“Well?” Mandoran asked as she trudged into the dining room.
“I’ve eaten.”
Hope squawked, but the sound was muted; he seemed tired. Or lazy. I dislike the sound of Starrante’s voice; it is very poorly modulated.
Kaylin couldn’t exactly criticize him for this. “Did you two visit Candallar?”
Terrano nodded.
“Did you visit the Tower?”
Silence.
“Why are you glaring at me?” Terrano demanded.
“I want an answer.”
More silence. To Kaylin’s surprise, it was Torrisant, the definition of strong and silent, who answered. “They tried.” She had no idea whether or not this was true, but Terrano’s eyes were blue now.
“Together or separately?”
“Together. Separate wouldn’t usually matter, but Hallionne—and Helen—can usually separate us,” Fallessian replied, picking up the conversation from where Torrisant had entered it.
“He means I can prevent them from speaking through their name bond, dear.”
“It didn’t seem safe for either of them to enter the Tower alone. Terrano didn’t expect that it would be impossible to enter the Tower at all, and he’s sulking.”
These were more words than Kaylin had heard from Fallessian in the entire time she’d known him. Terrano had turned to physically glare in Fallessian’s direction, which was unnecessary; if Terrano was actually annoyed, Fallessian couldn’t avoid knowing.
Fallessian folded his arms.
Kaylin didn’t want to be in the middle of this argument. She’d seen the cohort’s arguments before; it usually ended up with some—or all—of them being sent to the training room in which all dangerous research was performed, and frequently ended with some of them disincorporating into splashes of livid color against the walls of that room.
But no, that wasn’t it. If the lack of corporeal cohesion was disturbing—and it was—that wasn’t what she wanted to avoid. She wanted to avoid a serious conflict between Bellusdeo and the cohort.
In the end, the cohort resolved their difficulties without murdering each other.
Bellusdeo wasn’t one of them.
Helen could only keep Bellusdeo—or the cohort—safe if they were under this roof; she had no control when they left home.
This was why the Emperor hadn’t wanted Bellusdeo living here. Kaylin had thought it stupid, and repented. In theory, the Dragon could handle the cohort; had they been twelve normal Barrani, it would have been a concern, but not enough to cause panic.
Only one of the twelve was normal Barrani. No, that wasn’t true. The one who was normal wielded one of The Three—blades created to kill Dragons—and was a lord of the High Court, a former Arcanist, and an Imperial Hawk.
Kaylin was certain Teela wouldn’t attempt to kill Bellusdeo. Not unless Bellusdeo attacked or attempted to kill one of the cohort. But if hostilities began between the two—Bellusdeo and cohort—that was bound to happen sooner or later.
She needed the conflict to be resolved now.
Fallessian rose from the dining table. He faced Kaylin fully. “We were created for war. We were created to fight—and kill—Dragons.”
Kaylin nodded uneasily.
“In pursuit of the end of war, our people did things they should never have done.”
“I’m sure the Dragons did things they should never have done, either.”
Fallessian nodded. “None of the things the Dragons did prevented us from continuing as a species. Nothing they did stopped our children—few in number compared to mortals—from being born. But our Lords were willing to sacrifice us, and if we are angry, the anger is personal. We would feel far less anger had we not been personally abandoned. Except for Sedarias; in Mellarionne, they fought a tournament; the winner was selected.”
“We almost committed genocide.” His eyes were unblinking as they met Kaylin’s. “That was the intent. And no, we don’t know how it was accomplished. We know only that Bellusdeo is the last of the female Dragons, and the only one who can lay a clutch.” He hesitated as Terrano turned to him; so did Torrisant. “She’s like our only chance at redemption.”
Kaylin’s mouth was half-open; she closed it, staring at Fallessian. “Redemption? It’s not like you personally had anything to do with near genocide; you almost died yourselves.”
“That’s what we’ve been telling him,” Terrano said.
Fallessian shook his head.
“So you can accept that you were thrown away, but you can’t accept that an act of war killed all the female Dragons?”
“We survived,” he replied. “And if she survives, if she has children...” He trailed off, his skin slightly flushed. “I don’t care,” he snapped. “It’s what I believe.” He turned on his heel, as if he could not stand to remain in the physical presence of his friends.
The silence left in his wake was awkward verging on lethal.
“Don’t look at me,” Terrano said. “I think he’s being an idiot.”
Torrisant was one of the anti-Dragon faction among the cohort. It was probably why he spoke so little and avoided any chance of encountering Bellusdeo in person.
Mandoran, however, was not. “It’s not that I like Dragons,” he snapped. “But I like Bellusdeo, and we owe her. We’d’ve lost most of you if it weren’t for that Dragon. We’re important enough—to me—that I feel like the debt is huge. We should pay it.”
“We can pay it when we’re more established.”
Mandoran snorted. “And when exactly is that going to be?”
“She’s not our problem. In case you missed it, we’ve got problems of our own!” Torrisant’s eyes were now indigo.
