by Martha Wells
Jade was nursing her cup of tea, her scaled brow drawn down in a thoughtful frown. “If Pearl hadn’t been so quick, you might have lured out whatever was hiding in the dark.”
Ember looked scandalized. They were in Jade’s bower, with Chime, who had slept through everything, Balm, who had also been sent back inside by Pearl, the soldiers Sprout and Ginger, and the hunter Bramble. There were three more hunters and three warriors outside the bower in the queens’ hall; Moon had checked the nurseries and the greeting hall on his way up here, and found much of the court guarding those two points. The rest were guarding the root entrance.
Balm handed cups of tea to the Arbora. “I’ve never heard of anything that could drive predators like that. Could make them do what it wanted and keep them from attacking each other. And that’s what was happening out there, there’s no other explanation for it.”
Chime said, “It’s almost like the way the Fell control groundlings. Except I’ve never heard of them doing it to animals.”
That wasn’t a pleasant thought. Moon asked Chime, “You haven’t … sensed anything funny, have you?” Everyone watched Chime, waiting anxiously for the answer.
Chime grimaced in frustration. “No, nothing. Not even the cloud-walkers flying over us.” He had been having odd flashes of insight, some sort of side-effect of his change from mentor to warrior and his loss of his mentor’s abilities. Sometimes it was helpful, like when he got some warning of strange magic, sometimes it was useless, like knowing an upper air skyling was in the area. “What we should do is search the libraries to see if anything like this has ever happened before, except I don’t know when we’ll have time. Maybe I should start now while the mentors are busy with the wounded.”
“Not tonight,” Moon said. “Wait till daylight.” The libraries were a little too close to the lower part of the tree, and he wanted Chime where he could see him.
There had already been too many casualties tonight. They were waiting for someone to have time to come up and tell them who was hurt and how badly. So far Moon was managing to ignore Jade’s attempts to tell him to go down and get a report; he had no intention of leaving her side. It hadn’t escaped his attention that when Pearl had left her bower at the report of the attack, she had told Ember to come in here and sit with Jade while she was gone. Whether it was so Ember could protect Jade or Jade could protect Ember, it was impossible to tell. Pearl might not intend for anything hostile to get inside the colony, but if it did, she clearly wanted all the vulnerable points guarded.
Moon knew Stone was still down in the village, only because Balm had spoken to him briefly before Pearl had sent her back up here. Everyone was concentrated now on getting the colony and the village through the night safely. It would have to wait for daylight before they could look for tracks that might give a clue to what had been out there organizing the attack.
“I looked over those maps and the other papers,” Chime said. “I couldn’t read the language, but it just looked like a travel log to me. There were characters that looked like numbers, arrows and notations that could be directions. They matched the ones labeled on the map. Whether they were following an established route, or exploring and keeping track of where they’d been, I couldn’t tell.”
“That’s frustrating,” Balm said, “If it’s a log and we could just read it, at least we’d know why they came this way.”
“But the question is,” Jade said, “If this thing that attacked us wanted the groundlings, why did it try to get inside the colony?”
It was such a good question, Moon stared at her for a moment. He turned to Balm. “You were in the village. Did it seem like the predators were after the groundlings?”
“That’s what we assumed.” Balm shook her head a little, clearly trying to remember what she had seen. “There were a lot of predators trying to come in between those two long root sections, to where the center of the village is. But then there were a lot toward the far end of the village, too.” She lifted her brows, asking Jade, “You think that was just a distraction?”
“I don’t know.” Jade twitched her spines. “It’s odd. This whole thing is odd.”
Moon couldn’t argue with that. Chime said, “Maybe the … attacker, whatever it was, was after a colony tree seed, like Stone thought the groundlings might be.” He gestured in exasperation. “But that doesn’t make sense either. It went after the Kek and the groundlings first, when it found them out in the forest. If it was after our seed, why would it do that?”
