Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(71)

“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.”

“No. He wouldn’t.”

“I invited him. Do you think we can have the rest of this discussion in the side room?”

Helen’s black gaze turned to Teela. “You did not inform me of all of the facts.”

“I don’t have all of the facts,” Teela replied, shrugging. If Kaylin was worried or intimidated by the Avatar of her home, Teela wasn’t. Nor was she about to start.

Kaylin turned to Helen. “Do you recognize him?”

“I am not certain.” Not a good answer. Helen’s memories of her early life—and her early duties—had been irreparably damaged sometime in the past. “He is not the first of his kind I have encountered.” She exhaled. “I cannot read him. I do not think this visit wise. I have spoken to you about the sorcerers of my youth.”

Kaylin turned to look at Gilbert, who still hadn’t moved.

“Well...” Kaylin said, considering. “Unless he tries to harm you—or anyone else—while’s he in the house, I’d like to take the risk.”

“Very well.” Helen nodded stiffly. “Give me a moment to prepare the room.”

*

Kattea asked Helen if she wanted help in the kitchen. Time in the kitchen was not, strictly speaking, a requirement for Helen; Kaylin was surprised when she didn’t say as much. Most of the sentient buildings of Kaylin’s acquaintance were not famously good at lying.

“But you’re a guest,” Helen said.

“I like kitchens,” Kattea replied. She had the earnest look of a puppy—a scruffy, underfed puppy who had not yet been kicked in the face enough that it had lost the ability to trust.

Helen hesitated for a moment longer and then nodded. “But if I tell you not to touch something, you have to listen. Certain items in the kitchen are not entirely safe for you.” She led Kattea out of the room.

Gilbert offered his apologies again.

His deference clearly amused Mandoran; Annarion was silent and watchful. Teela lounged—there was no other word for it—across the largest free space in the room; Tain took a patch of wall instead and leaned into it. Severn sat in the chair closest to the door, facing inward.

Gilbert sat to Kaylin’s right; Bellusdeo camped to her left.

In all, it was not a very comfortable room.

“You’ve been in buildings like this one before,” Kaylin said.