Cast in Wisdom

by Michelle Sagara

  Kaylin chose a section of the border midway between safety—Elantra—and death, being Ravellon. A street, with buildings on either side, was bisected by the border. Like any neighborhood border, it was invisible; a thing for laws and papers, a claim that made no material difference to the lay of the land. But invisible in the fiefs had a different weight, a different meaning.

  Here, the borders weren’t a matter of bureaucracy and maps. The Towers that existed in each fief were the reason the fiefs existed at all: they were meant to guard against the intrusion of Shadow in a specific area known to the Towers and their creators. The fieflords could sense the borders of the fiefs whose Towers they ruled.

  Bellusdeo let Severn take the lead, but her eyes shaded to orange when Hope lifted a translucent wing and smacked it across Kaylin’s eyes.

  Kaylin called a silent halt; Severn stopped. If True Names had done nothing else for their partnership, they’d allowed communication across distances that raised voices wouldn’t penetrate.

  For the first time, Kaylin could see the border boundary. It wasn’t a line on the ground, but a transparent wall. Perhaps double her height, it extended in either direction. Her gaze followed the line of that wall, first to the city that was her home, and second, to the heart of the fiefs themselves: Ravellon. There, the wall was not wall, but dome.

  Hope didn’t lower his wing.

  Sorry, Kaylin told Severn. There’s nothing dangerous that I can see—but I’ve never looked at the border like this before.

  He nodded and continued to move. When he sent an all-clear, Kaylin followed, Bellusdeo by her side.

  * * *

  Dragons weren’t naturally stealthy creatures. Although Bellusdeo didn’t make any noise, she radiated an almost aggressive self-confidence. Kaylin was fairly certain she could walk on her own and go unmolested in Nightshade—or Candallar. The tabard of the Hawk couldn’t grant Kaylin that aura of certainty or confidence.

  Crossing the border of Tiamaris didn’t feel different. It looked different because of Hope’s wing, but she could step through it without the pain and nausea caused by portals or other forms of protective magic. The world rippled as she did, but it was the same ripple a stone might cause if dropped into a still pond.

  Reality reasserted itself, but in doing so, seemed to have lost some of its color. This she’d experienced before. The street beneath her feet felt the same, but it seemed to her eyes like a faded replica—as if someone had taken white and blended it with everything present to soften the vibrancy of distinguishing color. This was, on the other hand, what the border zone always looked like, even without Hope’s wing.

  Kaylin looked to the right as she crossed the weed-strewn lawn of the building directly to their left. From this vantage, she could see a two-story building opposite a three-story one. It looked unlike any of the other buildings on this street; for one, it seemed new. It also lacked windows and doors. She frowned as Severn turned toward it.

  “Roof?”

  “Flat, at least from this angle.”

  The Dragon glanced at Severn. “Investigate?”

  “Leave it,” Kaylin said, regretting Bellusdeo’s presence. It was harder to take calculated risks while in the company of the future of an entire race.

  Hope squawked.

  “...or not.” Kaylin turned back to the windowless, doorless building.

  * * *

  “Have you seen something like the border zone before?” Kaylin asked the Dragon as they approached a street-facing solid wall.

  The Dragon shook her head. “There were no Towers, no protective ring of fiefs around the Ravellon that existed in my world.” She stretched out a hand to touch what appeared to be a stone wall. “This feels solid to me. It smells solid. It would not surprise me if people were living in the buildings here. If they can enter them.”

  It had never occurred to Kaylin to live in the border zone.

  It is not safe, Hope said, the squawks that formed syllables far quieter than they usually were this close to her ear. It is not a land that was meant to be inhabited by your kind.

  “Why does it exist at all?”

  I do not know. But it is possible that the Towers and their responsibilities cannot overlap without danger to those responsibilities. Each Tower knows its own lands; each Tower must. Here, between those defining borders, they are absent.

  “And the Shadows can’t come through the border territories?”

  Look to Ravellon.

  She did. Ravellon, enclosed in a translucent, faintly shining barrier, could no longer be seen. She moved, then, to attempt to see past the squat, featureless building; Ravellon didn’t exist. She then turned in the direction they’d come. The street was clear, and it continued—pale and faded—into Tiamaris.

  “Can either of you see Ravellon?”

  Severn shook his head. Bellusdeo said, “No.”

  “Neither can I. Hope, what is this place?”

  I have already said I do not know, the familiar replied. But I see what you see. And I fail to see what you fail to see. These lands are not malleable in the fashion of the outlands and the portal paths of the Hallionne. They do not take commands or suggestions with regard to their shape. I believe they are as you see them now.

  I do not believe they are always as you see them now. There is something that tastes wrong in the air.

  “How wrong?”

  She didn’t understand Hope’s answer. It was squawking but seemed deliberate, and the tone trailed into disgust. Probably at mortals, definitely at Kaylin’s lack of comprehension.

  “Would you sense Shadow here if you saw it?”

  It was Bellusdeo who answered. “I would.”

  There was no arguing with that. Even if Kaylin was skeptical, there was still no arguing. She examined the squat cube of a building. There was no obvious door facing the street, and no obvious windows, either. The lack of both was probably what made the building seem wrong to her. That, and the color. It had some. The rest of the street was leeched of color as if by a fog that was otherwise invisible. Her hand fell to her dagger; Bellusdeo cleared her throat.

  Right. Right, she had a Dragon, and Bellusdeo could breathe fire quite comfortably in an otherwise human body.

