“But only with the aid of your familiar?”
She nodded again. The familiar had taken off, landing, as he often did, on Grethan’s shoulders. Grethan had gone in search of food more suited to the small lizard than Kaylin’s cookies, or rather, what she thought of as her cookies. “I wonder why he likes Grethan so much?”
“Given your current mood, it emphasizes his intelligence,” Evanton replied.
“I thought maybe the wings were Shadow wings, somehow—but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The net, though—I’d bet all of last year’s pay that it was Shadow.”
Evanton was thinking. Loudly. “Might I ask you to do one thing the next time you’re with Sergeant Carafel?”
“You want me to look at her wings with the help of the familiar.”
“Yes. I think it might be instructive.”
Kaylin nodded glumly.
“If the wings somehow represent potential flight, it’s possible that Shadow is responsible for the actual flight.”
“But—how?”
“It is power, Kaylin.”
“It’sShadow. Look, fire is powerful, but you can’t pour fire into wings and expect to take flight. You can probably expect to be cooked if you’re not careful, but that’s about it.”
“Shadow has always been the most flexible of the potential powers,” the Keeper replied, unruffled. “There is a reason that it has been studied; a reason that it has appeal. Shadow is, at base, transformative.”
“Yes—but I’m not sure you cancontrolthe transformation, and for the most part the transformation, all differences aside, is from alive to dead.”
“For mortals, yes.”
Evanton was mortal. In theory. Or he’d been born mortal. But he’d lived a long damn time, and if he looked ancient to Kaylin, he hadn’t aged at all in the years—admittedly few—she’d known him. “How do you know what Shadow does?”
His brows gathered in thewhat a stupid questionlook he usually threw at poor Grethan. “I’ve been through several iterations of men—and women—who seek power. Any power. Most of those attempts don’t directly affect me, as Keeper. But some—as recent history has proven—have come close to destroying everything. I will allow that if the weapons the Aerians were utilizing were of Shadow, it is highly likely that Shadow was the ostensiblebletsiangranted those who could not naturally fly.” He rose. “It so happens I have something for you.”
“Lillias’sbletsian?”
Evanton nodded. “I ask you to wait here while I retrieve it from the garden.”
Kaylin nodded. And had another cookie.
Chapter 8
When Evanton left, she turned to her partner. “An Aerian Arcanist. Any bets?”
“What are we betting on?”
“Which flight the Arcanist belongs to.”
“As long as you’re betting against dar Carafel, yes.”
Kaylin shrugged. “Shadow as simple power?”
“It’s Elani,” Severn replied.
“Meaning it’s a bill of goods we’re being sold?”
“We’re being asked to buy. But he’s probably not entirely wrong. I don’t understand how—or why—the Aerians had Shadow nets. The study of magic related to Shadow is illegal, even in the Arcanum.”
“The Arcanists don’t follow their own bloody rules. They’re certainly not going to follow the Emperor’s when they can avoid it.”
