Cast In Secret (30 page)

Severn nodded and looked to Teela.

Teela made the type of face she generally made when someone served her bad ale. “First,” she said, in Elantran, “the Lord of the High Court sends his greetings to Lord Kaylin Neya and her
kyuthe,
Lord Severn Handred.”

Kaylin looked irritated.

“Don’t give me that look,” Teela snapped back. “You didn’t have to stand there for an hour while he offered the damn greeting.”

This made Kaylin laugh. When her laughter subsided, she said, “I’ll buy you a drink. I’ll buy you an hour’s worth of drinks.”

“With what money?”

“Probably mine,” Severn said drily.

“Second, the Lord of the High Court expressed both his concern at the current investigation – and no, before you ask, I didn’t mention it first – and also his willingness to help you in whatever way he can.

“Unfortunately, whatever way he can doesn’t extend to giving a direct order to Lord Evarrim.”

“Evarrim?”

“He’s an Arcanist, you might recall.”

“I try not to think about him at all.”

“Well, try less hard for the moment. He’s an Arcanist, and he worked with Donalan Idis, in as much as a Barrani Caste lord is willing to work with one of the merely mortal.”

Kaylin was silent for a moment. “When you said the Lord of the High Court expressed his concern – ”

“He, like the Emperor, has been consulted by and has in turn been consulting with, the Oracles.”

“And he takes it as seriously as the Emperor does.”

“More, I think.” She was silent for a while, looking at her perfect gloves, her slender hands – things that were designed to accentuate the ways in which she was not a fumbling human. But Teela was, among the Barrani Hawks, the one most likely to swear and get drunk. Second only to Tain in betting, she spoke Elantran as if it were her mother tongue. Kaylin didn’t like the Court version of the Teela she’d known since she was thirteen.

She particularly didn’t like the way this Teela raised her chin slightly, as if mulling over words Kaylin was suddenly certain wouldn’t bring her any joy.

“The Lord of the High Court has an unusual request,” she said at last, and Kaylin wilted.

Severn was leaning back in his chair, affecting ease. But his expression was on the rigid side. “What request?”

“It’s for Kaylin,” she said at last. “And it is strictly a personal request. It has no weight in the High Court, and your refusal of it would likewise have no weight. Nor could it be counted against you.”

“Not legally.”

“No. But I don’t think it would count against you anyway. The Lord of the West March still considers you
kyuthe,
and he is known to be unwisely fond of you. He was present when the High Lord made his request, which, as I mentioned, does not have the weight of the Caste behind it.”

“Why?”

Severn cursed in Leontine. He seldom did that – most of his swearing had been learned with the Wolves. But sooner or later, Marcus got to everybody. “Nightshade,” he said curtly, when the swearing had died down.

Teela nodded slowly. “As Nightshade is outcaste, the Lord of the High Court cannot directly acknowledge his existence. This made the request a long and tedious affair,” she added, with just a hint of smugness.

Kaylin looked at Severn. Nightshade had given them the name. Donalan Idis. The man himself, they had not yet found.

“This is another game,” Severn said bleakly. “Nightshade’s game.”

“He gave us – ”

“He gave us information, yes. But did he give us all the information he had?”

“I highly doubt it,” Tiamaris said quietly.

“You have met the outcaste on a number of occasions,” Teela said, more as a question than a statement.

“Our studies in the fiefs led us across his path. He did not seek to hinder us, and in one or two cases, may actually have been of aid.”

“What game does he play?”

“I am not a Barrani lord. I do not know.”

Teela nodded as if this made sense. From the standpoint of Barrani arrogance, it did.

“But he gave us the name. Donalan Idis.”

“Yes. But the name was not involved in
this
case,” Kaylin began – and then reddened. Severn raised a brow, but didn’t even try to save her from her own big mouth.

“Which case did the name concern?” Teela asked, with perfectly feigned nonchalance.

“Severn, help me here.”

But Severn was silent.

You like the damn Tha’alani,
she thought, with bitter anger.
I don’t.
But she could still see the fear and the exhaustion in the lines of Ybelline’s beautiful face. It was not something she wanted to add to. Not in this way.

