“And how,” Kaylin replied. “I hear we’ve been keeping you pretty busy as well.”
“Much of the research has been done by Arbiter Androsse.”
Ugh. Androsse was the Arbiter Kaylin least liked. He was arrogant, dismissive, and self-important in a way that had always set her teeth on edge. She was respectful because he was powerful, and the library was his domain. Or rather, a third of it.
Androsse and Kavallac didn’t get along all that well; it was the Wevaran who played peacemaker. Or maybe Starrante genuinely respected both the Barrani Ancestor and the Dragon. They had all been chosen as Arbiters by the Ancients who had created the bubble in which the library existed, safe from invasion and destruction.
“Serralyn has been in communication with us,” Starrante continued. Androsse and Kavallac appeared to be absent—but Kaylin had no doubt they’d show up.
“I believe you asked her a few questions. Understand that inquiries made of the library are personal in nature; unless and until they become a threat to the library itself, they will not be discussed or divulged without permission of the supplicant.”
“Supplicant?”
“The person who’s asking,” Terrano murmured. He clearly didn’t like the word, either.
“That said, the presence of Barrani in the border zones, where they seem to be building a very clear line of escape toRavellon, is of grave concern. Your subsequent questions—about healing magic and the Erenne mark—would not normally be bumped to the head of the queue, but Serralyn was persuasive.
“She felt you would not have asked those questions—whichare interesting in their own right—if you did not feel they were at least peripherally connected. Arbiter Androsse will have questions to ask, to better focus the results of his library search.”
“He didn’t care about the Erenne mark, did he?”
Starrante exhaled. “He did not careforit, no. But he considered the arguments made in defense of the question, and he agreed to expand his search to include something he considers trivial.” Before Kaylin could speak, he lifted one arm. She waited. “Things that seem trivial to Arbiter Androsse can destroy whole families. What is trivial to us is not trivial to you. The word is not meant as a judgment—but given the situation, it is not entirely unreasonable to feel it might be irrelevant.
“Why did you ask for these two searches?”
“I got involved through Lord Nightshade. Most Immortals can’t stand to be healed. They’d literally sooner die. But he was unconscious, and I thought I’d be really careful and just... heal him enough that he could wake up.”
Starrante nodded.
“That didn’t work, though. I couldn’t touch him at all. No, I mean, I could touch him—but not with the power of the Marks of the Chosen. My healing powers only came to me when the Marks did, and they were theonlygood thing about having the Marks. But the power didn’t reach him at all. It’s as if something was in between us, something that protected—or rejected—the power of the Marks.”
Starrante’s eyes rose—well, some of them. Most remained nestled across his body.
Kaylin had taken time to become comfortable enough that the similarities to smaller arachnids didn’t cause an obvious flinch. “You know about namebonds.”
One of Starrante’s raised eyes narrowed. “Yes. The elder races were less cautious because our names, if perceived, could not be spoken in such a fashion. Arbiter Androsse might choose to reveal his, but long before you could begin to speak the firstsyllable, you would be dead, if he so chose. Your attempt to begin would merely invite him to dominate you—the bond has always worked both ways. It is a bridge of will and intent.
“But Serralyn said that you could not reach Lord Nightshade through the bond you share.”
The bond that Kaylin wasn’t ever supposed to speak about. She glanced at Serralyn. Serralyn grinned. “I couldn’t.”
“But you could reach him—or he you—in some fashion through the Erenne mark?”
Kaylin nodded. “It wasn’t in words. It wasn’t in actual speech. I knew something was wrong—probably because he knew it. But... it made the skin under the mark bleed.”
“The reason Arbiter Androsse considers the question about the Erenne mark trivial is its relationship to the political games the Barrani have always played. It is considered in some quarters a slave mark.”
Kaylin knew this. She nodded.
“It is a mark that denotes ownership. ButErennewas not always a term that denoted that; it denoted a differential in political power. It has been translated—somehow superficially—asconsortby those who are not Barrani. But some of the earliest extant Barrani literature also makes this so-called mistake. Mortals believe that Immortal memory, Immortal knowledge, is an edifice that cannot be toppled.
“We have perfect memory. What we have seen once, we can recall; it is something that very, very few of your kind can achieve. But wars have destroyed ancient cities; knowledge that was known perfectly has died with the people who knew it.
“In the early days of the Barrani, when they were an infant race, standing in the shadows cast by Arbiter Androsse’s people, it was a connection between the Barrani and their Ancestors. What Lord Nightshade gifted you—the secret of his name—could not in like fashion be gifted the Barrani, who were precious to the Arbiter’s people. Barrani power was notequal to the acceptance of such a gift; the act of the attempt could destroy the Barrani involved, hollowing them out; they had one word, their True Name. Arbiter Androsse has said that the Barrani have words, and we have sentences.
“That is a simple analogy, and it is somewhat true.”
“Somewhat?”