Page 57 of Cast in Atonement

“Yes, dear—but I think he hopes to be a buffer of some sort, if a buffer becomes necessary.”

Hope snorted.

Kaylin turned to Bellusdeo. “Did you want to join the zoo immediately, or wait in the parlor?”

“Best begin as we mean to continue,” the Dragon replied, a glint of steel in her orange eyes.

The dining room was not a zoo. The cohort—in best dress, except for Sedarias, whose standing in the High Court elevated best to ridiculous amounts of jewelry and expensive cloth—were seated at the table. There were no floor cushions scattered around the room, and no cohort-size huddle of bodies reclining on them.

Left to their own devices, the cohort reminded Kaylin of Leontine children; they sought physical contact and absorbed it as if it were oxygen. Plated food was often eaten on the floor, passed among the cohort if they were hungry. They mostly shared a room, although Helen did have individual rooms available for use, should any of them desire privacy.

Today, however, they were all seated. Barrani tended to look perfectly groomed no matter how much effort they did—or did not—put in; the only exception Kaylin could immediately recall was Teela, in the wake of life-threatening combat.

Teela was absent.

“She will not be joining us unless something, as she put it, goes catastrophically wrong. Serralyn and Valliant have likewise chosen to be absent, although there is some chance that Serralyn will arrive before the Keeper leaves.” Helen’s voice was very soft; Kaylin assumed that she’d chosen to speak privately. “Yes, dear.”

A swift glance around the table showed blue eyes to a man, although Sedarias’s were darkest, Mandoran’s lightest. Terrano’s even had flecks of green in them. Neither Mandoran nor Terrano became darker eyed when Bellusdeo walked into the dining room behind Kaylin.

Nestled between Terrano and Mandoran was Mrs. Erickson. She’d come down early—of course she had. Kaylin thought her color was off—she was a bit on the pale side—but she seemed happy to be at the table. Kaylin hoped that would last. Maybe the reason Mandoran and Terrano seemed more at ease was Mrs. Erickson herself; they were speaking with her, and she was listening and smiling in that open way that encouraged talk.

If she found the rest of the cohort intimidating, it didn’t show. She wasn’t dressed as formally, probably because she didn’t have much in the way of formal wear—but Kaylin wasn’t, either. The cohort didn’t care the way they might have had Mrs. Erickson been Barrani; they didn’t expect much from mortals.

Maybe that was unfair. Kaylin thought Mrs. Erickson an older version of Caitlin; it would take the determination of a special sort of person to dislike her. There was a reason the dead children had been so worried about what would happen to her if they moved on to wherever it was the dead were supposed to go.

“No,” she was saying to Terrano, “I haven’t managed to make it back to my house yet. Things have been so busy here, I’ve barely visited the Halls of Law.”

“She did send food,” Kaylin pointed out. “And I did bring the empty basket home. Bridget told me to thank you—and to tell you you can visit the front desk at any time, without making her privates write long incident reports.”

Mrs. Erickson’s smile was one of gratitude and embarrassment.

“They just miss the food,” Terrano said.

“That she went through the trouble of baking. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating her because she feeds us.”

“Us, is it? So all the time you come home ranting about front desk work and how you shouldn’t have to do it—”

“People who do the work get to complain about it.”

“Given how much you complain, you should be dead from overwork.”

Helen cleared her throat.

Terrano glanced at the Avatar, and then folded his arms, his mouth a mutinous, thin line. Mrs. Erickson gave him a sympathetic glance, but no words.

“Kaylin, I believe your guest has arrived.”

Kaylin rose. “I’ll get the door,” she told the almost silent table.

10

Helen, mindful of Kaylin’s extreme dislike of door wards, had created a wardless door. Evanton knocked on it, and Kaylin answered. He was wearing an actual jacket with matching pants, a shirt, and shiny shoes. She blinked. What had she expected? Evanton in his working apron, with a jeweler’s glass glued to his eye?

“I apologize for being a bit late; the garden was unusually active today.”

“You’re not late,” she said, moving out of the doorway. “Come in. Oh, I think I should warn you. Our entire household was so excited about meeting the Keeper in person that everyone who lives here is joining us for dinner.”

“Ah.”

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