Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,117
to speak with him, we might not be here now. I do not know what you were thinking; I know that this word, this true word, is part answer and part question.”
Kaylin looked at the word. She reached up to touch it; it was as solid as it appeared to be to her eyes. When she closed her palm around it, she could pull it down. She didn’t try to stuff it back onto her skin. Instead, she turned to her left, faced the featureless stone wall, and pushed the rune into—or onto—the stone itself.
“What are you doing?” Bellusdeo’s voice was sharp.
“Experimenting?”
“In the current situation, that is not comforting. Honestly, I begin to see why Terrano and Mandoran like you so much.”
To Kaylin’s shock, the Arkon said, “We are in an entirely new situation, about which we know very little. Without some experimentation, we might be trapped here in both literal and figurative ignorance.”
“I would like Kaylin not to lose her hand or her arm.”
“She is right-handed, and she is cautious enough to experiment with the hand that is not dominant.”
Two streams of smoke filled the hall. Even had Kaylin not been occupied, stepping between two Dragons who were annoying each other never seemed like the brightest of ideas.
The word, the rune, stuck to the rock. It flattened there slowly, as if melting, and lost dimensionality as it did. It didn’t lose its essential shape or color; it remained a glowing, gold rune on the surface of the wall, as if that stone were skin.
“What do you see?” Kaylin asked the Arkon, her gaze fixed to that single word.
“A word has appeared on the wall, at the height of your shoulder. It is glowing.”
“It looks like a door ward,” Bellusdeo added, studying it. “Is that what you see?”
Kaylin nodded. “Yes, to all of it.”
“You hate door wards.”
“I know. I was just thinking that myself, but with ruder words.” She grimaced and lifted her left hand. “But this one shouldn’t cause actual pain to touch, if that’s what it is.”
“Would you like me to try it? I generally open the Imperial doors, and it cannot be as odious as the ward on the library.” This was said to Kaylin but clearly meant for the Arkon.
Kaylin shrugged. “It’s not a door ward. It should be fine.” And if it wasn’t, the last person she wanted to touch it was Bellusdeo. The Emperor would sacrifice them all in a heartbeat if it preserved the sole female Dragon in the Empire.
The Arkon said, “Move. Both of you.”
Kaylin lowered her left arm.
The Arkon raised his.
“Is the book you’re carrying not cold?”
The mound of the Arkon’s palm made contact with the wall, almost entirely covering the rune Kaylin had placed there. “Cold?”
“When I carry it, it’s like I’ve brought the worst of winter with me—and I’m dressed for summer. It’s cold.”
“It is cold, yes,” the Arkon then replied.
“But don’t you—”
“Cold is not one of the things that will kill a Dragon.”
“What we cover in racial integration classes is not how to kill a Dragon. For obvious reasons.”
“If you wish to take umbrage at—” The Arkon stopped. His hand remained against the wall, but the rune that his palm had covered had spread somehow. The major line that formed the bulk of its shape crept out, to the left and the right of that hand; the smaller dots or strokes that formed the rest spread, as well. The whole of the word, absent only the Arkon’s hand, could be seen—almost as if the wall had been built to contain it.
No, not just the wall. The upper and lower elements of the simple word continued to spread. When they reached the corners made by floor and ceiling, they didn’t bend to encompass either that floor or ceiling. They seemed to vanish, but watching, Kaylin was certain that they were simply reaching for unseen heights—or depths.
The line that had been the majority of the word continued its spread to the left and right, thickening as it did. She could no longer see the beginning—or the end—of the line; it seemed to be part of the wall on which it had been placed. The Arkon’s touch had enlarged it, somehow. Kaylin wasn’t certain if the Arkon had done something deliberate, but if he had, it was something inaudible and invisible to her eyes.
When the whole of the wall for as far as she could see in either direction was now a golden, glowing gold, the wall itself began to shiver;