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

enough, to beat them at their own game. I played Court games,” she said quietly. “I also survived. Do you understand?”
    After a moment of silence, Kaylin nodded.
    “But even survival can become boring after a while.”
    “You joined the Hawks because you were bored? ”
    Tain said, “No.”
    “Then—then why? ”
    “Because she did not trust me,” he replied, “not to dare the Tower and take the test of Name.”
     
    Kaylin stared at them both, and then turned to Severn. “If this is your idea of cheering me up, you need better ideas.”
    He shrugged, but did grimace. “With the Barrani, you take whatever they offer.”
    “No, with the Barrani, you don’t ask .” But she took a swig of the wine, and glanced at Tain.
    “What she was trying to say,” he told Kaylin, “is that it doesn’t matter. What she did in pursuit of survival would probably give you ulcers, and she isn’t about to recount it all—it would take two months.”
    “Three,” Teela drawled.
    Tain rolled his very attractive eyes. Although he was serious—which seldom happened—those eyes were a shade of deep green; what he said was fact, not dirty secret. “What we did in the High Courts, we don’t do in the Imperial City. We uphold the Emperor’s law. We generally find it amusing,” he added, with a nod in Teela’s direction. “It’s certainly less formal; it’s usually less dangerous.” He said the last with a tinge of regret. “The laws that defined our lives there, and that define Teela’s life when she is called to Court, aren’t the same.
    “Although we have better drink,” he added.
    It was true. Kaylin looked up as food joined drink on the pocked table. It was some sort of cubed chicken with rice, potatoes and—ugh—little peas.
    “I do not understand your people’s obsession with potatoes,” Teela said, her nose wrinkling in mild—for Teela—distaste. It wasn’t the first time she’d said it, and no doubt it wouldn’t be the last, but it was oddly comforting.
    “The High Court is no longer my home. And the fiefs,” she added pointedly, “are no longer yours. Understood?”
    “You think I’d go back there? Do I look stupid?”
    “Generally,” Tain said helpfully. “Look, if they try to blackmail you, ignore it.” At Kaylin’s sudden tightening of expression, he rolled his eyes. “It’s completely obvious that’s what you’re afraid of. You can read it in your face a mile off. And you’re probably right,” he added with a shrug. “They’ll try, if they know where you are.”
    They did, and that fact had bothered Kaylin almost as much as seeing Morse again. They had known where she would be, and with enough notice that they could find Billington, pay him to stir up a bit of trouble, break a window and time both things so that they’d catch her attention. If someone in the office was feeding information to the fief lord of Barren, it was more than simple trouble. If someone wasn’t feeding information to Barren, it was worse: it meant Barren had some way of looking into the Halls of Law that no one had yet noticed. Neither of these things were good.
    But she hadn’t gone back to the office to talk with Marcus; she hadn’t even tried to point it out. It was what she damn well should have done. But had she, she’d have to answer questions. She wasn’t quite up to that, tonight.
    “You can laugh in their face if it helps. I generally find breaking things attached to them more helpful, but you’ve been known to be squeamish, on occasion. On the other hand—”
    “Shut up, Tain.”
    “—you’ve also been known to—”
    Teela elbowed him, hard. He did stop talking, but he turned a blue-eyed and murderous glare on his partner; her own eyes had shaded dark, but she was smiling.
    “All right,” Severn whispered. “You win. This was ill-advised.”
    And that did make Kaylin feel a bit better.
     
    They did not, as it turned out, end up dead drunk. An attempt to insult the barkeeper