She killed several and ate the pregnant female first.

She grew a few eyes and many more ears before grabbing tight to a lingerblossom trunk, dangling, passing into a state that wasn’t sleep and never would be.

Her rest might have lasted a long while.

But words found her. These weren’t human words. Every species of monkey had its language, and Quest knew all of them. Sleepless, paranoid jasmine monkeys were talking about an airship. They didn’t name the vessel or any of the people onboard, but the animals counted the cables that moored the big dark gasbag in one place, and hungry enough to ache, the troop was plotting to walk across the cables, slipping inside that big open door at the bottom. There was food inside. They could smell feasts. But the main stink was unfamiliar and wrong, which was the only reason that they didn’t attack.

“What is that stinky shit?” monkeys asked monkeys.

Quest grew nostrils.

Dry dark night air rose into what passed for her face, and she drank huge amounts of air before catching the musky odor of coronas and their odd, alien blood.

Only a hunter-ship would carry that stink.

Only someone wanting to hide would bring an open-air vessel deep into this labyrinth of trees.

Diamond was a faint, half-born possibility, but Quest couldn’t dismiss this opportunity.

Should she rest or move?

Motion claimed her, fingers letting go of the bark, every fatigue and ache and tiny cancerous doubt left behind with the hiding place.

The galley was small and polished. Corona scales covered every tabletop, and the plates were bright white ovals cut from corona bone, and every utensil was quality steel decanted from the monsters’ blood. Breakfast was hot and it was cold, each kind of food filling its own platter set on the first table. But most of the crew had been called away for a critical meeting. Three children and the monkey shared that table. Karlan sat alone in the back. The cook remained on his feet. Orders had been delivered, and the man wasn’t shy about playing with the handgun in his apron pocket. The giant boy did some good yesterday, but he had a reputation for causing trouble. Stopping trouble was the cook’s responsibility, and for what seemed like a very long while, he had been nervously imagining the circumstances that would make him shoot the young fellow in a leg or the shoulder, or maybe through the heart.

Everybody was hungry, but only Good was eating. There were no windows in the galley, but they heard the rain beating against Bountiful and everybody felt the rising winds, the red breath of the day combing the tangled wilderness.

Elata sat at the end of the table. She was a thousand days older than yesterday. Diamond thought the girl looked like her mother, and he nearly said so. His mouth opened, and noticing his eyes, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

Seldom said, “Everything’s wrong.”

“I was talking to Diamond,” she said.

“I know,” Seldom said.

Seldom looked younger than yesterday. He looked smaller too, and he couldn’t stop crying.

“Stupid,” Elata said, picking up a bright fork.

“Who’s stupid?” Seldom asked, sniffing quietly.

“Me,” the girl said. “I keep thinking she’s waiting for me. My mother. She’s sitting at home, in her favorite chair, and she’s not happy.”

Nobody else talked.

“I didn’t come home. I must have run off. Or she’s angry about something else that I did or didn’t do. Somehow I’ve pissed her off, and that’s the only way that I can think about her. Cursing me.”

She paused, and Diamond stared at his plate.

“But there’s a weirder part,” she said. “Do you know what it is?”

The boys glanced at each other.

From across the room, Karlan said, “You want to go home and get yelled at.”

She nodded. “I do. But that’s not it.”

Diamond asked, “What’s weird?”

“My father is sitting there too,” she said. “And he’s been dead for most of my life, it seems.”

The rain spoke. Nothing else.

Then Elata sat up straighter, her features aging even more. She hadn’t cried this morning. Her face was dry and stiff as if carved from coral. Out from her clamped mouth came her tongue, wetting her fingertips, and then she picked up a jar full of sugar, pouring half of it onto the clean plate in front of her. With two fingers, Elata began pulling the glittery brown sugar into her mouth, three tastes managed before she said, “This got me in trouble, every time.”

The boys slowly dished food to their plates, and Diamond ate.

Karlan had claimed a platter of smoked amiables, and now he picked up the top slice. But he ate in nibbles, and slowly. His face looked carved, but it was different than Elata’s face. Diamond couldn’t decide if he saw strength or anger, or if something that he couldn’t name was running under the skin.

With a spoon, Seldom pushed a half-egg to the edge of his plate. He looked as if he was crying but his voice was steady. “I keep thinking this is yesterday,” he said. “It’s dawn and everything’s normal, everything’s starting again. But this time I know what is going to happen. This time I can do something about it.”

“What are you going to do?” Karlan asked, his tone was more curious than cross.

Seldom dropped his spoon. “I’ll tell Mommy and Papa.”

Karlan’s face didn’t change. “And they’ll explain to you that you’re an idiot, and Mom would tell you to go to school anyway.”

Diamond put a boiled half-egg into his mouth, tasting the yellow.

“No, I’d stop everything from happening,” Seldom said with conviction. “I’d call the Archon from our house and warn her, and Bits would be arrested, and the bombs above would be disarmed. Then I’d go to school like normal, and everything would be what it should be.”

“Except you’d be the hero,” said Karlan.

Seldom nodded, wishing for all of it.

“A hero who could see the future,” said his brother.

“I guess.”

“And what would the Archon do, after you saved the world?” Karlan had found enough reason to smile, and he took a big bite of meat, chewing as he spoke. “If you think she’s interested in that critter beside you, then what would she get out of a beast who sees tomorrow and maybe a long ways farther than that?”

Good was finished eating. Jumping down, he said, “Shit.”

Diamond pointed.

The monkey trotted past Karlan. The two exchanged glances, the human finding reasons for a long soft laugh.

Good laughed in his shrill way.

“Corona-boy,” Karlan said. “What are you thinking about?”

Diamond was thinking about eggs, how the whiteness was one thing and the yolk was entirely different. He was thinking about various mothers and how fifty-eight days ago Elata’s mother had invited Seldom’s mother and Haddi inside her modest home, along with the two boys. Everybody sat in a nice little room. Adults and children played a game that nobody enjoyed. But everyone’s best manners were on display, and Elata’s mother—Taff—seemed thrilled with pieces of her little party. The woman particularly enjoyed watching her daughter talking to Diamond. Elata was funny that day, happy and quick to laugh, and her mother couldn’t stop smiling at both of them.

Taff’s expression seemed strange then. In some way, he knew what she was thinking, but after what he had heard last night, there was no ignoring the meanings.

“You aren’t answering me,” Karlan said.

“I’ve got a lot of thoughts,” he said.

“Tell me one,” said the giant boy, his voice low and abrasive.

“No,” said Elata. “Just ignore him.”

Seldom rocked slowly from side to side, matching the wind-born motions of the ship.

Karlan rose to his feet fast enough that the cook shoved his right hand into the deep pocket, aiming with his eyes.

But that’s when Good came out from the toilet, and glancing at Karlan, he sensed nothing wrong. Nothing was dangerous. Unperturbed, the monkey jumped up on the table and claimed Seldom’s half-egg for himself, consuming it with one bold slurp.