“I’m not happy with it, either. Teela, on the other hand, isblistering. You should hear her.”
“I’ve only seen her angry a few times—genuinely angry, not irritated. And I kind of like to avoid the hells out of her when she’s raging.”
“If it makes you feel better,” Allaron said, “Teela’s at least impressed thatyouweren’t stupid enough to go out to take a look at the war band.”
“Tell her thanks.”
“She would have been annoyed had you gone. But...she kind of expects better of Sedarias.”
Sedarias, however, was clearly angry at herself. Kaylin wondered if Sedarias was an anger-pointing-inward person or an anger-pointing-outward one. If the latter, she was going to be worse than a raging bear. And Barrani had long memories. On most days, Kaylin envied that, because her memory was a honed, mortal one. On days like today, however, she was grateful for the lack.
“Alsanis says—”
“It’s time to leave, yes.” Sedarias rose. Her arm had been bandaged by one of the cohort; Kaylin expected the work to be sloppy. It wasn’t.
“Teela told us what to do,” Serralyn said, by way of explanation. She glanced at Terrano. “We’re heading to Kariastos.”
“Shouldn’t we stop at Orbaranne?” Kaylin asked.
They all stared at her.
It was Terrano, not connected to the cohort, who said, “Orbaranne does everything within the scope and limits of her power to aid the Lord of the West March.”
“I highly doubt the Lord of the West March is involved with the war band.”
“So do they.” They. The rest of the cohort. “But doubting isn’t the same as certainty. And Alsanis was breached here, in the heart of his domain. They don’t want to take the risk.”
Put that way, it was the smart choice. Kaylin nodded and glanced at Bellusdeo, who also nodded.
“Here,” Terrano added. He handed Spike to Kaylin.
“You didn’t need to carry him. He seems to be mobile on his own.”
Terrano shrugged. “I didn’t want to lose him. And I’m certain we would have. They have at least one Arcanist in the war band.”
“Arcanist?”
“War bands have Arcanists, given what they were composed to fight.”
“And you know they have one because?”
Sedarias said, “Are we talking or leaving?” Clearly, this was not a matter she wished discussed in front of a Dragon.
This irritated Kaylin, but it didn’t seem to irritate Bellusdeo, who nodded in what almost seemed like approval.
* * *
“Are youcertainyou have control of at least this part of the path?” Kaylin asked Alsanis, for perhaps the thirtieth time. Hallionne, or at least the Hallionne Alsanis, did not seem to be troubled by either the repetition or the worry.
“I did not lose control of the path the first time,” he said. He’d only said this about fifteen times. “The path I created did exist; your friends could not find it. They stepped onto a layer that had been constructed deliberately over top of it, and it swept them away.
“And the Barrani who constructed that layer did so from within you.”
This was the only point that seemed to trouble the cohort.
“Sedarias has some idea of how it was done,” Alsanis said.
“Terrano should bloody well know.”