“You were always said to be the best of your kin,” the Consort replied, confirming Sedarias’s suspicion. “Do you know who this man is?”
“No. I do not believe he was alive—or at Court—when I was sent to the green, and my information since our return has been somewhat fractured.”
“You believe that this man’s breach of the fief barriers was recent. Perhaps this has something to do with the attempts of your comrade—” and here she definitely pinpointed Terrano “—to persuade Alsanis to release you all?”
“All prisoners with power will eventually be free,” Sedarias replied, no hint of repentance in her voice.
“Yes. I hold nothing done in pursuit of your own freedom against you. Nor do I expect that my attempt to...weight the import of the task I hope to set you in my own favor will be held against me.”
“We are not Lord Kaylin,” Sedarias replied. “Very well. The effort to create the gaps in Alsanis’s attention that would allow us to finally slip free were not the efforts of a day, a month or even a simple year. You know that we eventually approached Lord Iberrienne.”
“I know of the fate of Iberrienne. It is why my brother has acceded to my request not to cast him out of the Court. Alsanis cradles him, but feels that there is very little that might restore Iberrienne to...what he once was.”
Eddorian stiffened.
“It is not a threat,” the Consort said quietly. “Iberrienne is safe. But his acts broke many of our laws with regard to the one enemy that unites all of our peoples. Some of his kin have attempted to visit him while he resides within Alsanis,” she added.
Sedarias frowned. “They have not.”
“I misspeak,” the Consort replied. “They petitioned Alsanis for permission to visit. Their petitions were refused.”
Eddorian opened his mouth. Eddorian shut his mouth. It was clear from his expression—for one, he now had one—that he wanted to say something; it was clear from the tension of the cohort that the argument that was now taking place—in relative silence—was intense.
The silence stretched, Spike’s image of the Barrani lord momentarily forgotten.
Kaylin knew how to break that silence.
“Is that wise, dear?” Helen said softly. But not, apparently, silently.
Kaylin shrugged, a fief shrug. “All of this is going to have to come out, anyway. I think,” she continued, “that while the cohort’s interference in the High Court and its politics opened new doors to trouble, the potential for that trouble already existed. It’s just that now it has an outlet.”
The Consort turned to her. The whole cohort did.
“The cohort was aiming at the green, at the power of theregalia. They wanted to—” she stopped herself and corrected the direction the unfortunate sentence was taking “—be free. To do that, they were willing to throw away almost everything else.
“But they had allies. Some of those allies were mortals who want immortality—and why, I don’t understand. There isn’t a single story about the attempt to gain eternity, such as it is, thateverworks out well for us—”
Teela coughed.
“Right. Sorry. They had mortal allies—probably because of the money. They had Arcanists as allies, because: Arcanists. For activities that had the potential to end a race—mine, in case you’ve forgotten—it seemed almost normal.
“I think some of Terrano’s allies weren’t Arcanists searching for power or mortals searching for immortality.”
The Consort was now utterly still; even the movement of breath had deserted her.
“I think some of those allies have already been somehow bound to the service of the creature beneath the High Halls and, even now, do its bidding.”
Chapter 10
It was Ynpharion who broke the silence—but only Kaylin’s. Everyone else appeared to be holding their breaths.
What are you doing?he demanded.
I don’t know how much of the West March you actually eavesdropped on. Eavespeeped? Is that a word?She really needed to become a better person. In a situation as grim as this one was becoming, enjoying Ynpharion’s outrage was just too petty. On the other hand, there didn’t seem to be a lot to enjoy in the immediate future, otherwise.But Spike’s arrival—fromRavellon, a place he can’t in theory leave, was a big red flag. The Barrani lord in question—and the Consort seemed to recognize him—enteredRavellon. He clearly entered through the fiefs, and it’s just possible he was allowed to do so. I’m certain he didn’t enter through Tiamaris or Nightshade, and Severn seems to think it was Candallar. Itmighthave been Farlonne, which is rumored to be another Barrani fief.
She exhaled and, opening her mouth, repeated everything she had just said to Ynpharion.
“Why do you assume that the point of entry was defined by the race of the fieflord?” the Consort—quite reasonably—asked. “Not all of the people involved with the attempt to free the cohort were Barrani.”
