“His thoughts are generally opaque—but I think that’s deliberate. He’s not afraid that I’ll hear him. Or rather, he’s not afraid that I will use what I hear against him. His interaction with Alsanis was extremely unusual, and he thinks of me—in some fashion—as a Hallionne.”
“And you’re not.”
“I am neither as powerful nor as extensive as the Hallionne. I have more autonomy than the Hallionne, which gives me flexibility that is somewhat foreign to Terrano. But no, dear, I’m not worried about that. I do not believe he will intentionally damage me. Sedarias has disentangled herself, and will be joining you shortly.”
Kaylin, stack of papers in hand, headed toward the dining room.
Sedarias arrived without the rest of the cohort, but was joined by Teela and Tain. Although she was casually dressed—for a Barrani noble—she looked forbiddingly martial; had she shown up in plate armor, Kaylin wasn’t certain she’d look any less intimidating.
“Mandoran says you have a mirror here.”
“Helen?”
“There is one room in which mirror access is permitted; mirrors do not exist in any of the living quarters.”
Teela took a chair and flipped its back toward the table before sitting; she draped both arms across the top of the chair and slouched—elegantly. When she wasn’t eating, this was her preferred posture. Tain took a chair and sat in it stiffly, back straight against the chair’s frame. This, more than the color of his eyes, made clear that the two were still arguing.
Tain intended to join the cohort in the Test of Name.
Kaylin couldn’t, Severn couldn’t and Teela couldn’t. Nor could Nightshade, Annarion’s brother. They had faced the test; they had passed it. The Tower would not allow them to go through the process again.
But when Kaylin had somehow made it to the basement of the High Halls, when she had seen what lay in wait there—and seen, as well, those who were trapped for eternity by its shadows—Evarrim had been there. And Evarrim was demonstrably a Lord of the High Court. If the Tower itself didn’t open a figurative door for the supplicants, therewasanother way down.
There had to be. The Consort and the High Lord had been there.
Kaylin wondered how much of this she should tell Teela.
“I think she knows, dear,” Helen’s now-disembodied voice said.
Teela shot Kaylin a glare of midnight blue. Since Kaylin hadn’t said anything, she thought this a tad unfair. “Don’t start,” the Barrani Hawk said. She looked pointedly at the stack of paper in front of Kaylin.
“Youwantto see paperwork now? Marcus will have a heart attack.”
“Marcus doesn’t have a heart. Sergeants are required to have them surgically removed. Now, spread them out.”
“There’s probably nothing here you haven’t seen,” Kaylin said, although she obeyed Teela’s command. There was alotof paper, all of it in High Barrani, a language not known for its precision. Or for its brevity, at any rate. “And even if there is, it’s going to take hours—at best—for you tofindit.”
“That,” Sedarias interjected, “is why I’m here.”
“And no one else?”
“No one else wanted to be in the same room as Teela’s foul mood.” Elantran still sounded strange, coming from Sedarias, but Sedarias, like the rest of the cohort, used it whenever Kaylin was in the room. It wasn’t necessary—Kaylin had a more than passable command of Barrani—but Mandoran had pointed out that there were things one could say in a foreign tongue one wouldn’t say in one’s mother tongue.
“And you don’t care?” Kaylin asked. The papers seemed to be divided into Barrani lines or lineage, and the hierarchical lineage was complicated. Not all of the members of any particular family actually bore the same name—there were alliances and offshoots of the main branches scattered everywhere, and some of the offshoots had roots in more than one significant family. Ugh.
“My mood,” Sedarias said with a sweet smile that nonetheless appeared to drip venom, “is equal, at the moment, to Teela’s.”
“So no one wanted to be in the same room as your mood, either?”
“Got it in one. Hand me that. No, notthatone, the other one. The small stack under your right hand.”
Kaylin’s eyes drifted to the top of that small stack; she’d been trying to keep the hierarchical lines together, inasmuch as that was possible.Mellarionnewas written and underlined three times. The triple underlines seemed to denote important family. Kaylin now classified them as “first rank.” Something old and just beneath the High Lord in importance to the Barrani—or at least the Barrani Court. She was pretty certain that Sedarias was of the Mellarionne family line.
“She is, dear,” Helen said.
“You know,” Sedarias said with a raised, dark brow, “I begin to understand why Mandoran thinks giving Kaylin his name—orournames—would be both practical and convenient.”
“Oh?” Teela said, because Teela absolutely did not agree.