Not when a child – and the sanity of a race – was at stake.

“Do you think the widower was Donalan Idis?” she asked, by way of avoiding her own gaffe.

“I think it possible,” Severn replied. “Because the two are dead in this unexplained fashion, and because an Arcanist would be capable of such killing. But… he has been careful, for all this time. I don’t think it was his power which killed the couple.”

“No sigil.”

“None. There was
no sign
at all that magic had been done by any of the means our mages can trace. And we have one who can detect the signature of the mage on cases that are more than two decades old, if you can point him at the traces.”

“It shouldn’t be possible, though – no signature at all? No trail?”

“Kaylin,” Teela said, very, very gently, “you
are
going to have to answer the question.”

She looked at Tiamaris, and at Severn. “We should talk with Ybelline,” she said at last, defeated.

“Ybelline? Ybelline Rabon’alani?”

Kaylin nodded.

“When – and why – were you talking with Ybelline? She is the Castelord of the Tha’alani.”

“I don’t think that word means that much to the Tha’alani,” Kaylin replied weakly. “And I went to see her because she asked me to come.”

“You
hate
the Tha’alani! Was the Hawklord out of his mind?”

“She didn’t send the request through the Hawklord. She didn’t send the request through the Halls. It was strictly a personal visit.”

“So personal that you didn’t think to inform the Hawklord before you went?” Teela was practically gaping. Normally, this would be a small personal triumph, but Kaylin’s sense of triumph was pretty much ash.

“I didn’t think it was any of his business.”

Teela’s eyes swept upward, as if the Barrani believed in heaven and she were actually imploring one deity or another for patience. “What did she want?”

“She wanted my help,” Kaylin said, her voice dropping until it was almost inaudible. “There was some difficulty in the quarter.”

“If she asked for your help – ”

“It’s a caste case,” Kaylin added firmly.

Teela stopped talking for a moment. She didn’t look less grim when she started again. “You have no business in Tha’alani caste cases. They have their own investigators for that.”

“Their investigators – such as they are, and they are in
no way
a body of law enforcement – do not leave the quarter, Teela,” Severn replied.

“You’d better tell me,” Teela told her, fixing Kaylin with that blue-eyed stare that spoke of imminent Barrani temper. The bad kind. Severn, apparently, had not spoken.

So he tried again.

“It is not Ybelline’s wish that this be publicly known, and if it is brought up, it will upset the balance between the Tha’alani and the Law.” Severn sounded like a schoolmaster, albeit a young and attractive one. “She will claim it as a matter for the Caste, and any chance we have of aiding her – any chance we have of building a bridge between the Tha’alaan and the outsiders – will be lost.”

“Fine. Tell me off the damn record.”

“There’s no way to keep it off the records,” Kaylin said bitterly, “if Donalan Idis is somehow involved in both cases.”

Silence, then. Teela, however, was not much one for silence that didn’t suit her. “Try.”

Kaylin glanced once at Tiamaris. His gaze was golden, although his lids were raised. “The Dragon Court fully understands its crimes against the Tha’alani,” he said quietly, “and the Emperor will also understand. Where it is possible, the Tha’alani will remain outside of the scope of this investigation. Even if Donalan Idis is, in the end, found in residence there. I will take what responsibility needs be taken for your disclosure.”

“You can’t,” she said bitterly. Knowing that they were all right. The Hawk was heavy, but she wore it anyway.

“A Tha’alani child is missing from the enclave,” she told Teela.

Teela was silent. The silence did not last. “I understand why she sent for you.”

“I don’t. She didn’t touch
me.
And the Tha’alani who did certainly didn’t get anything – ” She closed her eyes. “Never mind.”

“She touched Catti, Kaylin. She touched Catti’s memories. Catti is from the Foundling Halls, and as you had just saved her life, I can’t imagine that her thoughts weren’t full of you.”

Kaylin shrugged. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about a missing Tha’alani girl. She was last seen – in the Tha’alaan – in the company of a Tha’alani male who was born deaf. Deaf by the standards of the Tha’alani. He can be touched the way any thinking being can, and he can be read if he so chooses. The others can read what he remembers. But he can’t actually touch the Tha’alaan himself.

