25
Mrs. Erickson straightened her shoulders. She chose to speak to Helen, not the guests, as if Helen was the greatest source
of comfort in the kitchen. Or perhaps the only woman present who felt like a peer. “I can’t see ghosts with Yvonne—not the
way I did with Bellusdeo. I can’t hear them the same way. They don’t look like people to me. Even the strange ghosts I brought home the last time looked like people to me, and when they spoke to me, I could
hear their voices as if they were.”
They weren’t. Kaylin could perceive them—but she saw them as words. She couldn’t hear what Mrs. Erickson heard, but, conversely,
believed that Mrs. Erickson could hear them as if they were normal dead people. Normal.
“These look like ghosts from children’s stories—phantoms meant to terrify, things that might once have been human but have
no humanity left in them. They’re not easy to see—but . . . they’ve become easier.”
“Since when?”
“The flowers,” Yvonne whispered. “The green.”
“I think so, dear. I don’t really understand what the green is. But I don’t really understand what the ghosts here are, either.
I think they’re connected to you, but not strongly. Do you know?”
Severn said, “She doesn’t remember.” Maybe that was even true. But Severn’s answer made clear he knew more.
“Annarion asks: can the green wake his brother?”
“We’re not exactly carrying the green with us,” Kaylin told Terrano.
“Yeah, but it’s sort of here. I mean—the crown is here. If the green sends the crown and the dress to its chosen representatives,
the green can reach us, somehow.”
“True. Why don’t you find a way to talk to the green and ask it yourself!”
“Might I point out that this entire complication came to our attention because of an assassination attempt? It didn’t come
to our attention because of the green,” Sedarias cut in. “That assassination attempt involved Barrani in large enough numbers
the Lords of the High Court must be involved.”
“It also involved Ravellon, or its environs. And possible activities by former Barrani who believe Barrani shouldn’t have names. Or shouldn’t have fixed,
unchanging names,” Kaylin said, adding to her words without disagreeing with any of them.
“We are certain the green is not in collusion with either.” It was Teela who replied.
That was probably true.
“And it is the green that is present here; it is the green that is throwing the house slightly off balance.”
“Hazard a guess as to why?” Kaylin said to the Barrani Hawk. “Why, exactly, is everything going even further sideways? We’ve
got enough to deal with on our hands—we really do not need any more!”
“Kitling,” Teela said. “While we all share your frustration, some self-control is suggested.”
Kaylin replied with volumes less self-control, in multiple languages.
An’Tellarus turned to Severn, her expression showing a hint of warmth. “I begin to see why you kept her from me.” The tone was indulgent. “Very well. Yvonne, tell your story. Or if you cannot tell all of it, I will not punish Severn if he chooses to share what he knows.”
“Why?” Kaylin demanded, suspicion in the single word. Teela’s expression made clear she had resigned herself to Kaylin’s lack
of self-control.
“Because Yvonne ended up in the green through the actions of a Lord of the High Court. She was a target only because that
lord wished to bring Ollarin to heel; it was control of Ollarin’s elemental powers that was the prior lord’s goal. And the
previous An’Sennarin—a man I detested but could not easily bring down—was most definitely a member of the High Court.
“If what happened to Yvonne involved Shadow—even in the West March—and the Lords of the High Court are involved in some fashion
with Ravellon and its outskirts, perhaps Yvonne is enmeshed in this far more than I originally thought. I should retreat. If you speak
frankly with Yvonne and among yourselves, that is one thing—but I must retain a certain plausible deniability should things
go very wrong.”
Kaylin didn’t believe it for a minute. But she got caught in An’Tellarus’s words: If what happened to Yvonne involved Shadow.
Severn was silent. His silence was particular, familiar. What had happened to Yvonne definitely involved Shadow. And Lords
of the High Court. And Barrani power games.
“I assumed I would be required as a hedge against the political machinations of An’Mellarionne—and her demands. That does
not appear to be the case. When one is as old as I am, one learns to tread carefully where ancient, wild forces are involved.
I am not, and have never been, their chosen.” The last was said with both confidence and a trace of bitterness. Kaylin thought
that was at the heart of An’Tellarus: strength, bitterness, and a barbed generosity.
But it was An’Tellarus who had endured.
Severn met An’Tellarus’s gaze, held it until she nodded, and then exhaled. “Shadow,” he said, “was involved. Yvonne was taken into the green and held there; the Shadow with which she’d been infected didn’t taint or control the green—but it wasn’t entirely inert.”
“What does that even mean?”
