Archive of Our Own ^beta

        It started with a woman -- the bane of any consort's life.

        Stone had been seeing Wind, a teacher of the Indigo Cloud court, for the better part of three turns.  He'd thought everything was fine, once he'd gotten her to understand that it didn't bother him to be open about their relationship.  Most consorts would have been embarrassed to be seen with an Arbora lover -- especially consorts who had no queen.  But Stone was not most consorts.  He had decided long ago never to judge others by superficialities alone, as he himself had too often been judged.

        But then something went wrong.  Wind sought him out less, then not at all.  When Stone went looking for her, it took effort -- because she was avoiding him.  This went on for weeks, until finally he got fed up and tracked her down by scent.  Even that was hard, because her scent had recently changed in an odd way.  He finally found her out on the terraces, of all places, helping with the spring planting.  She'd always hated working outdoors.

        But when he pulled her aside, into the misty shadow of a nearby waterfall, he realized at last why her scent was different.  "You've got a clutch?"

        Wind laughed a little -- nervously, Stone thought.  She tucked her pale hair behind one brown ear.  "Yes, I finally decided to do it."  She touched her belly, which hadn't rounded much; Raksuran women didn't grow enormous or spend months about the business the way other groundling women did.  "Another week, maybe."

        "That's wonderful!"  Stone stepped forward eagerly, reaching out to touch her belly.  "May I?  I wonder how many will be warriors?  I always hoped -- "

        Wind sighed, looking painfully unhappy.  "They're not yours, Stone."

        Stone stopped in mid-reach.  "Oh."  That was unexpected.  He hadn't realized... but females partnered where they pleased.  "Well, uh, that's still good."  He smiled, trying to hide his disappointment.  "Though... maybe one day, if you... if you want another clutch, maybe..."

        Wind's expression turned exasperated.  "Stone, I'm not going to make a clutch with you.  I'm sorry."

        "What?"  Stone stepped back, feeling slapped.  "But -- I thought you liked me."

        "I do.  But -- "  She sighed, looking away again.  "Oh, Stone."

        And that was when he understood.  Fury stiffened his spine; would've stiffened his spines if he'd been in his other form.  "You don't want a clutch from a defective consort."

        She flinched, throwing him a guilty look, and did not answer.  Which was answer enough.

        So he turned and walked away from her, and did not look back when she called after him.

***

        "Explain yourself," said Indigo, reigning queen of the Indigo Cloud court.

        Stone, who had voluntarily shifted to his groundling form before Indigo could force him into it, shrugged and slid his hands into his pockets.  "Wanted to see the crystal fly migration."

        "And last week?  You were caught fighting Tath."

        Stone said nothing.  He'd done a good job of it, too; torn apart the first few so thoroughly that particular tribe would never again dare to test Indigo Cloud's defenses.

        "You left the court overnight."  Indigo, who towered over Stone by more than a head, lashed her tail a little.  "Unchaperoned."

        "The migration only happens at night, so, yeah."

        He should have been worried when Indigo's spines lifted in blatant threat.  It would have been proper of him to step back, lower his eyes, show some sign of submission -- or better yet, contrition.  But that would have been a lie, because Stone was not contrite, so he held his ground.

        "No harm was done, Indigo."  That was from Land, the eldest of the mentors, who stood nearby.  So did Sea, his clutchmate, who happened to be head of the soldiers, and Mist, the young chief of the teachers, who'd managed to escape the nurseries long enough to join them.  Dawn, the current head of the warriors, sat in the background on the edge of the fountain, looking disgusted with the whole affair.  Only Click, the head hunter, was absent, probably because the hunters were busy catching dinner.  It should have bothered Stone too that Indigo had summoned the leaders of the Arbora just to discipline one wayward consort.  But he was past caring about propriety.  He was past caring about anything.

        Indigo shook her head, her spines so stiff that they rattled.  "That's not the point.  Consorts are supposed to stay home.  How can we protect them if they constantly run off to do one frivolous thing or another?  What if a queen from another court -- "

        "There aren't any courts nearby with young queens," Sea supplied.  Indigo glared at her, but Sea only returned a mild look; she was older than Indigo, and not much inclined to be intimidated by anyone.  "Wind Sun's so far that it would be a waste of a queen's time to come all the way here for a consort-snatching; she'd have to wait weeks even to glimpse one.  And Sky Copper is so small -- they've only got the one unmated queen, and she's half Stone's age."

        "I was younger than Cloud," Indigo snapped.

        "Well, true, but not by much..."

        "All of that is beside the point," Stone said, raising his voice.  Everyone looked at him in surprise and consternation; he knew he was being rude, but didn't care.  "I don't want protection.  You don't need to protect me.  No one wants me.  So what difference does it make what I do?"

        Indigo winced, her spines wilting a little, which perversely made Stone even angrier.  He didn't want pity.  Mist, ever the peacemaker, tried to intervene.  "Stone, that's not true -- "

        "Please."  He kept the worst of the sarcasm from his voice with an effort, since Mist didn't deserve it.  "There are twelve unmatched consorts in this court.  Only nine queens, most of them happily settled with the consorts they want.  I haven't forgotten any of your lessons, Mist; I can do math just fine."

        Mist grimaced, and there fell an uncomfortable silence.  Stone shook his head and sighed.  None of the people around him deserved his anger; he made a monumental effort and reined it in.  "Listen.  I can't contribute to this court the way a consort should, all right?  And I'm fine with that.  But I won't be useless.  I can't stand it.  If you won't let me fight, then at least let me explore this new territory of ours.  That doesn't do any harm, right?  I can fly farther and faster than the warriors; I'm stronger than them, too.  And if something does eat me, it's no great loss."

        "This is ridiculous," snapped Dawn, her own spines bristling.  "Let him fight?  It doesn't make any sense to let you join the warriors, Stone.  Half of us would be distracted all the time trying to take care of you -- "

        "I think I've made it clear that I don't need taking care of," Stone said, putting a bit of a growl into his voice.  Dawn bristled, but Stone left it at that.  No one but the warriors knew that Dawn had sent three of them to beat Stone, the day after the Tath incident.  She'd wanted to send him a message:  you're not a warrior and you never will be.  Stone had defeated all three, and been ready to go after Dawn herself -- but he'd stopped when the fallen warriors pointed out, somewhat painfully, that the caste would never follow him, even if he won the contest.  Strength Stone had in plenty, but it took more than strength to gain acceptance among their number.

        "We'd be willing to try him," said Sea, who'd had a thoughtful look on her face.  "Click says he's a good hunter, and if he's willing to scout for game from the air -- "

        "No.  Consorts don't hunt," Indigo said with a note of finality in her voice.  "They don't fight.  Just because we've moved out to the hinterlands doesn't mean we can forget ourselves and the old traditions.  We're a strong court, with good bloodlines.  We will not waste that blood letting a consort go gallivanting all over the Three Worlds.  Or that consort will no longer be a member of this court."

        Stone stiffened, shock breaking through his anger at last.  There was a stir of surprise in the room as the others reacted as well; none of them had expected Indigo's pronouncement.  "You would throw me out?"

        "If you cannot comport yourself in a manner befitting your caste?  Yes."  Indigo leaned in, glaring; now Stone had to fight to hold his ground, even as fear fluttered in his belly.  "You will not be an embarrassment to this court."

        Stone stared at her, realizing that she meant it.  He couldn't believe it -- but through the shock, despite the fear, anger kept his back stiff.  He spoke without thinking, so furious that he couldn't hold the words in.  "I'm already an embarrassment just by existing.  Why don't you throw me out now, then?"

        For an instant, there was such fury in Indigo's eyes that he thought she would do it.

        Then there was a stir from the back chambers of the queens' level, and someone stepped through the hanging that led to Indigo's bower: Cloud, Indigo's first and only consort, resplendent in a knee-length black tunic and pants of watered silk.  His skin was flawless and almost as black as the cloth, lightened only by a hint of elder's gray and the bronze coloration that edged his scales in his other form.  He'd grown his still-black hair long enough that it brushed the backs of his knees as he strolled around the fountain to join his queen. Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

        "I missed you," Cloud said, bypassing them all as if they weren't there, and clearly speaking only to his queen.  Indigo straightened at once, her spines flattening in pleasure as she pulled him close with a croon of welcome.  Cloud smiled and nuzzled her throat, then turned to tuck his head under her chin.  From this vantage he watched Stone, sharp-eyed and meaningfully, even as Indigo sighed and inhaled the scent of his hair.

        Abashed, Stone looked away, noticing the hard looks of the other Arbora and Aeriat in the room.  They all knew:  with one perfectly-timed entrance, Cloud had saved Stone from a long miserable life as a solitary.

        When the moment passed, Indigo sighed and gently moved Cloud to her side, where she cupped a protective wing around him.  Calmer now, she faced Stone again.

        "Consorts are the treasures of any Raksuran court," she said, glancing briefly and fondly at Cloud.  "Like it or not, Stone.  And your duty is to stay in the colony and at least try to make yourself acceptable to a queen.  Fine; you don't want to be a burden.  Has it ever occurred to you that by running away, you force us to waste time and energy trying to find you?"

        It had occurred to him, of course.  He just didn't think anyone really cared that much.  They came after him because it was what a good court was supposed to do, not because Stone was any prize.  If they would just stop pretending to care --  But he could not say this now, with Cloud staring him into silence.

        "So yes."  Indigo settled her free wing with a decisive snap.  "If you persist in acting like an ill-bred solitary, then we will treat you accordingly.  Is that understood?"

        He looked away, feeling mutinous.  But Cloud's soft hiss -- as beautiful as the rest of him, and twice as menacing -- made Stone answer.  "I understand."

        Indigo shook her head.  "Don't leave the colony again without permission.  Believe it or not, I don't want to lose you."

        With that she turned away, though she paused in the doing to touch Cloud's face in silent farewell.  Then she headed out of the room, and everyone there except Stone let out a sigh of relief.  Stone turned to go too, not really sure where, just anywhere but here --

        "Hold it," said Cloud.  A hand clapped Stone on the shoulder, and he looked up guiltily to see the First Consort's glower.  "Come with me."

        So, reluctantly, Stone followed Cloud.  Not to the consort's level, as he'd half-feared -- there was no privacy up there, with half their fellow consorts eager to listen in on even a whispered conversation.  Instead Cloud led him down the main steps, which wound in a long spiral toward the Arbora levels.  A better choice for privacy, although Arbora and the occasional lazy Aeriat trotted by, some looking at them curiously and others plainly not caring.  The passers-by would catch whiffs of the conversation, but anyone who wanted to listen closely would have to blatantly follow them.

        So after a few steps Stone said, "Don't say you told me so."

        "All right," Cloud replied.  "How about:  You brought this on yourself."

        He had, but he wasn't willing to be lectured for it.  "So you agree with Indigo?  I should be thrown out of the court just because I don't want to spend my life sitting around on my ass?"  When Cloud didn't answer, Stone uttered a bitter laugh.  "I should have known.  You never disagree with her."

