Part 45 (1/2)
Two Hawks instantly s.h.i.+fted posture. Kaylin snickered.
”Sergeant Ka.s.san is expecting you,” Clint told her. ”So is Lord Sanabalis.”
Getting Bellusdeo from the front doors to the inner office was not a speedy affair. The doors opened into the Aerie, and Bellusdeo's reaction to the Aerie was very similar to Kaylin's. The Dragon's gaze slowly rose to touch the heights, and remained fixed there. The Aerians were drilling, and from the sounds of it, there were new recruits. She watched as they flew, and as they faltered under the weight of unfamiliar armor.
”They're Aerian,” Kaylin told her, wis.h.i.+ng she'd move, but unable to force the issue. ”You didn't see the Aerians before you-”
”No. Where I lived, there weren't any.” She was smiling softly. ”They're not forbidden flight?”
”No. Only the Dragons.”
This caused Bellusdeo to frown. ”Why?” The single word was cool. It did, however, take her attention off the heights of the elaborate hall, and Kaylin began to walk, with hope, toward the office.
”I don't know. I'm not the Emperor, and the only way to get an answer to that question would be to ask a Dragon.”
”You are clearly acquainted with several.”
It was true. ”I only know it's illegal for Dragons to transform into their Dragon form within the Empire without the Emperor's express permission. Tiamaris did it once in the fiefs-which aren't theoretically under Imperial jurisdiction-and he still had to make a complete explanation to the Emperor after the fact.”
”He is still alive.”
”Yes. The Emperor considered the circ.u.mstances extreme enough to justify the transformation. It was not a given,” she added, remembering.
”I'm not entirely certain I approve.”
Which was, thank the G.o.ds, not Kaylin's problem. Kaylin felt, unfairly, that it would be nice to have someone else be the problem child for a change. She took a deep breath. ”We're coming into the office where I actually have a desk. Sometimes they make me sit at it. The Sergeant is pretty much in command of the office. I like most of my coworkers, and I'd appreciate it if you'd avoid annoying them.”
”Why?”
”Because they'll probably make it clear that they are annoyed, and at this point, I think the Emperor might disapprove. They don't really deserve to be reduced to ash with no warning.”
”You could tell them I'm a Dragon.”
”They'd probably think I was making an attempt to be humorous.”
”I...will do my best.” She hesitated and then said, ”Does no one in this City understand the significance of the Chosen?”
”No.”
”And you have not-”
”Bellusdeo, I'm the Chosen, in theory, and I don't understand the significance, either.” She slowed her pace and added, ”Maybe I'm being cowardly. Maybe I don't want to understand it. I'm trying.”
”You have already used the power invested in you.”
”Yes. More than once. And I'm fine-with that. But I didn't do it in order to be treated differently. I didn't do it to jump a promotion queue. Not that I'd mind that,” she said, because she felt she should be honest. ”I did it because at the time it seemed like I either should or could.
”I don't understand what the marks mean. I don't understand why I have them. I know that some of them have disappeared, and some have faded.”
”Disappeared?”
Kaylin nodded. ”Once, when I told a story to a dead Dragon in the middle of the Arkon's Library. That's not the only time. It was the first.”
”And the others?”
”Nothing as clear. The Devourer ate a few of them, though.”
Her eyes rounded. ”The Devourer.”
”Yes.”
”I wish you'd mentioned this last night.”
”Would you have let me sleep if I had?”
”Of course! After you'd finished explaining it.” She was still frowning. ”And yesterday?”
”I don't know. I don't have the marks and their placement memorized; since some of them are on my back, I can't. But if I had to guess? I'd say that a comparison of the marks today and the marks before we found you yesterday would show at least one missing.”
”Only one?”
”Maggaron's.”
”Not the other nine?”
”Maybe. I'll never get to make the comparison if we don't arrive soon.”
Because Caitlin's desk was the one closest to the doors-for obvious reasons-Kaylin led Bellusdeo there first. Caitlin had looked up when the two had entered her office. She rose as they approached her desk, and smiled. ”You must be Bellusdeo,” she said, extending a hand.
”She only speaks Barrani,” Kaylin told Caitlin. Caitlin immediately and effortlessly switched languages.
Bellusdeo took her hand. ”I am.”
”Kaylin doesn't usually bring guests into the office,” Caitlin continued. ”But I believe you're both expected. Lord Sanabalis has been waiting.”
”For how long?” Kaylin asked, trying not to wilt.
”Not more than three hours,” was the pleasant reply. No wonder Marcus was in a mood.
”I don't see him.”
”He is waiting in the West Room.”
”I do not care for your door wards,” Bellusdeo said.
Kaylin, who famously disliked them herself, gritted her teeth as door-ward magic shot through her palm, down her arm, and across her spine in one painful, tingling flash. ”What don't you like about them?”