Cast In Ruin Part 47

"Those Flights would be yours?"

"Yes."

"You're sure they're not going to descend to challenges?"

"I am certain Diarmat will not. Dragons very, very seldom fight each other in their mortal guises." And the Emperor wasn't likely to grant permission-or absolution-for this particular fight. "Have you eaten?"

Kaylin stared at him.

"Given the tenor of the conversation, it is unlikely to end within the next half hour. I would dismiss you, but if it does end and you are absent, Lord Diarmat is unlikely to be forgiving."

She glanced at the guards. "No," she told him. "I haven't eaten much."

"I will arrange for food; join me in my rooms."

"Bellusdeo," Sanabalis said, "does present a bit of a difficult situation for the Dragon Court. In particular for Lord Diarmat, the staunchest traditionalist."

"He trains humans as guards; he doesn't eat them. How traditional can he be?"

Sanabalis coughed politely. "He holds the Emperor in the highest respect or he would not now be a member of the Court. It is his fear-and it is not entirely unjustified-that Bellusdeo will not likewise hold the Emperor in the same esteem."

Kaylin begrudged conceding any points to Diarmat, and was silent.

Sanabalis watched her eat for a few moments, his fingers still tracing the lines of his beard.

"Was it the Arkon's idea to delay her introduction to the Emperor?"

"Yes. The Emperor is anxious to meet with her, but understands the Arkon's concerns."

"Are they a lot different from your concerns about his meeting me?"

"As you surmise, they are not-although the results of a disastrous introduction are unlikely to result in her death." He steepled fingers under his chin. "She has spoken very little about her past, and her past may be of consequence to her present and her future."

Kaylin, who had a Hawk's intuition in a pinch, suddenly didn't like where this was going.

"She appears to be, in some ways, very similar to you, Private Neya. She is both irreverent, short-tempered, and quick to speak her mind. She is clearly accustomed to privation, but just as clearly accustomed to the accoutrements of power; she expects her opinions to be respected."

Kaylin raised a hand; Sanabalis raised a brow. "I'm not accustomed to power," she pointed out.

He glanced pointedly at her arms. "You can save a life that is beyond any other aid at the touch of a hand and your whim."

"But-"

"Power takes and wears many guises; not all of them are obvious or public." He rose and headed toward the window; the streets were silver-gray under night-lights, as were the Halls of Law beyond the gla.s.s. "Records," he said in quiet Barrani.

The windows stopped showing the outside world as they gradually lost their transparency. "Bellusdeo."

She appeared across the central panes of the threefold window, larger than life. To her left, she also appeared-but in Dragon form, an almost brilliant, glowing gold. To her right, in shadow, the obsidian form of the Outcaste emerged. Kaylin sucked in one sharp breath and held it.

"You played a part in her survival. The Arkon witnessed. What he witnessed, he did not choose to convey to our Records, and that is unusual."

"The Emperor didn't demand it?"

"No. Were it necessary-and in the future it might be-he would have. Understand, Kaylin, that power necessitates the choosing of one's battles, no matter what rank one has attained." The images at his back, he turned. "Will she join the Court?"

"She's a Dragon; does she have any choice?"

"According to the Arkon, she must be given that choice. He feels confident that in the end, she will make it."

"Then why are you asking me?"

"Because she is young, Private."

"She's older than Tiamaris, at the very least. If what she said is true, she was born when the Arkon was young-"

"She was. But she has lived a half-life; if events of yesterday are as we understand them, she can only now be considered adult. She had a name, according to the Arkon; it was not a name meant for Dragons, but in some fashion it sustained her. Do you understand how, or why?"

"No."

"No more does the Arkon or the Court. It is...troubling."

"You're afraid of what it's done to her."

He raised a brow. "And yet you were considered a poor student. Yes, Private. We are."

"Sanabalis-what do you expect me to do about it?"

"I? I expect nothing. But what you did do allowed her to return to us-as an adult, as a Dragon. She is attached to you, possibly because of your intervention. She is-in the end-not unlike you. You can be ordered to certain action; so, in spite of her reservations, can she. But you cannot be ordered to any action; you cannot be controlled by any whim. You privilege your own opinions over the opinions of those who are older and, in theory, more experienced, sometimes to your benefit and sometimes to your detriment.

"But you surprise us, Private. If we are not always in agreement about your methods or your presentation, we at least find your goals acceptable. We are not entirely certain what Bellusdeo's goals are, and in Bellusdeo's case-"

"She's significant enough that it's important?"

His eyes narrowed, but his inner membranes lowered. He turned back to the windows that had become, for a moment, mirrors. "She is a Dragon," he finally said.

Kaylin, used to this, was not offended. She stopped to think about this, because had Diarmat said it, she would have been. "I think," she told him, pushing the momentary discomfort away, "you can trust her."

"And in spite of our many reservations about you, Private, your opinion in this case is of some value." His hands slid together behind his back. "I do not believe she intends to leave your abode in the near future."

Grimacing, Kaylin said, "And if you can't stop her from screaming at Diarmat, you probably can't make her move."

"The Emperor is willing to grant you a living allowance that would give you both more room and possibly more privacy. I am not entirely certain that the privacy is necessary."

"That's because you're not living with someone under your armpit!"