        He knew he'd gone too far when Cloud stopped in the middle of the stairwell, forcing a young warrior just out of the nursery to yelp and windmill to avoid bumping into him.  The young one hurried on without comment, however, because Cloud looked ready to take a swipe at anyone handy.  Stone quickly lowered his eyes -- though it took a moment, despite instinct.  A part of him was afraid of Cloud, justifiably -- but part of him truly didn't care if Cloud killed him.  Better that than go on like this, useless...

        But instead of the scolding -- or the beating -- Stone half-expected to receive, he heard Cloud say with deadly softness:  "There are worse things than being forced to live in safety, leisure, and comfort, Stone."

        And then Stone felt truly contrite.  Everyone in the court knew Cloud's history, though most of them tried not to remind him of it.  He had been very young -- too young -- when he'd been taken by his first queen, one of the eldest daughters in Emerald Twilight.  An honor; even as a child Cloud must have been striking.  But when a queen so powerful laid claim to a consort so immature, there was little real possibility of a healthy relationship between them.  And indeed, Cloud never came out and said that his first queen had mistreated him -- but it was not difficult to guess how things had gone, given how quickly Cloud had repudiated her when the chance came.  Everyone, including a few of the sisters in Emerald Twilight, knew Indigo had been right to steal him, even if it brought the courts to the brink of war.

        Stone tried again.  "I know.  Really, Cloud, I know.  But -- "  He shook his head.  "I've tried to do what I should.  I've spent my days doing nothing but grooming myself and learning how to pour tea in the most attractive way..."  He groaned, just remembering.  "I hate living like that.  It's not living, not really.  It's just waiting -- waiting for something I'll never have."  He hesitated, then reached up and touched his clouded eye:  the flaw that had doomed him.  "No matter how pretty I am, no matter how well I can recite poetry or sing, this will always be the first thing a queen notices."

        Cloud sighed, then turned away, heading downstairs again.  He stopped when Stone did not follow, watching him until finally Stone sighed and joined him again.

        They walked in silence for a while, passing the mentors' level and the teachers' courtyard.  Then Cloud said, "I take it you're still upset about Wind."

        Stone flinched.  If Cloud knew, everyone knew.  Cloud sighed.  "You didn't start acting like a madman until she decided to make a clutch with someone else.  The rest of us aren't bad at math, either."

        "I'm not upset."  Cloud threw him a look, and Stone glared back.  "I'm not!  If she doesn't want children from a defective consort -- if no one else does, and I never have any children, ever -- fine.  So be it.  But I'm tired, Cloud.  I'm tired of pretending and hoping and...  I don't care anymore what happens to me.  I just need to do something with my life that matters.  Anything."

        Cloud sighed.  "There's going to be a new queen here in a few days."

        Startled by the apparent non-sequitur, Stone stumbled a bit, then caught himself on the stair railing.  "What?  A new queen?  But that's -- "

        "She's a distant relative by an offshoot bloodline, coming back to us from Fire Onyx.  They have the opposite problem from us -- too many queens, not enough consorts.  So they're sending their surplus off to allied courts.  I haven't told the other untaken consorts yet because I don't feel like dealing with the madness."  He let out a long-suffering sigh.  "But she'll be here in a week."  He looked at Stone, speculatively.

        Stone shook his head.  "I told you, it doesn't matter.  Queens all say the same thing:  'He's not bad-looking, shame about that eye.'"

 Cloud scowled. "Actually, I think it's your attitude they notice first. The eye certainly doesn't help, but..." He shook his head. "In any case, keep in mind that a queen raised in a different court is likely to have a very different view of what matters and what doesn't, compared to us. Fire Onyx is near the hives of several predatory species. In the last few generations they've had several near-brushes with extinction, all of which they've fought back from. They're scrappy." He smiled. "I'm told that even their consorts got involved in the last fight against the Fell. Not line-grandfathers, mind you; young, healthy, breedable consorts."

        "Consorts fighting?  Openly?"  Marveling at this, Stone sighed in longing, then shook his head.  Even if that was how a Fire Opal-born queen liked it, there were older, stronger unclaimed consorts than Stone -- and they were without inborn flaws.

        Cloud stopped again, this time taking Stone's shoulders.  "There's more to mating than biology, you little fool," he said, giving him an affectionate shake.  "A good woman -- queen or otherwise -- wants more than just a pretty, perfect face.  And there's more to you than your eye.  Try to remember that, all right?"

        With that, Cloud turned to head back up the steps.  Stone watched him leave, trying to believe his words.  But he couldn't.

        "Stone!"  "'Tone!"  Surprised, Stone turned, realizing that Cloud had walked him down to the nursery level.  It was one of Stone's favorite haunts; he liked to play with the clutches whenever he had a free moment.  It was how he'd met Wind... and that was why he'd avoided the nursery for several weeks.  But even in the wake of Wind's rejection, Stone found himself relaxing as he stepped into the chamber and was besieged by small children.  Two of the Arbora toddlers immediately shifted and tried to climb him; in spite of his mood, Stone laughed and scooped them up.  Then he let Evening, one of the fledgling consorts, grab his hand and pull him over to sit on a couch so they could all lean or climb or cuddle against him.  In short order Stone was buried in small children.

        Unity, one of the elder teachers, came over with a tiny Arbora newborn tucked against her breast.  "I knew it had to be you," she said with a laugh.  "The children always go wild when you come.  They like you better than all the other consorts.  But I didn't think I'd see you back for awhile."

        Her tone was gentle, compassionate.  She knew about Wind too.  Stone smiled sheepishly.  "I hadn't planned on it."  But Cloud had, he realized, and now he felt better.  As Cloud had doubtless intended.

        Unity crouched, propping her chin on a fist, shifting so that she could use her tail for balance.  The child in her hand turned to stare at Stone with big eyes, plainly fascinated.  A child not much older had nestled herself against Stone's hip, already asleep and drooling on his pants.  "You'll make a wonderful father someday."

        Stone sobered, though he continued to pet Evening, who sat on his chest and had asked him for a story.  "Maybe."  If I ever have any children.

        "No maybe about it.  I know a number of Arbora who are queuing up for their chance, now that Wind's foolishness has left you vulnerable."  Her smile was wry and just a little teasing.  "I'd give you a try myself, if I weren't too old for it."

        Stone felt his face grow hot.  "Really?"

        "Oh, of course.  Though I hate birthing warriors; those little wings jab something awful."  She grimaced and rubbed her belly in remembered discomfort.  "Always the problem with consorts.  Well, anyhow, I just thought you'd like to know.  Carry on!"

        She went off, and Stone told Evening and the other children their story, and by the time he went back up to his bower, he felt a little more hope.  But only a little.

***

        Long, tiresome days passed.  Stone did not so much forget Cloud's mention of the Fire Onyx queen as willfully not think about it.  He didn't care.  He didn't want to care.

        A worse problem by far was boredom, which he had in plenty now that he was no longer permitted to leave the pyramid.  As much as he loved children, he could only spend so many hours down in the nurseries -- and that had grown more painful, now that a newborn Arbora clutch had taken its place among the others.  All five of the new babies had Wind's bright green eyes, and three of them had wings.  He couldn't tell which of his fellow untaken consorts had fathered them, but it didn't really matter.

        So Stone tried spending more time up on the consort's level in hopes of once more interesting himself in the usual consort pastimes of games and grooming and gossip.  But the games bored him, and he found the grooming pointless; what difference would it make for him to style his hair a different way or wear a new shirt?  And gossip was the worst.  The other consorts had heard about Indigo's reprimand, and while a few of the older, taken consorts were sympathetic, the younger ones -- Stone's competition, for whatever that was worth -- were less forgiving.  Stone found himself jostled in corridors, his bower-cushions stolen or blankets shredded, with too many scents on the fabric for him to determine exactly who had done the deed.  Obsidian, the oldest and biggest of the untaken consorts, took to loudly commenting whenever Stone passed by.  "On your way to do the gardening today, defective?" he would say, over the snickers of the other untakens.  "Since you want to be an Arbora so much."

        Stone usually ignored Obsidian; big or not, Obsidian was as dim as spent lightmoss, which was probably why the Indigo Cloud queens had snubbed him.  Not worth Stone's energy.  But as the days wore on and the boredom began to grate on Stone's nerves, he found his temper fraying more easily.  So on a windy day in late autumn, when tufted razi-fern seeds blew through the pyramid on warm breezes and Stone ached to fly somewhere, anywhere, away from his troubles, he snapped. 

        "The warriors sent a message," Obsidian said, as they all sprawled about the gathering chamber on the consort's level, listening to another of the untakens -- a scrawny younger consort by the unfortunate name of Murk -- sing to the dusk.  Murk at least had a lovely voice.  "They just wiped out another Tath warren, and they need someone to come clean the shit off their feet.  Want to be useful, defective?"

        Stone did not consciously decide to challenge Obsidian.  He wouldn't have, if he'd thought about it; Obsidian was twice his age and half again Stone's size in his shifted form.  But before Stone could think he was across the chamber, shifting in mid-lunge and stopping only a hair's breadth from Obsidian's face.  Startled, Obsidian jerked back and shifted in reflex -- something that immediately caused the other consorts to stare.  Uncontrolled shifting was something only children did.  Even Murk fell silent, his song cut off by his gasp.

        Obsidian's eyes showed his fury as he belatedly realized what he'd done.  He tried to bristle, but it was too late; Stone growled low and menacingly, making it clear that he intended to tolerate no more from Obsidian.  And again, Obsidian flinched despite himself.  He was stronger and bigger -- but Stone was angrier, and not in a mood to play games.

        "Come at me if you're going to," he snarled, lashing his tail.  "If all you've got is talk and namecalling, you're not worth my time."

        Obsidian tried again to raise his spines, and failed.  "You can't fight.  Indigo told you not to."

        "I can't do anything a proper consort wouldn't," Stone replied, baring his teeth in a tight smile.  "If you attack me, though, it makes perfect sense that I'd defend myself.  And you can, you know.  Indigo didn't restrict you.  Want to?"  He lashed his tail, flexed his claws.  "Come on, then.  I've got nothing better to do than tear off your balls and end your line before it ever starts."

        Obsidian tried to sneer.  "I'm not some crude, defective leftover who should've been born a warrior.  I don't fight -- "  He flinched as Stone pressed closer, glaring right into his eyes.

        "I do," Stone said.

        Obsidian fell silent, then finally flattened his spines and looked away.  Stone glared him down for a moment longer, then stalked away, leaving the consort level altogether.  If he had to breathe their air for much longer, he was going to take care of the court's oversupply of consorts with his claws.  Make Indigo kick him out for something real, if she was going to do it anyway.

        So furious was he that as he left, he brushed past a queen coming up the winding stairwell, barely noticing her as he growled three younger consorts out of his way.  They scattered to the sides of the hall to let him pass, and he heard the queen pause behind him, turning to watch him go.

***

        He asked Land if he could stay with the mentors for a few days.  A bit puzzled, Land said yes.  So Stone brought his favorite blanket -- half-shredded, thanks to Obsidian's cronies -- down to their level, and moved into a bower that was too small for his wings in his shifted form.  Over the course of several days, he finally began to calm down.