Fair enough. So were Mandoran’s. Kaylin made her way—quickly—to the dining room door and headed to the safety of her room.
* * *
Kaylin knew Sedarias and the rest of the cohort were now at home. She was certain that the entire neighborhood—possibly half the city—could hear it. The cohort didn’t need to actually speak when they were arguing, because they could read each other’s thoughts with the ease of both comfort and long practice.
When their tempers frayed, they resorted to more physical interactions, many of which did not always involve having a properly corporeal body. If they couldn’t be bothered to use unnecessary speech, they sometimes descended into what Kaylin could only describe as roaring.
And for people who claimed to dislike Dragons, there wasn’t a lot of difference in the volume and sound of the cohort’s roars and the Dragons’—but there were more cohort.
She rolled over onto her stomach and pulled her pillow over her head, which dislodged small and squawky and caused his version of roar—angry bird noises.
“Kaylin,” Helen’s voice woke her fully as light flooded what had been a dark room.
“There’s nothing I can do about the cohort and their arguments.”
“It is not only the cohort involved in this argument.”
Kaylin cursed in the foulest Leontine she knew.
06
Years of emergency work with the midwives’ guild had their uses; Kaylin was fully dressed and ready to run in minutes. Helen opened the bedroom door as Kaylin approached it and stepped into the hall.
The hall was no longer the familiar hall composed mostly of doors that bore silhouettes related to their occupants. The warm wood tones of the floor had been stained or replaced by ebony, and the doors themselves were missing.
“Helen?”
“My apologies,” Helen replied. “There is some destabilization.”
“Caused by you or by the cohort?”
“A combination of both, I suspect. There has been—” the words were lost to roars of fury “—very little physical combat. I believe Maggaron was injured.”
Kaylin, who intended to run t
o wherever the shouting originated, froze in place.
“The injury is minor, and it was not caused by the cohort.”
“You’re telling me Bellusdeo injured Maggaron? I don’t believe it.”
“Ah, no. It is slightly more complicated than that.”
Hope squawked.
“Did you remove all the stairs?” Kaylin asked, having run to the end of the hall. Without reaching it.
“No, dear, but I’m not certain it’s entirely safe.”
“Then why did you wake me up?”
“I was not responsible for waking you, if you recall.”
“You turned the lights on.”
“True.”
“Can you remake the stairs? No, belay that. Can you make a path that’ll take me to wherever—” The rest of the words were drowned out. The roaring appeared to have lessened. “Now?”
“I am attempting to do so. I do not wish to have you open a door into a face full of fire.”
“What happened?”
“Sedarias returned from the High Halls. There was some difficulty in those halls, but no deaths of significance to Sedarias.” Meaning, none of the cohort had died. “Indeed. This was not the preference of a few of the Barrani in the High Halls, some of whom did. She was, however, not in the best of moods upon arrival.”
“Yes and?”
“Bellusdeo arrived perhaps half an hour later—” Helen paused for the interruption of roaring and waited until most of it had passed. “She had a somewhat difficult day. She has not made direct contact with Candallar’s Tower, but she has been patrolling the Candallar border, and she noticed anomalies there that she is not absolutely certain existed before Candallar’s unfortunate fall. She has been working in concert with Tiamaris; such anomalies are of concern to Tiamaris and Tara.
“She is therefore somewhat sensitive.”
“And she started shouting?” Or the Dragon equivalent thereof.
“Not immediately, no. But Terrano decided that tonight was the night in which to sit down and discuss, civilly, the growing concerns the cohort has about the Tower of Candallar.”
“And Sedarias didn’t shut him up?”
“She did make the attempt. It was not appreciated. Her failure was...annoying. To her.”
“So...most of the argument was between the cohort?”
“Ah, no. Terrano wanted to make clear why the cohort wanted to take the Tower.”
Kaylin closed her eyes and her shoulders briefly slumped.
“Yes, dear. Their reasoning, while it makes sound sense to you in some fashion, offended Bellusdeo.”
It would. A safe base of operations, while it might be provided by a fief Tower, was not the reason the Towers existed. And if Bellusdeo was already concerned about the state of the Candallar border, this was not a discussion she could be sanguine about.
“No. The argument started at that point, and rapidly grew heated. It was Fallessian who pointed out that the Tower might be the safest environment into which a Dragon clutch could be born; the Aeries of old are no longer in use—nor have they been reclaimed enough to be put to the use for which they were originally intended.
“Towers, like Hallionne, can create internal environments that would be largely safe to the young.”
“Let me guess. Sedarias wasn’t impressed.”
“Ah, no. She has heard this before, I believe, but not spoken out loud.”
“So Bellusdeo was also angry about that.”
“Yes, dear.”
“Can I strangle Terrano?”
“I would be tempted at this point to allow it, but unfortunately he is not entirely corporeal at the moment, and I don’t think—”
“There’s no way you could get your hands around my throat, is what she means,” Terrano’s disembodied voice said.
“I’m sure with Helen’s help, we could manage. Why in the hells did you think that discussion was a good idea tonight?”
