“Yes. I won’t—I won’t tell him who I am. I won’t talk at all. I just—”
She needs to see him, Ybelline repeated. If she does, she will have an incentive that her own life cannot, at the moment, provide. You, of all people, should understand this.
Of course she did.
Chapter 22
Ybelline Rabon’Alani accompanied them to the Halls of Law. Scoros offered; Kaylin, attached to Ybelline, and therefore aware of the Tha’alaan, heard him. Draalzyn also offered, and his offer made more sense: he was accustomed to the Halls of Law, and he had an actual desk within the missing-persons division of the Imperial Hawks.
But Draalzyn looked like a grizzled veteran of innumerable battles. Of all of the people in this room, he was the one who most terrified Kattea.
They didn’t make Kattea choose. They chose. Ybelline smiled at Kattea.
Kattea managed to smile back. It was very, very hard to be terrified of Ybelline. The small dragon remained on Kattea’s shoulder for the time being, and they left the long house in single file. Walking out of the Tha’alani quarter was never fast, but the children were held back by their minders, and only the very young let their resentment of this be known. Loudly.
Gilbert trailed behind Kattea, looking confused. Confusion appeared to be most of his natural state, but there was something in it that worried Kaylin; she couldn’t say why. Since “why” was effectively her job—as well as “how”—she mulled it over as she walked. Sadly, thoughts of this kind led to walking the way patrolling Hawks did. Ybelline was fine; Kattea was straining. Gilbert was falling behind.
“What was your father’s name?”
“Corporal Krevel.”
Kaylin glanced at her partner. “I’ll talk to Jared,” Severn said. Jared was the equivalent of Caitlin; he served the Swords, not the Hawks, but he was nothing like Caitlin in personality—then again, almost no one was. He kept the Swords running, and he kept the Sergeant of his particular office more or less calm. The important fact, however, was that it was in his office that the duty rosters were posted.
*
When Clint caught sight of Kaylin, she almost lost her nerve, his expression shifted so suddenly. Tanner, by his side, mirrored his expression.
“Where have you been?” Clint demanded.
Kattea slid behind Severn and peered out from behind his back. Severn, Kaylin noted, was not on the receiving end of what looked like outrage.
“What’s happened?”
“Ironjaw’s been trying to get hold of you, is what,” Tanner replied.
“I can’t—”
“There’s been a problem on the Winding Path.”
“I wasn’t there. I was in the Tha’alani district.”
They both stopped, as if only now recognizing the Tha’alani castelord. They shared a glance. “This is not going to be the day for polite, diplomatic visits,” Clint told her. His tone did not match his words; it was a touch too warm. “If you need a favor from anyone in command in the Halls of Law, now is the wrong time to ask for it.”
Ybelline nodded, her expression grave.
Kaylin forgot about Kattea’s father and Jared and pretty much anything that wasn’t Angry Marcus and Emergency. If Kattea had not caught her elbow, she would have sprinted up the stairs and down the halls that led to red-eyed Leontine. But Kattea did grab her arm.
“They’re with me,” Kaylin said, nodding in the direction of Ybelline, Gilbert and Kattea.
“They don’t want to be, today.”
“Teela said she’d informed the office about the reasons for my absence.”
The two duty Hawks exchanged another glance.
“Teela’s part of the problem.” Clint was grim. “Teela, Tain, Lord Sanabalis and—”
“Bellusdeo.”
“Lord Bellusdeo, yes.”
*
Against their better judgment, Clint and Tanner let the entire party pass into the Halls. Kaylin sprinted into the office, stopped at Caitlin’s desk, introduced Kattea and Gilbert in a breathless rush and then abandoned them both; it took less than two minutes. Two long, endless minutes, while fear sank roots in every thought she was capable of having.
Teela, Tain and Bellusdeo.
She wasn’t even concerned that the Emperor would reduce a useless private in the Imperial Hawks to ash—a very real possibility. Teela and Tain had gone to the Arcanum. Sanabalis and Bellusdeo had gone to the Winding Path. They weren’t in the same place.
Something in the future would destroy the Tha’alani quarter. What if it had already started?
*