Terrano shrieked in frustration. Mandoran chuckled.
“You’ve even done it,” Terrano continued, pausing for breath, “today. Whatisit with you?” This, too, was Elantran.
“Teela says she operates entirely instinctively, if that helps,” Mandoran offered.
“Did Teela say I hate being talked about in the third person when I’m actually right here?”
“Is it relevant?”
They carried her back to reality. She thought about that. Was she weak, to need their help? Was this something she could do—could have done—on her own? She’d learned in Barren to trust no one. Nothing. Not even Morse, her only friend. Trust was risk. Risk was death. But without it, in the end, life had no value—at least not to Kaylin. She shifted slightly, grabbing on to both of them.
“No, not really. Is everyone else okay?”
“Defineokay.”
“Not dead. Not in danger of dying immediately. Not opening a portal for all the Shadow in the Tower to enter the High Halls and destroy everything.”
The two exchanged a glance that seemed to pass through Kaylin’s head.
Severn.
The Shadows have stopped.
Stopped existing?
Stopped attacking. The Consort is safe.He knew this wasn’t her only concern, and turned toward the Barrani. If the Shadows had ceased to attack, the Barrani—those outside of the Consort’s orbit—had not. Through Severn’s eyes, she could see the cohort.
Valliant was down; Serralyn was by his side.
She couldn’t see Torrisant or Fallessian, but stopped looking because Severn wasn’t looking. He had eyes for Sedarias. Sedarias and Coravante, her brother. The Arcanists who had come with Coravante had not immediately panicked when attacked; they did not panic now. Coravante An’Mellarionne was the center of their formation, although they’d lost two; she could see a headless body a yard away from where Coravante had chosen to make his stand.
She could see Sedarias’s back, could see Allaron beside her.
The Arcanist crown worn by Coravante flashed almost white. The color leached out of his face. His eyes, however, were a steady indigo. At this distance, she shouldn’t have seen the color. There were no whites.
No. But you can’t see Sedarias’s eyes, either. Only they can.
“So, little sister, you plague our house even on the eve of our ascendance.”
“It is not our house, brother. It ismine.”
“You have been all but dead these many centuries. So much has changed, you would not recognize it.”
“And so much, even given time, has remained the same. Do you remember our early childhood?”
To his left and right, the men standing by his side raised arms. They were also Arcanists, although the gems in their tiaras were cracked and blacked stones now. She recognized neither, and it was irrelevant. Sedarias and Coravante commanded the whole of her attention.
“I remember everything.”
“Good. I took one risk with you. Only one. It was the only time, then or after, that you almost succeeded in killing me.”
He laughed. He laughed, and something black that might have otherwise been blood trickled out of the corners of his lips. “Did you think that that wasmydesire, Sedarias? Did you think the planmine?”
“It seemed far too sophisticated for you, I admit.” Her tone was ice, like the white fire that grew in her brother’s hands.
“You were the golden child. You were the hope of Mellarionne. But you were young. You were reckless.”
“I was reckless? You are consorting with Shadow. You are standing in the lee ofRavellonin your ignorance, andIwas reckless?”
