Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(55)

Kattea shook her head. She glanced once over her shoulder, and when she turned back, her face was shuttered. She was polite; her body language was deferential. But she might have been an orphan navigating the streets of Nightshade, she was suddenly so wary.

Kaylin knew that wariness well, she had lived with it herself for so long. “Ferals?”

The girl froze. “There are no Ferals on this side of the bridge,” she whispered. As if it were a prayer. As if she almost didn’t believe it.

Kaylin had been there, too. “No, there aren’t. Not unless something goes badly, badly wrong. Was Gilbert injured?” So many shots in the dark. But this one hit its mark.

Kattea nodded.

“Have you eaten?”

She shook her head.

“Eat with us?”

Wariness, again.

Kaylin smacked her own forehead. “This is Annarion, and this is Mandoran. They weren’t here yesterday, but they’re friends. They’re Teela’s friends. They are not the fieflord’s thugs.”

“Are they Hawks, too?”

“Not yet.”

Annarion looked gray green. Mandoran looked as if he wanted to add something. He didn’t.

*

Kattea’s wariness diminished as she ate. Gilbert, however, did not make an appearance, and when Kaylin was certain that her stomach wouldn’t embarrass her, she rose. “Kattea?”

The girl glanced at the Barrani—all of them. Kaylin had a very bad feeling.

“Will you take me to see Gilbert? If he’s injured, I might be able to help.”

Bellusdeo rose, as well. Her eyes were not quite orange yet; her expression suggested that if Kaylin insisted on going to see Gilbert without backup, they would be.

“You can’t help him. He said no one could help. Not even me.”

“Want to make a bet?”

Kattea’s eyes narrowed. “For what?”

She really was a child after Kaylin’s own heart. Since Bellusdeo had paid for lunch, Kaylin fished around in her pockets and drew out two silver coins. They were as round as Kattea’s eyes became. “I...can’t match that.”

“No. What will you bet?”

“What do you want?”

“Information. If I can help Gilbert, you have to answer my questions as truthfully as you can.”

Kattea weighed the stakes. She looked momentarily crafty and calculating. “I’ll take it,” she said, standing. “You can come see Gilbert.”

*

By unspoken consent, Kaylin and Bellusdeo left the room together. Severn, Kaylin’s partner, remained behind with the Barrani.

“Did any Barrani come here yesterday?” Kaylin asked. “I mean, besides us?”

“You haven’t won the bet yet.”

Bellusdeo lifted a brow behind Kattea’s back, but made no comment until the girl bypassed the stairs that led to the bedrooms. She headed to the door that led to the basement, instead. Of course it had to be the basement.

Bellusdeo’s eyes were orange by the time Kattea opened the squeaking door. Kaylin’s would have shifted to orange or blue if human eyes changed color with mood. She glanced at her arms. Her skin didn’t hurt, which would have been a comfort in other circumstances, but the marks on her arms had begun to glow.

Bellusdeo couldn’t fail to notice. Light seeped through the dark, full-length sleeves Kaylin habitually wore while on duty.

The basement was not well lit. Some homes had window-wells at the height of basement walls; the previous owners of this one obviously hadn’t seen much use for them.

The stairs ended.

“Is it always this dark down here?” Kaylin asked their guide.

Kattea did not carry a lamp or a torch. Her left hand trailed the wall as she walked, but the light from the door above them ended abruptly. It was replaced by a lot of darkness.

Bellusdeo could see in the dark; so could Teela and Tain. Kaylin and Severn required a bit of help. So, in theory, should Kattea. “Gilbert says you need light,” Kattea said, a hint of question in her voice.

“In general, yes. You don’t?”

“Not if Gilbert’s here.”

Kaylin silently kissed two silver coins goodbye as Kattea led them farther into the basement. She forgot about the bet when she realized that the floor beneath her patrolling boots was made of solid stone. Reaching out, she touched a wall that was also solid stone; it felt smooth to the touch. Smooth and cold.

“This is a large basement,” Bellusdeo said, presumably to Kattea.

“It’s really big,” Kattea agreed. “It’s mostly empty.”

As they walked, the word mostly echoed in the invisible heights above their heads. The sound of their steps in unison made the kind of noise that suggested vaulted ceilings and a deplorable lack of carpeting.

“Kattea—is this how you found the house?”

She didn’t answer.

“Tell Gilbert that he’s right. I need the light.” It was funny how little it helped when light flooded the basement.

*

The ceilings were fifteen feet off the ground, and the ground was, as Kaylin had suspected, stone. If not for the utter absence of natural light, this could have been a grand hall in a manor into which Kaylin would never be invited. Or a palace.

There was no way that this was the basement of the house in which Gilbert and Kattea claimed to live. There was no way it would fit.