“You believe Margot’s vision to be substantially true?”
“She’s anOracle. You can’t expect reliability out of Oracles.”
“Exactly. But you expect, somehow, that there is reliability in this vision?”
Ugh. “I think the outcaste is somehow involved with the Aerians, yes. Possibly only one Aerian Arcanist—but if that’s the case, the Aerian Arcanist is causing Caste Court problems for the currentpraevolo.”
“And?”
“We’re going to meet him. I mean,I’mgoing to meet him. With a Barrani or two for company.”
“And a Dragon,” Bellusdeo added.
“I don’t think—”
“And a Dragon, Kaylin.”
She decided against arguing with Bellusdeo in her current mood. “...And a Dragon.”
“What do you intend to discuss?”
Kaylin exhaled. “I don’t know. I have a growing suspicion that the bastard thinks he can somehow remove Moran’s wings and affix them to someone else.”
“Thepraevolocannot be made outcaste.”
“Do weknowthat for fact? Or is that just another ‘truth’ that’s been passed down through the generations?”
The Arkon’s smile seemed genuine. “We know nothing, of course, for fact. We sift through known truths in an attempt to see what underpins them. I assume, however, that thereissome truth in the fact. Were there no truth—or were there no perceived truth—it would not be necessary to have your sergeant assassinated.”
“But they tried. So they thought it was necessary to kill her—to release thepraevolopower, somehow. If they thought they could just remove her wings and give them to someone else—”
Silence.
“Kaylin?” Bellusdeo asked.
“Well, I know this is going to sound stupid, but—if they did assassinate her, if she did die, where would the body go?”
The ensuing silence was texturally different.
“We know—we have definitive proof—that wings can be removed. Is there anything to say that those wings have to be removed from a living body?”
Chapter 24
There was a lot of silence on the way home. The Arkon didn’t have an answer to Kaylin’s question; he suggested that the Aerians might. He couldn’t tell herhowthe wings were removed, and was willing—with obvious and great reluctance—to accept her statement that they were.
But he had done some study on the single flight feather in his possession. It was, he said, immune to most things. The obvious ones—water, air—had not been extensively tested, but fire had.
And Shadow.
Kaylin didn’t ask how he’d tested the latter. She understood the Arkon’s concern with Shadow—in a strange way, it mirrored Bellusdeo’s. It was not as personal, on the surface, but that was probably because the Arkon was old enough that experience tempered pain or anger. But he spoke with authority when he spoke of testing, and Kaylin accepted it, with questions.
He then asked, politely and without edge, if he might speak at length with Moran dar Carafel. Kaylin said, “I’ll ask.”
He accepted that, without demanding that she succeed, and then pretty much ushered them out of the library, making certain they exited the doors before he returned to his research.
“He wants to see the bracelet,” Bellusdeo said, when they were quit of the palace.
Kaylin nodded; that was her guess, as well.