“And the Tower doesn’t like cheaters? Fair enough. None of my teachers could stand them, either.”
Terrano was slowly returning to his usual color, his usual appearance; only his eyes were off. “You tried?”
“I wanted to. But Teela made it pretty clear that the lessons were necessary.”
“Was she right?”
Teela cleared her throat. “I’m always right.”
“That’s what she said back then, too.”
Terrano turned to Teela. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Not here.”
“You’re not planning to join them? Mandoran?”
Mandoran hadn’t said a word, which was so unlike his usual self, Kaylin had almost forgotten his presence. “There’s a bit of a problem,” he finally said. His eyes, too large, grew darker and far less Barrani-like. Kaylin turned to Teela to find that her eyes were similar to Mandoran’s now. He turned to Terrano.
“Sedarias’s brother and his friends are playing with Shadow.”
“Being played by Shadow?” Kaylin asked, unwilling to be left out of the conversation.
“That, too. They think they’re the base of operations here. They’re like a miniature Court. But it’s their guards who are the biggest threat.”
“The Ferals?”
“Whatever you did back in the halls to get rid of two of them, you need to do now to get rid of the rest.”
Kaylin looked ahead into the crimson landscape. “I’ll need to find them. I can’t see them at all.”
“What are you looking at?” Terrano demanded.
“At the interior of a body. Sort of. It’s like a cavern, but made of flesh. Exposed flesh,” she added.
The three members of the cohort exchanged a significant glance.
Kaylin held on to her temper. “You can see Mellarionne’s forces from here?”
Terrano nodded. “I can probably teach you how to look—”
“No,” Hope said.
The three Barrani turned toward him; Teela could actually hear him now.
“She is not what you are. She can be where you are because she bears the marks of the Chosen—but she bears them because, conversely, she is grounded. She has other methods of finding the creatures she needs to stop—but she cannot easily follow the path you now tread.”
“It’s not easy,” Teela said.
“No. Not for you. But you can, and return, in the end, to yourself. Kaylin does not have that flexibility. And,” he added as Terrano opened his mouth, “she does not require it. Spike?”
They are here, Spike replied.Here, beneath the strata in which Terrano was imprisoned.A silence followed—but it was a thin veneer over words which were certain to break it.What you now see is not my choice, Chosen, but your familiar’s. He is your guide here, if you have one. But the creatures you call Ferals, those who were once Barrani, are here. Can you not feel them?
No.
But she could now hear them clearly.
Chapter 26
