The Cloud Roads

Chapter Eleven

The hunters made a sling big enough for Stone’s Raksuran form, and Moon and several Aeriat and Arbora carried him out of the temple and into the deep forest. They stayed on the ground, which made the going slow and difficult, but would make it harder for the Fell to track them. Two hunters followed the group, covering any sign of their passage, and another led the way, picking the best route through the undergrowth.

Dim and green, the failing light filtered through the heavy fronds forming the forest canopy, and the ground was thick with moss and tall ferns. The spiral trees curved up, more than a hundred paces high, their roots taller than Moon’s head. It was quiet except for the distant birdcalls, the treelings chattering at each other. The others had all gone ahead tomake a blind, something else the hunters were expert at.

Stone was still unconscious, his breathing almost too slow to detect. His wounds had stopped bleeding, but Flower had nothing with her, no medicines or even simples to help him.

Root, on the opposite side of the sling towards the back, stumbled on something and it jostled Stone. Moon hissed randomly at all of them. Stone being hurt had created a cold lump of fear in Moon’s chest that had taken him by surprise. It wasn’t just losing his best ally, or that Stone had seemed indestructible. Moon might not have been Stone’s first choice to bring back to the court, but Stone had plenty of time to lose him along the way to Indigo Cloud if he had wanted to. It was a shock to realize just how much it meant that he hadn’t.

“He’ll be all right,” Flower said, though Moon hadn’t asked. She picked her way along beside him in her groundling form. “He’ll heal faster while he sleeps like this.”

“How long before he can shift?” If Stone shifted into groundling now, his wounds would kill him instantly.

“Several days, at least.” She added, “We’re going to need your help.”

He glanced down to see her watching him intently. “I said I’d stay until you moved the court.”

Moon was getting tired of having to repeat that promise. He had come here knowing he would have to fight Fell at some point, but that wasn’t what frightened him. It was the other Raksura—they frightened him, confused him, made him feel threatened in vague ways he couldn’t articulate even to himself. “Nothing’s changed.”

“That’s good to know. But we’re also going to need your help with Pearl and Jade.” Flower’s expression suggested that what she was about to say left a bad taste in her mouth. “If you could try not to provoke anything between them. There’s a time for Jade to challenge Pearl’s reign, but this isn’t it.”

“That’s funny.” It wasn’t funny, though Moon was willing to admit to a certain bitter amusement. “Because I’m pretty certain Stone brought me here to do exactly that.”

“We did have something like that in mind,” Flower admitted. “And I, at least, was foolish enough to think that Pearl might be ready to end her reign and give way to Jade, once she was made to see that Jade was ready. That may be one of the reasons why she didn’t tell me what the Fell wanted.” Her tone turned rueful. “What a burden that must have been on her. And I just thought she was ill.” She looked up at him again. “We didn’t expect Pearl to want you, but then Stone and I are old enough to be long past that sort of thing. If the court had a clutch of young consorts, if Pearl was still used to having them around, your sudden arrival wouldn’t have had that effect on her.”

She had that wrong. Moon found it highly unlikely that Pearl wanted him for anything other than dinner. And if they had a clutch of consorts, he wouldn’t be here. He would be picked-over, vargit-chewed bones. But arguing about it wouldn’t help, and there was something else he wanted to know.

“Did you really have a vision that I should go warn the groundlings?”

“I don’t make visions up, Moon,” Flower said with some irritation. After a moment, she shook her head. “I’m not sure it was about letting you go to warn the groundlings. Visions aren’t that specific, even mine.”

Ahead, their Arbora guide swung down from a tree and motioned anxiously for them to follow. “It’s this way.”

As they wound through the trees, Moon was glad of the guide. The blind was hard to make out, even this close. The Arbora had used a low spot overhung by trees, and weaved deadfall branches and fresh greenery to make a roof and walls. They had moved rocks, and used large sections of the moss carpet, until the whole thing looked like a hillock buried in the forest.

Niran helped two female Arbora gather greenery for more concealment. He looked up as they approached, staring at Stone with wary curiosity.

The waiting hunters lifted a section of brush, and Moon and the others carried Stone into the shadowy interior. Flower slipped in ahead of them and, after some rustling, a fall of moss hanging from the roof branches started to glow, giving them enough light to set the sling down. The ground had been carefully cleared, scraped down to bare dirt. The Arbora had methodically removed the top layer of moss and ferns, and used it to conceal the roof of the blind.

The Arbora pulled the open section back into place, restoring it with quick adjustments and repairs to the dislodged greenery. The only light was the dim white glow of the spelled moss. Moon knelt beside Stone’s head, making sure he was still breathing. He thought he saw the dark eyelid shiver, but couldn’t be sure.

