“The carriages?”
“There is a road,” he replied. “It is not easily traversed by your kind because they cannot easily find it.” His smile was almost gentle. Kaylin tried not to take offense when she realized he was treating her as a child; in strict years, she was. “Understand that An’Teela is an unusual member of the High Court. By birth, she belongs to two worlds.”
“Like you?”
“Very like. She is of the West March and she is of the High Court. There are very few who have her lineage.”
“But she’s not trusted by either.”
“She is trusted—inasmuch as any Barrani Lord—in the High Court. But her history makes her position in the Court of the Vale unusual.”
“You—you have your own court here?”
His brows rose, and his smile deepened. His eyes were a shade of emerald-green; she’d amused him. “Yes,” he said, “and there is very little in my life that does, at the moment. I consider it a gift. The West March has its court, the Court of the Vale; it always did. You will find that any gathering of significance does.
“You are aware that my title is Lord of the West March. Are you aware that the High Lord is also called the Lord of the Green?”
She nodded.
“This, then, is the green. My brother is the leader of our people—but in theory, the leader of the Human Caste Court is the leader of yours.”
“That’s a pretty tenuous theory,” Kaylin replied. “I’ve never met him, and even if I had, I don’t 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 she’d 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 dragons—any dragons—while in the West March. Then again, she probably didn’t have to. Teela had made her take Sanabalis’s 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 wasn’t the first time she’d visited a Barrani court wearing a sign that said Property of Dragon Lord. In fact, it wasn’t the first time she’d worn this sign. In the High Halls, it had seemed less dangerous.
“I wasn’t allowed to leave until I’d 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.
“It’s probably stupid to give them the oath in the first place,” she conceded, falling into her mother tongue. “But we weren’t going to get the information we needed unless I promised to make the pilgrimage to the West March. And I couldn’t make that promise without also taking the amulet.”
“Lord Sanabalis did not feel that my ring would guarantee your safety?”
“It’s 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 don’t think that’s 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 didn’t say he was annoyed—I said he was angry. You can’t 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 I’m not willing to pretend that was a good thing. Even if my home hadn’t been ripped to pieces by an Arcane bomb, I still wouldn’t. I’m 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. We’ve arrived.”
They had; there was a small stream, too slender to be called a river—and far too shallow—and 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 like—very like—his 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 wouldn’t have made it out of her clothing first. Severn joined her and slid an arm around her shoulder. He didn’t speak. He didn’t 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 leap—or a running leap, in Kaylin’s 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 didn’t 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. “An’Teela.” He did not offer her an arm; she couldn’t 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 didn’t 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 stone—at least not underfoot. Elantra had roads. Even in the fiefs, where the roads were broken and undermined by weeds and water runoff.