“But if they’re wrong...” Kaylin hesitated.
“You think they may be attempting to unlock the power itself.”
“And Moran is wearing it.”
“And Moran is wearing it, yes.”
“They’re not getting it back unless they cut off her arm—and they’re not doing that unless she’s very dead.”
“Indeed. Have a cookie or two. I always feel guilty when I tear Lillias from the sky.”
Kaylin took two cookies. A thought occurred to her and she stopped chewing.
“You can think and eat at the same time.”
She swallowed quickly. “I can’t talk and eat at the same time. According to you.”
“Yes?”
“The wind is only carrying Lillias.”
Evanton smiled.
“But Moran is flying.”
His smile deepened.
“You are a devious old bastard.”
“Thank you. If I weren’t, I would not be a very capable Keeper.”
“But Grethan is your apprentice, and he isn’t.”
“Yes. It is a fear; there’s only so much I can teach him. The Tha’alani are not naturally devious—they’ve no reason to be. Grethan, absent theTha’alaan, is probably as close as one of his kind can come, and frankly...”
“He’s terrible at it.”
“Yes. When he is not being ridden by his fear and his insecurity, he is painfully honest.” The Keeper rose. “Now, will you tell Moran, or shall I?”
* * *
“But the thing I don’t understand—”
“We will never make it down thisvery shorthall if you do not stop asking questions. There are so many things you don’t understand I will expire of old age just making the attempt to alleviate your ignorance.”
“The thing I don’t understand,” she continued, dogged now, because it was important, “is how the Shadow got where it did. I mean, Moran never touched the first guy. You could make the argument that he handled the bracelet, and somehow, Shadow spilled into him—but I think that’s a pretty big stretch.
“And even if it weren’t, and that’showhe got the power,hedidn’t make the Arcane bomb.”
“No. No doubt an Arcanist did.”
Kaylin stared at the door at the end of the hall. “...And there is an Aerian Arcanist, or so I’ve been told.”
“Yes. Are all Arcanists evil by default?”
“Yes.”
Evanton snorted. “Your time in the Hawks has been an almost unalloyed good for you—but in this one regard, it is faulty. No single group is, by default, evil.”
