Cast in Wisdom

by Michelle Sagara

  Candallar is the interim chancellor, Kaylin said—to both Severn and Nightshade. Neither seemed surprised.

  You expected that, surely? Nightshade asked.

  She nodded, although he couldn’t see it. We’re in the statuary that we first encountered when it wasn’t a statuary. It reminds me of your throne room. We need to get back to the library.

  That will be challenging, Nightshade said.

  The Arkon wasn’t ejected with the rest of us.

  You suffer from two misapprehensions, the fieflord said. You feel that because the Arkon is so old, he is weaker than Bellusdeo. And you believe that because he is a scholar, he is less familiar with combat. You know his history. You know that he fought in the wars. You have heard—briefly—that he was honored for his skill as a warrior.

  But he’s alone—

  No, Kaylin, he is not. I believe the reason he was not removed instantly from the library is that he could not be: he was carrying and protecting the tomes that serve as portals for the Arbiters. The Arbiters cannot leave the library.

  Starrante is—

  Yes. But according to Killianas, he is struggling against the imperatives the chancellor has laid upon him, and he is not nearly so much of a power as he would otherwise be should he join his two comrades in combat.

  Do you know where Starrante is now?

  I believe you will find him soon. Tell Lord Bellusdeo that it is best—for you—if she takes the lead. She could feel the frown settle in the corner of his lips. Where is your familiar?

  He’s...probably in the library—with Terrano and the Arkon. Terrano is kind of slippery when it comes to buildings, and the Arkon is holding the Arbiters’ books.

  She turned to her companions, but Bellusdeo had shifted into her armored human form, and she had headed immediately for the nearest door. That door led to the endless maze of hallway. Sedarias glanced at Kaylin.

  “Your familiar?”

  “Probably in the library with Terrano and the Arkon.”

  “Then I will take the rear.”

  “I don’t need—”

  Bellusdeo roared. Kaylin shut up and let Sedarias take the rear.

  Chapter 26

  The stairs led to the hall. The hall was unchanged. There were closed doors on either side of the narrow stone hallway. Bellusdeo marched down the hall toward the closed door at its end.

  “If you can somehow bespeak Killian,” she began.

  The door she had just passed on the right burst open. Or rather, it burst outward, sending large chunks of heavy wood and small splinters flying. The bulk of the heavy wood slammed into the wall inches behind Bellusdeo, who was already on the move.

  They passed almost a foot in front of Kaylin. Splinters scraped her face and lodged in her hair. Neither the splinters nor the hair was of much concern right now. The creature in what remained of the doorway was.

  She had seen it through Severn’s eyes, sitting on the large desk in the chancellor’s office. Seeing it in person was a new—and unwelcome—experience. Its head was high upon the hairy, leg-like neck, swiveling in a full circle to take in its surroundings; its eyes—all four eyes—were crimson.

  Without taking a breath for thought, Kaylin jumped forward, not back. Legs rose on the creature’s left. Kaylin didn’t attempt to count how many; she leaped past them before two implanted themselves firmly in the stone of the floor. Reaching out, she placed one palm safely against the bulk of its body—its hairy, disturbing body. Eyes opened on either side of her hand.

  This creature really did remind Kaylin of the most dangerous of the Shadows that Ravellon produced: it had too many eyes, too many legs and a mouth the size of a Dragon’s sitting sideways in what passed for a face.

  Behind her, she could hear Sedarias shout a warning, and she shouted back, “No, wait, both of you!”

  Fire did not consume the spider creature. Which was good, because while it probably wouldn’t have killed the spider, it certainly wouldn’t have done Kaylin any good. The spider’s flesh was much warmer than she’d expected.

  Warmer, fleshier, the feel belying its appearance—then again, she’d never tried to touch a spider, and certainly had never tried to heal one. If this could be called healing at all.

  She couldn’t see a True Name centered within it, but she didn’t have time to look. What she wanted now was to understand the shape and the constitution of Arbiter Starrante. To heal him, in fact.

  Hope’s suggestion—that she somehow heal the word—had met with uneven success. Maybe because words weren’t alive without people behind them. Maybe because what Hope perceived in the shape of True Words wasn’t what Kaylin herself perceived. Or maybe because life—as she understood it—existed only in True Names. Power existed in True Words, in True Language—she’d seen the truth of that herself. But life?

  Starrante was alive.

  If she had never seen someone from his race before, it didn’t change that fact. He was alive; he had once lived in the same reality Kaylin occupied most of the time. He’d lived, breathed, eaten—no, wait, do not think about that—and probably slept. Something about the book that Larrantin had passed, without warning, into her hands had been damaged or broken in a way that allowed Candallar to command Starrante.

  “No,” Starrante said, his voice the same grating screech of sound that it had been when she’d heard it through Severn’s ears. Its neck had curved in a half circle, which allowed the very large mouth to move much closer to Kaylin’s face than anyone without a death wish would have liked.

  “It is the chancellor’s regalia that gives him rudimentary control. The chancellor has the right—in an emergency—to engage the services of the Arbiters. It is that contingency that has controlled my actions. My apologies if I have harmed you. You have an odd taste about you—are you Chosen, perhaps?”

