Kaylin blinked.
“Tabards such as that aren’t normally worn to dinner among your people, are they?”
“Helen and I were having a discussion, and the tabard...” Kaylin trailed off, reddening. “No, not normally. Helen?” The tabard faded. Kaylin then drew breath. She glanced at the two seated Dragons, at the cohort and then, for longer, at Severn, who gave her a very small nod. She took the conversation in both hands. “I think we need to talk about why you’re here.”
Everyone at the table stiffened, except Severn and the Arkon; the Arkon, however, raised a brow at Kaylin, and began to rearrange his beard.
The Consort met and held Kaylin’s gaze for a long, agonizing breath. She, too, inclined her head. “Very well.” Her posture changed, her expression hardened and the natural green of her eyes lost ground to Barrani blue.
“An’Teela understands my concerns, as do Lord Kaylin and Lord Severn. My guards—both of my guards—are Lords of the High Court; it might surprise you to know that all of the guards assigned to me by the High Lord are Lords of the Court.” She spoke to the cohort at large, although her body was turned toward Sedarias.
“It is the custom of our people to assign only those who have become Lords of the High Court as heads of families. Those who have taken and passed that test understand why. It is also forbidden to discuss the test and its nature with any who have not passed it. And again, to those who have done so, the reasoning for that decision is clear. Is that not so?” She asked the question of Teela.
Teela nodded; her eyes were martial blue.
“I will not ask if you have discussed the Test of Name with your friends; I will assume that the answer is no.”
“She has not,” Sedarias said quietly. “She has merely advised—heavily—that we abandon the attempt for the time being.”
“To your friends, then, the Test of Name is a matter of hierarchical significance. If the Test of Name is not pursued, options are limited. I believe—” and now she definitely addressed Sedarias “—you intend to challenge the current An’Mellarionne for the title, and if you have not passed that test, such a challenge cannot be issued.
“You understand that those who fail the Test of Name never emerge. You assume, half correctly, that they perish—and that has long been the way of our kind, by necessity: the strong survive. The weak die.
“You therefore think—all of you who are willing to take that test—that the worst you face is death. You are...flexible...in ways that most of our kin are not; you believe that the death that you face is trivial in comparison to the other challenges you have faced in your life.
“You are wrong.”
Chapter 8
Ynpharion was rigid, both physically and mentally. So, too, the second guard who had been chosen to accompany the Consort. Teela was not.
Kaylin knew what lived beneath the High Halls; she had been told that it was the reason the High Halls existed in the first place. It was almost certainly the reason they had been left standing during the wars that had so damaged the Dragons. She understood the relevance of the Test of Name; those who had passed it had proved themselves immune to the corruption of the thing that was caged beneath the Tower that offered the test.
She didn’t understand the Tower itself; she didn’t understand the words that the Tower seemed to choose for each of the Barrani who ventured into it. And she didn’t understand the grim silence that enfolded the actual test. If humans had been the test-takers, there would be guides on how to win—probably sold for ridiculous amounts of money on Elani street, and probably full of lies.
Regardless, the need for secrecy, the silence—those were foreign. The Tower wasn’t personal; speaking of what occurred at its base didn’t seem to be exposing personal vulnerabilities, especially since the only people whocouldspeak had already passed the test.
But she wasn’t Barrani, and clearly the customs of Barrani were the ones that mattered here—which made sense. It was Barrani who faced the Test of Name; Kaylin had faced it half by accident. Neither Kaylin nor Severn had lives that required True Names. Their essential selves on some level could not be rewritten or corrupted—not the way Barrani names could.
“Will you speak of the test we face?” Sedarias asked.
The Consort did not answer the question. But she did reply. “There are those among my kin who would ask that you not take the test. There are those among the Arcanum who consider it far too risky—to us, to the High Halls, to the Empire. And the fate of the Empire, ruled even by Dragons, is of relevance to us all.” She inhaled slowly, as if measuring words. “The fieflords—or those with whom I have contact—are likewise concerned, but their concern is far more visceral.” Turning to Annarion, she said, “I believe you know what your brother’s concerns are, but he has not made clear to you what the root of that concern is, because he does not speak of the test he faced so long ago.”
Annarion nodded. Mention of Nightshade had caused his lips to thin, his eyes to narrow.
“He wishes you to wait.”
“And you, Lady?” Sedarias asked.
“I am less certain, as must be obvious. I have concerns. Those concerns have not been lessened by discussion with the Hallionne Alsanis; rather, they have increased. What I see as a concern, he sees as a distinct possibility—but even he cannot predict what that would mean for us. You are not, due to the interference of the green and the travails of your long captivity, what I am. You are not what An’Teela is. It is possible that An’Teela has the capacity to become what you currently are—but until very recently that would not have numbered among her ambitions.
“An’Teela is no longer considered ambitious, at Court. She has joined the Hawks. She enforces Imperial Law. She has evinced no desire to increase her holdings or the holdings of her line—she does not even style herself An’Danelle, as is both her right and her duty. She has earned the respect of even her enemies, and she carries one of the three.”
“But so does Nightshade,” Kaylin pointed out.
The Consort smiled. “Indeed he does.”
“Wouldn’t everything be simpler—at least for Annarion—if Lord Calarnenne could be repatriated?”
