Page 86 of Cast in Conflict

Mandoran nodded. “What do you want to bet that the door is on the top of the cliff?” he asked Kaylin.

“Wouldn’t touch it.”

“But you bet about everything!”

“I don’t bet to lose.”

“But you lose a lot.”

“Not on purpose. And yes, this means I think the entrance is at the top.”

“So...made for Dragons?”

“Or Aerians.” She grimaced, turned, and met his blue gaze. “Or the cohort, because I know damn well you can fly.”

“We don’t call it flying.”

“I don’t care what you call it—you would reach the top of that cliff if you wanted, and you wouldn’t be climbing.”

“And you?”

Kaylin glanced at Severn. He shook his head. “I don’t think flight is necessary.”

“You see a door or a portal?” Her expression made clear which of the two was worse.

Severn then turned to Bellusdeo. “We are your escort. Do you wish to fly up to the Tower height?”

“Without you?” Bellusdeo grinned.

“Lord Emmerian is here, and Lord Emmerian can—demonstrably—fly.”

We can’t just let her fly off!

Severn said nothing, waiting.

Emmerian, however, said, “There did not seem to be an entrance at the top of the cliff, at least not in the aerial view. I did not think it wise to land.”

Mandoran, however, began to rise, his feet leaving the cobbled stone that looked so incongruous at the foot of a cliff. “I’ll look.”

The two Dragons exchanged a longer glance. Bellusdeo, however, shook her head. “Lead on, Corporal.”

It was clear that the corporal in question was Severn. He bowed briefly, a bob of acknowledgment, and turned toward the cliff base. Kaylin followed him as he approached. It looked to be mostly dirt and stone, although weeds also figured into the mess.

A door of the regular kind would stand out like a sore thumb; a door that was a cleft in the cliff face, or possibly a cave entrance, wouldn’t. They therefore looked for gaps of that kind. Although approaching from one side gave the appearance of a solid wall of cliff face, that cliff face was almost circular. What rose, rose in the same space Kaylin suspected the Tower occupied, stretching toward the sky.

Two full circuits failed to reveal an entrance. Bellusdeo was surprisingly patient; Kaylin was not.

“My skin is prickling,” she finally said.

Severn didn’t miss a step. “Magic?”

“Like magic. It’s not painful, yet—more ticklish.”

Severn’s expression made clear this wasn’t good. Kaylin’s skin didn’t react this way to Helen’s magic, or the magic of the Hallionne. Then again, she’d never stood outside of one, desperately seeking entrance.

“Do you think Mandoran will find a way in?” she asked.

“Probably.”

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