The Cloud Roads (25 page)

Selis looked as if that was the worst idea she had ever heard, but that was nothing new. “I couldn’t leave the camp.”

Impatiently, Moon demanded, “Why not? You hate everybody here.”

Selis folded her arms stubbornly. “It’s what I’m used to.”

Moon knew all about that. He said, “You can get used to something else.”

Selis looked, if anything, more stubborn, and Jade put in quickly, “You don’t have to decide now. Think about it, and tell us what you want when you bring us the poison.”

Selis shrugged. She leaned down to reach for the basket, but Moon beat her to it, picking it up to hand to her. She snatched it, glared at him, and stamped away.

Jade shouldered her pack and moved to follow Selis, saying, “I’ll meet you after dark at the river.”

Moon watched them go.
This should work.
If the Cordans had really believed Jade’s story, if Selis didn’t get caught searching for the poison.
Those are big ifs.
And he had another long day of waiting ahead.

At dusk, Moon slipped into the river again and drifted downstream. He arrived a little early, and though the shadows were heavy, a few women still rinsed out the big clay jars used to store seed flour, and their children splashed in the shallows. Moon stayed away from the bank, hooking his claws around a rock and letting his face break the surface just enough to let him breathe. The water pulled at his spines and frills as if he was a drifting weed.

Finally the women carried the jars away and the children reluctantly followed. Moon let go of the rock and drifted closer, fetching up in the reeds where he had waited for Jade last night.

Darkness fell, and he caught faint, distant voices from the camp, though he couldn’t make out the words. Time crept on and Moon started to fidget, absently ripping up weeds from the sandy bottom.
Where are they?

Then he heard feet pounding on packed earth, and a moment later Selis ran over the top of the bank. She reached the shallows, hastily wading out until she was knee-deep. “Moon!” she whispered harshly. “Are you—yah!”

Selis hopped sideways, cursing, as Moon stood up out of the water. He shifted to groundling and demanded, “What’s wrong?”

“They must have been suspicious of her all along, and then they saw her talk to me,”Selis explained rapidly. She waved her hands in frustration. “They never pay heed to me. Why should they do it now?”

Moon felt his heart nearly stop. “They caught her?” He started for shore. “They saw her shift?”

“No, I think it was Ilane.” Selis splashed after him. “Fianis said Ilane saw something about Jade, something that reminded her of you. She said Ilane told the elders about it and made them suspicious.”

Moon ran up the bank and through the greenroot plantings, Selis hurrying after him. It was dark between the tents ahead, but the common spaces were all lit by cooking fires and torches. And he could hear voices raised in argument. Jade said in exasperation, “Why do you think I want it? I want to kill Fell! That’s the only thing it’s good for, isn’t it?”

Slipping through the first few rows of tents, Moon saw that Jade stood in the center of the camp with a milling crowd of Cordans gathered around. Most seemed more confused than angry. Jade faced the elders Dargan and Tacras, with Ildras, Kavath, and some of the other hunters surrounding her. And Ilane stood behind Ildras, watching with wide-eyed concern. She was also the only Cordan woman toward the front of the crowd. The others had all drawn back out of the conflict.

She’s behind this,
Moon thought, torn between anger and exasperation.
Of course.
Selis and Fianis were right; Ilane had seen something about Jade. Something that had told her that Jade was like Moon.

Grimly determined, Dargan told Jade, “We know you are lying to us! There is no settlement near here, no place you could walk from in the time you say.”

Moon stopped at the edge of the communal space, catching Selis’ arm. The elders’ tent was a large conical structure on the far side of the open area. The flaps were drawn back and a couple of lamps were lit inside. A few people sat in front of it, watching the confrontation. He told her, “When they’re distracted, go get the poison.”

Selis threw him a dark look. “Make it a good distraction.”

Selis slipped into the shadows, circling around the crowd. Moon started forward. Between the confusion and fitful light of the torches, no one had noticed him yet. Many of the hunters still carried their weapons, long spears for killing the smaller vargits, bows with bone-tipped arrows.

“Tell us who you are!” Tacras faced Jade, angry and a little frightened. “Are you Fell?”

