Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,20

leave should they somehow manage to get in. They couldn’t return to the large room, either; the forty-eight steps that had brought them to this hall had vanished. Going back the way they’d come meant they were moving in the opposite direction through a series of connected halls that looked the same—because they were.

“Do you think it’s the same hall behind the side doors?” Bellusdeo asked.

Hope squawked.

“That would be inconvenient.” The Dragon was standing before the door she’d already blackened. “I am going to open this door.”

“That’s not a use of the word open that would pass legal muster.”

“A pity that Imperial property laws do not apply in the fiefs.” She exhaled flame in a cone that was large enough to catch the edge of stone walls around the frame. When she stopped, there was a large hole where the locked door had been standing.

She insisted on going through first. Given the color of the stone around the former door frame’s edges, Kaylin didn’t argue. Fire didn’t hurt Dragons. It would do nothing good for their clothing, though.

The door didn’t open into a hall. Kaylin allowed herself to feel a tiny bit of relief, but the room it did open into had a door on the opposite wall. There was a bed here, and a table that might serve as a desk if someone needed a flat surface; there was a single chair. There were books on a shelf that didn’t look very stable; there was no dust. No cobwebs. The bed itself was made; it didn’t look as if it had ever been slept in.

Kaylin exhaled and approached the door on the far wall.

This one wasn’t locked, and it opened into a closet.

* * *

The same room existed on the opposite side of the hall. The same rooms, absent doors, existed in the long tunnel that they’d been walking for some time. There was no going back and no going forward. Even the door which Bellusdeo had destroyed remained destroyed as they reached the end of the hall, opened the door, and entered...the same hall.

The bookshelves of unsteadiness had now been thoroughly searched; the books themselves had been taken down and skimmed. Reading, at least for Kaylin, was impossible; the books weren’t written in Barrani or Elantran. She didn’t recognize the writing at all.

“I don’t believe it’s actual language,” Bellusdeo finally said.

“You think it’s random squiggles?”

“I think it’s as real as the hall and the room in which we found the books, yes. But I doubt that the information we require to leave this place can be found on those pages.”

* * *

There was nothing written on the ceilings; there were no magical sigils, either. The floor and walls were featureless; the floor was likewise mundane. Nothing felt like magic, although the door opening into the same hall was a dead giveaway. Kaylin cursed.

“I don’t recall that phrase. It’s Aerian, yes?”

“I’d appreciate it if you never repeated it where anyone Aerian can hear it. Or anyone who understands Aerian. The only magic I feel here is yours.” Kaylin had tucked a book from either room under her arm; she had, in fact, taken them one at a time to see if taking a book through the door at the end of the hall would make any difference. It hadn’t. No combination of books achieved different results, either.

“Remind me to put a dagger through that damn eyeball the next time we’re here.”

“It’s stone; you’ll ruin the knife.”

“I’ll feel better.”

The Dragon snorted. “I would suggest that we not return if we manage to escape.”

“As if we could ever be that lucky.”

“The escape?”

“The not having to return.” Kaylin paused, tucked the two volumes under one arm, took a step until she was standing in the door frame itself and closed her eyes. “I’m going to try something.”

Chapter 5

The marks of the Chosen had remained invisible; they hadn’t started to glow and hadn’t pulled themselves up through the rest of her clothing to circle her arms or any other part of her.

Kaylin was accustomed to reacting to the marks. Experience had given her the ability to do so intelligently, mostly. But she’d waited for those marks to reveal themselves. She had always considered the glow or the separation from her skin to be their attempt to communicate with her.

Bellusdeo’s attempt to use magic on the door through which they continually passed had gone nowhere. Kaylin’s attempt to do the same would be even less successful. But she had the marks of the Chosen,