Kaylin was outraged.
Annarion dropped a hand to her shoulder but said nothing.
“And you have no chance of personally stopping me?” Bellusdeo asked.
“None whatsoever,” Teela replied, smiling. “But I would appreciate it if you did not involve Kaylin, because Kaylin stands even less of a chance and feels compelled to try.”
Maggaron climbed up Bellusdeo’s back. If Teela’s words upset him, it didn’t show—but Maggaron didn’t speak much. His native tongue was not Elantran.
Bellusdeo exhaled a small plume of fire.
“Can you hurry?” Annarion surprised them all by saying. “I think something’s gone wrong.”
* * *
Bellusdeo was halfway to Mandoran when Mandoran disappeared. Given the grim expression on Annarion’s and Allaron’s faces, Kaylin guessed that they could no longer hear him. They certainly couldn’t see him. She glanced at Teela, whose eyes were now on Bellusdeo. The Barrani Hawk’s expression was grim, but shaded more toward frustration and disgust than actual worry.
“Tell me,” she said, her throat elongated by her rising chin, “why I haven’t strangled him.”
“Beats me. I know why I haven’t.”
“You can’t.”
“Pretty much. You two think he’s gone to wherever Terrano went?”
“Probably. It’s the same—there’s no fear and just a faint hint of surprise, and then silence. Nightshade?”
“I was sleeping at the time. I have no idea how or where he vanished, and no idea what he was feeling. But...if he were actively fighting for his life before he blinked out, I think I’d probably know.” She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted to catch Bellusdeo’s attention. “Don’t go higher!”
Bellusdeo had seen Mandoran’s disappearance. Inclination aside, she wasn’t stupid or reckless. And she had Maggaron with her; from what little Kaylin had seen, he was the steadying influence and possibly the only person present who could talk sense into her and have her listen.
Which, all things considered, probably wasn’t saying much. But she circled the area beneath which Mandoran had been drifting when he had disappeared.
“What do you see?”
“Border zone,” the Dragon replied. “It extends in all directions for as far as I can see. Which follows his comment about fog. I can’t see Nightshade. I can’t see Liatt. If I could go higher, I might.”
“Please don’t. Let’s try to follow the actual zone from the ground.”
“That didn’t stop Nightshade from disappearing.”
Fair enough. But at least they would all be together.
* * *
“What do you think the border zone is?” Teela asked as they once again resumed their march through theoretical backyards and the alleys made by the sides of buildings.
Kaylin shrugged.
“Why do you think it exists?”
“Until yesterday or the day before, I didn’t think about the border zone much. It’s not supposed to be safe.”
“The fiefs weren’t safe, given Ferals. And the buildings seem to be relatively solid.”
“We didn’t spend a lot of time playing in the border zone. People were rumored to have entered it and never escaped.”
“Or entered it and crossed into a different fief?”
“If they never returned, no one could question them.” She exhaled. “The border zone wasn’t solid. It’s not like you could find a place to live—an empty place—and cross back into the fiefs. If it worked that way, the border zone would be occupied. It wouldn’t be empty. The Ferals didn’t cross those borders; they came from Ravellon and returned to Ravellon.”
“And you know this how?”
Kaylin shrugged again. Trying not to sound as defensive as she felt, she said, “We were kids. We were trying our best to survive. People we mostly trusted gave us advice; we followed it. Why didn’t matter. Keep your eyes open; we’re looking for a cross street that doesn’t run to the fief on either side.”
“What did the Arkon have to say about the border zone?”
Kaylin almost shrieked. “Nothing useful at all. But to be fair, we were asking about Killian. Mostly. Bellusdeo thinks he was hiding something.”
“She didn’t ask?”
“If it’s something complicated, he generally says I’d die of old age before he adequately explained it.”
“That’s possibly true. I’d bet you pass away from aggravated boredom first, though.”
“Very funny, Teela.”
“Thank you.”
“If you two could stop bickering,” Annarion said, “I think we might have found something.”
“How? You can’t even see.”
“Teela can. Jog to the right at the corner. I think that’s like your signposts.”
“They’re not my signposts, and what do you mean?”
“There’s a pole in the ground with a small sign sticking out of it. Well, two small signs. It looks similar to the ones you have all over the city.”
* * *
Kaylin had reached the signpost that Annarion had seen; she nearly missed it because it was obscured by what appeared to be trees.
Trees in the border zone.
Even the backyards of the buildings here had been flat and gray; they implied either dead grass or dirt. But here, on this street, there were trees. Gray trees, for the most part; the leaves had a bit of color, but color in the border zone was tricky.
She reached the signpost. It was at the corner of two intersecting streets. The two signs on the post were white lettering on gray—but it was lettering that Kaylin had difficulty reading.
“You would,” Teela said softly.
Kaylin didn’t bridle. “What’s the language?”
“It’s Barrani—but the letter forms are not modern. I was taught this in my childhood; it is not used much now.” She turned to Annarion. “Can you read it?”