Bramble, who loved this sort of theorizing, said, “Maybe it was working with the groundlings, and they betrayed each other, and it killed the Kek when they saw it killing the groundlings.” Ember looked intrigued, and Ginger and Sprout nodded seriously.
“I don’t think even Stone thought Stone was right about something being after the seed,” Moon said. He didn’t want the Arbora to get started on competing theories. Their capacities for invention and imagination were endless, and they could be at it for the rest of the night. “We’re not going to know what happened until the groundlings wake up and tell us. If they tell us.”
Jade growled a little. “They had better tell us—” She stopped abruptly and put a hand on her stomach.
Moon froze. “What?”
“Nothing.” Her glare was preoccupied. “The little monsters are moving.”
“Moving in what direction?” Chime asked. Jade turned the glare on him. He persisted, “Moving down?”
She hesitated, and Moon had to grip a handful of the fur he was sitting on to keep himself from shifting out of pure anxiety. She said, slowly, “I can’t tell.”
Moon managed to say, “Heart said we had days yet.”
Chime was annoyingly calm. “It depends. If the fledglings are large and healthy, and developing fast, they may come a bit early.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Ember asked at the same time as Bramble said, “Should I go find Heart?”
“No, everybody just stay where you are, where Pearl told you to stay.” Jade eased back on the furs and Balm stuffed another cushion behind her back. “The damn things are still again.”
Moon made himself take a full breath. The comment about Pearl worried him more than anything. Jade had been getting along better with Pearl, but Moon had never seen Jade depend on her like this. It made the situation even more nerve-racking.
Pearl would fight fiercely to save the court, Moon had seen her do it. But he thought Jade was better at strategy, that she acted more quickly. He would feel a lot more confident about this if Jade was the one down in the village trying to figure out what was attacking them.
“I’m fairly certain that if you need Heart, Pearl would want us to get her for you,” Ember said. He moved the pot off the heated stones, watching Jade worriedly.
Moon asked Chime, “You can’t help with the babies?” He didn’t like to ask the question, to remind Chime of his lost abilities, but he needed to know. And with the conversation so far, Chime was probably already thinking about his lost abilities. “If you had to. It doesn’t take magic, does it?” The other births he had watched hadn’t seemed to need any special abilities by the mentors, at least as far as he could tell.
Chime grimaced regretfully. “When it gets close to the time, Jade isn’t going to want anybody to touch her except a mentor, a clutchmate, or you,” he said. “It’s a scent thing. It’s something only queens do, probably a holdover from the past, maybe as a protective measure. I don’t smell like a mentor anymore.” He spread his hands. “But if worse came to worst, I could tell you what to do.”
Moon looked at Balm. She said, firmly, “If worse comes to worst, I’ll go and get Heart. Ember’s right, Pearl will understand.”
Jade snorted, and said, “I told you all, it’s not happening.”
At least, Moon decided, it gave them something else to worry about as they waited out the rest of the long night.
After dawn the next morning, Moon went down to the Kek village to try to help the hun
ters track whatever it was that had come so near the root doorway.
He moved slowly through the undergrowth, ducking under the fern fronds and trailing vines and branches. Bone was right on his heels, Bramble and several other hunters spread out behind him. Moon said, “It was in this area, right around here.” It wasn’t easy, trying to point out a spot where you had sensed something standing that you hadn’t actually seen, but the hunters seemed certain they could find it.
Bone tugged on one of his frills. “Stop there and move back.”
Moon edged back behind Bone as the other hunters began to ease forward. They were using rocks spelled for light. It was a clear day above the canopy, but little light penetrated this far down, and it was even darker in the thick foliage. They were about fifty or so paces from the clearing in front of the root door, and the ground was coated with a white mold that felt like you were walking on melon rinds. The ferns and saplings stretched high over Moon’s head and clouds of insects hovered.
The hunters searched in silence for a time. Moon stayed where he was, watching a group of what he had first thought were long-petaled colorful flowers make a slow climb up a sapling branch. Then Streak said, “Bone, here.”
