into the doorway, gave the room a sour look, then came to sit down next to Moon with a grunt of effort. “Consorts,” she said, in a tone that made it sound like an insulting epithet. “Old, stubborn, obstinate consorts.” She eyed Moon without favor. “And you. You have to be coaxed to do everything except risk your life.”
Moon fumbled for a rebuttal as Chime said, “Are you all right? You look terrible.”
Flower transferred her glare to him. “If you ask me that one more time, I will curdle your liver.”
“Hah, good luck trying to slip me the simple to do it with.” Chime leaned close to her, despite her attempt to bat him away. “You’ve got blood trails in your eyes.”
Moon took her hand. Her skin was the matte white of extreme age, no trace left of its original color, though there were traces of gray in the creases around her wrist and on her palm. He wondered how many Raksura were left in the court who remembered what Flower had looked like in her youth, if her skin had been bronze or copper or some shade in between, if her hair had been black or red-brown. Stone was more than old enough, and maybe Bone. Pearl might be, but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t learned to judge the age of queens yet. He said, “You should rest.”
She freed her hand. “I’ll rest when we get the seed.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m risking my life,” Moon said pointedly. “We knew what we were doing. You shouldn’t have let Jade bring the warriors.”
“I know.” Flower rubbed her eyes. “I advised her not to go.”
That didn’t make Moon feel any better. Worried, Chime said, “I didn’t know. Did you have a vision that we shouldn’t go? And Jade didn’t listen?”
“No, it wasn’t a vision,” she said, annoyed. “I just thought we should wait. Sometimes I don’t have visions; sometimes I have common sense. Not that any of you listen to me.”
“You could have lied and said it was a vision,” Moon said. They both looked at him, nearly identical exasperated expressions. “What?”
“Mentors don’t lie about visions.” Flower sighed. “I’m going to rest now, hold still.”
“What? No, I can’t—” Flower climbed into Moon’s lap, ignoring his protests. “I need to keep an eye on Rift.”
“Balm and the others are watching him and the groundlings. Root is going to come get me when it’s my turn,” Chime said and settled against Moon’s shoulder.
Flower had buried her face against his chest and he automatically put his arms around her. She felt like she was all sharp bones under the light material of her dress; it was like holding a Kek. He didn’t remember her feeling this insubstantial. In fact he was fairly certain she had had more solid muscle, like the other Arbora, not that long ago. But before he could think of a way to frame a question, she said, “Stone won’t kill him. Not now. You two can fight that out later.”
Moon leaned back against the wall. He was painfully sensitive to any mention of Stone at the moment, angry, guilty, and angry at himself for feeling guilty.
He didn’t mean to rest, but he hadn’t slept since last night, so he ended up dozing for a while. He woke when Root came to get Chime for his turn at watch. Too anxious to stay still, Moon handed the still-sleeping Flower over to Root.
Everything was quiet. Chime and Song settled down to watch Rift, who had fallen asleep. Jade was in the other room, sleeping with Balm, and River was up in the top room on watch. Esom and Karsis had even dozed off, lying in a corner of the main room on borrowed blankets.
Moon paced an empty room on the far side of the stairwell, thinking of everything they needed to do. Jade and the warriors had eaten heavily before they left the mainland, and had brought meat in their packs, wrapped in the big leaves of the mountain-saplings. It was enough for the moment, but they were going to have to feed everyone in the next couple of days. They still had enough metal bits to buy food, but the market he and Stone had used was too close to Ardan’s tower. Looking for another one would be a good use of Moon’s time, except he couldn’t go outside in the daylight for fear that Ardan’s men might be searching for him.
He had reached a peak of frustration when Song ducked into