Cast in Honor (Chronicles of Elantra, #11)(96)

“We spoke with the Keeper.” Which was, strictly speaking, true. “And the elemental water. Gilbert is here because of the water. Kattea was right about that. But the water didn’t choose a specific time and place—it brought him here because it was the only option available. This was the only time to which Gilbert could be moved.”

The Arkon pinched the bridge of his nose.

Kaylin failed to mention the Tha’alani, weighing the options. The Emperor forced the Tha’alani to work on interrogations—and it was a work that twisted and broke them without extreme care. It damaged the entire race. She didn’t want the Tha’alani exposed to any more Imperial scrutiny without a damn good reason.

But if the death of their race didn’t count as a good reason, she would never be able to come up with one. She cleared her throat. The Arkon looked even more irritated. “For a member of a short-lived race, you have a propensity to waste time.”

“Sorry. You always get angry if my explanations are ‘inadequate.’ I’m just trying—”

“To waste more time.” His eyes were still open, but only barely.

“The elemental water brought Gilbert and Kattea here. Through an underground tunnel. Into large, stone halls underneath a basement on the Winding Path. The reason they’re here is because it was possible to bring them.”

“And?”

“Sometime in our immediate future—the future that Kattea is ostensibly part of—there’s some sort of disaster that apparently destroys Elantra—or at least the parts of Elantra that are not the fiefs.”

“You think it has something to do with the murders,” Bellusdeo said, when the Arkon failed to find words.

“The maybe-murders,” Kaylin said.

“Pardon?”

“Gilbert insists that they’re not actually dead.” She hesitated. She needed to stop doing that, because Bellusdeo’s eyes narrowed until they matched the Arkon’s. The Arkon let out a small stream of smoke. “But...Gilbert said that he thought all the previous attempts to cast magic in that particular basement were an attempt to speak certain words.”

“Please repeat that slowly,” the Arkon commanded. The mirror’s image shifted, cutting Bellusdeo out of the frame.

“I asked Gilbert to inspect the bodies, because he sees things I can’t,” Kaylin said, resigning herself to the longer explanation. “To me, they’re dead. I’ve seen corpses. But...they disappear if I view them through my familiar’s wing. I thought there was some chance he’d see a dimension to the difficulty that would explain why they disappear.”

“Continue.”

“When we descended into the basement, Gilbert looked at the sigils left by other casters. He—” She grimaced. “He pulled words out of the sigils that I see when I detect traces of prior magic use. He did so in such a way that they were visible to everyone present, even Gavin.”

“Did the Sergeant capture these words for Records?”

“Not while we were there—Gilbert thought there was a significant danger that the mirror network would be compromised.” She shook her head. “Compromised is the wrong word. He thought it would be a total disaster. It wouldn’t be the first time magic caused problems via the mirrors.

“But—the night before the murder, Gilbert’s house was visited by four men. One of those was an Arcanist. Gilbert did not, according to Kattea, react well to the visitors—but Gilbert has no recollection of a conflict.”

“Was he injured enough to sustain memory loss?”

“Not exactly.” Kaylin thought explaining Gilbert to a very cranky Arkon was the definition of “career-limiting.”

“Teela and Tain headed out to the Arcanum—or the High Halls—without the rest of us. If there’s any information, they’ll dig it up. Oh,” she added, “there was one detail. The Arcanist in question was apparently wearing a tiara with a diamond in its center.”

The Arkon’s eyes slid from orange to something very, very close to red. “This theoretical Arcanist visited Gilbert.”

“Kattea said Gilbert was angry; to Kattea’s eyes, magical hostilities were exchanged. I’m not certain Gilbert sees this as conflict. And no, before you ask, I don’t think Gilbert in the Palace is a good idea. Do you recognize what a diamond-wearing Arcanist entails?”

“I have work to do, Private.”

Kaylin surrendered. “The water of the future blended—somehow—with the water of right now. The Tha’alaan resides, in great part, in the elemental water’s core. It brought some of the memories of the future Tha’alaan with it when it arrived.” She exhaled. “Every Tha’alani in their quarter dies. The experience of each and every death has been dumped into the Tha’alaan; it’s uneven, and I think the Caste Court is attempting to mitigate the obvious damage that’ll cause.

“But Ybelline is aware now of how significant this is, and she is examining the memories of the last few deaths, to attempt to give us more information about what caused it.”

“Very well. I wish to have the visible words examined. I also wish to have the basement beneath Gilbert’s house examined. I am not in a condition to examine them personally, and even were I, Tiamaris was as close as we come to an expert in ancient buildings and writing. He does not, of course, have my wealth of experience—but he has a particular focus.