Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(93)

“If this is too destabilizing, I’ll go to Ybelline directly. If I’m in front of Ybelline, it’s almost as good as being in contact with you.”

“You will lose my voice,” the water replied.

Kaylin nodded. “Tell me what Gilbert is—I mean, what he’s supposed to be.”

“He is ancient, which is irrelevant. He could be created tomorrow, or next year, or centuries from now, and he would be ancient. He is like us, and entirely unlike us; he is younger, but less raw. There is a purpose at his heart which was not our purpose. We are part of him, and separate from him; he sees us at the beginning and the end. He is present, always, everywhere.

“And he is dead.”

No, Ybelline’s musical voice said, before Kaylin could ask. That makes no more sense to me than it does to you. It is difficult, she added. We...die, I think...very quickly. There is some resistance. Where we have power—magical power, elemental power—we survive in small pockets. In those cases, our deaths are hours ahead, no more.

Did you—did they—see anything? She hesitated. She heard, beneath the calm of Ybelline’s words, a very real fear. And fear sometimes led to insanity, in the Tha’alani mind. Kaylin could investigate a death. But even she had trouble thinking about the deaths in her life she would not be able to prevent.

What she was asking was so much worse than thinking about it. She was, she realized, asking Ybelline to experience them all.

Yes, was Ybelline’s reply. But I understand why—it is to prevent them. Kaylin, I can do this. It is...difficult, but the alternative is worse.

“What I did,” the water said, “is forbidden.”

“Then how could you do it at all?”

“Because Gilbert and his kind are dead.”

“Not dead. Just...sleeping.”

“They do not sleep, Kaylin.”

“It’s how he described it.”

“Perhaps it is how you understand it.”

“But if you knew—”

“What would you have done to save your children if you knew what would happen?”

Anything. Anything.

“And if the only solution, if the only legal solution, was to let them die? I did not know but, Kaylin—had I, I would have done the same thing.”

“All right. All right, I accept that. I can’t judge it. I can’t disagree with it. I just don’t understand why you could do this now. I don’t understand why you knew to bring them to right now, and not tomorrow or ten years ago.”

The water rumbled. It spoke, but the words were sensation, not sound, and Kaylin could make sense of none of it. She headed down the stairs, her hand still paired with the hand of the Avatar. But she was thinking. Thinking and approaching the question from another avenue.

Ybelline said, I believe it is because this was the only time. No, that is not the whole of it. Earlier might have been better—but the jumps cause less friction if they are short; they are far less likely to be detected. There was no later time.

The water existed in Kattea’s time.

Yes, Kaylin. Yes, but—no. I do not understand it.

There’s no “No” here. If the water didn’t exist at that time, how could it bring them back to this one? Ugh. I hate time.

Ybelline, however, had not surrendered. I am sorry, Kaylin—I understand the urgency. I...cannot...explain...what I hear at the heart of the Tha’alaan; it is too foreign. Too large. There is something in this time, something like a rip or a tear. I do not think the water could move Gilbert to any other time. The attempt could be made only because of this fissure. I think.

... And it’s the fissure that causes the disaster. It almost wasn’t a question.

I am not the Hawk, Kaylin. Those answers are not mine to find.

Ybelline’s confidence in Kaylin underlined every word. Kaylin did not have any of it, and wanted it very badly. What she had, however, was a probably half-drowned Gilbert and a drenched Keeper and Keeper’s apprentice. It was a start.

But before she went in search of them, she headed back up the ruined stairs, keeping her back to the wall. “Severn?”

The single door at the top of the stairs opened.

“We have to go fish Gilbert out of the water—but I think it’s safe now. As long as you’re careful on the steps.”





Chapter 20

The rain in the storefront had stopped. The water had receded. The mess caused by both was still very much present—but a mess of that kind wasn’t Kaylin’s problem. She felt a twinge of sympathy for Grethan, because it was going to be his.

Elemental water, like fire, could withdraw completely. Had the water been natural—well, never mind. Natural water didn’t start a passing monsoon on the inside of a small, narrow building. Natural water didn’t take on the form of a woman, and it couldn’t be solid enough to hold on to without causing frostburn.

The water, however, was now evident only in the form of its Avatar. “I do not think the Keeper is going to be very happy.”

“Probably not,” Kaylin agreed. “On the other hand, he can’t exactly kill you. Believe that if I’d caused this mess—” She shuddered.

Kattea was impressed by the mess; the chaotic jumble of unsold junk seemed to be more worthy of attention than the elemental water. She did give the water the side-eye, though, and she kept Kaylin and Severn between them.