Page 165 of Cast in Conflict

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Tiamaris did fly in; Kaylin could see him as a glint of red that hurtled toward the fief—and its attackers—as if he were a ball of fire. He was, to her knowledge, the only other fieflord who could take immediately to the sky to deal with threats to his fief.

Or to Candallar’s, apparently.

Bellusdeo’s hand twitched. “Tell him to turn back,” she said.

Karriamis did not reply.

Bellusdeo turned. The Avatar was no longer in the room. Kaylin had enough warning to clap her hands over her ears as the gold Dragon roared.

There was no answering roar. But the stairs had apparently vanished with the Tower’s Avatar. Kaylin kept her hands firmly in place while Bellusdeo roared in outrage; she thought she could hear Leontine roll over her shaking hands.

The problem with angry Dragons was their size. While size didn’t necessarily imply strength, in the case of Dragons, it didn’t matter; the subtleties of stronger or weaker were only relevant to other Dragons. Kaylin had no physical way of restraining Bellusdeo if she chose to go full Dragon.

There was enough room in the Tower that she could, and Kaylin suffered no illusion; she moved away as Bellusdeo’s physical form began to shiver in place.

She had words. “Don’t! It’s you he wants! It’s always been you he wants!”

Bellusdeo’s roar was caught between a mortal throat and the expanding depth of a Dragon’s. Kaylin lost voice for a moment as Emmerian’s breath lit the sky with a cone of fire. Most of the Aerians were flexible enough—fast enough—to drop or rise to avoid the flame’s heat; the heart of the fire was met with...fire. The outcaste’s fire.

It was red and purple, to red and orange, but the core of both cones was almost white.

A glint of sword could be seen, but Teela hadn’t summoned the power of the blade, not yet.

From the ground, however, Nightshade did. Lightning leaped up, and up again, clipping the outcaste’s wing before he could withdraw it; he was pinned in place by Emmerian’s fire and his own. Four of the Aerians peeled off instantly.

Kaylin had watched Aerian maneuvers at every opportunity during her tenure at the Halls of Law. She was impressed. They moved as one; even the fold of wings as they dived was synchronized. They were armed, although the Aerians could do a great deal of damage with their wings.

Nightshade’s experience with flying enemies was largely draconic. He backed into an alley made of the buildings the cohort had not yet emptied. She saw a glint of flying blades; Severn had unhooked his weapons and set the chain spinning. Never a good sign.

She turned; the single advantage of Bellusdeo’s almost transition was that she’d been forced to let Kaylin’s shoulder go. Kaylin went immediately in search of the damn stairs. “Karriamis, you son of a—”

“I would not say that, were I you,” the disembodied Dragon said. “I understand that you are not responsible for your thoughts, and I therefore tolerate a certain lack of necessary respect.”

“Respect is earned.”

“Respect is a necessary element of survival.”

“What are you even doing? Where did the damn stairs go?”

“I am waiting,” he replied, in a tone that the Arkon—the former Arkon—might have used.

“For what?”

“She was Empress. Queen, if you will. She ruled. It is hard, watching her reactions, to understand this, or even to believe it; I believe it because I have seen some of her memories.”

If Karriamis were in front of her now, Kaylin wasn’t certain she wouldn’t have tried to stab him.

“Yes. You might. I would not, however, kill you in response. You fail to understand what she was—you see what she is, what’s left in the wake of loss. I wish to see some proof that what she was has not been utterly destroyed by loss.”

“Why?”

“Because she is, regardless, the future of her race. She has just commanded Tiamaris to withdraw.”

As if she could hear Karriamis, Bellusdeo once again resumed her human form; the lines of transformation that blurred body and allowed for the change had once again hardened. Her back was to Kaylin, her gaze on the sky itself.

Tiamaris, however, was now hovering.

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