as they slowed their walk. Kaylin didn’t see fog. Hope was hanging across her shoulders like a shawl, looking distinctly bored. He didn’t sit up and didn’t slap a wing across her eyes. Whatever she saw appeared to be good enough.
She didn’t see what Hope saw.
“Teela?”
“I see streets continuing into what I assume is visually Liatt.”
“Bad assumption,” Bellusdeo then said. “Crossing that street doesn’t take us to a street that looks similar in Liatt.”
“You experimented?”
“For much of the day. I’m not sure why the Towers choose to present an illusion of streets continuing—but if we take that street and turn around the moment we enter Liatt, the street doesn’t align properly.”
“It’s not the same street on both sides?”
“Not always, no. You see street?”
“I see what both you and Kaylin see. Allaron, Annarion and Mandoran don’t. But if Kaylin had lost all contact with her name-bound, we’d know the silence was a simple effect of the border zone. Clearly, that’s not the case. She could speak to the name-bound who were with her in the border zone.”
“You think they found what they were looking for?”
“I think it likely.”
“How do you guys want to do this? You need a rope-line?” Kaylin asked the cohort.
“Nah. We’ve got Teela. We’ll just use her eyes.”
Teela looked about as thrilled as Kaylin expected she would.
* * *
They entered the border zone from the Nightshade side, given that was the fief they were standing in. To Kaylin, the evening gave way to a twilight of gray and washed-out color, but the buildings in this light were clearer; Nightshade didn’t believe in lighting all of the streets. To be fair—and this was grudging—Nightshade’s streets were empty of all but the desperate and the drunken at night; the Ferals kept the streets clear.
Kaylin frowned as she studied the street they were standing on; it seemed to continue for a few blocks. She guessed that those blocks were illusory and they would exit the street to a change of environment in Liatt.
Teela didn’t take the lead, and Bellusdeo, while impatient, didn’t want it, either. Kaylin headed toward Liatt. “It’s a proof of concept,” she told her companions. “Let’s see how long it takes us to get out.”
The answer was three blocks. Liatt opened up to late night on the other side; the mist or fog cleared for the cohort as they reached it. Turning immediately, Kaylin looked down the street through which they’d just walked. It was different, or rather, the buildings were.
“I have an idea,” she said.
“A good one?” This was Mandoran.
“Probably not. It shouldn’t be dangerous—or not more dangerous than entering the border zone.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“We’re going to let you guys lead.”
“We can’t see much.”
“Exactly. If we want to explore the border zone here, it’s harder for the rest of us—we can see the street, we follow the street. I’d like to know how Nightshade or Terrano navigated when they were in that zone.”
* * *
Entering the border zone from Liatt showed Kaylin a different street with different buildings. Mandoran’s view was the same as it had been on the other side: a lot of fog and little visibility. This time, however, Kaylin decided to try a shortcut, passing between buildings to see if she could find another street. She used Mandoran’s vision—or lack of vision—to skirt the border zone. The first time, she turned toward Elantra and emerged, eventually, at the boundary between Nightshade and the city—which would be the Ablayne.
The border zone could not be entered from the Elantra side of the fiefs. They couldn’t see it; they couldn’t cross into it. It appeared to exist as a function of the fiefs themselves. She wondered if the entry from Ravellon was just as impossible, but doubted it, and didn’t ask because it was exactly the kind of question that would make Bellusdeo go red-eyed.
They entered Nightshade and started again; this time close to the Ablayne. Kaylin began to follow the border, using the cohort’s lack of clear vision as a guide.
“You don’t think Terrano would have been foolish enough to enter Ravellon by accident?” Bellusdeo asked.
Kaylin frowned. “I’m not sure Terrano would see what the others are seeing. Teela doesn’t, except secondhand. They’re both outliers when it comes to the cohort. Terrano is pushing the limits in one direction, and Teela is—”
“Boring,” Mandoran supplied.
“Incredibly tolerant and forgiving,” Teela said.
Kaylin snorted. She’d gone out drinking with Teela and Tain.
“We have lower standards for both,” the Barrani Hawk added when she caught sight of Kaylin’s expression. “What are