spiced and baked in coals to soften them and bring out the flavor. There wasn’t any flatbread like the Arbora in Indigo Cloud made, but there was a pressed seedcake that was almost as good.
It had been a long, anxious day, and once Moon had a full stomach, it was hard to stay awake. He tried to find a position where he could lean against Jade’s shoulder and doze off without falling over, when she said, “Was that true, what you told Ice? That you don’t remember anything about your birthcourt?”
She kept her voice low. The others were still occupied in talking or eating. “You thought I was lying?” He had to admit, he did lie a lot. Turns and turns of lying his way into groundling settlements, lying about what he had done and where he had been and how he had gotten from here to there so fast, had made it second nature.
“It occurred to me,” she said, her voice a little wry. “Well?”
“No.” His earliest memory was of sleeping in the bole of a tree, warmly tucked in with the four young Arbora. Leaf, Bliss, Light, and Fern. He hadn’t let himself think their names in a long time. “I don’t remember anything. I told Shadow that, too.”
“Hmm.” Using her claws with delicate precision, Jade picked a pit out of a piece of fruit. “Maybe Ice just wanted a close look at you, then.”
“Why?”
“She might have thought she could recognize what court you came from. Sometimes queens and consorts from the same bloodlines have a strong resemblance to each other.”
He looked at her closely, trying to see it, but she just looked like Jade. “You don’t look like Pearl.”
“To another queen, I do.” She straightened, frowning. “What’s this?”
Moon pushed himself upright to see someone glide over from the platform where the unattached queens had been seated. Moon recognized the gray and green pattern of her scales and cursed under his breath. It was Ash.
By the time she landed all the queens were alert, the consorts and warriors startled and a little wary. Tempest’s spines twitched in agitation.
Ash stopped in front of Jade, spines aggressively lifted. “I’m Ash.”
Jade regarded her steadily. “And why should I care?”
Ash bared her teeth. “I spoke to your consort in the greeting hall. I said I thought he was a pretty thing and was surprised that you left him unprotected among us. But then I found out you were desperate enough to take a solitary.”
Moon didn’t move, though he dearly wanted to jump right off the platform, whether he could shift or not. The greeting hall had seemed private compared to this, with the queens and consorts staring and the sound dying away above and below as the rest of the court gradually realized something awkward was happening.
With unstudied calm, Jade sipped tea and set the cup aside, her extended claws clicking against the pottery. “Your bitter envy of my fortunate choice of consort is your shame, not mine.”
Ash snarled. “Your consort offered to fight me. If you aren’t afraid—”
Jade shoved to her feet and shifted to her winged form in a blur of motion. Moon rolled away and landed in a crouch, braced to shift and leap. Jade halted barely a pace from Ash, spines flared. Ash jerked back in reflex, but all Jade did was say, “I accept your challenge.”
Ash growled, but it was unconvincing; she had given ground by flinching away. Trying to make up for it, she looked at Moon and said, “When I win, maybe I’ll take you.”
Moon bared his teeth. “If you win, I’ll eat your guts.”
Ash stared at him, incredulous. Jade said, with deceptive mildness, “That’s not an idle threat.” She flicked her spines. “Do you mean to fight me now or at some undetermined point in the future?”
Tempest’s deep-voiced snarl cut across Ash’s reply. “Settle this outside.”
For a long frozen moment, the two queens didn’t move. Jade stood like a statue, a coiled threat. Ash was breathing hard and, Moon realized suddenly, struggling to keep her spines flared. Maybe she hadn’t realized Jade was older. Or used to facing down Pearl, he thought.
Then Ash stepped back, spines quivering. She said, “Outside, then.”
Jade eyed her, then turned deliberately and stepped to the edge of the platform. Collecting Moon with a glance, she jumped off into the well.
Moon shifted and jumped after her. Three platforms down she dropped onto the balcony where Chime, Balm, and the others sat. Moon didn’t stop, spiraling down toward the bottom of