“Yes, but so do you. He has made one or two suggestions about security that I find intriguing, and he understands the ancient variant of what you now call mirrors and mirror networks. He does not lay any blame for the current situation at your feet, and I consider this quite broad-minded of him.”
“I didn’t choose to go to the West March—the elemental water did that for me.”
“It would have caused much less difficulty if Bellusdeo had not accompanied you to the Keeper’s garden. Bellusdeo, however, is aware of this.”
Kaylin came to stand beside the door. “I kind of wish I’d invited Nightshade,” she finally said.
“He is outcaste.”
“I know. But the Consort likes him, and fails to treat him as social poison.”
“Yes—but at the moment, the High Court is embroiled in politics, some of which involve the designation of outcaste. It would have been difficult.” She stepped to one side of the closed doors. “And Annarion is still easily upset in his brother’s presence. They have both become better at controlling their expression of hurt or anger, but it is always there. Tonight I believe there will be enough internal conflict.”
“Aren’t you worried?”
“Of course I’m worried. It’s what I do. But I understand what the Consort hopes the cohort can achieve, and I believe you understand it, as well.”
Kaylin nodded. She exhaled a few inches of height, shook herself and attempted to rearrange her neck and shoulders so that no hint of possible slouch remained.
Helen opened the door while Kaylin stood almost at attention, uncertain of what to expect, but aware that bad handling of those expectations could lead to ugliness that wasdefinitelyabove her pay grade. When she’d first attached herself to the Hawks—without actually being one—she had resented people who told her what to do. In the seven years since, she’d come to not only appreciate the chain of command, but rely on it. Probably because she knew how to do her job, in all of its many variations.
This was not her job, but she was expected to do it well, regardless.
The Consort was revealed by the slow opening of the doors, and Kaylin felt the tension leave her spine.
“Kaylin, you look lovely,” the Consort said. Her eyes were as green as any Barrani eyes had been in the past few days, and she wore not the complicated style of outmoded court dress, or even modern court dress, but the white that she wore daily. Her hair was not a mass of braids and combs and jewels; it fell straight down her back. At that back were two—only two—Barrani guards. Kaylin was very surprised to recognize one of them: Ynpharion. The other, she wasn’t certain she’d met, and if she had, they hadn’t exchanged more than two words, but given Ynpharion’s presence, she guessed that he was also a Lord of the High Court.
Ynpharion’s eyes, on the other hand, were a deep, deep blue.
Of course they are, he snapped.
Why are there only two of you?
It will amuse you to know that she brought us because the High Lord was willing to accede to your obvious desire to cancel this dinner if she would not agree to guards. We are her compromise, and may I just say that I feel that the High Lord was not emphatic enough? There are six guards stationed at the gatehouse. They will enter the grounds if required.
Ynpharion almost never criticized the Consort; Kaylin was shocked. She hoped her momentarily frozen expression had at least paused on a smile.
Helen gently nudged her back to reality, or at least out of the doorway. The Consort, almost unadorned, entered. Only when her attendants had also crossed the threshold did she frown. It was a thoughtful frown.
“That amulet,” she began.
Kaylin had forgotten she was wearing it. A better person would have taken no pleasure whatsoever from Ynpharion’s internal shriek of pure frustration, and maybe in the future, Kaylin would become that better person. “It’s the Arkon’s.”
“I see.”
“Have you seen it before? Or seen one like it?”
“It has been seen in our history,” the Consort replied. “And its likeness painted. It will not come as a surprise to you that it has never been seen on a mortal. And it has never been seen—by my kin—outside of battle.”
Kaylin cleared her throat. “I guess I should warn you that the Arkon is actually present.”
The Consort’s eyes shifted to an almost draconian gold. “The Arkon ishere?”
“Yes. Bellusdeo was given permission to join us with the understanding that she would not be isolated.” Kaylin spoke in High Barrani. It was the language of diplomacy, which was why she found it so hard to maintain.
The gold made way for green again, but the green was luminous.
“Kaylin is fond of the Lady,” Helen said, reducing the practical value of silence to zero. “And the Lady ismyguest. No harm will come to her that she does not inflict—instantly—upon herself.” The Avatar’s High Barrani was chilly; it was a tone Kaylin almost never heard Helen use.
