“Can you understand what he’s saying now?”
Yvonne shook her head. “But An’Teela and An’Tellarus did.” She looked embarrassed and pained. “I’m not knowledgeable enough.”
Hope squawked.
“I think he’s trying to tell you that it’s not about knowledge, and if it makes you feel any better, the Dragons understand him when he chooses to speak at them.”
“To them?”
“At them. Definitely at. Mostly, he sounds like an angry bird to me.”
He definitely swiveled his delicate head and glared. And squawked, proving Kaylin’s point.
“Perhaps you were chosen because you have no innate sense of reverence or respect,” An’Tellarus observed, shaking her head slightly. “I would ask that you not infect poor Yvonne with your attitude—she is struggling to find her moorings in the court as it is. But perhaps the two of you could speak about your familiar and your Marks; I believe An’Teela and I have things to discuss. Severn, you may attend us.”
“She’s always like that,” Yvonne said, when Kaylin’s companions left the room in An’Tellarus’s wake. “But beneath that hard surface, she can be genuinely caring.”
Kaylin was pretty certain she would never be the recipient of that care. “Where did you meet her?”
“She came to the West March when I was living there.” The color of Yvonne’s eyes shifted as she spoke. “She helped my friend—I mean, An’Sennarin. I didn’t have family that survived in the West March, so Ollarin offered me a place to stay here.”
“And you don’t regret it?”
Yvonne chuckled, a rueful sound. “Only when I’m failing to learn whatever it is I’m being taught. Which happens a lot. But An’Tellarus is better with me than she is with An’Sennarin. Hereallygets the sharp edge of her criticism.”
“Has he been An’Sennarin for long?”
Yvonne shook her head. “Not too long, no. He grew up in the West March as well. We were close when we were young—he had no intention of ever coming east to the High Halls.” Yvonne lowered her head, and Hope crooned at her. She lifted her head instantly in surprise, staring at the familiar. “Are you sure?”
Squawk.
Hope and Kaylin were going to have aserioustalk when they got home.
“Ollarin was gentle. He worked in the West March, not as a guard, but as an artist and a gardener. He never wanted to come east. The High Halls aren’t the right place for people who have little obvious power in the West March. People like me.”
“But you’re here.”
“Hope says it’s safe for me to tell you this.” She glanced at the familiar still standing on her arm, and Hope nodded. “An’Tellarus would be very, very angry.”
Squawk.
“She really isn’t as terrifying as she looks.”
Squawk.
“Yes, I know. Even if she thought of me as a possible enemy, she’d never expect I would be a credible threat. And she’s right.”
Squawk.
“Please,pleasedon’t tell her I said that!”
“Hope.”
Squawk.
“If it were my choice, we would never have come here at all.” Kaylin frowned at Hope.
“Why did you come?”