Read The Chronicles of Elantra 5 - Cast in Silence for Free Online Page A

And most of those years had gone into living down the rank of Office Mascot. She stared at Teela, who smiled her slow, lazy, catlike grin. “What’s this about, Teela?”
    “You tell me. Severn said you met an old acquaintance on your rounds in Elani.”
    “No one you’d know.”
    Tain, who had been mostly silent, started to drink. “This isn’t terrible,” he told Teela, mock surprise in every word.
    She cuffed the side of his head, although her fingers trailed sensuously through the length of his hair afterward, which ruined the gesture, in Kaylin’s opinion. “Kitling,” she said, resting her elbows on the scarred, old wood, “we were told not to ask you many questions.”
    “And you listened about as well as you normally do.”
    Teela shrugged. “It’s habit. When you first wandered into the office, Marcus made clear to everyone there—particularly the Barrani—that you were not to be too heavily discouraged. Or damaged,” she added.
    “Too bad he didn’t make that clearer to the drillmaster.”
    “If you’d blocked the way you said you could, he wouldn’t have broken your arm. And you didn’t, that I recall, lie about your abilities again after that. Don’t make that face. It healed quickly enough,” Teela pointed out. “You came to the Hawks as a fledgling. You’ve made this job your life.”
    Kaylin tensed slightly, waiting for the rest. But she was surprised at where the conversation now went. She shouldn’t have been; she’d seen Teela drive, after all, and she knew what Teela’s steering was like. Unpredictable was probably the kindest thing she could call it.
    “I came to the Hawks from the High Halls. It wasn’t considered upward mobility,” she added with a grimace, “and it wasn’t exactly peaceful.”
    “You didn’t break any laws before you joined.”
    “How would you know? You spent a couple of days in the High Halls, under the watchful eye of the Lord of the West March. I spent my life there. I underwent the test of Name. I lived in the Court.” She lifted her mug and drank wine as if it were water—and she was parched. “The Caste Laws apply in the High Court.”
    “Teela—”
    “Hush. Hear me out.”
    “Why are you telling me this?”
    Teela glanced at Severn. Kaylin, who had always been curious about Teela’s life—about all of the Barrani Hawks, if it came to that—didn’t. But it took effort.
    “Caste Law applies in the High Court,” Tain said. He waved at the barkeep, his mug empty. “Fief Law applies in the fiefs. The two are not entirely dissimilar.”
    “They’re completely different.”
    “No, they’re not.”
    “You’ve never lived in the fiefs.”
    “And you,” he said pointedly, “have never lived in the High Halls without the title Lord.”
     
    She considered this quietly. Teela nudged her drink, and Kaylin said, “I’m not going to finish it, if you want it.” This earned her a brief grimace and a kick under the table.
    “You’ve met my cousin,” Teela said, picking up the reins of the conversation again.
    “As far as I can tell, half the High Court is related to you.”
    “Not half.”
    “Which cousin?” Kaylin asked. She wasn’t being disingenuous; she honestly had no idea.
    “Evarrim.”
    “Ugh.” Evarrim was an Arcanist. Arcanists, as far as Kaylin was concerned, were slightly lower on the decency scale than drug dealers. She didn’t understand why the Emperor tolerated them; he had his own mages, after all, and at least half of the Wolves’ hunts had been former Arcanists.
    Tain waved the bartender over again.
    “His mother was blessed with five children over the course of her marriage. Evarrim is the last one left standing. It was noted, of course.”
    “What—he killed the others?” Kaylin grimaced. She’d meant it as a joke, but it had fallen flat even before Teela nodded.
    “Teela—”
    “If Evarrim hadn’t been the sole survivor, one of the others would have. He was canny enough, and powerful