Moon quivered but resisted the urge to move. The undergrowth rustled as hunters changed position. After a long moment, Bone said, “Good. Go and bring Pearl, now.”
Streak reappeared and hurried past. Moon stepped carefully forward until he saw Bone crouched over, and moved up beside him. Bone said, “There was something here, all right.”
Moon could barely see the marks in the light-colored mold. Bone flicked it with a claw to show there were loose pieces flaking away from the ground. The mold was hard on the outer layer and soft underneath, and it had cracked where something heavy—heavier than a Raksura and far heavier than a Kek—had stood on it. Bone explained, “It stood here and watched, didn’t move back and forth like those predators. Smaller feet, too.”
It could have been a smaller predator that had seen the fate of the others and decided not to attack, but it was the only clue they had at the moment. “Can you follow it?”
“Maybe.” Bone’s head tilted thoughtfully. “We’ll try.”
Moon glanced back to see Pearl picking her way through the foliage, following Streak. He stepped out of the way.
Moon returned to the clearing, where Stone stood now in groundling form. Several Kek sat on the mossy ground, waiting to hear the verdict, and there were warriors scattered around, crouched on top of the root that led up toward the doorway and perched on the giant gray-brown wall of the trunk. Stone said, “If this thing is stupid enough to stick around after last night, I’ll be surprised.”
“Nothing it’s done has made sense so far, why shouldn’t it hang around and wait for us to find it?” Moon tasted the air again, but there was nothing unusual. It was even free of any rank traces of predator scent. “After all that noise last night, most of the predators in this area have probably been scared off, at least for a while. That’s going to help a little.” He glanced around the clearing. “What happened to the one I killed last night?”
“I ate it.” At his look, Stone said, “I was hungry.”
“There wasn’t anything strange about it?”
“It didn’t have any magic bridles stuck in its gut like that leviathan; I looked.” Stone grimaced at the movement in the undergrowth, but it was only Plum and Knife, examining the ground at the edge of the clearing. “If this is a groundling sorcerer, he’s lived here for a while.”
“You don’t think it’s someone after the seed anymore?” Moon asked. He had never thought it was likely, but he was curious why Stone had changed his mind.
“It’s after something. Maybe it’s something those groundlings had, and now it thinks we’ve got it.”
“So why didn’t it take it from the leaf boat after it attacked the groundlings and killed the Kek?” Moon pointed out. Stone growled and rubbed his face in frustration. Moon sympathized. He added, “I know, this doesn’t make sense.”
“It makes sense,” Stone countered. “We just don’t know why yet.”
Gold flashed among the deep green ferns as Pearl stepped out of the undergrowth. She said to Stone, “Bone is ready.”
Stone gave Moon a shove to the shoulder. “Keep an eye on the place.” As he started forward into the undergrowth, several of the waiting warriors dropped off their perches to follow him. Three of the Kek clambered to their feet and hurried after. The other Kek remained behind, and after a moment, Moon realized they were here to help guard the root doorway. The Raksura were watching the village, and so the Kek were watching the colony tree.
Moon thought Pearl would go back into the tree, but instead she stopped and asked, “How is Jade?”
Moon made his spines stay still, though it was an effort. He hadn’t forgotten about the clutch, but concentrating on finding the creature who had been waiting and watching last night had provided something of a temporary relief. “She thinks the babies moved last night.”
Pearl’s brow lifted. “Moved down?”
“She couldn’t tell.”
Pearl twitched a spine dismissively. “There’s still time.”
Everyone seemed perfectly confident about this. Moon tried to keep the impatience out of his voice as he asked, “How do you know?”
Pearl tilted her head, but her voice was amused. “When five fledglings all move down together, believe me, she will know.”
Someone flapped overhead, then Drift landed in the clearing. “Pearl, Thistle asked for you, she’s with the groundlings. One woke up.”
