Severn was looking at the other two Barrani; they were dressed oddly, as well. “Did any of these statues speak to you when you made them?”
“Ollarin did. And the castelord. The three haven’t, yet, but Barrani don’t like to talk much, so it might take a while.” As if the figures were alive and reticent, not things of stone.
“I don’t think Master Sabrai will allow you to give these to us,” Ybelline said.
“Why not?”
The Tha’alani and the Wolf shared a glance, but didn’t fill it with words.
“There are too many secrets,” Random continued, brooding. “I think it would be better for all of us if we had none. Like you.”
“I have secrets.”
“Not because you’re afraid the truth will be known.”
“But Random, I am.”
“It’s not the same fear as his,” Random replied, a frown creasing most of her expression.His, Severn thought, was Ollarin, Elluvian, or the two Barrani he did not recognize.
“It’s still fear.”
“I like your fear better.”
Ybelline’s smile deepened, and for a moment her eyes were the color of pale honey.
Severn inhaled, exhaled, and began.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The question he had come to ask had been answered beforehis arrival: Random remembered the pilgrimage of the high-spirited Tha’alani children. She remembered them clearly.
“When Tessa, Jerrin, and Tobi came to visit you, you were expecting them.”
“I was expectingsomething. I wasn’t expecting them. No one here could have expected that.”
“But you refused to eat for two days so Master Sabrai would allow them entry.”
Her smile was an echo of her younger self’s gleeful pride. She nodded.
“Did they ask you any questions?”
“They didn’t have permission to ask questions.”
“No. They didn’t understand the rules that govern the Oracular Halls. They didn’t understand how Oracles work.”
“Not when they first arrived.”
“And when they left?”
Her glance slid away from his face. “They understood.” She looked down at their joined hands; hers were trembling. When she lifted her face, it was to Ybelline she looked.
“You were not responsible for their deaths,” the future castelord said, no doubt at all in her tone.
“I couldn’t save them.”
“You were trapped in these halls. We weren’t—they wereour kinand we didn’t save them either.”
“You didn’t know.”