26. Malachite and Celadon at Opal Night

(I'm still working on the Hidden Colony story, but in the meantime, here's this. Hopefully I'll be able to post another Hidden Colony section later this month.)

When Celadon walked into the reigning queen's bower, she knew something had happened. 

Malachite paced in front of the bowl hearth, her tail moving in a slow deliberate lash that conveyed more restrained rage than any growl. Rise stood near the door in her groundling form, arms folded, face carefully blank. The warrior who had summoned Celadon to the bower had only known that a letter from another court had arrived. Celadon supposed the letter in question might be the claw-shredded fragments of paper on the floor. The two mentors Auburn and Lithe were sitting near the hearth, piecing the remnants back together. 

"What is it?" Celadon asked warily. She couldn't think of anything another queen could say in a letter that would anger Malachite this badly. Even if another court had threatened to declare war on them, Malachite would only have cocked a spine in annoyance.

Malachite didn't look at her. Her claws flexed. She rasped out, "One of your clutchmates is alive."

It was such a shock, Celadon was certain she had heard the word "half-clutchmates."  Startled, she flicked her spines in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked, and glanced worriedly at Lithe. "I just saw Shade out in the atrium."

Lithe, wearing her groundling form, looked up from the letter fragments. Her expression was caught between amazement and confusion. She said, "No, one of your clutchmates."

"My clutch-- That's impossible," Celadon choked out.  She looked from Lithe to Malachite, to Auburn and Rise. Rise still kept her face blank but Auburn flashed Celadon a nod. She felt her spines flatten and her throat went dry. She managed, "Which one?"

Malachite had stopped pacing, staring at the wall, in the grip of intense emotion. Lithe said, "It's a consort called Moon."

Celadon remembered Moon. Fighting over toys and then sleeping wrapped around her in a pile with the others. They had thought he had died inside the colony, one of the bodies buried in the collapsed passages and chambers that had been their home. If he was alive, it meant only one thing. She made herself ask, "He's with the Fell?"

"No." Malachite's tail twitched. "With a court in the Reaches."

Horror turned slowly to bafflement as Celadon absorbed the words. She looked at Auburn and Lithe again. They both nodded. Celadon stared at Malachite. "In the Reaches? How?" None of this made sense. "That isn't possible. Did he follow us, you? How--"

Malachite turned away, a spasmodic movement of her claws telling the mentors to answer.

Auburn told Celadon, "A court from the east, fled here recently." 

Lithe pieced two fragment of paper together. "Indigo Cloud, I think."

Auburn nodded, "They were one of the courts who disappeared after the Time of the Great Leaving."

"I've never heard of it." Celadon watched Malachite's rigid back. She was beginning to understand the rage. "They had him, all this time, and only now they tell us?"

Auburn, studying more pieces of the letter and handing them to Lithe, shook his head. Reading rapidly, Lithe corrected, "A court in the eastern Reaches, Emerald Twilight, says Indigo Cloud found him in the east, and brought him here..." She looked up at Malachite, biting her lip.

In a voice as hard as the rock under the colony tree, Malachite said, "He's been taken by their sister queen."

Celadon let her breath out in a hiss. "How could they. How could they know and keep him from us--"

Auburn held up a hand. "I don't think they know. Ice of Emerald Twilight says she thought she recognized Opal Night's bloodline in him, but she wasn't certain."

"But how could he not know?" Celadon said, then realized that was the wrong question. "Did he escape from the colony during the attack? Or afterward, from the Fell?"

Malachite said, "A fledging alone could have done neither. There were other survivors somewhere. I left them behind."

Celadon's stomach went cold with dismay and Rise made a noise of protest. "No," Auburn said. He dropped the last fragments and stood. "No, Malachite. Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault. The hunters searched--"

 Malachite twitched a spine and Auburn stopped. Celadon couldn't speak past the lump of pain in her chest. Moon had been left behind somehow, with others. She remembered little of that terrible time, nothing but screaming and fire and blood. Something must have kept him from us, she thought. And now this court no one had heard of before had claimed him...

Malachite said, "I'll leave now. Rise, choose ten warriors--"

"No." The word came out before Celadon realized she meant to speak. But when Malachite was like this it was best to try to intervene while there was still a chance of making her see reason. "Send a message to Emerald Twilight, make their reigning queen your proxy. Give this court-- what is it?"

"Indigo Cloud," Lithe supplied hastily.

Celadon finished, "Give Indigo Cloud a chance to return him. If they refuse, you'll be justified in whatever you want to do." She added, "With the Fell stirring in the west, courts can't afford to fight among ourselves."

Malachite snarled and flung herself up and out of the bower so fast, Auburn sat down hard on the furs. Celadon winced, her spines flattened in reflex and her frills flung around by the wind of Malachite's passage.

Lithe said worriedly, "Is she going alone? Do you think--"

"Give her a moment," Rise said, speaking for the first time. "If she was going, she'd be dragging me with her."

Celadon settled her spines and nodded. "Rise is right." She wanted to fling herself out of the bower too, call for warriors and fly to Indigo Cloud and take her clutchmate away from them. But to most of the Reaches, the attack would look unprovoked. They needed more information, and Emerald Twilight had already stuck a claw into the situation; it was better to use a mediator in a negotiation sure to be so tense.

Auburn sighed and pushed to his feet. "Your clear head and calm thinking is a credit to our bloodlines, Celadon."

Celadon moved her spines in gratitude, but she didn't feel calm. She felt like a fledgling queen whose clutch-brother had been snatched away.

Malachite slammed back into the bower, making them all twitch violently. She said, "Auburn, get paper and ink. I'm writing to Emerald Twilight."