  “How did your book get out of the library?”

  “Ah. That is a perplexing question.”

  “Do you still feel like killing us?”

  “At the moment? No. I feel remarkably clearheaded, given the terrible confusion and disorder of recent days.” His head tilted, but it was hard to tell by features other than the placement of neck whether or not it was upside down. “The young these days are impatient and foolish; they do not understand that rituals came into being for a reason. I apologize; I was perhaps annoyed at the state of my captivity, and the door was locked.

  “Are you well?” he added, his head leaving the vicinity of Kaylin’s face and turning toward Bellusdeo.

  “I am uninjured,” Bellusdeo replied. “You are not.”

  “Ah, no. But the injuries were largely self-sustained, and I believe the Chosen is repairing them as we speak.”

  Kaylin winced. If healing was what she was doing, it was almost accidental. The shape of Starrante’s body was surprisingly normal, if one didn’t consider the configuration—it certainly felt more natural than a Dragon’s duality and the threads that bound both forms into a single whole.

  The legs were legs, the arms—which looked a lot like legs except for the odd digits at the end—were arms. There was muscle beneath what had appeared chitinous, and that muscle was connected to a circular spine within which the major organs were housed and protected. The neck that had been so disturbing was very similar to the legs, but the head could actually retract into the body almost entirely.

  She couldn’t see anything broken, but she could see the damage done to muscles, the slow decay of some element of the spine itself. Age? She wasn’t certain. Barrani and Dragons didn’t age into weakness the way mortals did. They didn’t really age at all beyond a certain point. If this creature were as old as they were—or older—it was likely that it, too, was immortal.

  But injured, as immortals could be.

  “Yes, but the injuries were self-inflicted, I’m afraid. It is what happens when we are at war w
ith our own impulses. Killianas is not pleased.” He said this with what she assumed was a smile, given the shift in tone. “I have attempted to converse with him, but the conversation was not productive.”

  “Not productive or impossible?”

  “Beyond the initial displacement, unproductive. I thought perhaps my inability to fully control myself was causing interference—but the compulsion seems to have lifted somewhat. Ah, that one is an older injury, and I feel it would be counterproductive to waste power attempting to correct it.”

  She froze.

  “You can feel what I’m doing?”

  “Yes?”

  “No, I mean—you can feel exactly what I’m doing?”

  “Yes? Is this uncommon?”

  “I’ve never healed someone like you before.”

  Starrante stilled. He had not attempted to move away from Kaylin’s hands for the duration of their conversation—but even the movement of breath paused. He might have been made of warm stone.

  It has happened, then, he said. She knew it was Starrante she heard, but his voice was free of the verbal tics that made listening to it difficult. You have not seen my...kind...before?

  She didn’t answer. He was able to hear her thoughts because the healing magic was a bridge. It was why the Barrani refused healing when given the option. A brief image of Shadows, of shadow, of creatures very like Starrante, flipped open in the filing cabinet of her mind.

  We were not a numerous people, he said. Ravellon was our home. I had some interest in the world beyond our nesting grounds, beyond our duties, and after some study, I came here.

  She didn’t ask him how—or why—he’d become an Arbiter. She asked nothing. Not with words.

  I have, or had, kin in the heart of Ravellon. I do not know if they now exist as they once were—but we were useful; we could spin webs that existed in many states simultaneously, as you yourself are doing.

  “I’m not.”

  Perhaps you are unaware of it. It matters little. I can feel someone familiar, but I cannot yet see him. I believe I can hear Kavallac. She is...hmmm. Furious? I would suggest you avoid the library for the time being.

  “We’d like to get back to the library, if it’s all the same to you. Do you think you can move?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think you have enough control of your actions that you won’t try to kill us?”

  “Yes. Yes,” he rumbled as he began to move the bulk of his body through the hole he’d created by destroying the door. “My return to the Academia was...imperfect. But I heard you, Chosen, and I am awake now. I would like to know the name of the interim chancellor.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “No.” Given the weight of the single syllable, Kaylin thought his ignorance was good for the continued health of that interim chancellor. Probably a pity for the rest of them, though.

  “How were you awakened?” she asked. Bellusdeo’s eyes were now an orange that looked almost mellow; Sedarias’s eyes remained a martial blue. Starrante cleared what Kaylin assumed was his throat, and Bellusdeo stepped aside—or as far aside as the opposing wall would allow. He then took the lead.

  “Awakened is an interesting word,” he replied. By unspoken consent, Kaylin now walked by his side, her hand resting against his body as if it were a guide rail. “It is not entirely accurate, although you could be forgiven for using it. I was not awake. Not as I am now.”

  “You were dreaming?”

  “That is a good analogy, although it is not entirely accurate, either. But let us use it. I was dreaming. Dreams are somewhat unpredictable.”

  “I’m surprised you need to sleep.”

  “Oh?”

  “The Barrani and the Dragons don’t.”

  “And you are one of the multitude of mortal races?”

