Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,92

of the thinning fog that dogged the cohort. He looked up; he could read the words. He then looked down the street in the wrong direction, almost as if looking in the right one was something that he needed to brace himself to do.

But when he did turn, his eyes were gold, and they were lit from within by a fire that had nothing to do with combat. For just that glimpse, the Arkon seemed young to Kaylin. Young, excitable, caught in a frenzy of fear and hope. This wasn’t Kaylin’s youth, but she recognized it, and for the first time since she had discovered Killian, she understood why Bellusdeo and Emmerian were worried.

The two Dragons said nothing; they turned in the direction the Arkon had finally turned, and they waited while he drew breath. Kaylin, however, grabbed his arm as he opened his mouth that little bit too wide. “Remember, Killian’s occupied, in both senses of that word.”

Reality readjusted itself in the lines of the Arkon’s face as joy ebbed. Kaylin wasn’t certain she liked what replaced it. He nodded.

* * *

Sedarias did not recognize the street. But she’d heard of the building, or buildings, that comprised this place. She didn’t walk with the same excitement, the same urgency, that drove the Arkon—but no one here could do that.

“Has it changed?” Kaylin asked the oldest member of the Dragon Court.

“It is...what I remember. The color is wrong—but I have been told that the border zones are like that: the buildings that remain are echoes of buildings, the streets, echoes of streets.”

“That’s Killian,” Kaylin said, lifting her arm and pointing out the largest of the buildings, on the farthest edge of the circular road’s circumference from where they were standing.

“I do not understand why you use that name.”

“It’s what he said his name was.”

“Mortal hearing is not that bad.”

“That’s what he said, right?” Kaylin turned to Bellusdeo.

“Kaylin is correct.”

The Arkon seemed disinclined to accept Bellusdeo’s opinion. “Corporal?”

“It is also what I heard.” As he so often did, Severn chose to speak in Barrani when speaking with the Dragons.

“He is in need of intervention.”

Hope sat up, shifting position in one fluid motion that involved more than the usual amount of exposed claw digging into Kaylin’s collarbone.

All of her companions fell instantly silent as Hope raised a wing to cover Kaylin’s eyes.

* * *

“We need to get out of the street,” Kaylin said, her voice low, the words urgent. “Come on. We need to move now.”

No one argued—not even Sedarias. “Which building is likely to be real?”

“That one. The one closest to us.” It was the building she thought of as Larrantin’s, although when—and if—it had been a normal building, it had been occupied by far more people than a single Barrani.

They moved quickly, and only when they reached—and opened—the doors did the Arkon speak. His words clashed with Sedarias’s, but the Barrani High Lord immediately gave way.

“What did you see?”

“People,” Kaylin said. “Invisible people. Until Hope lifted his wing, I saw an empty, flat circle of grass with a bunch of trees on it.”

“Were any of these people the two you saw behind Killianas?”

“I didn’t take the time to really look. I can go back out in a bit—but I’m fairly certain we were spotted. We’re not exactly being stealthy; we didn’t approach using the buildings for cover.” She wanted to strangle Terrano because she was almost certain that whatever it was that allowed these people to be here in this form was directly or indirectly his fault.

Oddly, it was Ynpharion who answered what wasn’t a question. It was. But Terrano was a child. A dangerous child, yes. He did not care about the effects of his teachings on any but the cohort, as you call them—and the cohort were safe.

They weren’t so safe when Alsanis was attacked.

The Arcanists have always been ambitious. He planted a seed, and they grew it. I do not know, he added, a hint of worry in his tone, what has grown from it, or how large it has become.

We’re probably about to find out.

I doubt you will see all of it. He paused, and then added, Survive, Kaylin. This was surprising enough that she almost missed a step. On flat ground.

“I need to put this down,” Kaylin told the Arkon. “I can’t fight while carrying it.”

“Physical combat should not, at this point, be your concern,” was the Arkon’s reply. He turned to Bellusdeo. “Do not even think it. This hall was not meant to accommodate