The images vanished; the night sky and the Halls of Law returned.

"He expects, however, that you will monitor the situation. Should things become dangerous, you are expected to make a report."

"To?"

"Me."

She nodded. Her impulse-to tell the Emperor to shove his living allowance-clashed with her desire for at least a room of her own as a retreat. "Can I get back to you about the living allowance?"

"Of course. It is now on the table; it will not be withdrawn."

"What happens when she decides to move out? If I move someplace bigger I won't be able to afford it without-"

Sanabalis lifted a hand. "The Emperor would be pleased to buy a suitable location. He would be pleased to cede one of the main freeholds within Elantra to you, personally. Before you refuse, think about it."

"I'll try. I don't want to live in the Emperor's s.p.a.ce. I want it to be-"

"Yours? You are renting s.p.a.ce now that could easily vanish because in the end, you don't own it; how is it different?"

"I don't care if I p.i.s.s off a landlord. I'll have to care if the landlord is the Emperor."

"Fair enough. I believe," he added, "that the hostilities have ceased for the moment."

As far as actual lessons went, it was painless-for Kaylin. The discussion to which she was thankfully not a party had taken most of the time allotted for the cla.s.s itself; Lord Diarmat therefore summoned Kaylin into the room for a quarter of an hour, to listen to a lecture about the Dragon Court.

In his fifteen minutes, he reiterated the known laws governing Dragon form within the Empire. He made it clear in six different ways that flight, requiring as it did the Draconic form, was also illegal; that the speaking of native Dragon was "highly discouraged" in areas that were not the Imperial Palace; that mortals were neither the equivalent of cattle-which Kaylin a.s.sumed meant food-nor pets. Nor were they to be enslaved or otherwise compelled by magical power or greater force to act against their will.

Kaylin was, of course, familiar with most of this, but was also aware that it was highly theoretical. Laws of this nature had to be enforceable, and as far as she could tell, the only people who could enforce it with any chance of survival were the other Dragons. The Halls of Law certainly couldn't do more than ask-politely.

This would have been true of Barrani crimes, as well, albeit to a slightly lesser extent-but the Hawks had a dozen Barrani, and if Barrani were suspected of crimes, it was those Hawks that were sent to deal with them.

Tiamaris had served-briefly-as a Hawk, but Kaylin doubted he could have been deployed against a rogue Bellusdeo even when he hadn't been the lord of a fief.

"How, then," Bellusdeo asked, her voice chilly, her eyes burning, "does one become a member of the Dragon Court?"

"Before your arrival? By being a Dragon. We swear allegiance to the Emperor."

"And if we do not choose to do so?"

"Sleep," he replied. "Or death."

She was silent for a beat, and then said, "Does he hold your names?"

Kaylin almost forgot to breathe. It was a question she would never have dared to ask-if it had even occurred to her to ask it.

Lord Diarmat was annoyed-but it was hard to tell if it was because of the question; he always looked annoyed. Granted, his eyes were a dark shade of orange, but they'd been that way since he'd allowed her to return to the cla.s.sroom. "No," he told her curtly. "We are not his slaves and we are not his possessions."

"But the Empire is his h.o.a.rd."

"Yes."

"And everything in the Empire is therefore part of his h.o.a.rd."

"In a broad sense, yes. He is not a fool, Bellusdeo; his use of law in this case is subtle."

She nodded. "And if I choose not to take this oath of allegiance?"

"You will not be accorded either the rights or the privileges due a member of the Imperial Court."

"Nor will I have the responsibilities."

"Indeed."

"Will I be considered a citizen of the Empire if I elect not to join the Court?"

"Yes."

"And if I choose not to remain in the Empire?"

"You will be a visitor or a guest, Bellusdeo, but you will still be required to follow all of the Emperor's Laws while you live within the boundaries of the Empire."

"Very well." Bellusdeo rose.

"The next cla.s.s will be two days hence."

"I look forward to it."

EPILOGUE.

Sanabalis was waiting for them in the hall; he escorted Bellusdeo back to the rooms she had used for changing, and returned her clothing-which was mostly Kaylin's old clothing-to her. He did, however, also tell her to keep the dress.

Bellusdeo was silent throughout most of this, which was awkward; she took the dress-which was now a serviceable and very pretty emerald hue-and bundled it up as if it were an old blanket. Sanabalis, however, took this silence in stride. He escorted both Hawk and Dragon toward the front doors, and since this took time, he once again offered Bellusdeo what he knew she wouldn't accept: rooms within the Palace itself.

"You will remain with the Private?" he asked when she demurred.

"If that is acceptable to the Private, yes." The answer was subdued and quiet. Her eyes were no longer an incendiary orange, but they weren't gold, either; they looked like flattened, scarred bra.s.s.

"Of course it is," Kaylin said, meaning it. Meaning it and knowing she'd probably regret it bitterly in the morning.

Sanabalis offered them the use of a carriage. Bellusdeo preferred, she said, to walk. Since walking was half of what Kaylin did during a normal day, she had no complaints, and since she didn't really like the insides of a carriage-although admittedly, if she had to be in one, Imperial Carriages were always the best-she was happy to lead Bellusdeo back to the one-room apartment she called home.

The moons weren't full, but they were still bright; the Ablayne was loud.

"Bellusdeo-"