Page 172 of Cast in Conflict

What’s Bellusdeo doing?

Fighting. Sorry; I can’t look up for any length of time, because some of the Aerians chose to land.

Why?

Because they’re trying to kill the fieflings who are close to the Tower.

Got it. Shutting up now.

She did shut up. She turned to Nightshade, metaphorically speaking. He could, and did, look up; the view on the ground was blurred by the light of Meliannos. He was aware of the mortals who had entered the street in a panic, but they were not his concern.

What she wanted to see was not what he wanted to see. He spoke Severn’s name, and leaped, sword in hand, to the Aerians.

Be careful of the spears—they’re Shadow.

I know. The reply was terse; he was irritated. Kaylin understood this was not the time to tell him something he already knew. But it wasn’t clear that he did know; certainly Mandoran hadn’t. She glanced at Mandoran.

“I’m not speaking to the cohort,” he surprised her by saying.

“Why not?”

He shook his head. “Are you talking to Nightshade or Severn?”

“Both.”

“Normally?”

She nodded.

“There’s...interference when I try. And I’m not sure that the interference isn’t somehow attached to the attempt. I don’t think it’s safe for them to talk to me the normal way.”

Since the normal way had an entirely different meaning for Kaylin, she nodded, but she was now disturbed, and as the street didn’t seem to be ending anytime soon and there were no obvious enemies lying in wait, she said, “Why do you feel it’s unsafe?”

Mandoran hesitated for one long beat, and Kaylin tightened her grip on his hand, as if hesitation might cause him to vanish. “I don’t know. It just... You heard something else. You heard a different voice, different words, when I used my own voice.”

Kaylin nodded.

“I could almost hear it as well. I don’t want to share it. I don’t know what it means.”

“This,” she said quietly, raising her free arm. “This is what it means.”

“Do you know where we are?”

She’d been avoiding it. Avoiding saying it. Avoiding thinking it. She hesitated, and then punted. “Do you?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I knew, but...”

She nodded. “Don’t say it. I don’t think it’s safe to say the word.”

“So you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

“I’m trying hard not to.”

“Is it working?” He hesitated again. “I think something injured me and entered me—and if I were Severn or Nightshade, I would have become like the weird Aerians. But...it’s not physical.”

“It is physical.”

“It’s not.”

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