“Of course not,” Jade snapped, and Moon could hear the frustrated growl under her voice. “My people have been attacked by the Fell. We need help, help that you can provide! That should be the only thing that matters!”

Tacras fell back a step and Dargan looked uncertain. The other Cordans stirred uneasily. Moon knew one reason why they were suspicious. To their eyes, Jade was a woman alone facing an angry crowd, but she wasn’t the least bit afraid of them.

Almost sounding as if he were trying to be reasonable, Dargan said, “But you aren’t telling us everything. Even if there was a settlement nearby, why would they send only one of their number on such a dangerous journey?”

Jade started to answer, but Ilane shouted, “She lies! I told you, she looks like him. Her skin has the same pattern as the Fell that was among us.”

“You should know!” someone in the back of the crowd yelled. Moon was pretty certain that was Fianis, who Ilane had replaced in Ildras’ tent.

Ilane tossed her head, angry at the barb. “I speak the truth!”

Jade grimaced, and Moon snarled under his breath, annoyed at himself.
Damn, didn’t think of that.
He and Jade had the same pattern to their scales, but he hadn’t thought Ilane had caught more than a glimpse of him in his other form.
But she saw you after she gave you the poison.
She must have sat there in the tent and watched him, while Selis slept and Moon lay in a drugged stupor, the pattern appearing on his skin. It made his flesh creep.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jade tried, folding her arms. “I think that woman’s mad with... something.”

Dargan didn’t seem pleased by Ilane’s interruption, but he said to Jade, “Then tell us why you came here alone.”

Selis had reached the side of the elders’ tent, waiting for a chance to slip through the entrance. The people sitting outside it hadn’t moved. Moon stepped forward. Letting his voice carry, he said, “She’s not alone.”

Everyone turned. A confused murmur rose from the people on the far edge of the crowd who couldn’t see. But the group around the elders stood still, stunned into silence.

“It’s him!” Ilane shouted, ducking behind Ildras. “I told you!”

Moon shifted and leapt into the air. Everybody screamed and scrambled to get away. He spread his wings, flaring his spines and frills, and landed next to Jade. She gave him an annoyed look and said in Raksuran, “I assume this is a plan.”

“Selis is in the elders’ tent,” he told her.

“Good.” Jade shifted and flared her wings out with a violent snap.

More Cordans screamed and ran. Arrows flew, but Moon ducked and twisted away. Jade charged the archers and they scattered. She leapt to the top of a tent, flaring her wings again to draw everyone’s gaze.

Ildras ran at Moon with a barbed spear. Moon caught the weapon and yanked it out of his hands. Careful to pull the blow, he used the hilt to slam Ildras in the head. Ildras staggered backward and collapsed.

Selis bolted out of the elders’ tent. Moon shouted, “You’ve got it?”

“Yes!” She held up a woven bag.

Moon shot forward, caught her around the waist and jumped into the air, snapping his wings out to take flight. Jade followed right behind him.

Selis shrieked and grabbed his shoulders, her face buried against the flanges protecting his collarbone. Moon said in her ear, “Wrap your arms around my neck.”

After a moment she loosened her grip enough to do it, winding her arms carefully between his spines.

Moon banked toward the flying island, its shape outlined against the starlit sky. They needed a chance to talk and to look at what Selis had managed to steal.

If the Cordans were still watching, they might see them land there, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

He lighted in an open court, with a long, vine-choked pool and crumbling pillars. He set Selis down. She stumbled to the pool, sitting heavily on the edge to splash the stale water on her face.

Jade landed beside Moon, folding her wings. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

“No. Maybe.” He had to point out, “You’re a terrible liar.”

“Yes, I realize that.” She shook her ruffled frills, still irritated. “I was going to leave them a ring to make up for it, but if that’s the way they’re going to behave, forget it.”

Still leaning over the water, Selis waved a hand at her. “Don’t waste your gems. Those dungheads aren’t worth it.” She sat up, dug in the bag, and pulled out a rolled bandan leaf and a small wooden jug with a clay stopper. “I hope this is what you need. I just pulled the page out of their simple book. They had jugs of the stuff all made up, a dozen or more.”

