“Have things been quiet at home?”
“For a value of quiet. I believe the cohort is currently having a debate.”
“A debate or an argument?”
“Only three of them have been confined to the training room while the discussion continues.”
Definitely an argument.
“I’m beginning to understand them, or at least understand how they respond to emotional duress. Mandoran and Terrano are home,” she added.
“Sorry. Sedarias seemed to want to talk to Candallar, and Bellusdeo wanted to inspect the Ravellon border. The entire Ravellon border.”
Helen offered a sympathetic cluck of sound. “I consider Ravellon to be the greater threat. I’m not certain the Emperor will be pleased.”
“The Emperor is never pleased. At least not with me.” Bellusdeo had headed up the stairs. Kaylin hoped she was far enough away that she hadn’t heard the E word. “What, exactly, is the cohort debating?”
“Among other things? Candallar. Annarion, and therefore Solanace. Mellarionne. And also the gathering of the High Court. Some of the cohort feel that Bellusdeo’s presence will cause an all-out war on the premises of the High Halls.”
“Not likely. The desire for all-out war? Absolutely. But...the High Halls is more like a Hallionne now, and there’s no way all-out war would even be possible in a Hallionne.”
Helen coughed. Kaylin grudgingly conceded the point, given their flight from the West March and their rescue of the Hallionne Alsanis.
“Mandoran is attempting to avoid the entire discussion because he feels some pressure to return to his line, as well.”
“He said he was orphaned.”
“He has said many things, dear. And he’s Mandoran. If it allows him to avoid unpleasantness, he is likely to say anything regardless of inconvenient facts. Sedarias understands that a return to power necessitates allies and people in positions of strength.
“Serralyn has suggested that a focus on Mellarionne first would be the better plan.”
“Let me guess. That’s not Sedarias’s intended strategy.”
“As I said, there has been some heated debate.”
* * *
Dinner, served slightly earlier than usual on account of Kaylin’s lack of lunch, was sparsely attended. Mandoran and Terrano joined Kaylin at the table, but Annarion did not. Bellusdeo was apparently indisposed—Kaylin thought this might be because of the discussion with Maggaron, but didn’t ask.
The fork was halfway to her mouth when the entire room shuddered.
Mandoran dropped his head to the tabletop.
Terrano groaned.
“Do I even want to know?” Kaylin asked.
“You really, really don’t.” Terrano replied. “I’m sure I thought coming back was a good idea. Do you remember why?”
“You did miss them.”
“Yes. Being in the outlands addled my brain.”
“Speaking of the outlands,” Kaylin said as she considered and rejected everything about Sedarias’s power struggles as not her problem. “I’ve got a couple of questions for you.”
“For us collectively?”
“No—that’ll annoy Sedarias.”
He laughed. “For me, then.”
“For you. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to cross the borders between actual fiefs—not the Ravellon border, and not the city-facing perimeter—but I’d be interested to hear what you think.”
“What I think of?”
“The border zone itself.”
Terrano frowned. “The border zone? Ravellon’s border?”
She shook her head. “The border between the fiefs.”
“Which border?”
“Any border.”
“That’s where you guys went?”
“Sort of. Bellusdeo’s annoyed at Candallar, and she wanted to inspect the Ravellon border in the fief of Candallar.”
“And that led to the border zone?”
“She also wanted to check out the border zone. All of them. Since she went from Candallar into the neighboring fiefs along the Ravellon border, we managed this.”
“There’s a but coming.”
“Not really. The border zone is...not like the fiefs. It’s its own thing, and I don’t understand it. It feels like it’s almost, but not quite, like the outlands.”
“Almost but not quite? Kaylin, you are terrible with words.”
“Everything looks like it should, in theory, when you enter it. I mean, the buildings and the street continue from the non-border-side view. But everything’s washed out. It’s almost black and white; there’s a hint of color, but it’s faded.”
“People live there?”
“Not that I know of. I mean, we had things pretty tough and we didn’t try to squat in the border.”
“Why? Shadow?”
Kaylin offered him a fief shrug.
“You want me to look at the border zone?”
“I wanted to know if you wandered off track.”
“We were speaking on behalf of Sedarias. What do you think?”
Kaylin grimaced. “I think I’m going to finish dinner and go to bed. I’m not sure I want you to look at the border zone, either. I was just asking if you did. You’ve spent more time in places like the outlands than anyone else I know. I think.”
“What would you ask me if I’d gone into the border zone?”
“What you saw there. What it meant to you. When Nightshade crossed into the border zone, he couldn’t see what the rest of us saw.”
Terrano straightened up. “What do you mean, couldn’t see?”
“He saw a lot of fog. He couldn’t see the buildings the rest of us were looking at.”
“Interesting. Do you think it’s because he’s the Lord of the Tower?”
“It crossed my mind, yes. But the only other fieflord I could reasonably ask to cross into the border zone is Tiamaris—and I won’t see what he sees, or doesn’t see.”
“I’m done with dinner.” Terrano pushed his chair back and stood.
