“Tell me,” he told the Lord of Wolves. “Ybelline may correct you if you leave out something she considers of relevance.”
Ybelline raised a honey-brown brow at the flat statement, but she nodded.
Helmat then spoke of what he had seen and experienced.
Silence followed. Elluvian considered the information Helmat conveyed—hesitantly at first, and then with greater determination as he continued.
“What are you thinking?”
“May I question the interrogator?” Elluvian knew the word annoyed Helmat.
“Please do.”
Elluvian then turned to face Ybelline. “Does Severn regret what he did?”
“Yes.”
“Would he do it again?”
She hesitated before offering an answer that was far less definitive. “...Yes. Do you understand what these nameless enemies were trying to achieve?”
Technically, Elluvian was not required to answer Ybelline’s questions. He had never been an officer to stand on technicalities unless he wished to annoy. “I understand as much as the fieflord did. They failed—but how or why is not entirely clear. Did the girl flee Nightshade?”
“Yes.”
“And arrived here.”
Ybelline said, “It is not relevant.”
“Surely, that is not up to you to decide.”
“It is entirely up to me, as you are well aware. What the Wolves require, I have given. If the Wolves require more, they may contact Imperial Intelligence.” Which she knew wouldn’t happen. Elluvian considered doing so out of simple spite; he would, however, have to convince Helmat it was necessary. To Helmat, she said, “I have a request.”
“And that?”
“It’s entirely unofficial.”
He loosened his hands, gesturing impatiently with the right.
“When—and if—you send him to hunt, I wish to be the agent recalled to examine him after the fact.”
“To spare your people?”
“No. His pain would be damaging to my kin, but it will not be damaging in the same way to the Tha’alanari.” She grimaced. “Garadin will ask that you not honor my request.”
“And you’ve told him this,” Elluvian said, “because his minor desire to spite Garadin might tip the scales in your favor?”
She smiled, then. It was rueful. “We are not all of one mind, although we are connected.”
“If you would be so good as to wake our new recruit, I will consider your request with far more favor.”
Severn did not wake quickly. In the interstices between sleep and full mental acuity, Helmat asked Rosen to have food sent up from the mess hall. He wasn’t entirely certain the youth would eat, and left the babysitting, such as it was, to Rosen, who didn’t appreciate it. She did, however, obey. “He could use some weight. You said he was eighteen?”
“I believe he said he was eighteen.”
She shook her head. “I’ll feed him.”
“Do not force-feed him.”