King of Sword and Sky (17 page)

He lowered his head to hers, his lips hovering above her own. The bright whirl of pupil-less tairen eyes, blazing a fierce purple, held her transfixed. "Forgive me,
shei'tani.
I do not think I have the strength to be gentle."

She took a shallow gasp of breath. "Then don't be—"

Her voice broke off as his body pinned hers to the wall. Lean Fey muscle, burning with heat, pressed tight against her softer
shei'dalin
curves. He caught her wrists, clamping them over her head at the same instant his mouth captured hers in a ferocious kiss.

At the first touch of his skin on hers, the threads of their bond came screaming back to life. She cried out, but the sound was consumed by the ravenous dominion of his kiss.

Emotion and power flooded her senses: Rain the
shei'tan's
fury over allowing other males to touch his unbonded mate. Rain the tairen's driving need to claim his mate and eliminate all trace of another male's scent from her. Hunger. Oh, gods, such hunger. An ache so strong, Ellysetta nearly wept with need herself when she felt it.

All the pain and fear of the last day burned away like mist in the sun. Nothing mattered—nothing existed—except Rain and Ellysetta and right now.

"Ve sha kem'tani. Kem'san. Kem'reisa."
You are my mate. My heart. My soul. He growled the words against her lips, sending them on Air to her ears, on Spirit to her mind, singing them on their bondthreads in the shatteringly vivid tones of tairen song. With hands and words and lips and teeth, he laid claim to her, declaring possession, marking her with his touch, his kiss, his breath, the scent of his skin rubbing hers with hot friction, singing to her soul.

He tore his mouth from hers, and she dragged in great gulps of air. A rapid weave held her wrists locked over her head and freed his hands to trail a searing path down her body. As he'd warned her, there was no gentleness to his touch. There was only fire, the burn of flesh on flesh, the scrape of teeth dragging down her throat and over breasts stripped bare with a wave of hot magic.

"Aiyah,
Rain, yes. As you are mine, so I am yours." She wanted him, all of him, only hers, forever hers, from the skeins of night-black hair swirling like silk torment across her skin to the wild, whirling purple blaze of his eyes to the hot groan of breath panting from his lungs and the searing hardness of his body wrapped around her like ropes of steel.

Hands and mouths of flesh and magic moved over her body, caressing every inch, laving her in moist, erotic heat. She cried out again as his teeth closed over one taut nipple and his tongue flicked out, teasing the sensitive flesh to diamond hardness. She screamed as he bit down just hard enough to send her shuddering towards the crest of orgasm. His hand dove between her legs, fingers delving into her curls. Fire exploded, flooding her with hot moisture as the flick of his nimble fingers sent her over the edge.

Rain went to his knees before her, his mouth tracing a burning path down her belly, the flare of her hip. A deep growl rumbled in his chest, vibrating in his blood. The threads of their bond pulsed with energy. The wild, fiery magic of their newest, sun-bright thread cracked like whips of lightning in his flesh as he gazed up at her, naked, her arms locked above her head in bonds of magic as if she were one of the virginal sacrifices ancient mortals made to the immortals they once considered gods.

Trembling. Naked. Helpless.

His.

The tairen roared in triumph, and this time when the primitive, savage rush of power filled him, he allowed it.
"Ve sha kem"
he snarled. You are mine. His teeth nipped at her thigh. His fingers continued to flick and torment, her flesh already enticingly slick. The scent of her arousal filled the air with musky sweetness, making his sex swell to painful hardness.
"Bern."
Ours.

She sobbed her agreement.
"Aiyah,
Rain. I am yours. Only yours."

It wasn't enough. Not nearly enough. His hands cupped her buttocks, and his mouth dove to claim the soft, heated flesh between her legs. He held her mind and gaze locked to his and devoured her until she screamed his name and flew apart in his hands, her body shaking in helpless abandon.

He rose in one swift motion, discarding leathers and steel with a flash of Earth. His hands closed around her hips. His own hips thrust close, and the long, hard column of his sex pressed against her belly. She gasped and bucked her hips. Already his fierce hunger was calling to her again, rousing her own.