        It helped that the mentors were so busy that they actually drafted Stone to help out.  The older, hide-written records of the court had begun to decay rapidly in the past few years, devoured by some sort of rusty mold that was apparently native to the court's new territory. They needed everyone with a tolerable hand to transcribe the old records onto newer, more durable paper sheaves before they fell apart.  So Stone found himself spending hours at a desk, meticulously deciphering crabbed old Raksuran script and trying not to misspell anything.

        To his own surprise, he enjoyed the work -- though some part of that, he knew, was just his own desperation to have something, anything, to do with himself.  Still, it was fascinating, because he got to read the records while he transcribed them.  Now and again, Land called breaks, which Stone needed badly; forced to work with only one eye, he tended to get headaches after too long a stretch.  But during those breaks, he sat with the mentors and listened avidly while they shared what they had read.  And after the first such gathering, when Stone shyly offered his own revelations, the mentors included him in the lively talks as if he'd been born among them.

        If only.

        After one especially animated evening of exchanges, Stone sat on one of the outer ledges of the mentors' level, overlooking a view of the terraced gardens.  Since this was an Arbora level, the ledge had a thick stone railing, which made for a marvelous perch.  The exhilaration of the talk had worn off, and Stone found himself morose in its wake.  Perhaps Land sensed that, because he came out to join Stone, vaulting himself up to sit on the ledge as though he too had wings and didn't need to fear falling onto the terrace far below.

        "You're good at this," Land said, glancing over at him.  He was a graying, gray-skinned Arbora, with only a hint remaining of the brown that had once been his natural color.  "Perhaps you could join us every week, and help wherever you're needed."

        Stone glanced at him, wryly.  "Are you really that strapped for labor?"  His smile faded, quite against his will.  "Or is it just that you feel sorry for me?"

        "Perhaps a bit of both," Land admitted, which made Stone feel better, perversely.  "It troubles me to see a consort so unhappy.  Troubles all of us, really."  He jerked his head back, indicating the rest of the mentors on the level.

        "Sorry."

        "Not your fault.  But if it's any consolation, some of us have attempted to augur for you, in hopes of finding some solution to the problem."

        "Oh?"  Stone frowned.  He hadn't realized mentors would be willing to do such a thing, not for a lone defective consort.

        "Mmm-hmm.  And the portents were favorable -- very favorable, in fact.  We forsee a bright future for you, Stone.  One that will change the fate of Indigo Cloud forever."

        "What?"  Surprised, Stone considered this, then sighed.  "Ah.  I'll set a precedent by being the first consort to be kicked out of the court, and that will make all the others fall into line, and we'll soon become the Emerald Twilight of the northeastern boondocks, is that it?"

        Land rolled his eyes gave Stone a "you're so stupid I can't be bothered to slap you" look.  "All I can tell you is, you should welcome the color red.  It will bring you fortune."  His eyes glazed then, taking on a hint of the white clouding that came during a mentor's vision.  "But you'll have to fly fast, Stone.  Faster than any consort has ever flown.  Or you'll lose that fortune as soon as you find it."

        Even by mentor terms, that was cryptic.  "Could you be more specific?" he asked, annoyed.

        Land blinked twice, his eyes clearing, then sighed.  "The red will come to you, Stone.  That's all I know to tell you.  Just wait."  He turned and hopped down from the railing, wincing a little as his knees protested.  "Careful.  If you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself, you might miss it."  With that, he left.

        Irritated, Stone turned back to the view, drawing up his knees and resting his chin on one.  Perhaps he would sleep out here tonight, and dream of long journeys to distant lands.  Or hunting.  Or something, anything, other than how miserable he was and would be, forever.

        As he sat there, however, the back of his neck prickled.  Frowning, Stone tasted the air.  A hint of scent came to him on the breeze:  female.  Unknown.  A queen.

        He looked up.  On the balcony just above -- also the mentors' level, one floor up -- he spied an unfamiliar figure.  A queen, no mistaking, clad only in a flat, wide gold torque and matching girdle, with a massive mane of spines trailing all the way down to her tail.  She stood with her wings half-cupped to feel the evening breeze.  Perhaps sensing his scrutiny, she glanced at him and then away with palpable disinterest. 

        Well, hello to you too. It was not hard to guess that this was the newly-arrived Fire Onyx queen; no truly foreign queen would be permitted to stroll about the colony unescorted, for fear that she might steal someone's consort or clutch.  And this one was clearly lost, because why else would a queen be on the mentors' levels?

        Her scales were an all-over bright, metallic red, traced with a webbing of delicate gold.

        More irritated that his peace had been disturbed, Stone put his head back down and decided to ignore her.  It seemed to work; when he looked up again a few moments later, the queen had gone.

***

        Stone couldn't impose on the mentors forever, so when the transcription project was done, he reluctantly returned to the consorts' levels.  Land had hinted that there might soon be more work for Stone to assist with, so Stone could only hope that he wouldn't have to endure his fellow consorts for long.

        He braced himself for trouble as he landed on the topmost level of the pyramid, schooling his face to expressionlessness so that he could walk through the gathering area without betraying just how much he hated them all.  To his own surprise, however, none of the other consorts paid him any attention as he walked in.  Half the untaken ones had gathered over near the heating-stone hearth, sitting rapt and nearly a-flutter at the feet of another figure, who seemed to be telling a story.  The new queen, Stone saw, easily picking her bright coloring out of the sea of dark-haired groundling forms that surrounded her.  He recalled Cloud saying she'd come from a court that was short on consorts.  Of course she wouldn't waste time taking advantage of the comparative wealth at Indigo Cloud.

        At least no one was paying attention to him; good.  Stone headed past the gathering chamber toward his own bower.  He'd brought a scroll to read from the mentor levels, which contained stories of an earlier iteration of the court in its war against a double pack of Gethen.

        As Stone passed behind the wooden lattice-screens at the back of the gathering area, he saw the other untaken consorts, those lower in the hierarchy or not quite old enough to be a good match for this queen, peering through at her with big hopeless eyes.  Snorting in contempt, Stone turned away -- and nearly ran into Cloud, who stood half-invisible in the pool of shadow beneath a hanging bough of flowers.  "Welcome back," he drawled with some irony.

        Stone forced himself not to scowl.  Cloud was forever lurking where no one expected him.  "Yeah, sorry.  Been busy."  Knowing he couldn't leave it at that and stay polite, he added, "How is Indigo?"

        At this Cloud softened a bit, as he always did at the mention of his queen.  "Almost done with our seventh clutch.  I've had a real time convincing her not to nest on the queens' level.  You know how she gets."  Stone nodded, grimacing.  Reigning queens had a tendency to become territorial while nesting, and they would sometimes drive off -- or kill -- other queens who got too near.

        But then, consorts of reigning queens tended to be the same, and Cloud had long ago proven himself especially prone to this.  Stone very carefully lowered his eyes and looked away as he said, "I wish her another fine healthy clutch, then."

        "Yes."  Cloud paused for a moment, somehow seeming much more overtly dangerous than usual.  He was a few decades from developing line-grandfather size as yet, but Stone was very aware that Cloud was already twice his size in his other form.  "I'm not telling you where she is."

        "Yes, Cloud.  Of course, Cloud.  I don't need to know."  A long, pent moment passed, and then Cloud exhaled. 

        "Yes.  Well."  Cloud brushed aside a lock of hair, the silver rings on all of his fingers glimmering in the light from a nearby sconce of glowing moss.  "I take it you got tired of playing mentor."

        Stone stifled annoyance, though he was grateful for the change of subject.  "Not really.  I like reading the histories."  He held up the scroll he'd borrowed as evidence.

        Cloud shook his head and sighed.  "You're so strange, Stone." 

        They both looked around as the queen, reacting to something one of the consorts had said, let out a hearty, wicked-sounding belly-laugh that echoed throughout the consorts' level.  I wouldn't trust a queen with that laugh any farther than I could throw her, Stone thought, scowling -- but Garnet, the youngest of the consorts, made a sound of utter longing and stood on his tiptoes for a better look at her through the lattice.  Garnet's clutchmate, Sapphire, glowered at him for his lack of self-control, though he too resumed staring avidly at her, both of them half in love with the new queen already. 

        Cloud's expression turned wry.  "Things are going to be a bit lively here in the next few months, I imagine," he said.  "Some queens like to try out potential consorts before they chose one, if they can convince the consorts to oblige them.  Looks like Azure will have her pick."

        Stone grunted noncommittally.  What did it matter to him?  But he wasn't looking forward to trying to sleep over the sound of other consorts having sex with the new queen -- Azure, he gathered, who had clearly been named before her colors solidified.  Perhaps Stone could spend the week down in the nurseries instead. 

        And hadn't he said enough to serve propriety by now?  "Well, good night, Cloud."  He turned to go.

        "You aren't even going to try, are you?"  When Stone frowned and looked back, he was surprised to see a worried expression on Cloud's face.  "Unbelievable, Stone.  Aren't you the least bit interested in getting a queen?"

        Stone sighed, exasperated.  Of course he was.  He'd spent his childhood dreaming of the woman who might one day claim him, only to reach adulthood and realize it would never happen.  But he had his pride, too, if nothing else.  So he lied and said, "No.  I'm not."

        Then he walked away, leaving Cloud staring after him in consternation.

***

        To Stone's surprise, however, he didn't have to listen to anyone having sex with the new queen, because she didn't choose anyone to have sex with.  He did endure a little of the usual -- taken consorts submitting to their queens when the latter came to visit, the occasional bout of consorts sleeping with each other to ease mutual tensions or loneliness -- but judging by the forlorn expressions of some of his fellow untakens, Azure was taking her sweet time in choosing a paramour.  It meant nothing to Stone, so he went on about his business.

        Land's new project didn't materialize for several days, so Stone kept himself busy in the nurseries -- where he began to realize, by the number of female teachers who found a reason to come watch him with the children, that Unity had been right about others hoping to profit from Wind's decision.

        But that held its own hazards.  Two of the Arbora women who made their interest in him known -- one in no uncertain terms, inviting him back to her bower right then and there -- were clearly not interested in him, just in his status as a consort.  To a degree, Stone did not mind this.  If he could not serve a queen and produce royal clutches for the court, he could at least make more warriors.

        But Stone could not rid himself of a nagging sense of distaste at this.  Was it so wrong of him to want to be a consort in the truest sense of the word?  A companion, a helpmeet, an escort; protector and protected.  Arbora women couldn't claim consorts permanently -- they couldn't mark them, and couldn't fight off a queen -- but Stone would have been perfectly willing to stay with a woman for as long as he remained unclaimed, acting the part of her mate even if it wasn't true.  Was it so wrong of him to want a family, however he got it?

        It was a fledgling's wish, though, and Stone knew it.  He had seen what life was really like for some of his fellow consorts who'd been lucky enough to get queens -- and "luck" was a matter of opinion, because he saw nothing to envy in some cases.  There was anxious little Slate, a younger consort who shared Stone's parentage, though they were not clutchmates.  A young queen had claimed Slate, and she delighted in flirting with half the warriors and pretending to consider other consorts on a regular basis, driving Slate mad with insecurity.  Steel, another consort about Stone's age, had a perpetually bad-tempered queen who frankly didn't seem to like him much; Stone thought the feeling might be mutual.  And they all tried not to notice the haunted look on poor Cimmerian's face after one of Diamond's visits, the handprint-shaped bruises around his wrists...  Stone sighed.  No.  As Cloud had intimated, there were worse things than being alone.

