Cast in Silence. Michelle Sagara

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СКАЧАТЬ knowledge of the fiefs is…incomplete. What understanding we have is not entirely reliable. The fiefs are not hospitable to those who are not their masters.”

      She nodded.

      “Was our information accurate?”

      “Yes. I was in Barren seven years ago.” She spoke quietly, and without her usual confidence. “I don’t know much about the fief that anyone who lives there every day wouldn’t know.” This was not entirely the truth, but it was enough of the truth, if you narrowed the definition of everyone slightly.

      The Arkon didn’t appear unduly suspicious. “Did you ever have cause to meet with the fieflord there?”

      Her silence was more pronounced. But Dragons lived forever, absent things that were actively hostile; time meant less to them. “Yes. Yes, I met Barren.”

      “Good. What can you tell me about this fieflord?”

      “What do you want to know?”

      “Is he human?”

      She nodded. “As human as I—as—”

      His lips curved in a smile. “As human as most of the citizens of Elantra?”

      “As that, yes. He was older than I was. He’s probably forty now, maybe a little older. Possibly a little younger. The fiefs tend to age people.”

      “Where did he come from?”

      “Come from?”

      The Arkon glanced at Sanabalis. “I believe I asked the correct question?”

      “Yes, Arkon.”

      “I—I don’t know. He was the fieflord. I didn’t exactly ask.”

      The Arkon frowned. “And he did not choose to enlighten you?” Even the Arkon could read the silence that followed his question. “Very well. The fief of Barren—as do all fiefs—border the heart of the fiefs themselves. We cannot pierce the shadows there,” he added. “By any means save entering them. The Aerians can fly over the edges, but in the center, flight falters.”

      “How do you know?”

      “How do you think we know?”

      She swallowed and thought of Clint. But she didn’t ask more, mostly because she was afraid the answer would enrage her; she’d always loved the Aerian Hawks. “Why do you think they can’t fly over the heart of the fiefs?” It was a safer question, as comment seemed expected.

      His brows rippled slightly, but he didn’t seem annoyed. “One of two possibilities exist. The first: that the heart is magically protected in some fashion, and in a way that defies the expedience of simple geography. It is not the explanation I favor,” he added. “The second is slightly more complex. How far did you proceed in your studies on magical theory?”

      When she failed to produce an answer, the brows rose again, but this time, the expression he offered was less benign. “You have studied magical theory? Sanabalis?” Clearly, the shock of her second nonanswer caused him to forget the nicety of something as simple as a title.

      “Her studies in magical theory were not considered mandatory for a member of the groundhawks.”

      “It is hardly possible to have a conversation with someone who has no grounding in the basics. I might as well speak in my native tongue for all the good it will do.”

      “Indeed,” Sanabalis replied.

      “Alleviate the difficulty. You are teaching her, are you not?”

      “Yes, Arkon.”

      Kaylin wilted visibly. She’d long since realized that there were whole days that did not reward getting out of bed; she thought it a bit unfair that whole weeks could also be like that. “Pretend I’m ignorant,” she began.

      “It hardly requires pretense,” the Arkon replied stiffly.

      Reminding herself that she liked her limbs attached, she swallowed. “Explain it anyway?”

      He was very slow to relent, but did. “I am not responsible for your inability to understand,” he told her. “And I therefore am not responsible for any questions that arise from your incomplete comprehension. Tiamaris may answer them in my absence.”

      “Arkon,” Tiamaris replied.

      “Very well. You have heard the world theory, yes?”

      Sanabalis raised a brow. “I think it completely irrelevant to the Hawks and the Imperial Law. It is unlikely that she has been forced to study something considered that esoteric.”

      “Very well. There is, in theory, more than one world.”

      “More than one?”

      The Arkon nodded.

      “How many?”

      Sanabalis winced. Clearly, this was not the right question.

      “More than one. Right.”

      “Each world has a magical potential.” She nodded.

      “And each world has a magical field, if you will, a level of power that permeates the whole. If our own studies are anything to go by, that level of power can fluctuate from place to place. Do you understand the concept of power lines or power grids?”

      She wanted to nod, but she didn’t. She could guess how amused the Arkon would be by a simple fib. She could also see that her silence had caused his eyes to shade into a dark bronze. Sometimes ignorance had its appeal.

      “Sanabalis, I am entirely unamused.”

      “Arkon.”

      “Very well, Private Neya. Magical potential seems to form along lines; we are not certain why. Those lines can cross, and in some areas, they will form a grid, in some a knot. Those knots are areas in which magic, when it can be used at all, will be at its most potent. It will often also be at its most wild.”

      “Wild?”

      “Sanabalis can explain that later. My time is valuable.”

      Hers, on the other hand, wasn’t, at least if you went by pay scale. But she absorbed the words, made as much sense as she could of them, and then braved a question. “The buildings in the fiefs—like the Castle—are they on those knots?”

      He raised a brow. “Very good. This may be less painful than I anticipated. Yes. They are, as you put it, on potential knots. The magic that defines the boundaries of a fief seem to follow lines that extend from the central knot, and out. But there is some blurring of boundary, as has been discussed elsewhere.

      “In the heart of the fiefs, in what was once called Ravellon by the Barrani, we believe potential exists such as exists nowhere else in our world.”

      “What does this have to do with other worlds?”

      Clearly, СКАЧАТЬ