Page 88 of Cast in Conflict

The mark’s light illuminated curved, roughened cave walls. As it did, the walls transformed, bumps and cracks flattening as if in response to the word Kaylin carried, until they were standing in a regular stone hall, with a taller than necessary ceiling, no obvious windows, and no doors. She couldn’t see the end of the hall and hoped that a door might exist once they reached it.

Ten yards into the cave that had become hall, she felt a wave of dizziness; it was met in the other direction by a wave of nausea.

“Are you all right?”

“This...is a portal passage,” she told him. “I apologize in advance.”

“I’ll try to stand back if you feel the need to lose lunch.”

She shook her head, and instantly regretted the motion. “Go get the Dragons and Mandoran if he’s joined them. This is the portal. If they can see and enter the cave, we’re in.”

Kaylin was green and queasy by the time she managed to drag herself to the expected door at the end of the hall. She had managed not to lose her lunch and would have considered that a win if her stomach wasn’t trying hard to even the score in round two.

“Next time,” Bellusdeo said, looking in Kaylin’s direction, “we are flying to the top of the cliff.”

Mandoran had not returned.

“I’m not sure that would make much difference.”

“You don’t have this problem with Tara.”

“No. But I have it every single time I’ve ever visited Nightshade’s castle. Tara is taking a risk by skipping the portal part of entry. She’s leaving herself open just to accommodate my stupid magic allergy. Clearly the Tower formerly captained by Candallar isn’t as kind.”

“Foolish is the word you want,” Bellusdeo replied.

“I don’t consider it foolish.”

“You should—she is taking a risk that no Tower should willingly take, except at the command of its captain, and I am absolutely certain that this was not done at Tiamaris’s command.”

So was Kaylin. “There are a lot of ways to be more secure. Most of them are illegal.”

“Tiamaris—as are all fiefs—is considered a sovereign state. He gets to make the rules.”

“If he were the type of lord to be neglectful, like Nightshade or Candallar, I don’t think Tara would have accepted him.”

“Why not? You’ve said she was desperate. And lonely.”

“Because she’d already suffered the loss of a lord who just lost interest and wandered away? I don’t think she was looking to repeat the same mistake. And Tiamaris...”

“Yes?”

“She’s his hoard, as you well know.”

“You think that’s what she needed?”

“I think she knows how Dragons feel about their hoard—but he didn’t seem insane and destructive about it. She didn’t have a lot of time to make the decision. What he wanted, she wanted to give. Or to be given.”

“She wasn’t a Dragon.”

“No, and Karriamis was. Or is. You want me to open the door?” she asked of Severn.

“No. It’s warded.”

“I don’t see a ward.”

Silence.

“Bellusdeo? Emmerian?”

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