31. Chime and Heart, Under the Dwei Hive

Chime sat in the warm sand in the groundling ruin and fought down the urge to keen with dismay. A pace away Heart sat beside Moon, trying yet again to put him into a healing sleep. Outside Jade and Pearl skirmished with the Dwei in the shadow of the hive, and the warriors guarded this small group of tumbledown stone buildings. They had gone to ground in a part of the ruin as far from the hive as possible, but the Dwei had made it clear it wasn't far enough. Telling the Dwei they would be gone as soon as they could move their wounded hadn't done any good.

Heart sat back, burying her face in her hands. Chime said, "Heart, breathe." He knew it wouldn't do any good. Heart was in what Flower called a failure circle; she couldn't get past Moon's mental guard to send him into a healing sleep, his resistance made her increasingly desperate, her rising emotions fed his distrust and made him resist even more. It was hopeless. 

Moon trusted Chime, sort of, as much as he seemed to trust any of them. If I was still a mentor... Chime started to think, then cut himself off with a hiss. Talk about failure circles; Chime had been in one since he had turned into a warrior. 

Thinking he was hissing at her, Heart said, wearily, "I'm sorry, Chime."

"I'm not your teacher anymore, you don't need to apologize to me." He had meant to be sympathetic, to tell her he wasn't judging her, but somehow it didn't sound that way once the words were in the air. He reached over and squeezed her wrist. "Sorry."

"I need to apologize to someone." She rubbed her face, leaving streaks of golden sand on the brown of her groundling skin. She looked at Moon, biting her lip. He was unconscious but not deeply, the skin under his eyes sunken with pain, his bronze skin turning sallow. His muscles twitched and his eyes moved under their lids, a sign that Heart's attempts to ease his pain weren't working as well as they should. "I've heard some Aeriat could be this strong, but I thought it was only queens. How is this possible?"

He knew what Heart meant, because he had thought it too. How could a wandering solitary, even if he was a consort, resist a mentor, albeit a young mentor, like this? "He doesn't trust us," Chime said. The explanation sounded terribly inadequate, but he was so tired, between the long flight following Moon and the stolen Arbora, the fight with the Fell, the fear, the Dwei's attack, he couldn't think any more. Pinned down by the Dwei, they hadn't been able to hunt, and had been living off their travel rations. That wasn't helping either. "He asked me to kill him."

Heart sagged a little. Maybe he shouldn't have told her. Almost plaintively, she said, "Why?"

Chime lifted a hand helplessly. "He thinks we'll leave him behind to die here alone."

Heart frowned. "What, alone? I don't..." She made a helpless gesture, not finding words to express the enormity of that betrayal. "Why would he think that?"

"I don't know. Maybe because we keep calling him a feral solitary and trying to throw him out of the court and Pearl hates him."

Heart grimaced, shaking her head. "Pearl doesn't hate him."

A faint thump outside made them both twitch around. But the winged shapes in the swirl of sand-filled wind were Raksura. Pearl and Jade had landed just outside the door, Balm and Coil behind them. Chime flinched guiltily though they couldn't possibly have heard him. 

The Aeriat shook sand from her wings and stepped inside. Jade stepped past them to crouch beside Moon. Heart said, "He's the same."

Jade nodded, her spines remaining a tight neutral. "The plan?" she asked Pearl.

They had talked about the Arbora constructing some kind of blind or wall to fool the Dwei, and leaving Heart and a couple of warriors with Moon, while the others left to fool the Dwei. Chime wasn't sure what he thought about it or not, and knew that was the exhaustion and hunger affecting his ability to make a decision.

Pearl's tail stirred the sand as she glared into the distance. Chime watched her worriedly. He was afraid she was having trouble making up her mind too. The attack on the colony had snapped Pearl out of her malaise and Chime was terrified it was temporary, that the time trapped here might send her back into her downward spiral. Then Pearl's spines flicked in a decisive negative. "The Dwei might sense the deception, then we'd lose all four of them. Even if they don't, we would have to fight our way back in here to retrieve them."

Jade looked down at Moon again, her spines signaling agreement. "Better to stay and fight our way out."

Coil and Balm flicked their spines in acknowledgement. Chime let out a breath in relief. The sense that the queens were in command and cooperating, the queens were making considered decisions, was as gratifying as it was unusual. 

Pearl folded her wings and sat down. She told Jade, "Get some rest."

"I don't need--" Jade started to get up, overbalanced, and had to catch herself. Heart grabbed her arm to steady her.

Pearl's spines tilted in ironic amusement. "Take Heart with you. Tell Merit to come in, for all the good it'll do."

Jade hesitated, glaring at her. "I'll stay," Chime said. "I'm not tired. I mean, I am tired, but I haven't been flying lately."

After a moment, as Pearl's spines took an even more sardonic slant, Jade pushed to her feet and pulled Heart up with her. Jade told Balm, "Tell the warriors who are resting to take a turn at guard."

As the others left, Pearl settled herself more comfortably. She tilted her head at Chime.

He said hastily, "I didn't say anything."

Pearl said, "That's why I'm letting you stay."