“You don’t do a very good job of it.” He stiffened, lifting his head. “Hold on tight.”
“To what?”
“Anything.”
Kaylin grabbed Bellusdeo—with her right hand. Spike was now half a ball; the other half had apparently become a thin, shining glove around her left hand.
I’m here.
“Tell me what he’s looking at.”
That is something you do with the eyes that you have, yes?
“Yes.”
“Nothing.” Spike spoke the last word aloud, so that Bellusdeo could also hear his reply.
Bellusdeo snickered at Kaylin’s muted shriek. So did the familiar. “What is hesensing, Spike?”
“There is an anomalous fragment in the material.” Hearing his voice, the Dragon stiffened.
Kaylin ignored her. “You mean the landscape?”
“The landscape? No. Terrano is shaping it as we walk.”
“Bellusdeo?”
“Ahead of you,” the gold Dragon replied, the sound of her voice shifting as she once again surrendered the human form for the draconic one. It was far easier to leap up on her back from flat ground than it had been from curved claws, and Kaylin did.
“The air isn’t that much different,” Terrano said, although he hadn’t looked back. “Keep your feet on the ground unless you have no choice.”
If Bellusdeo was reluctant to take orders from the equivalent of a Barrani child, it didn’t show. “If we’re swept off this path, can you find us?”
Terrano didn’t answer.
Kaylin, however, said, “Probably not.”
“No?”
“If he could find us, he would have already found the cohort. I’m not sure he knows where we are.”
* * *
Anomalywas not the right word. Kaylin had traveled portal paths that had almost—but not quite—disintegrated beneath her feet before. She had retained her footing on increasingly unstable ground. Those of her companions who had not been as lucky had vanished; Kaylin had been informed that most of them had made it back to the Hallionne eventually.
Given that Bellusdeo was the only female Dragon, and given her importance to the Eternal Emperor, Kaylin understood thateventuallywas more than just career-limiting. And, if she were honest, Bellusdeo was her friend. She was part of Kaylin’s daily life. If Bellusdeo were lost in the whatever it was, Kaylin firmly intended to be lost with her.
Yes, Spike said.
“Is something coming?”
Something is already here.
Terrano was cursing, now. Or at least Kaylin assumed that’s what he was doing; she only recognized two of the words. “I’ll teach you Leontine,” she told him. “It’s better. More visceral.”
More cursing, but some of it was now aimed at Kaylin. She laughed.
He stopped.
