Cast in Conflict

by Michelle Sagara

  Praise for the novels of Michelle Sagara

  “First-rate fantasy.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong

  “Enjoyable, entertaining, engaging fantasy.”

  —Tor.com on The Emperor’s Wolves

  “Exciting... Both new readers and Sagara’s long-time fans will be delighted to visit the land and people of Elantra.”

  —Publishers Weekly on The Emperor’s Wolves

  “Well-crafted... Readers will appreciate the complex plot and many returning faces in the vast cast of characters. This magical thrill-ride is a treat.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Cast in Wisdom

  “Full to the brim of magic... Beautiful and intricate...a breathtaking read.”

  —Word of the Nerd on Cast in Wisdom

  “This is a fast, fun novel, delightfully enjoyable in the best tradition of Sagara’s work. While it may be light and entertaining, it’s got some serious questions at its core. I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series.”

  —Locus Magazine on Cast in Oblivion

  “No one provides an emotional payoff like Michelle Sagara. Combine that with a fast-paced police procedural, deadly magics, five very different races and a wickedly dry sense of humor—well, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

  —Bestselling author Tanya Huff on The Chronicles of Elantra series

  Also by New York Times bestselling author Michelle Sagara

  The Chronicles of Elantra

  CAST IN SHADOW

  CAST IN COURTLIGHT

  CAST IN SECRET

  CAST IN FURY

  CAST IN SILENCE

  CAST IN CHAOS

  CAST IN RUIN

  CAST IN PERIL

  CAST IN SORROW

  CAST IN FLAME

  CAST IN HONOR

  CAST IN FLIGHT

  CAST IN DECEPTION

  CAST IN OBLIVION

  CAST IN WISDOM

  And “Cast in Moonlight” found in HARVEST MOON

  The Wolves of Elantra

  THE EMPEROR’S WOLVES

  Look for the next story in The Chronicles of Elantra coming soon from MIRA.

  Michelle Sagara has written more than thirty novels and dozens of shorter pieces as Michelle Sagara and as Michelle West. Her Chronicles of Elantra series has hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists. Michelle works in an SF bookstore in her native Toronto. She will talk about writing, bookselling and books forever if given a chance. You have been warned.

  You can find out more on her website, michellesagara.com, or follow @msagara on Twitter.

  Michelle Sagara

  Cast in Conflict

  This is for Mark Sano—who showed us all how to fight with grace, good humor and as much tenacity as cancer allowed. You showed us all the value, the preciousness, of one more day, one more week, one more month. You never gave in.

  May your memory be a blessing.

  Contents

  Chapter 01

  Chapter 02

  Chapter 03

  Chapter 04

  Chapter 05

  Chapter 06

  Chapter 07

  Chapter 08

  Chapter 09

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  01

  Corporal Kaylin Neya understood exactly why Bellusdeo, her Dragon roommate, had never really called the Arkon by his title. She had always used his name: Lannagaros. At the time, Kaylin assumed this was because Lannagaros was a name that had sentimental value to Bellusdeo, when so little else did.

  Facing Lord Sanabalis—the former Lord Sanabalis—she revised that belief. Sanabalis was now the Arkon. Kaylin was expected to use his title. This had caused some minor embarrassment, and reinforced the notion that Dragons could get away with breaking the social rules when normal people couldn’t.

  “I’ve called you Sanabalis—Lord Sanabalis—for the entire time I’ve known you. I’m sorry. I’ll get it right.”

  Sanabalis’s eyes were orange, but his smile was genuine. “As you were, Private.”

  “I’m a corporal!”

  “You’ve been a private for the entire time I’ve known you.”

  Point to the Dragon.

  Luckily Kaylin could save a little bit of face because the discussion in progress occurred in the very soundproof west room in which Kaylin had, months ago, taken the magical lessons mandated by the Imperial Court.

  Those magic lessons had, in theory, resumed as of today. The bracer meant to restrict the magical power of the marks of the Chosen sat on the desk to one side of the hated candle that once again occupied pride of position on the otherwise empty great table that stood in the center of the room. In theory, she had to wear it All The Time. In practice, its weight had become almost unfamiliar in the past few weeks. If anyone had reported this to the Emperor, he’d decided the lack of bracer was worth the risk. She didn’t know and she wasn’t about to ask.

  The Dragon who was now called the Arkon—this was going to be so confusing—had taken his normal chair. He wore the normal robes. Nothing about his appearance had changed. Even the color of his eyes was the familiar orange, flecked with gold.

  “We hear,” he said, “that Bellusdeo has been somewhat restless of late.”

  Kaylin glared at the candle.

  “The Emperor is concerned.”

  She concentrated on fire, on the name of fire, the shape and heat of it. It wasn’t hard at the moment.

  “Corporal.”

  She exhaled. She hadn’t been looking forward to a resumption of magical classes, but they were mandatory—at Imperial convenience. Imperial convenience meant she hadn’t had a lesson in a long time.

