“Yes.”
“And you entered my home from that border zone?”
“We didn’t exactlyenter, but yes. We were drawn into your home, or at least your version of jail, from the border zone between Tiamaris and Candallar.”
He was silent, but continued to move, the Hawks and the Dragon in his wake. “I do have a question,” she continued when no one else spoke. Hope squawked loudly, which robbed Kaylin of hearing in one ear, but did not get the attention of the person he was shouting at.
“That wall of yours in the big room—”
“It is not my wall.”
“Fine. The wall in the big room to the left of the stairs down. It appears to contain people of various races.”
He froze. Severn’s hands dropped to weapon hilts.
The man turned, his single eye a narrow slit of blue so dark it was black. “To what do you refer?”
“There’s a very, very large stone room. Do you know that room?”
Silence.
“Look, it’s either yes or no.”
“This is my home, but I am not its master. The room of which you speak, I have not seen.”
Hope had had enough, and once again attempted to leave Kaylin’s shoulder. She reached up and caught his legs as he spread his wings and inhaled. The sound was very like the sound of Bellusdeo inhaling.
“No, not now!” Kaylin shouted.
Kaylin’s shout, unlike Hope’s, was perfectly audible. Their guide turned as Kaylin’s arm was lifted by Hope. Even at his diminutive size, he had weight and momentum, and she was pulled up until she was balanced on her toes.
“Sorry,” she said through clenched teeth, trying to offer what she hoped was a placating smile. “I’m having a minor disagreement with—stop it, Hope!”
The single eye was narrowed, the expression a series of graven lines that made the Barrani face look like chiseled stone.
Hope exhaled a cloud of silver with glinting colored bits contained in the stream. Bellusdeo side-stepped its mass; it was a much larger mass than Hope, at this size, usually emitted.
Kaylin was not in its path; Severn was not in its path.
Only the Barrani who had offered to show them the door—but politely, which was more than most intruders could expect—was. He didn’t move. The cloud was part of Hope, and Hope remained invisible to him. Hope’s effect on Kaylin was obvious; most people did not dangle on their toes the way she now did. But he couldn’t see Hope, and as he stood there frowning, the cloud that was the familiar’s version of Dragon breath hit his face and shoulders.
Hope then allowed himself to be returned to Kaylin’s shoulders.
“What are you trying to do?” She demanded. “I mean it.” It didn’t matter if the Barrani thought she was hallucinating—or worse.
He cannot hear me,Hope replied.What do you think I was trying to do?
“We don’t usually breathe on people’s faces so they canhear us.”
“My apologies,” the Barrani stranger said. From the direction of his gaze, he was now looking at Hope. His face had not melted; his eye had not changed shape, and the color had lightened to a normal Barrani blue.
“We’re going to have words about this when we get home.”
Hope squawked. Loudly.
“Yes,” the man replied. “I apologize for the lack of introduction. I am called Killian when I am required to interact.”
Squawk. Squawk.
