Cast in Silence

## **Blurb**

A member of the elite Hawk force that protects the City of Elantra, Kaylin Neya has sacrificed much to earn the respect of the winged Aerians and immortal Barrani she works alongside. But the mean streets she escaped as a child aren't the ones she's vowed to give her life guarding. Those were much darker…

Kaylin's moved on with her life—and is keeping silent about the shameful things she's done to stay alive. But when the city's oracles warn of brewing unrest in the outer fiefdoms, a mysterious visitor from Kaylin's past casts her under a cloud of suspicion. Thankfully, if she's anything, she's a survivor…

## **Plot**

Kaylin has an eventful beat on Elani St, home of magical frauds. First, the Keeper Evanton takes her into his garden where an elemental storm rages, creating the pattern of the rune for mysterious last fief Ravellon. On the street, a broken window attracts her to where thug Morse gives her a letter from fieflord Barren, threatening to expose her attempt to assassinate the Hawklord at age 13 if she doesn't come help now. In a flashback we see Morse find teenage Kaylin the night she ran away from Severn, and trained her for six months before Barren sent her on the suicide mission.

Tiamaris, Sanabalis, and the Arkon explain that the last fight with the Black Outcaste dragon, and maybe the respeaking of the Leontines, has awoken something in Ravellon, and monsters are emerging. The Arkon had attempted to unmake the Outcaste by saying his name, but the brush with whatever lies at the heart of Ravellon had changed his True Name, causing the spell to fail. Kaylin and Tiamaris meet Morse on the bridge, and on the way to Barren's (non-castle) HQ, fight and kill one such creature, which shoots flame from its eyes. Tiamaris gets Barren to admit that he never conquered Barren Castle, and maintains his power at the sufferance of the real lord, Illien.

Returning to the High Halls, the High Lord and Consort greet her with warmth unexpected from Barrani, discuss more about True Names being what bring the immortal Barrani and Dragons to life as infants, suggest that the disturbance sounds like the mage storms that killed children and eggs and possessed those who fought it, and send her back to the towers of Barren. A storm sweeps the street in front of them, apparently taking Kaylin and Severn back in time to when the fiefs were free of ferals and they meet a younger Nightshade. He takes them into Illien's tower, where the corpse of the enforcer Kaylin murdered for her first job in Barren seven years ago lies freshly dead, with several of his men whose deaths she had nothing to do with. A storm erupts, forcing them inside where all doors vanish, and they can pass through only one of dozens of portals. Kaylin passes by more of her kills, progressively less morally justifiable, ending in the Hawklord's dome atop the Halls of Law. In reality, Lord Grammayre defeated her easily but was intrigued by her glowing tattoos; in this test, a woman wearing Kaylin's own face and beautiful wings flies down and sits in a throne, offering her the power to fix people's lives and protect the children. Kaylin immediately says that sounds like way too much work, names the now-child-like avatar Tara after her mother, and asks it to show love, safety, and compassion to her citizens.

It summons another mage storm and casts them forward to their own time, where she soon realizes her good intentions backfired: the power-crazy Illien had exploited Tara's loneliness and kindness to divest himself of his own name, becoming quasi-undead like the villains in previous books, and cracking Tara's control. While Tiamaris and Severn fight Illian in a shadow-realm, Kaylin rewrites the tower, and is about to reluctantly claim it herself when Tiamaris steps in and takes it instead. The dragons Emmerian and Diarmat appear, ready to kill Tiamaris, but reluctantly accept his hoard-claim of the tower and fief. They all go to Barren's HQ, exile him, but before he can leave town, Morse murders him.

As new fieflord, Tiamaris and Tara collaborate to bring law and prosperity to what is now Tiamaris Fief.

## List of Characters

1. Marcus
2. Kaylin
3. Caitlin
4. Severn
5. Grethan
6. Evanton
7. Billington
8. Margot
9. Morse
10. Teela
11. Tain
12. Clint
13. Sanabalis
14. Joey
15. Timar
16. Grammayre
17. Tiamaris
18. Nightshade
19. Lannagaros
20. Carl
21. Barren
22. Vanyor
23. High Lord
24. Consort
25. Sorco
26. Arna
27. Kora
28. Sana
29. Paul Moroes
30. Tara
31. Illien
32. Diarmat
33. Emmerian
34. Quartermaster