Page 9 of Cast in Atonement

“But you can watch them, can’t you?”

Helen’s smile was complicated. It was as close to uncertainty as she got. “I would appreciate the help,” she finally said.

Teela, dragging Tain, went in search of the rest of the cohort. Bellusdeo, Mrs. Erickson, and Kaylin went up to the tower that had the retracting roof. From there, Bellusdeo could take off safely.

Mrs. Erickson wasn’t as unsettled as Kaylin would have expected. She had some difficulty climbing the Dragon, but Kaylin was there to help.

Technically, flying as a Dragon in the city was illegal without express Imperial permission, which was far less likely to be given in broad daylight, which this still was. The sun was edging toward the horizon, but hadn’t reached it yet.

The streets below the Dragon’s wings were a mass of wagons, emptier than they had been at the start of the day, headed toward various stables, some on the edge of the city boundaries, and some outside its walls.

Kaylin sat behind Mrs. Erickson. If Mrs. Erickson wasn’t afraid, she wasn’t accustomed to any of this. If she fell, Kaylin would feel both guilty and enraged. She did her best to watch for any instability, any hint that Mrs. Erickson might teeter over one side of the Dragon or the other.

Mrs. Erickson didn’t notice. She was considerate by nature, but at the moment careful consideration had given way to awe and delight; were it not for her obvious age, she might have been a child.

Helen had said Mrs. Erickson’s childhood must have been difficult because of her power. Given that Kaylin’s childhood had hovered on the edge of starvation and cold, she hadn’t thought much of it. But she wondered, seated behind Mrs. Erickson, if Helen might not have been right.

She wanted to ask Mrs. Erickson what she’d managed to achieve in regard to Bellusdeo’s ghosts, but she couldn’t have that conversation while on the Dragon’s back; she’d be shouting at the top of her lungs, Bellusdeo was flying so quickly.

Whatever the reason, Sanabalis had seen fit to get Bellusdeo permission to fly in Dragon mode; he was the Arkon, and he had a direct line of communication to the Emperor.

Unless Bellusdeo had lied.

She wouldn’t, would she? Not if she was carrying Mrs. Erickson?

Had Kaylin not been so physically tense, she would have wilted. It was Bellusdeo. Of course she would.

She didn’t have much time to really build stomach-twisting anxiety, because at Bellusdeo’s speed, half the city passed by in an eyeblink; taking off and landing took more time than the rest of the journey.

A second Dragon joined Bellusdeo as she approached the Academia; from the air, it could clearly be seen. That Dragon, red and slightly larger, was familiar: Lord Tiamaris, of both the Dragon Court and the fief of Tiamaris. He, unlike Bellusdeo, had no rider. He did have a voice, and a volley of Draconian thundered across the air that separated them.

Bellusdeo didn’t even turn her head; Kaylin was certain she was aware of Tiamaris but considered his presence either an annoyance or irrelevant. Or both. She never stood on ceremony, but any situation when she felt someone was demanding behavior when they had no hierarchical right to do so never turned out well for the demandee.

Since they’d cut across the fief Tiamaris ruled, Kaylin felt a polite reply would have been in order. Bellusdeo clearly didn’t; she sped up—which Kaylin would have bet was impossible—heading straight for the grassy quad at the center of the Academia’s oval road.

Barrani and mortal students bolted in any direction that took them away from the quad’s center as not one, but two, Dragons landed. The quad certainly looked a lot smaller when it was occupied by two gigantic Dragons.

“Get off,” Bellusdeo said, in curt Elantran. The words rumbled beneath Kaylin; she could practically feel the two syllables. She slid off, and then turned to Mrs. Erickson, who was staring at Tiamaris, eyes wide.

“I’ve never seen a flying Dragon before today, and now I’ve seen two,” she said. Kaylin offered her a hand, and then shifted to offer both open arms.

Mrs. Erickson managed to jump off—closing her eyes at the last moment as she collided with Kaylin. She didn’t weigh much. Kaylin wondered if she’d been eating properly. And then grimaced and wondered if she’d been spending too much time with either Mrs. Erickson or Caitlin.

“This is the Academia?” Mrs. Erickson asked, when her feet were on solid ground again.

Kaylin nodded. “If I were you, I’d cover your ears,” she told the old woman, lifting both of her hands to cover hers.

“Why?”

“Both Dragons have deeply orange eyes, which means they’re about to start shouting at each other—in their native tongue.”

“Oh, dear. Should I not have come?”

“It’s got nothing to do with you—they’d be shouting at each other even if you stayed at home. Bellusdeo flew over Tiamaris’s fief—obviously without warning or permission. She ignored him when he met her in the air. It was rude, and Tiamaris doesn’t appreciate bad manners.” She glanced at her shoulder; she’d forgotten that she’d left Hope at home.

She’d really gotten used to the little lizard over the past year.

Mrs. Erickson didn’t raise her hands. Possibly because it would have been rude. Kaylin really needed to work on her delivery.

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