“What did she ask Evanton to make?” the Hawklord demanded at the same time. The collision of Elantran questions caused an awkward pause, but it was to the Hawklord that Kaylin replied.
“Abletsian, she called it. Evanton said it’s a blessing of air.”
Moran closed her eyes. This was not uncommon among races whose eyes gave away their base emotional state, but it took Moran a full, silent minute before she opened them again—and the left side of her jaw was twitching. “And her name?”
Kaylin thought Moran knew. “She said her name was Lillias.”
Moran rose.
The Hawklord rose, as well. “Moran.”
“I want you to take me to her,” the sergeant said to Kaylin.
“I have no idea where she is,” Kaylin replied, uneasy now.
“Then I want you to take me to Evanton.”
“Moran—” Lord Grammayre said again.
The Emperor, however, raised his voice—without apparent effort or strain. “Dinner is in progress. I am certain that Lillias will also be dining, if in different circumstances. The Keeper is unlikely to consider a sergeant’s desire an immediate emergency. You will visittomorrow, if you must do so at all.”
Both of the Aerians sat.
Bellusdeo said, gently, “What is abletsian, Moran?”
Moran swallowed. After a longer pause, she said, “If it’s a blessing of air, it’s meant as a gift. It might allow me to...fly. It won’t allow me to fly naturally or forever, unless Evanton is vastly more powerful than any of my own kin. But such blessings were conferred by my people in very rare circumstances—and not always to the flightless or those who had been crippled.” She used the last word bitterly, angry at herself. Or her people. Or the world.
The Hawklord said nothing.
“You knew,” Moran said, accusation giving the words an edge that was never going to make a dinner table fun or relaxing.
Lord Grammayre said very, very little.
“Youknew.”
“Your life was difficult enough. She was—and is—outcaste.”
“She didnothing wrong. She committed no crime by the laws of the people! She—”
“She thwarted the powerful.” The Hawklord’s voice was soft. “Your Majesty, forgive us.”
It was Kaylin who spoke next. “Thereasonwe have laws is that legally thwarting the powerful shouldn’tbepunishable by death or—or dismemberment. The laws are supposed to speak for people who don’t have the power to speak loudly enough for themselves!”
The Emperor smiled. His eyes were, to Kaylin’s surprise, an orange gold, but more gold than they had been all evening. “This perhaps leads directly in to Lord Grammayre’s interests. Iamthe Emperor,” he continued, his voice softening in a way that did not imply kindness or gentleness. “My wordislaw. You understand that, do you not, Private? If I chose to have you dismembered, or if I chose to reduce to ash where you were sitting—”
“You would have to go through Helen, and if you managed that, throughme,” Bellusdeo countered.
The Emperor lifted a hand, demanding at least temporary silence.
“I point out to the young and optimistic private a truth she has perhaps overlooked. Should I desire it, I could lay waste to half the city before I could be stopped—and it would be legal. I am the Emperor. The Empire ismine. The laws were created for my convenience. I can change them at any time.”
Well, yes, because he was the Emperor. Kaylin held her peace, but it was very hard. Bellusdeo’s eyes were orange. The Arkon’s, however, remained gold. The Arkon trusted and served the Eternal Emperor, and in the end, Kaylin trusted the librarian. She tried not to panic, and mostly succeeded.
“The laws are not always convenient to me,” the Emperor continued. “There are times when I desire to reduce whole delegations that affront me in the audience chambers of the palace to their composite ash. There is one group in particular I would like to eat, but I fear they would be unpalatable to even a Dragon.
“I have chosen not to do so. I have made laws that can be safely enforced, and in order to ensure that they are, the enforcement is left to the mostly mortal, whose understandings of the frailty of mortals are more visceral, more personal.
“I did not make this choice out of the ‘goodness of my heart.’” He used the Elantran phrase here; he otherwise defaulted to High Barrani. “Perhaps you do not understand this. I will now endeavor to explain. The Empire, as I stated emphatically, is mine. If I do not choose to destroy its citizens, if I do not exercise the prerogative of both rulership and anger, I will allow no others to do so—not without great effort on their part.