“I do not think that’s a good idea, dear,” Helen said.
“It’s information, right? It might be useful. At the moment we can use anything useful we can get our hands on.”
“I don’t think you should go alone.”
“Helen, I’m never alone anymore. I’ve got nothing to contribute to the current discussion—mostly because I don’t care—and I’m bored. Would you rather I try to alleviate my boredom here?”
“Yes, actually,” Helen replied in a more severe tone.
“Don’t give me that look,” Kaylin told Terrano. “I’m with Helen on this one.”
* * *
A wake-up call came via Helen in the middle of a night that was looking good for sleep. There were two soon-to-be mothers that Kaylin was keeping an eye on through the midwives’ guild, but neither was expecting in the immediate future, and the foundling hall had been silent, the children avoiding the sometimes life-threatening injuries that required her immediate attention. Marrin’s cub fascinated the kids in the foundling hall, and they variously positioned themselves as older sisters, older brothers or pseudo-parents.
Kaylin imagined that some of the kids were jealous or afraid—but Marrin was a Leontine, and her cub, Leontine as well, wasn’t quite as threatening to human children as a human baby would have been. On the other hand, the foundlings tended to treat the cub as a new pet. Kaylin found this more mortifying than Marrin did.
“If a mortal infant arrives on my steps—a human infant, I mean—they tend to treat the baby the same way: as a pet.”
Fair enough. Regardless, midwives and foundlings were sorted. The only thing that stood between Kaylin and sleep was the question of Hawks patrolling the fief of Tiamaris—but Marcus was in charge of the duty roster and the Hawklord
was no doubt in charge of the diplomatic hassles. While it might affect her work going forward, it wasn’t her problem.
Something, however, was, and it woke her in two stages.
She sat up in bed, instantly aware that something was wrong. No nightmare—and she still had plenty of those—drove her from sleep; she wasn’t sweating, her hands weren’t bunched in fists around the blanket, and she hadn’t instinctively grabbed the dagger that rested under her pillow.
But something was wrong. “Helen, light, please?”
The effective visual equivalent of open shutters happened almost immediately.
“What’s wrong, dear?”
Since Helen could more or less hear everything Kaylin was thinking, she knew Kaylin didn’t have an immediate answer to that question. It was an invitation to think, to assess.
“Ah, no. The cohort is awake.”
“They’re always awake. The Barrani don’t need to sleep.”
Hope, who generally slept somewhere in the vicinity of Kaylin’s face—often on the single pillow her bed possessed—was now sitting, alert, as if waiting for her to get ready.
“My apologies. It was more of an analogy than a technical description. Mandoran is on his way now.”
“On his way here?”
“Yes, dear. I think Allaron is going to join him.”
* * *
Kaylin attempted to figure out what had caused her to wake so suddenly and completely.
Nightshade.
Nightshade?
There was a core of silence where Nightshade habitually resided on the inside of her thoughts. She’d become accustomed to this; Helen generally kept those whose names she knew out of the house. Under Helen’s roof, Kaylin could guard her thoughts because, unless Helen considered it useful, the name-bound couldn’t communicate with her. Helen never kept Kaylin from initiating contact. She didn’t keep a response to the attempt beyond the walls of her house, either.
But Nightshade didn’t answer, damn it all.
Someone rapped at the door. Mandoran shouted Kaylin’s name.
Fully dressed, Kaylin walked across the comfortingly creaky floor and opened that door. Helen had been right; Mandoran, accompanied by Allaron, stood on the other side of the frame.
“Let me guess,” she said as Hope settled onto her left shoulder. “Terrano’s missing.”
Mandoran opened his mouth, shut it, and opened it again. “...We’ve lost contact with Terrano.”
Kaylin looked up at Allaron, necessary because he was significantly taller, as opposed to the usual Barrani taller. “You might as well go get Annarion.”
Allaron was briefly confused.
Mandoran wasn’t. “You can’t reach Annarion’s brother, either.” It wasn’t a question.
“Got it in one.”
“I really wish you hadn’t said that.”
“Why? Nightshade was exploring the border zone. So was Terrano. Did Terrano come across Nightshade?”
“No.”
“Did he see what I described?”
“...Not exactly.”
“Why is everything always so complicated?”
“Hey, not our fault. We didn’t make the world.”
“I’m thinking that Terrano is awfully good at breaking bits of it.”
“Nightshade was there, too.”
“I didn’t say that Nightshade wasn’t good at it himself.” She shook her head. “Honestly, I think he’d’ve made a good member of your cohort if he’d been younger and sent to the green.” Before she’d finished speaking the words, Annarion appeared. He didn’t materialize, though—he came running full tilt down the hall of otherwise closed doors, each of which fronted one of Helen’s set of individualized suites.
“Sedarias thinks you should wake the Dragon.”
Kaylin didn’t agree. She managed not to say this out loud because she was certain that Bellusdeo was now aware that something was—once again—happening in the house.
“Teela says you should stay put,” Allaron added.
“Why are you glaring at me?” Mandoran demanded.
