Yes. But again, I do not interfere with the cohort in that fashion. I interfereon occasionon your behalf. You are not entirely guarded, and I believe there is some information that you have deliberately chosen not to divulge. I merely maintain some privacy of thought while you are within my boundaries. Teela is capable of doing so on her own.
I notice you havent mentioned Mandoran or Annarion.
There was a small pause. They are not, as you imagine, terribly private in their communications with their cohort. I dont think theyre capable of it, but it is not necessary. For all intents and purposes, all of the cohort except Teela are like a much smaller Thaalaan.
The Thaalaan was not small. It was a living repository of the thoughts of an entire race, dating backif dating was the right wordto its creation.
So...the cohort sent one message and theyre gone?
Yes.
Are they still alive?
Mandoran was looking slightly stretched. Annarion, however, was looking entirely like his usual self.
Again, it was Teela who answered. Yes. If Nightshade died, you would know. We know they are still alive. But thats all we know. She let the silence stretch again before she said, Ive lived most of my life without contact with my cohort.
But...you knew they were alive.
I knew they were not dead. But I knew, as well, that they were beyond my reach. I could not hear them. They could not hear me. I assume this was the Hallionnes decision, but have never asked. I am not Thaalani. I am Barrani. My life, my existence and my sanity are not predicated on my connection to the thoughts of others. There is a natural expectation of silence.
Annarion and Mandoran dont have that. The centuries I spent in the natural silence of my interior thoughts, they spent in constant communication. She hesitated, glanced at Annarion and Mandoran, and then continued. I am not sure they would have remained sane, otherwise. Terrano was the most...adventurous...of all of us. I havent heard his thoughts since their return to usbut neither have they.
Terrano was the lone member of that long ago cohort who had had no desire to return to his kin. He had not reclaimed the name that had been his from just after his birth, and the names themselves were the binding that held the cohort together.
Are you afraid that he came back for them?
Mandoran snorted. No. Look, he wantedfor uswhat we wanted for ourselves. And we wanted, for him, what he wanted for himself. Theres no way he would come back, attack them, and carry them off. Theres a small chance that he approached them and attempted to convince them theyd be happier where he is nowbut the rest of us would know.
Fine. What did they see?
Silence.
Teela? When Teela failed to answer, Kaylin turned to her House, figuratively speaking. Helen. Her voice was flat; there was no wheedling in it. What did the boys see?
They have been trying, Helen replied, to describe it.
They cant. You can.
I can describe it to them, yes. It is not a matter of privacy, Kaylin. It is a matter of words, of experience. Something happened. The cohort have been learning from Mandoran and Annarion. They have been practicing to live outside of the Hallionne. But they have had less practice and less contact with people like you. The closest analogue is Teela, but it is hard for them to think like Teela, because to do so, they have to experience only a narrow range of their existence.
It is like trying to pour the contents of a pitcher into one glass. For you, it is natural; you understand how quickly water flows. You understand when to stop pouring. They are attempting to do what you naturally do when they can see neither the pitcher nor the glass.
Kaylin turned to Mandoran. She poked her familiar. Her familiar squawked and squawked again, like an angry bird.
It is not that you would not see what happened were you there, Helen said, after a pause. You would. But you would not see it as they saw it. You would not understand it as they might.
If I try to stab Mandoran right now and you dont attempt to stop me, hes going to see it the way I see it.
Yes.
It was Annarion who said, No.
Did someone try to stab them?
It was Teela who said, I think so, figuratively speaking. At Kaylins expression, she added, Just because you can see what someone else is seeing doesnt mean that it makes more sense. I havent had the experiences the rest of my cohort has had. I have had more experience with the arcane arts that are confined to the reality I perceive. I believe, if you were to venture to the location in which they disappeared, you would find obviousand largetraces of magical aftershocks.
It is possible that those aftershocks exist for perfectly understandable and harmless reasons
But not bloody likely.
Not in my opinion, no.
Kaylin opened her mouth. Before words came out, Helen said, I believe Lord Nightshade has arrived.
