Page 154 of Cast in Atonement

“And Bellusdeo’s ghosts?”

Mrs. Erickson shook her head. “It’s different. They would have looked alive to me if there weren’t so many of them overlapping so completely—living people can’t do that. Well, maybe Terrano and Mandoran can, but in general it would be impossible. There’s something a bit odd about them.”

“There’s a lot odd about them.”

“Oh, I meant Bellusdeo’s sisters, not the boys.”

Given what the former Arkon had said about the sisters in the Aerie, there was a lot odd about them as well. “What do you need me to do?”

“I think you need to give me back my friends,” Mrs. Erickson replied.

Kaylin nodded. “Ummm, can you call them? I think they’re stuck.”

Mrs. Erickson sighed. “Yes, I can. I’m sorry—they’re very lonely and a bit needy. I imagine you’re not used to that. They’re not bad people,” she added, her voice gentle as she held out her hand. “But good people can become difficult if they’ve been isolated for too long.” Mrs. Erickson looked at Kaylin’s arms. “Won’t you come and spend time with me?”

The claws deepened.

Mrs. Erickson closed her eyes. “Kaylin,” she said, with her eyes closed. “Just how dangerous are these dead? In my experience, it’s been the other way around: the living are dangerous to the dead. Only in one case were the dead a serious threat.”

“Azoria,” Kaylin said, wincing.

“Azoria,” Mrs. Erickson replied, without the wince. “I can’t be grateful to her. I just can’t. But were it not for her, I would never have met Jamal, Katie, Esme, or Callis, and I think I would have lived a much lonelier life. Those children should have had lives of their own—lives that didn’t revolve around an old woman.”

“You weren’t always old.”

“No. No, I wasn’t. But they can’t come back to life, and I can’t turn back time. Jamal left me in your care.”

Kaylin had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she didn’t like it. “I’m not Jamal.”

“No—but he trusted you. He trusted you to stand by me, to help me live the life I didn’t live. He always felt guilty. But he always felt jealous of any outside life, afraid of what it would mean for them. Which of course made him feel more guilty.” Her smile was gentle and infused with nostalgia. “But he did trust you. He wanted me to be safe; he did everything he could to keep me safe while he was trapped in my house. They all made it feel like a home, even if they couldn’t leave it. Even if they knew the reason they were trapped was me.”

“That wasn’t you! That wasn’t your fault—you had nothing to do with it!”

“That is exactly what Jamal would have said. I do miss him. I wonder if there is a place where the dead go, and where they can finally be happy. I wonder if all my beloved dead will be waiting for me, if they’ll be happy to see me, if they’ll want to hear the stories they haven’t heard since they’ve been gone.

“But that’s not the fate that awaits this poor man.” She was speaking of the Ancient. “Azoria did not understand his nature and didn’t understand his difficulty. Kaylin, I don’t think his people could pass on. Life, death—it’s a separation that wasn’t fixed in the same way our lives and deaths are.”

“What does he think happened to those who had died? I mean—what does he think death means?” She looked at her arms, at her skirt, at the fitted bodice of a dress that was more revealing than anything she would have chosen for herself. She looked across at Evanton, who was listening, arms crossed. “What does the green think death means for the Ancient?”

“I am not Warden of the green; I have enough on my shoulders as it is.” He exhaled. “But as you guess, the green has some interest in the ancient dead. The green remains within its own borders.”

“This isn’t the West March.”

“I did not say the West March; I said the green, if you were listening. The entrance to the green—the accepted, traditional entrance—is, as you are aware, in the West March. But it is not confined to the boundaries of that Barrani land. Azoria breached those boundaries, but that alone would not have been enough to wake the green; it was the combination of her covert activities and the nature of the power she touched that drew the green’s awareness; the green could not locate Azoria—she really was quite an impressive mage; very powerful, very arrogant, and yet capable of subtlety.

“And now the green has sunk roots in this place. Whether or not those roots can be removed is, I think, a matter for a different time; it is adjacent to the difficulty, but it is not the problem that must be addressed. But yes, on some level, this situation feels familiar to the green—and no, I cannot clearly explain it; could I, we would be in a much better position. I apologize for interrupting you,” he added—to Mrs. Erickson, of course.

“It’s hard to explain, but the Ancient believed he told you: Death is an end of purpose. He feels as if he was created, born, for a specific purpose. I did try to get him to explain that purpose, but I’m afraid I’m just not educated enough to understand what he was trying to say.”

Kaylin doubted even Larrantin was educated enough to understand what he was trying to say. “He did say that. When I first met him. But what was he supposed to do when he’d finished?”

“Die,” Mrs. Erickson said. “And he did. He is not, in his own estimation, alive. Had Azoria not found him, he might have...shut down for eternity.”

“I’m not sure it was Azoria who woke him.”

Mrs. Erickson failed, for a moment, to meet Kaylin’s eyes. “It doesn’t matter. You did what you had to do, dear. I freed the dead trapped in Azoria’s manor. They weren’t happy to be there. I don’t imagine he was happy, either.”

“If he slept through it, he probably wasn’t aware of it.”

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