Page 124 of Cast in Conflict

“Fine. You raged at Eddorian. But you didn’t try to force him to come to Elantra.”

“No. She didn’t try to force Annarion and Mandoran to wait, either.”

“I wanted information,” Sedarias snapped. “They were coming to Elantra. They’d be in reach of the High Halls.”

Allaron said, gently, “You accepted that as the silver lining. But you didn’t want them to leave until we were all ready, either. Not really.”

The wind began to move.

Terrano rolled his eyes, but his jaw tightened.

“I was right,” Sedarias said, voice low. “I was right.”

The wind increased in strength; the trees above their heads began to lose leaves. Without thought, Kaylin stepped forward and caught Sedarias by the arm, her own arms glowing a brilliant blue. “Cut it out. Cut it out right now.

“You were wrong. I mean, I wish you’d succeeded—I lost friends and compatriots to the Barrani Ancestors when they attacked the High Halls. Even Bellusdeo was badly injured. But you were wrong. They don’t love you less because Annarion came for Nightshade. You knew he would because you know Annarion as well as he knows you. Mandoran only came to keep an eye on Annarion and to back him up if it was necessary.

“You don’t want the Tower because the Tower protects the rest of the world; you want it because it’s another place you think you can build safety in. You want it because all of you would live there, not here. And there’d be no Bellusdeo there, no me, no Helen—no outsiders, nothing to disturb the family you’ve built.”

“It’s not family.”

“To me, in every way that matters, it is. But you don’t need the Tower for that. I don’t know what your argument with Mandoran was. I can guess but I don’t know for certain.”

“He tried to commit suicide by Dragon,” Terrano then said.

“He did not. He tried to protect the Dragon from herself. It’s something we all need from time to time—ask Teela about me. No, ask her when I’m not here. Someone like you really needs it. When you can’t completely control the impulse or the anger, having people who love you who can remind you of the truth is a gift. It’s a gift most of us don’t have, or never had.”

“It’s only a gift if she listens,” Terrano muttered.

Sedarias stood. “I have had almost enough of you.”

His grin would have melted ice. He walked straight to where she was shaking, her eyes midnight blue. Ah. Blue. They were blue again. Before she could say anything else, he wrapped his arms around her. “I missed you,” he said, voice soft but still audible. “I missed this. I missed all of it. But I came back because I was worried.”

“That I would harm everyone else.”

“That you’d do everything you possibly could to isolate yourself.”

“I’m not—”

“You are. You think you’re holding on—but you drive people away by holding on too tightly. We know it. And we know you’d die for us.”

“I would not be so ineffectual as to die. Dying is for our enemies.”

“We are never going to be your enemies.”

Mandoran’s shoulders relaxed, but he gritted his teeth as he gazed at the sky. “None of us are afraid you’re going to abandon us for Mellarionne.”

Sedarias’s head whipped around to glare. “No one sane would abandon anyone for Mellarionne!”

“But...you want it. You know it’s a risk, and you’re willing to risk everything to take it. To prove something to dead people.”

Kaylin exhaled. There went peace.

“Yes, dear,” Helen said softly. “But that is the nature of the cohort. I think it is time you left. Why do you think Mandoran understood the true danger to Bellusdeo? He is an independent person who is nonetheless part of Sedarias. The cost to Bellusdeo would be the same as the price Sedarias, unleashed and enraged, would later pay.

“Come.”

“That was well done,” she said, as she led Kaylin to the door that had disappeared when she’d entered it. “I am sorry I could not speak; I did not have time to warn you not to take Severn with you.”

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