Page 166 of Cast in Conflict

“Why does she want him to go away? The outcaste is a danger to all of you.”

“You refers to the Towers?”

Kaylin nodded.

“She understands that his power is in part dependent on the power of his Tower—and he will not have that, here. She is not wrong, in my opinion.”

“She didn’t tell Nightshade to go away.”

“No. Nightshade, however, has been fieflord for centuries; Tiamaris for less than a year. Lord Nightshade understands the limitations of the Tower’s power and his own. And he wields one of The Three. To Bellusdeo—perhaps incorrectly—the weight of The Three is almost mythic; it dwarfs the weight of the Tower.

“She also understands that Lord Nightshade will simply fail to hear her; Tiamaris will not.”

Probably why she hadn’t told the cohort to get lost, as well.

“Ah, no. That is different. She acknowledges Sedarias as the leader of their flight. The analogy is not perfect, but it is surprisingly solid. Sedarias is ally, here, but allies control their own forces; they do not obey. She has not joined her friends,” he added.

“Is that why you kept me here?”

“No. Had you chosen to depart with Emmerian, I would not have stopped you. But I told Bellusdeo—you were there, and mortal memory is not that inefficient—that she had chosen her friends well. You are one of them. But the cohort in concert is another.”

“And Emmerian?”

“He is too young,” Karriamis said, in a familiar—and annoying—tone of voice. “He would not be my choice, were I to be given one—but it is not my choice. It is not, as you discovered, entirely hers, either. The weight he commits to carry, however, he will carry; he sees her clearly.”

“And Bellusdeo?”

“She has made no choices,” he replied. “Since her arrival, she has made no choices. Yes, yes,” he said, as Kaylin opened her mouth. “She chose to come here. But she was drifting, Lord Kaylin. It made sense to her that she become captain of this Tower, her hatred of Shadow is so strong. She was looking for a... I do not have the word for it. She felt that our purpose would match exactly, and there would be no conflict.”

Kaylin snorted.

“Respect, remember. Even coming here was not a choice; she drifted on currents of events. But now? Now, Chosen, she makes a choice.”

She was just standing in the window.

“Yes. She can leave at any moment she desires to leave.”

“Does she fail, if she leaves?”

“Fail?”

“Your stupid test.”

“Mortals are clearly cut from different cloth than they once were. And the answer is, it depends. I can feel her rage and fury from anywhere in the Tower, it is so visceral, so loud. The outcaste betrayed her,” he added, the words softer. “She trusted him, in a long-ago world; that world is gone, and she will never trust again.

“Nor should she. But she ruled. And a ruler cannot be ruled by hatred; it is almost as bad as fear.”

“You’ve said she’s not in command of the cohort. She’s certainly not in command of the Dragons, and if she had any ability to tell you what to do...”

“Yes?”

Respect, she thought. “She’s not the ruler here. She doesn’t exactly have an army; she doesn’t have a squadron. She’s—”

“Tiamaris has withdrawn, at her command. You do not understand our tongue, and that is fair—but it was a command, not a request.”

Bellusdeo roared again. This time, there was less rage in the voice, but more volume. Emmerian veered instantly to the left as spears of shadow skittered off his flank. The outcaste’s fire wouldn’t hurt him.

“You are wrong,” Karriamis said, in an entirely different tone. “And now, you will stop speaking.”

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