“I’m not.”
“I didn’t tell you because I know it’s a waste of words, and there are already far too many words floating around.” He turned to Annarion. “Kaylin’s not going to stay here. What Teela wants is irrelevant.”
A door down the hall opened, and the aforementioned irrelevant opinion joined Mandoran and Allaron. “We’d better move,” Teela said, voice low enough it was almost a whisper.
But another door opened as the words left her mouth. Bellusdeo was already prepared. This time, she hadn’t bothered with the normal clothing; she was in her full golden scale armor. Maggaron was with her.
“You weren’t possibly thinking of going out without me?” The Dragon’s eyes were gold.
“No, of course not,” Kaylin said. She agreed with Mandoran. There wasn’t much point in attempting to argue when the result was a foregone conclusion.
* * *
Kaylin was accustomed to emergency forays into the streets of Elantra in the dead of night; that was often when the midwives’ guild mirrored her. But most of those emergencies involved Kaylin, and the danger was to the mother and child. It was too late to go out drinking, but this resembled—with the exception of the Dragon in gold plate—an ill-advised tavern crawl. It certainly didn’t look like a rescue crew.
Kaylin asked Allaron to stay behind with Sedarias; Allaron’s answer was a steady, almost unblinking stare.
“Bellusdeo is going with us,” Kaylin then said for Sedarias’s benefit. “Anything that can take out a Dragon could kill the rest of us with a sneeze. There’s no point in risking more people.”
“Remember what I said about arguing when there’s no point?” Mandoran then said. “And it’s not for your sake that Sedarias is sending him. It’s for his.” He nodded in the direction of a very grim, very blue-eyed Annarion. “The Dragon isn’t going to be able to restrain him if he loses it. Allaron probably can.”
“You win.” Kaylin exhaled. “I think we should start with either Tiamaris or Nightshade.”
Bellusdeo said, “Lead. We’ll follow.”
Kaylin had doubts about that, given that three of the cohort were with them. She looked at Teela.
“Where was the last place you had contact with Nightshade?” The Barrani Hawk was all business.
“He was entering the border zones between his fief and Liatt’s. I wasn’t following him closely, but I...” She frowned. “I think I was half listening. Like, when the cohort is talking out loud—stray words or the occasional shouting will catch my attention. It’s like that.”
“Did Nightshade do the equivalent of shouting?”
Kaylin shook her head. “But when you all stop talking and it’s utterly silent, I notice that, as well. It’s like the background noise is part of the house; I notice when it disappears.”
“There was no warning?”
“I was sleeping, Teela. Did Terrano give you any warning?”
“No, but he’s Terrano.”
“Is this the first time you’ve lost him? I mean, outside of the obvious?”
“Not like this,” Mandoran replied. “This is a lot more like what happened to Sedarias and the rest in the West March. There’s less panic,” he added.
“Not a lot less,” Teela said.
“I feel less panicked.” He had certainly been panicking when he’d lost contact with over half his cohort at once. “To be fair, Annarion’s making up for it.”
Annarion glared at Mandoran, but said nothing out loud.
* * *
Nightshade at night had Ferals. In fact, all of the fiefs did. In Tiamaris, there were patrols that hunted the Shadow dog packs before they could hunt the helpless. The Norannir certainly didn’t fear them. But Nightshade didn’t h
ave those patrols. Kaylin highly doubted that Candallar did, either; she suspected that Farlonne might.
“Ferals are not going to be a threat tonight.”
“Not to us.”
Teela raised a brow at Kaylin’s tone.
“I didn’t know you when I was ten. I didn’t know any of you. There are probably ten-year-olds squatting in silence hoping that the Ferals don’t find them tonight.”
The Barrani exchanged a glance. Bellusdeo and Maggaron said nothing.
Mandoran cleared his throat. “Sedarias has a question.”
“Coward.”
“It’s not my question. I wouldn’t ask it.”
“Fine.” They left the bridge into Nightshade and proceeded toward Liatt through streets that were empty and silent.
“The weak of any race and any species die. The strong survive.”
“That’s not a question.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m getting to that part.”
Sedarias, speaking through Mandoran, continued before Kaylin could answer. “You don’t weep for dogs or animals in the wild when they die, for instance.”
“They’re not people.”
“No. But you don’t know them. You don’t know the people in this fief anymore, for the most part. Why is it different? Why do you imagine that these people are somehow you, or could somehow become you?”
“Seriously?”
“We understand the grief of loss. We understand that that grief comes out of attachment. We mourn the things we no longer have. But there’s no inherent pain in the loss of strangers.”
“Stop,” Teela said out loud. Clearly, whatever she was saying on the inside of her head wasn’t reaching Sedarias.
“Why? Sedarias doesn’t understand it; she wants to understand. Does Kaylin think that all life has an inherent value? Because there’s a lot of life out there.”
“Kaylin is a Hawk. It’s her vocation, her hobby and her commitment. Hawks—”
“Enforce Imperial Law, yes.”
Cast in Wisdom Page 17
