She nodded.
“And you’ve no desire to confirm it.”
“An’Sennarin is not wrong. It will damage us, and we have not yet recovered from Timorri’s discovery. We will be better prepared,” she added. “The information won’t come as a surprise. I would be the one sent to deal with the interview of the remaining survivor.”
“If we release him, will he survive?”
She was silent.
“Adellos could stop him.”
“He won’t. He might argue, but he will not stop him.”
“Because he doesn’t disagree?”
“Because he doesn’t disagree. We are perhaps at our worst when we make decisions on behalf of others. The desire to protect others can drive us to places we would never otherwise dare to walk.” She held his gaze.
It was Severn who looked away.
“I could not have done what you did to preserve Elianne’s life. Adellos could. And for the same reasons. But—I think I could have done it had Tessa been alive and by doing so I might save her.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t believe it?”
“I do,” he whispered. “But I was Tessa, too, for a while. I think the guilt would have destroyed her had she ever understood the why.”
“And Elianne?”
“I don’t know.”
Ybelline nodded. She then turned a corner and walked into a much more lavishly furnished room. The shouting that had filled the hall before her arrival dropped instantly into a frosty silence. Or perhaps a heated one. Both pairs of Barrani eyes were a marked, dark blue.
“Thank you,” Ybelline said, in almost flawless Barrani, “for your escort. I would avail myself of that escort again.”
“You are finished here?”
She nodded.
“And you see no reason to return?”
“No. Everything we desired to know, we now know.”
An’Tellarus’s eyes had lightened, although the predominant color remained blue. Elluvian’s, however, darkened. “What will you do with the boy?” Glancing at Severn, she added, “An’Sennarin.”
“He is An’Sennarin. The decision is not mine to make.”
An’Tellarus smiled almost fondly as she met Ybelline’s gaze. “And will you leave the decision in the hands of those who can?”
“Yes.”
“In my experience, that is not always the most practical way of getting things done.”
Ybelline smiled. “No. But I will never have the breadth and depth of your experience. Nor will that be expected of me. My kin and yours almost never interact.”
“And you now understand why.”
“I am Tha’alanari,” Ybelline replied. “I have always understood why.”