        But not many.

        So Stone filled his days with the laughter of children and tales of the past, because both were better than silence.

***

        One of the consort toddlers, little Ink, had somehow managed to climb the steps leading out of the nurseries.  Since Unity and the other teachers were busy -- several of the baby queens, on realizing Ink was gone, were fomenting open rebellion among the clutches, trying to get a mob together to go look for him -- Stone soothed the little queens by telling them he would find the boy.

        The child's trail was easy enough to follow by scent, though privately Stone marveled when the trail led up two full flights of stairs, well into the upper mentor floors.  Ink was going to be a handful, he guessed; baby consorts were not usually so adventurous.  Another one like me, he mused wryly -- but at least Ink was pretty and perfect.  Perhaps he'd be lucky enough to find a queen who permitted him to roam a bit.

        But then Ink's scent went cold.  Startled, Stone wandered a while, trying to pick it up again, to no avail.  He was on the brink of bothering Land to ask him to augur for the boy when he realized he did recognize a new scent that had appeared around the place Ink's trail vanished.  A queen's scent, familiar because it was still fresh on the consort's level from her visits.  Azure.

        She couldn't, Stone thought, in slowly dawning horror.  Ink couldn't even fly yet...  But then, Cloud had said they did things differently in Fire Onyx.

        Not that damned different, he decided, shifting and flexing his claws in anger.  Not if I have anything to say about it.

        He took to the air, circling the pyramid and trying to catch a whiff of Azure's scent again.  He found it on the queens' level, which as an untaken consort he had no right to invade.  But in the defense of a child, Stone was more than willing to risk exile.

        He landed on the level openly, not bothering to try and conceal his presence, and not bothering to be quiet.  It was the middle of the day; few of the queens would be around.  The better to conceal a consort-kidnapping, perhaps.  "Ink!  Where are you?"  No answer.  "Ink!"

        "Quiet," snapped a gravelly female voice behind him.  Startled, Stone whipped around, bristling all his spines and crouching to fight.  But Azure, who stood there with one hand on her hip and the other hand holding Ink -- dead asleep -- tucked against her shoulder, merely lifted an eyebrow at his stance.  "I just got him to sleep.  If you wake him up again, we'll never hear the end of it."

        Thrown, Stone took a step back.  Which helped him realize that Azure was -- big.  A head taller than him in her Arbora form, which meant she was probably even bigger when shifted.  At least two decades older than him, maybe three.  But Stone made himself step forward again, belligerently, even as his spines itched to flatten in submission.  "Let him go."

        "What, to fall on the floor?"  Azure looked him up and down.  "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you came up here with the wrong idea."

        At this, Stone faltered again, his spines wilting at last.  The wrong idea... yeah.  Swallowing uneasily, Stone tried to preserve what he could of his dignity.  "I... you...  What are you doing with him?"

        Lazily, Azure flicked her tail back and forth.  "I'm holding him while he takes a nap.  He got lost and went into hysterics.  Made more sense to bring him somewhere quiet than it did to take him down to the nurseries, where he might have upset all the other children.  But since you're here..."  She held the sleeping child forward, waiting.  Reflexively Stone stepped forward to take him.  Ink settled against his shoulder bonelessly, hooking his claws into Stone's collar flanges and murmuring something in a babyish lisp.

        "Yours?" she asked.  Then Stone saw her nostrils twitch.  "Oh, guess not."

        Stung, Stone tried not to bristle again.  "He could be mine.  Just because I'm not taken by a queen doesn't mean I can't be a father."

        "True."  Azure put a hand on her hip, regarding him with the same lazy, wry look.  "I suppose an upset father might be daft enough to think I'd steal an unfledged child."

        Stone's face grew hot.  "...Sorry," he muttered, and decided to go before he could make a bigger fool of himself.  But he stopped when Azure laughed.

        "You actually came up here intending to fight me," she said, showing more teeth than she strictly needed to.

        Belatedly, Stone shifted back to groundling to indicate that he didn't really want to fight.  "I said I was sorry."

        "No, no, don't be."  She let out another of those laughs -- not as loud, just as wicked -- and then looked him up and down again now that he'd changed.  "I didn't think any of the consorts in this place had enough gumption for that.  Except Cloud -- but I prefer consorts who'll punch you in the face, not the kind who'll wait 'til you turn then rip out your spine."  She grimaced.  "Indigo's brave as hell to have taken that one."

        "Cloud's had reason to learn, er, decisiveness," Stone said, feeling compelled to defend his First Consort.

        "And you haven't?"

        Surprised and flustered, Stone lowered his gaze, ashamed.  Of course he hadn't.  No one had offered him any choices to make.  "Not really."

        "Interesting."  Giving him a final look-over, Azure shook her head and turned away.  "Well, go on, then.  I'm sure the other consorts will tell you how brave you've been."

        "Not damned likely," Stone muttered, but he headed for the ledge anyway.  Once there, however, he stopped, belatedly realizing that he'd probably embarrassed himself in front of one of the strongest queens in the court.  It was clear Azure would not stay long at the bottom of whatever byzantine hierarchy the queens kept among themselves.  It would be wise to stay on her good side.  "Er, and thank you.  For, uh, for -- you know."  Finding Ink.  Laughing, instead of taking offense, at Stone's blunder.

        Azure had turned to head up a short flight of steps into a deeper part of the level, probably returning to her bower.  She paused at his voice, glancing back at him; her expression turned thoughtful.  "You're welcome.  But if you're feeling thankful..."  She looked him up and down again, her gaze openly lascivious this time, and Stone stiffened as he took her meaning.  "I'm sure we could keep things quiet enough not to wake the little one."

        "No, thanks," he snapped.  "I'm not that damned grateful."

        Azure grinned.  "Well.  Such a pretty consort, I had to try."  Waving at him casually, she vanished into the depths of the level.

        Stone glided back down to the nurseries and delivered Ink -- who didn't wake once -- back to his anxious clutchmates and relieved teachers.  Then, with nothing better to do, he returned to his own bower on the consorts' level, where he lay awake for some time, listening to the evening songs of the court.

        She had called him pretty. 

        Tried to get in his pants, in fact.  No queen had ever bothered, before.

        She hadn't mentioned his eye at all.

        But she will.  You know she will.  They always do.

        Furious with himself, Stone rolled onto his belly and told himself to go to sleep.

***

        Consorts were supposed to be more refined than other Aeriat.  As far as Stone was concerned, this was bunk -- Arbora were the creative ones, and anything an Aeriat did was merely a paltry imitation of Arbora work.  Still, he had been raised as gently as any proper consort, and encouraged to pursue some art in order to express himself.  Most consorts went with something simple:  tea service or song.  Stone, being Stone, had chosen flying.

        It was, he had decided, the only true art that the Aeriat possessed.  But it took more than wings to be truly graceful and economical in the air.  So each morning at dawn, Stone took to the sky.  He warmed up carefully first, flying a basic stretching circuit for an hour or so -- which he did in slow boring loops above the colony pyramid, now that he was no longer permitted to travel away.  Then he performed strengthening exercises, flying up as high as he could until the air grew thin and his teeth ached, before diving for the pyramid's topmost point.  To perfect his accuracy and agility, he would swerve off at the last moment, trying to veer close enough that he could touch the ancient stones if he wanted (if he wanted to scrape all the scales off his skin).  Then, warmup completed, he would begin diving and performing carefully-choreographed loops and wheels, manipulating the air with his wings as deftly as the Arbora manipulated metal and cloth and paint.  It was exhilarating, better than sex, and it was probably the only thing that kept him sane.

        But as he finished his warmup with a dive one bright winter morning, streaking down so fast that even his prey-sight blurred into white lines and light, he was shocked to realize at the last instant that someone was sitting atop the pyramid.

        He had a split second to choose his next action.  There was no question of braking his descent, not at this speed.  If he tried, he would smear himself and the idiot in front of him into a thin paste over the top of the pyramid.  And if he veered off sharply enough to guarantee no collision, he would lose control, perhaps falling into a spin that would kill him.  But if he kept the veer-off more shallow --

        He could kill them both.  It wouldn't even take a direct collision; at this speed, even a glancing blow would be devastating.  Or, if he maintained control, they would both survive.

        Stone snapped in his wings, angling them precisely. The wind gusted west; the morning air was dry, providing no resistance; his clothes were loose, providing some.  Just a shift in his weight... He clapped his hands together flat and angled them to the right for added fine control... Just the slightest twist of his spine...

        The pyramid flashed past his nose, so close that he could have felt his breath bounce off it if he hadn't been streaking at the speed of wind itself.

        Then he was past the pyramid's tip, leveling off, the force of the dive dissippating --  He had done it.

        The first feeling that flooded through Stone was relief.  The second was exhilaration.  That was the best dive he had ever done.

        The third was utter, utter fury.

        Shouting in rage, Stone arced upward and back to the pyramid tip, unsheathing his claws and planning not just murder, but dismemberment.  But his quarry wasn't there.  Snarling in thwarted fury, he looked around, sure that he was being targeted -- yes.  Above.

        Something came down at him.  No you don't, you bastard.  He snap-rolled aside, whipping out a hand to score a strike in passing.  His claws caught on scales, dug through flesh --

        -- and then a blow came down like a falling mountain-tree on his chest.  Unable to breathe -- his chest felt like it had been staved in -- Stone struggled to regain aerial control, but the strike had knocked him onto his back.  He was falling, helpless.

        Then something caught him, and he had an instant to think, Well, at least I died fighting, before darkness claimed him.

***

        Stone woke in less pain than he should have, for a dead man.

        His chest still hurt, but this was a dull ache, like that of a healing bruise.  And the rest of him was surprisingly comfortable, warm and featherlight, as if he floating amid soft clouds.  That made no sense, because he knew clouds weren't soft.

        He opened his eyes, sat up, and found that he was in his own bower, in his own hanging bed.  But the blankets that surrounded him were not the ragged ones Obsidian's cronies had left him.  He hadn't gotten around to asking the Arbora for more -- the damaged blankets were still warm, and it wasn't as though anyone else had to look at them.  He didn't like asking the Arbora for new things, anyway, except when he had to.  They never seemed to mind, but Stone could never escape the fear that one day they would tell him he didn't deserve anything new, because he was just a useless drain on the court.

        But now Stone lay on pure luxury:  the thick, perfectly-cured white fur of some beast he didn't recognize, but which had clearly been enormous.  And covering him was yet more softness:  a sheet of beautifully-dyed, deep red watered silk.

        "Feeling better?"

        Jumping -- if he hadn't been half-asleep he would've shifted -- Stone turned to see Azure in the doorway, leaning casually against it with her arms folded.  Beyond her, to Stone's great chagrin, he glimpsed several of his fellow consorts watching avidly through the fronds of a giant palm.  Bastards.

        Perhaps because of that, he spoke more sharply than he should have.  "What are you doing here?"