He nodded.
“The modern forms were simplified,” Teela continued. “And the road I think we want to follow is the one that continues farther down. At least this time we won’t be crawling through backyards with lamentably poor fences.”
* * *
Bellusdeo said, “I recognize this road.”
Kaylin didn’t. “You’re sure?”
Dragon smoke was most of Bellusdeo’s reply. “It heads down, but curves; the corner is gradual, and when the road reaches its end, it will open into a space that is blessedly free of your cramped, ground-based streets. We walked through it when we left Killian’s building.”
Bellusdeo had immortal memory. Kaylin’s memory of streets was etched in slowly by familiarity and patrolling. She was certain the Dragon was right, and she tried to pay attention to the curve of the street and the way the buildings changed as they followed that curve. She realized that Bellusdeo was right: she could see the building in which they’d found—or been found by—Killian. That building was one of a few that were arranged in a circle around a circular road; in the center of that were more trees and what might have been a normal park, if not for the lack of color.
Would you have recognized this street if you’d found it? Kaylin asked Severn.
If I were walking it with you? Probably.
So it’s not racial. It’s me.
There are things you recognize that neither of us would. You’re not going to be able to compete with Barrani or Dragons for recall. None of us could. But neither she nor I thought that Killian was somehow a building.
“Can any of you hear Terrano or Mandoran?”
Teela shook her head.
“My brother?” Annarion asked.
“No, sorry. On the other hand, he’d probably be disgusted at most of what I’m thinking now.”
“I doubt it,” Teela said.
The curve o
f the street widened before it ended. The buildings were now almost stately; they looked like buildings that might once have housed guilds in a bygone era. Normal people hadn’t lived in them, but might have worked in them. It was hard to tell without examining the interiors.
Kaylin, studying those exteriors in an attempt to bludgeon them into memory, frowned. “Could we take a look at the inside of that building?”
“Try to stay focused, kitling.”
“I am. I think I caught movement in the upper windows. And they’re real windows, not shuttered gaps in the wall.” She turned to Bellusdeo. “You’re going to have to ditch the Dragon form if you want to go through those doors.”
The Dragon’s grin was all teeth. “I beg to differ.”
It took all present members of the cohort some time to talk her out of simply removing the front third of the building—and it mostly came down to structural stability. The loss of great chunks of a possible load-bearing wall would make any exploration unsafe for some of the people present.
And by some, they meant Kaylin.
* * *
Maggaron remained outside with Severn. If he resented this, it didn’t show. While he wasn’t fond of the streets here, it appeared that his view of the buildings and their construction had moved slowly to overlap with the views of all of the people who could see them.
The fog, however, was thinning as they approached the end of the road. The cohort, with the exception of Teela, couldn’t see the building Kaylin wanted to explore. They couldn’t see the movement in the big windows, either.
Kaylin frowned. “Do you think the cohort itself is visible here?”
“We can see them,” Bellusdeo said.
“We already know they’re here. I mean—” She struggled to find words and gave up because the right words would take too long. The wrong words generally took too long as well, but for other reasons.
“I think everyone but Teela should stay outside.”
Allaron nodded. Annarion’s lips compressed into a tighter line, but he said nothing. Or nothing that people who weren’t part of the group mind could hear. Teela was examining the doorway—a peaked arch that nonetheless contained two wide rectangular doors beneath what looked to be a stone crest of some kind.
“If the doors are locked,” Bellusdeo said, “can I break them?”
“Kaylin can pick the locks if they’re not magical,” Teela replied, which was a no.
“There’s little chance that the doors are not magically locked,” the Dragon said. “I don’t care if the signs are written in an ancient variant of Barrani—magic is not a modern contrivance.”
They both looked at Kaylin. Kaylin’s skin, as they approached the doors in question, remained normal. If there was magic here, it wasn’t the type that caused her pain.
She reached the doors first and pushed against them. She was surprised when they rolled open.
* * *
The doors opened into a large hall. A desk very reminiscent of the long bar—she took care never to call it that out loud while standing anywhere near it—in the Imperial Library was the first thing they could see, but beyond that, a large hall with an open gallery that was no doubt meant for the public continued into the immediate distance. Stairs stood to the right of the desk, their width also implying a public that was nowhere in sight.
The second thing Kaylin noticed on the interior of this building was the color. Had she not come through streets of washed-out grays, this would have been a normal, if somewhat upscale, Elantran building. The woods were brown; the stone floor was gray; the emblems painted across the wall behind the bar were a bright sea of colors: reds, golds, blues. The doors had not magically slammed shut at their backs, which, given everything, was a bit of a surprise.
Do you recognize the emblem? Kaylin asked her partner.
I don’t. I believe that’s supposed to be a sun.
And the blue bits?
Not weapons, not any Barrani regalia I recognize. But I think it’s Barrani work.
“Don’t you think this kind of looks like the library? I mean, the Arkon’s library?”
“But without the books and the librarians?”
