“One section of bowers big enough to fit all of us?” Chime muttered. “I don’t know whether it means our court is too small or this one was too big.”
“A little of both, maybe,” Floret said, looking up at the well.
“This was our court.” Stone’s voice was quiet, but everyone went suddenly still. “You’re all descended from the Raksura who lived here.”
Except me, Moon thought. He had found Indigo Cloud intimidating enough when it had been installed at the small colony. Trying to imagine this place populated with hundreds of Raksura made his nerves twitch.
Thunder rumbled outside, and Moon flinched, then settled his spines to hide it.
“We need to get the others in, and tie off the boats,” Jade said to Pearl.
Pearl flicked her spines in acknowledgement, but for once she seemed more excited than annoyed. She turned to the warriors. “Go back and tell Knell and Bone to choose a group of soldiers and hunters as guards and scouts, and have the rest of the Aeriat fly them over. We need to make certain there’s nothing dangerous before we bring in the clutches and the rest of the Arbora.”
Everyone scrambled to obey.
Chapter Two
Moon helped fly the first group of Arbora, including Bone, Knell, forty or so other hunters and soldiers, and the two young mentors, Heart and Merit, from the boats to the tree’s knothole
entrance. With all the warriors joining in, it didn’t take long, though the steadily increasing rain drumming on their wings and the deepening gloom under the canopy reminded them that time was limited. The other Arbora still stuck on the boats weren’t happy with the delay, but they had to make certain the tree was safe.
Once they were assembled in the greeting hall, Pearl told them, “The Aeriat will search upwards, the Arbora will go down. Move quickly, make certain there’s nothing dangerous here. You can stop and gawk at it all later.” She jerked her head at Knell. “You stay here with the soldiers and make certain this level is safe.”
Flower turned to Merit and Heart, both bouncing with barely restrained excitement. “One of you go with Chime, and light the lamps for the Aeriat. The other stay here with Knell and light the rest of this hall and the passages around it.”
“I’ve never done shells before.” Merit looked anxious. “Just moss and wood.”
“You’ll learn as you go,” Chime said firmly, and caught Merit around the waist. He sprang up after the warriors who were already climbing the central well.
Moon hissed to himself in frustration, torn between wanting to join the warriors who were heading upward, and wanting to be a good consort. Stone had already disappeared and was unavailable to give advice; possibly he was making his own search or getting reacquainted with the place. Not wanting to admit to insecurity, even to himself, Moon followed Jade, Flower, and the Arbora exploring party down the stairway that led below the greeting hall, to the section Stone had said they should make their camp for the night.
They followed the curving stairs down into another large, central chamber with a high domed roof and round doorways leading away. Only a little light from above fell down the stairwell. The room was a dark pit, even to Raksuran eyes. But the only scent was of must and leaf rot, and the space felt empty. Moon ran his hands over the wall as high as he could reach, feeling for light shells. Groundlings would have brought a candlelamp or a torch, he thought, frustrated. The hunters went down the steps, spread out along the wall in the dark, searching, until someone said, “Here’s one!”
After a moment, a shell further down the steps started to glow, revealing Flower standing on tip-toes to reach it. Jade and the hunters turned to look around the room.
The light crept up the wall onto carvings of trees that curved up across the ceiling. It was a forest, picked out in detail, with plumes, spirals, fern trees, many others Moon couldn’t name. Their branches entwined overhead, and their roots came down to frame the round doorways that led off to different rooms, as if you were standing in an enclosed and protected glade. The hunters murmured in appreciation, and Bone said in a hushed voice, “If every part of this place is as beautiful…”
Flower nodded, amusement and awe mingled in her expression. “If this is just the teachers’ gathering hall, I can’t wait to see the queens’ level.”