Edelonne did not point to Averen’s corpse.Flee here. Tell the Lady to flee. If she is here—if they have her—we are lost.
We’re not lost, Kaylin said as the marks on her arms began to burn.
Edelonne stared at them, arrested.You are...Chosen.
Kaylin nodded.You chose this path, she said quietly.You weren’t forced into it. If the Consort is in danger, she is in danger because you—and your compatriots—made choices such as the one that brought you here.
Silence. Beneath it, anger. Anger was better than fear, especially when the brunt of it wasn’t directed at Kaylin.This is not the path I chose.
It was demonstrably the path she’d chosen. Kaylin didn’t say this, but it took effort. And of course, as if she were Ynpharion, she heard what Kaylin didn’t say, anyway.
This isn’t what I wanted.
I’m not going to ask what youdidwant. But you’re a Lord of the High Court. You’ve seen what awaits those who take this freaking test. And you’re workingforit. You and whoever else is caught up in this. But the Shadow didn’t come to talk to any of you directly. Someone else did. Who?
An’Mellarionne.
This was more or less what Kaylin expected, and she wondered if the name was offered because of that.Is he waiting for us down below?
Not for you. Not directly.She hesitated, and then said,We didn’t expect the Consort to arrive.
You set up this entire trap—starting with herpersonal chambers, but you didn’t expect her to become involved?
We didn’t expect her to bedirectlyinvolved.Her gaze bounced off Evarrim.We thought she might send Lord Evarrim. It wouldn’t be the first time he has been sent.
How do youknowthis?
She froze, as if hearing—or considering—the question for the first time. There was no good answer. There wasn’t even a bad answer that didn’t make her look like a trusting, naive fool, and if Kaylin understood nothing else about the Barrani, she understood just how much they dreaded that.
It made them seem almost human.
We were informed, she finally said. But the question that Edelonne hadn’t asked, hadn’t thought to ask, wasBy who?She was asking it now, and the only answer that seemed instantly plausible was not the answer she wanted.What is the Consort trying to do? Is she trying to unseat Coravante?
She is trying, Kaylin said,to free the damned.
That’s—that’s what Coravante is doing.
Do you honestly believe that?
Silence.
Was Bressarian involved?
He was not like us.
That’s not a no.
You don’t understand An’Mellarionne. You don’t understand how much power he has. But he has Fianora, Bressarian’s sister.
Where?
Later, Chosen.She turned to the Consort and sank, instantly, into a posture of utter obeisance. “Lady,” she said, speaking mostly to the floor as she didn’t lift her head. “It is not safe for you here.”
“It is not safe for anyone, Lord Edelonne.”
“No one else is you.”
“Ah. I have heard that Mellarionne has a Consort candidate waiting in the wings for my demise.”
