She’s living with me.
Yes. And while she is resident within Helen’s domain, you will come to no harm. But Helen herself was not certain that she could contain the cohort should they decide to cause harm to either her or you. They are not what we are.
Do you think she means harm?
Almost certainly. But not to Helen, not to you, and not to Annarion.The last was his only real concern.
“And does she believe—she who was only barely able to take the Test of Name—that she might have something of value to offer a man in pursuit of that legitimacy?” There was a distinct edge in the words; the eyes were the color of suspicion, one barely touched by hope.
Mandoran’s smile was pleasant and chilly. Kaylin found it enormously unsettling, because it was Sedarias’s smile on the wrong face. “Have you seen the High Halls since the Test was taken?”
“I have seen them, as you must be aware, at a distance.”
“That occurred, not coincidentally, after we had taken the Test and confronted what lies beneath. You have seen it yourself; you were once Lord of the High Court.”
Silence, then. Sharp, cold; the colors of Candallar’s eyes shifted in the ice of his face. He spoke a word that Kaylin did not understand.
“We do not know what aid was promised, what power offered; nor do we know what you offered in return for possible future favor. But we will ask you to consider your future—and your future alliances—with care. You have allies of a sort in the High Court; we are aware of a few. You will, of course, ascertain the truth of our words from those sources. But should you choose to ally yourself more wisely in future, there are discussions that must be had.”
“You will not find reinstatement a simple affair,” Candallar then said. “We are all aware that your happy return is a polite fiction, and etiquette hides many things.”
Terrano was becoming impatient. Kaylin dropped a hand on his shoulder; he stiffened, but didn’t move away.
“You are here because you believe I have an advantage to offer in what is likely to be a war fought on many, many fronts.”
“No, actually,” Kaylin said before Mandoran—or Sedarias, using Mandoran as a conduit—could reply. “They’re here because we were asked to speak with you. As Imperial Hawks.”
Both of his brows rose at the Elantran interruption; the rest of the words had been delivered in formal High Barrani. “You do not have jurisdiction in the fiefs.”
“No.” Kaylin folded her arms.
“Imperial Law,” Bellusdeo said in the same Elantran, “doesn’t rule the fiefs. None of those laws need be enforced.”
Damn it.
Kaylin turned at the sound of tearing seams. Bellusdeo, standing in the streets of Candallar, which were now empty of anyone who wasn’t a participant in this conversation, began to shift into her Draconic form.
In a much deeper voice, the Dragon continued. “Laws of exemption mean nothing in the fiefs. You have laws, yes?” The ground beneath their feet seemed to tremble in time with her syllables.
Candallar’s expression did not shift. “You will not get far in the old Court with a Dragon as a...companion.” He spoke to Mandoran.
Bellusdeo roared.
Kaylin considered the ignore-the-Dragon option to be a brave social choice.
“You stand accused,” the Dragon continued, “of aiding and abetting those who seek to consort with Shadow. The only court you face now is a court of your peers. And to the High Court—as it is currently constituted—that is treason.”
A brave social choice on Kaylin’s part would have been to correct Bellusdeo. She was clearly a coward in comparison to the fieflord.
If she ate him, Ynpharion said,it would solve a number of problems for the High Court.
We want information. We want to know who his contacts were.
Some information is, we believe, forthcoming. The Barrani Lord Spike identified is not currently at Court or within reach; he evaded us. It is possible that he is to be found in Candallar. The Halls of Law have no concern—and no jurisdiction—over the High Court in matters that involve only the Barrani.
We want to know who hishumancontacts were. The people who might know among us didn’t consider them all that relevant at the time. And those arenotthe province of Barrani High Court bloody laws of exemption.
As you say. But if the Dragon torches the fief, the Tower will react.