“He ran away,” she added. “When he was a teenager. He came
here
to find people who would understand him.” Even saying the words cut her. “And he went back, and he wouldn’t share his experiences here. But… he had one friend, or someone he felt was a friend, in the city outside of the Enclave.”

“Who?”

“Lord Nightshade.”

If Teela had been holding anything in her hands, it would have snapped in two. As it was, she looked around the empty, pristine room for something she could break.

“And he also met once with Donalan Idis while he was gone the first time. At least once. Donalan Idis had some interest in the boy.”

“Nightshade?”

“I don’t know, Teela. He lived with Nightshade for some time before he returned to the Tha’alani. He
isn’t
with the Tha’alani anymore, and neither is the child. But it’s worse.”

“It always is.”

“The child was in contact with the Tha’alaan, and the contact was broken suddenly, and with great pain to the child. If she were sleeping, she would still be in reach, or would have been. I don’t know what the range is – I didn’t really ask.”

“You suspect – ”

“That she may be injured or crippled, yes.”

Teela was silent. “We can be glad of one thing,” she said heavily. “It was one of their own, and not one of ours, that did this.”

“I – I can’t be certain of that. Grethan, the deaf boy – he
knows
what it means, never to be able to touch the Tha’alaan. I – I don’t believe he could knowingly cripple a small child – ”

“You don’t know that for certain.”

“I know that I wouldn’t – ”

“Kaylin, a small child could rob you and stab you in the thigh and you would make excuses. You’re completely blind when it comes to things like this. Some people resent the ease that others have, and they could
easily
do harm.

“Where did he meet Donalan Idis?”

“In Castle Nightshade, the first time. I don’t… I don’t think Nightshade approved of the meeting. I don’t think it happened again
in
the Castle.”

“What was Donalan Idis doing in the Castle?”

“I didn’t ask. If I had, I doubt I would have gotten a useful answer.”

“Well,
ask,
Kaylin.”

“What could they hope to get from a Tha’alani child? My only guess would be access to other people’s memories – but if they crippled her – ” and she
hated
to even use the word ” – then that’s not what they wanted. And what else is there?”

“It would depend,” Severn said, slicing into the conversation with the tone of his voice, “on whether or not Donalan Idis was as unsuccessful in his early attempts to appropriate Tha’alani abilities as he claimed.”

“What do you mean? If he had had success – ” But the cool words that Severn had spoken suddenly became glaringly clear. “He didn’t finish,” she said dully. “He was deprived of subjects.”

Severn nodded.

“And if he were almost finished, if he thought there was a way – ”

“Yes.”

“Oh God.”

“Severn – you accessed the records Tiamaris brought – ”

“Yes. On the surface, there is very little there that the Wolves don’t have in their archives.”

“Why do the Wolves – oh, never mind. The writ of hunting.”

Severn nodded. “Most of the information is not new to me. It is… more clear. The Tha’alani drove men mad in their own pain and fear.”

“Was that all they did?”

“The cases are here,” Severn said quietly. “But in the light of new information, old secrets might become clearer. I will say that Donalan Idis was not well loved by those in the Emperor’s service. He was arrogant and frequently imperious.

“But given the disposition of the men who serve in that particular section of the Imperial Service, I would say their disdain for him had very little to do with the destruction of the Tha’alani lives given to his care.”

“Let me access them.”

Tiamaris now lifted a hand and placed it gently on Kaylin’s shoulder. “I think Severn has spent the time necessary to acquaint himself with the information.”

“But he – ”

“No,” Severn said quietly. “Kaylin should see them.”

“We have need of her elsewhere.”

“Yes. But she should see them, and time is something that we are short on, no matter what we do.” Severn’s expression was so carefully neutral, Kaylin
knew
she wouldn’t like what she saw.

“What do you expect her to see, Corporal?” Tiamaris’s eyes had shaded, in an instant, to orange. Kaylin had seldom seen such a total change in a Dragon’s mood before. And Severn, well aware of what that color meant, met the Dragon’s stare with an intensity all his own. His eyes didn’t
have
to change color.