* * *
The cohort were silent, which didn’t really mean much except that Terrano couldn’t take part in their conversation. Kaylin caught a few eye rolls, which meant the conversation was not all one-sided, and Sedarias did not notably cheer up. But Alsanis took them to the portal pathways without incident; the ground didn’t fall out from beneath their feet, and Bellusdeo did not go full Dragon.
Kaylin was slightly surprised that the cohort accepted a Dragon in their midst so readily, but probably shouldn’t have been. While they were holed up in Alsanis, Mandoran and Bellusdeo were bickering half a continent away. They had seen Bellusdeo as Mandoran and Annarion had; they’d seen her fight. They were aware that she had been injured in the defense of the High Halls.
And they were aware, as well, of her status, not as a member of the Dragon Court, but as a displaced person, a person who had been swept out of her life in the Aeries and deposited in an entirely different world. They were aware, as Mandoran was, that any old friends she possessed—those that had managed to survive three wars—were sleeping the long sleep of Dragons; she could not return to their sides.
War had scarred them all, destroying any lives they had planned before they were swept up in its currents.
Alsanis created a tall, rectangular arch; Kaylin watched as it went up, inch by inch, from both the left and the right, meeting at last in the unusual keystone at its height. There was a word carved out of the keystone that seemed to glow, and she looked at her arms almost automatically. Her own marks were flat.
To Kaylin’s eyes, the portal resembled a mirror—a normal one. The central image it contained coalesced out of multi-hued, swirling fog, until it turned into a flat, almost empty plain.
“Yes,” Alsanis said, to Kaylin’s unasked question. “In general, we attempt to enforce a familiar landscape upon these pathways. It is far easier for those who choose to walk them not to stray.”
“And today?”
“That shift in appearance requires more power, and more planning. Some essential part of the path itself is diverted into maintaining its appearance.” He did not need to point out all the reasons why that was a bad idea today.
Kaylin’s gaze returned to the portal. Something was moving across the plain; it seemed to be running toward them. As it grew closer, she realized that it was not one thing, but two; they looked like long-legged animals, too light of foot and musculature to be horses. Only when they were almost at the portal did she recognize them. Or at least their faces. Grimacing, she told the cohort and the Dragon, “They’re safe.”
Bellusdeo eyed them dubiously.
“It’s Winston and one of his brothers.”
“And Winston and his brothers are?”
“The core of the Hallionne are people. Different races, but...people. I have no idea what Alsanis used to be; I suspect Orbaranne was once human. Bertolle was neither. When Bertolle chose to become a Hallionne, his brothers remained with him. They were sleeping. I woke them up on the way to the West March my first time through. They...don’t really understand bodies.”
“They do,” Terrano said quietly. “They just don’t understandourbodies.”
* * *
Winston was delighted to see Kaylin. He was delighted to see the cohort. He was momentarily stunned at the sight of Bellusdeo, but not in the usual Barrani way. His passably Barrani head, attached to a much longer neck, swiveled from person to person until Kaylin felt queasy.
“Winston, please—just take a normal Barrani shape.”
“Oh. Sorry. We had to move at speed and we were forbidden faster modes of transportation, so we had to improvise,” Winston helpfully explained, while the rest of his body melted and reassembled itself beneath his face. “The Consort is waiting with Kariastos.”
“Did you have any trouble finding us?”
The question confused Winston, who glanced at his brother. His brother had also disassembled and reassembled himself, and was blinking rapidly. When he opened his mouth to answer, he didn’t use words; something very like a screeching insect buzz left his lips instead.
Spike whirred to life, and answered.
The two brothers exchanged a glance, and this time it was Winston who spoke.
“Can you understand them?” Kaylin asked Alsanis.
“Yes, Lord Kaylin.”
“Can you translate what they’re saying so it makes sense to me?”
A longer pause. “I am uncertain. Your friend is capable of communicating across species, and he may be able to explain the situation. I believe there is some concern.”
“About Spike’s presence?”
“About the portal paths.”
