“Who is Illanen?”
Teela’s eyes were already blue; they didn’t darken. “An Arcanist and Lord of the High Court.”
“What was he doing with Killian?”
“Are you attempting to give the rest of us information out of sequence?”
Kaylin flushed. “...Sorry. I could see a robed Barrani and a human standing beside Killian when the doors opened. The human is a caste lord, according to Severn. I didn’t recognize the Barrani; I knew he was an Arcanist only at the end, during the earthquake. Seriously, I wish the Emperor would burn down the damn Arcanum. Arcanists are nothing but trouble.”
“I am—or have been—a member of the Arcanum.” The Barrani Hawk chuckled. “Even the Emperor would find it difficult to destroy the Arcanum. Have you visited the High Halls since the cohort underwent the Test of Name?”
“No, and you already know that.”
“I suggest you do. It has afforded me great amusement.”
“Why amusement?”
“She’s a sadist,” Allaron surprised Kaylin by saying. He reddened and added, “That was Sedarias.”
Of course it was. “Can we get back to Illanen?”
“And the Caste Court human?”
“Severn’s researching him now. Somehow.”
“At this hour?”
“He doesn’t sleep a lot.” Kaylin shivered.
“You didn’t deliver Larrantin’s message.”
“I did try—I just didn’t expect Killian to have invisible visitors.”
“Was he aware of them?”
That was a good question. “I assume he must be—but I didn’t ask.” Her frown deepened. “If heisthe Avatar of the building, his eyes are metaphorical. Or something. Helen could create an Avatar with only a mouth and she’d still be Helen and still be aware. But...I think you might be right. There are things he doesn’t notice. There are probably things he can’t do. I think the missing eye represents some part of that.
“And I think, in some way, the border zone is related to Killian, if not caused by him.” Her teeth were chattering now. “I think,” she said to Bellusdeo, “we should stop at the Imperial Library before we go home.”
Bellusdeo nodded. She turned to Maggaron and said, “I’ll ask you to go home with the cohort; all of the hostility we are likely to encounter in the palace will be personal and petty. And you know what I’m like.” The last was said with the sweetest of smiles to grace a Dragon’s face.
Maggaron, however, winced and nodded.
Kaylin cursed the Arcanum in all the languages she knew as they headed through the streets of Nightshade. Ferals howled in the distance, but the howls remained at a remove. Some part of Kaylin wanted to go out on Dragon back and turn them to ash. Some part of her wanted to give the Arkon this damn book. It was, because she was shivering, unwieldy and seemed to be gaining weight.
Bellusdeo didn’t see what Kaylin saw; she could discern an object, but it was not, to her eyes, a book. Given that Larrantin was Barrani, and probably yet another Arcanist, that made sense. Whatever it was, Kaylin wanted to be done with it.
Annarion had questions about Nightshade; Kaylin answered them as truthfully as she could. She could no longer hear him, and her guess—that he had somehow been sucked into the wall—matched his. But...he wasn’t dead, and if he was worried, he wasn’t in pain and he wasn’t unhappy. She was, by this point, very familiar with his unhappy voice.
“Mandoran and Terrano did something. Killian wasn’t particularly happy about it. But the invisible visitors felt whatever it was they did, as well. I’m thinking,” she added, “of strangling Terrano.”
“Sedarias says: ‘Stand in line.’ You think they learned this from Terrano, somehow?”
“Or from someone Terrano taught, yes. He wasn’t concerned about what would happen to the rest of us at the time, so he didn’t exactly think through the consequences.”
“He doesn’t generally think through consequences even if we’re going to be stuck with them,” Annarion pointed out.
“I really don’t think it’s a great idea to have Mandoran and Terrano be your point people. Just saying.”