Her eyes squeezed shut, but in the darkness, her other senses only seemed more acute, and threads of multicolored light flickered against the backs of her lids. Fey vision, she realized instantly, the magic sight that did not need eyes to see. Instead of black hair and blazing lavender eyes and the graceful beauty of Elverial, she saw the glowing threads of magic that made up all things, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit—and the blinding, burning flame that was Rain standing before her, enveloping her in fire and light.

And all around him, emanating from him and lit by threads too bright to identify, the incandescent form of a tairen spread wide its wings in a fearsome show of strength and dominance. Its eyes were the same glowing wells of power that Rain's were. As she watched, it roared, and golden red flame erupted from its mouth and swept over her.

Her eyes flew open as heat and hunger whipped through her body. Magic and need swelled inside her, so hard and so fast her skin burned, as if stretched to the breaking point.

"Rain…Rain, please … I need—" Her voice broke off.

"What?"

She squirmed, wriggled, the ache so fierce, her need so great. But he would not relent until she gave him his answer. She cried it in desperation, "You!"

"Then take me,
shei'tani."
His fingers dug into the soft swell of her hips, lifting her high, then bringing her down hard and fast. Her legs locked around his waist, and she flung her head back on a scream of pleasure as his body surged into hers in one powerful, claiming thrust.

"Ver
reisa ku'chae. Kem surah, shei'tani. "
The driving rhythm of Rain's hips punctuated the growled words of
shei'tanitsa
claiming, and with each hard pulse, Ellysetta cried out his name as his sex swelled inside her, stretching her, filling her.

Ah, gods, with Rain inside her, his skin pressed tight against hers, she felt his every shuddering pleasure as clearly as her own. The breath was driven from her lungs as wave after wave of heat washed over her. Fire danced behind her eyes, and searing blue-white flames mingled with a sea of billowing red-orange heat as another shattering orgasm consumed her.

Rain groaned as Ellysetta's body clenched tight as a fist around him. Her inner muscles gripped him like steel, rippling so forcefully the pleasure bordered on pain. Thought dissolved in a fiery wash of sensation, and a cry ripped from his throat as his own release tore through him. His legs trembled and he staggered back, barely staying on his feet.

A quick weave released the bonds holding Ellysetta's hands, and she slumped against him, clinging to his neck, her body still quaking. Two steps brought him to a long chaise covered in dark purple velvet, but even before he could lower Ellysetta to her rest, the tairen growled again and a shaft of rekindled heat speared through him. The arms holding Ellysetta tightened as his spent body filled with renewed strength.

Throughout the night, the tairen drove him, relentless, ravenous, refusing to release him. Time after time, bell after bell, with an insatiable passion that outmatched even the night of Ellysetta's carnal weave, he staked his claim. He took her on the chaise, on the floor, bent over a small table, on her knees leaning back against his chest so his hands could have unfettered access to her breasts and the soft, slick folds between her legs. He took her until there was no finger span of flesh she had not surrendered to him, until her voice was hoarse from her cries and her body so sensitized a single flick of his tongue or the slightest breath of Air could make her sob his name and start to shake.

Only as the darkness of night faded in the face of the approaching dawn did the violence that had raged inside him abate and the fierce roar of his tairen finally fall silent. And then, with a whispered prayer of thanks and a sigh of relief, Rain collapsed on the chaise beside Ellysetta and slept.

The Fading Lands ~ Elverial

Ellysetta woke to the sound of water falling and a cool breeze blowing softly through her hair. She started to stretch, then groaned as sore muscles protested the movement.

Her eyes fluttered open. She lay in the middle of an exquisitely shaped bed made of untarnished copper scrolls, draped in soft sheets and piled high with plump pillows in rich shades of green and gold and deep purple. The bed rested at one end of an open-air, copper-roofed room that overlooked a series of frothy waterfalls spilling down the mountainside.

A cool breeze whispered into the room, carrying a scent of wood smoke and roasting fish that made her stomach growl. She gathered the moss green sheets to her body and ignored the flare of aching muscles as she climbed out of bed and walked to the open window arches to look outside.

Rain, wearing only his leather trousers and Fey'cha belts, crouched on the riverbank, roasting a spitted fish over a small log fire. He looked up at her, his expression inscrutable. "Hungry?"

Despite the excesses of last night, a fresh bloom of warmth suffused her at the sight of his bare, shining skin, his muscular arms and broad shoulders, the lean, sculpted strength of his naked chest. "Very." And no longer just for food.

