Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(92)

And yet, Kattea was here.

“Now I think I understand the why. The Tha’alani die, in the future. The near future. You brought Gilbert here to prevent it.”

“I have tried to explain it. To the Keeper,” she added, as if this were necessary. “I have tried for two of your days.”

“Rain isn’t likely to explain much.”

“He cannot hear.”

“Rain in his store is likely to be seen as its own emergency.”

“Kaylin—his Garden will not exist. It does not, in that time.”

*

“You’re partially from then.”

The water nodded, eyes darkening, bruises spreading. Kaylin suddenly wanted the “how.” Instead, she said, “Gilbert was trying to speak with you.”

“Yes. I am sorry. I heard him as...threat.”

“Why?”

“Because he will destroy that part of me, if he understands it.”

“He did not come here to destroy you—why would you think that?”

“Because it is what he is.”

“Did you understand what he was when you brought him here?”

“...Yes. Yes.”

There was only one obvious question to ask. Why? But Kaylin already knew why. “Please don’t destroy him.”

“I cannot destroy him.”

“Please don’t destroy the tiny part of him that’s here and now. And stop the raining. I understand enough to talk to Evanton.” She hesitated. “No, that’s not true. Do you understand what happens—or what did happen—to the Garden?”

“No. But it is gone, Kaylin.”

“I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him— Stop trying so hard to communicate with him.” She tightened her hold on the young girl’s hand. “Why can’t you talk to him the way you talk to me?”

“Because Evanton is not Chosen, and Evanton has not been adopted by the Tha’alaan. He cannot be the one, and he will not be the other.”

“Why?”

“Because it would break the Tha’alaan. Kaylin, I would kill him first.”

Kaylin doubted that this was possible. Evanton was Keeper. She didn’t tell the water this, because she tried not to tell people something they already knew, especially not when they knew it better than she ever could. It tended to make them angry.

“Then let me talk to him.”

The water nodded.

“Umm, in order to talk to him, you have to close the floodgates.”

This caused only confusion. Kaylin thought it funny that the words made no sense to water, because so much of a port city was constructed for, on or by the water.

“You need to stop raining and flooding the house. Evanton won’t drown—but I will if I try to reach him.” She was afraid to let the water go; her own knuckles were white. “Gilbert didn’t come here to destroy you.”

“No, of course not. But he will see the ripple. He will attempt to fix it.”

“Not right now, he won’t.”

“You cannot stop him. He is not like you or your kin.”

“He didn’t come to fix things. He came to find a way to a here that someone like me could survive.”

“Why?”

“Because he met Lord Nightshade, in a future time and place, and he wants to bring him home. To us.”

“You do not understand Gilbert if you believe this.”

This was a stupid conversation to be having with elemental water. It was also necessary. “I know. I don’t understand what he is. I can’t. But—I’ve healed him.”

“Impossible. He can no more be healed than we can.”

“Fine. I can’t say it felt like healing. He’s here, but he’s as trapped here as we are.”

Silence.

“He says he can’t see time here. It’s gone. For now, he’s part of us. The only thing that isn’t is the part of you that chose to bring him here.”

*

Severn.

I see her. And yes, if you drowned, I’d be...upset.

Kind of embarrassing that that was my first thought. I’m going to go find Evanton. And Gilbert.

“But we have another problem, and I think they’re all connected. Can you talk to Ybelline?”

“Ybelline is speaking to me now,” the water replied. As she spoke, her form began to shift; she grew up as she walked beside Kaylin, her hand still in Kaylin’s. Her voice became stronger, her words lost the shaky hesitance of uncertain youth. Her eyes lost their bruises, and her lips, the swelling. “It is difficult. I hear Ybelline now—but I hear her in the other now.”

“Can you speak to her in the other now?”

“Do not ask that of me.”

Which meant it was possible. “Ask my Ybelline if she understands what happens next.”

“She understands—” was the remote response “—that she dies. Kaylin—the Tha’alani quarter, all of it, perishes.”

“Does she—” Kaylin swallowed. “Does she understand what destroys it?”

A longer silence. “No.”

Leontine filled the hall. Kaylin didn’t bother to curse under her breath. Cursing didn’t bother the water.