The Harbors of the Sun

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Court of Indigo Cloud, in the Reaches

The arrival of Celadon, the sister queen of Opal Night, and her two hundred warriors went better than Heart had expected.

Celadon had been greeted formally by Pearl, then taken up to the queens’ hall for tea and to meet Ember. Since Opal Night was already a bloodline ally, Heart and the other chiefs of the Arbora castes had stayed in the greeting hall to help with sorting warriors and supplies.

Indigo Cloud’s colony tree was large enough to take in a much bigger group than this without crowding, and most of the preparations had revolved around cleaning out unused bowers and getting the lights and heating stones ready. The teachers had been sorting the food stores and bringing in everything ready to harvest, with the hunters working hard to bring in more game to preserve. Even though Malachite had said her warriors would be prepared to do their own hunting, they still had to be ready to supply a number of meals. They had also warned the Kek, the people who lived under the roots of the colony tree on the floor of the Reaches, and made every other preparation for Fell attack that anyone could think of. Heart just hoped it would be enough.

Watching with Blossom as the strange warriors streamed in through the greeting hall entrance, Heart felt an odd combination of dismay and relief. Indigo Cloud had never had this many visitors in its entire history, at least as far as their still existing records said, and it was daunting. But if the attack did come the way the visions had suggested, the Fell were going to get an unpleasant surprise.

Vine, who stood nearby, said, “They’re showing off. They’re not really this organized all the time.”

Heart snorted. He was clearly jealous. “Keep telling yourself that,” Blossom told him, unsympathetic.

The Opal Night warriors all seemed to be on the large side, with strong lean muscles and good conformation. Heart could tell they spent a lot of time in the air, a lot of time hauling and carrying, and maybe fighting, too. It was a contrast to the Emerald Twilight warriors Heart had seen, who all seemed very sleek and well-fed and strong, but not this intimidating. And each group that entered was well-behaved, jostling each other good-humoredly. They all stopped to stare up in admiration at the tree’s great well. The enormous space spiraled up through the trunk, with balconies and round doorways leading off into the upper levels. They pointed out the curving stairways and the carved pillars, and the waterfall dropping dramatically down to its pool.

Floret, Aura, and Selene managed the influx, greeting the warriors rapidly and sending the different groups off with an Arbora soldier or teacher to take them to their quarters. The Opal Night warriors caught on to this system immediately, with one from each group going to join the crowd around the three female Indigo Cloud warriors and politely shifting to groundling to wait for their attention, while the others dumped their packs on the floor and settled down to wait. The younger Indigo Cloud warriors who weren’t on patrol or helping Floret were gathered on the balconies, watching and, Heart hoped, learning some decorum. So far none of them had made any trouble, but maybe that was because Blossom kept catching the gaze of her warrior clutchmate Fair and making motions indicating that if he and his friends started anything that she would finish it.

A group of smaller, rounder figures entered next and Heart stared in surprise. “They brought Arbora!”

“That’s a relief.” Blossom craned her neck to see the newcomers. “We can use the help.”

The Arbora seemed pleased to be here, regarding the greeting hall with approval as they shed their packs. One saw Heart and Blossom and came forward, the warriors parting for him respectfully. Heart went to meet him, Vine and Blossom following her. As the stranger reached her, he said, “I’m Auburn, mentor of Opal Night.”

It was even better that Opal Night had brought another mentor. Heart named herself, Blossom, and Vine, and said, “All of you are welcome here.” That was especially true; Arbora of different courts didn’t get a chance to meet much, except on the occasional trading visit.

Auburn thanked her politely, and added, “I wanted to ask after the warrior Chime, who visited at Opal Night with us once.”

Blossom said, “Chime isn’t here. He went with the sister queen’s party to the sel-Selatra.”

Auburn took that in with a worried expression. “I hope they are all well.”

“So do we,” Heart admitted. “The waiting hasn’t been easy.”

Vine leaned in to ask, “How did so many warriors move so fast?”

Auburn turned to him, explaining, “Small groups of warriors travel ahead, carrying some of the hunters and a mentor. They prepare camps, and hunt for game, so food and places to rest are ready when the larger groups come through. We’ve done this before on a small scale, but never with quite so many warriors. The mentors had to consult the old Suspended Forest Travels and Recorded Court Movements. Not a book anyone has much reason to look at nowadays, but very helpful.” He glanced around. “I should get back to the others and help move the supplies.”

Blossom kicked Heart in the ankle and Heart said hurriedly, “I hope you and the other Arbora will join us in the teachers’ hall later.”

Auburn thanked her for the invitation, and returned to the Opal Night Arbora.

Heart turned to Blossom, who spread her hands helplessly. Blossom said, “Don’t look at me, I’ve never heard of a court moving that many warriors, let alone like that.”

Vine asked hopefully, “Do we have that book?”

