Or if he needed rescue at all.
Teela slowed, and gestured for Kaylin to follow suit. She gestured withKariannos,which couldn’t be ignored unless one wanted to be bisected. Kaylin would have slowed in any case; they had reached the end of the hall. Unlike many halls, this one didn’t end in a forbidding, warded door; the walls to either side simply stopped. Between one step and the next, the floor—worked, flawless stone—became uneven and worn; it was as if someone had taken a gigantic sword and simply sheared the hall in two, discarding part of it.
“Is this what it normally looks like?” Kaylin said over her shoulder, her voice low.
The Consort said, “There is no normal beyond these halls. But this is one of the ways it appears, yes.”
“Was it like this the last time you came?”
A beat of silence. Two.No, the Lord of the West March said.It was not.It was the first time he had chosen to join the crowd in Kaylin’s head.
She told you this?
I know her, he replied.This is not what she saw the last time she ventured into these halls.
The last time she’d ventured into these halls had been just over two weeks ago. Kaylin hadn’t been there, though—she’d been in the West March.You think this is a response to the last visit.
It should not have been, but yes. As do you.
Edelonne, what are they doing?
Silence. It was not the silence of struggle. Edelonne’s response was both visceral and wordless.I am not good with words, the newest member of Kaylin’s internal chorus said.
I’m not, either.
In your life, in the life you’ve chosen, skill with words is unnecessary. It was defining, for me.
Kaylin had no idea what Edelonne’s life choices were. And this wasn’t the time to discover them.Do you understand what was being attempted?
They are attempting to gain the power that the creature you call the Adversary has hoarded but cannot use himself.
Who taught you how to do what you did?
An image formed in response to the question. A man’s image. Kaylin had never seen him before. Brother? Father? Someone familial. Someone Edelonne valued. Ah. Someonedead. Had Kaylin’s arm hair not already been standing on end, it would have started immediately.
That’s not your father, she said, far more sharply than she’d intended.It’s the Adversary.
Edelonne resisted, but Kaylin had discovered one important thing about speaking through the bond of name—however that bond was built. Lying took effort. It took real work. She was certain Nightshade could manage it; certain Lirienne could. But she herself hadn’t mastered the art—
You will never master that art.
—and neither had Edelonne. She was new to this, newer than even Kaylin. She heard the truth in Kaylin’s words, and those words gouged into the heart of her certainty, cracking it, breaking it.
Yes, Ynpharion said.I have never liked you.
Tell me something I don’t know.
But I have never doubted the truth or the strength of your beliefs and your commitments. I merely think those beliefs and commitments are foolish. She, too, will understand what I almost immediately understood. You are many things, many frustrating things—but you are honest.He made the word sound like an insult, right up there withnaive.
Kaylin could live with naive, although it annoyed her.Tell the Consort that it was theAdversarythat taught them how to turn into this particular style of monster Feral. Not Terrano. Not An’Mellarionne. The Adversary.
Edelonne, whatelsewere you taught to do?
Edelonne’s answer was wordless. It was Shadow; it was tendrils; it was a voice that Edelonne could no longer understand, although it was part of her memories. The experience hadn’t been expunged.
Spike screeched. It was not a loud sound, but Kaylin thought it would make her ears bleed, and she covered one of them with her hand, the other being wrapped around a knife she didn’t want to drop, lose or jam into her cheek. Before she could speak, he detached himself from her shoulder, escaped the protection of fire that didn’t seem to affect him at all and pushed himself forward; he stood at the very edge of the hall. It was hard to tell what he was looking at, given his lack of obvious eyes.
It wasn’t hard to tell that whatever he saw either enraged or terrified him.