“We can’t talk to the green. The green can’t explain its choices, its processes, or the meaning behind them—but I’m certain
there is a meaning behind them.” He exhaled. “I didn’t go in search of Yvonne. We knew of her, but that’s not why I found her.”
Kaylin, accustomed to Severn, waited.
“I was allowed entry into the green, but the green has its own will. Those who understand it best are farthest from humanity.
If you ask me to explain the green, I can’t. I don’t think it’s wise for me to try—there is too much I don’t understand.
“But you know that this weapon is considered—by Barrani—a weapon of the green. Like most Barrani weapons, there’s a test to
prove worth.”
“You went to find the weapon?” No, Kaylin thought. It wasn’t as simple as that.
“I found the weapon. Perhaps the green assumed that I was there to be tested.” Truth, but not all of the truth; there was
pain in it, as if the memory was a wound. Severn had never shared his wounds—not even with Kaylin or her mother.
Maybe she’d known him so long, she assumed he didn’t have any; that he, like Kaylin herself, would cry or rage if hurt. If
there was no crying, no raging, it simply meant he wasn’t hurt. He didn’t feel pain.
She had been so, so stupid.
Pain wasn’t simply its expression. For Severn, it had always been private. No, more than that: he felt shared pain would cause pain. Had she ever thought of
it that way?
You were a child, he told her.
So were you.
He said nothing. “I was given a choice of paths,” he continued, “when I was welcomed into the green. I chose one.” He exhaled, showing as much hesitation as he ever did: deliberation.
Choice of words. “Yvonne was part of the test of my worthiness to wield the weapon of the green. And Shadow was involved.”
“How?” Kaylin was grateful that Bellusdeo—or her many sharp-eyed sisters—weren’t here.
“Yvonne had been hit by Shadow and had survived long enough for the green to find her.”
“I found the green,” Yvonne said, her voice at its meekest. This was the way the powerless disagreed.
Severn shook his head. “I don’t know if you believe that—you might. But the green found you, and the green took you in. Something
in the green itself appears to be immune to the effects of Shadow—but not in a way that prevents the damage or harm done in
its entirety. You were in the green as if you’d been suspended there, waiting for someone to take, and pass, the sword’s test.
“The green’s test. Shadow was expressed—in the green—in a fashion I haven’t encountered before or since. There wasn’t a single
Yvonne; there were dozens. They looked identical to the Yvonne you see here. They appeared to be suspended at the bottom of
a lake, almost sleeping; they moved in concert.”
Mrs. Erickson’s eyes widened.
“To free Yvonne, they had to be destroyed, one at a time, until only Yvonne remained. But Yvonne did remain, and it was due to the power radiated by the green’s weapon.” He glanced, once, at An’Tellarus; she met his gaze and
offered him an encouraging nod, which Kaylin hadn’t expected.
“If Mrs. Erickson is seeing something that looks ghostly, it might be the remnants of those other, Shadow Yvonnes.”
“Were they trying to kill her?”
Severn shook his head. “They were suspended, as she was suspended, in water.” He hesitated, and then said, “Yvonne was Ollarin’s closest friend.
The water—even in the green—is elemental.
It’s possible that the water and the green in concert moved to save her.
I can’t speak to the water; I can’t confirm. ”
Kaylin wasn’t worried about the water. “Yvonne didn’t try to harm you.”
“I’m not sure she was aware of me at all; the duplicates were, but only when I attempted to remove them. I wouldn’t have said
they were Shadow at all, if asked.”
“They were Shadow,” Yvonne said quietly. “I could hear their voices when I was injured.”
“Did they speak to you in a way you could understand?”
She shook her head. “But the green didn’t, either.”
“You could hear the green.”
Yvonne nodded. “I don’t think I would have heard the other voices if there weren’t so many of them. Do you think that’s what
Mrs. Erickson sees?”
That might explain why these ghosts weren’t like the rest of Mrs. Erickson’s many ghosts. The multiple Shadowy Yvonnes hadn’t
been alive in the normal sense of the word.
“Let’s never mention this to Bellusdeo. Or the Consort. Or anyone outside of this room.”
“She does not bear Shadow within her,” Helen said quietly. “Were you to have asked me when she entered my boundaries, I would
have said she was an entirely normal Barrani—something most of the cohort is not. They, to me, would be more of a danger than
Yvonne. An’Tellarus is dangerous for entirely different reasons—but those I was built to counter at need.”
Kaylin walked to Mrs. Erickson’s side. “I don’t want you to try to hold their hands—if they even have hands in your vision—but