17. Stone and Azure: In the Time of Indigo Cloud's Eastern Colony

On the day the delegations from Wind Sun and Mist Silver were to arrive, Stone ended up sitting in the opening to one of the airshafts. The others had been up

here earlier, watching as the visitors flew in, but they hadn't lingered. Stone wasn't sure why he hadn't left as well.

The late afternoon sun was making the river gleam and a low breeze stirred the leaves of the heavy jungle on the hills. The scents were heavy with sun-warmed grass and water. Most of the Arbora were inside, and only a few soldiers wandered out on the terraces.

Then he felt someone behind him and twitched, but it was only Azure.

She came to sit beside him, curling her tail around her feet. She was in her Arbora form, her spines smaller and her scales softer. She said, "The greeting's all finished. They really seem like they want alliances." After a moment, she added, "They brought three unattached queens, too."

Stone sighed.  He didn't want to talk about it, but he didn't want Azure to get up and leave, either. "They just came to make sure we're not living in holes in the riverbank."

Azure cocked an ironic brow at him.  "Well, yes.  Who'd want to send a consort to live in a court that couldn't find a colony?"

Stone rubbed at a scar on the weathered wall. "We're not staying here that long anyway. Next turn we'll find somewhere better."

Azure sat there for a long moment and he could feel her gazes boring into the side of his head. "What?" he demanded finally.

With a trace of exasperation, she said, "You know, if you'd make a little effort, one of those queens would be interested in you."

Stone set his jaw.  "What sort of effort?"

She waved a hand, claws sheathed.  "Any sort. When you meet them, you should act interested. If you just sit there and glare at them, they'll think you don't want them."

That was the idea.  He didn't want to go off to a foreign court with a queen he didn't want. Not that he thought it was a likely possibility. "That wouldn't stop a queen who really wanted me."

Azure hesitated.  "Probably not."  Her tail tip flicked nervously, though she sounded completely at ease. "So are you going to meet the queens once Indigo gives permission?"

"No."  Cloud would probably make him go to the meeting, though. The idea of sitting there while Azure chose her first consort made his back teeth itch.

Azure watched him carefully.  "Why not?"

The truth was the last thing he wanted to tell her. "There's no point in me being there."

She nodded. "So you really don't want a queen."

"Of course I want a queen!" Stone snapped, then regretted it an instant later.

Azure stared at him.  Her spines started to lift, then she forced them back down. "You've never shown the least interest in anyone, queen, warrior, Arbora--"

That was just completely unfair and untrue.  Stone glared at her.  "I show interest in people all the time."

Azure's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.  "Not in sex."

Because I never wanted anyone but you was the last thing Stone could say. He fell back on, "No queen from one of these other courts is going to want to breed with me."

Azure looked genuinely puzzled.  "Why?"

He pointed to his eye.

She sat back.  "Oh, I forgot about that."

Stone knew his expression was skeptical.

"We're together all the time, Stone." At his obvious incomprehension, she clarified, "When I see you, I don't think 'there's Stone's bad eye' I think 'there's Stone.'"

He said pointedly, "It's a defect."

"It's like a scar, it's not going to be passed down in your bloodline. And even if it was--"

"Nobody wants a consort with scars, who's not perfect." Stone wasn't even sure how he had got to this point in the conversation. It wasn't something he wanted to argue about with Azure. If a queen couldn't overlook a physical defect in a consort she was interested in, then she wasn't a queen worth having.

Azure's brow was furrowed.  "So you do want a queen."

This conversation was definitely on the wrong trail. "No.  I don't want to leave the court."

Azure held up her hands.  "All right, wait.  You don't want a queen? Or you don't want to leave the court? Or both?"

In growing irritation, Stone glared at her. He didn't see why it mattered.  "The second one."

Azure's spines flicked.  She stared at him for a long moment, her frown turning thoughtful. "I see." She stood, and gave him a push with her foot claws. "You should come to the meeting anyway. It would make Cloud happy."

"Piss on Cloud," Stone muttered. But as she left, he knew he'd go, because she had asked it.