“Figure it out.”
“You know, you’d make a bloody good sergeant if you ever need an actual job.”
Mandoran snorted.
“Only if I defeated the one you already have in mortal combat.”
Tain chuckled. So did Teela.
“I—What exactly did you want me todo? I’m touching the name because I can. But... I might as well be touching warm rock. I can’t move it.”
“You’ve tried?”
“I can’t move you and apparently it bears your weight. It’s...really—Warm rock is the best description.” She exhaled. “Well, not thebestdescription.”
“Give me the best one.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t like sentiment all that much, especially when it interferes with duty.”
“I’d love to hear it, on the other hand,” Mandoran said.
“The rest of us would not,” Sedarias snapped. “Sentiment is not appropriate in a state of emergency.”
“I will defer to Sedarias’s wishes in this case,” Bellusdeo said. “What are you doing?”
“Well, umm.”
“Kaylin.”
“I think—I think I can climb it.”
“That is quite enough,” Helen said, and Kaylin’s eyes flew open. Her house was not looking very amused. “It is a name, Kaylin. It is a source of life, of sentience. It isnotpart of an exercise yard.”
“I couldn’t do anything else, and I thought—” She stopped. Nodded. “I’m sorry. We don’t have names like this. I’m not used to thinking of them as the source of life.”
“I am just grateful that this did not occur when the Consort was actually present.”
“Sorry, Helen.”
Kaylin couldn’t tell if the cohort was relieved at the results or not. Bellusdeo seemed mildly annoyed. Teela seemed mildly annoyed, but given the events of the past month, that was about as good as her mood was going to get. Terrano, however, seemed pensive—and as pensive was potentially less painful than annoyance, Kaylin found herself sitting with him in a dining room that was otherwise empty.
“Where’s everyone else?”
“In one of Helen’s training rooms.”
“Bellusdeo?”
“She’s with them. Helen advised against it,” he added. “She really doesn’t listen, does she?”
“She’s listening enough, as far as she’s concerned. She can’t go with you guys. She knows it. She’s going to make damn sure that any of the expertise that might have been useful is in Sedarias’s head.” Which would give her just a week, given that Immortals didn’t need sleep. “Why aren’t you with them?”
“I got tired of listening to Sedarias in her military mode. Everyone’s panicking.”
“Are you going to go with them?”
