“They’re not—” Kaylin stopped too. “Helen, have they approached your core?”
“Not yet.”
“Are they trying?”
Yes, Severn said, answering Kaylin’s question.That’s Teela’s guess.
Why can’t Helen just kill them or send them to prison? That’s what she usually does with intruders.
I believe she tried. If they’ve left the path they created to get here, they’re still attached to it—and Helen is having difficulty because of that. The cohort aren’t.
Are you fighting beside the cohort?
Yes. Mandoran decided I would be helpful there.
Come back—it’s not safe for you to be there. You don’t have the Marks, and Mandoran usually keeps people like us anchored by being in physical contact with them.
Severn didn’t reply immediately; it was the hesitance of thought.I believe the edges of their portal or their path anchor themin a way Helen finds it difficult to break—she says it’s not what the cohort does. Invaders who walk existing planes are easily seen and accommodated.
“Helen—I’m sorry, I know you’re busy. I just need you to ask Terrano or Mandoran if we can cause that path to collapse.” She opened the door and headed into the hall.
30
There were intruders in the foyer; they were armed and armored, and Barrani to a man. Or woman. Nightshade was in the foyer; An’Tellarus was beside him. She wielded a sword that seemed more slender than the usual Barrani long sword, and she moved like a localized storm. There was blood on her dress. Kaylin guessed it wasn’t hers.
What she couldn’t see was Helen’s Avatar. Helen had surrendered the fray to the two who fought it here. To Nightshade, armed with one of The Three, and An’Tellarus. Kaylin knew nothing about An’Tellarus, but the way she carried herself implied a history of violence and war.
Hope lifted a wing and smacked it across her face.Squawk.
He was right. Now was not the time. But she wasn’t armed with anything but daggers, and she knew she couldn’t stand for long against this many Barrani assailants. Nightshade was attacking so quickly she could barely track his movements; the reach of his sword was greater than An’Tellarus’s. She wasn’t letting that slow her down.
They fought at the foot of the foyer stairs; the chandelier above them created diamonds and sharp flashes of light as it bounced off armor and blade flat.
This wasn’t where she needed to be. She moved down thestairs, taking them two at a time; she used the banister and momentum to leap in a circle that sent her down the hall leading to the kitchen. She felt Severn’s worry, but ignored it as she sprinted, skirts flying, toward the door that led into the basement, for want of a better word.
Hurry, Nightshade said, in contrast.
The rooms Helen brought into being beyond this door were rooms meant to contain the cohort when they practiced. What they practiced looked, to someone who didn’t understand what they had become, a lot like disintegration. Kaylin had once walked into a room in which it looked like an insane interior decorator had thrown different colors of paint against the walls in a rage. That paint was the cohort in conflict.
She didn’t expect that now. Helen’s training room was her most secure room—it had to be. Not because she needed to protect the occupants from intruders, but because she needed to protect them from themselves. She was aware of them, no matter where or how they moved through the house, and she was fond of them.
Even the prickly Sedarias. Sedarias wasn’t in the foyer; she wasn’t immediately visible. But Kaylin could hear swords and shouts. Those shouts were likely meant for Severn, the only person fighting alongside who wasn’t part of the cohort; he wouldn’t hear what they said to each other.
What she didn’t understand immediately waswhyshe could hear them.
“They are attempting to stand to one side of the path that’s been constructed. It is dangerous, for the cohort, to stand and fight on it.”
“Because Terrano was injured there?”
“No. He could have been injured onthisplane in a similar fashion to Nightshade. But he was anchored by the injury—hedidn’t choose to return. He knew that something was wrong—beyond the bleeding.”
Kaylin looked at her hand. To her surprise, she could see the orb that had vanished when Mandoran had taken her to where Terrano stood, bleeding, and then brought her back. “Helen—can you still hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see me?”
“Yes.”