It’s not a fiction, Severn said, internal voice soft.If you demand otherwise, Helen will accept it. But she knows youpretty well. She chose you because of who you are. Helen is never empty; she’s never lonely.
Logia rose, offered Helen a bow, and opened the parlor doors.
Sedarias and Teela were waiting on the other side. Kaylin could see the Dragon’s back, but not her face. She could see Sedarias’s, though—full midnight eyes and pale skin. Teela looked less uncomfortable, but Teela had never had problems with Dragons.
Sedarias and Teela entered. Logia took up a position by the wall nearest the door. She didn’t intend to join whatever discussion ensued—but she clearly wanted to hear it.
Kaylin wanted to go to bed and stay there for the rest of the week. If she couldn’t sleep this early in the day, she’d settle for hiding under it.
The chairs around the parlor table expanded in number as Sedarias took a seat; Teela joined her. Fallessian returned as well. Terrano looked about as comfortable as Kaylin felt; Mandoran looked resigned. She waited for the rest of the in-house cohort to join them, but no one else did. Annarion was with Nightshade and wouldn’t leave his side.
“Torrisant is keeping Annarion company, but I assure you all of the cohort are listening in,” Helen informed her.
“So,” Sedarias said. “You had questions for me.” It wasn’t where Kaylin had thought she would start. “You asked them of Terrano, but you know how feckless he is. You know him well enough to doubt that his plan of attack—ourplan of attack—was his. He doesn’t take commands well, and if you don’t watch him like a hawk, he’s easily distracted.” Meaning she’d watched him every step of the way.
“Were the plans yours?” Kaylin asked, reaching for one of Mrs. Erickson’s glazed buns. They had raisins, which Kaylin didn’t care for, but she was hungry.
“They were ours,” Sedarias replied. “But Terrano probably doesn’t remember half of them.”
“He’s Barrani! He has perfect memory!”
Teela chuckled, a dry sound at odds with the color of her eyes. “We have perfect recall, yes—but even we are required to pay attention.”
Teela rose and set something down on the table around which they were all seated. “This is an insignia taken from the corpse of one of Nightshade’s attackers.”
It looked like a Barrani family crest, writ exquisitely—and expensively—small.
Sedarias glanced at Kaylin. “I don’t suppose you recognize it?” To Kaylin’s surprise, she spoke in Elantran.
Kaylin didn’t. Severn did.It’s the symbol worn by the Haverness guard.
Am I allowed to say that?
Up to you. There’s an advantage to being thought of as ignorant, but there is no advantage inbeingignorant.
She settled, as she often did, for truth. “Severn says it’s the symbol of the Haverness guard. I assume Haverness is a Barrani family?”
“Not exactly,” Teela replied.
“Not exactly?”
“You are aware that there are, and have always been, political alliances among the Lords of the High Court. Some of those extend to the West. Haverness is a league of guards; they were active—and respected—during the Draco-Barrani wars and rose to prominence because of it. It was highly unusual to have a military force unattached to a familial line, but it was meant—we were told—to be a display of solidarity. Haverness takes no family name, no matter how powerful that family might be.
“In times of war, they serve the Barrani people.” The words were spoken in the bitterest of tones. “They were not meant to be a political force, but Barrani will be Barrani when they are adjacent to implements of power.”
“Who commands them?”
“In theory? The High Lord.”
“In theory?”
“The Haverness guards are supplied, armed, armored, and housed by the Lords of the High Court. During the wars, lords vied for the right to send their people to the Haverness guard. The wars are over. It is considered less prestigious now, and will likely not rise to prominence again, except in the face of another war against an external enemy.
“It is the Haverness guard that would stand against Shadow should the Tower’s protections fall. We do not labor under the illusion that they would stand for long.”
Kaylin looked at the emblem on the table. “So what you’re telling me is anyone could have sent the guard.”
“Am I?”