Cast in Wisdom (Chronicles of Elantra #15) - Michelle Sagara Page 0,160

damaged—but disjointed, as if seen through a broken mirror.

No one moved; Sedarias seemed to be examining the floor. As it was the floor across which they’d otherwise be moving, Kaylin did the same. But even the floor, like the shelving and the hint of distant wall, was cracked and disconnected. It wasn’t like the bits of portals that were certain death; it was different. This was the library—but Kaylin didn’t like their odds of surviving should they attempt to move across it.

Starrante didn’t like those odds either, because the only thing that moved now was his head. And his mouth.

“What have they done?” he finally asked, apparently of no one.

“I believe they attempted—or Candallar attempted—to break the power of the Arbiters within this space.” It was Sedarias who answered.

Kaylin swallowed. “Where is the Arkon?” she asked.

“He is with Terrano,” Sedarias replied. “I can’t say he’s happy to be there, but they are both alive. Terrano advises us to move very, very carefully if we’re going to move at all.”

“Speak in a language I understand,” Starrante then said—in Barrani.

“My apologies, Arbiter. We have been advised not to attempt to traverse the library floor—by which I assume he means that we are not to move. The Arkon and Terrano are currently standing on a patch of floor very like the one we occupy now.”

“And the other Arbiters?” Kaylin asked—also in Barrani.

“Terrano is uncertain. Mandoran attempted to keep them in one location but believes that Kavallac might have been injured in the fracturing. There is one bit of welcome news, however. Candallar’s erstwhile allies in the library did not survive the attempt to disempower the Arbiters, and the Arkon has not once set the three books he carried aside.”

“That’s two bits,” Robin said.

* * *

“The library,” Starrante said, “is the heart of the Academia.”

“I thought it was the students. The people,” Kaylin amended, when Starrante’s head swiveled in her direction.

“If you insist on being pedantic, call them the brains of the Academia. But the library is its heart. It has been damaged,” he added, although this was unnecessary. “But the space is not yet broken.”

“I am not at all certain that Illanen will be pleased by this turn of events.” It was Sedarias who spoke, her voice laced with grim humor.

He will certainly not be, Nightshade said.

Kaylin caught—and held—the threads of his internal voice; they were muted and almost distant. How is Killian?

He has dismissed the class, Nightshade replied.

Did he finish his test?

No. The dismissal was not, in my opinion, planned. He is no longer in the classroom. Robin is with you?

Yes. Robin, Sedarias, your brother, Severn and the Dragons. Can Starrante fix what was broken?

I am not the person of whom you should ask that question, Nightshade replied. It sounded a lot like no. But the day’s schedule appears to have resumed; we are expected at our next class.

“Arbiter,” Kaylin said, remembering at the last moment to inject respect into her urgency. “Can you repair the damage to this space?”

“I am attempting to do so—I cannot assess the full extent of the damage unless we move. And we will move—but you will all have to be mindful of where you step, and how. I will repair the space beneath and around us as we move—but you will lose limbs—or worse—if you do not observe carefully where you place those limbs.

“This was not well done, on the part of the chancellor. It is clear to me that he does not understand what the library is; clear, as well, that his understanding of Killianas is flawed in the extreme. If his companions have a better understanding, they were not willing to share it.”

Kaylin doubted they did—but regardless, neither had been present when Candallar had attempted to divest the Arbiters of power.

“I don’t understand,” she admitted.

“A good first step in the gaining of knowledge,” Starrante replied. He coughed up a large blob of glistening white; it hung suspended in the air in front of his space. “Robin,” he said.

Kaylin blinked.

“Larrantin clearly had much to say about paths that could be woven and walked.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did he speak about cohesion?”

Robin’s yes was slightly more hesitant.

“Very well. If you could stand here—between the front legs, beneath my head—I would have you watch what I am about to do. You may interrupt at will, until I am finished.

“I apologize,” Starrante added. “But it is the safest place for you to stand. You have a value to Killianas that the rest of the people present lack, and it is important,