Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,16

meeting the gaze of that single eye, saw light begin to spread across her field of vision, moving as if it were white fire. And then, before she could cover her eyes with more than her eyelids, the light went out. With it went the earth beneath her feet.

Chapter 4

“Really, really never boring,” Bellusdeo said.

Kaylin opened her eyes, which made no effective difference. They were standing—Kaylin knelt briefly to place a tentative hand down—on stone. Hope was with her; the membrane of his wing remained pressed against her eyes.

“We don’t have time for this,” Kaylin said to no one in particular.

“Unless it’s relevant to the Candallar problem,” Bellusdeo pointed out. “And it may well be. Or perhaps it’s a different Candallar problem.”

“There’s no Shadow here.”

“No,” the Dragon replied after a pause.

“Can you see anything?”

“Yes, but not well. It’s dark here, but it’s a normal darkness.” The Dragon then spoke three sharp words, a thunder of syllables emphasizing each one. “It’s not a magical darkness. How are your arms?”

“Sore, given the spell you just cast.”

“Better or worse?”

“I’d like you not to use me as your hotter-colder tool, if it’s all the same to you.”

“Why not? It’s practical. You generally appreciate the practical.”

“I’d suggest,” a familiar voice said, “that we keep discussion to a minimum.” It was Severn.

“You looked at the eye?”

It looked at me.

How new did the stone of this building look to you?

In comparison to the rest of the buildings in the border zone, very new.

Thought so. It seems to be in remarkably good shape for a...block of stone. With a moving eye in the wall. Bellusdeo thinks it’s a coffin. Or she thought it might be, on account of no windows or doors. I don’t suppose you’ve found any corpses?

No. I’ve done little scouting here. I haven’t explored the whole of the building, but there doesn’t seem to be an exit so far.

Great. Just great. To Hope she said, “Can you breathe on a wall and melt us a way out of here?”

“I don’t think melting that wall,” Bellusdeo said, her voice lower, “will necessarily get us back to where we were.”

“It didn’t feel like a portal to me.”

“No?”

“Am I on my hands and knees struggling not to throw up?”

“No. I would be willing to make a bet, though.”

“Stakes?”

Bellusdeo snorted. Fire followed smoke; it was a slender stream of flame that didn’t appear to be directed at anything but air. “Do you consider illumination safe?”

“I’d take the risk,” Severn replied before Kaylin could. Bellusdeo spoke again, and a light appeared, suspended at shoulder height. Unlike the flame, it was bright, its color steady. “You should be the one doing this,” she added to Kaylin.

“That’s not what Sanabalis has been teaching me. Not that I’ve had time for his lessons for a little while now.”

“I fail to see why you cannot miss Lord Diarmat’s so-called lessons instead; Lord Sanabalis’s lessons seem to be far more practical.”

“I believe the Hawklord and the Emperor consider not causing offense to the rich and powerful to be more practical than creating lights. The lights can be bought or commandeered; an attempt to placate the aforementioned powerful—” Severn began.

“—can also be bought.”

“For far more money or other less desirable concessions. We’re still suffering the repercussions of your unexpected visit to the West March.”

“That wasn’t my fault!” Kaylin snapped.

“No. It wasn’t Bellusdeo’s, either. But the fact of her presence could be—and has been—used as a justification for political unrest among the Barrani.”

“Etiquette lessons wouldn’t have prevented that!” She wanted to shout; she hissed instead.

“No, probably not. I’m not the Hawklord or the Emperor; I don’t get to make that decision. What do you see here?”

She turned in the direction of Severn’s back, which wasn’t transparent. Moving to his left, she squinted through Hope’s raised wing.

“A statue, or a series of statues. Or reliefs. There’s a wall there, right?”

“I see only an unbroken wall.”

“I see what the corporal sees,” Bellusdeo added.

“Hey—I’m a corporal now, too.”

“Fine. I see what Severn sees.”

“Let me take point,” Kaylin told her partner.

Severn nodded. It was Bellusdeo who spoke. “Don’t touch anything without giving the rest of us some warning.”

* * *

The ground was, and remained, stone beneath her feet. The wall, which had seemed attached to the ceiling and the floor in the usual way, was farther from where Kaylin had been standing than it had first appeared; either that or the ground was enchanted in a particularly annoying way. It wouldn’t be the first time this had happened, although the first