“No? Well, I suppose I could go say hello to the Emperor. Or Kaylin’s boss. I’ve heard a lot about him, but I’ve never met the man.”
Kaylin was almost frozen to the floor.
Mandoran laughed out loud. It was both a wonderful sound and an annoying one. And that probably summed up Mandoran in total: wonderful and annoying. “It’s ajoke. Given the lectures we overheard Helen giving you, it’d be as much fun as pulling teeth. My own teeth,” he added, as if this wasn’t clear.
Kaylin breathed again. She turned to follow the Arkon, and then turned back to touch Nightshade’s sleeve almost hesitantly.
He looked down at her, because he was taller.
“You could try being honest,” she told him softly.
“Why do you assume I have not been?”
“I’m not saying you’ve lied to your brother.” She didn’t think he had. “But you—you don’t tell him everything. Just—try. What is there to lose?”
Annarion was silent.
To Annarion, Kaylin said, “The Arkon says you remind him of your brother when he was younger. I think he liked your brother.”
“And now?”
“Now doesn’t matter. But—I think he likes him now. Which surprises me. A lot.” This was true. She could not recall the Arkon speaking of Nightshade with any affection in the past. “I’d appreciate if you two didn’t start yelling at each other until after the rest of the guests have left.”
* * *
“No,” the Emperor was saying when Kaylin made the door frame. “She is not boring. I will concur. I will also, however, point out that if you are bored, you are too unoccupied. I am seldom bored, and I do not require excess excitement.”
Bellusdeo laughed. Kaylin froze again; she felt like she’d spent a lot of the evening frozen in place. “It’s not excitement, not precisely—but you never know exactly what is going to happen if you’re with Kaylin. And some of it requires the whole of my concentration and power just to survive, which can be exhilarating.”
“You cannot possibly expect that I would find that appealing?” The Dragon Emperor seemed mildly offended. “Were I to be in such a position, my city, my Empire, would almost certainly perish.”
“My understanding is that you are correct. But sheisChosen, Darranatos. She has some part to play—or perhaps several—before she dies.”
“Agreed. I have accepted her presence amongst my Hawks. My Hawks appear to have survived it.”
“She is, and has been since she was allowed to formally join the force, exemplary in her work. She is not terribly adept at politics, because she cannot see it as part of that work,” the Hawklord said, clearly part of the conversation.
“Then perhaps your situation,” the Emperor said to Moran, “will be of some aid in that regard. Apologies,” he added, “for implying that that is the only benefit of it.”
“No apologies are necessary, Your Majesty. I think where Kaylin Neya is concerned, we are probably too protective. We see her, and we remember her as a child—Aerian, Leontine, human, it doesn’t matter which variety. Only the Barrani are different in that regard, except Corporal Danelle. Her view tends to carry the rest of the Barrani Hawks, on the other hand.”
Kaylin slunk out of the doorway, but not into the room. She was trying not to be mortified, and failing.
“They mean well, dear,” Helen said. “They are not speaking poorly of you, and they wish you no ill. At times it is helpful, in informal situations, to have something in common. What they have in common—with the exception of the Emperor—is you. But the Emperor has evinced some flexibility where you are concerned that Bellusdeo thought he couldn’t.
“Do not feel embarrassed that people care for you.”
“It’s not the caring that’s embarrassing. It’s the thinking of me as a child part. I know how to handle myself in the city streets. I’m not helpless, and I’m not ignorant. Maybe I was, when I was thirteen—but that wasthen.”
Helen, however, had something other than Kaylin’s personal dignity on her mind. “Did you hear, dear? Bellusdeo called the Emperor by his given name. That’s a very positive sign.” Kaylin couldn’t see her—Helen’s Avatar was in the parlor, after all—but she didn’t need to. She could hear Helen’s beaming smile. “But I’m not certain now,” Helen added, her voice softening.
“Not certain about what?”
“I’m not certain the Emperor is right for her. Or rather, that she is right for the Emperor.”
“Helen, you’re giving me whiplash. Right for what?”
“As a mate, dear.”
