“Did that help you?”
She tightened her hold on him. “And I’m here,” she said quietly. “Outside in a different way.”
“Can I stay with you, instead?”
“You’ll have to put up with Tain.” And he would only know what that meant if he could hear Mandoran’s steady stream of complaints—and he couldn’t. “Yes. If you want, you can stay here. Sedarias won’t like it.”
“She doesn’t like anything,” he murmured.
And the strangest thing happened, as she held him, wanting to shield him from a pain and loss that was so entirely internal she had no hope of doing so.
Terrano fell asleep.