        "Nice to see you, too."  Azure sauntered forward, and abruptly Stone became aware of how vulnerable he was, in bed, still weak from whatever had hit him, and -- he lifted the sheet and cursed.  He was naked.  Azure's grin widened as she leaned on the edge of the bed-basket.  "Very nice to see you again, pretty boy.  I understand your name is Stone."

        "What --  How dare you -- "  He could only splutter, his face hot, clutching the red silk sheet to his chest.

        "A necessity."  Though her eyes roved his body beneath the sheet in a way that suggested she'd found the labor less than onerous.  "I caught you after you passed out and shifted to groundling, and my claws tore your clothes -- sorry -- so I took the liberty of asking one of the Arbora to repair them.  Don't worry, I didn't do anything but look."

        For a moment he hated her.  "That was you, then.  On top of the pyramid.  You nearly killed us both!"

        "No, you nearly killed us both.  But fortunately you're a better flyer than you are a fighter."  She nodded toward the middle of his chest, where finally Stone noticed the enormous purpled bruise there.  Shaped like her hand, where she'd slapped him out of the air.  "I tried not to hit you too hard."

        Still furious, Stone let a growl enter his voice.  "What's wrong with you?  Don't you have better things to do?  Go pick on one of them."  He jerked his head beyond her, at the rest of the consort's level and their ill-concealed audience.  "They'd be happy for it."

        Azure shook her head.  "You were the one who did this."  And she turned, lifting one arm to reveal a score of four parallel lines raking her flank.  They were mostly healed already, and probably wouldn't even scar, but it was clear that at some point they had been deep enough to give her trouble.  Stone's anger froze out of existence; beyond his chamber, he heard several gasps as the other consorts realized what she meant.  He'd attacked a queen.  Consorts did not fight queens.  It was only a matter of time 'til Indigo threw him out, now.

        But then Azure lowered her arm and grinned, disrupting Stone's panicked thoughts.  "No one's scored a hit on me in years.  Not bad, pretty boy.  Not bad."  She leaned closer.  "Let me just make sure I didn't do you any real damage."

        A bit stupidly, Stone said, "I didn't mean to --  You didn't -- What?"  Then he realized -- sluggishly, his brain not quite keeping up with his eyes -- that she was in the bed, kneeling on it, planting one hand beside his hip as if to prevent him from rolling away.  What?  And now she was brushing her cheek against his, curling around him, neatly trapping him between her cheek and that planted hand, so that all he could do was either hold stiff or turn away and submit.  He wanted to hold stiff, thought vaguely that he should have, but the truth was that she smelled so good and the caress of her scales was so nice against his groundling skin that he turned, offering her his neck.  She smiled against his skin -- he felt that, her lips -- and drew her fingertips up his spine in a way that made his thoughts dissolve and his whole body ache to be touched elsewhere.  Then she nipped him, just once, at the nape of his hair.

        Stone cried out, every muscle in his body going hot and weak.  He clutched at her rock-hard arm because it was the only thing that kept him sitting up, and at once she wrapped that arm around him, dragging him closer.

        "Nice responsiveness," she purred in his ear, breathing the scent of his hair.  "And you smell wonderful.  You're out of Night's line?"

        Stone couldn't think.  Couldn't form words.  It took two tries for him to lick his lips; two more tries to understand her question.  "I, I, yes."

        "Not a relative, then.  I'm out of Horizon's line -- a cousin of Indigo."  She licked where she'd bitten and he tried to curl up to her, blatantly offering himself.  He would have done anything for her in that instant.  "But this isn't exactly fair, I'm thinking."  With a reluctant sigh, Azure released him and climbed out of the bed.

        Stone half-lunged after her, then made himself stop, trembling and ashamed.  But Azure ran her sheathed claws through his hair, and he looked up to see her smile.

        "Consider those an apology," she said, nodding toward the blankets.  "When I saw you flying, I couldn't help teasing you a little.  Didn't mean to give you such a scare.  But that was some flying you did -- especially after the dive.  Even if you were trying to kill me in the process."  She turned to go, her tail curling into a question mark behind her.  Stone found himself tracking that tail, his body coiling to pounce on it, before she flicked it and he realized she was teasing him.

        "Sleep well tonight."  Then she walked out, that curling tail flicking farewell in her wake.

        Stone sat where he was for a long while, feeling rather stunned.  Eventually Cloud sauntered in -- after glaring away the other consorts still hovering outside -- and sat down on the edge of Stone's bed.  He tossed his hair back and ran a hand over the new bedding, sighing in pure pleasure.  "What a lovely courting-gift."

        Stone jerked out of his stupor.  "What?"  He blinked.  "It's not a courting-gift.  She said it was an apology."

        "Queens say many things.  It's what they do that you have to pay attention to."  Cloud lifted the edge of the fur, gazing closely at its pile.  The animal that had first worn the pelt must've been in the prime of its life.  He thought it might be belly-fur. "A queen doesn't give such beautiful things to a consort just to thank him."

        And a queen did not edge as close to sex as Azure had done unless she was genuinely interested.  His neck still tingled from her bite, and other parts of him ached for lack of her touch.  Trying to divert his mind from this, Stone stroked the red blanket.  Yes, it was real.  But not a courting-gift.  It couldn't be.

        Couldn't be.

***

        He took the blankets with him when he went back to stay with the mentors.  He rationalized this by telling himself that it was necessary to follow Indigo's orders:  if Obsidian or the others dared to vandalize or steal them, Stone would have to kill them.  It was for the good of the court.

        "This week's project is research," Land told him when he reported for duty along with the other mentors.  "The queens are preparing an embassy to a nearby groundling city, with whom they're hoping to strike up a trading relationship.  Seven different races live there; we need to find any relevant lore we have about them all."  He handed out small scraps of hide, then, on each of which had been written the name of one of the seven species.  But Stone's scrap, when he received it, was blank.

        "You have a special task," Land said gravely, when Stone looked at him in puzzlement.  "We don't know this land well yet, which puts us at a disadvantage in negotiations.  What if we try to barter for some resource, and pay dearly for it, only to realize it's plentiful and we could've gathered it on our own?  Your job is to scout the terrain, figuratively speaking."

        "Give me a challenge, why don't you," Stone muttered, to which Land replied only with a smile.

        So he set to work.  It was fortunate that an earlier queen and consort pair -- his own ancestors, Glass and her consort Night -- had visited the region during Glass' time as sister queen, scouting for potential new territories.  They had encountered the groundling city, which was called Kritika, and explored the area for a time.  "Primary crops are a grain called sprice, and filter snails," he reported to Land, when they called a halt a few hours later to exchange knowledge.  "Both grow well in the marshlands south of the city.  But because of the marshland, they have trouble keeping herds of meat-animals -- other than the snails, that is.  Big problems with marsh parasites."

        "Ugh, I hate parasites," said Silk, one of the younger mentors.

        "I hate snails," said Satin, one of her clutchmates, grimacing in distaste.

        "So meat would be an obvious thing they would value," said Land, contemplative.  "That's easy, though we'd only be able to offer wild game; we've never done well at domesticating herds, since they don't like our scent.  But perhaps they'd be interested in new water-loving crops,too; we've got a few varieties of root that do well in muddy soil.  They might be willing to share this sprice with us, in turn." 

        Stone nodded, then told Land everything else he'd found out:  that the groundlings had a number of fungal-based medicines and chemicals that had interested the mentors of the time; that they had no knowledge of Fell, and no defenses prepared should an attack come; and that one of the races, the Kedup, had color patterning very similar to that of queens -- nearly provoking Night into a challenge when the Kedup town leader got a little too forward in admiring Glass' beauty.

        Land laughed aloud at this, then clapped Stone on the shoulder.  "Good work.  Perhaps we'll make an honorary mentor out of you yet."

        "Not if Azure has anything to say about that," said Suede, another clutchmate of Silk and Satin; the three of them threw sly grins at each other while the other mentors snickered.

        Stone felt his face grow hot, and Land shook his head at them all, smiling.  "Sometimes I'm glad to be too old for this sort of foolishness.  Back to work, all of you."

        Later that evening, as Stone sat on the mentors' level ledge again listening to the court's song, he heard a queen's alto thread through the other voices, deep and slow.  He'd heard queens sing all his life; one more should have meant nothing to him.  But his skin prickled and his spine stiffened and the back of his neck tingled anyway, because he could tell this voice's owner was Azure.  He should not have cared, but he did.

        He went to bed that night on the blankets she had given him.  And if he tossed and turned more than usual, pressing his face into the fading patches of her scent and helpless to get the lilt of her song out of his mind, it was not because he wanted her.  No, no.  It was just too warm on the mentors' level, that was all.

***

        Word of a courtwide gathering spread through Indigo Cloud like wind.  Stone went down to the main court along with the mentors, though he knew he was expected to stand with the other consorts.  He could see better among Arbora anyway, and the mentors were permitted a closer place to stand than the Aeriat.  Stone was nothing if not practical.

        Indigo and her sister queens had gathered at the court's center, along with Cloud, Land and the other leaders of the Arbora, the three unmated adult queens -- Stone's belly clenched at the sight of Azure among these -- and Granite, one of Indigo's line-grandfathers.  Granite was the only one sitting, perhaps because his mind had begun to wander in the past few turns and he didn't remember that he was supposed to stand, or perhaps just because he was a line-grandfather and that was his prerogative.  One of the younger mentors hovered near him, ready to fetch food or drink whenever he needed it.

        "We'll need to decide now who travels to Kritika," Indigo declared, putting her hands on her hips.  As she did so, her wings opened a little; five tiny shapes clung to her body like jewelry, one of them squealing and skittering out of sight at the sudden exposure to light.  There was an amused murmur from the watching crowd; it was hard to tell at this age, but the shy one was probably a consort.  The chuckles stopped when Cloud slid a sideways glance at the crowd, his gaze picking out the loudest few; he smiled at each in a way that promised gentle, graceful, dire retribution.  Stone saw a few of Cloud's marked targets hunch or swallow; a few even ducked into the crowd, doubtless hoping to slink away and hide somewhere.  Indigo winced and put a hand on her consort's shoulder, pulling him back against her.  Only at this did Cloud ease back on his threat display.  A little.

        "You can't go," he said to her, with rather more belligerence than was usual for him.  Indigo uttered a long-suffering sigh, though she nodded.

        "Indeed I can't, and I shouldn't; we want the groundlings to know they're important to us, but not the be-all and end-all of our existence.  So it will have to be one of you."  She turned to the five sister-queens, her tail flicking with mild interest.  "Have you decided which one?"

        Gold, seniormost of the sisters and Indigo's current chosen heir, glanced at the other sisters and shrugged.  "None of us is particularly enamored of the idea, really.  Groundling cities are so... smelly."  Her upper lip curled.

        "True," Indigo said with a grimace of agreement.  "But we need the kind of trade groundlings can provide, since there are so few other Raksuran colonies in this region.  I can't claim it's the sort of mission that will make a queen's reputation, but it's something that needs to be done."

        "I'll do it."  And Stone inhaled along with the rest of the onlookers as Azure stepped forward.  It was clear that only her unmated status kept her from standing among the sister queens.  Half the court leaned toward her, responding to her scent and dominance in much the way they would have for Indigo, though Azure was turns younger.  Gold noticed at once and gave Azure a narrow-eyed look, though she managed not to bristle or lash her tail.  All Aeriat tried to stay on their best behavior with Arbora around.