“If we wait for the right time, we’ll never have it. I thought it’d be safer to have it here, with Helen, than in the open streets or the fief of Candallar—you’re always so concerned about the fate of the civilians.
“And it was only loud, which I expected. I know we’re not singly a match for the Dragon. It’s like she’s stepped out of every bedtime story—”
“You don’t need to sleep.”
“Fine. Every nursery story, better? She’s what we were warned we’d be facing. But we’re not what we were when we first heard those stories. There are ten of us here.”
“Nine.”
“Teela’s here.”
“She said she was moving out!”
“Yes, and that would have been useful for us, because she intended to occupy her rooms in the High Halls. But—she’s here, too. If it helps, Tain’s not.”
“Look—the High Halls are not what they’ve been for most of Teela’s life.”
“No. They’re sentient, now. The Tower of Test has become the heart of the High Halls.”
“And the Tower doesn’t frown on Barrani attempts to murder each other?”
“It’s Barrani politics.” She couldn’t see Terrano, but she could almost hear his shrug.
“The Hallionne don’t allow it. Helen, please, stairs.” She could feel the ground tremble beneath her feet.
“That wouldn’t be smart,” Terrano said.
“If smart were your concern, you would have waited to have this stupid discussion!”
“Until when? This is going to be a problem, and you know it. You already know there are arguments brewing. And you know what the Dragon is like.”
“That Dragon saved your lives.”
“Some of them, yes. Look—it’s not personal. We don’t want the Tower to spite her or injure her. We’re not trying to take something that’s hers, okay?”
“You don’t get it. The reason Candallar did whatever he did was because he didn’t care about Ravellon. He didn’t care about Shadow as more than an irrelevant passing concern. He certainly didn’t care about the citizens of his fief.
“For Bellusdeo, someone with your needs captaining that Tower is—what’s the word, Helen?”
“Anathema, I believe.”
“Right. It’s that. If she wasn’t angry, if she expected competition, this is exactly the worst thing for her to hear if there are already problems with the Candallar border.”
“We think she’s wrong.”
“Kaylin,” Helen said. “I have created a bubble. Is it visible to you?”
“It’s visible to me,” Terrano said.
“Is your name Kaylin?” Kaylin snapped. Hope squawked.
“That has nothing to do with us—that’s Helen’s fault!” Terrano told Kaylin’s familiar.
“Helen, is there more?”
The silence was heavy with hesitance. If buildings could exhale on an embarrassed sigh, this one now did. “There is one other factor. Teela is attempting—was attempting—to draw the debate to a close; Bellusdeo’s eyes were a very disturbing shade of red. She roared—the roaring started with Bellusdeo—and it is possible that the person monitoring her from outside heard that roar.”
“You’re not talking about Emmerian, are you?”
“Yes, dear. I’m sorry.”
“So...you let Emmerian in.”
“I had hoped that he would have a calming effect on Bellusdeo, or at least on the debate itself.”
Terrano had found the bubble that Helen had created. Kaylin knew this because he cohered within the space, becoming the annoying Barrani cohort member she knew. Kaylin couldn’t see the bubble itself, but understood that it was where Terrano currently stood. She moved quickly to join him.
“We’d probably lose at least a person or two to Bellusdeo if we were fighting at all fair. And if Helen allowed us to fight.”
“But we’re not really keen on fighting two Dragons. Teela called Kariannos only after Emmerian burned down half the dining room.”
“Emmerian did?”
“Yes, dear.”
* * *
Kaylin reached the ground floor. If Emmerian had, as Helen said, burned down half the building, it was the back half.
“No. But I elected to move everyone, given the unfortunate heat of the argument.”
In anyone else, this would have been an attempt at black humor. In Helen’s case, the description was likely literal.
“Are they in the training rooms?”
“They are in a variant of the training room that I have not had cause to use for a very long time.”
“You do remember that Emmerian is part of the Dragon Court, right?”
“Yes, dear.”
“And that shutting him in a windowless dungeon is likely to be frowned on by the Emperor?”
“Burning down half a building is also frowned on by the Emperor.”
“So, wait—the roaring is coming from the training room?”
Since the answer was now obvious to Helen, she failed to reply.
Kaylin glanced at Terrano. “Just what in the hells did you guys do?”
“Us? In case it’s escaped your attention, none of us are fire-breathers. We tend to, what is that phrase, Helen? Use our words.”
“So does Emmerian. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him truly Dragon-angry. Not like this. You’re sure it was Emmerian?”
“She’s sure,” Terrano replied, before Helen could. “It’s not like the rest of us don’t recognize him. He might not stand out compared to the Emperor or the Arkon, but he’s a Dragon. We’re not likely to miss him.”
* * *
The basement stairs, usually an unstable spiral around a central column, were not the stairs Kaylin recognized. This was good; Terrano had been walking almost in lockstep with Kaylin, and they wouldn’t both fit, otherwise.
Cast in Conflict Page 9
