Page 37 of Cast in Atonement

“If it gets more complicated than that, we can ask Bakkon to serve as interpreter and go-between for Mrs. Erickson and Starrante.”

“We?”

Kaylin grimaced. “You, then. Bakkon is a Wevaran who lives with Liatt, the fieflord, and she’s probably going to be more willing to negotiate with Bellusdeo the fieflord than with me.”

“She won’t interfere with Bakkon,” Bellusdeo replied. “If you gave yourself more of a chance, I think you’d approve of Liatt.”

“Her streets aren’t that different from Nightshade’s.”

“Neither are the warrens. You approve of Elantra because you didn’t have to live in them.”

Kaylin clenched her teeth, swallowed, and accepted Bellusdeo’s words as truth.

Severn didn’t choose to join them at the Academia when the work shift ended. Bellusdeo is with you, and I have some research to do.

Bellusdeo wasn’t interested in dinner. She allowed Kaylin to grab something from a market stall toward the end of the shift, but otherwise herded her, insistently, toward the bridge that entered Tiamaris. That bridge had become the safe focal point of all Elantrans who had interests in the fiefs, possibly because Tiamaris’s money was spent on rebuilding whole sections of the lands he called his own.

Bellusdeo was on good behavior; she waited until she’d set foot in Tiamaris before she shed her human form and demanded Kaylin climb up on her back. Kaylin wished she hadn’t. She didn’t want the two Dragons to continue their interrupted argument. If they did, she wanted to be safely elsewhere first.

Tiamaris, however, did not arrive, and Bellusdeo bypassed foot traffic—most of it crossing the bridge back to Elantra at the end of their working day—as intended.

She landed in the quad; students moved quickly out of her shadow as it grew larger over their heads. Kaylin had just enough time to dismount before Bellusdeo shifted into her human form; she wore golden plate armor. Clothing existed that could magically survive the transition to and from draconic form, but it was expensive and Bellusdeo clearly didn’t consider it worth the bother.

The former Arkon was waiting for her when the doors to the building opened.

“Mrs. Erickson is not with you today.”

Kaylin exhaled. “We had a bit of trouble last night. She’s exhausted.”

“I believe it was Mrs. Erickson who was to be the recipient of the librarian’s research.”

“Serralyn is here, and classes are over—I thought she could serve as a go-between. We have Annarion on the other end, ready to go.”

“Or I could do it,” Terrano said. His voice was quite clear; the rest of him wasn’t.

Kaylin poked Hope, who squawked, but did lift a wing to cover one of her eyes. “Or Terrano could do it, if Serralyn is busy.”

“Oh, she’s not,” was the cheeky reply.

“Given Mrs. Erickson’s friends, don’t you think you might be needed at home?”

Terrano shrugged. “I think she has things under control for now.”

The chancellor’s eyes were orange, but he ignored Terrano.

“He is not ignoring Terrano,” Killian said, as disembodied as the most difficult member of the cohort. “But he considers Terrano to be like mice or cockroaches; persistent but not ultimately immediately dangerous.”

“Easier to get rid of, too.”

Killian’s Avatar was waiting for them in the building proper. He took the lead, bypassing the chancellor’s office entirely as he led them to the library. One or two students exited that space. The Barrani student threw a glare in Kaylin’s direction; she was the only safe target for his obvious displeasure.

“Did they throw out students who had appointments?” Kaylin asked.

“That is what appears to have happened, yes, although you could ask the librarians.”

No wonder she was hated. “Serralyn’s not coming?”

“She’s actually in the library,” Terrano replied, grinning.

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