“Yes. But I’m also an officer of the Halls of Law, so I’m out of the house, and its protections, a lot.”
“And you have him.” She raised her arm to indicate Hope.
Hope made a happy noise that sounded nothing like the squawks he shared with Kaylin, and then he pushed himself off the perch of Yvonne’s arm and came to rest, once again, on Kaylin’s shoulder, where he flopped into his usual shawl position.
Yvonne laughed, a bright, brief sound.
Hope lifted his head and snorted.
Kaylin watched Hope and Yvonne. Her reaction to the familiar made her seem—for a moment—younger than Kaylin had ever felt.
“If you want to meet Helen, I think she’d really like you,” Kaylin told Yvonne.
“I think I’d like that. Right now I almost never leave the High Halls, and I think—if Severn could come to escort me, Ollarin would consider a visit safe.” But she hesitated, and then added, “An’Tellarus and Ollarin don’t always agree on what’s safe.”
“You mentioned that if you could visit, she’s likely to come with you.”
Yvonne nodded, fully aware that An’Tellarus was the concern.
“I probably won’t send an official invitation—I think that might attract too much attention.”
“If your Barrani friends deliver an invitation, that’ll attract attention, too.”
“Not the one I’m thinking about. Do you stay in An’Tellarus’s quarters?”
“Officially? No. I stay with Ollarin. It might be safer to send a message to Ollarin—but messages are more likely to be intercepted there.”
“We’ll work it out.” She’d been considering Terrano as a go-between, but she didn’t trust An’Tellarus enough that she considered that safe. But shedidtrust Teela enough. Teela could deliver a message in person. Teela wasn’t above the Mellarionne fray, but she wasn’t as vulnerable as any of the rest of the cohort might be.
“I’m ready,” Kaylin told Abel.
“Please follow me.”
Severn didn’t make it in time to join her.I could, he told her.But while the substance of conversation appears to be concluded, the jostling for position has just started. If I leave, An’Tellarus will be mildly offended.
She didn’t strike me as a person who can be mild when offended.
“Lord Severn will join you before you exit the High Halls,” the Avatar said. “He is correct; any hasty movement on his part will be interpreted poorly; both An’Teela and An’Tellarus might take offense.”
Terrano fell silent. Kaylin poked Hope, and Hope grudgingly sat up, smacking her face—audibly—with his wing, as if her unspoken demand was grossly unreasonable.
But with the wing over her eyes, she could see Terrano clearly. To her surprise, his eyes were a deep, dark blue—much darker than his norm. Maybe the High Halls were just as uncomfortable for Terrano as they were for Kaylin. But he came, regardless.
Terrano wasn’t the problem.
Yvonne’s existence was a threat to the Consort. But she was certain the two women would actuallylikeeach other, if they met. The Consort considered her duties of paramount import within the court: she was the custodian of the Lake. She was the mother of her people.
Her tolerance of, her support for, Kaylin was offered in part because Kaylin couldalsoperform the duties of Lady. Even had she despised Kaylin, she would have forced herself to tolerate and accept her because the Lake was so important. She wouldn’t consider Yvonne a threat if the Lake accepted her.
But the two women didn’t exist in isolation.
Someone considered Yvonne a possible genuine candidate—and that allowed them to attack the Consort in a subtle, but terrible, way. An’Tellarus? But An’Tellarus was reputed to be largely neutral. If you didn’t step on her toes, she allowed you to continue breathing.
It couldn’t be the cohort. It couldn’t be Sedarias. But Sedarias’s fight wasn’t the only fight unfolding in the High Halls; no doubt there were battles being raged that began long before Kaylin’s birth and would continue long after her death.
Ugh. Abel was right: she had to approach this investigation the normal way. Maybe being Chosen, being surrounded by the cohort with their easy communication, had rusted the skills she’d worked so hard to develop.
What she wanted from the Consort—what she’d failed to get—waswhyNightshade. Why Nightshade at this specific time? The Halls of Law didn’t keep Records about Barrani-on-Barrani crime; there was no way for Kaylin to look up that information. The Consort said he’d always been a target. But... had he been a target worth at least two full war bands?