do not know what game she is playing,” he said, as if the walk to this point had interrupted nothing. “But it is never wise to involve oneself in the games An’Tellarus controls.”
“Does she control this one?”
Elluvian frowned. He was not certain what he had expected Severn to say, but it wasn’t this. An’Tellarus had the ability to knock him slightly off balance in the best of circumstances.
“She controls some part of it.”
“Do you think she’s the hand behind An’Sennarin?”
After a pause to consider things from Severn’s point of view—a much narrower field of experience—Elluvian said, “It is not impossible, but...no. It is unusual.”
“How?”
“Considering his meteoric rise to power, it is no surprise he has allies; the greater surprise would be that he has none. But it is not An’Tellarus’s way to support people who are driven by ambition, or rather, that style of ambition.”
“You’ve said she’s powerful.”
Elluvian nodded. “But so, too, An’Mellarionne, and she would never support him, although on the surface Mellarionne as a line offers far greater advantage to her than Sennarin. Sennarin is so new, the greater weight of the power of such an alliance would be almost entirely An’Tellarus. He has nothing to offer.”
“You are certain?”
“I am. I have done some research, and he is of the High Court.”
“When did he assume the rulership of his line?”
“I believe you already know the answer.”
Severn shook his head. “I know that it was roughly around the time of the Tha’alani murders. Possibly just before—which has been my assumption—and possibly just after.”
Elluvian frowned. “What are you suggesting?”
“An’Tellarus supports An’Sennarin. Or do you think she is lying?”
“She is almost certainly lying about something; you will find that common among interactions at court.”
Severn nodded.
“Do you think she was telling the truth?”
He nodded again, almost without pause. “But I’m not certain why.”
Elluvian’s brows rose. “Of course you are not certain. It is difficult with An’Tellarus to be certain of anything. What do you think her reasons might be?”
Severn glanced at him and fell silent, as if considering the question—or perhaps considering the audience. Elluvian was not at all certain he would receive an answer, and his curiosity sharpened.
“She seems,” the boy finally said, “to care for you.”
“I cannot possibly have recruited anyone who lacks that much perception.”
“I did not say that her affection or attention would be comfortable—but I think, in her own way, she does.”
“She is interested in you,” was Elluvian’s bitter reply. “I am irrelevant.”
Severn shrugged. “She’s Barrani,” he said in Elantran. “But I’d guess she’s also interested in An’Sennarin. She either offered the information to warn us away from him—and an investigation we can’t avoid—or to sharpen your interest in him.”
“Pardon?”
“I think she was attempting to say—in Barrani fashion—that she actually likes him. She clearly doesn’t care for Teremaine.”
“Teremaine would, as she said, be irrelevant to her.”
Severn nodded. “But he’s irrelevant because she doesn’t like him.”
“Like has very, very little to do with Barrani politics or Barrani power.”
“Maybe.”
“Private—”
“She’s a power. Teremaine isn’t. Even if she did like him, there’s probably very little he could do to harm her. She couldn’t trust him.”
“She doesn’t trust anyone. That’s the entire point.” Elluvian had also descended into Elantran.
Severn frowned. “I think she avoids Teremaine because she doesn’t trust him.”
“No one who uses his services trusts him.”
“Yes. For An’Tellarus, the lack of trust means she’ll never hire him. It’s too easy to open herself up to blackmail, among other things.”
“You have failed to understand both the Barrani and An’Tellarus.”
Severn shrugged. “Probably.”
“And you now think, with this imperfect understanding, that An’Tellarus is attempting to warn us off because she’s concerned for our safety? If true, that would be almost insulting.”
“Or to warn us off because she’s worried about his,” Severn said.
“And this warning has now changed the shape of this case, for you?”
“I’m not certain. Are all of the Emperor’s hunts going to be this tangled?”
“No. I can think of very few in the recent past—which would be the whole of your life should you die of old age—which have been nearly as complicated as this. Were it not for Ybelline, you would not have been the partner assigned to me, either. And the partner assigned to me would not make the mistake you are making.”
Severn let this pass without comment. “Given her warning—regardless of the reasons behind it—what do you intend to do? She didn’t give us Teremaine’s location.”
“I doubt she knows it.”
Severn, clearly, did not.
“We’re not here to execute Teremaine; the interest in his activities—no, our interest in his activities—has become