Chapter 1
The major disadvantage of being host to over a dozen people who had no need for something as trivial as sleep was that there was no real private time in the house. There was often silence, but it was full of people. The majority of Kaylin’s current guests could speak among themselves without ever opening their mouths. But they did so while taking up space, their eyes flashing blue or green as words Kaylin couldn’t hear were exchanged.
It wasn’t the quiet that was lacking; it was the alone time. The privacy. It said something about her current life that she felt she had more of it in the office. Case in point: when she headed for breakfast before fleeing to the Halls of Law, the cohort were arguing.
They weren’t arguing silently, which meant they either intended to involve Kaylin, who wasn’t even in the room yet, or Bellusdeo, who was.
Kaylin knew it was going to be bad when discussion banked the minute she entered the dining room. All eyes turned toward her. A chair—located conveniently nearest the door by which she could make her escape—appeared in front of a plate that had food on it. Given the looks she was getting, her appetite dwindled to almost zero. She could, however, eat regardless, and proceeded to take the empty chair to do exactly that.
“Chew,” Teela said, “before you swallow.”
Teela’s voice appeared to be a signal for discussion to resume. Discussion, however, did not.
“You’re heading into the office today?” Kaylin asked the Barrani Hawk. It was her first day reporting since the battle in the High Halls.
“I am.”
Oh. She thought she understood what the cohort had been arguing about. Kaylin exhaled. “Bellusdeo has Imperial permission to attend me when I work as a Hawk. No one else does.”
“I’ve gone,” Mandoran immediately said.
“You have, but that wasn’t the result of Imperial permission.”
“Then permission doesn’t matter, right?”
Helen coughed.
“Permission in this case simply means Imperial Command, dear. The Emperor has essentially ordered the Hawks to accept that Bellusdeo will accompany Kaylin on her duties.”
“The Leontine doesn’t seem all that fond of her,” Mandoran admitted.
“Marcus isn’t fond of Dragons,” Kaylin replied.
“He’s not fond of anything.”
“Nothing in the office. He’s fond of his children. And his wives. But he’s grown to appreciate Bellusdeo. And there’s no force on earth that will get the Emperor to issue an Imperial Command that Barrani civilians be allowed to accompany Imperial Hawks anywhere they happen to go.”
“So we just have to get the sergeant’s permission, right?”
“There are eleven of you. There is no place where eleven extra Barrani on patrol aren’t going to be a traffic hazard.”
“We don’t have to be seen—”
Kaylin turned to look at Teela, whose lips were compressed enough that they appeared to be almost white. The only small silver lining on this particular cloud was that it wasn’t Bellusdeo who was angry.
Hope coughed. So did Helen.
It was Sedarias who broke the silence that had followed Mandoran’s cut-off sentence. “We have been invited to attend the High Halls as Lords of the High Court,” she said in a voice that was both regal and simultaneously disgruntled. “We are the guests of honor.”
“I don’t envy you,” Kaylin replied.
At this, Sedarias’s expression shifted into a sly smile. “You shouldn’t. But on the off chance—that’s correct, yes?” At Kaylin’s nod, she continued. “On the off chance that you do, you’ll be delighted to know that you are also invited to attend.”
“What?”
“Apparently, the High Lord has summoned the High Court. Every High Lord will be present.”
“Every High Lord?”
“Every single one. This would, of course, include you and Lord Severn.”
Kaylin muttered a few choice Leontine words. Mandoran laughed. Even Annarion chuckled.
“We’ve been asked,” Sedarias continued, “if there are any significant allies—those are the exact words—that we would like to honor with an invitation. Invitations of that nature are, of course, free to be declined.”
Unlike Kaylin’s, which was not an invitation so much as a royal command.
As one, all eyes—even Teela’s—turned toward Bellusdeo.
“You can’t be serious,” Kaylin snapped.
“It will take time for the Lords to gather,” Sedarias replied. Terrano, at the same time, said, “Of course we’re serious.”
The collision of words appeared to stop neither of them.
“The gathering will not, therefore, occur for some months.”
“Without her, we wouldn’t have made it out of the West March.”
“You weren’t trapped,” Sedarias then said—to Terrano. “We were.”
Terrano snorted and rolled his eyes—which were a shade of blue that only the cohort could achieve.
Kaylin dared a glance at Bellusdeo. Her eyes were orange. The mortal Hawk shoved food into her mouth at record speed before escaping the breakfast table.
* * *
“You are such a coward,” Bellusdeo said when they’d reached the relative safety of the street. The roads in and around Helen were sparsely populated at the busiest of times, which this wasn’t. They would soon join roads that were crowded at the slowest of times, but Kaylin was dressed for the office. The Hawk emblazoned on her tabard encouraged people to make space.
Had Bellusdeo hit the streets in her Draconic form, she’d have cleared far more of it—but some of that space would be created by panic, and panic could cause both accidents and the type of traffic congestion that caused the Swords to investigate. Also, it was illegal.
“It’s not cowardice,” Kaylin replied, scanning the windows of the buildings above ground level.
“What would you call it?”
“Wisdom.”
“Oh, please.”
“There’s no point in arguing with them now. Sedarias thinks it’ll be months before this ridiculous command performance occurs. We have months to attempt to talk her out of—”
“Out of expressing any appreciation or gratitude?”
Ugh. “You know they’re grateful. This isn’t about gratitude. It’s about rubbing that gratitude in the faces of the Barrani who attempted to brand you a—an army. An attacking army.”