Even if the marks were somehow a dark conspiracy, even if their existence had caused the deaths of those children over half her lifetime ago, she hadn’t murdered them and their murderers hadn’t managed to turn Kaylin into a monster. Being ignorant wouldn’t help her avoid that eventual fate if that’s what was in the cards. Knowledge would.
She exhaled and inhaled in short, sharp breaths, riding the pain, waiting for it to subside; she assumed that the pain was caused by the remnants of what now lay across the ground.
Mandoran barked a command in a language that wasn’t quite Barrani. Kaylin could hear it, but couldn’t quite make sense of it in the small gaps between waves of pain. She meant to tell him as much, but Hope bit her ear. Hard. She barely felt it over the rest of the pain.
She did, however, feel Spike, because if Hope had to settle for biting her ear—which, given his wing position, must have been almost impossible—Spike didn’t. She’d named him—badly, according to almost everyone—because he was a round ball composed primarily of spikes. They were clearly extendable. His attempt to get her attention, unlike Hope’s, worked. She only hoped that there was something left of her hand, because her instinctive attempt to dislodge him utterly failed.
“Cut it out!” she shouted. “You’re going to upset Helen!”
“That’swhat you’re worried about?” Terrano was beside her. She glanced at him and froze. Spike’s spikes had traveled through her hand—but all of the pain she experienced was now concentrated in that hand. Her hearing returned, as did Mandoran’s voice, but it was Terrano who caught and held her attention.
If it weren’t for his voice, she wouldn’t have recognized him. All of his body was somehow translucent, and it had spread upward, thinning as if it were traveling toward the sky in a rush. He had arms, but his legs seemed fused into a pillar, and the light he shed implied fire—if fire were the color of the green.
“What are you doing?” Kaylin demanded.
Mandoran, however, had moved to stand beside this iteration of Terrano. He reached out with a hand that looked very much like a normal Barrani hand, and Terrano grasped it, flickers of something that looked like green fire forming fingers.
Spike said,He is containing a threat.
What threat?
Spike’s answer was a word she didn’t know. It set her teeth on edge almost instantly, there was so much high-pitched buzzing in it.
I didn’t understand a word of that—if it was more than one word.
He tried again. The third time, he said,Shadow.
Teela did not sheathe her sword. Nor did she attempt to take a step outside of the circle that enclosed her. Tain stepped back. Kaylin was fairly certain he couldn’t see what she now saw—but the two Hawks had been partners for Kaylin’s entire tenure in the Hawks, and in a time of crisis, they were practically one person, but with the competence of three.
Annarion moved—but only to step onto the drive, readjusting his position because Mandoran was now with Terrano.
“Teela!” Terrano shouted.
Teela didn’t move. She didn’t sheathe her sword. Bressarian was speaking. Kaylin inhaled and began to walk up the drive. She paused beside Tain. Tain’s eyes were midnight blue. He didn’t look in her direction. He did, however, send a few words her way. “Go back inside the house.”
Teela didn’t move, either. She didn’t seem willing to take her eyes off Bressarian. Bressarian wasn’t the problem.
“Where,” she asked Tain, “did his two friends go?”
Bressarian’s gaze shifted from Teela as Kaylin spoke. His eyes narrowed.
Kaylin said, “This is my home. Why are you here?”
“I have been sent here by the Lady,” he replied. He spoke stiff High Barrani. Everything about him matched the language.
“To what end?” she replied, switching to Barrani.
“I am to deliver clothing, among other things.”
“The clothing is acceptable. Your two companions are not.”
“What companions?” There was no tremor in his voice.
“The ones who accompanied you in the carriage. They stepped out when you did.”
“I assure you—”
“Do not waste breath. You might need it.”
