“She could not hide them from Adellos.”
“He says you are almost wrong. She was strong enough; she lacked experience.”
“She was desperate.”
An’Sennarin bowed his head in acknowledgment. “Tessa discovered that parts of those memories were no longer available in the Tha’alaan. Adellos started this work before she died. Before any of your people were killed. He understood what Random had given Tessa unintentionally. And he understood why that would be feared amongmykin.
“I’d been open with Tessa. I did not fear her.” He closed his eyes, but continued to speak. “We were both too young. We were both naive. When the castelord found our memories, he understood the lengths to which my kin would go, because he was neither young nor naive.
“The first time he used my True Name, he was angry. He demanded to know what part I had to play in Tessa’s death. And Ybelline—I had no choice but to answer. He could have killed me on that day. He did consider it.”
She was pale now, almost colorless; her eyes were green when she opened them. “He clearly did not act.”
“No—because he knew. I could not lie to him.” An’Sennarin opened his eyes. They were blue to Ybelline’s green.
“He told you about their deaths.”
An’Sennarin nodded, his expression grim, his eyes affixed to hers. “He told me aboutallof the deaths. I confronted An’Sennarin—carefully. It was the first time he approved of my demeanor at court. He was—” Words dropped away. The Barrani had a memory that was akin to Records, and he was in the grip of those memories now. “He was almost smug. Condescending. He told me—he told me—”
She caught the hand that held hers with her free hand, sandwiching his between the two. “You do not have to do this.”
He shook his head. “I have been waiting for this day for decades. Because I visited Random. I will do this thing, and it will be done.
“An’Sennarin—my predecessor—told me that he had done this deliberately to distract the Tha’alani from the truth he suspected they held; he had done it to be certain that I would be free of their interference. I wasin his debt. I would have tried to kill him in that moment, but Adellos took control.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ybelline blanched but said nothing.
Severn watched them both.
“Adellos took control of my body, of my hands, of my words. Adellos offered my lord the gratitude that I could not even pretend. Adellos asked if, now that I was safe, the deaths were over, the association with the Tha’alani at an end. Five Tha’alani had died by this time. You must know what the answer was.”
There had been more than a dozen deaths. They did know.
“An’Sennarin was angry. Angry and afraid. He didn’t know what the Tha’alani knew—only that they knew more than he could confirm. But he understood how to damage them. I think he would not have stopped until he was caught by the Emperor, or until the Tha’alani were broken. Destroyed. He knew that the Tha’alanari were injured, that they had withdrawn from most Imperial duties at the time.”
“How?”
“I do not know. Had I asked, he would not have answered.”
She frowned, but nodded.
“Adellos released me when I made my way back to my rooms, but he hovered. He thought I was observed, and the observation must return nothing that indicated my displeasure. I suspected An’Sennarin knew it; Adellos agreed. But any reaction that moved this from suspicion to confirmation was certain to be a far greater disaster for his people. For Tessa’s people.
“She was never a threat to us.”
“Adellos was.” Ybelline kept her voice even.
“Adellos did not even attempt to use Tessa’s experiences and memories until after the mob-fueled murders began. If he was a threat to us—to me—it was defensive; an act of desperation to save his kin. But he understood what Tessa understood: I had never desired to damage the Tha’alaan. I had never desired to own it, to use it. What I wanted—” He exhaled.
She kept her hands around his.
“We talked. When he found out how I had discovered Tessa the first time we met, he was—shocked? Appalled? But he understood that the elemental water had taken an interest in me. A personal interest. It is the same interest the water has in the Tha’alani. It is the interest the water takes in the castelords of your race.”
Ybelline nodded again.
“He thought it likely that even without Random, the water would have brought me into contact with her people—your people. In that case, I wouldn’t have been able to speak to Tessa except with words. I would have tried. He thought it likely that An’Sennarin would have murdered Tessa just to be certain.