Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,34
seen it often enough that it shouldn’t have been disturbing to watch, but it was; there was something about watching flesh melt that was always going to be a bit uncomfortable.
Bellusdeo returned to the altar. Or rather, the altar side. She could now look down on the surface of the mirror without effort.
Hope squawked at her.
She roared back.
The Arkon roared, as well.
Kaylin wished she were at her unambitious home, where Helen could mute conversational Dragons. “Records,” she said. The surface of this gold-tinged mirror began to glitter. “If it’s all right with you,” she added to the Arkon, “the mirror will respond to me when I speak at the volume my ears were made for. You have to speak in your native tongue, and...I’d really, really appreciate it if you told me what you wanted to know and let me ask.”
Bellusdeo chuckled. The Arkon did not. He did, however, nod. “We wish to know about the creation of the Towers.”
Kaylin exhaled. To the mirror, to the swirling, moving water, she said, “Killian. Helen.”
“Helen’s name is not a name that should exist within these Records.”
“No. I’m testing a theory.”
Chapter 7
“Not smart,” Bellusdeo rumbled.
Kaylin looked up and met the Arkon’s eyes. “Sorry. I should have asked first.”
“Continue.”
“Groveling?”
“Explaining yourself.”
The mirror, however, was now shimmering in place. The liquid was affected by a tremor that touched nothing else. As she watched, her attention split between annoyed Dragon and ancient Records, the liquid itself rose, as if it were elemental water.
A sculpture emerged as bits of the water fell; in the end, what was left was a building. No, Kaylin thought. Two buildings. Three. Four. One of these, she was certain, was Helen. No. It was what Helen had been on the eve of her creation. Kaylin couldn’t tell which of the four was meant to be the building she now called home. Nor was she certain that one of the other three was the building that Killian called home.
The Arkon’s eyes were a less deep orange; he lowered his inner membranes, his frown becoming one of concentration, rather than annoyance at the presumption of a lowly Hawk.
“Your theory, Corporal?”
“That the mirror responds not to the commands, but the person who is making them.”
“You will not test your theories in the future without explaining them and receiving the requisite permission.”
“The Towers were created after Ravellon fell, right? But there were buildings that were created before that fall. The Hallionne, for one. Helen. I want to see the buildings that existed in what eventually became Elantra, because buildings don’t—in theory—have the ability to move.”
The Arkon nodded.
“You’ve seen this before.”
“Many, many times.” The words were almost bitter.
“Do you know which one is Helen?”
“Ask the mirror to separate the buildings by geography. I can—with difficulty—command Imperial Records to overlay the boundaries of Elantra as it is currently constituted over it.”
With difficulty meant a lot of spoken Dragon. Kaylin grimaced. “I’m not sure that’s necessary,” she said far too quickly.
He stared at her, unblinking.
“...but it could be helpful.”
He then continued in his native tongue. There was a moment of serious dislocation; the water shuddered so violently in place, Kaylin wasn’t certain it wouldn’t explode outward—which would have been a career-limiting disaster of the worst kind given the Arkon, his hoard, and the fact that she would be tangentially related to the damage.
She exhaled only when the shaking stopped. The water sculptures then shrank, separating as a faint map of the city of Elantra came into view. It was, unlike the buildings, flat; it was difficult to read. If she hadn’t been familiar with maps, and with this one in particular because it related to work, she wouldn’t have been able to read it at all.
“Couldn’t you do it in reverse?” When the Arkon failed to answer, she added, “Take the contents of this mirror and append them to Imperial Records?”
“Ask your Helen, when you return home, why I have made the decision not to do so.” And don’t, his curt tone implied, bother the Arkon. “This,” he added, indicating one building, “is where your Helen now stands.”
The building looked nothing at all like Helen. It looked far more like a Tower, and at that, an unfriendly one. It was situated in the center of a much larger patch of land than Helen currently occupied. Helen could—and did—change her appearance to better suit her inhabitants. But it was a pretty drastic change, in Kaylin’s opinion. This building looked impressive and forbidding.