Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(116)

“What is happening?” the Arkon demanded.

“The Garden—or at least any way of reaching it—is gone.”

“Gone, as in the door has disappeared?”

Kaylin swallowed. “Gone as in: miniature version of the Winding Path.” She turned back to Grethan. “I don’t know if you heard, but—part of the city is doing the same thing as your back hall. But on a much larger scale.”

To her surprise, Grethan nodded. “Evanton heard. Evanton—” He swallowed. “He went to the Garden.”

“How did he hear? Did he use the mirror?”

Grethan nodded.

Kaylin cursed. “Can you hear the elements at all?”

The boy shook his head. The presence of a Dragon and two Barrani calmed him a bit, as did the two Hawks.

“You said he went into the Garden before it disappeared?”

Grethan nodded again.

Kaylin considered the wisdom of bringing Mandoran and Annarion into the store. But Mandoran hadn’t set off any alarms or fail-safes; he hadn’t caused problems until he’d been introduced to the elemental water itself. If there was no Garden, this was less likely to cause problems. She hoped.

“Gilbert—when you went to speak with the water—”

Gilbert nodded. He tried to set Kattea down, but she clung to him tightly.

“Did you make it to the Garden?”

He frowned. Kaylin led him to the start of what was no longer a hallway. The edge of the floor curved in a circular shape, as if someone had dropped a giant stone ball into something much squishier. To either side, she saw what she would have expected to see if a large spherical chunk had been removed from a building.

Beneath this sphere of absence, she could see stone halls.

Squawk. A translucent wing rose instantly to cover the upper half of Kaylin’s face.

“Teela demands to know what you see now,” Annarion said.

“Teela is definitely feeling better. Tell her I see the hallway.”

“Pardon?”

“I see the Keeper’s hallway. I see the door that leads to the Garden. I see his packed shelves and his threadbare runners. He’s there.” She poked the familiar. “Show Grethan.”

The Keeper’s panicked apprentice stepped back to stand beside Kaylin, and the familiar sighed and lifted his other wing. He dug claws into Kaylin’s shoulder, in theory for balance.

“What do you see, Grethan?”

“I see—” He ducked out from under the wing. Rose again. Ducked. “I— The hall is there.”

“Yes. Via dragon wing, it’s there.” She ignored the Arkon’s cough.

“Can I— Is it real?”

Squawk.

“Gilbert, what do you see?”

“I see the hall that I walked this morning. The floor will hold Grethan if, and only if, he does not lose sight of it. Grethan, you said the Keeper was in the Garden?”

“Yes,” Grethan replied, once again looking through the small dragon’s wing. “Can we go there?”

“Arkon?”

“If the Keeper is having difficulty, I am not certain adding Private Neya will make his life any easier.”

“Which means...no?”

“Which means: hurry.”

Gilbert reached out and caught Kaylin’s shoulder. “It is possible,” he said grimly, “that without the familiar, your Grethan will be lost.”

She hesitated. “If the Garden itself is in the same state as the hall—or the corpses—we’re probably doomed anyway.” She slid an arm around Grethan’s arm. “It’s up to you. Do you want to join Evanton, or do you want to wait?”

“I want to go to the Garden.”

*

Annarion coughed.

Everyone—except Grethan—turned to look at him.

“What do the two of you see?” Kaylin asked.

They exchanged a glance. “Do you have a rope?” Annarion asked Grethan. Grethan shook himself, ducked out from under the familiar’s wing and disentangled his arm. He walked back into the kitchen and made the noises people made when they were looking for something they were mostly certain was there—somewhere.

He came back with a length of rope. Annarion took it, tied one end to Mandoran’s waist, endured Mandoran’s criticism of his ability to tie a knot and then tied the other to his own.

“I see a hall,” he told Kaylin, when this was done. “But there’s something off about it. Does it strike you as odd when you have your familiar’s help?”

“Only in that I need his help to see it,” she offered. “To be honest, I’m slightly more concerned about the basement.”

Silence.

“The basement?” Mandoran asked.

“The stone halls beneath this one. You can see them where there should be floor.”

They exchanged another glance.

“Please tell me you can see them.”

“We can see the hall, but it is...transparent. We can’t see what’s below it. Severn?”

Severn said nothing.

“Kattea?”

“I think I see dirt. It’s kind of dark.”

Kaylin fished a flare out of her kit. “I don’t suppose you have another rope, Grethan?”