“It would depend entirely on who the lecturer was.”
“We didn’t pause to ask his name. Not that there was much of a break in the droning in which to ask a question.”
“That sounds very like Caranthas,” the Arkon then said, “in which case you have my blessing. I am surprised he noticed you at all.”
“Not half as surprised as we were. He apparently expected us to take a seat. And have our homework done.” Terrano then offered a very liberal Leontine curse. “Sorry, I can’t manage it. You’re going to have to put up with voice only. How did you guys get into this space?”
“This space,” Kaylin replied, “seems to be a stone hall with no doors and no other distinguishing features. Oh, and no lights that we don’t bring ourselves.”
“Really? That’s what it looks like to you?”
“I imagine you don’t have much in the way of eyes at the moment, and if you do,pleasedon’t materialize floating eyeballs.”
Terrano laughed. “You are seriously way too squeamish.”
“I’ll let Hope breathe on them.”
He laughed again. “He wouldn’t. I’m not even sure he’d see eyeballs.”
Hope squawked.
“Sorry. There are a bunch of Barrani and humans scattered around what appears to be the main building. That would be the one we entered by the front door, and that you avoided.”
“I didn’t think we’d have much fun with the Arcanist.”
“Probably not. We could avoid alerting the wandering Arcanist and his friends. We could avoid Candallar—Sedarias is seriously pissed at him right now—although that was trickier. Killianas didn’t seem to notice us, and we did try to get his attention. But that didn’t work out well for us.”
“You got sent to jail?”
“To our rooms, or what might have been meant to be our rooms if we were students here. Nightshade was aware of us,” he added. “Even when the intruding Barrani weren’t. The students and teachers here exist in a different way than the intruders.”
“So...you’re mostly locked in your rooms?”
Terrano shrugged. “We’re mostly locked in our rooms—but these are kiddie locks—I think that’s the phrase?—compared to Alsanis’s locked rooms. They’re not meant to keep people like us in them. This room is much better constructed for it, but he didn’t send us here.” He paused, and then added in a softer voice, “We can’t talk to him.”
“He’s not Alsanis.”
“We can talk to Helen. We can talk to the High Halls.”
She froze. “Do not tell me that you’ve been visiting the High Halls.”
“Well, we’re Lords of the High Court now, aren’t we?”
“Lords of the High Court that a lot of your kin want dead, yes.”
“Sedarias says that’s normal. If she hadn’t gone to the green, most of her kin would still want her dead. Better now than later, when she’s firmly established. Where’s Severn?”
“He’s stuck in the maze of endless hall. So’s Emmerian, if that’s helpful.”
“Why are you guys in this room?”
“I think he meant to send us all, but missed the other two. I told you—I think I told you—that we found our way in the first time because a giant eyeball caught us in its gaze, right? Well...this was his normal eye, and Severn and Emmerian could dodge into corners. We were kind of standing in front of it.”
“Do you know why?”
Bellusdeo snorted. “We believe—and we have no more access to Killian than you—that it had something to do with our mention of the intruders here. Apparently, people who are in this building are expected to either be teachers or students. Kaylin has a message from a teacher who is demonstrably unable to reach this building, but she was unwilling to deliver it when she saw Killian’s invisible companions.
“She was the only person present who could see them.”
