They both looked at Kaylin. Kaylin’s skin, as they approached the doors in question, remained normal. If there was magic here, it wasn’t the type that caused her pain.
She reached the doors first and pushed against them. She was surprised when they rolled open.
The doors opened into a large hall. A desk very reminiscent of the long bar—she took care never to call it that out loud while standing anywhere near it—in the Imperial Library was the first thing they could see, but beyond that, a large hall with an open gallery that was no doubt meant for the public continued into the immediate distance. Stairs stood to the right of the desk, their width also implying a public that was nowhere in sight.
The second thing Kaylin noticed on the interior of this building was the color. Had she not come through streets of washed-out grays, this would have been a normal, if somewhat upscale, Elantran building. The woods were brown; the stone floor was gray; the emblems painted across the wall behind the bar were a bright sea of colors: reds, golds, blues. The doors had not magically slammed shut at their backs, which, given everything, was a bit of a surprise.
Do you recognize the emblem?Kaylin asked her partner.
I don’t. I believe that’s supposed to be a sun.
And the blue bits?
Not weapons, not any BarraniregaliaI recognize. But I think it’s Barrani work.
“Don’t you think this kind of looks like the library? I mean, the Arkon’s library?”
“But without the books and the librarians?”
“Yes. I mean—the big desk here. And the big open hall. It’s like it’s meant for people to visit.” Kaylin headed toward the stairs. Teela caught her by the arm.
“Not you.”
“I can—”
“I’ll go first.”
Kaylin shut her mouth. Teela was right. They had no idea who—or what—was upstairs. If Candallar was somehow involved in anything that was happening, it could very well be an unknown Barrani, and if that was the case, Teela—or Bellusdeo—was a much better choice to take point.
Kaylin did feel the tingle across her arms and legs; Teela was playing it safe.
“The large windows were probably public-facing or publicly accessible,” Teela said, speaking quietly as she mounted the stairs. She examined them before she ascended, and her ascent was slow. Caution generally was, judging by the number of people who abandoned it in frustration.
The stairs seemed to continue beyond the second story, at which Teela, Bellusdeo and Kaylin stopped. A hall—a wide hall—continued straight ahead and to the left; the stairs formed part of a large corner, and doors adorned both sides of the walls in the hall itself. The hall straight ahead continued until it reached large double doors; the doors along the hall were single doors, but wide. To the left—which was the direction Teela took—the hall ended in a wall that implied another corner. There were steps there, as well.
The halls were lit. There were no lamps to provide that light, and no obvious windows. The floor itself was a dark-grain wood, with something like marble straight down a narrow width of the center, as if it were intended to be a carpet replacement. Teela took a step onto the wood, knelt and examined that stone. “Stick to the sides of the hall,” she said as she rose.
Kaylin nodded. The floors, however, didn’t “feel” more magical to her skin; she suspected the magic she could detect was all courtesy of Teela. And Bellusdeo.
Hope, throughout their walk in the border zone, rested across her shoulders in a limp blanket flop. He now rose to sit on her left shoulder but did so at his leisure. He didn’t lift his wing, either. Whatever Kaylin could see here, he considered good enough.
That held until Teela paused in front of a door that appeared identical to every other closed door in either hall, except for the end doors. The Barrani Hawk glanced at the Dragon, and Bellusdeo, who’d been pulling up the rear, nodded and joined her.
Kaylin had to press herself into the nearest wall to allow the Dragon to pass.
Bellusdeo, however, looked at the door that Kaylin hadn’t managed to approach. “I see it. Kaylin?”
Kaylin took Teela’s spot as Teela moved, again using the wall. “...It’s a door.”
“Are there no marks or words on it, for you?”
“You mean like a nameplate?”
Bellusdeo nodded.
“No. It’s a door. It’s about this wide,” she added, spreading her palms. “It’s a reddish-brown wood with no scratches and no marks. There’s a handle, not a knob, and the handle is like new brass.”
“But you see no name and no marks that imply a name?”
