A pale shield spread from that palm in all directions, becoming a sphere. Kaylin had seen it before.

“No, you have not. She is powerful, Kaylin—or she was, while she lived.”

“I don’t think she’s dead.”

“Neither does she. And I see that my assumption was not entirely correct. But she is not alive by Barrani standards.”

Azoria hissed in rage. Clearly Hope had intended that she hear some of his words.

“What do you know?” she demanded.

“I know who you are,” Hope replied. “And I know that you could never pay the price my use demanded.”

If the marks of the Chosen had angered her, Hope’s words enraged her. Her form flickered again, but this time it lost some of the cohesion of a Barrani body. Although the eyes in the hair—and on the perfect skin of her forehead—had been foreign and disturbing, she had nonetheless looked almost normal.

“Severn,” Hope said. “Join us.”

Kaylin couldn’t take her eyes off what Azoria was becoming, but she spoke to Hope. “We can’t—Mrs. Erickson and the children are right there.”

“Yes, Kaylin. As are those who were trapped in this house in Azoria’s webs. But you have failed to understand something important.”

“Go ahead.”

“They are dead. There is nothing you can do to protect them. That time—their time—has long passed. Any intervention you offer here will not bring them back. Perhaps, were they to be taken to Helen, she might create a space in which they could be contained safely, and they might know a fraction of a normal life—but you cannot.”

“Mrs. Erickson isn’t dead.”

“No. No, she is not. Azoria does not appear to recognize her. She considered herself a scholar, a genius, but she was always vain—as are most of the living, the vanity being defined entirely by the lives that have shaped them.”

“What do you mean?”

“She would not now choose Mrs. Erickson, even were her rituals and spells to activate; Mrs. Erickson is old.”

“The Barrani don’t care about that.”

“Because there is no difference to the Barrani. Age implies power. There is no weakness that arises from it. Azoria has lived a mortal life. Several mortal lives. Look at the ghosts that Mrs. Erickson partially freed. Are any of them elderly?”

None were.

“It is not vanity alone, of course; it is power. But she cannot perceive the power in the age and wisdom of mortals; there is too much concomitant weakness. An’Teela will protect Mrs. Erickson.” He raised his voice. “Severn.”

Listen to him, Kaylin said, through the name bond.

I’m actually trying.

You’re standing still.

Yes. Whatever Azoria is, the weapons of the green don’t like. The only reason I’m standing still is because I do have some control.