The familiar roared, its voice a kind of high screech given his size. Where the butterfly darted—with speed—from place to place, the familiar did not; his wings allowed him to hover as he inhaled. And inhaled. And inhaled.
“Terrano, watch out!” she shouted, and Terrano turned to see the familiar just as the small, translucent lizard exhaled.
No fool, Terrano leapt to the side, rolling along the ground, and uttering more unfamiliar Barrani as he did. Both Lirienne and Lord Barian appeared to be shocked by whatever it was he was saying. Bellusdeo didn’t, but then again, she lived with Mandoran.
A stream of silver smoke left the familiar’s open jaws, billowing as it expanded in a rush, like a kind of portable fog that could be wielded on command. It enveloped the courtyard, and Kaylin ran into it, unafraid. Bellusdeo did not move; Lord Barian attempted to withdraw. Lirienne, however, did not.
From his hands, sprouting suddenly, came a familiar globe; it covered him. It was permeable enough to allow Lord Barian entry. More than that, Kaylin didn’t see, because the fog lifted itself from the ground it had first touched and rose.
“I’m not sure this is wise,” Bellusdeo said, somewhere to Kaylin’s left.
Terrano continued to curse.
“We don’t want to hurt him!” Kaylin shouted. She could no longer see Hope.
“It will not hurt him,” a familiar voice replied. Her familiar. “Unless he attempts to control it or fight it, it will not cause him harm.”
The barrage of cursing stopped. “What are you doing?” Terrano demanded.
“I am attempting to contain the creature you were chasing,” came the reasonable reply. “Did you recognize it?”
“Not exactly.”
“You attempted to apprehend it.”
“Yes.” This was said with unraveling patience. “It wasn’t exactlysubtle.”
To Kaylin, until Terrano began to chase it around the courtyard, it had been entirely inconsequential. “It looked like a butterfly.”
“Are youblind?” he shrieked. She could imagine his expression, which was just as well, because she couldn’t actually see it.
“She is not,” Bellusdeo replied. “To my eyes, and to the eyes of Lord Barian, it resembled a butterfly.”
Kaylin could not see a butterfly. She couldn’t see anyone. She couldn’t hear Lord Barian or Lirienne, either.
Lirienne?
No answer. She wheeled, then, heading back in the direction she’d come from. “Hope! Drop the fog!”
“That is not the way it works,” the familiar replied, “and I do not think it wise. The Lord of the West March attempts to protect himself, and his Warden.”
She knew, then, where the butterfly was headed. “He’s not answering me!”
“Kaylin—he’s theLord of the West March,” Bellusdeo rumbled. And she did rumble. Kaylin stumbled, righting herself. Bellusdeocouldspeak perfect Dragon when in her human form. But Kaylin had a sinking feeling that wasn’t what was happening here. “He is not helpless, he is not an orphan or a foundling, he is not mortal. He has had tohold his titleagainst all who would wrest it from him, by either force of arms or magic. You are not responsible for him.”
She felt the earth shake beneath her feet.
A plume of raw fire cut through the fog.
“I’ve got it!” Terrano shouted. She couldn’t track the direction of his voice; it seemed to surround her. The fog rippled; the familiar squawked in outrage, presumably at the Dragon’s fiery breath. “Ihave it now,” Terrano repeated. The fog continued its odd climb, and Terrano cursed liberally. Kaylin was too worried to memorize the words.
“Kaylin, can youdosomething about him?”
“I don’t think he thinks it’s safe.”
“He’s making itless safefor some of us! I’ve got the damn thing—tell him to cut it out!”
Shoutinghe doesn’t listen to mein front of Lirienne and Lord Barian didn’t seem like a wise idea.