Michelle Sagara - Cast in Peril

Wincing, Kaylin apologized.

“How did you incubate the egg?”

“In a totally inadequate way,” Bellusdeo replied. “It does not appear to have suffered.”

The small dragon stretched before climbing up Kaylin’s arm, where it sort of clung to her left shoulder; it draped the rest of its body across the back of her neck; its head, it perched on her right. It wuffled in her ear.

The Arkon frowned. “Records,” he said, and the mirror’s surface shivered. The room’s reflection faded from view. “Lizards. Winged lizards. Translucent lizards.” He turned and readjusted the mirror so that it faced Kaylin full-on. “Capture information and attempt to match.” He paused and then added, “All archives.” Turning back to Kaylin, he said, “I will not dispute Bellusdeo’s comment on the adequacy of your incubation decisions, but the egg clearly hatched, and its occupant is clearly alive.” He glanced at Bellusdeo before returning his attention to Kaylin; given that Bellusdeo had answered most of his questions before Kaylin could finish taking a breath, this wasn’t surprising. “When did the egg hatch?”

“Well, that’s the strange thing.”

Bellusdeo snorted. For an Immortal she was really short on patience; Kaylin tried to imagine her as the Queen of anything and gave up—although, admittedly, the idea of Bellusdeo being Queen had one appeal: she wasn’t likely to chew the heads off her Court for their lack of appropriate etiquette.

“The egg didn’t hatch until the bomb exploded in the center of the apartment.”

The Arkon froze. Sanabalis lifted a hand to the bridge of his nose; his eyes, however, were now about the same bronze as the Arkon’s.

“Let me be clear. You are telling me that the egg’s hatching was contingent on the explosion of an Arcane bomb?”

“No. I’m telling you the egg hatched when the bomb exploded. It may have cracked the shell.”

The Arkon turned to glare at Bellusdeo. “I trust you are enjoying yourself, Lady Bellusdeo?”

“I feel a small amount of self-indulgence, given the events of the day, is not unreasonable, yes.”

“I see that your definition of small amounts of self-indulgence has remained a constant.” He turned to Kaylin. “Forgive the interruption, Private. Was there anything unusual that occurred when the egg hatched?”

“Define ‘unusual.’”

“Honestly, Sanabalis,” the Arkon said in a much lower voice, “I feel that Bellusdeo is not the correct companion for the Private. Some of her influence is bound to manifest itself at inconvenient times.” He also lifted a hand to the bridge of his nose. “Anything out of the ordinary. Anything magical.”

Kaylin nodded crisply. “A barrier of some kind appeared. It protected both Bellusdeo and me from the debris and the possibility of injury.”

“Anything else?”

Kaylin hesitated.

“Private.”

“It ate one of my marks right after it hatched.”

* * *

After a very long pause, the Arkon rose from his desk and approached Kaylin. The small dragon lifted its head, bumping the side of Kaylin’s cheek as it did. The Arkon examined the dragon from a safe distance, during which time he was uncomfortably silent. “Given the current status of the Hawks, it is probably too much to ask for a full Records capture of your marks tonight. I will expect a full capture to be arranged for tomorrow, and all records are to be transferred to the Imperial Archives for my perusal. Is that clear?”

“As glass, sir.”

“Good.” He held out a hand. “Please give me the creature.”

Kaylin hesitated, and the Arkon’s eyes narrowed. She tried to disengage the small dragon; he dug in. Literally. “I don’t think he wants to leave,” she said, pulling at four small, clawed appendages. He responded by biting her hair.

The Arkon lowered his hand. “Has the creature spoken at all?”

“Pardon?”

“Spoken. Communicated.”

“Uh, no.”

“Has it separated itself from you at all, for any length of time?”

“Separated itself?”

“Left. You. Alone.”

“No, Arkon.”

“Have you attempted to put it down at all?”

“Not until now, Arkon.” She winced; she’d had burrs that were easier to remove from her hair. “Can I ask where this line of questioning is leading?”

“Did Bellusdeo say anything about the creature prior to your arrival here?”

Kaylin glanced nervously at Bellusdeo, who conversely didn’t appear to be nervous at all.

“I told her, Lannagaros, that I thought she was in possession of a familiar.”

“I…see.”

“Do you disagree?”

“Given that I have never seen what I would consider to be a genuine familiar, or at least the type of familiar about which legends arise, I am not in a position to either agree or disagree.” He turned to the mirror. “Records.”

Since Records was already searching for whatever he’d last asked for, Kaylin thought this a bit unfair—but then again, it wasn’t as if the Records were overworked mortals.

“Information, myths, or stories about familiars. This may,” he added, “take some time, if the Emperor is waiting.”

Bellusdeo nodded, fixed a firm and not terribly friendly smile to her face, and gestured at Sanabalis. Sanabalis bowed. “We may possibly revisit this discussion,” he told Kaylin as they headed toward the door.

Only when they were gone did the Arkon resume his seat; he also, however, indicated that Kaylin could grab a chair and join him—at a reasonable distance from the table that contained his work.

To her surprise, the first question he asked when the doors had closed on the two departing Dragons was “You are well?”

The small dragon had settled back onto her neck like a scarf with talons. She blinked. “Pardon?”

“While I have often heard various members of my Court and your Halls threaten you with bodily harm, strangulation, or dismemberment, you have seldom been a victim of an attack within the confines of your own home. If I understand the nature of the attack correctly, you now no longer have a home, and I am therefore attempting to ascertain your state of mind. Are you well?”

She told him she was fine. Except the words she used were “No. I’m not.” Closing her eyes, she said, “It’s the only real home I’ve had since my mother died. Every other place I’ve lived belonged to someone else, either before I moved in or after.” In the fiefs, there were no laws of ownership. At least not in the fief of Nightshade. It wasn’t that hard to eject a handful of children from the space in which they were squatting so that you could squat there instead.

She opened her eyes. “I’m happy to be alive. I am. But—it doesn’t feel real.”

“Being alive?”

“Being homeless. When I leave the Library, I don’t get to leave the Palace.”

“You are a guest, Private, not a prisoner.”

“Tell that to the Emperor.” The small dragon lifted its head and rubbed its nose along the side of her cheek. “Yes, yes,” she whispered. “I’m getting to that part.”

The Arkon raised a brow, and she reddened.

“Bellusdeo believes that the egg wouldn’t have hatched without the bomb, so—I have the hatchling.” She hesitated. “Would someone really kill me over it?”

“Not if they understood its nature.”

“What about its nature?”

“It is, in its entirety, yours.”

The small dragon’s eyes widened; it swiveled its head in the Arkon’s direction and opened its delicate, translucent mouth. There was a lot of squawking.

“Umm, did you understand any of that?” Kaylin asked as the Arkon stared at the dragonlet.

“No.”

Kaylin had, in her youth, engaged in staring contests with cats—she’d always lost. She had a suspicion that the Arkon in his age was beginning to engage in a similar contest with the small dragon—and given large Dragons, and the inability to pry the small one off her shoulder, she could see a long, sleepless night in the very near future. She therefore reached up and covered the small dragon’s eyes with her hand—something only the very young or the very suicidal would ever try with the large one.