“I’d suggest you consider it,” a familiar voice said. Terrano stepped out of the shadows.
Terrano was unarmed. Sedarias, however, was not. She joined Terrano, her hair a flyaway mess, something seldom seen on a Barrani when they weren’t in motion.
“Lord Candallar,” Sedarias said, her eyes a shade of blue that made clear her displeasure.
“Do not interfere here,” Candallar said, struggling to keep his voice as smooth—and cold—as Sedarias’s had been. “You are intruders, and as intruders, you have no hope of survival. This is not Mellarionne, An’Mellarionne. You will find that you have no power here, except the power I choose to grant.”
The Arkon roared.
Candallar appeared unmoved.
“You are in the library,” the Arkon said. “And your people are intent on causing damage to it.”
“The library is part of the Academia, and I am its Lord.”
The floor shook beneath Kaylin’s feet.
The Arkon looked singularly unimpressed. Sedarias and Terrano joined Kaylin; Sedarias did not put up her sword. But it was Sedarias who spoke.
“What claim have you over the Academia?”
“I told you—”
“And what use is it to you?”
“Do you not understand what is gathered here in the detritus of ancient history?” Candallar’s voice was soft.
“You have intrigued with the Lords of the High Court who are discontent with things as they now stand,” Sedarias continued, as if she had not been interrupted. “None of us do so without goals. You will not and cannot claim the High Seat, and given your role in the recent difficulties, your reinstatement to that Court is nigh impossible.”
He said nothing.
“I have offered alliance, and you have failed to respond to that offer.”
“And you will offer it again?” There was no trace of sneer in his voice or his words, but it was clear that he didn’t believe it.
“There are things that I can, and cannot, accept,” Sedarias said. “I am An’Mellarionne, as you have clearly ascertained. I speak with the voice of Mellarionne.”
“You yourself were not obedient to your brother when he ruled your family.”
“We are never obedient when the goal is our destruction, no. But your destruction was both ordained and escaped; you are fieflord, and your Tower is Candallar. Do you wish to be relieved of the burden that preserved your life?”
Silence.
“I cannot see what you hope to gain in your intrigues at Court. You cannot be both fieflord and a Lord of the High Court; in the history of the Court that has happened only once. You rule your domain, and what you make of it reflects your concerns, but the power of the fieflord is almost absolute in the fief that bears his name.”
“Is that what you believe?” An edge of anger inserted itself into the words.
“That is what we have been taught, yes. And we have seen the truth of it in the fief of Tiamaris.” This wasn’t strictly speaking true—but Sedarias was Barrani, and it was pretty close to facts as Kaylin understood them.
“Perhaps Tiamaris’s Tower is different. The Tower of Candallar is not obedient; it conveys power, yes, but it is more of a cage than a shelter. I cannot leave it.”
“You are demonstrably not within your Tower now.”
“No? I can hear the Tower’s voice while I stand in this place. It is aware of everything I do while I am here. I can escape that voice if I enter the city—and I have entered Elantra—but I cannot dwell within that city if I am still labeled outcaste.”
“Nightshade does not consider his Tower to be a cage.”
“Lord Nightshade wields one of the three,” was the edged reply. “And he was skilled in arts Arcane before I was birthed. He is outcaste, yes—as am I—but for different reasons. The Lady favors him, regardless.” This last was said with a bitterness he could not hide.
