34. Moon and Stone: After The Dark Earth Below

After the entire court had come through to see them, the clutch had been moved to the nurseries. To Moon's relief, the move wasn't a ceremonial occasion. With Stone's help, Moon had just gathered up the five babies and walked down the stairs, trailed by Blossom and a few of the other Arbora.

They got the clutch settled in the spot prepared for them in the nurseries, and Stone had stayed to help Moon and the teachers handle the crowd of fledglings and toddlers who all wanted to see the new babies too. Frost, Thorn, and Bitter had made their approval clear. "We're a real court now," Frost had assured the other children.

Now they were all off to naps or play or baths, and Moon was left sitting in the alcove with Stone and his clutch.

His clutch. It was still a weird thought. Carrying all five of them, their little hands and feet plucking at him, big eyes blinking up at him, had left Moon feeling incredibly vulnerable again. He said, "I still feel like I don't know how to do this."

"Well, you got five at once," Stone said, letting Cloud's little tail curl around his finger. "So you were doing something right."

Annoyed, Moon rubbed his eyes. He didn't want to hiss just as the babies were getting to sleep. "You know I don't mean the sex part."

Stone sighed and sat back. "Believe me, the teachers won't give you any chance to do anything." He nodded toward Blossom and Rill and Bark, who were over by the shallow pool, having an intent conversation. The bits that Moon could hear seemed to involve plans for the clutch's education for at least the next six turns.

"I'm not talking about..." Moon gestured toward the Arbora. The teachers had already fed and cleaned the clutch twice up in the bower where Jade had given birth, and watching them had been reassuring. Moon could do all that if he had to, but the chances were good that he never would. He also knew he could teach fledglings to fly and hunt and fight. It was the intangible things he was worried about. "What if they're all queens and consorts, and they hate each other. Or even if one of them hates the others."

Carefully untangling Solace's tiny frills, Stone gave him an annoyed look. "Did you hate any of the Arbora you and Sorrow were with?"

"No." Her real name had been Swift, but Moon still thought of her as Sorrow, too. "Why would I? They were Arbora. That's a completely different...thing." Moon had been in a court long enough to know that while Arbora and Aeriat might get angry at each other, they didn't compete, didn't seem to occupy the same space in the court. "I'm talking about jealousy."

Stone looked like he was trying to follow a story someone was telling in the most confusing way possible. "So why should they hate each other?"

"I don't know." If Moon knew what he meant, he wouldn't be having so much trouble explaining it. He probably needed another nap himself. "Why did Halcyon hate Tempest?"

Stone settled back against the wall, and admitted, "That's a good question.  I don't think anybody knows the answer to that one." 

That was probably true. Ember had confided that it was still a topic of confusion and dismay in Emerald Twilight. He had said that not even Shadow had realized how bad things between Tempest and Halcyon had been. That Tempest herself had had no idea. That was one of the things Moon found so terrifying.

Stone added, "But things like that don't happen every day."

"Pearl and Jade spent a long time hating each other," Moon pointed out. "And River hates me."

Stone snorted. "Pearl and Jade never seriously tried to kill each other, and River is an idiot."

Moon knew he looked unsatisfied with that dismissal.

Stone rolled his eyes and said, "Pearl never wanted Jade dead, or hurt. Pearl wanted Jade to shut up and leave her alone, the same way she wanted everybody to shut up and leave her alone after Rain died. That's not hate, that's just Pearl."

"So what went wrong with Tempest and Halcyon?" Moon knew it was pointless question to ask, but he couldn't help himself.

"I don't know.  Halcyon wanted to be reigning queen more than she wanted the court to be happy." Stone shrugged. "It's not like being reigning queen gets you anything but work and trouble."

Moon hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe it came from living around groundlings like the Cordans, where the ones in charge got the best of everything. But in a Raksuran court, it wasn't like anyone had to go begging the elders for food or a tent. He ran a finger down Fern's back, and she sighed in her sleep. "The reigning queens get the power."

"Hah," Stone commented. "And the blame. A sister queen is still a queen, it's just not all her fault when something goes wrong."

Stone was right about that. Being a consort was complicated enough, Moon had trouble imagining what being reigning queen would entail.  Rain stirred in his sleep and Moon stroked his back until he settled down.

Watching him critically, Stone pointed out, "You need to stop worrying. You're doing all right with Frost."

"She just needed some time," Moon said. Cloud snuggled closer to Sapphire and he had to resist the urge to pick them both up. 

"Well, so did you," Stone said.