Jade said, “That’s my opinion, too. We’ll go after the seed while we have the chance.” She waited a moment for more objections, but no one else spoke up. She added, “Song and Floret will go back to tell Pearl where we’ve gone.”
Moon flicked a wary look at Vine and Floret, and he wasn’t the only one. Vine didn’t react, but Floret’s mouth set in a cynical line. Chime was the least experienced next to Song. He should have been sent back, not Floret. But Jade trusted him more.
Jade ignored the byplay, picking up the map. “And we should draw a copy of this for you to take to Pearl. If we don’t return, she can send others after us.”
“I’ll copy it.” Chime reached for the map and got to his feet. “Flower has paper and ink in her bag.”
As Chime carried the map away, Moon watched Floret and Vine. Jade lifted a brow at them, and said, “You have something to say?”
Floret started to speak but Vine said, “No.” Floret stared at him and he told her in exasperation, “I know what Pearl is going to say. But when she calms down, she’ll realize this was right. The groundlings could move the seed, and Emerald Twilight might not be willing to help Flower augur it again. If we all went back to let her make the decision, she’d be angry about that, too.”
Floret grimaced, and then let her breath out in resignation. “You’re probably right. But you’re not the one who has to tell her.”
Chapter Seven
At dawn, Song and Floret left to carry the news to the colony tree, and Moon and the others flew west, following the mentors’ directions.
It took them seven days to reach the edge of the forest, pushing the warriors as hard as they could. Jade and Moon took turns carrying Flower, which let Stone fly ahead to scout their route and find game so they could stay well fed, while Balm and Vine left markers in the treetops so whoever Pearl sent could follow them. It was Jade’s opinion that Pearl was bound to send someone, since she wouldn’t trust them to do this right. Moon just hoped they wouldn’t need the help.
It wasn’t as easy as flying over open country, and they had two days of rain, but food was plentiful and finding shelter in the suspended forest was never difficult. The long flights left them all exhausted but, as Moon had discovered on the other lengthy journeys he had taken with Raksura, it left no one with the energy to argue. When they stopped to eat and rest, Stone talked about his travels, and Chime told stories from the mentors’ histories. Flower must have had stories too, but she was always too tired to talk. Moon knew from experience that being carried wasn’t easy or comfortable, even for Arbora.
They all avoided the subject of what they would do if their quest failed. Before they had left Emerald Twilight, Flower and one of the other court’s mentors had shown them a mountain-thorn seed. It was a dead one, separated from the husk and used only to show young Raksura what they looked like, but Flower had explained that their seed would be very similar. It was about the size of a melon, a light brown color, with a hard ribbed shell like a nut.
Moon had lifted it, feeling the light weight. He could tell this one was dead; it felt empty on the inside, the rind dried away to nothing. He said, “How long can our seed stay disconnected from the tree before it dies?”
Chime and the other warriors had stared at him in horror. Apparently none of them had thought of that. Always more practical, Jade answered calmly, “I asked Stone that and he said he didn’t know.”
The Emerald Twilight mentor, a withered gray-white Arbora who looked older than the mountain-thorn, took the seed back from Moon and said ruefully, “No one knows. This has never happened before.”
The mentors had also been able to tell Flower the things that might need to be done to the seed to get it to attach to the tree again, once they found it. If they found it. It was all just speculation, since in the annals of seed-lore, this was a unique problem. But Flower had had Chime copy it all down, and sent it back to the court with Song and Floret.
Late afternoon of the seventh day, the forest ended