Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,75
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.”
“Terrano can still go where some of us can’t. Mandoran is second best.” Annarion shrugged. “And none of us can tell Terrano what to do. Or what not to do. In his defense, he’s trying to be careful.”
“This is not careful.”
“For Terrano?” Annarion didn’t wait for an answer. “We’ll head home. Sedarias doesn’t want us to meet the Emperor yet.”
Kaylin agreed, although she wasn’t going to meet the Emperor, and they’d already managed to meet the Arkon without giving or taking offense.
* * *
A palace steward was on duty though it was late in the night—or early in the morning. So were the Imperial Guards. Kaylin disliked both on principle, but let Bellusdeo do the talking for obvious reasons. And for less obvious reasons: she wasn’t sure she could speak without sounding like someone in serious need of a fix.
Bellusdeo didn’t have that problem. She was in Dragon armor, not the clothing most of the Dragon Court wore, which made her look—to Kaylin’s eye—more regal, not less. The palace guard were silent and invisible. If they sneered at Kaylin, as she was certain they would otherwise be doing, they did it on the inside of their heads.
The steward was clearly concerned. But...the Arkon, like most immortals, didn’t require sleep. He did require a certain amount of privacy, and he disliked interruptions when he was otherwise expecting to get that privacy. Kaylin understood the steward’s hesitation. Bellusdeo understood it, as well. She glanced at Kaylin. “If it is acceptable, I will not require a page to approach the library.”
Silence.
“I believe the Arkon left strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed.”
“I’m sure he did. You require his explicit permission?”
The poor man paled.
“Fine.” Bellusdeo lifted her chin and opened her mouth. Kaylin couldn’t cover both of her ears, even with this much warning, because she’d drop the book. But Bellusdeo spoke in a voice to wake either the dead or distracted Dragons, and she spoke in her native tongue.
* * *
Even the Imperial Guards cracked something that looked like an expression. Kaylin was impressed. The steward, however, looked resigned. If Bellusdeo’s Draconic had been a short bark of sound, he might have managed to keep hold of the starched, stiff lines of the palace’s version of helpful and welcoming—but she went on for some time. Kaylin did cover the one ear she could easily reach.