"Stay there." He slid the fish from its wooden spit onto a small platter and strode up a narrow wooden stairway that curved up from the river's edge to the bedroom. "I meant to have a meal prepared before you woke." That was when she noted the small round table and cushioned stools nestled against the far window, set with a vase of fresh woodland flowers and a pitcher of clear water from the stream.

She sat gingerly on one of the stools, and turned her attention outside to hide her faint grimace as little needles of pain shot through her sore muscles. With daylight shining on the stream and surrounding forest, she could see the whole of Elverial's peaceful woodland splendor. "This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It almost looks as if all the buildings grew here as part of the forest."

"Aiyah.
Elvish architects have always had a way of blending their creations with the natural surroundings."

"You said this was your mother's birthplace."

"It was. She descended from an ancient Fey-Elvish bloodline that spanned back to the days when our two peoples were more than mere allies. We came here often when I was a boy."

She could easily imagine a young, bright-eyed Rain running through these forests, climbing trees—she glanced at the plate of roasted fish and smiled—catching fish in the mountain streams. "Why was such a beautiful city abandoned? And so abruptly? It looks like all the people just went away one day, never to return."

"They did. Most who lived here died in the Wars or the forging of the Mists. The rest eventually went to Dharsa to be among other Fey. Here. We need to leave soon, and you should eat before we go. Dax and Marissya have already set out for Fey'Bahren, and I would prefer not to stop until we've caught up with them." He stripped flaky meat from the fish and lifted the steaming morsel to her lips. A ripple of awareness shivered through her as she opened her mouth and ate from his fingers. His lashes lowered, hiding his eyes from her.

She accepted another bite of fish from his hand and frowned when he took none for himself. "You aren't eating?"

"I fed while you slept. This is for you." He handed her another bite.

She shifted her weight on the small stool, then winced as the movement made sore body parts twinge.

Rain's lips tightened.
"Sieks'ta, shei'tani.
My shame is great. I was not gentle with you last night."

She blushed and swallowed the morsel of fish. "I don't recall complaining."

"I did not treat you with the care of a
shei'tan."

"Rain." She put her hand on his to still his fingers from continuing to shred the fish. "I'm fine. If anyone owes an apology, it's me. I insisted on healing the
rasa.
I didn't realize what it would do to you. You tried to tell me, but I refused to hear, because I didn't want to let you stand in my way." Admitting that hurt far more than any physical reminder of last night.

His jaw set in a grim line. "I allowed it. I allowed them to touch you, allowed their pain to torment you, because I am the Defender of the Fey and I needed their blades for war. And then I punished you for it."

"You didn't—"

"You'd already been brutalized more than any mate of mine ever should be. First that seizure in Teleon, then the Mists and the
rasa.
Then me. You cannot deny it." He caught her hands, rubbing the faint ring of bruises on her wrists and scowling at the bluish imprint of his fingers on her upper arms. "I saw these on you when I woke."

She pulled free. "You did not brutalize me. I'm a little sore, yes, but unhurt. Besides"—she touched her fingertips to the reddened marks on his chest where her nails had raked like claws— "you didn't come out completely unscathed."

He glanced down and gave a dismissive snort. "Those marks are nothing."

"And these are nothing."

"They are
not
nothing. You cannot compare the two. I am a warrior and a Tairen Soul. If you broke my bones and drove a blade through my ribs, it would be no more hurt than I receive in a hard day's training at the Academy.
You
are my mate. My sworn duty is to keep you from all harm, yet I put these bruises on you." He met her gaze, his eyes so full of remorse and self-loathing that her heart broke. "I promised you weeks ago that I would control the tairen, that you need never fear it, and last night I unleashed its fury on you."

"Rain—"

"I should have stayed away, hunted longer. You were safe here. I knew better than to return, but I did nonetheless." His throat worked and he looked away, staring blindly at the mountain stream tumbling over the rocks below. "The tairen is not a gentle creature. The one time I lost control of it with Sariel, I frightened her so badly she cried for days."

"Rain." She caught his face between her hands. "I am not Sariel."

