Page 100 of Cast in Conflict

“My rage and pain are dangerous.”

“You can control it—you’ve done it before. You did it with Gilbert. You did it with Spike. You weren’t happy about it, but you didn’t blast the rest of us into ash and you didn’t try to hurt either of them.” Her eyes narrowed as she turned to Karriamis, who was watching with interest. And amusement.

It was the amusement she hated. “You know so much about my life and about things that haven’t even been brought up in conversation here, there’s no way you didn’t already know that.”

“I fail to see your point.”

“You’re being unfair to her, and you know it. Why?”

Bellusdeo coughed. Mandoran nudged her foot under the table, as if Karriamis wouldn’t notice.

“Would you care to field that question?” Karriamis asked Bellusdeo.

“Not particularly. Not here. We’ll talk about it later.”

“Later being?”

“When we get home.”

“Ah, home.” Karriamis smiled. “Is that what you call Helen?”

“It’s what Kaylin calls Helen in a fundamental sense, and I live with her.”

Karriamis rose. “Is that how you see it, then?”

Bellusdeo’s face was utterly neutral. “Yes.”

“Very well. I will ask no further questions, but will say one thing: you have made excellent choices in your friends. Even this one,” he added, glancing at Mandoran, “who would be considered at best an acquaintance by most of our kin—or his own—given the scant time you have known him.

“And you, boy, are a friend worth keeping and preserving. You were willing to risk your own life to preserve hers.”

“It wasn’t her life I was worried about. She’s a big, scary Dragon.”

“It wasn’t her existence, but her life as I understand it.” He then turned to Kaylin. “How much has Helen discussed her previous tenants with you?”

Kaylin frowned. “She’s talked a bit about the very first tenant, but other than that, she’s said nothing.”

“And you have failed to ask.”

“No, I...I did ask.”

“And she refused to answer?”

“She cares about them, even if they’re dead. She’s protecting their privacy.”

“It is not practical. It is not pragmatic. In my experience, the dead care very little about their privacy; the dying frequently care about their legacy: they wish to be remembered.”

Kaylin thought about this. “I don’t care if I’m remembered. It won’t do me any good.”

“Ah, yes. Yes, that is true. But I will talk just as much as Helen does about my previous partner.” He then turned again. “And so we come at last to Lord Emmerian.”

Bellusdeo rose.

“You should take notes from this one,” he said, although he did not look away from Emmerian. “He is adept at layering his thoughts to protect his motivation. Were it not so obvious to these old eyes, I would not know most of what he is thinking.”

“He is not generally discussed in the third person when he is present,” Emmerian said.

“Not generally, no. Pardon my manners. You are angry.”

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