*
Gilbert turned to Kattea. “Go upstairs,” he told her quietly, “and entertain our guests.” He glanced up, as if the ceiling of this very ordinary room was transparent to his gaze. “Kattea. Go. We do not have much time.”
Kaylin glanced at the girl. She had folded her slender arms tightly, clearly intending to stay.
“Kattea, you gave me your word.”
Mutinous, the child hesitated.
“Do as he says,” Kaylin told the girl. “It’s never wise to break a promise made to someone as powerful as Gilbert.”
“I didn’t promise to obey,” Kattea said, voice low. “Not everything.”
“You must go to our guests. While you are with them, they should be safe.”
“From what?” Bellusdeo demanded.
“I would tell you to leave with Kattea, but it would be pointless. You will remain with the Chosen. I intend her no harm.”
“But you send the child from the room.”
“I am not what you are. I am not what she is. She has made a bet with Kattea.” He spoke the word as if it were a sacred oath. “I am not what I was. I am...ill. There is a possibility that she can heal me.”
“Healing is not, generally—”
“But there is a possibility that she will fail. Or that I will. You will, in all likelihood, survive such a failure. The Chosen is likely to survive. Kattea is not.”
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Bellusdeo demanded of Kaylin.
Since the answer was more or less no, Kaylin didn’t bother with it. Kattea was already afraid. “Keep your promise,” Kaylin said.
“You don’t even know what the promise was.”
“I don’t have to. You know, and Gilbert knows.”
Gilbert cut in. “Go upstairs. I will meet you there.”
“You promise?”
Gilbert was silent. He was pale now, far paler than he had been when he’d opened the door. His eyes, however, were just as bright, just as clear. No, Kaylin thought, they were brighter and clearer; it was as if light was now attempting to escape his body, and his eyes were the only possible exit.
“Bellusdeo.”
“I am not leaving you here.”
“Kattea has to go. I don’t want her to get lost in the halls—”
“I won’t get lost in the halls!”
“You don’t get lost because Gilbert guides you. He’s telling you he might not be able to. You need to be somewhere safe.”
“There’s nowhere safe!”
“Fine. You need to be somewhere safer. There are two Imperial Hawks in your parlor. Go there and stand behind them if something else comes to the house. But do it now.” Speaking, she reached out and grabbed Gilbert’s hands. The light that she saw in his eyes was familiar. It was not the gold of Dragon calm or Barrani surprise; it was the gold of the marks on her arms, legs, back and, she imagined, the mark on her forehead, which had not yet returned on its own to the Barrani Lake of Life.
Bellusdeo’s eyes were a deeper orange. Her gaze moved from Kaylin to Kattea and back. Kaylin wasn’t certain that Bellusdeo would, in the end, do what she’d asked, but she had hopes.
“If you do not return unharmed,” the Dragon finally said, “I will find your remains and burn them to ash.”
“Fine. But only if I’m dead.”
“No promises” was the dire response. Bellusdeo then turned her glare on Kattea. “We’re leaving. Now.”
Kattea didn’t argue.
*
“Ravellon was my home.”
Gilbert’s hands were ice. Kaylin had handled warmer corpses. “You should lie down.”
“Kattea said this, as well. I do not completely understand it.”
Realization came to Kaylin as she held Gilbert’s hands. “You’re not used to the body you inhabit.”
“I am not used to the smallness of the form I inhabit, no.”
“Why do you bother?”
“Because I cannot walk here if I do not. Not safely. The seals are breaking.”
Kaylin understood that this was important, but it made no sense, and to make sense of it would probably require time. Or someone else. She had a hundred questions to ask, and all of the answers were equally important. She chose one. “How much time do you have?”
To her surprise, he laughed. The laugh echoed in the room; it was almost a Dragon’s laugh. This did nothing to make Kaylin any calmer.
“Time,” he said bitterly, “I have.”
“You just told Kattea—”
“Time is what you do not have. It is what Kattea will not have.”
“Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I am wounded, Chosen. I am bleeding in ways you cannot see.” His hands tightened on hers. “Lord Nightshade’s brother is here.”
Kaylin frowned and turned. She was relieved to see that Annarion wasn’t present in the room. Relief shattered when she heard a very familiar—and very close—squawk. If Annarion was present, however, he remained silent; unlike Mandoran, he was good at that.