  She fixed as neutral an expression as she could on her face and turned toward the new Arkon. “If you have something to say to Bellusdeo, you should say it to Bellusdeo.”

  He said nothing.

  “I have to live with her. I know you have to live with the Emperor, but he can’t actually kill you when he loses his temper.”

  “It is my belief that he can,” Sanabalis—no, the Arkon—replied. “It has not been tested, however.”

  “Bellusdeo can kill me.”

  “I highly doubt your house would allow it.”

  This was true. Helen, her house, was sentient, and disliked the idea of her guests murdering either each other or their host.

  “When you say ‘we,’ do you mean ‘him’?”

  “Him?”

  “His Imperial Majesty, the Eternal Emperor.”

  “No. He is one of the concerned people, yes, but the concern is not entirely his. We would like to know where Bellusdeo has been going in the past two weeks.”

  “You spy on her. How can you not know?”

  “Spy?” Sanabalis snorted. With smoke, because he was a Dragon. “We monitor her for reasons of safety, which even you must fully understand.”

  Even you. Kaylin attemp
ted not to take this personally, or to at least look like she didn’t. This involved keeping her hands from becoming fists. “I don’t monitor her for reasons of safety. I can’t treat her like a child—she’s older than me, for one, and she’d turn to me to ash, for two. There’s nothing I can face that she can’t face, and pretty much nothing that can kill me could kill her.”

  “This is not true. I assume you are saying this because you believe it, but your observational skills are lacking.”

  Kaylin revised her opinion of the new Arkon as he exhaled. If he didn’t look older, he did look tired.

  “Bellusdeo,” he said, when he chose to speak again, “was fond of Lannagaros. They shared a history she does not share with the rest of us. But Lannagaros will no longer reside in the palace. I am not certain he will visit it as often as Lord Tiamaris does.

  “Her attachment to the former Arkon caused her to be more considerate in her responses to the rest of the Dragon Court. The Emperor is included in that.”

  “It’s only been two weeks,” Kaylin began.

  “She has been restless and impatient. I am Arkon, but it was not because of his position that she chose to be considerate of Lannagaros, and he was part of the Imperial Court. I cannot gently nudge her across a boundary she’s overstepped. She did not respect his title or his position. And I am, frankly, Arkon in a world with very few Dragons.

  “Were there more, someone else would have taken the mantle.”

  “You can’t be certain of that.”

  “I can. I understand what was involved in Lannagaros’s promotion.” He inhaled, which seemed to go on forever, but still somehow left air in the room for Kaylin to breathe. “Show me what you have been studying and practicing since we last sat in this room.”

  “Is it even okay for you to be teaching me now, Arkon?”

  One brow rose. “That is a deplorably incompetent attempt to get out of magic lessons.”

  “I take it that’s a yes.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t that Kaylin didn’t understand the new Arkon’s concerns.

  For the past two weeks, Bellusdeo had chosen to stay with Helen instead of accompanying Kaylin to the Halls of Law. This made Marcus happier, but it was clear that the gold Dragon was doing something with her day—something that Kaylin couldn’t see. Given Bellusdeo, there was zero guarantee that what she was doing was actually safe. Helen said that Maggaron, Bellusdeo’s eight-foot-tall Ascendant, had accompanied her. Maggaron was mortal, true, but he’d been trained and raised to both fight for and serve Bellusdeo. Nothing about losing his entire world had changed his core duties.

  But Maggaron had been her Ascendant when the position had had actual meaning, and he had served during the war against Shadow—a war that Bellusdeo and her people had lost.

  He’d had very little to do in Elantra since their arrival in the city. The rest of his people—the few who could be saved—now lived on the borders of the fief of Tiamaris. The borders that most people did their utmost to avoid. The Norranir watched the Shadows. They watched Ravellon. They drummed warnings.

  They also killed Ferals; it was like they were a permanent patrol.

  Severn caught her elbow and jogged her to the left of a sandwich board sign. It was necessary because the sign practically occupied the entire sidewalk; to avoid it, one had to either get close to the road or too close to the shop the sign advertised.

  It was Margot’s shop.

  “Don’t,” he said.

  “I wasn’t going to kick it over. I was going to move it.”

  “Iron-jaw has three separate complaints from Margot on his desk.”

  “Can’t have been that important if they’re still there.”

  “No. But she has clients who are louder and harder to ignore, and no shortage of people who will step up for her.”

  “While she fleeces them.” Kaylin glared at the window in which she could see her reflection as a shadow. Margot was not immediately visible—and she was very hard to miss.

  “She’s not holding them up at knifepoint, and that’s the only reason for Hawks to interfere with her business.”

  “Lying should be illegal.”

  “And when it is, we’ll be understaffed, overworked, and fielding complaints about talking pumpkins and man-eating cats.”

  “We get those anyway.”

