Page 2 of Cast in Conflict

Even you. Kaylin attempted not to take this personally, or to at least look like she didn’t. This involved keeping her hands from becoming fists. “I don’t monitor her for reasons of safety. I can’t treat her like a child—she’s older than me, for one, and she’d turn to me to ash, for two. There’s nothing I can face that she can’t face, and pretty much nothing that can kill me could kill her.”

“This is not true. I assume you are saying this because you believe it, but your observational skills are lacking.”

Kaylin revised her opinion of the new Arkon as he exhaled. If he didn’t look older, he did look tired.

“Bellusdeo,” he said, when he chose to speak again, “was fond of Lannagaros. They shared a history she does not share with the rest of us. But Lannagaros will no longer reside in the palace. I am not certain he will visit it as often as Lord Tiamaris does.

“Her attachment to the former Arkon caused her to be more considerate in her responses to the rest of the Dragon Court. The Emperor is included in that.”

“It’s only been two weeks,” Kaylin began.

“She has been restless and impatient. I am Arkon, but it was not because of his position that she chose to be considerate of Lannagaros, and he was part of the Imperial Court. I cannot gently nudge her across a boundary she’s overstepped. She did not respect his title or his position. And I am, frankly, Arkon in a world with very few Dragons.

“Were there more, someone else would have taken the mantle.”

“You can’t be certain of that.”

“I can. I understand what was involved in Lannagaros’s promotion.” He inhaled, which seemed to go on forever, but still somehow left air in the room for Kaylin to breathe. “Show me what you have been studying and practicing since we last sat in this room.”

“Is it even okay for you to be teaching me now, Arkon?”

One brow rose. “That is a deplorably incompetent attempt to get out of magic lessons.”

“I take it that’s a yes.”

It wasn’t that Kaylin didn’t understand the new Arkon’s concerns.

For the past two weeks, Bellusdeo had chosen to stay with Helen instead of accompanying Kaylin to the Halls of Law. This made Marcus happier, but it was clear that the gold Dragon was doing something with her day—something that Kaylin couldn’t see. Given Bellusdeo, there was zero guarantee that what she was doing was actually safe. Helen said that Maggaron, Bellusdeo’s eight-foot-tall Ascendant, had accompanied her. Maggaron was mortal, true, but he’d been trained and raised to both fight for and serve Bellusdeo. Nothing about losing his entire world had changed his core duties.

But Maggaron had been her Ascendant when the position had had actual meaning, and he had served during the war against Shadow—a war that Bellusdeo and her people had lost.

He’d had very little to do in Elantra since their arrival in the city. The rest of his people—the few who could be saved—now lived on the borders of the fief of Tiamaris. The borders that most people did their utmost to avoid. The Norranir watched the Shadows. They watched Ravellon. They drummed warnings.

They also killed Ferals; it was like they were a permanent patrol.

Severn caught her elbow and jogged her to the left of a sandwich board sign. It was necessary because the sign practically occupied the entire sidewalk; to avoid it, one had to either get close to the road or too close to the shop the sign advertised.

It was Margot’s shop.

“Don’t,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to kick it over. I was going to move it.”

“Iron-jaw has three separate complaints from Margot on his desk.”

“Can’t have been that important if they’re still there.”

“No. But she has clients who are louder and harder to ignore, and no shortage of people who will step up for her.”

“While she fleeces them.” Kaylin glared at the window in which she could see her reflection as a shadow. Margot was not immediately visible—and she was very hard to miss.

“She’s not holding them up at knifepoint, and that’s the only reason for Hawks to interfere with her business.”

“Lying should be illegal.”

“And when it is, we’ll be understaffed, overworked, and fielding complaints about talking pumpkins and man-eating cats.”

“We get those anyway.”

---