        Indigo turned to regard Azure mildly, though Stone saw her spines twitch.  Cloud's eyes fixed on her, his whole body still and ready to react if she made any move of threat.  Younger or not, Azure was nearly as big as Indigo, and she moved with the easy confidence of a queen who'd been tested in battle. 

        "Unmated queens don't participate in embassies," Indigo said, her voice neutral.

        Azure looked at Indigo as if she was mad.  "Because unmated queens are unstable.  But what am I going to do, steal some groundling boy?  None of you wants to go, I have experience with embassies, and it's not as though I have anything better to do.  I'm the only one it makes sense to send."

        Indigo's hand flexed as though she was considering sheathing her claws in Azure's face.  But after a long, pent moment -- during which most of the onlookers probably held their breath -- she said, "Your suggestion has merit."  She turned to the other leaders and Granite.  "Your thoughts?"

        Mist looked thoughtful.  "These groundlings have had contact with us before, but I doubt they understand us all that well.  They'll be impressed if we send a queen, any queen."  She paused then, taking in Azure's height and fire-red coloring. "I imagine it will help that you actually are rather impressive, Azure."  Azure grinned toothily, her tail curling in pleasure.

        "I'm hungry," said Granite, too loudly.  His Arbora attendant quickly offered him a bowl of fruit; everyone else sighed and ignored him, as politely as possible.

        Sea nodded agreement with Mist, and Land shrugged.  "We'll augur for the success of the journey, but as you said, Indigo, it's rather straightforward.  Not nearly as complex an endeavor as visiting another court."

        Indigo's tail flicked, rather more forcefully than absolutely necessary.  "Dawn?"

        Dawn -- the warriors' chief and one of Indigo's staunchest supporters -- grimaced.  "I don't disagree," she said slowly, her eyes on Indigo's not-quite-lashing tail.  "But even a queen shouldn't go alone.  What if something should happen?  Who will report back?"

        "Agreed," said Azure before Indigo could, earning a cold look from Indigo.  "But warriors will slow me down."

        "Another queen, then?"  Indigo cocked her head.  "The whole reason we're sending you is because no one else wants to go."  She looked at Alabaster and Mica, the two young unmated queens who stood behind Azure; both of them looked abruptly uncomfortable.

        "No, they'd just get in my way."  Mica hissed at Azure's back; Azure ignored this.  "But if you're so keen to have me accompanied, send a consort.  A mature one should be fast enough."

        Every muscle in Stone's body went taut.

        "Very well."  Indigo flicked a spine.  "Obsidian."

        Azure looked blank as Stone's heart sank.  "So many damn consorts here.  Which one's he?"

        There were murmurs on the Aeriat ledge, and after a moment Obsidian stepped forward.  Stone grimaced; Obsidian seemed to be trying to project competence and strength, but he really just looked flustered and overexcited.  Azure regarded him for a long moment, her expression unreadable.  "You," she said, and Obsidian jumped.  "When was the last time you went on a long-distance flight?"

        Obsidian frowned.  "I, I haven't."  Then he flinched as Azure shook her head and turned away.

        "That won't do," she said to Indigo.  "You coddle your consorts here.  They sit around on their asses all day eating rich foods they didn't hunt, learning nothing about the world beyond their bowers.  I want someone who won't slow me down."

        Step forward, Stone told himself.  Indigo would be displeased -- but when wasn't she displeased with him?  If he volunteered, she would say no just on principle.  But at least Azure would see him step forward, and then, perhaps, maybe...

        "Oh, stop this," Cloud snapped suddenly.  His pupils were huge with agitation, his scent reeking threat, and he had at some point moved between Indigo and the bulk of the assembled court as if to guard his children from their stares.  "I can't abide queens playing games.  Stone!"

        The gathering hall fell utterly silent.  Azure looked at Cloud as though he'd grown a second head.  Even Indigo stared down at her consort, her expression a little alarmed.  Then they all turned to stare at Stone.  Who stood where he was, frozen.

        "Go on!" Silk whispered, loud enough that everyone heard her.  But still Stone could not make himself move.  Not until Azure, recovering faster, shook her head and let loose one of those low, evil chuckles of hers.  Then she stalked forward, stopping at the edge of the crowd with one hand on her hip.

        "The First Consort is right," she said.  "I was planning to build up to it; had the whole argument all set up, nice and dramatic.  But let's just cut to the chase.  Will you come, Stone?"

        One of the mentors shoved him in the small of the back.  Stone stumbled forward, then recovered and walked the last few steps on his own, stopping just out of Azure's arms' reach.  "I'll go," he heard himself say, as if from a long distance.  Then sense reasserted itself, and he tore his eyes from Azure to focus on Indigo, who was scowling at both of them.  "If you agree, Indigo."

        It was the right thing to do.  Indigo blinked twice.  He could see that she wanted to refuse, but after a moment, she settled her spines and sighed in exasperation.  "I'm beginning to wonder if I should let either of you breed," she snapped.  "It can't be a good thing for Indigo Cloud.  But fine, then.  Go, tomorrow at first light."

***

        They set out the next morning, Azure taking the lead.  Stone kept up with her easily, even though he'd flown nothing but training circuits for weeks; it felt good, really.  Like a luxurious stretch after sitting too long in a cramped position.  Like being alive again.  Azure kept laughing at him, because Stone turned frequent loops in the air, reveling in the taste of freedom.  They made good progress despite his antics.

        Kritika was not far as queens and consorts flew, but far enough that the sun was touching the horizon before they finally came in sight of it.  They could have pushed on, reached the city before nightfall, but Azure tipped her wings to indicate that she wanted to camp for the night.  Stone could not disagree with this.  Groundlings weren't that much of a threat, but he wouldn't have wanted to approach them while tired, and the groundlings probably wouldn't have appreciated an embassy that arrived at the end of the day rather than the beginning.  Bad enough Raksuran consorts looked like Fell to them -- but at least in the company of a queen who was not remotely Fell-like, mistaken identity was less likely.

        After a few moments' searching, Azure lit on the edge of what appeared to be a cave set into a sheer cliff-face.  Stone circled until she signalled that it was safe, and then went in with her to explore.  The cave was shallow and showed little sign of ever having been used for habitation, except by a few species of birds and bugs.  They evicted the old, disintegrating nests, and then Stone went and fetched some green deadfall he'd spotted earlier, which they used to make a smoky fire.  That would drive out the worst of the insects, then by the time the resins burned off and the smoke eased back, they could rest.  Better still, not far below on the ground, there was a small, brisk-moving stream.  Shelter and water and warmth taken care of.

        While Stone did this, Azure disappeared for awhile, then returned with a leggy ground-bird that Stone thought was called a vargit.  It was less than ideal; despite the season, the bird didn't appear to be particularly fattened.  Afterwards they flew down to the stream to rinse off the blood and dump the remains of the carcass, then back up to the cave to settle in beside the now-tolerable fire.  "Had to go pretty far for it," Azure said, frowning while she cleaned each of her long claws, meticulously.  "I know they're supposed to have problems with parasites here, but there doesn't seem to be much healthy game in this area at all, even well away from the swamps.  Strange."

        Stone didn't complain, admiring her claws.  They were half again as long as his, and a marvelous deep burgundy in color.  "Groundling cities tend to do that," he said, looking away quickly when she glanced at him, lest she catch him mooning.  "I read about this in the mentors' library.  If a large number of people aren't careful, they pollute the water and overtax the soil and forests nearby.  The local game goes elsewhere, predators starve and die off, and there are surges of pests and disease that would otherwise never happen.  The people have no choice but to move away, once the situation becomes untenable."

        "Maybe that's what's going on here," Azure said, frowning; she stood up and gazed out over the landscape, putting one hand on her hip.  "I made a pass near the city while I was hunting, and it was... quiet.  Unusually quiet, for a groundling city.  And it didn't smell right.  Groundling cities stink.  You can tell for miles when one's nearby.  This one didn't."  He heard rather than saw her scowl.  "Indigo should've sent scouts before we came out here.  Just because a groundling city was fine five generations ago doesn't mean it still is."

        Stone squinted toward the distant city.  He couldn't smell or hear anything from so far, but he had to admit, something about the city made him uneasy, too.  "Should we still go?  Or turn around?"

        "What, and go back to your Indigo empty-handed, without even trying?  Ha."  Azure lashed her tail once, but it was mild, so Stone relaxed.

        "Technically speaking," Stone said, greatly daring, "she's your Indigo, too.  Or are you planning to challenge her?"  She and Indigo were close enough in size that it was hard to guess which queen would win.  The battle was sure to be brutal, regardless.  The Arbora would not respond well to a queen who won her position through violence, but it had happened before.

        At this, Azure looked surprised.  "Me?  Reigning queen?"  She sighed, shaking her great mane of spines and frills as she gazed out over the rolling plains.  "I don't think so.  Not for an established colony like yours, anyway."

        "Why not?"

        "Too much responsibility.  Not enough fun."  She looked back at Stone over her shoulder and grinned.  "A reigning queen couldn't go on a trip like this, for example."

        Stone refrained from pointing out that Indigo hadn't particularly wanted to go.  "You like this?  Traveling?"

        "Traveling, meeting different people, seeing different places.  I suppose I'm the sort of queen who might've struck out one day, with a consort or two and warriors and Arbora, to try and start up a new colony in some distant hinterland.  If I'd started early enough, I suppose I could've done it."

        "Why didn't you?"

        She was silent for a moment, which surprised him.  When she finally spoke, he was more surprised at the serious note in her voice.  "I'd started planning for it, actually.  Had the consort, was gathering the warriors and Arbora."  When she turned back and saw Stone's horrified look -- he hadn't realized she already had a consort -- she shook her head and smiled.  "It all came apart, though.  What, you thought I volunteered to go join another court because everything went well for me at Fire Onyx?"

        Stone busied himself pulling out his travel-blanket, though strictly speaking he didn't need it yet as they weren't ready to sleep.  Trying not to sound as rabidly curious as he was, he said, "They told me your court had too many queens and sent the extras away."

        "I suppose that's technically true.  It's what Fire Onyx's reigning queen must be telling everyone, to save face.  The truth, though, is that all the colony's queens are leaving, except her."

        Stone frowned, too surprised to hide his interest anymore.  "What happened?  If you don't mind my asking."

        "I do mind.  But I'll tell you anyway."  With a sigh, Azure came over and crouched beside the fire, propping herself up with her tail as she shifted to Arbora form.  "A few turns ago at Fire Onyx, the reigning queen's consort died.  Some kind of lung disease; it was slow and terrible.  But she was young enough to want another consort.  You know we had a shortage at Fire Onyx.  I was one of the few queens who had one -- and he was, if I may say, quite lovely."

        Stone's mind leaped to the conclusion; he gaped at her.  "She stole a sister queen's consort?"

        "No.  He repudiated me first.  Then she took him."  The spade-tip of Azure's tail thwapped against the cave's stone floor, once.  "I imagine they discussed it in advance a few times."

