Cast in Honor (The Chronicles of Elantra) (12 page)

“Ah, no, you misunderstand. Certainly
I
would consider the risk of the unknown a danger if Bellusdeo is involved. The Arkon is not me. What do you intend to do?”

There were no Imperial Guards, no other Hawks, no Dragon Lords. The Emperor approached Kaylin this way because he intended to let her be herself. It was like a test, and she took the risk. She tried not to think of what failure would mean.

“I intend to twist Moran’s arm so she stays in my house. I intend to visit the Palace to speak with the Arkon. And I intend to continue the investigation into the murder.”

Chapter 10

“Please do so in exactly that order.”

Kaylin did miss a step then.

The Emperor didn’t smile; his expression made stone seem yielding and warm. But his eyes were almost gold, although the warmth was muted by raised inner membranes. “You are surprised.”

Kaylin nodded.

“I am slightly amused by your current predicament. Private, when I ask for advice, I listen. I admit that I was dubious at first about the usefulness—or the quality—of your advice. I am less dubious now. Bellusdeo has not lived in my Empire for as long as even you. She does not understand it. She understands its ruler to the same extent that she understands the city.

“You were right. She was both helpful and necessary in the fight against the Barrani ancestor. I did not hesitate to lead the rest of the Dragon Court into battle, excepting only Bellusdeo. Were we to be faced with the same difficulty again, I would make different choices. I cannot, however, undo what was done; it is in the past. The past, of course, is a different country; it is occupied, frequently, by regret, and it is ruled by tyrants. They cannot be moved.

“I would not make the same error again. I wished to protect Bellusdeo from certain danger. To protect her from uncertain danger would be, in her view, more of a crime, would it not?”

“I think so. She doesn’t get mad at
me
if I try to stop her from doing things. I can tell her whatever I’m
thinking
, and she might be annoyed, but...”

“Not enraged.”

“Not usually, no. It’s different. I can’t physically stop her from doing something. Even if I was intent on it, she’s a Dragon. I’m not. Maggaron fusses over her as if she were a foundling—but in the end, he doesn’t try to stop her from doing what she feels she should be doing. I try to learn from him. It’s not easy; he’s...not me.”

“No more am I.”

“No, but you’re both not me in different ways.” She exhaled. “Yes, I was afraid you’d turn me to ash if I let Bellusdeo follow me—not, as I mentioned, that I could stop her. But... I’m also really worried about Moran.”

“This would be Sergeant Carafel? Moran dar Carafel?”

“Yes. I know you don’t like dealing with the Caste Courts—” Kaylin stopped herself. If she could have bitten off her tongue, she would have done it.

The Dragon’s eyes shaded to orange.

“No one complains about it,” she said quickly—and inaccurately. “But...the Empire is yours. Having to make exceptions so that the Barrani—mostly—can skirt Imperial Law is never going to be something we appreciate.”

One brow rose; the scar across his face had whitened. “Your Sergeant doesn’t care for it.”

This was the real reason why talking to the Emperor at all was so dangerous. Kaylin had once assumed that no one could relax in the Imperial Presence—but the upside to that was no one else could open their mouth so wide they could fit both feet in, and still have room for leg.

“Have you met Sergeant Kassan?” she asked.

“Yes. Not often. He is Leontine, and the Leontines are not notably formal. While he has adapted to the Barrani language and laws, its general customs have escaped him almost entirely. I will not hold the Sergeant responsible for anything you say.”

“Thank you. No, really—
thank you
. Marcus is—Leontines are—more like
me
than the Barrani or the Dragons. They’re sometimes more like me than the rest of the humans in the office. It’s probably why we only
have
one Leontine. Marcus doesn’t tell us secrets. Most people don’t think he has any.”

“I am well aware of the Hawks’ view on Caste Court exemptions. If the Hawklord, the Wolflord and the Swordlord are more circumspect—and, Private, they are
vastly
more circumspect—they are nonetheless forthright. Do you know why I encourage racial integration among the Hawks, no matter how difficult it might otherwise be? It is precisely because I wish people to understand that there are costs to exemptions, and a diminishing respect for Imperial Law.

“If it is not clear to you, the decision involving Caste Courts and single-race crimes was a pragmatic one, and it was created almost in its entirety because of the Barrani. I did not wish my city to turn into a war zone. The Dragons would survive. The Barrani would survive.”

