“If you’re doing that so you don’t have to answer, I’m not going to be impressed.” She held out her arm. “If it’s all right with you—” she said, in Elantran “—the guard can put up their weapons.”
Hope flew to her shoulder and settled there. He squawked and bristled at Terrano, who was still cowering behind the Lord of the West March. He was the only person who was now cowering; at Lirienne’s signal, the weapons were, as Kaylin had asked, put up. She noted that they’d waited for his command. Fair enough; in their position, she’d’ve done the same.
Squawk.
“I’m sorry,” Kaylin said, to the Barrani at large. “Can someone tell me what, exactly, happened?”
The Barrani looked to their Lord, and Kaylin joined them. He bowed—to Kaylin.
He then bowed to Bellusdeo. “My apologies for disturbing your rest, Lord Bellusdeo,” he said. “It has been far too long since one of your kind has accepted the hospitality of a Lord of the West March.” He then dismissed the greater part of the men who had gathered in the face of this emergency. Greater part, however, did not mean all.
“Is your familiar now under your control?”
As much as he ever was. “Yes.”
Terrano, however, now kept the Lord of the West March and Bellusdeo between himself and the small dragon. “He’s not.”
“He is.”
“He’snot.”
Kaylin exhaled. “Hey,” she said, to her shoulder. “Whatever you’re doing,cut it out. You’re scaring him.”
Squawk. Squawk. Squawk.
Kaylin exhaled. “Bellusdeo?”
“He feels that Terrano is an enormous threat to your safety. He apologizes for the landing; he apologizes for antagonizing yourkyutheand his men. He was focused entirely on preservation of your life.”
“Does helooklike he’s attacking me?” she demanded.
Squawk. Squawk.
“He points out, in fairness, that it doesn’tlooklike he’s threatening Terrano, either. That is not, by the way, the name he used.”
Great. “What was the name he used?”
“I don’t recognize it. I’m sorry. It’s clear to me that he meant to indicate Terrano, and it’s equally clear that there is some derogatory connotation. More than that, I cannot decisively say.”
Fine. “Whatever you’re doing, stop it now.”
Bellusdeo lifted a hand before the small dragon could reply. “He’s going to insist that Terrano stop first.”
Kaylin wanted to shriek in frustration. “Fine. Terrano, stop whatever the hells it is you’re doing.”
“I’m notdoing anything!”
Kaylin exhaled slowly. She remembered Mandoran and Annarion, and she reminded herself that Terrano was not anchored to this particular life the way the other two were. Annarion had had no idea that he was calling out to the Shadows, either. And it had still been a disaster that had cost lives.
In a lower and more reasonable tone—she hoped—she said to the familiar, “Look, he’s like Annarion and Mandoran.”
Squawk.
“Fine, he’s like them but worse. I can’t see what he’s doing. Neither can Lirienne or Bellusdeo.” Lifting her head she said, to the Lord of the West March, “Is there anything like Ravellon in the West March?”
“No.”
“Are there Shadows in the West March?”
