Part 35 (2/2)
”If I ask where they're supposed to find those names-”
”Don't.”
She shut up and thought for a minute about the wisdom of directing a question-any question-at the Arkon. But she had to ask. ”Arkon, you recognized the name Bellusdeo. You probably recognized the human form, if I think about it.”
He was silent. He didn't deny it.
”Did you travel a lot between worlds in your youth?”
”I did not. The pa.s.sage between worlds was considered largely theoretical, even in my youth.”
”But Bellusdeo-”
”During one storm-again in my youth-Bellusdeo and a number of the women went missing. Some of the men, as well; they were the guardians of the young. Bellusdeo had not, at that point, found her name; she was to search for it within the year. Shadowstorms. .h.i.t the Aerie, and many of my kin were...transformed by them. There was much battle and much death. It was a.s.sumed by the Elders that she had been destroyed in those battles, but there was some lingering question; no sign of the guardians was found in the aftermath.”
”You think this is the same Bellusdeo?”
”I fail to see how it can be; it defies explanation. But yes, Private, that is my belief.”
Kaylin drew a longer breath. ”Then why, exactly, did you expect us to find nine bodies?”
”Tiamaris, this Tower is secure?”
Tiamaris glanced at Tara, but nodded.
”Very well. I will answer your question because it is relevant. Lord Sanabalis said that the female children were allowed to live if they failed to find their name. He speaks truthfully, but not entirely accurately. They were not hunted down; they were not considered a danger to us. Mortals distrusted them; the Barrani would kill them. But they were not of us.”
At this very moment, Kaylin hated Dragons. She knew it would pa.s.s.
”Bellusdeo and her clutch were different. In a clutch there may be no females; that is most often the case. Clearly, for a clutch to be born at all it requires both parents to possess the life force and will inherent in their names. There is a reason that there are so few clutches, and it is not entirely because of the rarity of female births.
”The Barrani killed the mothers; it was the reason our wars were so bitter. We would have destroyed their breeding grounds had we been able to find them. Before you point out that they exist in the heart of the City, I must caution you; they do not. They are perceived as existing in such a place by those who have the ability to manipulate what the waters contain. Most Barrani could not even find the Lake.
”However, on the day of Bellusdeo's birth, nine were born human. Nine in one clutch. It was seen as a great, great blessing to our kind. Most of the hatchlings are not guarded, and they are not protected. But in the case of these nine, exceptions were made.”
”Why?”
”Because of the significance of their number.”
”All right. I understand that nine girls was very unusual. But you expected to find nine bodies-nine identical bodies. Why?”
”Because, Kaylin, in some fas.h.i.+on, the nine were linked. The Elders did not understand it.”
”None of the nine had found their names by the time they vanished?”
”No; they were of an age, almost to the minute. They were all to seek names before they disappeared.”
She was silent for a bit, mulling over the information she'd received. It was difficult to process it all because some of it still made no sense to her. ”What exactly do you mean when you say they were linked?”
”What I said.” His frown was glacial, but it melted slightly. Probably because of the fire. ”If one of the nine was hurt, the other eight were instantly aware of it. If one of the nine was injured, the other eight could take some part of those injuries onto their own bodies. They could speak without speaking, but only among each other; the males born to the clutch weren't likewise affected.”
”But they weren't identical in appearance, were they?”
His eyes were very orange. ”Not at birth, no.”
”Then-”
”But as they grew, they were capable of altering their appearance. They did it for fun,” he added, his frown deepening. ”It alarmed the Elders, and annoyed a small handful of them, as well. They had names that they were known by, and those names were unique to them-but they often changed names as they learned to alter appearance. It is not an ability that the males of the same clutch had.”
”Was there ever a clutch of males that were linked in the same way?”
”Yes. But it happened very, very rarely. It was not well-doc.u.mented until the girls were born and grew into their powers.”
”By powers, you mean the link?”
”That, as well.”
Kaylin stifled the urge to growl or snarl. ”What other powers did they have?”
”They were capable of speaking to the mirrors of the Ancients. They also did this for fun.”
”Is it unusual to be able to speak to those mirrors?” Kaylin had done it herself on more than one occasion. She glanced at her exposed arms.
The Arkon did likewise, but merely raised a brow before he answered her question. ”In the fas.h.i.+on they did, yes. They could speak to the rest of our kin with the voice of the mirrors, Private. It was discomfiting. They were also explorers. They liked to sneak out of the Aerie-often at some danger to themselves-to meet mortals. Or Barrani. They weren't particular at that time.” He hesitated for a long, long moment, and then once again asked Tiamaris if the Tower was secure. He received the same answer as he had the previous time he'd asked and fell silent.
”It is my suspicion that they could travel.”
”Pardon?”
”You've met the Norannir who guided his people here. You've seen what is preserved in the mirror at the heart of the Palace. You understand what travel, in this case, means.”
She did. ”But if Bellusdeo disappeared in the wake of a Shadowstorm-”
”Conjecture. But so, too, is my suspicion.”
”So you think that the seven-eight-bodies are all part of that clutch?”
He glanced at the corpse that was laid out on the bed, and after a moment, nodded. To Kaylin's eye, she looked exactly the same as the other seven, although this dress was very dusty.
”It looks like at least one of them found their name.”
”It does. But the finding and the taking of the name-as one might expect-was obviously untraditional.”
”And you think there's a ninth body waiting for us some where?”
”I have hope-even if slender-that you will find the ninth alive. The eighth was alive when she arrived here.”
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