“I don’t understand the taking of names. I don’t understand how I hold them. I don’t understand why, when I hear the name Calarnenne spoken, it’s just another word.” She stiffened.
“It’s all right—we all know about that,” Sedarias said. “If not for that, I’m not sure Annarion wouldn’t have killed his brother by now.” At Kaylin’s expression, she said, “He marked you. It is a claim of ownership. But he also gave you—voluntarily—a power over him that might be unique.”
“The first time I heard him called by that name, I froze. WhenIuse the name, he hears me. Helen stops most of the flow of information when I’m at home, but out in the world, she can’t. I could see his name. The first time he showed it to me, I couldhear itas if it were spoken. I kind of assumed that that’s how True Names functioned.” She was silent for a bit. Glancing at Bellusdeo, she squared her shoulders and continued.
“I could see the outcaste Dragon’s name in the same way. I assume—and assumed—that I could see it because he wanted me to attempt tosay it. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t hear all of it; I could study it for a year, and I’m not sure I’d see it all, either, it’s so large.”
Spike began to clatter.
“But I didn’t think it was safe—for me—to even try. I figured if he showed me his name and I tried, the loser, in the end, would be me.”
“And if his name had been simpler? If his name had been like the names you do hold?”
“I don’t know what I would have done. It wasn’t, though.”
Mandoran broke out laughing. Terrano turned to him and said, “Share.”
“Someone who I will not name out loud is wondering if Kaylin ever plans anything. What she said, however, was,Does she think at all?”
She felt Severn’s amusement; there was so much affection in it she almost couldn’t find it annoying. “She does think,” he offered.
“You could say that with more conviction,” was Sedarias’s sharp reply.
You really could.
His smile widened, and even if it was at her expense, she felt herself relax. She liked—had always liked—his smile.
Bellusdeo was fuming, or at least exhaling streams of smoke. Her eyes had lost a bit of red.
“What do you think? I think he did it on purpose, and I didn’t want to play that game.”
“I think,” Bellusdeo said, breaking a piece off the dining room table so absentmindedly she reminded Kaylin of Marcus, “that if the outcaste were going to play that game, the correct person to play it with would have been me.”
“Did he ever?”
“Never.”
“You don’t think he did it on purpose?”
“I don’t know. Do you always see his name on the rare occasion you do see him?”
“I didn’t see it in the Aerie. I don’t—for obvious reasons—see him often. I’d be just as happy never to see him again. I’d like not to be ash. Or Shadow.”
Bellusdeo said, “This is going almost, but not quite, nowhere. Look at me.”
She already was.
“Dear,” Helen began.
“I’m asking it,” Bellusdeo countered. “Demanding it. It is not an invasion of my privacy and it is not a threat. Kaylin walked throughyourwords. She saw them. Sherepairedthem. And, Helen? She did that for me, as well. I’d ask her to look at someone else, but I can’t guarantee that they wouldn’t feel threatened. I can guarantee that, regardless of outcome, I won’t. If it weren’t for her interference, I wouldn’t be here, and I wouldn’t be whole.”
Helen bowed her head. Spike whirred. The familiar squawked—but this squawk seemed to be aimed at Bellusdeo.
“Unless you can answer the question, this is the most practical option. Ynpharion is not present, and in general, he is somewhat hostile to Kaylin, which makes sense. But Ynpharion was attempting to kill Kaylin, and if I understand what actually happened—and I understand only as much as Kaylin does—Ynpharion was not in his Barrani form at that time.”
Ynpharion was silent, but she could now feel him as a pressure somewhere behind her eyes.
“No. He wasn’t.”
