Cast in Sorrow

“What, kitling? I have had a very long week, and I’m not at my most patient.”

“Is he going to get better?”

Teela’s eyes rounded. “I swear, if you weren’t wearing that damn dress—”

The small dragon hissed.

“Do not even imagine that I’m afraid of you.”

* * *

The courtyard was empty; the fountain, however, continued to trickle water into its basin, as if nothing untoward had happened. Since Kaylin could see that doors on either side of the courtyard were off their hinges, she knew that the attackers had passed through the courtyard; they hadn’t chosen to linger.

Reaction had set in; Iberrienne wasn’t the only one who was in shock. Kaylin’s arms felt cold as the heat of the marks deserted them; she felt exhausted. She plunked herself down beside the fountain, her back pressed into the lip of the basin. To her surprise, Iberrienne followed, and sat as she sat.

This was so not what she had expected. “Lord Iberrienne.”

He nodded.

“When did you last see the Consort?” She exhaled, and trailed a hand in the water. It was cool, but it didn’t deepen the chill she felt. After a long pause, she tried again. “Do you know where you are?” She hated to feel anything but resentment and fury toward this man: he’d kidnapped and killed dozens of people. He’d destroyed her home.

She couldn’t find her anger. She couldn’t even find the terrible fear that had kept her moving since she’d heard that the Consort couldn’t be found.

“Kitling.”

“Have you seen anything like this before? It’s like—it’s like lethe.”

“I assure you Lord Iberrienne was unlikely to imbibe lethe.”

“But—it’s like that, isn’t it? Doesn’t it look like that to you?” Lethe was one of the few drugs prized by a small portion of the Barrani populace. It was—to Barrani—highly addictive, and it destroyed their perfect, immortal memory in bits and pieces.

“His eyes are wrong for it,” Teela finally said. “Tell me what you did. Tell me exactly what you did.”

Kaylin told her. “But—his name was malformed. It was—it was melty. Do you think I said it wrong?”

Teela gave her the same scornful look the small dragon had. “You can’t mispronounce a syllable; if you got it wrong, he wouldn’t be Barrani—at least in form. Honestly, kitling, it’s like giving torches to infants. I can’t snap him out of this—I’m tempted to try, but given your current mood, it’ll only upset you.

“If he’s in there, there’s only one person who can find him.”

“No,” a new voice said. “There are two.”

* * *

It was the water’s voice. Teela leaped backward, landing—like a cat—on her feet. Her sword was free of its scabbard.

Kaylin, however, rotated on the bench, tilting her chin toward the column of rippling water that had risen out of the basin when she wasn’t looking. It had the form of a person, but not the features that it sometimes took.

One water arm rose slightly, as if to touch Kaylin’s face. You are far from home. You are far from kin.

Kaylin nodded. “You are, too.”

I am not confined. I am not contained. And, Kaylin, I am not all one thing or all the other. Things move within me, currents carry experience from one part of me to the other. I change, and I do not change. I grieve, and I do not grieve.

You should not be here, Chosen. But you are here.

The small dragon rose on Kaylin’s shoulder. He squawked, spreading his wings as he leaped into the air. He circled the pillar of water, making as much noise as he’d made all evening.

Kaylin felt the water turn away from her, although nothing had moved. The water suddenly ran cold, numbing her skin after the first shock of contact. She couldn’t hear what the water said, but there were breaks in the small dragon’s noise that might—just might—mean she was replying.

“Are you—are you part of the green?”

I am. I have always been part of the green. When it was a seed, Kaylin, I was the water that contained it.

Most people grew things in the earth. Kaylin kept this to herself.

I protect the green. To reach its heart, you must pass me. Did you not see the divide?

She’d seen a small stream become a torrential river.

Teela’s eyes widened. “Are you responsible for this, kitling?”

“No. She’s the water, Teela.”

“The water?”

“The elemental water.”

“An’Teela.”

Teela’s eyes shed a bit of their paleness. “Eldest.”

“The story is not yet told, daughter. And because it is not, the green suffers.”

Teela was silent.

“And you suffer, as well. It is time.” To Kaylin she said, “Find the Lady.”

“Where is she?”

“Find the Lady,” the water repeated, “if you wish to wake Lord Iberrienne.”

“I brought him because I thought he’d know where the Lady is.”

“He does,” the water replied. “If you wish to know what he knows, you might find the information—but you might break him in the process.”

“He’s already broken,” Teela reasonably pointed out.

“As are you,” the water replied; Teela’s eyes looked black in the dim light. “And because you have been, he is part of your story now.”

“She’s not broken,” Kaylin said, because Teela said nothing.

“The Lady is not yet dead.” The water warmed in her hand, and for a moment, Kaylin could see a young girl with bruised eyes in the lines the water took as it coalesced and solidified. She lifted Kaylin’s hand, the movement like the strong pull of undercurrent. Her lips folded in a sad smile. “I see you have already begun.” She was looking at Kaylin’s palm.

“Lady—what is the heart of the green?”

“What,” she replied, “is the heart of a Hallionne? You’ve been invited to two such places.”

Kaylin was silent.

“You understand, even if you cannot communicate it. The green is like the water, and unlike the water; it is like the Hallionne and unlike the Hallionne. It is a dream, Kaylin. And a nightmare. I am part of it, and separate from it. The Tha’alaan sleeps; I will not wake it unless you ask.”

Kaylin swallowed and retrieved her hand. She looked at the bloodred mark on her palm. “I don’t understand,” she finally said.

“No. Find the Consort.”

“She was with the dreams of Alsanis.”

The water began to fall, returning to the basin that contained it.

“Teela?”

Teela was rigid with anger. “Do not get involved in this.”

“If I don’t, the Consort will die.”

“The Consort who censured you and publicly humiliated you.” She frowned. “What are you looking at?”

Kaylin almost shoved her hand behind her back, but that would have been as effective as breaking her own arm. In fact, given Teela’s mood, it might be exactly that. She held out her hand, palm up.

Teela glanced at the palm of Kaylin’s hand for a long, long moment. When she spoke her voice was soft. It was the wrong kind of soft. “Where did you get that mark?”