Flower crouched beside him and tugged at his arm. “Come on, the others are making plans. We need to be there.”

Moon didn’t think Pearl and her supporters would feel that he needed to be there at all, but he had thought of something he needed to tell them. He hesitated. “Who’ll stay with him?”

“Blossom and Bead.” She nodded to the two female Arbora who were showing Niran how to wind greenery into the blind. Bead was young, but Blossom showed some signs of age, with threads of gray in her dark hair. “The only teachers to escape. And we’ll put the older hunters in here. They’re experienced at tending the wounded.”

Moon followed her reluctantly.

The blind already had partitions, screens of woven fronds, dividing it into chambers. As Flower led the way through, Moon’s spines kept catching on the woven branches and vines, so he shifted to groundling.

Somewhere nearby, Chime said impatiently, “No, that won’t work. If we try to get inside the colony, we’ll be caught by the same power that’s keeping the others from shifting.”

Balm’s voice was tense with frustration. “Even if we could shift once we were inside, there’s just not enough of us to fight all those Fell. We need help.”

Flower stepped through an opening small enough that Moon had to duck to follow her. This part of the blind was still partially open to the outside and braced against the rough gray wall of a plume tree’s trunk. Besides Chime and Balm, Jade, Pearl, Bone, and River sat on the bare ground. The others were in groundling form, and Jade and Pearl had shifted to Arbora. Pearl sat back against the wide column of a root, her body tense, her tail wrapped around her feet. Her usually brilliant blue and gold scales seemed dimmed, muted. Jade sat across from her, and Moon was struck by the sight of her face in profile, her long jaw tight with tension, her eyes narrowed. She sat with her arms propped on her knees, every muscle coiled with seething frustration. She wanted to challenge Pearl. That was obvious to him, and had to be obvious to everyone here. But she knew this was no time or place for it. The court had to be united under one queen and Pearl was it, whether they liked it or not.

Jade looked up and their eyes met. Moon was caught for an instant, then managed to look away. After a moment, she asked, “How is Stone?”

“Still the same.” Flower stepped around to sit next to Chime, tugging her skirt over her moss-stained feet. “We just need to keep him still and warm, until he heals.”

Moon sat next to Flower, hoping Pearl would just pretend he didn’t exist. But she watched him, her blue eyes cold. With an ironic air, she said, “So tell us. How did the Fell know you were new to the court?”

Moon considered pointing out that one of Pearl’s warrior friends who was a Fell spy could have reported it. Instead he said, “They saw me at Sky Copper, with Stone. A ruler spoke through one of the dakti.”

Bone nodded. “Stone told us of that. These must be the same rulers that destroyed Sky Copper, not that there was much doubt about it.”

“And we know the Fell share memories.” Flower leaned forward, flattening her hands on the ground. “The ability seems to come from the way they breed. There are only a few females, progenitors, who mate with the rulers. Rulers born of the same progenitor have a close connection to each other. They can speak through each other, see through each other’s eyes.” She looked at Moon, lifting her pale brows. “The rulers are said to be able to influence some groundlings. Have you seen that before?”

“Yes.” Moon rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. He had seen it from far too close. “Do you think that’s what this ruler did to Branch?”

Flower started to answer, then flicked a look at Pearl. “Maybe.”

River snarled, a full-throated sound despite his groundling form. “It wasn’t Branch.”

That was actually what Moon was most afraid of. He told River, “If it wasn’t him, then whoever it was is still with us.”

River tilted his head, leaning forward. “The Fell said it was you.”

Bone snorted. “‘The Fell said.’ Warrior, listening to anything the Fell say will get you killed.”

Moon pointedly turned to Jade, hoping River would go for his throat and give Moon the excuse to kill him.

“The poison I told you about, that the Cordans gave me—it kept me from shifting until it wore off. They said it was for Fell. Have you ever heard of anything like that?”

“No.” Jade looked startled. “You think this poison is how the Fell kept the court from shifting?”

“Maybe. The hunters said Knell called a warning. When the Cordans gave it to me, I didn’t even remember falling unconscious.” Moon couldn’t think of a way that the poison could be spread through water or air that wouldn’t have affected the Arbora working just outside the colony as well. “Stone said he had never heard of it either.”

“You brought a groundling here,” River said, making it sound like an accusation. “Does he know of this mythical poison?”

Moon had to let a little of his derision show. “All groundlings don’t know each other.”

“We can ask,” Jade cut across River’s reply. “But it’s doubtful. When I spoke to the Islanders’ leader, the only defense they seemed to have against the Fell was the distance the islands lay from shore.”