        "Are you serious?" Stone could not imagine anyone giving up a queen like Azure -- not even for a supposedly better queen.  Hot fury washed through him and he growled, his voice dropping low enough despite groundling form that Azure gave him an impressed look.  "He was a fool."

        She smiled wryly at that.  "Well, technically speaking, I was the fool.  I was disgraced.  Even though I'd been the senior sister, after that everyone knew there was no way I would succeed her as heir.  A reigning queen doesn't treat her heir that way.  And since there was no way for me to get another consort, I was effectively demoted from sister queen to just another daughter of the court.  Half my warriors abandoned me at once; the rest left when they realized I didn't intend to fight her to get my consort back.  I lost everything."  She spread her hands.  "He at least got a higher-ranked queen out of it."

        "One who doesn't give a damn about him!"  Stone fought not to shift, so great was his anger.  "He's just a possession to her, probably just her way of putting a strong rival in her place..."  The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.  "And she'll never trust him, now.  She knows that if something better ever comes along, he'll drop her like a bad habit."

        "Yeah, well."  Azure looked nonchalant, but Stone thought she was pleased by his anger.  "It's worse than that, actually.  She did nothing wrong, strictly speaking; the way she took him was all proper and civilized, to the letter.  But none of the other sister queens will ever trust her again, lest she do the same thing to them.  The daughter queens were already talking about leaving because of the consort shortage, and after that whole episode none of them could be persuaded to stay.  There haven't been any infant queens born in the last few turns, so now the court has no heirs.  By the time I left, in fact, a good number of the Arbora were talking about leaving with one of the remaining sister queens and her consort and warriors, to start a new court.  Fire Onyx is doomed."  Azure shrugged.  "That's why I didn't bother to fight her, in the end.  She destroyed herself.  And he wasn't worth it."

        Stone glared across the cavern at the blood spot where they'd enjoyed their meal, imagining it was the remains of Azure's consort.  There was still too much of a growl in his voice when he changed the subject, but she politely ignored it.  "Indigo would never do that."

        Azure grunted affirmatively.  "That much I can see.  I've got a few bones to pick with your -- our -- queen, but it's clear she'd move the earth for Cloud, and he for her."  She sighed.  "Just wish I hadn't wasted twenty turns on that bastard."

        Stone started.  She had been with her idiot consort that long?  Half Stone's life.  How can I compete with --

        Sharply he reined in that thought.  He wasn't in the competition at all, let alone against the memory of her first consort.  He changed the subject, badly.  "So, um...  Did you have many clutches with him?"

        "None."  Stone frowned in surprise, and Azure shrugged.  "Never felt right.  There was always something going on, some instability in the colony -- none of us felt safe bringing children into that.  But I think, too, that on some level I realized he wasn't particularly devoted to me.  You need that, you know, to make good clutches.  The babies come out healthier when a queen and consort really care about each other."

        I would give you the finest clutches in the Three Worlds, Stone thought, and despaired.

        He wanted Azure.  He could no longer deny it.  But she was so strong, so experienced, and he was so... defective.  Yet Land's admonishment came on the heels of that thought.  If you're too busy feeling sorry for yourself, you might miss it.  His chance at happiness.

        He closed his eyes, wanting, fearing, and trembling with the force of both.  If she rejected him --

        He would be no worse off than he already was.  And at least then he would know.

        He didn't want to know.

        She deserves a consort with the guts to do more than waffle endlessly, he thought at last, annoyance resolving the quandry.

        "A-Azure," he said, and then he intended to say, I want to be yours.  Please.  But what he actually said was, "My bad eye.  I was born with it like this, you know."

        Azure stared at him.  "Yyyeah..." she said slowly, as if he'd just said that he had three bad eyes.  "And?"

        "Most queens -- " And Wind.  He tried again.  "Most people think it's something I'll pass on to any children I have."

        "Unlikely," Azure said, pausing to yawn.  "Probably just got injured in the womb.  If you survived that, it's a good thing.  Means you were born strong."

        Stone absorbed that in silence, a little flummoxed.

        "And anyway," Azure added, "so what if your kids inherit it?  Maybe they'll have to work a little harder, be a little braver than most.  Like you."  Stone blinked at this characterization of himself.  "Doesn't mean they don't deserve to exist.  Right?"

        Stone's heart clenched, and then his thoughts went horrifyingly blank. 

        There was no etiquette for consorts to proposition queens.  A consort who wanted a queen simply made himself available, and did not flee or resist when she claimed him.  But Stone was available, had been available to her for days, and she had not taken him.  He didn't understand it.  Even Indigo had clearly assumed Azure would use the trip to take sex from Stone, if not something more permanent.  Did that mean Azure didn't want him after all?  But the blankets --  And she did not seem to dislike him.  Yet he had been naked before her, helpless in her hands, and she had not taken him.  Here he sat, having placed himself in her care with no chaperone or third party to interrupt them, and she had not taken him.  What else could he do to signal his willingness?

        Be a little braver than most.  Right.

        "Azure.  I... I know, you're so..."  He was babbling.  Another breath.  Impatiently he ran a hand through his hair and tried again.  "You probably don't like consorts much, after your last one, but... but I... I want you to..."

        She was staring at him, her eyebrows gradually rising as she realized what he was babbling about.  Then she grinned and shifted from a sit to a crouch, blatantly gathering herself to pounce.  "Well, well.  Took you long enough to make up your mind.  I was starting to think I'd have to do something drastic."

        Stone's thoughts froze into panic.  What did that mean?  Did she want him or not?  "Wh-what?"  He was getting tired of saying that, lately.  Then suddenly she lunged, and he found himself lying on his back beneath her, thoroughly pinned by her hands and boxed in by her wings.

        "Wasn't sure you wanted me," she said, accompanying this explanation with a shrug.

        Stone stared up at her, incredulous despite his own racing pulse.  His dreams of late had all started this way.  "I never ran away."

        "Yeah, but that's a stupid way to get a consort, isn't it?  Grabbing the one that doesn't run?"  She made a sound of disgust.  "That's how I ended up with the last fool.  I figured you were the type to make things clear -- if you really were interested."  She bent and nudged his chin aside, then bit his throat gently.

        "I'm interested," he blurted into her mane.  "I'm really interested.  You can have sex with me all you want."  He babbled the words, feeling improper and wanton and giddy.  She wanted him to be clear, after all. "I'm really strong.  I can do whatever you want, all night.  Well, I might have to rest a little, but then I'll be good as new."

        Azure laughed, genuinely delighted.  "What, no negotiation?"  She licked her way along his collarbones, from one shoulder to the other; Stone whimpered.  "I've got jewels, more furs..."

        "Don't want any of that."  She smelled so good.  He buried his face in her mane and nibbled near the base of one of her spines.  She jerked in surprise and growled, but it was a good growl.  She smelled of lust and dominance and ripeness and heat. 

        But she kept talking, and belatedly it occurred to Stone that she must be uncertain about him.  "Just sex, then?  You don't want me to take you permanently, as my consort?"

        Of course he wanted that.  He wanted nothing else.  But after her terrible first consort, would she even want another?  He was too young for her, too defective, not beautiful and impeccably mannered like Cloud; he was not at all the sort of consort she deserved.  Did he dare hope for something so precious?

        Yes.  He dared.  But it would hurt, terribly, if she rejected him.  So all he could let himself hope for was the here and now.

        "I want you to take me permanently," he whispered.  He turned his face away, unable to look at her.  "Or however you want.  I -- I'll give you anything.  Anything.  One night or a hundred turns.  I just want you, Azure.  Please."

        Azure stopped, lifting her head.  He felt her gaze on his skin, like the firelight.

        "I hadn't planned to try again, you know," she said, very softly, abruptly serious. "Most of the consorts in Indigo Cloud are just like my old one:  spoiled, perfect on the surface, worse than useless in all the ways that really matter.  I had decided not to bother with a consort, rather than risk another bad one.  You, though..."  Her voice grew softer, almost a purr, and Stone's breath caught.  "You seem like the kind of consort who can be more than a trophy, or a servant, or just something to warm my bed.  You, I would be willing to take a chance on."  Her hands slid down his arms, over his torso.  It was all Stone could do not to melt into a great quivering puddle.  "Shall I take that chance, Stone?"

        Stone had to close his eyes.  He couldn't look at her, feel what her hands were doing, and still think.  "Yes."

        Her hands tugged off his shirt and tossed it aside before resuming their caresses, and her breath tickled his cheek.  "Are you sure?  I won't take it well, if you -- "

        He grabbed for her, clutching her shoulders and opening his eyes to glare into hers.  "I will never betray you," he said fiercely.  "And I'll kill anyone else who tries!"

        Azure's eyes widened.  Then she sat up, laughing long and loudly, but there was no wickedness in it this time.  Just smug possessiveness and genuine pleasure and a warmth that he had never, ever expected to hear.

        "Well, all right, then, pretty boy," she said, lashing her tail a little.  Her eyes gleamed, hungry. "Let's see if you can live up to all that big talk of yours."

        Stone could.

***

        At dawn, Stone lay tremblingly still while Azure held him down and set her teeth deep into the back of his neck, imprinting him with the scent that would declare him hers before all other queens.  Then he wept, overcome with exhaustion and relief and joy.  Azure licked away his tears, wrapped him tight in her arms and wings, and they slept awhile before finally proceeding to Kritika.

***

        But Kritika was dead.

        They realized it on the approach, at the point where they would've landed in order to walk in amid the usual traffic moving in and out of the city.  There was no traffic.  The road was littered with carts and the remains of draft- and riding-animals long turned to skeletons, the carts themselves sagging and faded by exposure to the elements; none of them moved.  So they flew on, and Stone's sense of foreboding grew as they actually crossed the city limits and glided over its wide, once-bustling avenues.  Kritika had been as much grown as built, half carved out of an enormous curling fungal forest.  Each "building", hundreds of paces high, was actually the long, thin spore-producing body of a single organism, or so Stone recalled reading in the mentors' library.  Dwellings and tunnels and stairways had been carved into each of these, with no apparent harm to the fungus.  But all of those dwellings, so far as Stone and Azure could see, were silent.

        They landed in an open square of the city, which had apparently been its marketplace once upon a time.  Now it was a graveyard.  Everywhere Stone looked, market booths lay abandoned or half-destroyed, whether by some catastrophe or the weather he could not tell.  But the bodies -- not animals this time but people -- were less ambiguous.  They were everywhere:  in and around the booths, draped along the stairways, all over the city. 

        "Plague?" Stone asked, grimacing.  If so, they would need to stay away from Indigo Cloud for a time, to be sure they did not carry it back to the colony.  (Then it occurred to him they could spend that time alone together, and the prospect of slow disease-ridden death did not seem so terrible.  He shook himself to focus on the moment.)

        "No, I don't think so."  Azure crouched beside one skeleton to get a closer look at it.  The groundling, who had a kind of plate-shaped bone at the front of her skull, had been dead for several weeks or months.  Her clothes were dry-rotted by rain and sun, the little flesh remaining on her bones dessicated, mummified.  Stone could tell she was female, though, because amid the nest of bones, a smaller skeleton lay curled between her ribcage and pelvis.  A child, never to be born.