Heart sighed. It was obviously not only the Indigo Cloud warriors who were going to feel inadequate during this visit. “I’ve never heard of it. We should probably try to trade for a copy.” Much of the court’s library had been lost during the chaos of the long journey from the Reaches so many turns ago. Heart and the other mentors and teachers were still coming to the realization of just how much must have been left behind along the way.

Blossom gave Vine a poke. “Floret’s glaring at you.”

Heart looked. Floret was glaring and would have been flicking spines if she wasn’t in her groundling form. Vine muttered, “All she had to do was ask, I’ve been standing right here,” and went off to join her.

“Aeriat,” Blossom sighed. “Sometimes I wonder what our ancestors were thinking.”

Heart absently agreed to this sentiment, much expressed among older Arbora. “I just hope they’re all settled by the time the other queens get here.” The messengers had been sent just after Malachite had left to follow Jade and the others. With Indigo Cloud and Opal Night both experiencing the dreams and visions, it had been obvious it was time to convince the other courts the danger was real. But the messengers had brought back the news that the mentors of Emerald Twilight, Sunset Water, and some other allies had begun to have similar visions. Arranging the meeting of the queens at Indigo Cloud had been easier than anyone had anticipated.

Now the only problem was Pearl. She had seemed to agree that a meeting of allied queens was a good idea, but Heart knew from experience how quickly Pearl could change her mind. And just because Pearl thought something was a good idea didn’t mean she actually wanted to do it. “How do you think this will go?”

Blossom said slowly, “That depends on what kind of day Pearl is having, doesn’t it? If she’s down, it’ll be a disaster. But you know, she’s been better since the day we got here, and even better than that since Jade had a healthy clutch. So the chances are good.”

Heart hated relying on luck. Flower, the mentor who had taught her, who had been so important in the fight to bring the court here to safety, had tried over and over again to help Pearl. It’s melancholia, Flower had told her, there’s nothing to be done but wait and hope. It was the product of Pearl’s consort Rain’s death, the death of so many clutches, of Pearl’s sister queen, all the others, from the illness and misfortune that had haunted the old colony. Being away from the Fell influence on the old court had helped immeasurably, but Pearl was . . . still Pearl. And Heart didn’t know how much help Celadon was going to be. “I wish Jade was here.”

Blossom leaned against her shoulder in brief comfort. “Me, too,” she said, and went off to help the soldiers show the waiting Arbora to their guest quarters.

South, the Drylands

They had been flying all night, taking advantage of a strong south wind, and Moon was relieved when Stone circled down to the valley. It wasn’t an ideal place to stop and rest, but at least it was there.

The terrain was mostly barren sandy ground with sparse grass, punctuated by low rises and some scrub brush and one lone tree. Moon came in low, tasting the air and catching the scents of dryland flowers and sand.

Stone dropped to the ground not far from the tree. Instead of shifting, he threw himself down and proceeded to make a dust wallow. Moon landed nearby and furled his wings, surveying the valley while Stone cleaned his scales. There was no open water source nearby, not much grazing, and the tree had a forbiddingly spiky canopy, which meant there would be few if any grasseaters and predators, except those traveling through to somewhere else.

Moon got the waterskin out of his pack for a drink, thinking that their next stop would have to be at a water source. Putting the stopper back in, he faced the single spiky tree. Then he went still. At some point, the tree had moved.

The branches above the ball of thorns pointed toward Moon and Stone and the sand wallow now. Something gleamed at the end of each spike. Whatever it was, it hadn’t been there before either, but perhaps the reflective surface had been concealed inside the bud-like structures that surrounded them, like eyelids. Exactly like eyelids. “Stone.”

Rolling in the dust wallow, Stone stopped, looked, and after a moment flicked his spines in dismissal.

Moon backed away from the tree cautiously. They had seen tree-creatures before and Moon always found them a little disconcerting. Their branches were almost like tentacles and he expected them to burst up out of the ground and attack him, even though so far it hadn’t happened. There was always a first time.

There were no bones or other remnants of hunting around the tree, or even in the rest of the valley, and there was no predator musk. Moon was still glad the dust wallow was some distance away.

Finally Stone finished, shook the dust off, and shifted to his groundling form. Moon took his own dust bath, then shifted and managed not to groan out loud. His back was sore, an ache that spread out down his arms and legs, though they had been riding the wind most of the time. If they were on the wrong track, it was all a waste of time, a waste of effort.

“Do you think we’re going the right way?” he asked Stone, mostly just to make conversation.

“I did three days ago,” Stone admitted, stretched out in the sandy wallow.

“Do you think we should have waited for the others?”

“No.”

It was a moot point, anyway. If they were on the wrong path, and the others were on the right one, they wouldn’t be able to find the wind-ship. But Moon missed them, even though he knew Jade would probably want to kill him by now.

Stone said, “Come over here and lie down. Otherwise we’ll never catch anything.”

Moon realized he had been standing there a while, absently scratching the back of his neck and staring at nothing. He sighed and went over to lie down in the sand wallow with Stone.