Moon shifted to groundling, and sat down on the moss-stained paving as Jade took the leaf. Jade unrolled it, angling it so the faint starlight would fall on it. In Altanic, it read,
Three-leafed purple bow, boil until blue, strain liquid, boil again...

“Can we get this in the west?” he said. He had never heard of purple bow, three-leafed or not.

Jade thought for a moment. “If it’s what I think it is. A flower that grows inside the boles of spiral trees?” she asked Selis.

“Yes.” Selis frowned at the leaf, squinting to see it in the dark. “From what I could tell, it’s just a simple, boiled down over and over again.”

Moon took the stopper out of the jug and cautiously sniffed it. It had only a faint, weedy odor, but a familiar one that he was unlikely to forget. “This is what they gave me.”

“Good.” Jade sighed in relief, resting her head in her hand. She looked at Selis. “I take it you don’t want to go back to your camp.”

“No.” Selis shrugged, resigned. “I suppose I should take this as a sign. I’ll go to that mountain city you mentioned.” She stopped, suddenly appalled. “By go there, you mean fly there, don’t you?”

Moon gave her a look. “No, we’re going to walk. It’ll take half a turn, at least, and—”

“Fine.” Disgruntled, Selis flicked a hand at him. “Just don’t drop me.”

Because time was short, they left that night, taking Selis with them and flying toward the mountain city. Moon had a few ideas about preparing Selis for the flight, from his experience of being carried in groundling form by Stone. They cut up a blanket to wrap inside her Cordan sandals, turning them into warmer boots, and cut another piece for her to use as a hood and scarf. Since all Selis had was a light cotton tunic, they gave her all their clothes, which amounted to Moon’s pants and shirt, and the rough smock Jade had gotten at the caravanserai. The woven silk of the Raksuran fabric did the most to protect her from the cold wind during flight, but it still wasn’t easy for her, and they stopped periodically to rest and let her recover a little.

It was late afternoon when they arrived on the opposite side of the pass from the city. Moon and Jade shifted to their other forms, took their clothes back, and Selis bundled up in the remaining blankets. Then they walked up the road to the city’s bridge. Selis was exhausted and pale under her light green skin, but triumphant at making it there alive.

They took a space at the caravanserai for Selis. Moon and Jade meant to stay there only long enough to rest and stock up on food for the balance of the flight through the mountains. Moon had been trying to think of a story to explain their reappearance with Selis, but Selis had supplanted anything he could have come up with by airily telling the proprietor, “They’re helping me leave my family, who are all dungheads.”

They had arrived in time to catch the Serican traders before they started their journey back down the pass toward the Kishan territories. The Sericans were taking several passengers already, including a local family, and two women of the small-statured groundling race with the little horns. Moon sat with Selis while she bargained for her passage, but she did a good job of it, especially considering it was her first time.

Jade had already given Selis the rest of her jewelry—rings, necklace, and belt—which would be a small fortune in Kish. The caravanserai keeper had helped her convert one of the rings into little lumps of white metal, which were currency here and in Kish, so she could pay for her passage and supplies.

After the passage was arranged, Moon and Selis walked out into the plaza outside the caravanserai. It was still cold, but the morning was bright and sunny, the sky a deep, cloudless blue, promising better weather for Moon and Jade’s journey back through the mountains. Since they had arrived, a little market had sprung up in the plaza, with hides spread out on the paving where the locals sold metalwork, leather, furs, and knitted wool clothing. Inside an open tent, a young woman carved tusk tattoos for the local men.

The Sericans had advised Selis on what supplies she would need for the journey, and Moon followed her around while she bought real boots and a fur-lined coat. Jade was asleep up in their cubby, and Moon knew he should join her. His back ached, and he was so tired that everything—the rock towers that loomed over them, the wagon the Sericans loaded, the awnings and wares of the market—had taken on a bright edge.

Selis pulled on the coat she had just bought, which was a little too big for her.

Once she was down in the Kishan valleys, it could easily be re-sold to traders going up the mountain route. She smoothed a hand over the leather, and not looking at Moon, said, “You were right. About leaving. Every moment away from those people is a relief. It’s been so long since Kiaspur was destroyed, I forgot what a city was like. I thought I’d be afraid to be alone, but...” She shrugged, obviously uncomfortable expressing herself. “I want to see Kish.”