  “We’ll get more. Come on.” As they continued their patrol beat, Severn added, “What are you worried about now?”

  “Sanabalis.”

  “The Arkon.”

  “Fine. The new Arkon. I hate titles. Why do we need to have fifteen different ways of calling a person?”

  Severn shrugged. “I didn’t create the rules.”

  “No. I want to have a few words with the idiots who did, though.”

  “You won’t get to finish the first one—they were all Dragons. Besides, you’re Kaylin, Kaylin Neya, Lord Kaylin Neya, Corporal Neya or just Corporal. You’ve got more than one. You were saying?”

  “The Arkon’s magic lesson was mostly about Bellusdeo.”

  “Why?”

  “He expects me to know what she’s doing when she’s not with me.”

  “Not a good bet.”

  “He’s my superior. He doesn’t have to bet.”

  “No, he doesn’t. They should have some sense of her movement, though.”

  “That’s what I said! Sanabalis—sorry, the Arkon—wasn’t amused.”

  “You called him a spy?”

  “No! But—I might have used the word spying. Look, it’s descriptive, okay?”

  Severn was smiling as he shook his head. “Are you trying to make sure you never have to talk to anyone above your pay grade?”

  Kaylin shrugged.

  “You’re worried about Bellusdeo.”

  The shrug was tighter. After a long pause, she said, “Bellusdeo’s worse than Teela. I worry at her, she’ll probably bite a limb off. One of mine,” she added, in case this wasn’t clear. “I think they both find it insulting.”

  “Dragon and Barrani. We’re mortal.”

  “But I have the marks of the Chosen!”

  “Which you don’t really know how to use, yes.”

  “Aren’t you worried?”

  “No. I don’t live with Bellusdeo, and the Emperor hasn’t tasked me with any part of her safety. She’s a better fighter than most of the Dragon Court, though.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I’ve watched them. What do you think she’s doing?”

  “I haven’t been thinking. Much. Helen won’t tell me,” she added.

  “Helen does tend to protect privacy, yes.”

  “Not mine.”

  “You’re unlikely to try to kill people if they know what you’re actually thinking. It’s never really far beneath the—”

  “Thief! Thief! Help!”

  Both of the Hawks dropped the discussion as they pivoted and turned in the direction of the shouting. At least it was something normal.

  * * *

  Kaylin had already come to a decision by the time she reached home. Talking to Bellusdeo was out. Talking to Helen about Bellusdeo—or about what Bellusdeo was thinking or doing—was also a no-go. Kaylin didn’t even consider approaching Maggaron, and not just because of his height.

  She was, however, living with a host of other people, two of whom were set to move out at any minute. This had caused a bit of a ruckus, but not an unhappy one; more of a frenzied one. Serralyn and Valliant had applied to the new Academia, and they had both been accepted. The chancellor had interviewed them personally. While they had very little experience with Dragons that didn’t involve the immediate deaths of all Barrani in sight, they were determined to go through with it.

  They were slightly surprised by their encounter. Although they had met the chancellor befo
re—most recently when Sedarias had volunteered the entire cohort as movers between the palace and the Academia—his interaction at that time had been pinched, orange-red-eyed and snappish.

  The pinched part, according to Serralyn and Valliant, remained, but his eyes were almost gold when he invited them into his office, and almost the same color when he saw them to the office door. That he didn’t then demand to see them to the front doors and shut them in their faces was a bonus.

  Because the two had been accepted as students of the Academia, they were expected to live on campus. They were the first of the visiting cohort to actually leave.

  Part of their discussion had been negotiations about communication. The Academia interfered with their ability to talk to the other members of the cohort. The chancellor had agreed not to limit the communications, with the clear understanding that visitors—the rest of the cohort—were required to, as he called it, sign in when they visited the campus.

  Kaylin was glad; she was half-certain they wouldn’t agree to leave without that concession. Well, no. She was certain they’d leave, but equally certain that one of the cohort—likely Terrano—would find some way of communicating regardless. Permission was better. Or at least safer. Probably.

  Moving out in the next week was therefore in the cards, and it showed. Had Helen not been sentient, the household would have been in a frenzy of panic and excitement. As it was, panic was never allowed to fully take hold.

  But it distracted the cohort and it distracted Helen.

  Sedarias would remain based within Helen, but she had begun to make visits to the High Halls as An’Mellarionne. Annarion, Eddorian, Karian and Allaron accompanied her as her personal guards, although they were Lords of the High Court themselves.

  From this, Kaylin assumed that Sedarias was the first of the cohort to attempt to establish herself as a more traditional power, and the rest of the cohort had eternity, being immortal, to establish themselves as powers in their own right. It wasn’t a surprise that Sedarias was the current priority, though; the resources of Mellarionne were in danger of being subsumed by Mellarionne allies—or former allies who had yet to be swept away in the investigation that had followed the transformation of the High Halls.