  “Magic?” Severn asked.

  “Not yet. My skin is fine.”

  He headed around the corner of the building. No doors here.

  Back of the building?

  Heading there now.

  Hope suddenly stiffened on her shoulder; she felt the claws of his tiny feet pressing into her collarbone as he pushed himself off her shoulder, taking to air at speed. He headed directly toward Severn.

  Bellusdeo’s eyes shaded to a darker orange. “There is never a moment’s peace when you’re around, is there?”

  Kaylin shrugged. “For the record, none of this stuff is started by me. In case you hadn’t noticed.”

  “I’m not complaining,” the Dragon replied, her smile showing decidedly sharp canines. “It’s never boring.”

  “Have you seen a building like this before?”

  “In this exact shape? No. But if Severn hasn’t found an entrance on any of the outward facing sides, I’ve seen something similar.”

  “What?”

  “A very large coffin, in essence.”

  “A...coffin. Like, the kind you put dead bodies in.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because dead bodies need more room.”

  “Don’t ask me. It’s not the way we honor our dead—but you’d find that disturbing.”

  “I don’t think we’re going to be worried about coffins. Unless it’s our own.” She clenched her jaw.

  “Magic?”

  “My arms are beginning to ache.”

  * * *

  Whatever you find, pay attention to Hope. He flew off in your direction. Bell
usdeo and I will come around the other side; I’ll let you know if it has a door, and we’ll regroup at the back of the building.

  Severn didn’t reply. She could feel his presence; they hadn’t been cut off by any of the bizarre dislocations that could happen within Hallionne and other sentient buildings.

  There were no doors on the right side of the building. There were no doors on the back of it, either. There was, however, something in the middle of an otherwise featureless stone wall: an eye. At first glance, the eye appeared to be carved in relief. But that first glance became a second one when the stone lid blinked, and the curve of lashes both closed and opened.

  “Magic,” Kaylin said.

  “You think?” Bellusdeo took a step toward that eye, and Hope got in her face. Literally.

  Severn was nowhere to be seen.

  “He’s not on the other side of the building, is he?”

  No.

  “Is this eye some sort of warped portal?”

  Yes.

  “Do you know where it goes?”

  Silence.

  “Come back and lend me your wing.” Hope checked to make certain that Bellusdeo didn’t approach the eye a second time. He then alighted on Kaylin’s shoulder, but he was ramrod straight and tense. She could feel a slight tremor in the wing that now rested against her upper face.

  She examined the eye at a safe distance, which would be the same distance that Hope had demanded Bellusdeo keep.

  Beneath Hope’s wing, the eye didn’t look like carved stone. It looked and moved the way a normal eye did—if a normal eye were the size of her head. It had an eyelid, lashes; she couldn’t tell, at this vantage, if it had the normal pupil, iris and white bits. She moved, taking a step back to widen her field of vision.

  The movement caught the eye’s attention, and it shifted toward her.

  Yes, it had the pupil, iris and white bits a normal eye contained. But as it caught sight of Kaylin, it strained to face her. The angle was wrong; the side-glance was the most that single eye could attain. Or it would have been the most Kaylin could have done if she couldn’t physically move her face.

  As if it could hear this observation, the wall shifted. The stone didn’t magically develop facial features, but the wall moved as if it were a face, until the eye was fully facing both Kaylin and Bellusdeo.

  Hope inhaled.

  Kaylin, 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 time had been during training with the Hawks. Magic was often a criminal tool, and a subtle use of magic involved running in place. Or rather, making your pursuers run in place.

  That magic, on the other hand, Kaylin could generally detect. Standing above it would be painful. At the moment, there was enough background use of magic that she couldn’t sep
arate spells in any useful fashion, but she had a strong suspicion that the floor itself was not a clever way of keeping her at a distance.

  No. The wall was simply farther away than she had realized.

  She gestured, and Severn followed, Bellusdeo by his side.

  “You still see the wall?” Kaylin asked.

  “Stone block wall. The stone is smooth; there are no marks on it at all.”

  “I see reliefs carved across its surface.” She hesitated, and then said, “But not by anyone with any artistic sensibility.”

  Bellusdeo snorted. “By that you mean your sensibilities?”

  “Not exactly.” She lifted a hand. Hope smacked her face with the wing she was looking through, and she lowered her hand again. “I...don’t think this is actually carved.” To Hope she said, “Can you let Severn look?”

  No.

  “You’ve done it before.”

  No.

  “You have—”

  What I did there was not what can be done here with any safety. We are not near the portal paths. We are not near the outlands. He holds your name. He has other ways of seeing what you see. This last was accompanied by a second smack.

  “He doesn’t like to do that.”

  Hope tightened his grip on her shoulder.

  Hope says—

  I guessed, Severn replied, speaking internally. He asked permission without using the actual words, and she gave it. In his position, she wasn’t certain she’d ask.

  I think you’re right.

  “You think these used to be people.”

  He nodded.

  “Do you recognize any of them?”

  She expected the answer to be no. Or perhaps she hoped that it would be. He directed her gaze to the wall. “Bellusdeo?”

  The Dragon nodded.

  “When I was being grilled by Ironjaw one afternoon, you wandered off to Missing Persons.”

  “I did.”

  “Did you look through our current Records of unsolved cases?”

  “I did.”

  Hope sighed. Loudly. In Kaylin’s ear. She lost sight of the reliefs that might not be the work of an artist as the familiar pushed himself off her shoulder.