“You mean Lirienne?”
“I did, but actually, neither brother considers it wise.”
“You don’t think—”
The Consort lifted a hand. “I have spoken with the Hallionne. I am currently resident in Kariastos. Bertolle has sent his brothers to watch the byways, now that we are aware of some of the possible difficulties. But Kaylin, the portal paths are fraught. It would be safer if you traveled overland.”
“That’ll takeweeks!”
“Yes.”
“...And we’ve got Bellusdeo. We’re not going to be safer overland right now—there’s a war band camped outside of Alsanis. They’re not going to just let us commandeer four carriages and leave with the Dragon.”
“Do you have so little faith in the Lord of the West March?”
“Lord Barian went to speak with the war band. When he returned, he was bleeding.”
Silence.
“He’s not the Lord of the West March,” Kaylin continued, uneasy with the texture of that silence. “He’s the Warden. But...heisthe Warden. And I think it might be his mother who’s leading the war band.”
The Consort looked once over her shoulder; whatever she was looking at was outside of the mirror’s field of vision. The Consort then returned to the mirror, and to Kaylin. She was not wearing armor; she did not carry a sword or shield. But everything about her now seemed like the very essence of a warrior queen, not the mother of an entire race.
As if she could hear the thought, the Consort said, “When children are endangered, is there much difference between the two? Very well. The portal paths.”
“I believe,” Alsanis said, his voice a rumble, “that you should leave very soon. Sedarias and Terrano are returning, in haste; I believe Sedarias is injured.”
25
The mirror vanished. It wasn’t that the image faded, as it did in mirrors in the Halls of Law; the entirety of the basin that contained the water disappeared. Kaylin turned to look over her shoulder; she could see the Avatar of Alsanis. If the Consort had somehow conjured the essence of warrior queen without bothering with the trappings, Alsanis had reformed his entire physical presence.
“Well itwasstupid!” Kaylin heard someone shout.
“They were looking forDragons!” Sedarias replied. Loudly.
Kaylin careened around the nearest corner; Alsanis had not bothered with subtlety, and had reformed the halls and the doors so that Kaylin was yards away from the room which now contained the rest of the cohort and Bellusdeo.
“It’s not like someone, oh, just tried to assassinate you.”
“I think it was a reasonable assumption that the war band that ishunting Dragonsis not connected with the sister who was huntingme.”
“Obviously not entirely reasonable, given the injury. You said it yourself,” Serralyn told Sedarias. She looked up. They weren’t speaking out loud for either Bellusdeo’s or Kaylin’s sake; they were speaking out loud for Terrano’s.
Kaylin pushed them aside. “Let me see.” Sedarias’s arm had been slashed open. The cut didn’t seem to be deep, but it was long.
“It would have been worse,” Eddorian told Kaylin, “but Terrano pulled her back.”
Terrano shrugged. “And for thanks, my ears are still ringing.”
“Who did this?”
“One of the war band, and before you ask, no, I don’t know which one; he was wearing a helm that covered most of his face.”
“So...they mistook you for a Dragon?”
“I think the word wastraitor.”
Kaylin rolled her eyes so far back they should have been sprained.
