Page 212 of Cast in Conflict

Bellusdeo came back down the stairs—for the Tower now looked like a Tower, not a cave or a cliff. Her eyes remained orange, but there were now visible flecks of gold in them. “I would take you all in,” she said quietly. “And I offer that now. I will offer it as blood oath, if you require it as proof.”

Silence descended on the cohort; Sedarias, whose eyes were not surprisingly a martial, Barrani blue, turned toward her. Sedarias wasn’t Teela; she had never shown Bellusdeo the camaraderie that Teela had. She had never descended into teasing at the dining room table, as Mandoran had.

But they were connected to Sedarias, and she could not avoid feeling some of what they felt. “I didn’t come here to aid you,” she said, voice, like the rest of her, stiff.

Bellusdeo nodded, as if it were irrelevant.

“I came to the Tower,” Sedarias continued.

Kaylin raised a brow in Mandoran’s direction; he nodded.

“I meant to take the Tower while you were distracted.”

“Did you try?”

Silence.

Bellusdeo turned to Karriamis, raising the same brow that Kaylin had at Mandoran.

Karriamis smiled. Unlike Mandoran, he neither confirmed nor denied.

Bellusdeo exhaled. There was smoke in the air, but it dissipated as she turned her gaze on Sedarias. “I don’t believe you did try.”

Sedarias said nothing. Mandoran and Terrano winced but remained silent.

“But I understand what you wanted,” the Dragon continued, when Sedarias failed to speak. “I understand it, now. We have some things in common; war defined our lives in different ways when we did not have the power to decide for ourselves. But if we are not kin, if you do not consider me part of the family you have built, you are Kaylin’s family. And she is, clearly, yours.”

“She is not mine.”

“I understand her mortality is a concern. She will age. She will die. When she does, Helen will seek a new tenant—a mortal tenant. If you have not consolidated your power enough by that point—”

“How could we in a scant few decades?”

“—come to me. I will offer the safety that Helen offered; I will offer you a home. I owe you that much.”

This stopped Sedarias. “You owe us?”

Bellusdeo nodded.

“You came to the West March. You found us!”

“I came to the West March by accident—it was largely Kaylin’s fault.”

“And you helped her find us?”

“I was bored.”

For the first time this evening, Sedarias cracked an actual smile. “Things are certainly never boring when Kaylin is around. It’s a wonder she’s survived.”

“It takes deliberate effort on the part of the people who are unaccountably fond of her,” Bellusdeo agreed. “But you must know I would have killed her when Karriamis first tested me.”

Kaylin stopped breathing for one long beat.

“I know Mandoran feared it,” Sedarias finally conceded.

“I’m fond of him. I didn’t expect to be—half the time I have to struggle not to turn him to ash.”

“Half the time, I agree with that impulse.”

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