She nodded.
This, then, is the green. My brother is the leader of our peoplebut in theory, the leader of the Human Caste Court is the leader of yours.
Thats a pretty tenuous theory, Kaylin replied. Ive never met him, and even if I had, I dont serve him.
No?
I serve the Halls of Law. My ruler is the Eternal Emperor. She spoke quietly, but was reminded that the Barrani had excellent hearing when they all fell silent. Part of her was irritated. What shed said was true. It was fact. Finding fact offensive was pointless.
On the other hand, fact was hundreds of miles away, and offense was up close and personal. She made a mental note not to mention dragonsany dragonswhile in the West March. Then again, she probably didnt have to. Teela had made her take Sanabaliss amulet out, and the Barrani generally knew what it signified: she belonged to a dragon.
As she fingered the heavy chain, the Lord of the West March frowned. It is best not to draw attention to what you bear. It wasnt the first time shed visited a Barrani court wearing a sign that said Property of Dragon Lord. In fact, it wasnt the first time shed worn this sign. In the High Halls, it had seemed less dangerous.
I wasnt allowed to leave until Id promised to wear it. But Sanabalis was also hundreds of miles away.
It is never wise to break an oath given to dragons, the Lord of the West March told her.
Its probably stupid to give them the oath in the first place, she conceded, falling into her mother tongue. But we werent going to get the information we needed unless I promised to make the pilgrimage to the West March. And I couldnt make that promise without also taking the amulet.
Lord Sanabalis did not feel that my ring would guarantee your safety?
Its probably stupid, she said, after a long pause, for me to open my mouth at all.
He laughed. It is not in our nature to trust others to protect what is valuable to us. Even were it, that trust would not cross this particular racial divide. I had heard rumor that some Imperial overtures had been made.
Yes. But I dont think thats going to happen again in this generation.
No. The High Court was unamused by the presence of the Emperor upon their land.
He was a little angry.
Dragons do not generally breathe fire in the middle of the city when they are merely annoyed.
I didnt say he was annoyedI said he was angry. You cant blame him. One of the High Lords had just attempted to assassinate the only known female dragon.
As a Lord of the High Court, Lord Kaylin, it is best not to spread that sentiment.
Kaylin, tired and unexpectedly angry herself, said, She was living with me at the time. Every item of value I owned was destroyed during that attempt.
The small dragon squawked.
Almost every item. I understand why Iberrienne tried to kill her. But Im not willing to pretend that was a good thing. Even if my home hadnt been ripped to pieces by an Arcane bomb, I still wouldnt. Im an Imperial Hawk.
Yes, Lord Kaylin, you are. What I now wonder is what else you might be. He glanced at the Warden of the West March; Lord Barian was no longer walking. He, and the men who had arrived by his side, had spread out in a line ten yards from Teela, the Lord of the West March, and Kaylin. Ah. Weve arrived.
They had; there was a small stream, too slender to be called a riverand far too shallowand the Barrani began to line up at its far edge as the Warden of the West March signaled a halt. A word of advice, Lord Kaylin. The would-be assassin is Outcaste. Do not use his name in polite company.
And what am I supposed to call him?
Outcaste, Nightshade replied, amused.
Outcaste what? Outcaste number twelve or ninety?
The context will make it clear. The Lord of the West March has claimed you as kin. He will guide you, as you allow. He is not his father; he is not his brother. He is likevery likehis sister. He will indulge you where it is safe to do so. Do not make the mistake of believing his indulgence to be a social norm. It is not.
She wanted, very badly, to fall over and sleep. Had she been at home, she probably wouldnt have made it out of her clothing first. Severn joined her and slid an arm around her shoulder. He didnt speak. He didnt need to speak. She accepted what he offered, leaning against his shoulder; letting him carry some part of her weight.
From there, she could watch.
She could watch as the bed of this modest stream began to widen, to stretch away from the Barrani on all sides. The stream itself could be crossed with a simple leapor a running leap, in Kaylins case; the river it had become was far too wide.
While thinking that, she saw the Lord of the West March take a step forward, into the moving current.
His foot never hit water. It hit air instead, and that air obligingly became a bridge. It didnt rise out of the water. That would have been too simple. No, it appeared in broad strokes, as if painted in place by an insanely fast, insanely good artist. It was brighter than the rest of the landscape; brighter than the moonlight should have made it, and it appeared, to her eye, to be made of glass.
