Page 59 of Seer Prophet

“With you, Revik, Wreg, Tarsi, and whoever else deciding there were some facts I couldn’t handle for whatever reason. With my own leadership team lying to me, thinking it’s going to keep me and the rest of us any safer. With you thinking you can control me or somehow minimize my impact as the Bridge… or somehow keep me fromactinglike the Bridge by giving me less information.”

Balidor clicked under his breath.

That time, it didn’t feel aimed at me.

Well?not exactly.

“Allie.” He sounded frustrated. “Do not read so much into this. Please.”

I gave him a harder look. “If one of your Adhipan were lying to you, would you reassess the limits of your command, ‘Dori?”

He blinked at me.

I saw at once that the idea had never occurred to him.

My anger worsened when a full understanding hit me about why that was.

Of course it hadn’t. Balidor would never tolerate that from his subordinates.

So why was I?

“Allie.” He sighed, clicking. “It is different. You are notonlya military commander, Esteemed Bridge. You are forced to act in that capacity now, it is true, but that is not what you are, not truly. You’re a lot more than that?”

“And a lot less, apparently.”

“You areirreplaceable,Alyson.” He hammered the words. “I am not.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “Bullshit, ‘Dori! You’re completely irreplaceable. You’re the best infiltrator we have. The bestanyonehas?”

He was already shaking his head.

“I amabsolutelyreplaceable, Alyson. The Adhipan is structured so thatallof us are replaceable. Because of that, the chain of command means something entirely different in my case than it does in yours. With the Adhipan, there is a clear succession order, which functions precisely toensureI am replaceable. Moreover, if I go, Iwillbe replaced. If you go…”

He held up a hand, making an expansive gesture towards the open water.

“You willnotbe replaced, Esteemed Bridge. Nor will your husband, the Sword. It is not the same. You cannot pretend it is the same. Moreover, we have been telling you that from day one. You still do not seem to understand the difference. That, or…” His voice grew a touch harder. “Or you simply do not want to.”

I nodded, again noncommittal. “Okay.”

“Allie?” he began, frustrated.

“We’ll talk about it later, ‘Dori.” I gripped his arm briefly. “Really. This isn’t the time. Or the place. I’ve heard your thoughts on it. We’ll talk later.”

I didn’t look at him that time, just released his arm and walked to the end of the pier, where Jorag was pulling the small motorboat against the wooden dock with his hands. Seeing me approach, he grinned up at me, looking over my legs in the short dress as I approached him across the platform.

I didn’t walk away from Balidor as a screw you or anything.

With seers, walking away like that was usually a less aggressive move.

Most of the time, it just meant you was done talking.

I’d heard him. I knew he’d heard me. I knew I’d talk to him about it more, after both of us collected our thoughts, and after we’d gotten some sleep.

I knew in the end I’d probably let him think he’d convinced me that cutting me out was normal, even necessary for the security of our team.

The thing is, he was wrong, though.

Balidor thought the problem was I didn’t understand how they saw me.

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