Kaylin winced. Tilting her head back, she closed her eyes. She opened them again when food arrived and had the guilty impression that the interval between these two states wasn’t exactly short.
Lord Emmerian glanced at Bellusdeo when he entered the parlor; seeing the color of her eyes, he relaxed. Gilbert, however, paused in the doorway. He offered Kaylin a very formal, very ostentatious bow. He then went to the chair Kattea occupied and woke her. She yawned, stretched and then noticed that Kaylin had joined them.
“You sleep a lot.”
“Not usually.” She attempted to look at Kattea when she spoke, because otherwise, she’d be staring at Gilbert. She recognized the longer lines of his oval face, the straight lines of shoulders, the length of his arms.
He smiled, as if reading her thoughts. “I am well,” he said, voice gentle. “You have my gratitude.”
What he lacked was the third eye. Kaylin didn’t ask him where it had gone. Given Emmerian’s presence in the room, she thought it smarter to keep her own counsel.
“Do you have a working mirror here?”
“I do. I will take you to it after you have eaten.” Gilbert bowed again and left the room. Kattea leaped off her chair and followed, chattering in his wake.
Lord Emmerian’s eyes were shading to gold as Bellusdeo’s did. “You are well?”
Kaylin, wary, nodded. “Hungry,” she added.
“Do you expect more difficulty?”
“I didn’t even expect the last bit. But no, I’m not going to be trying anything I don’t understand in the next little while.”
He met Bellusdeo’s eyes. Bellusdeo wasn’t glaring, but it was close. “Then I shall depart. The Arkon conveys his best wishes and requests the pleasure of your company at your earliest convenience.” He bowed—to Bellusdeo—and left.
“He’s not much like Diarmat, is he?”
“Thankfully not.” Bellusdeo exhaled. Given her expression, Kaylin was surprised not to see smoke. Or steam. “What happened?”
“I tried to heal Gilbert. I think I mostly succeeded.”
“You have certainly altered his appearance. He looks vaguely Barrani.”
Mandoran coughed.
“He looks more Barrani than he does human. I think it’s his skin. Or his ears.”
“His skin?”
“It is remarkably flawless. His eyes, however, are not Barrani—or Dragon—in nature; I do not believe they have changed color once. What is he, Kaylin?”
“I don’t completely understand it myself.” She glanced at Mandoran. “Do you?”
He shook his head. “You’ve changed him, I think.”
“Is that good, or bad?”
Mandoran shrugged. “What Bellusdeo sensed in him when she first met him, she does not sense in him now.”
“I do not necessarily find that comforting,” the Dragon added. “It merely means that it is hidden—and if that is so easily done, it raises questions of security.”
“Define easily.”
Bellusdeo snorted. She walked over to the chair Kaylin occupied, bent and said, “You look terrible. I suggest we go home.”
“Can I eat first?”
“Given how quickly you cram food into your mouth, that won’t take long.” She grabbed Kaylin by both shoulders and shook her gently. For a Dragon. Kaylin was surprised her teeth didn’t fall out. “If you want to have a conversation with Gilbert, have him come with us.”
“Can we bring Kattea, too?”
*
The first words Helen said—to Kaylin—when she entered the safety of her own home, were “I surrender. I have managed to create a relatively safe containment sphere which will accept mirror transmissions.”
The first words Kaylin said to Helen were “I’m sorry.”
Helen’s frown was glacial, but she opened her arms. “Welcome back.”
Kaylin walked into her hug. “I didn’t mean to worry you—”
“No, of course not.” Helen smiled, looking careworn. She lifted her head, released Kaylin and stepped back. It might have been a trick of the lighting, but Kaylin thought Helen actually reddened. “I have entirely forgotten my manners. You have guests.” Her expression froze, and the normal, mortal brown of her eyes drained from them as she looked to the occupied doorway.
Kaylin turned to Kattea, who had walked through the door, and Gilbert, who had not. “This is Kattea, and her companion is Gilbert. Kattea, this is Helen.”
Kattea smiled up at Helen, who had, once again, let her manners slip; she didn’t appear to see the child.
“My apologies for the intrusion,” Gilbert said, when Helen failed to speak. He turned to Kaylin. “This was possibly not the wisest of ideas. I believe you won a bet with Kattea; she is willing to answer your questions. I will wait.” Turning to Helen, he asked, “If that is permitted?”
“Where did you meet Kaylin?”
“In my current residence. She came as a Hawk.”
“Are you responsible for her absence?” Helen’s eyes were now obsidian.
“To my regret, I am. I am in her debt.”
“Kaylin?”
Kaylin was embarrassed. “I tried to heal him. I think I mostly succeeded. We still have a bunch of questions to ask him, and at least some of them are important to Annarion. They’re about his brother. Gilbert didn’t invite himself over.”