Teela had lost her mother. So had Kaylin. Kaylin had lost her home. Teela, in theory, hadnt. But what home had she come back to? The West March didnt want her. That was so clear even a non-Barrani like Kaylin couldnt miss it. That left the High Court. No wonder Teela spent as little time there as possible.
Well, the Hawks wanted her.
The small dragon squawked.
We do, Kaylin said. She inhaled. Pretend Im talking to myself. I need to get this out of my system before I see Teela again. If she thinks Im worried about her, if she thinks I feel sorry for her, shell break both my arms. Without breaking a sweat.
He nodded.
Right or left?
He batted her face with a wing. She considered plucking him off her shoulder and dropping him, but paused. No, youre right, she told him. That was a stupid question. And she turned to the right because it was her right hand gripping the rune that had drawn every statue off its pedestal.
There were no other statues against the wallsand there were two walls here. If shed chosen to go left, the gallery was openbut right led into an enclosed hall. It was an odd enclosure, because as she looked up she could see stars. Moons. The moons looked familiar. She thought there were clouds, thin and stretched, across their faces, but it was hard to tell; the pillars sported arches, even if they didnt have ceiling, and the arches got in the way.
But Kaylin walked, dragging a rune that seemed to gain weight with each step, and a rune that seemed so light she could forget it was in her hand. She didnt; she didnt want to let it go yet.
She only knew she was heading in the right direction when she heard singing, because it was singing. She would know that voice anywhere: it was the Consorts. The Consorts voice was not the only voice she heard, and sadly, shed recognize the other five anywhere, as well: the dreams and the nightmares; the eagles and their shadows.
She only knew she was heading in the right direction when she heard singing, because it was singing. She would know that voice anywhere: it was the Consorts. The Consorts voice was not the only voice she heard, and sadly, shed recognize the other five anywhere, as well: the dreams and the nightmares; the eagles and their shadows.
She glanced at the eleven ghosts; they trailed like shadowsreflecting lightbehind her. She wondered if they were responsible for the weight of the word in her hand, but they hadnt been able to touch it. Then again, did she expect anything that happened here to make sense?
She cursed. Leontine again. Her ankle hurt, the rune weighed a ton, and she wanted to reach the Consort before she finished singing, because she knewthe way she did in a dream that was about to go very, very wrongthat the song was almost done.
She couldnt run. Her ankle wasnt broken, but the word had become an anchor. She dragged it down the hall, sweating all over a very fine, very magical dress. She wanted to curse, but saved her breath. The small dragon stopped playing shawl; he rose and stretched, digging claws into various parts of her collarbone and neck as he readjusted his position. The urge to curse grew stronger.
He spread his wings, but managed to do so without batting her in the facewhich meant, of course, every other wing-slap was deliberate. She could see him lift and stretch his slender, translucent neck; he inhaled.
Now is so not the time, she told him.
As usual, he ignored her. He opened his jaws, with their disturbingly solid teeth, and joined the eagles in song. Kaylin didnt have the breath to start singing again; she didnt try. But the runes were warmer and brighter as she struggled with the weight of the one on the right. They served as lamps, but there was no flicker in the light they cast. The fact that they were behind her and she cast no shadow should have disturbed her more.
It didnt; she was frowning instead at the door she was inching toward. She hadnt seen a single door so far; it figured that the first one shed find stood between her and the Consort.
The door did not obligingly roll open when she reached it. Of course not. That would be too easy. Her arms were shaking; if she had to drag the word on the right another foot, shed collapse from exhaustion.
To make matters so much worse, the doora door that was at least two stories in height, and made of either stone or pocked ironwas warded. Exactly how was she supposed to touch a door ward when both of her hands were full?
She looked at the small dragon.
Hiss, squawk, hiss. His wings rose, and he whacked her in the face. Look, I understand that we have to get through the doorbut its warded. You open it! Justjust bite it, like you did with the tree!
He hissed again, raising his head and stretching his neck. He inhaled.
Kaylin said, No!
Small, transparent creatures should never be able to look so smug. She dragged the two words until she was flush against the closed door, grinding her teeth. She didnt want the dragon to breathe on the doorand why, she didnt know. Everything about this space implied dream, which could terrify but couldnt exactly kill.
