Cast in Flame. Michelle Sagara

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СКАЧАТЬ hanging cages as decoration—near the entrance to Castle Nightshade was also absent. So were the gates. The Barrani who usually oversaw those black gates—the armored guards more suited to Court than to fiefs—hadn’t disappeared with them.

      They no longer guarded gates, or a fake portcullis. They stood to either side of doors that seemed, even in moonlight, to be made of polished obsidian.

      “This does not look promising,” Teela murmured. “Kitling, are you still in communication with the fieflord?”

      Since the mark on her cheek was warm enough it was probably glowing, the answer was obvious. Given Teela’s mood, Kaylin answered anyway. “He’s able to communicate with me.”

      “Ask him if this is what he expected the outside of his castle to look like.”

      The Tower was tall. It was taller than the Tower in Tiamaris, and looked infinitely less welcoming. The doors were its most striking feature, but the rest of the Tower wasn’t exactly nondescript. It suggested cliff faces on stormy nights; it looked sharp, angular, an almost natural protrusion.

      “He’s remarkably silent.”

      Tell Lord Teela that I am not certain it is wise to enter the Castle at the present time.

      No, thanks.

      I make no attempt to mark territory, or to assume command. The Castle is dangerously unstable. Tell her.

      Kaylin shook her head emphatically. She’s going in unless you forbid it. Given her mood, I’d be willing to bet she’d try anyway.

      A beat of silence followed. Will you caution Lord Severn?

      Same problem, except for the mood. If I go, he’s going, and if Teela’s going, I’m going.

      You will have to inform my men that I grant permission. At the moment, communications have been unreliable. Nightshade was at least partly amused. They will accept your words as if they were, in this case, my own.

      The mark.

      Yes. My brother dislikes it intensely; he wishes it removed. I have explained that its existence has saved lives, but he considers the practicalities incidental in this case.

      Is he wrong?

      You know he is not. When I consider the centuries in which I attempted to find solutions for his absence, I am reminded strongly of the mortal phrase: be careful what you wish for.

      Can he take the Castle from you?

      That is not my fear.

      What are you afraid of?

      He did not intend to do what I believe has begun. He is waking the Tower.

      You mean he’s talking to—to the equivalent of Tara?

      Not deliberately. But something hears him, and I think it is struggling to respond.

      Where is Andellen?

      Within the Castle.

      * * *

      Getting permission to enter the doors was perfunctory. The guards took one look at Kaylin’s face, and stood back from them. They weren’t thrilled about Teela’s presence, but said nothing; they were Barrani. These weren’t negotiations. There was no partial obedience.

      Severn unwound his weapon chain. The run through the streets hadn’t merited full-on armaments. The unknown might.

      In all, things worked about as smoothly as they ever did until it came time to enter the Castle. The doors didn’t budge. Turning to the Barrani on the right, Kaylin said, “Are these doors a portal, like the portcullis used to be?”

      “They do not function in the same fashion,” the man replied, his eyes dark in the dim light. “Some can enter; some cannot.”

      “Has anyone who entered returned?”

      “Their purpose is to reach the side of our Lord; they have no reason to return.”

      “That’s a lot of syllables for No.”

      “Is there another entrance?” Teela asked.

      It was Kaylin who answered. “Yes. But given the disaster of tea in the Keeper’s Garden that’s an absolute last resort. Safe arrival is dependent on a concentrated amount of elemental water, and I’m not taking chances on enraged water unless the alternative is something worse than enraged Dragon.” She walked up to the closed doors and lifted a hand; her palm hovered an inch from its surface. Nothing made her skin ache.

      “You were right,” Teela said—in Leontine.

      “About what?”

      “They are far, far more trouble than you were when you wormed your way into the Hawks.”

      “It’s not supposed to be a competition, Teela.”

      “At the moment it isn’t—you’re so far behind you couldn’t catch up if you tried.”

      “Can Annarion open the door?”

      “Annarion doesn’t know the Castle,” Teela replied, grinding her teeth. “He can’t mesh the geography of what I see—and show him—with what he currently sees.”

      Which is pretty much what anyone sane expected from a Tower, although Kaylin had had hopes. She exhaled. “All right, small and scrappy. Can you open this?”

      The small dragon squawked and launched himself off her shoulders. The Barrani guards didn’t even blink as he hovered just above Kaylin’s head.

      I am not certain that is a wise idea, Nightshade said, with vastly diminished amusement.

      It can’t be any worse than whatever it is Annarion’s doing.

      You are devoid of an active imagination, which is disappointing considering the experience you have now amassed.

      The small dragon chirped. He landed on Kaylin’s shoulders in the alert position that involved more claw than usual, and extended his neck toward the door. Kaylin took the hint. She didn’t touch the door itself, but approached it as if it were a portal—with a certain amount of dread.

      “Corporal?” Teela said.

      Severn nodded. He shifted his grip on the business ends of the unbound chain, passing a loop of links around Kaylin’s waist. Teela grimaced but allowed him to do the same, while she murmured something about “foundlings” under her breath.

      Only when Severn, attached to the chain by the blades, gave the sign did Kaylin suck in air and take a step forward.

      * * *

      “Charming,” Teela said, voice dry.

      Kaylin had always assumed that the passage through the portal was a misery—for her—because of the sensitivity to magic that had come to her with the runic marks that covered so much of her skin. No one else seemed to СКАЧАТЬ