Annarion said nothing. Mandoran, however, said a lot. In Leontine.
* * *
By this time, everyone was more or less stable as Helen called it, and she ushered them all into the parlor. Kaylin would have preferred the dining room, but Helen chose to ignore those preferences, probably because Nightshade was involved.
Moran was not in residence, which was the one silver lining of the evening. The last thing Moran needed was the political infighting of an entirely different caste court, given her current position.
Everyone else, however, was in the parlor. Mandoran had attempted to have Bellusdeo excluded, but Helen vetoed it, and Kaylinwho really didnt want to put the Dragon at riskhadnt the heart to agree with Mandoran. Bellusdeo was more likely to survive extreme danger than Kaylin herself.
Nightshade appeared composed and almost casual. He also looked like hed gotten sleep. While she knew the Barrani didnt require sleep, every other Barrani in the room, Tain included, looked like they needed about a week of it. She was certain she didnt look any better.
Not really, dear, Helen said.
Severn was the only regular who wasnt in attendance.
Annarions bow, when offered to his brother, was stiff and overly formal, which was not lost on Nightshade. Since the brothers had had almost two weeks of relative peace, Kaylin had hoped that this meant arguments were behind them. But no, of course not. The issues that had caused the argument hadnt been resolved.
The attempt, on Annarions part, to resolve them had become the point of contention, widening the conflict to encompass everyone else.
Helen offered drinks to everyone present. Teela and Tain immediately accepted. They didnt ask for water. Kaylin, who already had a headache, decided that alcohol wasnt going to make it any better, but Mandoran followed the Barrani Hawks lead. Annarion and Nightshade did not.
Kaylin has told me some of what has occurred.
This wasnt entirely accurate, but Kaylin let it go. What mattered right at this particular moment was the cohort. All of it.
Annarion was silent. Teela, however, took the reins of the conversation, such as it was. She had always been a reckless driverno one with any experience in the Hawks let her drive anything if they had to be a passengerbut she steered this particular conversation with ease. Probably because it was short and the Barrani were good at implying things without actually using the words.
But they were not in the Hallionne? Nightshade asked, when it was clear Teela had finished.
Mandoran answered. No. They were in transit to Hallionne Orbaranne, on the portal paths.
Annarion did not glance at his brother, but it wasnt required. Kaylin suspected it was Annarion who was directing the conversation because Mandoran spoke High Barrani, and he spoke it politely and perfectly.
Nightshade considered them all. Lord Bellusdeo, he finally said.
She was orange-eyed and regal as she nodded. Teelas eyes were blue; Tains eyes were blue. They were seldom any other color in the presence of Nightshade.
Lord Kaylin has been granted access to the Hallionne, should she be the agent of investigation. You however...
Have not.
No.
And would not likely be granted that access.
No. The Hallionne are not duplicitous, in general; they would not offer you rest or shelter with the sole intent of destroying you once you were entirely within their power. At best, they would become a prison, should they be inclined to grant permission they were not built to grant. If, as I suspect, intervention is required, it would be inadvisable for you to travel west.
And you, as outcaste, would be granted that permission?
I have offered blood to the Hallionne; I have paid the price of entry. Once accepted, the Hallionne will not reject me unless there is deliberate intervention.
I do not understand how there could not be.
No, you do not. The Dragon outcastes and the Barrani outcastes are not the same. Among your kin, you would have had both friends and enemies, as is the case with the Barrani. But the designation of outcaste has a physical meaning to your kin that it does not have to mine. The Barrani designation is political. It is oft deadly, but not, as you are aware, always.
If the High Court considered me the danger that Dragon outcastes are considered, they might bespeak the Hallionnebut it is both time-consuming and dangerous to do so. They cannot merely mirror the Hallionne and change the guest list; they must travel in person. And the request is not delivered by the simple expedient of word.
The Consort could do it, Kaylin said.
Yes. But it is not without cost to her, and the High Lord seldom countenances such an action.
Kaylin hesitated again. It was marked by everyone in the room, but they were all on high alert. Your brothers friends arent outcaste.