Balm watched Moon carefully. “Why did these Cordans poison you?”

Well, somebody would have to ask. Moon shrugged, as if it barely mattered. “One of them saw me shift. She thought I was a Fell.”

“There’s a coincidence,” River put in sourly.

Chime leaned forward. “To untutored groundlings, our consorts look like Fell rulers.” He added, pointedly, to River, “You may not have realized this, since you aren’t actually a consort, despite your sleeping habits.”

“Chime.” Balm reached over and caught his wrist, giving him a meaningful look. Chime pressed his lips together and sat back reluctantly. Bone passed a hand over his face and looked away. Jade just lifted a brow.

River ignored it all, looking at Pearl. “He could be lying. It could be as the Fell ruler said.”

Moon was tired of hearing it at this point. “Of course it could. That’s why the Fell said it.”

River started to reply, but with a growl in her voice, Pearl said, “That’s enough.”

River looked as if he might argue, but after a moment, subsided uneasily.

Jade drew a claw through the dirt. “I’m wondering, if the Fell had this power to stop an entire colony from shifting, why haven’t they used it before now? Raksura have fought Fell off and on since the Three Worlds first turned. Weakened courts have always had to be wary of attacks, but nothing in our histories has ever mentioned anything like this.”

“Because it must be something new,” Flower said, quietly.

“But they didn’t try to use it on us at the temple,” Balm said, with a glance at Jade. “So whatever it is, maybe there’s only one of it?”

Pearl eyed Flower. “Too bad there was no warning of this new thing. No visions, no augury...”

Yes, that’s helpful, Moon thought. Let’s share out the blame. But with effort he managed to keep his mouth shut.

Flower’s attention appeared to be on her toes, peeping out from under the ragged hem of her skirt. “For the past turn, my augury has said to follow Stone, to leave the colony and seek another to the west.” She lifted her head and deliberately met Pearl’s gaze. “Too bad no one listened.”

The silence grew tight as wire, then Pearl looked away, her lips peeled back in a grimace. “I did listen. I didn’t heed. That’s on my head.”

After a moment, Bone stirred. He said, bleakly, “We have a scatter of Arbora and a bare handful of Aeriat, to go against an entire flight of Fell who can keep us from shifting. If we attack as we are, we’ll die.” He looked from Pearl to Jade. “What about sending to another court for help?”

Jade flicked her claws. “It’s probably not worth asking Star Aster, and they’re the largest court we have contact with.” She took a deep breath. “Sky Copper was our only close ally.”

Bone grunted in agreement, but added, “We have blood relations with Wind Sun and Mist Silver.”

Pearl’s eyes went hooded. “Both are small, and too far away.”

With more than a trace of irony, Jade said, “And both are unlikely to want to help us, especially Wind Sun.”

Pearl’s voice was icy. “Dust is second consort to a reigning queen. He has nothing to complain of.”

Jade bared her teeth in something that wasn’t a smile. “And if we ask Wind Sun’s queen for warriors, whose voice will she give weight to: the consort who fathered two of her clutches or the queen who forced him out of his birthcourt for no reason?”

Pearl avoided her gaze, and said tightly, “I knew he would find a place there.”

Jade persisted, “He was young and inexperienced and not as sure of that as you were. Now when we could use the help—”

With a hint of a growl in his voice, Bone interrupted, “You’ve made your point, Jade.”

Jade ruffled her spines, but subsided.

After an uncomfortable moment, Pearl said, “But I think Wind Sun would give us refuge for the Arbora and the warriors, if asked.”

Everyone went still, startled. Then Flower said slowly, “You think it’s come to that?”

That it’s come to giving up, Moon thought. Going away and leaving the Raksura trapped in the colony with the Fell, the Arbora and warriors, the clutches of babies, the fledglings. Don’t, he wanted to say, somebody will think of something. Give it time. But he knew he couldn’t say it in any way that wouldn’t antagonize Pearl.

Pearl hesitated, then shook her head. “Not yet. Not until we know if the Fell are lying, if the others are already dead.”

It was deep twilight when Moon left the blind. Two of the warriors, Drift and Coil, were on watch up in the trees, along with several hunters on the ground, but he wanted to take a look around the area himself. He shifted but didn’t take to the air, walking among the ferns, tasting the breeze. He passed Root and Song under some tree roots, wrapped together while Root sobbed quietly on her shoulder. He must be mourning Branch, and the others trapped in the colony. Moon winced in sympathy, but didn’t pause.

He made his way through the undergrowth, while the birdcalls and buzz of insects faded away with the green-tinged light. He stepped over a group of small, bright-colored lumps that looked like mushrooms. They all stood up and ran away on stubby little legs.

