Page 49 of Cast in Conflict

Have you ever met Durant?

No. I have encountered Liatt once.

“Have you talked to Liatt?” Kaylin asked Bellusdeo.

“No, not yet. I have spoken with Farlonne at length; she is the only fieflord to make herself instantly and readily available.”

She would, Kaylin thought. Bellusdeo was a Dragon. But that was unfair. Farlonne clearly took the reason for the Tower’s existence seriously—as seriously as Bellusdeo herself did. If Bellusdeo’s first war with Shadow had ended in failure, there were still lessons to take from that failure. Farlonne was probably willing to learn them.

What was Liatt like?

Surprising. I feel I should offer a warning, however.

What warning?

You expect that Liatt and Durant—both human—are mortal as you are. Ah, no, as most of the Hawks are. You will find that this is not necessarily the case. Go back to Records, and look at the fief demarcations. In at least one case, were Durant to be like your Hawks, he would be well over eighty years old. Liatt would be...older.

What? Wait.

I am not, at the moment, going anywhere. I like the Academia. It is surprising to me. It reminds me of my youth. The better parts of it, he added. And I confess that I am very pleased with the chancellor. Killian, however, keeps his distance. Yes, he said, before Kaylin could even think the words, he is not so distant with you. He has reason to trust you, just as Helen or the Hallionne did.

He doesn’t trust you? This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Kaylin.

We use the word trust in different fashions. Killian is Barrani, or close; I am Barrani. The cohort is not, in Killian’s eyes. We do not insult each other by open trust. Trust is given to those who cannot harm us—although it is still a risk. It is far simpler for the cohort to trust you than it would be for them to trust me. Or any Lord of the High Court. Regardless, what you are is not what I am; Killian interacts with me as if I am Barrani. And as if he still is.

Killian doesn’t think I’m harmless, Kaylin pointed out.

It is entirely possible you are correct, Nightshade replied, which was like agreement on the surface.

“Kaylin.” Bellusdeo’s voice was a quiet snap of syllables.

She left Nightshade wherever it was one waited for an appointment to speak with the chancellor and gave the Dragon her full attention. Bellusdeo indicated a group of people walking down the street in a loose pack. One glance at Hope indicated that he was ready for trouble, but not anticipating it yet; he was standing on two legs, but he wasn’t rigid with tension.

“This looks promising,” Bellusdeo said.

Kaylin said nothing. She wasn’t wearing her tabard, and briefly regretted it.

“I am deputized to speak on behalf of the Academia,” the Dragon added. “I am certain that Durant has some questions.”

“He may—but there’s no guarantee that he’s one of the group walking to head us off.”

“No.”

Kaylin thought it highly likely that he wasn’t. If Bellusdeo was deputized to speak with Durant on behalf of the chancellor, these people were likely to be deputized to speak with intruders on behalf of Durant. Fieflords didn’t generally join patrols like these. At least not in Nightshade or Tiamaris.

Maggaron drew the eye from a distance, but it wasn’t Maggaron who attracted most of the attention; it was, as expected, the Dragon wearing gold plate armor. Lack of visible weapons in her hands didn’t really change the attention she received. Maggaron didn’t help, but Kaylin and Severn were practically invisible.

Maggaron had weapons, but hadn’t drawn any of them, and he stood behind his Dragon, waiting; Bellusdeo had come to a stop in the open streets. The windows above street level seemed mostly unoccupied, and as Bellusdeo wasn’t patrolling, Kaylin ignored the exceptions. Had she lived in a building with an actual window that wasn’t on the verge of collapse, she’d’ve been peeping out the windows in Nightshade as well.

Severn was slightly more cautious, but agreed.

A woman was at the head of a loose, triangular formation, and she detached herself from the group as the Durant people also came to a halt. She crossed the distance between the Dragon and what Kaylin assumed were her guards.

To Kaylin’s surprise, she offered Bellusdeo a crisp—if brief—bow. Bellusdeo returned a nod, but no one expected people wearing plate to be able to bow with any competence. That Dragons were exceptions to this practical expectation was perhaps less well known, given how often Dragons were forced to bow to anyone but each other.

“We’ve been expecting you. I am Marshalle. You are Lord Bellusdeo?”

“Bellusdeo. I am a Dragon, but I am not an official member of the Dragon Court.”

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