“Yes. I mean—the big desk here. And the big open hall. It’s like it’s meant for people to visit.” Kaylin headed toward the stairs. Teela caught her by the arm.
“Not you.”
“I can—”
“I’ll go first.”
Kaylin shut her mouth. Teela was right. They had no idea who—or what—was upstairs. If Candallar was somehow involved in anything that was happening, it could very well be an unknown Barrani, and if that was the case, Teela—or Bellusdeo—was a much better choice to take point.
Kaylin did feel the tingle across her arms and legs; Teela was playing it safe.
“The large windows were probably public-facing or publicly accessible,” Teela said, speaking quietly as she mounted the stairs. She examined them before she ascended, and her ascent was slow. Caution generally was, judging by the number of people who abandoned it in frustration.
The stairs seemed to continue beyond the second story, at which Teela, Bellusdeo and Kaylin stopped. A hall—a wide hall—continued straight ahead and to the left; the stairs formed part of a large corner, and doors adorned both sides of the walls in the hall itself. The hall straight ahead continued until it reached large double doors; the doors along the hall were single doors, but wide. To the left—which was the direction Teela took—the hall ended in a wall that implied another corner. There were steps there, as well.
The halls were lit. There were no lamps to provide that light, and no obvious windows. The floor itself was a dark-grain wood, with something like marble straight down a narrow width of the center, as if it were intended to be a carpet replacement. Teela took a step onto the wood, knelt and examined that stone. “Stick to the sides of the hall,” she said as she rose.
Kaylin nodded. The floors, however, didn’t “feel” more magical to her skin; she suspected the magic she could detect was all courtesy of Teela. And Bellusdeo.
Hope, throughout their walk in the border zone, rested across her shoulders in a limp blanket flop. He now rose to sit on her left shoulder but did so at his leisure. He didn’t lift his wing, either. Whatever Kaylin could see here, he considered good enough.
That held until Teela paused in front of a door that appeared identical to every other closed door in either hall, except for the end doors. The Barrani Hawk glanced at the Dragon, and Bellusdeo, who’d been pulling up the rear, nodded and joined her.
Kaylin had to press herself into the nearest wall to allow the Dragon to pass.
Bellusdeo, however, looked at the door that Kaylin hadn’t managed to approach. “I see it. Kaylin?”
Kaylin took Teela’s spot as Teela moved, again using the wall. “...It’s a door.”
“Are there no marks or words on it, for you?”
“You mean like a nameplate?”
Bellusdeo nodded.
“No. It’s a door. It’s about this wide,” she added, spreading her palms. “It’s a reddish-brown wood with no scratches and no marks. There’s a handle, not a knob, and the handle is like new brass.”
“But you see no name and no marks that imply a name?”
Kaylin shook her head. “You do?”
Teela nodded. She glanced at Bellusdeo, who also nodded.
“What does it say?”
It was Bellusdeo who answered. “The letterforms are old, but I believe it says Larrantin.” Teela said nothing.
Kaylin’s hand fell to her dagger; Hope hissed in her ear. She withdrew the hand. “Hope’s alert but—I don’t think he thinks we’re walking into an ambush.”
I don’t wish you to turn an encounter into an ambush, Hope then said.
Teela accepted Hope’s opinion as gracefully as she usually d
id; her eyes were blue, but not the shade of midnight that indicated death was probably imminent. Bellusdeo’s were orange, but a darker orange.
“Hope says there’s no Shadow here at all,” Kaylin told the Dragon.
I did not.
The orange shaded away from the red it had been heading to.
Teela opened the door.
* * *
It was a very anticlimactic door opening. There was no magic, no visible signs of barriers being either invoked or dropped; there wasn’t even a creak of hinges—and given the probable age of this building, that certainly implied magic. Or lack of solidity.
The room wasn’t empty. A man—Barrani—stood by the window. The window, however, wasn’t what held his attention; that was the shelves he was facing. They started at the floor and reached to the ceiling, and appeared to cover most of the wall. They were lined with books. The only other time Kaylin had seen so many books was in the Imperial Library, and she automatically stilled as they came into view. There were few crimes that would cause her as much trouble as damaging or destroying those books.
Teela walked into the room; Bellusdeo followed.
Only when her companions passed through the Barrani man did Kaylin blink. They walked directly to the window to look at the streets below. They didn’t notice the occupant of the room, and the occupant didn’t seem to notice them.
He did, however, look up as Kaylin followed her companions. His face was shadowed by light as he turned from the window; he mouthed a word and the walls—or ceiling—brightened. There were no obvious lights, but clearly, as in the halls, none were needed.
As the light touched him, it transformed him. He remained Barrani, but color deepened; his skin was pale, yes, and his height was the Barrani norm; his eyes were blue. It was his hair that was strange: it wasn’t the pure black of Teela’s, Tain’s or any other Barrani with the exception of the Consort; it appeared to be gray. Streaks of white nestled within the length of the expected black and fell around his shoulders like liquid.
Cast in Wisdom Page 19