They had talked about a plan for one of the young hunters to try to get in through the openings under the colony’s platform, where the structure crossed the river. That would at least tell them if the others still lived. If the hunter could bring someone out, or get some idea of what had stopped the court from shifting to fight or escape, it would be even more useful. Of course, if the young hunter vanished into the colony and never came back, it would tell them nothing, and they would lose yet another Arbora.

As Moon circled around to the west, he was conscious of the warriors up in the trees, of Drift’s gaze following him, resentful and suspicious. Moon passed a hunter crouched among tree roots, the dark brown of his scales fading to invisibility against the wood. The hunter made a clicking noise in his throat. Moon nodded to him, not sure how to respond. A few steps later, a slight deliberate swish against the undergrowth told Moon another hunter was nearby. Then Bone stepped out of the ferns.

Bone walked along with Moon for a few paces. He looked up into the trees and said, deliberately, “We need everyone. Can’t waste our blood fighting among ourselves.”

Up in the branches, Drift tried to stare Bone down, failed, and retreated with a resentful hiss. Moon wouldn’t want to fight Bone either, at least on the ground; though short, he was twice the width of the other Arbora and his throat scar showed just how tough he was.

“Can’t argue with that,” Moon said dryly.

Bone walked with Moon most of the way around the area then, with a grunt of acknowledgement, split off to rejoin the other hunters. Heading back toward the blind, Moon caught Jade’s scent, and found her waiting impatiently just past a stand of reed-trees.

“You need a bath,” she said, and motioned for him to follow her.

Moon had dried kethel blood on his scales, as well as the accumulated sweat and dirt of his groundling form, but he was sure there was a little more to her request than that. He followed her down the slope of the hill, through the trees to a little spring. Barely three paces wide and probably not more than knee deep, it cut through the forest floor among mossy rocks and waterweeds. Flower sat on the bank, leaning over the water to wash out a shirt.

Jade sat down near her, and Moon stepped past them into the stream. He scooped up the cool water and scrubbed it against his scales, aware someone else was nearby. Then leaves whispered overhead and Pearl climbed down the trunk of the nearest tree like a great gold insect, moving deliberately, in near silence.

She took a seat on the bank and coiled herself up. Moon gauged the distance between them and decided he was safe enough for the moment. Jade said softly, “We’ve agreed that we need to keep this conversation away from the others. We wanted to talk more about the poison.”

Moon nodded. It might mean Pearl wasn’t as sure of River and her other warriors as she pretended, or that she suspected they were somehow inadvertently betraying her. This way, it would at least narrow the suspects down to... Me, Moon realized. Well, the solution had the virtue of being multi-purpose. It lessened the chances that the Fell would find out about any plan involving the poison, and it gave Pearl the opportunity to get rid of him, both at once.

“I asked Niran about the poison,” Flower said, frowning as she wrung water out of the cloth. “He had never heard of it. He said their exploring ships are always on the look out for such things, but that they haven’t gone toward the far east for generations.”

Flicking her tail in agitation, Jade asked Moon, “Did it work on all the Fell, rulers as well as dakti and kethel?”

“I don’t know.” Moon crouched down to splash water on his face, tipping his head back to let it trickle down through his spines and frills. He was too conscious of just how much he didn’t know about the poison. “I didn’t even know they had it until they used it on me.”

Pearl’s expression was opaque. “You said the Fell destroyed their lands. How well could this poison have worked?”

But Flower shook her head. “It depends on when they first started using it. Were the Fell still pursuing them?”

“Not while I was there.” Moon hesitated, dripping, trying to remember the stories the Cordans had told about Kiaspur and the Fell attacks. “They had to abandon their cities, but the Fell didn’t follow the refugees.”

“Fell don’t like to give up on prey, as we well know.” Flower sat back to add the shirt to a pile of wet clothes on the bank. “If these groundlings didn’t discover the poison themselves until the Fell had destroyed most of their territory, it may be what let them escape.”

Jade leaned forward, her face intent, looking from Flower to Pearl. “We could put it into the river, so it’s drawn up into the colony’s water supply. Then we could go through and kill all the Fell.”

Flower asked Moon, “I don’t suppose you know how to make it?”

“No. If I brought some to you, could you make it?”

“I’d be able to tell what was in it. It just depends if we can get the ingredients.” Flower squeezed the water out of her own skirt. “How far away is this place?”

