armbands shaped like water snakes. He couldn’t see the death wound; possibly it was in her back. Whatever preserved her maintained the appearance of life, betrayed only by the faint scent of corruption and the sunken, bruised skin around her closed eyes. Moon had never seen a sea dweller this close before. He would have much preferred to see this one alive and swimming.
He turned away to see Stone regarding it with a grimace of disgust. “I’m surprised he doesn’t have any stuffed groundlings,” Moon said. There was no way Ardan could even pretend to classify a sealing with the Tath, the branch spider, and the other predators.
Stone gave the dead woman one last dark glance. “He doesn’t have them down here, where the others can see.”
He had a point. “Have you found anything?”
“It’s not here.” Stone’s jaw set, as if it took all he had to suppress a growl.
“It’s not on display,” Moon corrected. The next step seemed obvious. Tricky and potentially dangerous, but obvious. “I’ll say I want to see Ardan, tell him I know where he can find more Raksuran treasures.”
Stone shook his head. “Moon—”
Moon explained impatiently, “If he believes me, maybe I can look around inside the—”
“Moon, if he finds out what you are, he’ll collect you.”
“I know that.” With effort, Moon kept his voice low. “He won’t find out. I’m good at not being caught.”
Stone was more skeptical. “I saw how good you were at it when your groundling friends staked you out to be bird bait.”
It was unfair to bring that up. “That was different.” It was different in a hundred ways. Ilane had wanted to get rid of Moon somehow; if he hadn’t turned out to be a shapeshifter she could accuse of being a Fell, she would have thought of something else. Presumably Ardan wouldn’t have that kind of personal malice towards him. Not on such short acquaintance, anyway. “And he’s not going to have Fell poison.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Fine, so what do you want to do?”
Stone didn’t have to think about it. “I’ll tell him I know where to find the treasures.”
“You can’t. The rooms upstairs could be too small for you to shift in. You’d be stuck.” Obviously Stone didn’t object to the plan, just the fact that Moon was the one implementing it. He stifled the impulse to feel hurt; Stone couldn’t think he would betray the court to some random groundling sorcerer. Still…” What, you don’t trust me?” All right, maybe he hadn’t quite stifled the impulse.
Stone gave him a withering look. “Jade made me swear to take care of you and not let you do anything crazy.”
Moon stared at him, torn between extreme pique and gratification at the show of concern. And there was always the chance that Stone was just making it up, to justify him taking the risk instead of Moon. “I don’t do crazy things. I don’t need to be taken care of. And since when do you listen to Jade? Or anybody?”
“I’m a consort, I listen to queens. Something you might consider at some point.”
How Stone managed to say that with a straight face, Moon had no idea, and he wasn’t going to dignify it with an argument. Instead, he pointed out, “None of the others can do this.” In either of her forms, Jade would be recognized as a Raksura by any of the thieves who had been to the colony tree and seen the carvings. None of the warriors had ever had to hide what they were. The only groundling they had spent any time with was Niran, and he didn’t count. “It has to be you or me, and it can’t be you.”
Stone folded his arms and stared at the wall. He said, “You don’t know I’d get stuck,” but Moon knew resignation when he heard it, even from Stone.
First, they made a quick trip back to their tower so Moon could retrieve his consort’s gifts from their hiding place. If he was going to convince Ardan he knew where Raksuran treasure lay, it would be handy to have proof. He convinced Stone not to return to Ardan’s tower with him; if something went wrong, then at least only one of them would be caught, and Stone would be free to find a way to rescue Moon—before Moon’s dead body turned up in Ardan’s collection.
Stone agreed reluctantly, and didn’t tell Moon to be careful. They both knew that being careful wouldn’t get them the seed.