So you’re safe with her?
His laughter was hollow but genuine.No. I am far less safe with her than I would be with you. You will die in a handful of decades even if I lift no hand to hasten your departure. But I serve the Lady with everything that I am—and Iofferedher the name. It wasmychoice. And now, he continued, the pride of that truth fading,she is willing to take the risk of facing what the High Halls imprisons.And what we know about the creature is...almost nothing. If answering the question that you yourself posed is even slightly relevant, answer it. For her sake.
But Kaylin didn’t have an answer. “Is there some way to make people offer you their name besides threats of death?”
Ynpharion snorted on the inside of her head.Coward.
Spike, however, said, “Yes.”
“How?” Kaylin said, latching on to Spike.
Spike whirred, clicking so much Kaylin thought he’d fall apart in her hand.
“Spike is attempting to explain what—or who—he believes the imprisoned Shadow to be. Your experience in the High Halls was unique, which is to be expected; you are mortal and your existence does not depend on the blood of the Ancients. I cannot therefore speak to anyone else’s experience. Teela?”
Teela’s lips were thinned enough they were practically invisible.
“Ah, forgive me,” Helen then said before Teela could answer. Not that she was going to, in Kaylin’s opinion. “Spike says I am incorrect; he believes the experience was different for Kaylin not because she’s mortal, but because she’s Chosen.”
“Why?” Sedarias asked. Her voice overlapped Bellusdeo’s.
The question did not make sense to Spike, judging by his vibration. Helen’s expression shifted into one of focused concentration. Apparently, her familiar also had opinions; she lifted one hand to cup the ear closest to his squawky little mouth.
The group gathered around the table waited for the outcome of the conversation—except for Terrano, whose brow was practically folding in half as he concentrated.
“You can understand them?” Kaylin asked, which caused the frown to deepen, and added lines of extreme frustration to an already creased expression.
“Not easily, no. But if I work at it—which is impossible when someone is babbling at me—I can catch the gist of it.”
Kaylin was not the only person who was babbling in very short order. “Who taught you this? How did you learn?” Bellusdeo demanded. Hers was the loudest voice, although it wasn’t the only one; no one else had that thunderous rumble that implied imminent earthquake.
“No one taught me,” Terrano snapped. “Ilistened. Which, can I point out, is impossible right now?”
“Helen will tell us what was said. She’ll probably tell us more than you could if you were allowed to ‘listen,’ as you call it.” The gold Dragon folded her arms. “The rest of the cohort don’t hear what you hear.”
“They would if they bothered.”
“We wouldn’t,” Sedarias said.
Mandoran, however, lifted a hand. “I might. I can hear noise in the background; it sounds mostly like buzzing. There’s a strange pitch to it. But we’re kind of wandering far afield here. What we need to know is how Kaylin can take a name that isn’t offered.”
“What we need to know,” Bellusdeo shot back, “is that you—all of you—can walk slightly inverted roads without being afflicted by the Shadow’s control. And Terrano has walked farthest, longest. If I infer correctly, he’s probably a large part of the reason the High Court is now embroiled in Shadow arts, and possibly under Shadow control.”
“You say ‘Shadow’ as if it’s one thing,” Terrano replied. “It’s not. Spike is Shadow. No, never mind. Sedarias is Barrani. I’m Barrani. The Consort is Barrani. Annarion is Barrani. How are we all one mind, one thing? Sedarias’s sister was Barrani. She tried to kill Sedarias. The Shadow is like us. Some of the things that exist in the layers outside of the one Kaylin lives in are like Spike—they’re bound. They’re trapped.
“And some of the Shadows are like fire or water—they can be summoned, they can be invoked. They give power the way controlling fire does—if you mess up, you die.”
“That is not all they are capable of,” Bellusdeo said, her expression cold, her voice the heart of fire. “I’ve experienced what happens when people are not cautious. I’ve seen a world die. You do not want that to happen here.”
“I don’t want it to happen anywhere,” Terrano reasonably pointed out. It wasn’t the time for reason, though—not given Bellusdeo’s eye color.
Sedarias was easily as unamused as Bellusdeo. Mandoran, however, was not; he looked uneasy, but made no attempt to ditch the meeting he’d contributed very little to.
“It is everywhere,” Spike said, his voice quieter, his body almost—for Spike—motionless. “BecauseRavellonis everywhere.”
“Are you everywhere?” Kaylin asked.
“I am here.”
