told you about the cloud-walker?”

“Yes.” Stone kept his eyes on the others. “The Fell didn’t come anywhere near the court until yesterday, and Pearl never left while you were gone.”

Moon couldn’t help feeling relieved. At least someone else was thinking about this. “But others did.”

“Yes. A third of the warriors and probably half the Arbora, like they do every day.” Stone’s expression was ironic. “But most of them didn’t know Jade was going to the Yellow Sea.”

“And you trust the ones who did?” Moon persisted.

Stone admitted, “I used to.”

Moon hissed in frustration. This wasn’t going to work, no matter how clever Chime, Flower and Jade’s plans were, unless they dealt with Pearl. And no one seemed to want to admit that Pearl needed dealing with. “When you get to the new colony she’ll just—”

“Wait.” Stone tilted his head, frowning. “Do you smell that?”

“Of course I smell that. Will you listen to me—”

“No, there’s something else—”

Moon heard a rush of wings overhead and spun around, looking toward the skylight. It sounded like a number of Raksura, but Branch hadn’t given a warning. He tried to shift... and nothing happened.

Startled, he looked at Stone. Stone muttered, “Oh, no. This is all we need.”

Pearl dropped through the skylight and landed on the stone floor, her scales a burst of brilliant gold and indigo against the stained paving.