No dice.
Pardon?
No. Damn. Dice. And there’s no point in guaranteeing their safety, either—I won’t believe it. And I will never, ever speak to you again if you attempt to make me believe it. Now leave us alone.
She was practically leaking fury, and part of that was aimed at herself. She’d been stupid. Shehatedbeing stupid.
Kaylin. A different voice. She almost snapped at this one as well, but Severn had done nothing to deserve it.What are you now doing? Teela has just turned a shade of ash and her eyes are practically black.
You’re with Teela?
We’re all at Helen’s, yes. Tain is worried about Teela. Mandoran and Annarion are indigo-eyed as well, but Mandoran’s lost control of his eyes, so it’s not as obvious. What’s happened?
She told him. She told him everything, while running along a very flat Winston. She slowed only when she could see the distant city.
Structures rose in the distance, tall, pale, and slightly curved; they towered over the mass of what might be smaller buildings. The air was thick, hazy; the towers in the distance seemed to waver as Kaylin, Bellusdeo and the cohort approached.
Terrano had said that it was a city of cages, of traps, and Kaylin could see what he meant: the structures she thought of as towers seemed to curve inward, toward what existed beneath them; an odd light seemed to illuminate them from within.
In Elantran buildings, this would imply windows, lamps.
This was not Elantra.
“Kaylin?” Bellusdeo touched her shoulder, a gesture that implied this wasn’t the first time she’d tried to get Kaylin’s attention.
Terrano was watching her as well. All of the cohort were.
She said nothing; they had slowed and she made no attempt to pick up the pace. Instead, she spoke a single word.“Ravellon.”
It wasn’t a city. It could be mistaken for one, as Terrano had said. But Kaylin had spent time in the morgue at the Halls of Law. She’d spent time watching Red at work. She had words for most of the parts of a body, although they didn’t get much use.
Those structures weren’t towers. They weren’t buildings. That Shadows had somehow made a home of them didn’t change the facts.
Kaylin.
If a giant had died in a desert, this is what they might leave behind. The towers were the great, fleshless rib cage of something far larger than Kaylin had ever seen in life.
Severn watched silently, as he often did. She felt his presence in the back of her thoughts and found it easier to catch her breath.Well?
He failed to answer the question she had asked. Can you see the borders of Ravellon?
She nodded; she could. But the borders seemed somehow mundane, slight; they were not the casket in which a body such as this should have been interred.We need to reach the Towers in the fiefs. We need to find Tiamaris.
You know the risk.
Yes, I know the risk. We’rewaytoo close. But we can’t go back to Kariastos. The Consort promised that we’d be safe—Bellusdeo and I—but promised nothing about the cohort.
If you can, try not to be hurt.
I’m not hurt. I’m angry.
The worst anger always comes from hurt. You trusted her. You feel betrayed.
Wouldn’t you?
I honestly believe that she intends you no harm. I believe she would safeguard Bellusdeo against the war band, either in the West March or in Elantra. I do not believe she had anything to do with that.
But the cohort—