Except for her ankle. This wouldnt be the first time shed twisted it; she was familiar with sprains; this was not dream pain. Dream pain usually ripped your heart out and left you screaming in fear or rage, or weeping helplessly. It didnt give you a bum ankle.
But this dream would kill the Consort. She couldnt treat it like any other dream she didnt want to be in. Shed seen what the small dragons breath could do; she wasnt willing to risk damaging the Consort.
And youre willing to damage yourself, idiot? No one is paying you enough for this.
She pressed her forehead into the ward. And of course, given the dayand the weeks leading up to italarms began to blare. At least her forehead didnt go numb and her hair didnt catch firenot even when the door did. She jerked her head back. She couldnt leap away unless she surrendered the words shed carried all the way here, and she knew it wasnt the time yet.
It would have been easier if the fire hadnt been so damn hot. It was almost white; the edges were gold and orange and too damn close to her face; her eyes watered. The small dragon, however, stayed where he was, neck elongated, chin tilted forward; she glanced at him, saw fire reflected in his eyes.
She glanced back and saw the eleven ghosts; they were white with reflected light, and very slightly transparent. They reminded her, for no reason she could think of, of the small creature clinging a little too tightly to her shoulder.
Kaylin had to admit that it was a pretty impressive way to open a door. Most doors didnt dissolve into ash. The ash clung to her dress. It probably dusted her face, as well, but she couldnt see her face; it certainly settled on the small dragons wings; he shook them out, which probably didnt help Kaylin any. As the air cleared, she looked through the frame of what had once been a door.
It opened into a very, very large roombut it was a room built in a shape that Kaylin had never seen before; it had so many almost triangular corners recessed into the walls it seemed to be all corners. The floor was tiled, or appeared to be tiled, in a way that suggested flagstones and courtyard, and indeed, it was open to air.
Or it was open to skybut the sky held no moon; it held sun, sunlight, azure, no hint of cloud. And in the center of this spiky, oddly shaped courtyard stood the Consort.
The Lady was pale; she wore robes as white as she now was; as white as the fall of her hair. Her arms were raised, but they were trembling like a junkies; they had always been slender but nownow they looked emaciated. She stood before a fountain; water fell from air into a basin of ivory and gold. It was a trickle, a drip. The Consorts voice could be described the same way.
On the basin, perched two eagles; the shadows flew above. Kaylin walked, cursing, dragging the rune that seemed determined to scratch the hell out of the stones beneath her feet.
But with the runes, in Kaylins wake, the ghosts entered the courtyard. As they did, the Consort, voice wavering, lowered her arms and turned. Her eyes widened as she saw Kaylin, and their colorclear tens of yards awaywas gold. Kaylin almost never saw that color in a Barrani face: it meant surprise, and it faded into a more natural green as she watched.
The runes did not magically transform any part of this room. They did not become smaller or lighter; they didnt fly away. Kaylin dragged them, heading in a straight line toward the Consort and the fountain. She wasnt certain what she found more disturbing: the fountain or the Consorts fragility. No, that was a lie; she was worried about the Consort. The presence of water, here, would have to wait.
The Consort nodded encouragementbut she didnt move. It was almost as if she couldnt. Kaylin, ankle throbbing, could. As she did, she noticed that the glass statues, the ghosts, began to separate. The first of the statues, the slender man, walked toward one of the triangular corners. His feet left a trail in the stone, which should have been impossible as his steps didnt actually reach the floor.
But when he came to the corner, he rose, stepping onto a pedestal of nothing but air. Only then did he look back at the others, and he smiled at them. It was meant, Kaylin thought, to be encouraging, to give them strength; it cut her. She had never seen a similar expression on the face of any Barrani she had ever met.
She spun then, Consort almost forgotten; all ten were now departing, walkingas he had doneto different empty corners and taking their positions upon equally invisible pedestals. They werent still; they didnt become statues in the same way; they looked for each other, sometimes wildly and sometimes casually, as if they couldnt bear to look weak. That, at least, was familiar.
Each of the corners filled this way; only when they were filled did the glass ghosts look into the center of the courtyard, and their gazes fell on the Consort. Kaylin reached her as she lowered shaking arms, and at the last, Kaylin let go of the runes, held out her arms, and caught the Lady as she collapsed.