Page 5 of Cast in Atonement

Bellusdeo nodded. Her eyes remained red, but she approached Mrs. Erickson and offered an outstretched hand.

Mrs. Erickson took it, but her grip was white-knuckled. Any normal greeting was lost to the attempt to rein in tears. Or so Kaylin assumed.

Bellusdeo’s eyes had lightened; her expression was one of concern. She didn’t suffer from Kaylin’s discomfort in the presence of tears. Or maybe her worry for this weeping stranger was greater than the fear she could somehow make things worse.

Mrs. Erickson’s hand was almost clenched as she inhaled and tried to force her shoulders from their hunch. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. The fourth time, she said, “I’m terribly sorry to be such a mess—but I must ask: Did you have sisters?”

Kaylin could see Mrs. Erickson’s profile. She could see the place where the old woman’s hand joined the Dragon’s. But she could also see Bellusdeo clearly, and she could see the moment the orange-red of her eyes shifted into a much less normal color: copper.

This wasn’t the question Bellusdeo had been expecting—if she’d expected a question at all. It wasn’t the question Kaylin had been expecting, or had thought to expect.

Helen was utterly silent as well. Everyone was.

This time, it was Bellusdeo who struggled to answer. There were no visible tears, but the color of the Dragon’s eyes implied their existence. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“Did they look like you?”

Bellusdeo glanced in Kaylin’s direction, but it was brief. Mrs. Erickson was difficult to ignore in the best of circumstances; she was impossible to ignore now. “Yes. I had eight sisters.”

“None of them survived,” Mrs. Erickson said.

“No.”

Helen stepped in, bracketing Mrs. Erickson on one side, as if she needed to make clear to Bellusdeo just how precious the older woman had become to the house.

Hope squawked. A lot. Kaylin lifted one hand to spare the ear closest to his mouth.

Bellusdeo had frozen at Hope’s unintelligible words—words meant only for the Dragon.

She lifted her head; her grip became as tight, as desperate, as Mrs. Erickson’s—which would not be good for Mrs. Erickson.

“It’s all right,” Helen said. “I have her. She will not be injured.”

Bellusdeo didn’t seem to hear Helen’s words, she was so focused. “You can see the ghosts of the dead?”

Mrs. Erickson nodded, and Kaylin realized that she hadn’t been staring at Bellusdeo; she’d been staring at the ghosts of the Dragon’s beloved, dead sisters.

“You—you can see them? You can see my sisters?”

“I can,” Mrs. Erickson answered, without the hesitance or self-consciousness that usually accompanied that confession. “It’s difficult; they’re all overlapping. I can only tell that you’re not one of them because you’re holding my hand.” She exhaled and added, “They’re weeping or silent. I don’t think they’re aware of each other.”

“Are they aware of me?”

“I think so, but I can’t be certain—they’re not speaking.”

“If they did, could you hear them?”

“She can,” a new voice said. Sanabalis had finally left the dining room.

Whatever had driven Bellusdeo to visit Helen was no longer her primary concern. It was no longer a concern at all. Bellusdeo looked across the hall to the new Arkon, but the color of her eyes didn’t change much; flecks of red intruded on copper, but copper remained dominant.

“I’ve never seen this before,” Mrs. Erickson told Bellusdeo. “But they can hear me speak to you. I... I’d like to try to talk to them. Can I let go of your hand?”

Bellusdeo was the one whose grip was tightest; she released it slowly. “Yes, I’m sorry. Please try to talk to them. Please ask them...” The words trailed off. “Please do whatever you can to help them.”

“I can see that you’re very worried about these ghosts, and I know what that’s like. But—can I ask you not to speak to me while I try to listen?”

Bellusdeo nodded mutely.

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