LITMIR.BIZ

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      “They’re direct answers to the questions you’re asking when I have almost no time, sir.” His brow rose, and she reddened. “Arkon.”

      “Very well. You will make the time to explain what occurred in as much detail as I require in future.”

      She’d age and die before she could live up to the level of detail he required. She kept the thought to herself. “I don’t understand most of what happened, and I was there. But—”

      “But Mandoran accompanied you home.”

      “Yes.”

      “He was not the only one of the twelve—Lord Teela aside—to travel to Elantra.”

      “...No. The other one didn’t travel with us, though.”

      “Do your evening’s plans include the other one, as you call him?”

      “I don’t know.”

      “But you suspect they do.”

      She hesitated before nodding.

      “Very well. He is the reason I am here. Your Mandoran—”

      “Teela’s Mandoran, please.”

      “Lord Teela’s Mandoran, if you prefer, caused difficulty in the Keeper’s Garden. It was not a difficulty that the Keeper anticipated.”

      Obviously. She felt compelled to add, even given the agonizing passage of time, “Evanton recognized something in Mandoran, though. He didn’t treat him the way he generally treats Teela. I think he wanted Mandoran to see the Garden.”

      “That did not work out as well as he’d hoped.”

      “No.”

      “Very well. Teela’s other friend is, if our sources are correct, currently resident within the fiefs.”

      Kaylin suddenly felt very, very cold. “Yes.”

      “There are very few residences in which Barrani of any status might feel at home. I can think of only one—in each fief. I believe you are beginning to understand the possible difficulty.”

      She was. “The Castle.”

      “The Towers, yes. They are not, in architecture or constitution, like the buildings in which most of the citizens of the Empire live. They exist in a different space.”

      “...Like the Keeper’s Garden.”

      “Very unlike the Keeper’s Garden, but I see you have absorbed most of the point I wished to make. If your intent was to go to the fief in which Lord Teela’s companion is situated, you have my apologies for wasting your time here. But Kaylin—be careful. If Bellusdeo’s brief account was accurate, Mandoran did not intend to cause the difficulties he did cause.

      “It is likely that his friend might cause similar difficulties, with just as little intent.”

      “I don’t understand how.”

      “No. You think of the lost as Barrani.”

      “They are.”

      “No, Kaylin. They were. They may even consider themselves to be Barrani now. Their interpretation of their own state is of little consequence. The Emperor does not yet feel threatened by their presence—or he did not, before the incident in the Keeper’s abode. He will, however, be concerned.”

      * * *

      Kaylin jumped out of the carriage before it had rolled to a full stop, which was well before the footman had time to jump down himself. Although it was now dark, the carriage attracted attention; she could see windows open as she headed straight for Severn’s place, but ignored them. In this part of town, crossbows were unlikely to be trained on her exposed back.

      Severn opened the door before she could knock. Teela was out in the street before she could talk.

      “I’m against this,” Teela told her. “For the record.”

      “That’s fine, as long as you understand that I’m going anyway.” She glanced at Severn as he locked his door. “We’re going to Nightshade?”

      He nodded and added, “I win,” to Teela.

      Teela was less graceful about losing a bet than Severn had been, probably because she had less practice. “I never said she was stupid.”

      That definition of never stretched the meaning of the word so far it was likely to snap. “I suppose it’s too much to hope that we’re not going to the Castle?”

      “Far too much,” Teela replied.

      “Did Nightshade communicate with you directly?”

      “With me? No. Before you ask, he didn’t mirror Severn either.”

      “So we’re heading there because Annarion was in contact with you directly.”

      “Something like that.”

      “Which means Nightshade isn’t expecting visitors.”

      He is, now, the fieflord said, right on cue.

      * * *

      “There is a reason I didn’t want you tagging along,” Teela said. “In fact, there are several. Your mark is glowing.” She strode at a fast pace past the idling carriage. No one took a carriage into the fiefs.

      Kaylin lifted her hand to her cheek. Unlike the marks that had come to define much of her life, this one had arrived later, and she knew its source: Lord Nightshade, of the fief that bore his name.

      “I take it this means he knows we’re coming.”

      “...Sorry, Teela.”

      “Not good enough.”

      “You weren’t exactly going to storm the damn Castle in secret.”

      “There’s every chance we were going to do exactly that,” Teela snapped.

      Kaylin looked to Severn. “Was she drinking?”

      “Alcohol doesn’t affect me,” Teela said, before Severn could answer. This wasn’t strictly true, but close. Teela could, with effort, be affected by alcohol meant for mortal consumption—but almost anything could snap her out of it.

      “Not an answer.”

      “As much of an answer as you deserve. Look—things at Castle Nightshade are in flux at the moment.”

      “Annarion is in the Castle.”

      “Yes.”

      “And he’s the reason things are in flux?”

      “That’s our assumption.” Teela picked up a pace that was already on the wrong side of punishing.

      “Teela.” The small dragon added accompaniment or the Barrani Hawk might have ignored Kaylin. She slowed, which, given her mood, was the equivalent of a dead stop.

      “You can speak with Annarion. What’s happened at the Castle?”

      Teela exhaled. She didn’t stop moving. “I can speak with Annarion,” she said, in what should have been agreement. It wasn’t. “At the moment, he can speak with me. But I can’t understand at least half of what he’s saying.”

      Kaylin almost missed the ground with her next step. “He’s—he’s speaking the way Nightshade and I do?”

      “Yes.”

      “How can you not understand him?”

      Severn caught Kaylin’s arm. “She doesn’t know. We’re heading to Nightshade in part to find answers.”

      “And the other part?”

      “To find Annarion.”

      “There’s something else you’re not saying.”

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