Read Online Edge of Worlds (The Books of the Raksura) by Martha Wells - Free Book Online Page B

least one other ship full of groundlings who know about this. And surely their people back at their home know where they’ve gone.”
    Everyone else was just clearly impatient to get past this and onto the real discussion. Which was exactly what Stone had wanted, Moon knew, even if he had had to take a swipe at Pearl to do it.
    “So let’s stop talking about it,” Jade said, with a brief glare at Stone. “I think I should meet with these groundlings. I was at the forerunner city, and I can tell them what I saw with my own eyes. Maybe that will convince them to be cautious, at least.” She rolled her spines to ease the tension in them. “And if you’re right and they do want to ask us to come with them . . . We’ll worry about it when it happens.”
    Pearl’s spines were beginning to ease back down, mostly because she didn’t like groundlings, so anything that kept her from having to talk to more of them was a relief for her. She said, grudgingly, “That’s a possibility.”
    Moon hesitated, but they had to talk about this, and he might as well get it started now. He said, “What about the Fell? The shared dream?”
    The room went silent. Pearl said, “The dream can’t mean these Fell. If they encounter a creature like the one in the other forerunner city, it will destroy them, like it did the others.”
    Moon wasn’t willing to bet anyone’s life on that. “If this is a forerunner city, and there is something waiting in it, it might give these Fell what it promised the others. Weapons to let them destroy groundling cities and eat wherever they want.” Moon was talking to Pearl but all his attention was on Jade. He couldn’t tell what her reaction was. She had her opaque diplomatic face on, which was almost as hard to read as Stone’s normal expression. “That may be what causes them to come here.”
    Heart stirred uneasily. Floret said, “We don’t know that they’ll come here. There’s been nothing in the augury. The dream . . . It might have been a warning for the courts still in the east.”
    “Some of them were our allies,” Chime put in. “We have to warn them.”
    “But we don’t like them anymore.” Stone’s ironic tone was like acid.
    “And the Fell would never come here,” Moon said, “because there’s nothing they’ve ever wanted from us.”
    Everyone heard the sarcasm in that.
    Pearl’s expression was withering. “I know what the risk is as well as you.”
    Moon just met her gaze. He knew she did, he just wanted her to say it aloud.
    Breaking the tension, Jade said, “Let me speak to the groundlings. Maybe they can tell us more about what they saw.”
    Balm added, “We don’t even know that this is a forerunner city yet. Maybe the Fell are mistaken, or it’s only a coincidence that they’re nearby.”
    Chime made a dubious noise and Balm elbowed him. Everyone else had recognized Jade and Balm’s joint effort to stop the discussion before it got into an area which would end with a lot of yelling and hissing and growling.
    Pearl stood and settled her wings. “Arrange the meeting with the groundlings for tomorrow. It’s too late to do it tonight. And do not let them know where the court is—have it somewhere else.”
    Jade flicked her spines in agreement. “I will.”
    Pearl stood and in one bound reached the passage back to the greeting hall, the displaced air from her wing flick almost overturning the tea cups. Floret nodded to Jade and shifted to hurry after her.
    Everyone except Stone let out a breath of relief.
    Delin said, “I am sorry to cause this dissension among you.”
    Moon told him, “It was going to happen sooner or later.”
    As Jade turned to Balm, Stone said, “I need to talk to you,” grabbed Moon’s arm, and dragged him upright.
    Moon followed him down a stairwell and through a twisting passage into someone’s bower. No one was there at the moment, but Raksura didn’t have strong feelings about privacy and Arbora and warriors slept in each