“But not the rest of us.”

“What do you think?”

“The Aerians might survive it.”

“You have never seen the flights at war, if you believe that. I have. I am not
fond
of the exemptions. I am not fond of dealing with the representatives of the Caste Courts. I find it difficult not to reduce them to ash.”

Kaylin remembered to close her mouth, because it was kind of hanging open, as if she’d forgotten it was attached to the rest of her face.

“Surely, given your own feelings, that cannot surprise you? I understand the concerns of the Aerian Caste Court—they were made quite clear. I am not, however, Aerian.” His smile was sharp and cold. “And as I am not, matters which the Aerian Caste Court consider of import are not matters to which I must personally attend. It pleases me to note that they are stymied. If you fear censure from me, you will have to look elsewhere.

“For instance, if Bellusdeo is harmed in the fiefs, I will be...very angry.”

This was what Kaylin had expected.

“But she would be quick to point out that were it not for your interference—in the fiefs, no less—she would not even be here. She would, of course, take longer to express the sentiment, and she would speak our native tongue. I do not propose to do so in the streets of my city.” He slowed his pace. “I find this entire interaction taxing. But it is enlightening. Having made the decision to respect Bellusdeo, you still worry.”

“Yes. But I think...I think that’s natural. I mean, for mortals, it’s natural. We kind of worry more about the people we know and care about.”

“And you do not worry about yourself? Given the differences in power between a mortal and a Dragon, does this not strike you as ridiculous?”

“...No.”

“You are about to enlighten me as to the reason.”

“I don’t really have a good reason. I live inside my mortal body. I know what I’ve survived. I know how much some of it hurt, and how much some of it terrified me. My own death, when it happens, isn’t likely to upset me, because I won’t be here. If someone else dies on me, I’ll still be here for the rest of my life, and I’ll be looking at a big, bleeding hole where they used to be.

“So... I guess it’s still about me. And having had to make that clear to you, I can’t let that fear and that—that selfishness, govern what I do. But for me, it’s hard. I have no idea what’s going on in today’s investigation yet, but it smells. I know breaking the law is always bad. I’m paid to know it. There are some things I hold my nose and just enforce. Sorry.

“But this case—it’s got nothing to do with money. It’s probably got something to do with power, if it has anything to do with
people
at all.”

Squawk
.

The Emperor blinked. “Your familiar has lost cohesion?”

Squawk.

“Is that a formal way of asking if he’s invisible?”

“Ah, no. I have some experience with illusion and invisibility; I would be aware of him were he here and merely invisible. I am without guards and without my Court; I am not foolish enough to also forsake reasonable precautions. He is not merely invisible. I would not have said he was present at all were it not for his very audible voice.”

“I don’t really understand it myself, but at the moment he’s here in a way that we—or at least I—can’t see.” She frowned.

“You are thinking again.”

Still frowning, Kaylin began to walk. The familiar existed. He was here. She couldn’t
see
him, and neither could the Emperor. She didn’t understand it. No one else she knew did, either. But...small and squawky wasn’t terrifying. And any reasonable person might consider that stupid: he could change size, he could fight with Dragons, he clearly had motives of his own.

More important, it wasn’t the first strange invisibility-that-wasn’t-invisibility of the day.

Annarion and Mandoran could
see
the little stinker. Teela and Tain couldn’t. Helen
probably
could.

Helen couldn’t be moved; she was a building. But Annarion and Mandoran could. With the familiar’s aid, they could even be moved safely. Kaylin wanted to take them to the crime site and ask them what they saw. Were the bodies similar to the familiar in his current state?

They were there. They were physical, they were real, they were lifeless.

But until she’d removed the familiar’s wing from her eyes, she hadn’t
seen
them. It was the inverse of invisibility, to most people. And most would have no reason to doubt the truth of their senses—and their prior experience.

She turned in the direction of the familiar’s voice. “You’re like the bodies.”

His squawk was softer and more encouraging. It didn’t, however, give her any new information. She remembered, belatedly, that she had company when said company cleared his throat, which was never a promising sound.

“I’m sorry. The small dragon is hooked into a reality that the rest of us can’t directly experience, being alive, corporeal and...well, actually, that’s all I know. Helen understands it better, but she can’t explain it in words we have concepts for.”

