Page 176 of Cast in Oblivion
“I wish I could be there to see it,” Bellusdeo said, golden-eyed.
“Given the difficulties your visit to the West March theoretically caused, that would usually be impossible,” Sedarias replied.
Kaylin’s ears twitched. She didn’t say anything; Bellusdeo, however, did.
“Usually?”
Sedarias’s smile deepened; Kaylin swore she could see exposed Barrani canines. “Were it not for your intervention in the West March, we would not have arrived in Elantra. We would not have taken the Test of Name. And Mellarionne would not now have a ruler.” Definitely canines.
Tain’s eyes were blue, although Kaylin didn’t see much of them, as he covered his face with his hands.
For the first time in a week, Sedarias appeared to be enjoying herself. Kaylin decided that Sedarias and enjoyment should be kept a continent apart.
“Risky,” Teela said, without any of Tain’s obvious dismay.
“It is,” Sedarias agreed, still smiling. “But Lord Bellusdeo would be an excellent emissary, and she has proved herself a valuable ally—a dependable ally—to Mellarionne. To me,” she added, in case this wasn’t obvious. “Mellarionne is not, despite my brother’s best attempts to weaken it, a house without resources. I would, of course, extend an invitation. I would almost consider it a boon should you accept.”
The Emperor wouldn’t.
“You have a plan?” Bellusdeo asked, her eyes still golden.
“She always has a plan,” Mandoran said. His eyes were now a blue-green, but he seemed resigned.
“If I am to play a part in it, I would like to hear it myself.”
“Of course,” Sedarias replied. She opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Kaylin could see a wave of stillness hit the cohort at once; hands froze, cutlery held; cups stopped between table and mouth. Eyes widened, mouths remained closed—or open—as if movement itself had been denied all of them.
Mandoran was first to rise. Annarion was second. In a flowing stream, the rest of the cohort joined them, pushing chairs back from table, their eyes turned toward the open—and empty—doorway.
Sedarias remained seated. Sedarias and Teela. Severn was no longer at the breakfast table; he had returned both to the Halls of Law and his own home.
Sedarias’s eyes were not a color that Barrani eyes normally adopted; they weren’t a color ascribed to Barrani eyes at all. Nor, now that she was looking, were any of the cohort’s eyes. They stayed the same shape, though.
Kaylin stayed where she was seated, as did Bellusdeo; Teela glanced at Tain, who had lowered his hands, where they rested, flat, against the tablecloth. Sedarias lowered her head; her chin almost touched the space between her collarbones.
Terrano walked into the dining room, his eyes the color of the cohort’s eyes, his form Barrani. They moved toward him in a rush, as if they couldn’t believe what Kaylin was almost certain they were hearing. But they paused without touching him, and stepped back, stepped away, to give him room.
To give him a clear path to Sedarias, who remained seated at the end of the table, her back toward that door and its occupant. He walked toward her and, to Kaylin’s surprise, gently wrapped both arms around her shoulders. She stiffened.
Terrano said nothing—not out loud—but Sedarias lifted her head. She was crying.
Kaylin almost looked away. Almost. But Sedarias caught her gaze and, as always, held it.
“This isn’t what I wanted for him,” the Barrani woman considered the leader of the cohort said. “This isn’t what he wanted.” She closed her eyes.
Terrano, however, shook his head, and their hair, black and black, mingled, he was that close to her face.
“You made your choice—”
“Yes. I can tell you all about it now. I cantrulytell you.” He hugged her, his arms tightening before they fell away. He then turned to face the rest of the cohort. “They’re really noisy, you know?” he said to the room that couldn’t hear the internal voices of his friends. “I wanted freedom. You were all so much a part of me I didn’t think about what freedom would mean.
“I loved the freedom. I did. I can’t promise that I’ll never regret it. But it was empty. It was empty without you. It wasn’t the same. If you’d all come with me, it still wouldn’t have been the same. You could see and hear what I saw and heard, but...not together.”
The cohort converged then. Sedarias rose.
Her eyes were Barrani green; they were reddened, but if she cried, she didn’t weep. “Are we his cage, then?” she asked Kaylin.
Kaylin shook her head. “Not his cage, but his home.”