The sand was warm on his abused muscles and he dozed off, listening to the wind in the grass. After a time, Stone elbowed him. “We’ve got something.”

Moon slit his eyes just enough to spot the shape arrowing down at them out of the cloudless blue sky. “Is it one of those birds again? The last one tasted like dead leaves.”

“You’ll eat what I catch and like it.” Then Stone growled in irritation. “It’s a damn flower-head.”

Moon snarled tiredly. “I thought we flew out of their range.”

Stone hissed. “It’s probably lost.”

The creature stooping on them was roughly the size of an Arbora, with a head shaped like a rounded, multi-petaled flower, a little like an aster. It had the brains of an aster, too. As it neared them, Stone twitched out of the wallow and shifted. Moon didn’t bother.

Flapping wildly, the flower-head tried to stop mid-air, managed not to slam into Stone but lost control and hit the ground. It skidded about fifty paces through the sand and grass and landed near Moon. Moon sat up and told it, “Piss off.”

It scrambled back and cowered, which was even more annoying. But you couldn’t eat something that talked, no matter how stupid it was, and there was no point in killing it otherwise. Stone shifted to his groundling form and ambled back to the sand wallow.

The flower-head said, in bad Altanic, “What are you?”

Moon growled, “None of your business.”

It backed away a few steps, and hesitated. Moon hissed, preparing to shift and snarl, but it said, “Do you know which way the big river is?”

Stupid as rocks, Moon thought, and said, “It’s north, that way.” He pointed.

The flower-head turned, ran a few steps flapping, and awkwardly launched itself again. Stone sprawled in the wallow and sighed. “I told you it was lost.”

Moon didn’t dignify that with a response and stretched out in the sand again. This method of hunting while resting sometimes didn’t work, but when it did, it saved a lot of time.

The flower-head had caused enough commotion that it took a while to lure anything else down. Both Moon and Stone were able to get a short nap in before a large bird finally took the bait and dove on them.

It wasn’t a big meal, but it was enough to keep them going until they reached better country. Moon sat on his heels in the grass and tossed the last cracked bone away. Stone had finished eating and was rolling in the dust wallow again, getting ready to leave. Moon stood and stretched and looked across the valley.

A figure walked toward them across the grassy plain. It was coming from upwind, but Moon knew what it was. This is the most crowded empty valley in the Three Worlds, he thought sourly. He said, “Stone.”

Stone turned to look, then hissed out an angry breath.

We knew they were probably following us, Moon thought. Or it was following us. He just hadn’t expected a kethel to be so good at it.

Stone tasted the air, then shifted to his groundling form. His bared fangs weren’t any less intimidating. “It’s just the one. If there were more, I’d scent them.”

“So it spotted us and went down in the hills. I didn’t think their eyesight was that good.” The uneasy sensation of being stalked made Moon’s spines want to twitch. “This thing is smart.” It was hard to believe it wasn’t half-Raksura. But maybe this was what happened when a half-Raksura trained a kethel to hunt.

It stopped a good distance away, far enough to have time to shift if they tried to rush it. It looked much the same as it had in the swampling port, though its pale skin was coated with a layer of dust and sweat. Its braids were frazzled and it was still wearing a loose wrap around its waist. So it hadn’t just done that to blend in better with the groundlings around the port, Moon realized. Or that hadn’t been the only reason. As if they were travelers who encountered each other all the time, it pointed back toward the hills. “There’s water back there. A little stream under a rock.”

Stone stood silently, radiating suppressed fury. Knowing he was going to have to do the talking, Moon asked, “What do you want?”

The kethel scratched under one of its braids. “To help you.”

Moon set his jaw. “Stop saying that. We know it’s not true.”

The kethel appeared to give up on that point, at least for now, and eyed the dust wallow. “What were you doing?”

“It’s none of your business.” You would think the middle of nowhere would be safe from intrusive questions.

Stone hissed and turned to grab his pack. “Stop talking to it.”

“I can help you,” the kethel said. “Find the groundling weapon—”

Stone shouldered the pack and used the motion to whip around and shift to his winged form. But the kethel anticipated it and shifted almost in the same instant. Moon crouched to leap but the kethel bounced backward in a move Moon had only seen Aeriat use, putting distance between it and Stone. It bounced again, snapped its wings out, and flapped toward the hills. It wasn’t wearing a collar, Moon noticed.

Stone snarled in frustration and stirred like he was thinking of giving chase.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Moon yelled at him, “it’s just trying to lead you into a trap.” The rest of the half-Fell flight might be just past those distant hills.

Stone’s spines rippled, but he turned and leapt into the air. Moon crouched and leapt after him, flapping up through the dust storm Stone’s wings caused. He was relieved to see Stone head south, back on the route they thought the Hians had taken.

Hoped the Hians had taken. Moon had the grim thought, At least the kethel thinks we’re going the right direction.