According to the delegation, a Dragon has attacked the stronghold of the Lord of the West March.
Kaylin turned to stare at Lirienne.
Words are being exchanged; at the moment, no one is apparently ash. But the Halls of Law are a mess; the Lords of Law have been closeted away; the Imperial Mages are on alert. Technically, the West March is outside of the Emperor’s domain.
So...someone is sayingBellusdeois attacking the West March.Kaylin folded her arms.
She hasn’t been mentioned by name. Just color. They’re mobilizing a war band in the West March. They intend to either capture or kill her as an act of war.
Kaylin’s Leontine was vehement, extended, and very, very rude. It caused the golden Dragon in question to raise both brows; clearly Mandoran had been teaching her.
The Emperor is...not pleased.
I’ve got the Lord of the West Marchhere. And if he’s somehow responsible for this...
Don’t do anything stupid. But...if you’re in the Hallionne with Bellusdeo, donotleave it. Not by the doors.
She thought of the portal paths, which had swallowed Sedarias and the rest of the cohort.
“Is there a problem?” Lord Barian asked.
“Yes.” Kaylin folded her arms, trying to dig up High Barrani in place of her very inappropriate Leontine.Look—can you tell them it was a misunderstanding? My familiar kind of winged his way out here in very large Dragon form. Maybe—maybe they’re just confused.
You don’t believe that.
She didn’t. She wanted to, though. She really, really wanted to.
Alsanis was watching her; the stranger was watching her. Bellusdeo was now watching the two Barrani lords; until Kaylin’s loud outburst of Leontine, she had been watching the stranger.
“Lord Kaylin?” Lirienne said.
“Just one minute.”
Ynpharion.
Lord Kaylin.
Oh, cut the crap. I mean it. Just cut it. What in the hells is going on over there? What is the Consort doing?No, she thought, that was unfair.What is the High Lord doing? Bellusdeo is not attacking the West March inanyway.
The Lady is aware of that, was the cool reply.
And the High Lord isn’t?
The politics of the High Court are not entirely in the control of one person, was the even more frigid response.There have already been upheavals due to the simple existence of your friends. The Consort’s planned visit to your domicile was an attempt to allay the fears that are the source of those upheavals.There was a very faint—and extremely unfair—hint of criticism in his reply.The Lady bids me tell you that the High Lord was not a member of the delegation sent to the Imperial Palace.
But he didn’t forbid it.
It is my suspicion—and the Lady has not confirmed it—that he did notknow.
Leontine was becoming her new best language.
“While rudimentary exposure to foreign languages might, at another time, be informative, I believe this is not that time,” the Lord of the West March said.
“Fine.” The single word was Elantran. It was followed by more of the same, and Kaylin considered it a triumph that she did not sprinkle the whole with Leontine additions. “Apparently, a Barrani war band got together and entered the Imperial Palace.”
Silence.
“They informed the Emperor that Lord Bellusdeo—no, sorry, a ‘gold Dragon’—had attacked the West March. A war band is apparently being gathered in the West Marchas we speakwith the intent to either capture or kill the hostile intruder.”
