“I...think so.” He frowned. Like Mandoran, Terrano’s expression moved the map of his face; not for Terrano the almost neutral subtlety of adult Barrani. “I think if things had worked out as intended, my friends would be lost, but the path itself wouldn’t have been. It’s like someone put a rug across the road, waited until someone stepped on it, and then rolled it shut and carried it off.”
“Except for the Shadow devouring the people who stepped on it?”
“Except for that, yes.”
Kaylin glanced at the Dragon. “Canwefind that path if we clear away the Shadow garbage?”
Squawk.
“It’s not that simple,” Terrano began.
“Yes or no are pretty simple answers.”
“And if you want to get devoured by Shadow, flip a coin and pick a random one,” he snapped. He started to pace in a tight little circle; judging by the expression on Sedarias’s face, she found this as frustrating as Kaylin did.
“What I want to know is why Mandoran and Annarion lost contact with the cohort. It’s not the outlands path—they were in contact until the moment the cohort encountered the trap.”
Terrano nodded.
“Well, we didn’t encounter the same trap, but I’ve been cut off in the same way.”
Silence. It was, judging by the contortions of Terrano’s expression, a thinking silence. He closed his eyes. “We need to move,” he finally said.
“Do you even know which way back is?”
“Yes.” The word was resolute. “...But you’re not going to like it.”
“I don’t likeanyof this. Which part in particular is going to bother me?”
“You’re right.”
“That doesn’t bother me.”
“You lost contact with your own people—”
“They’re technically mostly your people, for what it’s worth.”
“—the minute we hit this path. We didn’t enter it quite the normal way,” he added. “So I could be wrong.”
Sedarias appeared to be shouting in frustration, but her voice was inaudible. She was, however, mouthing something at Terrano, the movement of her lips slow and exaggerated. Kaylin caught some of it, but Barrani wasn’t her mother tongue. She turned to Kaylin and made a second attempt at communication; Kaylin missed the first few words because Sedarias had switched languages.
Of course she had. Mandoran spoke Elantran like a native, and Sedarias knew what Mandoran knew—probably including the bits she wished he’d keep to himself.
“Sedarias doesn’t think the Hallionne paths are safe—at all—for the cohort. If Terrano’s right,” she added, almost apologetically.
“Why?” the Dragon demanded.
“She thinks it’s possible that Alsanis was instructed to create the path in a very specific way.”
“Pardon?”
“She thinks Alsanis is partly responsible for what happened.”
“What do you think?” Bellusdeo asked.
Kaylin had no immediate answer. When it did come, it seemed, for a moment, almost unrelated. “The Consort can speak directly to the Hallionne; she can clearly speak to the Hallionne from a distance. When we arrived—in Orbaranne—Orbaranne had been given specific instructions to house and protect my companion.”
“But you didn’t think the Consort knew that the companion would be me.”