“We envy you, even now. We understandwhyyou were—and are—so angry, but if we’re being honest, Kaylin’s anger would make more sense. He did everything in his power to retrieve youbeforetheregalia. And he did everything he could to save you after it. Most of our families just treated us like we were dead. Except for Sedarias’s family—she’s on the opposite end of the spectrum.
“Nightshade clearly never forgot you. You were theonlyfamily he cared about. Who wouldn’t want that?”
Kaylin could think of a few people... but in the end, she wasn’t one of them.
Annarion closed his eyes. “You didn’t know what he was like,” he said, his voice soft. “You didn’t know what he was like to his people.”
She did, but clearly the definition ofhis peoplewas markedly different for Annarion.
“I just don’t understand how he could become what he’s become.”
... or maybe not.
Kaylin could understand it. Maybe that’s why, in the end, her anger at the Erenne mark was missing. She’d been confused, sure. But it was clear that the fieflord was so far above her, even in the mean streets of the fiefs, that anger hadn’t been a possible response.
“Yes, he’s changed. He was a war hero. He is an outcaste.But Barrani outcastes are largely political; there’s every chance in the future that status could change. And if it does, if he can come out of the fiefs in safety, maybe other things will change too.
“You believe that, or you probably wouldn’t be so angry.”
Annarion was silent. “We owe you our lives,” he finally said. “Are youcertainyou’re all right with this?”
She shrugged, a fief shrug. “Nothing can change if he doesn’t recover.” That seemed neutral enough.
It was more than neutral to Annarion. “You’re right. Thanks.” He used the Elantran word.
“Dinner is ready,” Helen said, materializing in the room. “I have noticed no change in Nightshade, but I paid careful attention to your transition from your plane of existence to the problematic one. I do not believe that attackers traveling in that space could successfully breach my barriers.”
Something in the phrasing caused Kaylin to turn in her chair. “Do you think this is the path used by the Barrani who attacked Nightshade?”
“It is an excellent question, but as I am not responsible for that attack, I cannot answer it.”
“I asked what youthink.”
“I think it is a distinct possibility—but you said two war bands were involved. If they traveled through that path, it means someone like Mandoran was involved—or some kind of portal through which normal Barrani could pass has been constructed.”
“Teela’s been investigating,” Annarion said, his gaze still on his brother’s sleeping face. “She’s been searching for sightings of the war band, because Helen’s right. That number of people would be far too hard to miss. Unless they live in the fiefs, traveling through Elantra would have caused a stir. There were no reports of war bands filed with the Hawks’ public desk.”
None of this had immediately occurred to Kaylin. Teela,however, was right. Kaylin, who had done front desk shifts many times, knew that a small army of Barrani would cause panic, and that panic would inflate their numbers—and their statures. There was no road such a band could travel that wouldn’t cause that kind of ripple.
“There are only two ways they could travel. They didn’t travel as a group through the city streets—even I would have heard about that. But they could have traveled in ones and twos across the Ablayne, and met somewhere in the fiefs that wouldn’t draw as much attention—or rather,ourattention. Approaching any fief would—but if they immediately entered the border zone as individuals, the Towers wouldn’t be able to track them.”
“I believe that is Teela’s thinking as well. There were far too many Barrani, armed, armored, and even crested, to have arrived thereasfull bands. But if they arrived over a period of time, they could gather in the border zones. It’s clear from the attack on both Nightshade and Terrano that the border zones are in use.”
They’d always been in use by the extremely desperate. People fled there. Kaylin had done so when she’d fled the fief of Nightshade. What she knew about the border zone was limited; it was not a fixed size, a fixed shape. Buildings—such as the building Bellusdeo had burned down—were both in better repair than their fief analogs, and subject to change.
But she knew that there was power in the border zones, that the Towers were somehow aware of their existence—as if they were buffers to prevent clashes between the captains of different Towers. The Academia had been hidden, and kept in stasis, in the border zone.
What else might reside there?
If the war bands chose to gather there, to live there, it would be fairly simple to supply them with food—and Barrani didn’t need sleep, so bedding and tenting would be far less relevant.Delivering supplies could be done by one person. It could be done by Terrano. He’d complain a lot, but for Terrano—or Mandoran—it wouldn’t be a problem.
But they existed as they were because of theregaliaand their subsequent centuries-long imprisonment within Hallionne Alsanis. Theregaliahad changed them. But even changed, this strange walking of planes wasn’t something that all the cohort did. It was something, if pressed, they could all do—in theory.
What changes could be made, what subtle alterations that would allow a so-called normal Barrani to make the same side steps and walk the same paths?
“I have a headache,” she said, rising.
“As I said, dinner is ready. And you know that lack of food causes both headaches and unnecessary tension. Come eat. Mrs. Erickson means to join you for dinner.”