Not in the political sense, no. And they had permission to travel; they gained it during the war and it was not revoked.
During the war.
When they traveled to the West March at the behest of the High Court.
...Theyre not the same as they were then.
No. They carry, I am told, their names. But they are closer now to Dragon outcastes than Barrani outcastes have ever been. It is tacitly unacknowledged. The Hallionne Alsanis has restricted the flow of information about their time in his care, but he is in contact with the other Hallionne that form the road they will travel. Not until they leave Kariastos, if they travel that far, would they be required to travel across landand Kariastos is well away from the shadowlands and ruins the Hallionne were built to guard against.
Annarion and Mandoran did not travel the portal roads to reach Elantra.
Wed spent enough time in the damn Hallionne, Mandoran said, dropping High Barrani in favor of the Elantran he usually preferred. We thought it would be a nice change to travel outside of one. Mostly, it was boring. And sullen.
Annarions expression was not nearly as neutral as Teelas as his brother continued to speak.
The Hallionne are capable of limiting communication of any kind beyond their borders. You are aware that Helen...oversees our communication to a greater or lesser extent. Helen is not the equal of the Hallionne. If she has that functionality, it would be naive to think the Hallionne do not possess it as well.
Kaylin struggled with resentment; she didnt want Nightshade to talk about Helen as if Helen were a thing, an inanimate object.
Helen, however, did not appear to suffer the same resentment. Her gaze went to Kaylin, and one brow rose in curiosity. He speaks of me, she said, as if I were a building. And Kaylin, I am. It is the core of what I am. She turned once again to Nightshade. I am not in contact with the Hallionne; I cannot say if his assumption is correct. But I believe it must be. To Nightshade, she said, Do you believe that Kaylin will be required to visit the Hallionne?
I am uncertain at this point. But I do not believe it would be in the best interests of either Annarion or Mandoran to investigate in person.
And Teela? Kaylin asked.
Teela has been a guest at the Hallionne after her return from the West March; she has been more, at the behest of the green. The Hallionne will not cage or attempt to destroy her. They know her and they accept her. He turned to Teela. I have heard that there has been some difficulty in the Halls of Law.
She failed to glare at Kaylin, not that it would have made much difference to the color of her eyes. If Helen could limit communication within her boundaries, she had no control of what Nightshade could hear outside of them.
If it is true that there is some unfortunate political unrest, this may be an appropriate time to investigate.
I will take that into consideration, Teela replied. Her voice, like her expression, was a forbidding wall. Kaylin could well imagine what consideration meant, in this case.
Mandoran cursed in Leontine. Since no one had said anything out loud, Kaylin assumed it was at something that passed privately between the three who could speak without speaking.
There is nothing you can do tonight, Helen said, and Kaylin revised that number to four. Kaylin intends to visit the Consort in person.
Oh? Teelas word was cool. Chilly.
Yes, dear. Her initial concern was Candallar. Kaylin is sensitive to the idea of fieflords and their interactions within Elantra.
Teela exhaled. She did not, however, look any friendlier as she turned her glare on Nightshade. Nightshade countered with an elegant smile that was about as friendly as Teelas glare. Helen stepped between them with drinks.
Candallar is not your problem, Teela said anyway.
Did I encounter him while on patrol?
He didnt break any laws.
Not on this side of the Ablayne, no. And frankly, Id like to keep it that way.
Tain winced. Mandoran whistled.
While Im visiting the Consort, I can ask about the Hallionne.
I consider that unwise, Teela replied.
Probably. But she might have answers that we dont, and were going to need them.
Mandoran coughed. I think Im supposed to say that the Hallionne and our friends are not your problem.
If Id never gone to the green, none of you would be here. You wouldnt be able to travel. The High Court politicians wouldnt be up in arms.
I dont think theres anything wrong with asking the Consort, myself, Mandoran added.
There is everything wrong with it at this time, Tain said. It may have escaped your notice, but Kaylin is mortal.
Kaylin tried not to bristle. She failed. Im a Hawk. She folded her arms.
A mortal Hawk.