“The entirety of the Elantran Barrani population should bloody well be concerned. I washopingthe Consort was speaking through a mirror or something similar. She can talk to the Hallionne from Elantra, and Iassumedit was via mirrors.”
“The mirror connections beyond your borders are nowhere near as complete as they are within your city. The Hallionne of old are very like your Helen; they distrust the networks required to maintain the connections.”
“They’re easier to maintain than a portal that passes from the High Halls to—here.” She grimaced and closed her eyes. “Ummm, I need to concentrate on something other than fear or terror. Just—what in the hellsisthat purple garbage?”
“Teela says you’ve been taking lessons in applied and practical magic.”
“Not in the last month or two.” Ugh.
“She says it is, in her opinion, very like the fires that mages can master and use as weapons.”
“Elemental?”
“Now she’s annoyed. No, she says, like the fire itself.”
“The fireIsummoniselemental.”
“She says, ‘Fine, it’s nothing like the fire that you summon, and more like the fire anyone else would.’ But this fire does not, in her opinion as a former Arcanist, draw just from fire, but also from Shadow. She adds that you are now examining the possible fallout of such a summoning more completely than most of the Imperial Mages could, at least with regard to the effect on a living body.” In the distance, one of the cohort burst out laughing. Kaylin grimaced; she could imagine exactly why.
“It’s not you,” Sedarias said, correctly divining the reason for the grimace. “She just made an observation about Terrano. And Mandoran. Mandoran did not approve.”
“Terrano probably wouldn’t, either.” Terrano sounded waspish. “If you’re all just going to talk about me behind my back, I’m leaving.”
Sedarias frowned. “You arenotleaving while you are injured.” And to Kaylin, in more concerned Elantran, she said, “Teela’s afraid that this will harm you in some fashion.” There was a question in the statement.
Kaylin snorted. “Tell Teela that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
“I’m uncertain that she understands.”
“If I’m not allowed to worry about her, she’s not allowed to worry about me.”
“If it’s acceptable to you, I will refrain from repeating her response.”
Terrano snickered.
“It’s fine. Annarion doesn’t repeat much, either. Now—let me try to fix this. I’d personally rather not have Terrano become a mindless minion of Shadow.”
“We are not mindless,” Spike offered.
Kaylin shrieked in frustration, and Bellusdeo came over. She, like Terrano, looked like she’d been in a battle, and not necessarily on the winning side, especially her hair, which was decidedly ragged and singed. Normal fires, even elemental ones, were seldom much of a danger to Dragons.
“I’m fine,” the gold Dragon said, in a tone that implied that it would be in Kaylin’s best interests to accept the words at face value. Since she was standing beside Kaylin, and the Emperor—who wouldnotbe happy accepting those words at face value—was hundreds of miles away, Kaylin decided to be smart.
“What are youdoing?” Terrano shouted.
Since Kaylin hadn’t been doing anything other than examining the very unusual injuries, she said nothing.
“I mean it!”
“There’s something in the wounds you took. It’s not like whatever it was the Ferals did to the Barrani—but I think itwouldbe, if you were actually physically completely Barrani. I amtryingto remove it before it does whatever it’s trying to do.” But...she hadn’t. She hadn’t started. The last time she’d done this, she’d had to cut out the bad parts to stop the taint from spreading. And cutting out the bad parts meant cutting out the good parts they were attached to.
On the other hand, Terrano didn’t seem to hate the idea of healers on principle the way the rest of the Barrani did, which was good because as Kaylin continued the contact with an increasingly reluctant Terrano, two things happened. First, behind the lids of her closed eyes, she could see the marks on her arm begin to shift color. Gray was more subtle than the gold they became.
And second: the infection began to retreat. She realized then that it, like whatever it was that had seeped into Alsanis, poisoning him, was being pulled out. It was being wound around her own palm, her left palm, even if she wasn’t moving that hand at all. Terrano didn’t suffer pain gladly, and the withdrawal obviously hurt. She wondered, gritting her teeth, if Alsanis had felt a similar pain.
“No, Lord Kaylin.” It was Alsanis. Or his voice. Kaylin was surprised at the sting of relief she felt, but kept her thoughts focused on Terrano.
“I believe he feels that it alleviates some of the pain when he curses,” the Hallionne added.