“Yes. But I think Evanton might need a bit of help. It’s just a guess. I can’t hear or see him.” Which was probably a mercy.
Grethan, having found more rope, nodded, and slid an arm around Kaylin’s again. The small dragon complained but lifted a wing. Kaylin walked Grethan down the familiar hall to the familiar door. “You guys can see us, right?”
Silence.
Severn?
No. There is some panic, but it is muted; Gilbert believes he can see you, and the Arkon has chosen—barely—to trust him. Hurry.
Mandoran? Annarion?
I am attempting to keep them in one place. Annarion is worried.
Worried?
His eyes are almost black. Mandoran’s are the regular blue.
Don’t let them follow.
No. But, Kaylin—hurry.
*
The door opened into the Garden, and to Kaylin’s surprise, it didn’t open into torrential storm or mudslide or raging fire or windstorm. She could hear the relief in Grethan’s breathing. “Evanton!”
The Keeper was nowhere in sight.
Kaylin, clutching Grethan’s arm, told the familiar to drop his wing. The wing folded; Grethan’s arm was still attached to Kaylin’s. The apprentice, however, froze in place, his eyes widening, his stalks doing the panic dance while attached to his forehead.
There’s a problem, she told Severn. And there was. She had thought—she nudged the familiar—that the Garden existed; she assumed it was just the hall that was a problem. But Grethan couldn’t see the Garden without the familiar’s help. And Kaylin was afraid to let go of Grethan because she wasn’t certain she would be able to find him again if he moved.
“We’re switching places,” she told the apprentice. “Do not let go of my arm unless you want to lose me forever.”
“What—”
“I need to know what you see when you’re not looking through his wing.” Before he could reply, she said, “Keep an eye out for Evanton. I think we’re going to need him.”
*
The familiar raised his wing to cover Grethan’s eyes again as Kaylin slid out from behind the other. He bit her hair and smacked her face—twice—to let her know just how smart he thought this was. He also tucked his tail, tightly, around her neck. “Grethan didn’t fall through the world when you removed your wing,” she reminded the squawky pest. “And you’re hardly likely to be able to stop me from falling at that size.”
She regretted the words the minute they left her mouth, and pretended they hadn’t. Grethan was calmer, but true calm was not going to return until they had at least found Evanton.
“What—what do you see?” he asked her.
She was asking herself that, as well. She had walked the gray space between worlds before. She tried to remember the experience, because it was a lot like this—and yet, nothing like it. Nightshade had torn a hole in the world—a literal tear—to free her before she was eaten by the thing the gray space contained.
“Kaylin?”
“Still here,” she said. But she had no idea where “here” was. The ground—if it was ground—felt slippery but hard, like wet mud. She couldn’t see it. She couldn’t see her own feet. She couldn’t see the shrines, the grass, the braziers; she couldn’t see the path that led to the small stone hut that could be the size of a mansion—on the inside.
She couldn’t see the shrouded gray of nowhere, either. The air was oddly luminescent. There was no horizon, no landscape. Even the light, folding in on itself like short auroras of color, did not suggest distance or geography. This was not where Teela and Tain were.
“We need to find Evanton,” Kaylin said. She could feel Grethan’s arm in hers, but wasn’t surprised to note that she couldn’t see him. “I think you’re going to have to take the lead here.”
If Grethan answered, she couldn’t hear him. Then again, she wasn’t certain her words had reached him, either.
“Why,” a familiar voice said, “are you just standing there? Teela says hi, by the way.”
Kaylin turned toward the sound of Mandoran’s voice. She wasn’t particularly surprised to discover that the Barrani, at least, was visible.
*
“Teela’s about ready to give up,” he added, with so much cheer Kaylin knew she wasn’t giving up on survival.
“Your name?”
“Got it in one. She hates the idea—but she hates the idea that she has no other way of reaching you more. I suggested she give you her name, but she said it would be a conflict of interest.”
“What?”
“She’s a Hawk, she’s not going to give up her job and she’s your superior.”
“If she gave me her name, though—”
“She doesn’t think it would make much of a difference. She’d still be the one in power.”
Barrani arrogance made Kaylin want to scream. “Why are you even here?”
“I could see the hall. I could walk across it—but not easily. I didn’t expect the Garden to just let me in—but Grethan didn’t close the door, and apparently, unseen doors don’t work the way the normal ones do.”