Pearl flashed into motion and Moon leapt after her.
He followed Pearl through the low undergrowth and under the arch of the root at the edge of the village. The Kek were clearly agitated, most peering worriedly out of the hanging huts or gathering on the ground and talking anxiously. Moon reached the shelter just a few steps behind Pearl.
Thistle stood in front of it, surrounded by an anxious group of the Kek healers. Thistle was in her groundling form and two of the Kek were patting her on the shoulders and head, apparently trying to commiserate with her. The warriors guarding the shelter all stood at a distance, twitching their spines self-consciously. Pearl demanded, “What happened?”
Thistle’s eyes were wide. “Uh, one of the groundlings woke up.”
“Which one?” Moon asked.
“The silvery one, who’s a bit like a sealing. She’s very upset.” Thistle glanced toward the hearth that had been dug into the moss and lined with heating stones. The kettle had been tipped off and sat an awkward angle; fortunately it hadn’t been full of hot water. “I was moving a kettle, and Drift was there, and we weren’t shifted to groundling—” Thistle took a deep breath. She still looked rattled. Moon understood. The first time someone panicked at the sight of you was never easy. “The groundling saw us and she’s very upset, and that’s made the Kek upset, and Merit went into the colony to sleep, and the groundling doesn’t speak Altanic and that’s the only groundling language I know.”
Pearl started toward the shelter, then stopped and turned to Moon. He fell back a step out of habit, and she flared her spines in annoyance. She said, “You know groundlings. You try to talk to her.”
It was only sensible. If the groundling had been frightened by a small Arbora and a warrior, she would be terrified by Pearl, even in her Arbora form. Moon shifted to groundling, and stepped past Pearl into the shelter.
Inside, the groundling was huddled in the far corner, clutching a metal bar used to move big water kettles on and off the warming stones. The other groundlings still lay unconscious on their pallets along the far wall.
It was the groundling who looked a little like a sealing. This was the first good view Moon had had of her face. Her nose was flat and her eyes were completely round, and had a light membrane rather than lashes or fur. Her mouth was lipless and almost square, and looking at her body he wasn’t entirely sure she was female, but it was as goo
d a guess as any. She was breathing hard and her silver skin was blotchy, and she trembled from either pain or fear. Though her features were hard to read, Moon thought her expression was probably terrified. They were lucky no one had tried to take the bar away, that there hadn’t been an edged weapon available for her to stab someone with, that Thistle and the warriors and the Kek had sensibly fled out of reach instead of trying to wrestle her for it. The last thing they needed now was another injury.
Moon didn’t try to go any further into the shelter. He sat on his heels on the edge of the platform, eye level with her. He wished Stone was here. Stone was good with groundlings, and had an uncanny ability to make his groundling form seem non-threatening to a variety of species. But this groundling could answer all their questions. And he was really tired of having unanswered questions.
He heard a rustle behind him and glanced back to see Kof peer through the doorway. Pearl took Kof’s hand, clearly being careful of the Kek’s stick-like fingers, and urged him to draw back with her.
In Kedaic, Moon asked the groundling, “Can you understand me?” Kedaic was a trade language and Moon had heard it used by groundlings to the east of the Reaches and beyond.
The groundling stared, suspicious and incredulous, as if she hadn’t expected him to be able to speak. “What are you?”
Her Kedaic was so oddly accented it took Moon a moment to understand it. “We’re Raksura. We’re shapeshifters, we live in the suspended forest.” There was no point in trying to conceal that fact, since she had already seen Thistle and Drift. He just hoped she wasn’t one of the many groundlings who thought all shapeshifters were groundling-eating Fell. He nodded back toward Kof, who sat just within sight of the shelter’s doorway. “You’re in a Kek village, on the forest floor. We found you, injured, in your leaf boat. Do you remember what happened?”
The groundling blinked her large eyes and her throat moved. She finally said, “I don’t … I … There are two of you.”