“You think your current investigation is somehow connected to this phenomenon.”

“I am
really
hoping it isn’t. But...yes.”

“I ask that you do what I cannot,” he said. This was an enormously humbling request, but Kaylin’s mouth was already closed and she managed to keep it that way.

“She doesn’t hate you,” Kaylin replied—which, as replies went, was strictly third class—or lower. “She understands, probably better than I do, what Elantra means to you. She understands what her presence theoretically means to the Dragons. But she is never, ever going to beg more than she already has. And before you say she hasn’t, she’s living here. She came here with pretty much nothing. She has no money, no power and no status
of her own
. The one thing she has to offer, her one area of expertise, is Shadow.”

“And Shadow is unpredictably dangerous.”

“Yes. Believe that she’s aware of that.”

“You are not saying this idly.” His eyes grew more orange.

“...No. I’m doing that thing that I always do.”

“Babble?”

She reddened. “Yes, that, too. I’m talking
myself
into doing the right thing, even when I don’t want to do it. I told you before—my big fear isn’t about dying. It’s about losing the people I love.

“And Shadows don’t care about love. Or at least not about the people I love.”

“I understood that. Do you intend to take Bellusdeo into Shadow?”

“I don’t intend to
take
her anywhere. But...she intends to follow wherever this leads. I can’t actually order her to remain behind and expect her to obey me.”

“And I—nominally—can.”

Kaylin nodded.

“This is a test?”

No one with a functioning brain tested the Emperor.

His eyes, a deeper orange in color, made clear just how little he appreciated this. But he understood that if orders were to be given, he had to be the one to give them. And he now understood that the orders would have consequences. “I will not, as you call it, turn you to ash if Bellusdeo survives. There are things she might, in time, forgive. Your death at my hands will never be one of them. If she perishes while in your care, her opinion of your death will no longer be relevant.

“You have never seen me angry.”

She had seen him angry at least once, but wasn’t stupid enough to correct him.

“She is not mine,” the Emperor continued. “She is not my hoard.”

“Could she ever be someone’s? Could
you
?” It had never occurred to Kaylin until this moment that the concept of “hoard” was elastic enough to encompass actual people. Given the Emperor’s expression, that was probably for the best.

“She is a
Dragon
,” he replied.

“I take it that’s a no.”

“I will speak with the Halls’ educational liaison. Your lack of fundamental knowledge is appalling.”

“Do female Dragons have hoards?”

“I will speak with the liaison the moment I return to the Palace.” He hesitated, which should have been a big red flag. “I had hoped to invite Bellusdeo to dinner.”

“At the Palace?”

“At any place of her choosing. No,” he added, looking even more uncomfortable, “I wish to choose a place in which she would feel comfortable.”

“Oh, that’s easy.”

“Not, apparently, for an Emperor.”

“Come to dinner at our place.” The minute the words left her mouth, she felt stranded by them, but she had no way to reel them back in. “Are you— Do you mean to come as the Emperor?”

“No.”

“I mean, you
are
the Emperor and that doesn’t really change—but—” She stopped digging.

“I understand why Lord Diarmat finds you so difficult. Bellusdeo, however, does not. I intend to issue the invitation in person, and I hope to be less...formal.”

She doubted he could be more formal than he was in the audience chambers in which he and Bellusdeo had had several very audible arguments. “I’m really not great at relationship advice. Really,
really
not great at it. So I want you to keep that in mind.”

“I will not hold you responsible.”

“Unless she dies?”

“Yes. It is unlikely that an invitation to an informal dinner will kill her.”

“Was that a joke?”

“I am not entirely without a sense of humor; I have been told mine is very, very dry.”

Dry enough to spontaneously catch fire apparently, which, given Dragon breath, was not ideal. “An informal invitation would work, I think. I don’t want her to be upset, and I don’t want her to think I’m ratting her out.”

“I will attempt not to take offense. When do you believe she will be free?”

Kaylin, thinking of Ravellon, the fiefs and Annarion, almost shrugged. Because her companion was the Emperor, she didn’t. “Tomorrow, she’ll come with me to visit the Arkon. And after that we’re probably going to chance Nightshade. So, tomorrow is no good.