Cast In Fury Read Online Free Page B

continued, into the very welcome silence. “
Winter
was a work that reached out to people who had everything and reminded them, for a moment, of the fate of the rest of the city. You were chosen to write this for a reason.”
    “I was chosen because they don’t have to pay me
more.
”
    At that, Kaylin did chuckle. Rennick actually looked in her direction, but the hostility had ebbed. Slightly. As far as Rennick seemed to be concerned, Dragons didn’t exist, and he didn’t bother to glance at Sanabalis.
    Kaylin did. The Dragon’s eyes were a placid gold. Clearly, he had met Rennick before, and for some reason, he had decided not to kill him then.
    “Look,” Rennick added, running his hands through his hair as if he would like to pull it all out by its roots, “
Winter
wasn’t
meant
to be a message. It wasn’t meant to tell the audience anything about the state of the poor or the starving. I loved Lament—I wanted to tell her story in a way that would move people. Talia Korvick was the first Lament—I’ll grant that Trudy did a better job, but Trudy wouldn’t touch my unknown little play for its first staging.”
    The idea that Rennick cared about moving anyone in a way that didn’t mean
out of my sight
surprised Kaylin. Almost as much as the fact that he would admit it.
    “You achieved that—but you also made people think about what her life entailed, and how her life might have been different.”
    “Yes—but that was
incidental.
I don’t know how to make people
think
differently. And the Emperor appears to want me to…to educate people. With characters that are in no way my own creations. It’s dishonest,” he added.
    Given that he told lies for a living, this struck Kaylin as funny. Sanabalis, however, stepped on her foot.
    “Lament wasn’t a real person but you made her real. The Tha’alani are real in the same way that the rest of us are—and Lament was human.” Severn frowned slightly, his thinking expression. “Have you been out in the streets since the storm?”
    Rennick frowned. “Not far, no.”
    “People are afraid. Frightened people are often ugly people. The Tha’alani—”
    “From all reports, they tried to kill us.”
    Kaylin didn’t care at that moment if Sanabalis stepped on her foot and broke it. “By standing
in
the way of the tidal wave? They would have been the first people hit by the damn thing!”
    Rennick actually looked at her, possibly for the first time. After a moment, he said, “There is that.”
    “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard, and I don’t bloody care—they tried to
save
the city. And if this is what they get for trying to save it, they should have just let it drown.”
    “And you know this how?”
    “I was there—” She shut her mouth. Loudly. “I’m the cultural expert,” she told him instead.
    “You were there?”
    “She was not,” Sanabalis said, speaking in his deep rumble. “But she is a friend of the Tha’alani, and as much as anyone who was not born Tha’alani can, she now understands them. Mr. Rennick, I am aware that you find the current assignment somewhat stressful—”
    “The Imperial Playwright writes
his own
work,” Rennick snapped. “This is—this is political propaganda.”
    “But what you write, and what you stage—provided any of the directors available meet your rather strict criteria—will influence the city for decades to come. It is
necessary
work, even if you find it distasteful.”
    “In other words,” Kaylin added sweetly, “The Emperor doesn’t care what you think.”
    Severn glanced at Kaylin, and his expression cleared. Whatever he had been balancing in the back of his mind had settled into a decision. “With your leave, Lord Sanabalis, we have duties elsewhere.”
    “What?” Rennick glared at Severn. “You definitely haven’t outlasted the previous assistants.”
    “Our presence has been requested by the castelord of the Tha’alani,” he continued, ignoring Rennick—which might, to