Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,118

the shiver built to a shudder. Kaylin took an involuntary step back; Hope bit her ear, and she stopped moving.

“You know,” she told the familiar, “you could just speak.”

His teeth hadn’t caused bleeding, but he hadn’t let go of her ear lobe, which implied he was keeping that option open. Since his mouth was occupied, he probably couldn’t speak clearly. He didn’t try.

Bellusdeo hadn’t taken the same step back that she had, and the Arkon’s hand still rested against what had been featureless, endless stone moments before. Kaylin should have been surprised when the wall began to crumble. She could hear the sound of stone hitting stone, but could see nothing as she watched.

“It is,” the Arkon said, his hand still raised, “a door ward. Of a kind. I advise you not to move.”

“Can you lower your hand?”

The question seemed to annoy him. “I advise you not to move and not to speak.”

Bellusdeo’s chuckle was low and brief. “It does my heart good to see you thus,” she told the older Dragon. “It is so very, very nostalgic.”

If the Arkon heard her at all, he made no reply; Kaylin suspected that he hadn’t. She could see only his face in profile, but the width of his eyes, the fact that the lower membrane was open, and the hint—it was hard to see color from this vantage—of silver implied surprise. Wonder.

She understood that there was something the Arkon wanted from Killian and from this place. She thought, in the moment that the wall vanished, she understood what it was.

* * *

He held out his hand to Bellusdeo. She took it without comment. “Kaylin.”

She waited for the rest of the words; she got a frustrated snort of smoke instead.

“I believe he intends that you either take my hand,” Bellusdeo said, “or grab his arm or shoulder—something that you can easily reach. He is not certain that we will not be separated.”

I concur, Nightshade said. I admit I am envious. Our lunch, such as it is, is nowhere near as fascinating or compelling as what has become of your word, Chosen.

I’d switch places, if I could. Can you see the rest of the student body?

They have not yet closed the hall’s doors.

They close the doors?

I believe it is to indicate that those who are late will have to wait for the next meal.

Kaylin would never have been late. She looked as Nightshade looked, and felt both dismay and disgust.

You may see Barrani miscreants at any time. You might never see what the Arkon and Bellusdeo are seeing again.

And if I’m not looking at it, you won’t see it, either?

Exactly.

We’re kind of trapped in this place. So is your brother. We don’t have a lot of—She raised her free arm to cover her eyes as a flash of incandescent light reminded her of old admonitions about staring at the sun: don’t do it, or you’ll go blind.

Blinking, she felt the Arkon move and tightened her grip on his shoulder. He didn’t run; she didn’t lose him. But she forgot about the dining hall; she needed to see what was in front of her eyes, when she could see again at all.

* * *

The gold-white light was slow to clear, as if the light itself had been the detritus of an active Arcane bomb, and the light that remained, the aftershock of its explosion. She felt Hope’s wing bat her face and come to rest across her eyes. Since her eyes were watering, the wing didn’t immediately reveal any new visual information.

“Kaylin?”

“I’m here,” she said in response to Bellusdeo. “I’m attached to the Arkon’s shoulder, and my eyes are watering. Yours?”

The Arkon muttered something about mortal eyes, which was brief and not complimentary. It was, on the other hand, an answer.

Kaylin had expected to be in a room—a large room, like the first of Killian’s rooms had been. This was not where she was. She was now in a dimly lit room, much of the illumination provided by the rune she had deliberately lifted off her own skin.

The Arkon, however, spoke a terse word, which washed across her skin like moving sandpaper. The whole of the immediate view became instantly brighter and clearer. Kaylin tried not to resent it.

“The reason we did not attempt to cast a simple light spell,” the Arkon said, although Kaylin had said nothing, “is that we could not do it.”

“What?”

“I did try. Bellusdeo?”

The gold Dragon shrugged.

“Your light was necessary; it was not a test. While I have no qualms about