I will. I want to pay a visit to Missing Persons.He was silent for one long moment and then said,Yes, I saw what you saw.
And you have a better memory for faces.
She felt his nod, but whatever she’d meant to say in response withered as she caught sight of Helen’s face. The eyes of her home’s Avatar were obsidian, and this was never a good sign.
Bellusdeo noticed, as well; the Dragon’s eyes darkened to an orange that implied martial caution. At least Helen wasn’t wearing armor. She looked like her usual gentle, maternal self if one didn’t look at her eyes.
“Where,” Helen said, dispensing with the usualwelcome homethat characterized her, “did you meet Killianas?”
Kaylin blinked. “You mean Killian?”
Helen stepped into the house to allow both Kaylin and Bellusdeo to enter. She then shut the door—a little more firmly than necessary—and exhaled sound. The sound had syllables in it, but also the roaring of ocean, the crash of lightning that followed the rumble of thunder, the crackle of fire as it devoured wood.
Bellusdeo waited, an almost bored expression transforming her features; the color of her eyes remained orange.
“What’s happening?” Mandoran said from the height of the stairs that led to the foyer, and therefore, the door.
“I am trying,” Helen said without looking up, “to find the right words to express a phrase.”
“I don’t think that’s working out well for you.” Mandoran descended the stairs.
“Did you understand it?” Bellusdeo asked.
“Not well, no. Serralyn thinks she might understand the gist of it.”
“Pardon?”
“She was always good with language, in the old days.” He reached the ground. Helen had fallen silent and seemed slightly pinker than usual. “Where did you guys go, anyway? Helen’s not happy.”
“You think?”
Bellusdeo snorted smoke. “We attempted to reach the fief of Candallar by crossing the border of Tiamaris. I believe it was meant to be a shortcut. It was not particularly short.”
“What happened?”
Helen steered them to the dining room. Although the parlor existed, Kaylin was never entirely comfortable using it; that was a room meant for visitors who were above her pay grade and needed to be impressed somehow. The dining room could double as a mess hall, and given the cohort these days, it usually did. Although Helen tended to change the furniture when important guests visited, she didn’t attempt to maintain it that way when they left.
The parlor, however, was always stuffy and fancy.
Helen could, and did, pick information from Kaylin’s thoughts as she walked the stretch of hall that led to the comfortable common room. Hope was slumped across her shoulder, looking bored. Boredom apparently afflicted anything immortal.
They took their usual seats, although Teela came down to join them, her eyes a shade of midnight. Mandoran glanced at her, grimaced, and dropped his head to the tabletop. Repeatedly.
“If you don’t want her to help you with that,” Kaylin told him as she took her own chair, “I’d suggest you stop right now.”
“Teela’s in a foul mood.”
Of course she was. Severn, Kaylin and Bellusdeo had gone to the fiefsasHawks. Since Bellusdeo was a Dragon, Kaylin privately felt they had enough of a power escort that they didn’t need to also take Barrani Hawks. Teela clearly disagreed.
“Remember when you said you’d make an effort to trust me more with my own survival?”
“I trust you to be yourself.”
Mandoran grinned. “In Teela’s defense—”
“Teela,” Teela snapped, “will never be desperate enough to require your defense.”
“—you manage to wander into more trouble than anyone we’ve ever met. Except Terrano.” He laughed out loud. Terrano felt the same as Teela did. “Teela is now annoyed—”
