9. Tempest and Ember: At the Indigo Cloud Court

Bark and the other Arbora arranged the bower and the tea set as if Ember's life depended on it, and it took Ember several tries to shoo them out. "She's my birthqueen," he reminded Bark. "It's too late for me to impress her."

Bark plumped another cushion and adjusted its placement on the fur. "She doesn't think very much of us. I just want to make sure everything's perfect!"

The Arbora reluctantly left, and when Tempest arrived Ember was able to greet her with decorous calm. She left her warriors in the passage, and took a seat beside the bowl-shaped hearth. He saw her flick a look around the bower, but she didn't comment. He knew she couldn't find fault.  The Indigo Cloud consort level had obviously been constructed when the court was at its height, well before the Time of the Great Leaving. The carving across his bower's walls and ceiling was better than some similar displays at Emerald Twilight; there was nothing to find fault with there. And the cushions, mats, and furs that decorated it were all finely made, and Ember thought the glaze on the tea pot nearly perfect.

Tempest said, "You seem well."

Ember smiled. "I am."

One of her claws tapped against the tea cup. "You're happy here then?"

Ember felt there was some undue emphasis on the word "here." He carefully

didn't show any annoyance. As much as he loved and missed the court, he didn't miss the competitiveness of Emerald Twilight's sister and daughter queens, and the way it spread to their warriors. Unattached consorts in Emerald Twilight could be competitive too, and it was a relief to be out of that constant undercurrent of conflict and rivalry. Indigo Cloud had its share of disagreements, but it tended to have them openly and loudly, with very little simmering underneath that didn't pop to the surface fairly quickly. Ember thought it was because the small court had trembled on the brink of collapse, and it had drawn everyone closer together. He poured more tea and said, "Everyone has been very kind."

Tempest's spines tilted a little in irony. "Even their first consort?"

"Especially him."  Moon didn't act anything like any other consort Ember had ever met, but there was something about him that reminded Ember of Shadow. Maybe it was the feeling that Moon was capable of dealing with anything. It was unusual for a consort to be that commanding, but then there was nothing about Moon that was usual. "He's made me feel welcome."

Tempest didn't show displeasure, but Ember knew his birthqueen well enough to detect it. Tempest knew herself in the wrong with Indigo Cloud, and Ember thought it still rankled her. She couldn't blame them for the disaster with her sister Halcyon, but her anger over it had made her behave callously toward Moon. Tempest said, "I doubt he would prosper anywhere but here."

Yes, Ember remembered this kind of back and forth insult. To cut it off, he said, "And Opal Night."

It was a reminder that however gauche Moon's behavior might be, his bloodline was impeccable and that it belonged to a powerful court that was almost entirely indifferent to Emerald Twilight's existence. It was also a reminder that Ember no longer belonged to Emerald Twilight. You sent me away, he thought, I'm not on your side anymore.

From Tempest's expression, she understood Ember's meaning perfectly. She tilted her head slightly and tried another approach. "And has Pearl found it easy to deal with Opal Night?"

"Not easy," Ember conceded. Then he added, "But the primary bloodlines are mingled now."

Tempest's spines twitched just a little at the reminder. Ember had heard Tempest's warriors gossip about the trip to Opal Night and what had happened there. Moon hadn't been in the right either, for starting the fight, but Tempest was a queen and had the responsibility not to act rashly. If Opal Night's first consort hadn't intervened and kept the queens out of it, it could have caused a major breach between Emerald Twilight and Opal Night. And from what Ember had seen of Malachite, Tempest could have been killed on the spot.

It was a frightening thought. Shadow had told Ember that Raksuran courts should only fight by strategically ignoring each other; the alternatives were unthinkable.

Tempest settled her spines and changed the subject. "I was surprised to hear you had been taken by Pearl. You know I meant you for Jade."

Tempest hadn't understood how attached Jade was to her feral consort, and that at the time the offer had been insult added to injury. Ember had understood that all too well, after his first day in the court. He said, "Are you criticizing my choice?" and smiled to take the bite out of the words.

Tempest met his gaze, her expression serious, and a little concerned for him. "It was a choice?"

"It was." Ember had first met Pearl in the nurseries. After a few days of hiding in his bower, he had taken Moon's advice and gone to the teachers' hall, and ended up helping with the fledglings and Arbora babies. Pearl had come down to visit the children, and their first meeting had been decorous and proper, under the eyes of the teachers and Pearl's warriors.

Pearl had made polite conversation, then they had ended up discussing the relations of all the different courts in the eastern Reaches. When she had left, the Arbora had practically fallen over themselves trying to get out of Ember's earshot so they could speculate on this sudden new intriguing possibility.

The next day, the first gift had arrived, and Ember had decided that all the advice he had heard about finding a young queen was grounded firmly in ignorance. Pearl had had a consort and clutches already, she knew what she was doing. He said only, "Jade wasn't ready to take another consort. Pearl was."

Tempest eyed him, then settled her spines, satisfied with his answer. But being who she was, she had to add, "I would have rather seen you a first consort of the court. It's uncommon, for a sister queen's consort to have precedence."

Ember hesitated.  He considered trying to explain that he wasn't entirely sure that Moon understood the nuances of consort precedence. Or that Ember wouldn't be comfortable as a first consort and he preferred it this way. Especially in Indigo Cloud, where Moon was a far more active support for the queens than was proper, but that it was often desperately needed. A little exasperated, he finally settled on, "Tempest, there's only two of us and a line-grandfather. The oldest consort fledglings aren't even close to leaving the nurseries. It doesn't matter very much here."

She flicked her claws, conceding the point. With that, Ember was able to carry the conversation back to the safer paths of how the rest of their bloodline was doing in Emerald Twilight, and to ask after his clutchmates, cross-clutchmates, half-clutchmates, and all the other consorts, Arbora, and warriors.