Theoretical law vs. angry Dragon. Not much of a choice. She kept her eyes on the mirror that had become a Records conduit. The whole of Elantra, the city she protected and policed, appeared. The edges were gold. The center was red. Where river passed around that center, it was blue; the walls that served as a dividing line when the river deviated were also blue.
One of the red fiefs became a bright purple. Candallar.
“We have received some assurance that Candallar, and his crimes, fall within the laws of exemption.”
“Meaning we’ve been told to leave it alone?”
“As we do not serve the Barrani Court, no, not in so many words.”
“The Emperor?”
“Understands the use of the laws of exemption.”
“They won’t apply to Candallar, though.”
“Oh?”
“He’s outcaste. If they want to smack us with the exemption, they’re going to have to repatriate him. Even if they did,” she continued, frowning, “I doubt he’d allow himself to be culled behind the screen of those laws. He understands Elantran laws. If he’s dead, it’s going to be impossible for us to investigate that death if it occurs on this side. The Barrani are going to call in the laws of exemption, and as he won’t be able to speak for himself—being dead and all—we’re going to knuckle under.
“But if he’s injured, I think he might come directly here.”
“To the Halls of Law.”
She nodded.
“I dislike any attempt to wield the Halls as a political tool.” His eyes shaded to blue—the same blue as angry Barrani eyes. “We are aware that some of the political difficulties of the very recent past might have involved either the fieflord of Candallar or the fief he rules. The Emperor will not allow the laws of exemption to stand if his actions have endangered the city or any member of any race that calls it home.
“In my opinion, they’ve indirectly endangered the entire city.” Even speaking, she hesitated.
“But?”
“But if it weren’t for his intervention, I’m not sure we’d have a city. What he allowed to be brought out of the heart of the fiefs—we’re pretty sure it was transported through Candallar—was necessary to communicate with the High Halls.”
“Ah. You are perhaps aware of the changes in those halls?”
Kaylin glanced at the mirror. She wanted to know, of course, but the Hawklord hadn’t yet moved the mirror’s image from the fief of Candallar. She nodded because she was aware of some of those changes, and she was pretty certain she could easily fill in the rest—or at least the parts the Halls of Law knew—on her own time.
“Very well. The Emperor was concerned, but his advisors were less so.” The Hawklord frowned, and the mirror image shifted instantly, as if it were a card that could be flipped.
A building Kaylin did not recognize filled the mirror.
Chapter 2
“As of two days ago,” the Hawklord said, when Kaylin failed to speak, “this is the High Halls.”
The only things she recognized were the statues that had once girded the exterior. They remained untouched. In size, the building seemed to occupy roughly the same plot of land, but the similarity ended there.
“...two days ago.”
“Yes. I am assured that the building as it is now will be very, very difficult to infiltrate in any way.”
“It’s like a Hallionne.”
“That is the supposition of the Imperial advisors.”
Kaylin assumed that the Imperial advisors were the Arkon.
“It is the Emperor’s desire that you have little to do with the physical High Halls in the near future.”
