Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,116

returned to us now. The changes the Ancients made were not easily unmade by any. Nor were those chosen to become our strongest defense against Ravellon all of one people or another. But it is possible that the Tower of Nightshade had little regard for the Academia, and little regard for its purpose.

“The same might be said of the inhabitants of the other Towers, those beings who became their core. Not all of the people who lived at the time chose to devote their time and energy toward studies such as the Academia produced. I would need to see the historical records of the student body to fully ascertain what I now suspect.”

“That Karriamis was a student here?”

“Long before I was, yes. What does that expression mean?”

“I’m wondering if you know where those records would be kept.”

“Yes. You’ve been there. They were, at one time, in the building in which you found Larrantin.”

* * *

Since getting out of this long stone hall didn’t seem to be an option, checking bureaucratic student records was out of the question. Kaylin, therefore, returned her attention to the word that had risen from her skin.

“Yes,” the Arkon said, although she hadn’t asked anything of anyone, including herself.

“Why do you think Killian sent us here?”

“Safety.”

“Ours or his?”

“Both. I am, however, more concerned about Killian’s safety than our own.” His glance slid over Bellusdeo. Her smile was all teeth. “I believe he understands that he has intruders, but cannot yet differentiate between those and students.”

“There’s a child there that went missing not long ago, and he’s in Nightshade’s class. I’m not even sure he can read.”

“That is unkind.”

“Why? I could barely read until I joined the Hawks, and I was older. If reading hadn’t been a necessary part of the job—reading and writing—I wouldn’t have bothered with either.”

The Arkon looked truly scandalized, an expression unfamiliar to Kaylin.

“Knowledge for its own sake is kind of pointless. I didn’t have the time for it because the knowledge I was developing could keep me alive for another day. Staying alive for another day isn’t something that worries you. You have a palace over your head. You have all the food you could want.”

“Knowledge for its own sake,” the Arkon replied, in a less heated and less curt tone, “can become an unexpected route to survival. The understanding gained from so-called pointless study can illuminate the life you lead now in unexpected ways.”

Kaylin shrugged. “I haven’t noticed that it’s getting us anywhere right now.” She turned away from the Arkon and toward the rune that she had lifted from her skin. Not the one that shed light, but the other—the one that felt weightless, as if it were air.

“Do you know this word?” she asked the Arkon.

“Not well enough to explain it. I recognize it, but the words that I learned did not include this one. Speech of the kind you have heard from me, or from Lord Sanabalis, is more like a summoning than a discussion. The words on your skin are present; the words that we have learned are not. Not in a fashion we recognize.

“But there are more words on your skin,” he continued, when Kaylin didn’t interrupt, “and their meanings are not always clear to me. If I listen carefully, if I focus on nothing else, I can almost hear their echoes—but it is seldom that you and lack of interruption are present in the same space.”

“But you can see it.”

“Yes. As you can see the words I have spoken in your presence.”

“What do you think it means?”

“It is not my thought in the matter that is necessary, but yours. These words were given to you to speak, to use. These words are your acts of communication with the ancient and unknown. This single rune, this single word, is one that you chose.”

But she hadn’t. Not deliberately.

“I believe you chose it when you were attempting to discern how to best speak with Killian—a Killian who is not quite awake.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You have questions, then. At times, answers beget more questions, but even the questions form a type of mental path that you can approach and walk. You understand sentient buildings; you have now met several, and you live in one of them, although it is my suspicion that you might live in any of them and the buildings themselves would be happy to have you.

“I am not certain that Killian would suit either your needs or your purposes, but had you not made the first attempt