“The doors tend to raise an alarm that will wake whatever parts of the palace somehow managed to sleep through your first speech.”
“And one of those people will be Lannagaros?”
Kaylin shuddered—it was the cold. “It’ll certainly let him know I’m here. Unless he assumes it’s someone or something dangerous.”
“I see. Some warning might prove helpful.”
“On the bright side, I can’t feel my hand, and half of my skin feels numb.”
“Then you do it—he could probably use the warning, if Sanabalis is correct.” Her smile was deeper. “He was like this in my childhood. We once attempted to get his attention by causing all sorts of commotion. We certainly got everyone else’s.”
“Did you get his?”
“The tools at my disposal at that time were few.”
That was a no. Kaylin, who hated door wards, nonetheless lifted a hand—her left hand—and placed her palm firmly against the ward.
Nothing happened.
“I see he really doesn’t want to be interrupted.” Bellusdeo’s eyes were, of all the Dragons present, the most golden. Kaylin wondered what kind of friendship she and Terrano might have developed had they met when they were young. The world was probably a safer place as it was.
Kaylin dropped her hand to the door handles. The doors were locked. They were locked in the normal way—but these doors didn’t have a keyhole of any kind on this side. Before she bent to examine the crack between those doors, she thought better of it. This was the palace.
“Oh, well,” Bellusdeo said, shrugging. She then lifted her chin and once again let loose a volley of native Dragon. Kaylin recognized two words:border zone. Those were in Elantran.
Silence descended—eventually—when the echoes of Draconic syllables stopped reverberating in the ceilings above. Bellusdeo was smiling broadly. “The trick,” she said, “was always to understand his particular concentration if you wanted to be able to break it.”
“What if he thinks you’re lying?”
“He probably does.” Her eyes were almost sparkling, and at the moment, pure gold. “He always did. But he couldn’t ignore the possibility that we were speaking the truth.”
The hair on the back of Kaylin’s neck stood on end. The door wards had been reactivated.
Kaylin touched the doors, and, as predicted, the entire palace was...enlivened...by the happy sound of blaring alarms. The palace guard poured into the hall, weapons drawn; the sound of Dragon spoken at a distance joined the guards. Kaylin hoped it wasn’t Diarmat. But given that the only other Dragon likely to join in was the Emperor, she squashed that quickly. Angry Diarmat, she could—and had—survived. She was certain she had never seen a truly angry Emperor. She had zero desire to do so.
The doors took forever to roll open, and by the time they had, Sanabalis and Emmerian had turned their backs on Kaylin, facing opposite ends of the halls. Kaylin wasn’t certain what their rank was in relation to the guards’, but clearly being a Lord of the Dragon Court meant something.
The weapons were sheathed, and the guards dispersed.
When the doors were fully open, the Arkon stood three yards away. His eyes were, at this distance, an alarming orange-red. He appeared to be breathing smoke, which probably meant fire wasn’t far behind. Kaylin, being a coward, stood to one side of—and behind—Bellusdeo.
Emmerian was the first to move through the library doors; Bellusdeo had to scurry to catch up. What was almost shocking to Kaylin was that she did. Sanabalis, like Kaylin, looked as if he wanted to be someplace else. Anywhere else.
Which was fair.
It was Sanabalis who received what might have been—had it been less full of anger—a reproachful stare. Sanabalis was meant to know better. Kaylin made a mental note to visit the Arkon with Sanabalis in tow.
What interested Kaylin was Emmerian. The Arkon didn’t appear to consider Emmerian to be the source of interruption, and therefore offense. Nor did Emmerian consider his presence—an interruption that was forbidden—to be a difficulty.
“Lord Sanabalis,” the Arkon said, his eyes almost red, his voice chilly.
“It is not his fault,” Bellusdeo then said.
The Arkon’s glance flicked off her armor, his expression glacial. To Kaylin’s surprise, the gold Dragon laughed. This did not improve the Arkon’s expression. “Come, come,” she said, approaching him. “It is nostalgic to see you so annoyed.”
Nostalgicwasn’t the word Kaylin would have used, if she’d dared to speak at all.
The Arkon’s breath was fire, but it was contained to the air between him and the approaching Bellusdeo. “I do not know why I did not reduce you—and your sisters—to cinders centuries ago.”