        "This happened quickly," Azure said, staring down at the woman.  Her voice was flat, but her spines betrayed her agitation, quivering and half-erect.  "She didn't even have time to run.  And what's that?"  She pointed toward the woman's chest.  Where the cage of her ribs should have met -- covering the heart for most bipedal species -- there was a perfectly round hole, perhaps three fingers wide.  Stone looked around.  All of the skeletons he saw had such a hole, though not always in the chest.  Some had it lower in the ribs; some had no visible hole, but a divot in this or that limb.  One skeleton, draped over withered fruit at a nearby stand, had the hole atop its head.

        "We should go," Stone said.  He scented the air, trying to detect whatever had done this, but then sneezed; he could scent nothing but dust and old death.  Still, he felt as though he was being watched.  The back of his neck -- which had healed already from Azure's marking that morning -- prickled with it.

        "This city is only one day of queen's flight from the colony.  If it's a threat, we need to know."  But Azure plainly agreed with him on the bad feeling.  "Maybe we should observe this from the air, though."

        She opened her wings and to spring into the air -- and something leapt at her from behind.  Three things, all from different directions, small but devastatingly fast.  Stone blurted out a warning and reacted without thought, slashing one of the things out of the air.  He was not quick enough to catch the other two, however, which punched through each of Azure's wings with the force of shot arrows.

        She gasped in pain and fury, snapping her wings in and whirling to deal with the threat.  The creature Stone had slashed fell at their feet, squealing.  It was perhaps a pace long, beetle-like, though it had enough spiny, stubby legs that it was probably some flavor of arachnid.  The whole of its body was long and thin, aerodynamic from the sharp-looking proboscis at its front to the springy final set of legs at its rear.  And it was just wide enough in circumference to have created the holes that decorated the dead groundlings' skeletons.  Furious that it had tagged Azure, Stone crushed the creature to death with his foot.

        Before Stone could think, something skittered in front of them:  the two creatures that had pierced Azure's wings.  They sprang at her again, fast -- and died in pieces an instant later, as Azure snarled and slashed them out of the air.

        "Esju ticks," she said, her spines standing like a crown about her head.  "Damn it.  Must be a major infestation -- a swarm -- to have killed this whole city."

        "Your wings!"  She had folded them, but Stone could see blood on the ground.  There was a rustling chitter all around them; probably more of the creatures, drawn by the smell of her blood.  He saw movement on the rooftop of a nearby groundling house, several shapes skittering down a wall, more climbing out from beneath an overturned cart.  Lots more.  Dozens.  Hundreds.

        "Yeah."  Azure sighed, looking annoyed.  "They got me good.  Must be some kind of reflex for how they deal with flying prey: target the wings first, keep them on the ground.  They probably can't fly themselves."

        "I'll carry you -- "  Stone unfurled his own wings a heartbeat before remembering not to.  Two more ticks shot at him, but Azure slapped each out of the air before it could strike.  Stone quickly snapped his wings shut.

        "I'm too big for you to carry easily, even in my other form," Azure said, scowling; he gave her a sheepish look of apology.  "By the time you lifted off, your wings would have more holes than a coral sponge.  But if you take off while I stay on the ground, I can keep them off you."

        "Leave you?"  Stone threw a horrified glance at her, though not for long; something skittered beneath an overturned crate nearby, and he crouched facing that.  "No.  I won't."

        Azure hissed at him.  "Go and get help, Stone.  I can hold them off.  Maybe try to make my way out of town on foot.  If help comes fast enough, we'll both make it.  Understand?"

        She was right; if they both stayed, they would both die.  But it was a terrible risk.  Even a queen had to rest.  And even at Stone's top speed, it would take him a day to reach Indigo Cloud.  The whole night for a party of queens to return -- if they would come at his call, he realized, desperately.  If they were willing to listen to a defective consort.  If they didn't just decide to let their newest, most troublesome queen die.

        Indigo wouldn't do that.  Cloud wouldn't let her.  He had to believe that.  A healthy colony took care of its own.  Lashing his tail, Stone hissed, but obediently crouched.  "If you die, I'm going to be so pissed at you," he said.

        "If I die, I'll be plenty pissed at myself," Azure said, and he heard her smile.  "All that hard work you did giving me a clutch will go to waste.  So hurry your pretty ass up."

        Stone nearly stumbled.  A clutch!  But Azure growled, and another tick crawled out from behind a smaller frond of fungus, readying itself to spring.  He didn't have time for joy.

        "I'm going," Stone said, crouching again.

        Azure nodded, ready.  When Stone snapped out his wings and leapt, he sensed blurring movement from many directions -- but Azure blurred too, and nothing struck him.

        Then Stone was away, higher than any tick could leap, catching a southgoing air current and flying as if the whole world's future depended on his speed.  It did, because Azure was the only world that would ever matter to him again.

***

        Stone did not remember much of what had happened, when he finally woke from the healing sleep.

        He remembered pain.  Burning in his wings, in the muscles of his back, as he kept beating them without pause, pushing himself harder, faster, farther.  The ache of his one good eye as it teared up and dried out and teared up, over and over again.  The sting of his face as the cold high winds -- he'd gone higher than he usually flew, to gain the tailwind -- burned his skin.

        He remembered fear.  The thought of Azure, her great powerful body riddled with holes or sucked dry by filthy insects, drove him on when he yearned to stop and rest just for a moment.  Azure lying dead in some forsaken groundling graveyard, her brilliant scales marred by the deeper red of blood.  Azure's children, who should have been strong and beautiful like her, never born.  And himself:  alone again, forever.  These thoughts tormented Stone far more than the pain in his body. 

        When he crashed into Indigo Cloud's main gathering court, his wings went into instant cramping spasms, making him curl up in agony even as he blurted out words.  He did not remember quite what he'd said to the startled queens and Arbora who came to meet him.  Something along the lines of go, get to Kritika, go right now, esju swarm, go before Azure --

        And then there was a gap.  Later, the mentors told him he had passed out, and as his body shifted to groundling, the damage he'd done to his wings translated into torn muscles and hairline fractures from his thighs to his neck.  He was actually thinner, they had discovered upon getting his clothing off; he had burned his own flesh for fuel, and was half-poisoned by bodily wastes.  They had read in the histories that it was possible for an Aeriat to fly himself to death, but none of them had ever witnessed it in actual practice.  "You were," Land informed him wryly, "a fascinating living example of what not to do."

        But the arrival of a half-dead defective consort had galvanized the court, Silk told him, in a way that had never happened since the move to the northern lands.  The entire complement of adult Indigo Cloud queens, including Indigo herself, had set forth.  Along with all the adult consorts, excepting Cloud (who had wanted to come, Silk said, but he had been ordered to stay and guard their children by Indigo) and a few half-grown consorts who couldn't possibly have kept up.  And those came too, just with the dozens of warriors who followed behind.  A second wave of warriors brought soldiers of the Arbora who volunteered to be carried.  Even Obsidian had come.  All to save Azure.

        They had arrived to find her exhausted and wounded and ready to drop -- but surrounded by a wall of dead ticks a good five paces high.  She had killed hundreds of the creatures.  Thousands.

        "After that," Indigo said, as Stone marveled at the novelty of Indigo coming to visit him, "we pretty much just mopped up."  The consorts carried Azure away, while the queens covered their escape.  The first wave of warriors had brought bags of isin dust, used to fertilize the gardens, from the colony stores; the mentors had read it was toxic to esju ticks.  A few passes dusted the most infested parts of the city, and just to be thorough, the soldiers then set fire to several buildings on the outskirts of Kritika.  The fire would burn inward toward the city center, they hoped, and clean out any ticks that the powder hadn't killed.  Indigo added, "In a few years, maybe -- once the tick nymphs and eggs have died -- groundlings might be able to live in the region again.  In the meantime, the burnt city should serve as something of a warn-off."

        "We failed, though," Stone said, unhappily.  He tried again to sit up, as he should in the presence of the reigning queen.  Cloud, who had finally passed the "dangerously protective" phase of new-fatherhood, rolled eyes at his efforts from behind Indigo's wing.  "The court still needs new trading partners -- "

        "We'll find them," said Azure, firmly pushing him back down, and keeping him tucked against the curve of her larger body.  If there was some expectation that a sister queen would rise to greet her reigning queen, Stone thought, Azure had clearly decided to ignore it.  But Indigo didn't seem put out about the breach of etiquette.  Perhaps that was because they were in Azure's bower on the queens' level, where Azure had been keeping Stone in her basket bed since the mentors permitted him to leave their care.  He suspected he would not escape her care as easily.

        "Indeed," Indigo said, folding her arms.  A curious baby climbed out onto her forearm to peer at them, shifting as she entered the light.  Bright green scales with burgundy webbing:  a little queen.  Cloud smiled indulgently and extended a hand to her; she hopped onto him and then skittered up his arm and down into his shirt, making baby-squeaks to herself as she explored.

        That will be me, soon, Stone thought, giddily.

        "The warriors have already scouted a small groundling kingdom near the Yellow Sea a few days' flight from here.  A thriving one," Indigo added, at Azure's look.  "No bugs."

        "An auspicious sign," Azure drawled.  "And so kind of you to actually send scouts this time."

        Which made Indigo bristle, which made her other babies squeak in alarm, which made Cloud suggest with his usual perfect timing that perhaps he and Indigo could go put the children to bed, and which made them leave Stone and Azure alone, at last.

        "Are you sure it's all right to question Indigo?" Stone asked, as Azure sat up to make sure he had taken no harm from another queen's presence, somehow.  He did not resist as she inspected him and then tucked him under the soft fur blanket, even though he was more than warm enough.  "I mean, she barely tolerates it from Gold, and you -- "

        "It's fine," Azure said, settling once she'd satisfied herself as to his health and continued ability to father her children.  "Eat.  You're still too thin."  She shoved a piece of fruit at him, scowling until he took a bite.  While he chewed, she took a bite of her own, then swallowed and added, "I don't really want to be reigning queen, after all, and she knows it.  But a good advisor ought to be able to mouth off to her queen when she needs to."

        Stone was surprised, and pleased.  Queen's advisor was a highly-ranked position for a sister queen in any court -- equal to that of heir, though not in the line of succession.  "Not bad, new girl."  He grinned.

        Azure lifted an eyebrow at this, but allowed herself a smug look.  "Helps that I've got the bravest, craziest consort in the colony," she said.  "They're all afraid that if they don't keep me happy I'll unleash you on them, and who knows what havoc you'll wreak?  Consorts running wild, pregnant queens going on bug-hunts -- "

        "Raksura and Fell living together; mass hysteria!" Stone finished, snickering.  Then he fell silent, surprised and pleased, as Azure leaned down to nuzzle his hair.

        "You'll do," she said softly.  Stone closed his eyes and buried his face against her neck, lest she see how happy those words had made him.

***

        Women were indeed the bane of any consort's existence, Stone would later tell his children -- and their children, and their children's children, and one lonely, wild young foundling who might as well have been his get.  Women were unpredictable.  Dangerous.  Trouble, the whole lot of them.

        But a good woman was worth any hardship, any risk, Stone would always add.  After all, had he not given his life to the most magnificent queen who had ever been born?  And for the rest of that life, he would never regret doing so.  Not for one single day.