Both Bellusdeo and Terrano said, “No.”
Without the help of the familiar’s wing, Kaylin couldn’t see the Shadow’s facial expression, but the sound of confusion was relayed quite clearly in its voice. “Yes?”
To her much less sluggishly moving companions, Kaylin said, “I have Hope. I can carry Spike. Hope doesn’t even look worried. If we wait for Spike, we’ll never get anywhere.”
“Where, exactly, are we trying to go?” the Dragon asked, folding her arms.
Kaylin shunted the question to Terrano.
“I’mtryingto follow the echoes of the path Alsanis created for my friends. It was,” he added, “destroyed. It no longer exists as a functional path.” Eyes narrowing, he glared at the Dragon. “I amalsoattempting to build a path that the rest of you can walk.Idon’t need it. If I weren’t trying to do it without overwhelming the possible traces of what existed before, it wouldn’t require so muchconcentration.”
Bellusdeo shrugged, but fell silent. Watching her, Kaylin was grateful that the Dragon lived with Helen in the same house as Mandoran. Yes, they squabbled and took digs at each other across a dining table that never quite reached the level of battlefield, but she’d grown accustomed to the Barrani’s attitude, his general nonchalance. An echo of that relationship formed the basis for her response to Terrano.
“Spike.” While the Dragon and the Barrani were glaring at each other, the ball of silver floated toward Kaylin’s outstretched left hand. “I’d really like it if you didn’t actually make me bleed.”
The Dragon pushed Kaylin’s hand away.
“If a Barrani lord could carry it, I can carry it. Neither of us are Terrano.”
“Even Terrano couldn’t carry it for long, if you recall. He was bleeding.”
“Was not.”
“It was bleeding or disincorporating, which we happen to find more disturbing.”
“Did I mention concentration?” To Kaylin he added, “Of all the companions you could have chosen, why aDragon?”
“Among other things, she’s never tried to kill me.”
“I wasn’t trying to kill you.”
“The forest Ferals?”
“Theywere trying to kill you. It’s not like I’m Shadow—I wasn’t controlling their bodiesortheir minds.”
“No, just conveniently leading them to us. Oh, and doing something to help them shift the shape of their bodies.”
“I’m telling you—”
“Don’t bother.” Kaylin was torn between the strong desire to strangle Terrano and the desire to let Bellusdeo breathe on him. Terrano was unlikely to die, but if he got singed just a little...
He won’t.
She blinked. This was a different voice.
Yes. It’s mine.
She looked down at her hand. Spike had, apparently, passed through the less intimidating human draconic form to settle on Kaylin’s left palm. She looked up at Bellusdeo, who was staring grimly at the ball, her eyes very orange. “Please don’t breathe on it. Spike will survive. Probably. I’ll lose my hand.”
“You’re right-handed.”
Her familiar emitted a lazy squawk, and the gold Dragon surrendered. “Honestly, I’m beginning to understand why Tain is so attached to boredom.”
Kaylin, however, was staring at her hand, because the lower half of Spike began to melt.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Terrano said, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
“You focus on the cohort. I’ll worry about me.”
