Page 143 of Cast in Conflict

It’s likely, Severn said. Also: Terrano’s already here. None of the rest of the cohort have arrived yet—I think he probably trailed after us when Mandoran left.

I wonder if Tara will let them pass through.

Mandoran seems to think they’re all avoiding Tiamaris. He didn’t because he was with us.

Never mind. I don’t want to know. What I need to know now, she added, grimacing as she touched one rune and attempted to pull it off her skin—which was a lot less metaphorical than she’d’ve liked, is where the hell Emmerian is.

If he were angry the way he was the other night, you wouldn’t have to ask.

She nodded. This should have been a good sign. It certainly didn’t feel like it. If she found Emmerian and made it out of here, she was going to punch Karriamis.

I wouldn’t advise it.

No one would—but he said Emmerian is stuck here. And he can’t find him or at least can’t get him out. I don’t understand why. Helen could. I’m certain Helen could—she deals with enraged cohort members all the time.

It’s pretty clear Karriamis doesn’t.

Yes—but he was built to deal with Shadow. That’s worse, isn’t it?

No. I don’t think he has to care whether or not Shadow, in whatever form the incursion takes, survives. Helen does.

This didn’t make Kaylin any happier as the words sank roots. The implications made the situation far more dire. It wasn’t that the Emperor would blame her if Emmerian failed to survive; he wouldn’t. Nor would he blame Bellusdeo.

She was almost certain Bellusdeo would blame herself. The gold Dragon wouldn’t blame Kaylin; Emmerian was a Dragon, so far above a corporal Kaylin was irrelevant. There was nothing she could face that he couldn’t.

The rune rose from her arm, shedding gray as its light brightened; it became blue, and the light cast, harsh. It reminded Kaylin of the morgue. This was not a comfortable thought. She could heal, yes; it was the only truly unalloyed blessing the marks had given her.

But Kaylin couldn’t heal a corpse. No one could. Karriamis, damn him, had once been a Dragon—he’d probably know for certain if Emmerian was dead. But if he was injured? If he was dying?

Surely he would have said something.

Damn it, what had he said? She’d been kind of angry at a lot of it and had probably overfocused on the parts she considered garbage. Emmerian doesn’t want to be seen.

She exhaled. “Emmerian, I don’t know if you can hear me—it’s Kaylin.”

Silence.

“I would like to get you out of here—preferably through the nearest back door—before Bellusdeo arrives.”

She felt a tremor beneath her feet, and looked down. The ground on which she was standing was ice—or ice-like; it was what was shedding this odd fog.

Beneath the ice she could now see the open—and red—eye of a blue Dragon.

20

“Karriamis!”

The Tower didn’t answer. One red eye flickered, as if, trapped beneath the frozen floor, Emmerian was trying to close his eyelids, with about as much success as one would expect of someone stuck in an ice block.

He’s with us now, Severn said. Karriamis is here.

Tell him—She cut off words that would have been considered too foul for Marcus, her sergeant. Tell him to let Emmerian go.

He says he has not imprisoned Emmerian.

He didn’t put himself into a freaking giant block of ice on his own!

Severn understood her anger. He is saying that’s exactly what happened. He apologizes for allowing it, but points out that he did not invite Emmerian to visit; Emmerian came on his own—and if Karriamis is a Dragon, he, too, is wary of enraged Dragons.

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