did not see the Arkon in his prime.”
“You’re not concerned.”
“I am concerned.” He bowed his head. When he lifted it again, he said to Kaylin, “What could you have done to stop Lord Tiamaris from claiming the Tower that is now his home?”
She looked at him as if he were trying to grow a third eye.
“Exactly. You have known the Arkon for a brief period of time. The opinions you have formed of the Arkon are accurate. He is not a man who dissembles—poisoning information is not only a waste of time; it is almost a crime in his opinion.” Another smile emerged, gilded with nostalgia. “When the laws of the Empire were discussed, he was strongly insistent that lies be made illegal.”
“We’d all be in jail.”
“Yes. He did have suggestions on how to build a jail, or perhaps how to find one. Regardless, what you have seen is what he is. But never all of it. What we—Bellusdeo and I—now see is also part of what he is. It is part of what we all are as Dragons.” He, too, rose.
“There is a danger,” Bellusdeo said.
“I concur.” It was the first time Helen had joined the conversation. “But I believe Kaylin is correct; the book that she sees—the book that you perceive as something amorphous—is important. If you can reason with the Arkon until Kaylin has actually managed to get some sleep, she will return to the palace.”
Both of the Dragons looked highly dubious about their ability to do so.
Helen, however, shook her head. “He is driven. Perhaps he is desperate. Hope makes fools of us all from time to time—but hope is also necessary. He will, if you can intercept him, wait.”
“And if we can’t?”
“It is my suspicion that even if you remain at a reasonable distance, he will find his way here. He understands that Kaylin needs some sleep to function, and I believe he perceives that the book itself puts a large drain on her physical stamina.
“He is possibly—if Bellusdeo and Emmerian are correct—in a frenzy. But he would not be unkind. I believe Kaylin will find herself seconded to the Imperial Palace for the time being. Meaning that yes, you will get paid.”
* * *
Kaylin would never make a bet with Helen because she hated losing bets and Helen had no actual need of money.
“Bets are not about money, if I understand them correctly,” Helen said, as Kaylin got dressed the next morning. “They are about stakes.”
“Fine.” Kaylin pulled a tunic over her head. She’d decided not to wear the Hawk tabard in the fiefs, but it annoyed her to have to be that practical.
“You are unlikely to be troubled, given your traveling companions.”
“Yes. But not less likely to be hated.” She grimaced, adjusting the clothing while Hope squawked, presumably at Helen, since Kaylin couldn’t understand a word. “I resented the Hawks a long time ago. I believed they were there to protect the weak.” She grabbed a stick and struggled to twist her hair in the knot that would keep it out of the way. “But there were no Hawks for us. We were beneath them.”
“And you have since discovered that that is not true.”
“Not really. But I understand why now.”
“You want what Tiamaris has offered.”
“I do. But... I want it for all of the fiefs. Teela would probably kill me if she could hear me.”
“I highly doubt that.”
“She told me years ago that if she had to hear this one more time,” Kaylin said, mimicking almost exactly Teela’s inflection, “she would make certain she never had to hear it again. With a vengeance.”
“Ah. But I’m certain she did hear it again.”
“Less often. She thought I spent too much time whining about what was wrong, and not enough time figuring out how to change what could be changed. For me,” she added, “I could change nothing. Or that’s what I thought, back then. I think it most of the time now. But...not all of the time.”
“And Tiamaris?”
“I didn’t change that, though. Tara and Tiamaris did—or will.”
“Without you, Tiamaris would not be fieflord and Tara would not be Tara.”
“That wasn’t why I did it. I didn’t plan it. I didn’t go in thinking: Hey, how about I change one fief by confronting its Tower? Oh, and drag Tiamaris along just because.”
“No. But change is change, and you cannot entirely predict what the fruit of your actions—for good or ill—will be. You did not intend to change Tiamaris. But you went to the fief’s Tower. You