Cast In Deception

“Because she knew things were getting political,” Kaylin said, after a more thoughtful pause, “and she wasn’t prepared.”

Severn nodded. “The Barrani Hawks have already been used.”

“Against Moran, though.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s recent enough that she knew they could be used. She didn’t shore up her own defenses—and part of those defenses would be providing protection for the Hawks. They were threatened because she was too caught up in the concerns of her cohort.”

Kaylin thought that was hugely unfair.

“I’m not agreeing with her assessment,” Severn continued. “My agreement won’t matter to Teela one way or the other.”

“I’d suggest you stay out of it,” Bellusdeo told him quietly.

Severn glanced at Bellusdeo. “We need information.”

“Teela’s a Lord. Leave the information gathering to her.”

“Teela is a Lord,” he agreed. Severn could agree as if agreement were irrelevant. “But a Lord doesn’t enter the warrens. A Lord doesn’t—ever—meet with outcastes.”

Bellusdeo’s eyes had shaded to a gold orange. Kaylin intervened. “Teela’s met with Nightshade before.”

“Not under her own instigation. Her tabard and her choice of employ protects her in such situations. While the High Court does not consider the Halls of Law a suitable place for the Barrani nobility, they have all sworn oaths of service to the Eternal Emperor.”

She remembered what Candallar had said, and nodded.

“Teela’s interactions with Nightshade are considered, by the Barrani, to be a direct result of her tabard. Were she not a Hawk, she would not have met with him. Teela’s enemies are Lords of the High Court.”

Kaylin nodded, thinking. “The Barrani Hawks met with Candallar. They probably didn’t meet him by accident. Either he was told to approach them, or they were told to approach him. Do you think they left the East Warrens and headed into his fief with an offer of some sort? Or do you think he already had an offer on the table and left the fief to meet them?”

“Either would work,” he replied, in his neutral tone. “If the Hawks crossed the Ablayne, there are bound to be witnesses.”

“They’re from the warrens. They’re not going to talk to us.”

“They’re not going to talk to Hawks, no.”

“Corporal,” Bellusdeo said, in a sergeant’s tone of voice. “Teela is no doubt waiting for Canatel to regain consciousness to ask him.”

“He has a vested interest in giving her the answer she will find most acceptable,” Severn countered.

“It’s none of our business.”

“It’s not,” Severn agreed. “Until the cohort descends from the West March. We’ve got six weeks, if they travel overland the way we did.” And he clearly intended to use those six weeks to their full advantage. “Although I believe Mandoran is attempting to talk them out of it.”

“No one listens to Mandoran,” Kaylin pointed out.

He chuckled. “That’s certainly how Mandoran feels. But Helen is concerned. She cannot—and would not—refuse to house them; she’s your home and you wouldn’t.”

Kaylin opened her mouth.

Severn spoke before she could. “She’s a building, Kaylin. She’s sentient. She has will. She’s made choices that were physically almost ruinous for her in order to maintain some sense of her own autonomy. You think she did that to buy her freedom.”

“She did.”

“Yes.”

“And no,” Bellusdeo cut in. Severn fell silent, allowing Bellusdeo to carry the rest of the conversation. “She bought a measure of freedom. She injured herself so that she had a measure of choice. But her choices are, and have always been, confined. She is a building. She was created to be a building. Her sentience was bound into her nature. It is not that different from you—or me, or Teela. There are things we might want to do that our actual existence does not allow. You cannot live forever, no matter how cautious you might choose to be. Not,” she added, “that you ever choose to be cautious.

“Helen is a building. She is your home.”

“I’ll tell her she can say no.”

“She knows the likely outcome of that—and it is an outcome that affects you directly. You want them under your roof because you trust Helen to minimize the danger, both to them, and from them. But Helen, I think, is less certain about that ability, precisely because of the choices she made in the distant past.

“But they will not stay in Tiamaris, and it is a disaster to even think of placing them in Nightshade—and those are the only two Towers that might, just might, be able to do what Helen is afraid she cannot.” She exhaled steam.

Something in her tone of voice caught Kaylin’s attention, and she stopped walking in order to catch Bellusdeo’s. It took the Dragon half a block to notice, but she did reverse course. “The Emperor does not yet know about the cohort and their imminent arrival. According to Annarion, I’ll have six weeks in which to smooth over future difficulties.

“The politics of the High Court, when it comes to the internal hierarchy of Barrani lords, has been largely irrelevant to his concerns. An attempted assassination at the Halls of Law will not be.”

Kaylin winced. “And you’re living with me.”

“Yes. The Emperor is confident of Helen’s ability to protect me from the immediately lethal: arcane bombs, for one. I am uncertain that his confidence will remain intact with the addition of eight Barrani would-be Lords of the High Court. In the worst case, I expect that I will be ‘invited’ to return to the palace.” The orange of her eyes made clear just how welcome that would be.

* * *

It was not a surprise that the Hawks ended up at Evanton’s shop. It wasn’t intentional, but Evanton’s shop was part of their beat, and Grethan had appeared at the window to wave as the Hawks patrolled.

“Is he in?” Kaylin asked Evanton’s apprentice. Her familiar immediately leapt off her shoulder onto Grethan’s, who—as always—seemed delighted to have him. Hope had always liked the Tha’alani apprentice.

“I think—I’m not certain—he’s expecting you.”

“Good or bad?”

“He’s been absentminded, but not grouchy, if that helps. I think he’s in the garden. I’ll tell him you’re here.”

* * *

They gathered around the kitchen table in the cramped, small space. Kaylin understood that the cookies Evanton offered were a type of bribe, and truly didn’t care. She also drank the tea he made. He wasn’t having enough of a bad day that he was willing to drink any himself, which was probably a good sign. Then again, with Evanton, it was hard to tell.

“I have had the opportunity to speak with the elemental water this morning,” he now said.

The cookies lost all taste. “And she told you to speak to us?”

“I am not sure that ‘she’ is the appropriate pronoun, but I will endeavor not to criticize.”

Try harder, Kaylin thought. “What did the water have to say?”

“I would consider it mostly irrelevant to you in different circumstances.” He was not in a terrible mood, but was obviously feeling testy. Kaylin, however, understood this test, and she could pass it, if not with flying colors, at least with passable grades.