Page 34 of Cast in Atonement

“Perhaps. It’s not safer, and I prize safety.”

“Where’s your apprentice?”

“He’s in the garden. I should be there myself, but he is adept at calming the elements, and it is good practice for him.”

“The elements needed calming.”

“Indeed. They have been unsettled for the past few weeks.”

Kaylin glanced at Severn. “How many weeks?”

“I see by your question you have some idea of what the root cause might be.”

“We had a bit of difficulty with an almost-dead Barrani woman.”

“Barrani are born to cause difficulty; I fail to see how that would disturb the elements.”

“When I say almost dead, I mean she probably should have been dead. But she’d somehow tapped into the power of the green.”

“In the West March.”

“No, she was here—but I’m given to understand that the power of the green is more pervasive than a simple physical location.”

“And the fate of that almost-dead Barrani?”

“We got rid of the almost.”

“Might I ask her identity?”

“I’m not sure if you’d know her, but Azoria An’Berranin is what she was called while she lived.”

Evanton was, in theory, human; he had lived well beyond the normal measure of years because he had become the Keeper of the garden in which the heart of the elements resided. His job wasn’t actually running a store—which the cobwebs and dust clearly signaled; it was keeping the world functional. It was holding the elemental forces together in such a way that they didn’t escape and turn the world to ash, drown it, or bury it. A new addition to the garden was the Destroyer of Worlds. The name was not decorative.

Kaylin sometimes whined about her job, but at base she loved it. She did not envy Evanton at all.

Evanton’s eyes widened. “Did you say Azoria An’Berranin?”

Kaylin nodded.

“When did this happen?” His tone was sharper. “Let me guess: two weeks ago.”

“Around then.”

Evanton exhaled heavily. “There have been disturbances in the past month. Small disturbances, but the elementals have been progressively less happy. Two weeks ago, there was a sharp increase in aggression—with us, and with each other. It has calmed down somewhat, but they are still uneasy.

“I would invite you into the garden, but you are not guaranteed to survive it, at the moment.” His frown reworked the many lines of his face. “I suppose I should not be surprised that you had some hand in this.”

Life, Kaylin thought, was never going to be fair. “I didn’t do anything except stop Azoria.”

“Stop her from doing what?” He paused, turned to Bellusdeo, and offered her a surprisingly graceful bow. “Apologies; my manners are terrible. I see you are accompanying the corporal on her rounds today. Corporal?”

Bellusdeo nodded. She had genuine respect for Evanton. Most days, so did Kaylin.

“From harming an old woman who’s a regular fixture in the Halls of Law.”

“Azoria had an interest in an old woman? I find that almost difficult to believe.”

“You knew her.”

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