At Sesalia’s voice, he almost jumped, but managed a smile. “Yes?”
“You were looking at me so strangely.”
“Oh… I’m sorry. I guess I’m still more tired than I thought.” That wasn’t it at all, but better to say so than what he thought. Where would that talent lead him?
He forced a smile. “Are there any sweets?”
112
Dainyl and Lystrana lay side by side in the darkness of their bedchamber, warm covers over them. Dainyl’s fingers twined around hers.
“When do you go to Alustre?” she asked, her voice soft, but not sleepy.
“On Duadi.”
“Do you know what the Highest truly wants?”
“He hasn’t said. Not exactly. He wants my impressions about Submarshal Alcyna. He has something else in mind.”
“As he did with your briefing the Duarch. You’re still upset about your meeting with him, aren’t you?”
Dainyl thought about dismissing her concerns, but Lystrana would see through him. She always had. “Yes. There’s tremendous Talent there, but…”
“But what?”
“It’s as though he wears a blindfold about some things. I tried to point out the problems with lifeforce, and how the landers and indigens just don’t understand the way the world works, and he kept talking about how we needed to increase the lifeforce and how fortunate we were to have a child, and how Kytrana would see the transfer of the Master Scepter here to Acorus. One moment he was smiling, and the next it was as though he were ready to turn his Talent on me, especially when he talked about Zelyert and Shastylt.”
“He told you not to trust them. Was that unwise?”
“No. We know that.” Dainyl took a deep breath. “But… I don’t trust the Duarch, either I feel that his heart is better than theirs, but that—I said this before—he is blinded. He will do anything to bring the master scepter here.”
“The loyalty imprint,” suggested Lystrana. “That is why those who seek power do not wish to be Duarch.”
“I feel as though I’m trapped between two sets of masters. The Highest and the marshal see the world as it is, but I don’t trust what they have in mind, even if I don’t know what it is. The Duarch—he would do the best he could, so long as it does not conflict with what the Archon requires. He has great Talent, but how he might use that Talent is hampered because the imprint does not allow him to see all that is before his eyes. Both would destroy those who disagree with their visions.” Dainyl turned and reached out with his free hand, letting his fingers touch the cheek and jawlinc of his wife.
“So you must not show any disagreement. That has always been so for a prudent alector. What you have seen changes nothing.”
Dainyl laughed, once. “I had hoped that seeing more would provide greater hope, not less. Matters need to change. Even the ancient soarer said something like that.”
“Was she talking about you, or about all alectors?”
“I had thought she was speaking to me, as I told you the other night, but now… I don’t know.”
“You are Submarshal, and someday you will be marshal. That will give you the opportunity to change matters.”
“Nothing changes quickly.”
Lystrana turned toward him and brushed his cheek with her lips. “We can only do what we can.”
“I didn’t tell you everything about the Cadmian captain,” Dainyl said slowly.
“I had thought you held something back.”
“He has Talent. He used it to save me. The Highest told me that landers with Talent had to be destroyed.”
“That has always been the policy,” Lystrana said softly.
“I couldn’t do it. I kept thinking about how he nearly died to save me, so that I could come back to you and Kytrana. He’s so young, not for a lander, I suppose, but…”
“You think that the marshal will discover your failure?”
“No. Talent can emerge at any time.”
“Then why do you worry? He serves the Duarchy. It’s not as though he happens to be a wild Talent, like that one in Hyalt.”
“I still worry. He did more than I did to stop the revolt in Dramur.”
“You succeeded in the end.”
“But… without the captain I would not have. Are we too frightened of Talent in landers? Or am I too frightened to make the hard choices?”
Lystrana’s fingers squeezed his. “You made the choice, and we will live with what comes of it.”
Dainyl looked up into the darkness. He had made the choice, an alector’s choice.
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