Given that most of the Barrani were wearing armor, this was not comforting.
The Lord of the West March then turned to Teela. AnTeela. He did not offer her an arm; she couldnt take it and continue to bear her burden. But she inclined her chin and preceded him. If material composition of the bridge concerned her, it didnt show. She climbed what appeared to be slope without stairs until she stood at the midpoint of the bridge; there she paused to look out at the currents of the river.
Kaylin, following, stopped beside her. Teela?
The Barrani Hawk looked down her perfect nose. Home, she said, wearily. She turned then, and walked down the incline that led, at last, to the city at the heart of the West March.
The Barrani did not appear to favor stoneat least not underfoot. Elantra had roads. Even in the fiefs, where the roads were broken and undermined by weeds and water runoff.
But the Barrani of the West March had lawns instead of roads. Grass gave way to stairs, many of which went down, rather than up; it gave way to doors and to trees. There were flowers, as well, but the flowers didnt seem to grow in specific, boxed beds; they seemed artless and wildbut for all that, they didnt get in the way of the High Court, or anyone else who walked the green.
The trees that had been the only constant during the overland trek were everywhere, but they grew in more ordered rows; they were at least as tall as the trees on the other side of the bridge. But there were no fallen branches, no hollow, standing trunks; here, the trees were like lampposts, without the lights.
In fact, the trees seemed to mark what passed for road here; they formed explicit boundaries in rows, opening up or ending, as if they were the walls of a maze. Mazes were the province of the monied. Warrenslike mazes made of buildingswere the province of the wretched, but Kaylin had no sense that shed find slums in the West March.
The Lord of the West March glanced at her, the corners of his eyes and lips crinkling. Shed amused him again.
It is seldom indeed that I see my own home from the vantage of a visitor entirely new to it. It is...engaging. We will follow this road, as you call it, and turn to the right; the treesthe type of treesare indicators.
Of what?
Ah, forgive me. They would, in your parlance, be street names, I believe.
It wasnt a short walk. Kaylin, who had always known that Teela was physically strong, was more than impressed when they at last reached the home of the Lord of the West March. If stone wasnt favored as a general building material, it wasnt absent here. The building reminded Kaylin very much of the High Halls in Elantraat least from the outside. The stairs that fronted it were flat and wide, the columns that held the roof almost the height of the trees that stood to the right and left of the building.
They were carved in the likeness of warriors, and words were engraved across the rounded base of each; Kaylin couldnt read most of them, although she was certain they must be High Barrani. Then again, she couldnt read most examples of High Barrani carved or written centuries ago; she was assured that the language was the samebut the style of the writing made the entire thing look like a mess of loops and crosses. It was aesthetic, but not practical.
She could make out individual letters at the beginnings of words.
Can you read these? she asked Severn. He had sheathed his swords when Nightshade and the Lord of the West March arrived.
Not all of it, no. That one means weapon or sword, depending on the context.
Thanks. I was kind of hoping to feel less stupid.
Then you dont want to be left behind, he replied, grinning. The Lord of the West March is opening his home to the High Court. We want to be there before hes finished.
Hes not likely to close the doors in our facefor one, I dont think there are any. But she moved as she spoke.
I suspect the ring youre wearing would grant you entrance, regardless. It wont, however, speak for me.
She hesitated. I couldnt help but notice that the Barrani here dont like your weapon much.
Its not the weapon, he replied as he cleared the stairs. Its the wielder. I suffer from mortality.
Its a curse, she agreed. How much trouble are they going to cause?
Im uncertain. The weapon was damaged in our melee with Iberrienne. There are only two places in which it might be repaired. The West March is the least hostile.
I dont want to know where the other place is.
He chuckled. No, you really dont.
She did, of course. But shed already said too much. The hardest thing about Barrani Courts was the amount of silence they demanded.
Learn, Kaylin. Learn quickly. When you last attended Court, you were considered an oddity, a distasteful necessity in a city infested with them. In the West March, that is not the case. The Emperors shadow does not reach the greenbut the shadows of three wars mark it. When the Consort wakes, you will be called to give your report of the events that occurred when you went missing in the Outlands. The fact that the Hallionne Orbaranne is standingand wholeis the only point in your favor.