“Stone and I flew from there in nine days, but he carried me the last day.” Moon closed his eyes, trying to call up an image of the map they had looked at when they planned the journey to the Yellow Sea. On the way to Indigo Cloud, he and Stone had cut sharply north to stop at Sky Copper. A more direct route would save some time, avoiding the plains and taking them straight back to the Cordans’ valley. Call it eleven days. “I can go there and bring some back.”

Flower bit her lip, and said to Pearl, “This fits the vision I had, better than sending him to warn the groundlings. I think we have to do this.”

Pearl said skeptically, “We’re supposed to trust him to come back with this poison? How do we know he won’t take the opportunity to run away?”

Moon controlled a hiss. “You don’t. You just have to trust me.”

Pearl turned her head to regard him coldly. “You haven’t earned our trust.”

Moon set his jaw. “You’re the one who told me to leave.”

Flower lifted a brow, and said pointedly, “Queens have a right to change their minds.”

Pearl fixed an angry glare on Flower.

Moon hissed in annoyance. This was pointless. He would have liked to take Chime, both for the company on the journey and the help when it came time to figure out how to get the poison from the Cordans, but that wasn’t possible. He would be flying at his fastest pace, and none of the warriors could keep up with him. “If I take a warrior, it would make the trip nearly twice as long.”

Flower said, “But it would be safer to send someone with you. If you fail just because you needed another pair of hands—”

“Then we won’t send him alone,” Jade said, tense and frustrated. “I’ll go with him.”

From what Stone had said, a queen should easily be able to keep up with a consort. But her offer still gave Moon pause. He wondered if she suspected him of wanting to run away, or if the Fell Kathras’ accusation had had more effect on her than it had seemed.

Pearl gave her a withering look. “So we should send the only other queen away?”

Jade bared her fangs in a grimace. “If we don’t drive out the Fell and free the others, there’s no court for either of us to be queen of. And yes, you mean to ask Wind Sun for help, but we both know how unlikely it is that they’ll answer.” She settled back on the bank, coiling her tail around, and added almost wearily, “I’m the sister queen. It’s my task.”

Pearl hissed out a breath, turning away. After a long moment, she said, “Our only other choice is to attack the colony now and die, or be caught like the rest of the court. That’s what the Fell want us to do.” She looked at Jade. “Go with him.”

After they had talked out all the details, Moon crawled under some tree roots near the blind and shifted to groundling to try to sleep for a while. There weren’t any more preparations to make. Flower had collected a pack for them containing a few supplies donated by the hunters, but all the collection amounted to was some fruit and dried meat, flints, and a couple of blankets. He was too jumpy to get much rest, and woke instantly when he sensed someone approach.

It was still dark, though he could feel dawn gathering on the horizon. It was nearly time to leave. He eased out of the roots and made out Jade’s distinctive shape stepping silently through the moss and leaf loam. She paused to whisper, “I’ll tell Flower we’re leaving.”

“I’ll be here,” he told her.

Jade vanished into the dark, and Moon made his way to the blind, easing between the bundles of brush.

The small knot of glow moss strung from the roof showed him Stone’s still shape, the slow, deep rasp of his breath the only sign of life. Chime, several hunters, and the two teachers slept in here. Niran was against the far wall, wrapped in a blanket and snoring quietly. Fortunately, Chime was in the outer row of bodies, and Moon didn’t have to step over anybody to get to him.

When Moon squeezed his shoulder, Chime snapped awake immediately, blinking nervously up at him. Moon put a hand over his mouth before he could speak, and nodded for Chime to follow him outside.

Some of the Arbora stirred sleepily, but no one sat up as they slipped out between the walls of brush. Picking his way through the dark, Moon found his hollow in the tree roots again, sat, and drew Chime down next to him. It was too dark to make out expressions, but maybe that was a good thing.

Moon knew the sentries were too far away to hear, but he still kept his voice to a low whisper.

“I need you to look after Niran. Make sure he has food he can eat and that, if you have to move, he’s not left behind.”

“I will, I’ll make certain.” Chime hesitated, his shoulder brushing against Moon’s as he twitched uneasily. “There’s been whispering that you and Jade are going to go somewhere, to get help. If that’s not it, don’t tell me. Then I can’t be made to... If the Fell catch us...”

“The Fell aren’t good ground trackers. They won’t find you here.” Moon hoped that was true, but showing doubt to Chime wouldn’t help anything.

Chime slumped a little. “That’s what Pearl is saying.”

“She’s not always wrong,” Moon admitted, trying not to sound sour about it.

“We can hope.” Chime took a sharp breath. Then he leaned close, and Moon felt warm breath and a sharp nip under his ear. Chime whispered, “Be careful,” and scrambled away.

Moon listened to him make his way back to the blind. This has to work, he thought. It has to.