Page 82 of Cast in Conflict

“It’s not bad for most of us. Annarion still has difficulty if he doesn’t concentrate. And we didn’t attack the High Halls. We might be different, but we’re still Barrani.”

Serralyn frowned. “You’re going to follow Bellusdeo?”

Kaylin nodded.

“And Mandoran is going to follow you. Maybe you could take Terrano instead?”

Mandoran shook his head. “He’s too distracted right now. And I want to know where you learned to speak like that.”

“Like what?” Terrano asked, around a mouthful of food.

“Like a spider.”

“Wevaran,” Robin said, correcting him.

“Fine. Like a Wevaran.”

“I’ve heard the speech before,” Terrano replied.

“You’ve met Wevaran before?” This time it was Kaylin who asked.

“Not exactly met, no. But I’ve heard them before. I listened for a long time.”

“I’ve listened—”

“No, I mean, I did nothing but listen. To the clicking. There’s a tone to it, and a beat to it, and if you listen long enough you can distinguish individual speakers.”

“Where?”

He shrugged. “Nowhere dangerous, I promise.”

All three of the cohort turned their eyes on him.

“No, really. I’m not an idiot. I can listen from a safe distance.”

“Please do not tell me you were listening on the edge of Ravellon.”

“Okay.”

“I am so grateful Bellusdeo is sitting up there and not here. She would strangle you.”

“I’m considering it myself,” Mandoran muttered. “Sedarias is now screaming in my ear because you’re ignoring her.”

“I’m not ignoring her—I can hear every word she says.” He grinned. “She’s worried. You know what she’s like when she worries.”

Mandoran grimaced—but so did the other two. Only Terrano seemed to find any amusement in it. “Anyway, I listened. I listened for a long time.”

“How long is long?” Kaylin asked.

“Long enough. I couldn’t make the noises myself, not initially—and I wasn’t stupid enough to try to get their attention. But some phrases were used here and there. It’s strange,” he added, his voice becoming momentarily more serious. “If I wasn’t certain they were in Ravellon, I wouldn’t necessarily have known. I think they might be, in the end, like the creature in the High Halls after their enslavement; they’re talking as themselves, but they don’t have full control of what they do.”

“If what Starrante has said is true—and I believe it,” Kaylin said quickly, because she did, “they were fundamental in the finding of the many worlds, in the doors that led to and from them. At the height of Ravellon’s golden age, before its fall, they were the heart of the movements between those worlds.”

“They can’t spin like that now, at least not in the fiefs.” It was Robin who supplied this information. “The Towers prevent it. I think the Towers will always prevent it—it’s too dangerous. To allow the webbing—I mean, it’s not webbing, but that’s the word we’ve got—to take hold anywhere in the fiefs is to allow one of the greatest threats purchase in our lands.”

Kaylin’s frown deepened. “That’s not true, though.”

“Oh?”

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