  She nodded. “I need sleep.”

  Starrante’s head once again mostly separated from his body as he turned to look back at the Dragon and the Barrani. “Now I remember. But...if you do not sleep, how do you dream?”

  Sedarias said, “Our dreams are more focused, more tangible.”

  “And less dangerous?”

  “Perhaps. But danger is oft in the eye of the beholder.”

  “Well said. Are you perhaps a student here?”

  “No. My classroom is less structured.”

  “A pity. It is seldom,” he added, “that we converse with those who are not students. I cannot think of another time—”

  “The interim chancellor is not a student.”

  “No. I believe,” he continued, after a distinct pause, “that I was sleeping.”

  “Yes, but you weren’t in the library.”

  “No.”

  “How did the interim chancellor even find you?”

  “That is a very good question, but not one I can answer at the moment. How did you find me?” he asked of Kaylin.

  “I was—until very recently—in the library. I found Arbiters Kavallac and Androsse; they’re still there. We’re...not. When you were last seen, you occupied the chancellor’s office.”

  “Ah. I believe the intent was protection of that office from intruders; it is not clear to me why such protection was felt necessary.”

  “Whose intent?”

  “The interim chancellor. In an emergency, the chancellor’s office has authority to make and request changes.”

  “He could order you to guard his office without your conscious intent?”

  “Demonstrably.” The tone conveyed annoyance—that and the color of the eyes. “I believe I dreamed of the Chosen,” he added as he ambled down the hall. “And possibly others. There was a student—quite young, by appearance—who appeared to have been skipping class. That is frowned upon here, unless one is given permission.”

  “He had permission.”

  “That could not be verified.”

  “Where are we going?” Sedarias asked.

  “We cannot stay here to any great effect,” Starrante replied. “We are therefore returning to the Academia. If you could, Chosen, I would ask you to wake Killianas—but Killianas is a subtle creation, and the waking is not entirely in your hands. As it is, I believe we will find answers of a kind in the chancellor’s office itself.”

  “You’re certain that you’re in control of your actions now?”

  “At this moment, yes.”

  “Will you remain in control if you enter that office again?”

  “That is a very good question. There is only one way to find out, yes?”

  Kaylin didn’t appreciate that.

  “You are clearly not a scientist.”

  “I like my head to remain more or less where it is in relation to the rest of my body, yes.”

  * * *

  The door at the end of the hall opened to stairs; the stairs, familiar to Kaylin, led up into the body of the building in which Killian resided. She didn’t ask Starrante how he’d bypassed the trap. By this point, she was pretty certain that Killian was awake enough that he’d let them out.

  “How did the interim chancellor come into possession of that title?”

  “It is not a title,” Starrante said.

  Are you still anywhere near the chancellor’s office? Kaylin asked Severn as they walked. Starrante didn’t seem to be in a great hurry, and given the speed at which he walked, this was all that allowed Kaylin to keep up once they’d crested the top of the stairs.

  I believe so.

  Robin?

  He’s still with me. Annarion is here, and Mandoran has joined us, as well.

  Kaylin nodded. This meant Terrano remained in the library. We’re going to head to where you are.

  “We need to find an alternate route to the chancellor’s office,” Sedarias said.

  Bellusdeo glanced at her.

  “Man
doran says the halls are occupied with people who appear to be more martial in nature; they didn’t catch him, but they’re not letting anyone pass. Terrano believes they have the ability to interfere—no classes in this repetitive day take place on the route to the chancellor’s office, and it is not yet mealtime.”

  “The day repeats?” Starrante asked Kaylin.

  “Yes. Apparently it’s been the same day of classes for...actually, I don’t know how long it’s been. But the day itself repeats. Today, for the first time, there’s been a break in the pattern. Killian decided to give a lecture on the nature of True Words in the primal ether.”

  “An interesting choice of lecture, given the situation in which we find ourselves.”

  “I thought so.” She hesitated, which didn’t annoy Starrante—but did annoy Bellusdeo. “Do you know how to get to the chancellor’s office from here?” She might as well have asked him if he knew how to breathe. “There are people in the halls who don’t want anyone to approach that office—but my companions are waiting for us there.”

  “I believe I can deal with fractious students.”

  “Some of those fractious students started a firefight in the library.”

  Given the color of his eyes—a different color than the ones they’d taken so far, Starrante was outraged and offended. “In the library?” His voice was a very, very loud screech.

  “Yes, sorry. I believe they want the Arbiters’ books.”

  His eyes became larger and far more luminous—a shade of gold that was almost white. “That must not be allowed to happen.”

  “Kavallac and Androsse are certainly fighting to make sure it doesn’t.”

  Starrante began to move. He could cover half a hall by the time Kaylin had taken two steps—two wide steps, given the length of her stride. Neither Bellusdeo nor Sedarias chose to run to keep pace with him; they fell in on either side of Kaylin.

  “I think he’s heading straight for the roadblock,” Kaylin told them.

  “We’ll soon find out if all of Candallar’s associates were aware of Starrante, then.”

  * * *