The Chronicles of Elantra 5 - Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara Read Free Book Online Page B

judging by his smirk.
    Severn covered the back of one of her hands with his. He asked no questions, and he made no comment; he didn’t even seem particularly surprised.
    “Since you obviously failed to follow his orders—”
    “I didn’t.”
    “The Hawklord, last I saw, was still breathing.”
    “I didn’t fail to follow his orders,” was the quiet reply. “I just failed to succeed.”
     
    Tain chuckled. It was the only sound at the table. Even Teela, not normally the most sensitive of the Hawks—which, given she was Barrani, was an understatement—was somber. “You tried to kill the Hawklord.”
    Kaylin nodded. The lines of her face felt too frozen for expression; she wasn’t even sure what she looked like.
    “If the Hawklord already knows—and I can’t imagine he doesn’t, unless you were truly, truly terrible—you’ve little enough to fear.”
    Kaylin shook her head. “What I did in the fiefs, he won’t or can’t touch. What I did in the Tower? It counts. Marcus doesn’t know.” She lowered her face into her palms. Took a deep breath before she raised it. “I don’t want him to know,” she told them both.
    Teela glanced at Tain.
    “Don’t even think it.”
    “Think what?” Tain asked. Barrani did a horrible mimicry of innocent.
    “Barren’s a fief lord.”
    “He’s human, isn’t he?” Teela asked, with her usual disdain for enemies who were merely mortal.
    “I’m not sure that counts in the fiefs. Not when you’re the fief lord.”
    Severn touched her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. “How much different is Barren from Nightshade?”
    “The fief or the Lord?”
    “Either.”
    “The fief is—” Kaylin hesitated. “I’m not sure we would have noted the differences when we were kids. The people still live a really miserable life, the ferals still hunt. Barren doesn’t have public cages or hangings—he doesn’t need’em. If you piss him off, he throws you to the ferals.”
    “The ferals aren’t that dependable.”
    Kaylin grimaced. “No. I don’t know if he knows when they’re coming or not. He’ll wait it out with his victim until he hears the howls. He cuts them,” she added, staring at the tabletop as she spoke. “And then he makes them run.
    “If they can survive until morning, they’re more or less free to go.”
    “Happen often?”
    “Pretty much never.” She started to rise, to shed the bench and its confinement, and his hand tightened.
    “Severn—I don’t want to talk about Barren. I’ll talk about anything—and I mean anything —else.”
    He met her gaze and held it, and she found it hard to look away. After a moment, she sat, heavily. He hadn’t forced her back down; her legs had given way. They waited in silence.
    Kaylin surrendered. “There’s a bit more foot-traffic coming over from the right side of the bridge. Barren’s got storehouses and brothels on the riverside. But his own place? It’s not at the heart of the fief. He lives near the edge.”
    “Which edge, Kaylin?”
    She shook her head. “Inner.”
    “You’ve been there.” It wasn’t a question.
    She looked away again. “Yeah. I’ve been there. It’s not like Nightshade’s Castle.”
    “It’s an old building, though?”
    “I don’t know if it’s any older than the rest of the buildings there. There is a building that’s kind of like the Castle, but it’s older and more decrepit. I don’t think anyone lives there.” She paused, and then added, “I don’t think anyone who tries survives.”
    “But Barren doesn’t.”
    “No.”
    “You’re going to meet him.”
    “No. I’m probably going to meet Morse. I don’t know where she’ll take me, or what she’ll tell me to do.” She looked across the table at Teela and Tain. She wanted to either drink a lot more, or have drunk a lot less. “I don’t want Marcus to know,” she whispered. “He thinks I’m a kit. He thinks I was a—a child—when the Hawklord dumped me on his