Page 8 of Cast in Conflict

“Is she doing anything dangerous?”

“I’m sorry,” Helen said. Her apologies always sounded genuinely regretful. “If you want to know, you will need to discuss that with Bellusdeo.” She hesitated. Kaylin marked the hesitation.

“Bellusdeo’s ignoring me.”

“She’s avoiding you, which is not the same thing.”

“What aren’t you saying?”

It was Terrano who answered. “I think you might have a visitor. Well, not exactly a visitor.”

“Make up your mind. And don’t think I’ve forgotten the original question.”

“I think the person who’s generally supposed to be watching Bellusdeo—for her own safety—is actually standing across the street.”

“Across the street isn’t part of Helen,” Kaylin very reasonably pointed out. “And you, and all the rest of your cohort, are standing inside of Helen’s boundaries.”

“And?”

“I believe she wishes to know how you could know that, dear.”

“Oh. That? That’s easy. Sedarias.”

“Sedarias.”

“She’s almost at the door.”

Kaylin did not want to run out into the admittedly emptier, upscale streets on which Helen stood. She wanted to hear about Sedarias’s day at the High Halls, and wanted to know whether or not any of her cohort companions had actually had reason to, oh, draw their swords in an attempt not to die.

None of the cohort, however, was willing to amble across that street unless they went in their full number, minus Teela, who had returned to her usual living quarters, which weren’t part of Helen. Kaylin thought sending twelve people, eleven of whom were Barrani, to address one observer was overkill. It would send the wrong message.

“Sedarias thinks it’ll send exactly the right message,” Terrano said.

“I do,” Sedarias said, joining the conversation that was already in progress.

“I don’t,” Kaylin replied. She gave the five members of the cohort a brief but intense once-over; none of them appeared to be bleeding and all of their clothing seemed to be in the same state of repair it had left in. “Given the day you’ve probably had, I want to avoid the right message like the plague. If there’s an observer stationed outside, he means the cohort no harm. And frankly, Bellusdeo won’t appreciate it.” The latter was far more relevant, and not even Mandoran could argue that she would.

Kaylin therefore rearranged Hope, who had been snoozing across her shoulders like a shawl made of scales, and headed toward the front door. “Can you see who it is?” she asked her house.

“Yes. I do not believe it will cause you any problems.”

Kaylin could see the lone figure on the other side of the road from her open door. This would be because the fence line—and it was a pretty impressively solid fence—was part of Helen’s domain, and she’d decided to change some of the posts to lamps.

The observer who was now in the glow of radiant and overdone lights—in Kaylin’s opinion—didn’t seem to be bothered by them. His hands were by his sides, and clearly free of weapons. His clothing was dark, but it was the dark of implied sobriety, not storybook assassins. His eyes were almost gold.

Kaylin exhaled as Hope sat up on her left shoulder and let out a squawk.

“Well met,” Lord Emmerian replied.

02

“Bellusdeo isn’t home,” Kaylin said, after offering Emmerian a passable bow.

“I know.”

“You have someone else following her?”

“It is the duty I was tasked with.”

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