Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,110

she caught Killian’s attention when she hadn’t even known his name?

She didn’t know his True Name now. Even if she did, she couldn’t say it; it was probably like Helen’s—too many words, too many phrases, too many things. She couldn’t even hold one in her head for long enough to speak it the way the Arkon and Sanabalis could.

You lack practice, Hope said. It was critical.

“Now’s not the time for practice.”

If it were up to you, you would lurch between crises continually—as you do now. There is never enough time. It is making time, prioritizing that time, that is essential.

“Fine. We can talk about that later.”

Hope snorted. He then squawked loudly beside her ear. The Arkon’s eyes narrowed; his free hand fell to his beard. He didn’t reply.

Kaylin closed her eyes.

* * *

She could feel the stone beneath her palm, but could no longer see it. The marks—including the one that now hovered ten feet away, shedding pale light—were visible; she was used to that. They remained flat across the skin she could see.

How had she contacted Killian the first time?

Is anyone there? I’m Kaylin. Corporal Neya of the Imperial Hawks.

“Whatever you are doing, continue until I tell you to stop,” the Arkon said, his voice coming at a remove, as if he had continued to walk while she knelt.

“You could try to do it yourself,” she muttered.

“I would if I knew what you were doing.”

“I’m introducing myself. That’s what I did the first time to get his attention.”

“How are you introducing yourself, exactly?”

“Touching the floor so I’m in contact with the building, and...thinking at it.” This sounded far less reasonable on the outside of her head.

“Ah. That is not what you are actually doing.”

“It looks to me like that’s exactly what she’s doing,” Bellusdeo said.

“Spoken like a warrior.”

Bellusdeo’s laughter implied that the Arkon’s expression was sour and annoyed. Kaylin loved the sound of that laughter. There was affection in it, even if there was mockery; the mockery implied history rather than superiority or cruelty.

“What am I doing?”

“Can you not see your marks?”

“I can. They’re not doing anything special; they’re flat against my skin. Except for the light.”

“Perhaps that was the wrong choice of words. Can you not hear them?”

“No. You can?”

“Not clearly enough to repeat them, but yes—I hear the echoes of words. Understand that these words are not simply spoken, although they must be spoken in some fashion if they are to be made manifest; they are felt, they are seen, they are tangible. To speak is to call them forward, to hold them in place for some small time.

“But this was not a language made for our use, except in one way.”

“True Names.”

“Yes.”

“The thing I don’t understand is how you can speak a True Name and also be a True Name. I mean, if I could only ever use a word once, I’d never be able to speak at all.”

“Hush and listen. I will do the same. It is something that I have not attempted in the past; I have studied the configuration of your marks at the request of the Emperor, but I have seldom had the chance to do what I am now doing. You never sit still for long enough,” he added. “And you are always in the middle of a crisis that necessitates movement, motion.”

“I cannot hear them,” Bellusdeo said.

“No. But you, too, were always in crisis, and I cannot fault the choices you did make in a past I did not experience at your side. Be our guard, then; practice what you dedicated your life to in that past.”

* * *

The Arkon did not magically join her in the space she occupied behind the darkness of closed eyelids. Terrano had said that this was her way of phasing, of moving between different planes of existence. She didn’t do what the cohort did, and she didn’t experience it as a change in herself; she experienced it as a change in her environment.

This type of shift was not one that affected Bellusdeo’s ability to see Kaylin; what Kaylin thought she was doing and what Bellusdeo witnessed were the same. She didn’t become invisible or transparent to the Dragon’s eye. But she was aware that communicating with buildings wasn’t as simple as the Hallionne had made it out to be. She hoped that this was not like attempting to reach the embattled heart of the High Halls—because that had been terrible.

But the being at the heart of the High Halls had been aware. He had