Page 72 of Cast in Atonement

Evanton stood in front of the second statue for at least five minutes; it felt longer, but she knew when she was forced to be inactive, time seemed to elongate. She’d become better about not fidgeting over the years, mostly because it annoyed Teela.

“You said there was a gallery?” Evanton asked.

“There was. It was where the ensorcelled paintings were hung.”

“Do you believe it to still be in the same location?”

Kaylin shrugged. “Only one way to find out.”

“Two,” Terrano said, grinning. He vanished.

Bellusdeo glared. To be fair to her, she was glaring at everything that happened to cross her gaze, it was just that Kaylin was the last person it reached. “I didn’t object to his presence, but I hoped you could keep him in line.”

Mandoran coughed. A lot.

Bellusdeo’s eyes narrowed, but their color didn’t darken. “Will he be safe?”

“He’s Terrano. Nothing’s managed to kill him yet.”

The gold Dragon exhaled steam. “Tonight might be a first.” But she glanced at Mrs. Erickson. “Or not. This place looks different to you, doesn’t it?”

“My memory isn’t very good,” Mrs. Erickson replied. “And we were in a bit of a panic the last time I was here. But...yes. It looks different. The ceilings are different, and I’m not sure I like the look of that light.” She gestured in the direction of the chandelier. “But I like Terrano—I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.”

“If it does, it won’t be your fault. You had nothing to do with this place.”

Mrs. Erickson nodded as if she agreed. She didn’t. The dead here, the ghosts of the children who had been her lifelong friends, the artist and the boys and girls who had become permanent interior fixtures—they had been entrapped by Azoria because Azoria’s interest in the very young Imelda Erickson had been so focused.

Mrs. Erickson was mortal. It was clear—somehow—that Azoria could inhabit living bodies, the bodies of the people she’d imprisoned. It was also clear that the spirits, the souls, the essential nature of the living people, had been ejected from those bodies, as if the body was a simple vehicle. If Azoria had suspicions about Mrs. Erickson’s power, Kaylin didn’t understand why she hadn’t chosen to eject Mrs. Erickson from her own body and take over.

But she hadn’t. Perhaps her control of the bodies frayed, or her sense of self disintegrated with the passage of time; the physical body of each of the children in Mrs. Erickson’s house had eventually been executed for a series of brutal murders, all occurring roughly at the age of twenty-five.

It wasn’t guaranteed that the inhabitant of those bodies had been Azoria; it wasn’t guaranteed that it hadn’t.

If she’d considered Mrs. Erickson’s power possibly useful, she must have been trying to make certain her tenure in that body would be stable. But Mrs. Erickson’s body was mortal, like Kaylin’s, and Mrs. Erickson was, well, old.

Evanton is also old, Severn pointed out.

Yes...but Evanton is the Keeper. I’m sure there are enchantments that have extended his life while he looks for the next Keeper.

Which implies enchantments can extend mortal life.

Evanton’s been around forever. Don’t you think if it were that obvious, every mortal Arcanist ever would be flocking to his shop to attempt to kidnap and dissect him?

The Arcanists wouldn’t. There are enough Barrani in the Arcanum that the role of the Keeper would be protected. There’s no point in immortality when the world has been destroyed.

Kaylin wasn’t so certain. There was an annoying breed of mage that believed that rules only applied to other people; that they were, and would remain, the exception. Reality—even reality as strange as the garden—was for other, lesser beings.

I don’t think Azoria would’ve been foolish enough to remove the Keeper. She would’ve certainly been aware of his existence.

“Terrano says the gallery is still here. Sort of,” Mandoran informed them.

Kaylin frowned. If Azoria intended to occupy Mrs. Erickson’s body because of Mrs. Erickson’s innate power, she had to know that Mrs. Erickson would age and die, just like the rest of the mortals.

Severn nodded.

That means the question of mortality suddenly becomes relevant, no?

It does. Perhaps some of her experiments with the spirits of the living were an attempt to preserve their innate power.

---