“Terrano is incapable of remaining out of trouble, and his attempts might cross boundaries none of us wish to see crossed,” was the very reasonable reply.

“I’m actually standing right here,” Terrano told them both.

“We know, dear.”

Helen shook herself and began to lead.

“Arkon?” the second Helen said to Sanabalis.

Sanabalis shook his head. “You will forgive me, but I would take great comfort in seeing your new visitors properly housed. It is your ability to house disparate elements in safety that swayed my decision to allow Mrs. Erickson and her new ghosts to leave the palace.”

Helen frowned, but nodded, and the second version of her quietly faded.

The hall to which she led Mrs. Erickson was not the hall the cohort—and Kaylin—otherwise occupied; nor was it the end of that hall, with its door that led into an outside that wasn’t part of Elantra. She walked past it. Kaylin hadn’t been aware that there was a way to walk past it, probably because there hadn’t been, until now.

“It was here,” Helen said, voice gentle. “But it was not of relevance to you—and you don’t really like big, open spaces, even in a home. There’s a reason Sedarias has such extensive, expansive quarters while yours are much smaller and more cramped.” To Mrs. Erickson, she added, “I am Helen. All of this—the halls, the rooms in which Kaylin and her friends live—are part of me. They are part of what I was built to offer guests—the part I wished to keep when I finally had the choice.

“Kaylin has not seen all of the rooms that exist within me, but with the coming of the cohort, as the others are called, she has seen more of them than most of my tenants ever saw. This, too, is an aspect of me.” And so saying, she gestured, and a new hallway appeared at the far end of the gallery, railings to one side, walls to the other.

“I cannot guess what your ghosts see when they walk here; I cannot guess what they might expect of a home. But we can only offer what is ours to offer. Come. You might stay with them, were it not for your other children; I understand that they need you at home. If you are not as I am, you give them something that no one else can give them.

“With your permission, I will attempt to understand what it is Kaylin has brought into her home.”