Self-consciously he looked for Ash, trying to see if she was perched somewhere on the vines or branches, but she wasn’t here yet. Maybe she won’t come.
On a broad balcony built out onto a curving branch above and to one side of the greeting hall entrance, Tempest stood under the shadows of the vines.
After a moment, a subdued group with two queens and several warriors walked out of the greeting hall entrance and moved to the opposite side of the platform from Moon and Stone. The two queens must be unattached, because they were Ash’s age or younger, and they hadn’t been among those introduced by Tempest. The warriors were in groundling form, all young and pretty, wearing colorful clothes and an excess of jewelry. He wondered if these were the rash companions that Willow had mentioned. So far they were the only spectators. Keeping his voice low, he asked Stone, “Why aren’t the Arbora coming out?”
Stone said, with a tinge of irony, “They have more sense. The court won’t want to make more of this than it has to.”
Moon heard a rustle overhead and looked up in time to see Ash shoot out of an opening high in the curve of the mountain-thorn. He twitched and managed not to shift, watching her arc toward Jade.
Jade waited until almost the last instant, then twisted in midair and fell out of Ash’s path. Ash banked smoothly back toward her and the two circled each other. They might have been talking but they were too far away for Moon to hear.
This went on long enough for Moon’s already tense nerves to tighten past bearing. He kept hoping Ash would change her mind, but the way she steadily gained height wasn’t a good sign. Jade had to see it, but she wasn’t trying to counter. Then Ash suddenly twisted to fall on Jade.
The two queens met in a furious flurry of wings and tails, plunging down toward the ground far below. Moon set his jaw, though his whole body shook with the instinct to leap into the air and join the fight.
The flurry stopped, with Jade on Ash’s back. Jade’s wings shot out and cupped to slow their descent. Ash flapped weakly and Jade released her, and watched as she glided down toward the lower branches of the colony.
Three warriors jumped off the platform to spiral down after her. The others stood there, not looking at each other, clearly uncomfortable and guilty. Jade flew leisurely toward the balcony where Tempest waited. It was empty now, the other queen having already vanished inside.
Stone just grunted, and said, “Come back in.”
There wasn’t anything else to do. Moon followed him.
They returned to their guest quarters. The warriors were there now, sitting near the pool. This time it was Song who jumped to her feet and demanded, “What happened?”
“Jade won,” Stone said succinctly, taking a seat on the furs.
“We knew that would happen. But what…” Song took in Moon’s expression, and subsided. “I don’t really need to know the details.”
Moon went to the far side of the chamber, where the wall curved around. There was an opening in the woven barrier, a small shelf that extended through the outer wall under an arbor of vines. It looked down onto a broad garden platform with fruit trees. Only a few Arbora worked on it now, climbing the trees at the far end to pick fruit. Moon sat down on the shelf, hoping no one came after him.
The breeze was cool with the approach of evening, thick with the scent of the white flowers on the sapling trees. He wondered what they would do if Frost grew up to be headstrong and overly aggressive, starting fights with every other young queen in reach. He concluded glumly that Indigo Cloud would probably be lucky to get to the point where that was the worst thing they had to worry about. After a time, he heard someone come up the steps from the walkway.
He heard Jade’s voice as she spoke to the others, too low to catch the words. Then she picked her way over toward the back of the chamber, toward Moon. She ducked under the arbor of vines and settled next to him. He slid a look at her, saw she was in her Arbora form, apparently unhurt.
She said, “I spoke with Ice and Tempest and Shadow. We came to the conclusion that Ash is hotheaded even for a queen, and she would probably have