28. Stone Returns to Indigo Cloud from the Golden Isles

"Moon's not here."

It wasn't the first thing Stone had expected to hear when he stepped into the greeting hall after returning from the Golden Isles. He hadn't expected the trip to take this long and he hadn't expected to come back with yet another flying boat and yet another crew of Islanders. 

He was beginning to wonder what else he should have expected.

Stone stared down at Grain, and the Arbora soldier twitched nervously. Stone had meant to speak to Pearl and Jade anyway first, as greeting and reporting to the queens after a long journey was the kind of etiquette that made practical sense. And there were a few good reasons Moon might not be in the colony right now. But the expression of mingled guilt and suppressed dread on Grain's face told a different story. Stone tasted the air, and got the colony's tree scent permeating wood and water, fruit and cooling flatbread, and a miasma of nervous and unhappy Raksura. It hung in the air, like an unwelcome flashback to the old colony. Stone said, "Where is he?"

Blossom and the other Arbora and warriors who had traveled with him had crowded into the hall behind him, their excited voices dying away as they took in the growing silence in the hall. There were a few Arbora and warriors up on the balconies, only the soldiers on the hall floor; not the group one would expect to greet travelers and guests. Stone was glad he had told Delin and his crew to wait on their boat until Pearl could be told/warned of their arrival. Stone suspected his reaction to whatever had happened was not going to be something he would want a groundling audience for.

Grain, the idiot, was still staring at him. Stone said, "Answer me."

Grain said, "Uh, maybe you should wait for Knell, or Bone--" Stone tilted his head minutely and the words stopped in a squeak. Grain took a deep breath and blurted. "He's not in the court anymore."

Stone managed to keep his hiss of reaction almost silent, but Grain quailed anyway. "What happened?"

Grain hesitated and Stone felt his temper tip over the edge into the real danger zone. Blossom stepped up beside him and snapped, "Grain, if you can't talk sense, shut up. Ginger, answer the line-grandfather."

Ginger stood nearby, twitching with nerves. She said, "Moon's birthcourt is in the Reaches. They asked for him back, they said Jade had no right to take him. So Emerald Twilight took him back to his birthcourt." 

You have to be shitting kidding me, Stone thought.

His snarl scattered Arbora and warriors. He shifted and flung himself up the well to the queens' hall.

***

Pearl flicked her claws. "You can growl all you want, we had no choice."

Stone paced the floor of the queens' hall. He considered tossing Pearl off the balcony but it wasn't like it would do any good. He said, "I should never have bred in the first place. Everyone of you has been nothing but a blight on this court. This whole bloodline was a terrible mistake."

Jade, sitting by the firepit and cradling her injured arm, winced.

Pearl said in exasperation, "This was none of my doing."

Stone bared his teeth at her. The warriors, all huddled at the far end of the hall, twitched. He said, "You just sat there and enjoyed it."

"I did not enjoy it." With a sudden flash of the old Pearl, the young one who had thrived on conflict, she admitted, "All right, I enjoyed it a little. But do you think I wanted a more powerful court to glide in here and take a consort?"

"You should have made them come here. Made them argue their case in person. You abandon a child, you give up your rights to it. They didn't come here because they knew they had no right--" He stopped, finally noticing the small figure sitting near the pool of the waterfall. "Who the shit is this?"

"That's Ember," Jade said. "Emerald Twilight gave him to us."

"That's a fledgling."  He was incredulous. The court still trembling on the edge of disaster and Emerald Twilight  wanted to replace Moon, a feral fighter and hunter, with a pampered child.  

"That's a consort and you're frightening him," Pearl said.

"If someone dumped me on this miserable excuse for a court, I'd be frightened too." Stone rounded on Jade. "Have you lost your mind--"

"I'm not letting anyone take Moon," Jade's voice burst out, rough with fury. "I told you, I'm going after him, as soon as--" She broke off and looked away, hissing in painful frustration. "As soon as I can fly."

Remembering that she had been hurt protecting the Arbora from a predator just made this whole situation worse. Stone rounded on the warriors and snarled, "What were you doing? Stupid, useless--" He slammed across the hall toward them and they scattered, jumping off the balcony in a panic.

"Stone!" Pearl shouted. "Calm down!"

"I will not calm down! I've given my life for this worthless court! And I turn my back long enough to take the shitting boats back to the groundlings and you destroy everything I've tried to build here--"

"The Arbora can hear you!" Pearl yelled.

Stone strode to the edge of the balcony and shouted down into the greeting hall, "Good, because after I'm done with the warriors, they're next! I see you, Knell, you'd better run!"

Pearl's tail lash was unimpressed. "You need to rest--"

"I've been on a flying boat for a month giving a bunch of Arbora and groundlings a tour of the Three Worlds, I don't need to rest." Stone looked at Jade. "I'm bringing him back, and this time, you'd better keep him." Then he jumped off the balcony.

***

Jade had to go down the stairs, and didn't make it out to the big platform before Stone had left. She was standing with a disconsolate group of Arbora, when someone said in Altanic, "Sister queen of the Indigo Cloud Court."

Jade turned, and realized the person standing with the Arbora was Delin, of the Golden Isles. She had last seen him on the flying boats on the way to the eastern colony, before word had come of Fell attack. He added, "We have chosen a bad time to visit, perhaps."

Jade braced herself to be polite. Delin had been the one who had urged his family to trade them the use of the boats which had saved the court. Being rude would... Her gaze fell on the flying boat tied off to the lower branch.

Delin stepped up beside her. "Is there any help I can offer?"

"Yes." Jade controlled a surge of relief. "Yes, there is."