"I know that, Ellysetta—"

"Shh." She put a finger to his lips. "You've had your say; now I will have mine. You did not frighten me. Not much, in any case," she amended quickly. "And you did not hurt me. In fact, I can't think of any part of what you did that I did not enjoy." Heat bloomed in her cheeks. Her mother had raised her to be modest and circumspect, and last night, in the heat of passion, she'd done and said many things that mortified her even to remember now, in the light of day. Despite her fierce blush, she held his gaze steadily.

"So much so," she continued, "that I was hoping I might convince you to do some of it again." Now her cheeks felt fiery red, but the stunned look on his face was worth the price. "Do not forget that I am tairen too." Trying very hard to look much braver than she felt, she reached out to brush a thumb across the flat coin of his nipple. The coin tightened instantly to a small, hard point. Fascinated, she rubbed it again.

He caught her wrist and growled a warning. "Ellysetta. Do not toy if you do not mean it. My control is still far from what it should be."

The sound of his growl rumbling across her skin and the sudden flare of heat that emanated from him made her face flush and her breathing grow shallow with vivid sensory memories of last night. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. His gaze fixed instantly on the small movement, and she saw his nostrils flare.

Another memory flashed in vivid detail: Rain, his head bent to her breast, glowing purple eyes holding her gaze as his tongue lapped at the taut peak, filling her with exquisite pleasure. She shivered in her seat and stifled a moan as the aching muscles of her body clenched tight and a rush of now-familiar heat flooded her.

Feeling suddenly quite daring and wicked, she leaned forward. "And what if I do mean it,
shei'tan?"
Holding his gaze, she dipped her head and, in a brazen move totally alien to the good, modest Ellie Baristani her mother had raised, she licked that hard, pointed nipple.

He rose from his seat in a flash, dragging her up into his arms as he went. The sheet she had wrapped around her body fell free, leaving her naked and laughing breathlessly in his arms.

"Just one thing, Rain," she begged. "Please, let's use the bed this time."

Much later, Rain and Ellysetta left the woodland peace of Elverial and raced across the skies of the eastern Fading Lands with the aid of magic-powered flight. They passed the Garreval and caught up with Marissya and Dax by early afternoon.

Rain changed Ellysetta's clothes to brown traveling leathers like the ones Marissya wore, and thanks to his insistence that Marissya heal her before they set out again, Ellysetta was soon loping across the rosy sand of the desert as swiftly as the other three Fey and without a single twinge of soreness. She didn't even break a sweat, despite the heat of the summer sun beating down on the desert, and they were running so fast and so effortlessly that except for the tug of gravity and the rhythmic thud of boot heels hitting earth, she could almost close her eyes and believe she was flying.

There were definite advantages to being Fey.

"I did not expect so much desert," Ellysetta said as she leapt over a small, prickly deep purple shrub Rain called
kaddah.
Gone were the cool waterfalls and sunlight-dappled woods of Elverial. From the west slopes of the Rhakis as far east as Ellysetta could see there was only barren, sandy earth dotted with succulent shrubs like the
kaddah,
and an occasional, stunted tree determinedly clinging to life in the harsh environment. "The Fey poetry I've read talks about sweetgrass glades and gentle streams bordered by shade trees taller than tairen."

A much larger
kaddah
lay in Rain's path. He cleared it with an effortless leap. "Once all the Fading Lands were as you describe, but after the Mage Wars, when we lost so many of our mated women, our lands began reverting to desert."

"You think the loss of the women caused the land to turn to desert?"

"I know it did." He smiled at her surprise.
"Fellana,
the Fey word for woman, derives from the old tongue,
felah'naveth,
which means bringer of life, because when a Fey woman is with child, life literally blooms in her footsteps."

Ellysetta was so surprised, her gait slowed. Rain, Marissya, and Dax passed her, and with a burst of speed, she caught up to them. "You mean…pregnant Fey women can make grass bloom in the desert?"

"Technically, they make Amarynth bloom in whatever soil they tread upon. All other life is seeded from that."

"Amarynth? The undying flower?" Ellysetta had seen mention of Amarynth in the ancient tales and Fey poetry she'd read all her life. Supposedly, the flowers bloomed for a hundred years and had special magical properties. "I always thought they were just a legend."

"So they have seemed even to the Fey for most of these last thousand years. We call them the flower of life. They bloom only in the footsteps of a
fellana
who is with child."

"The gift is a great one," Marissya said, "but it can be exhausting." At Ellysetta's blank look, she explained, "When a Fey woman is with child, her gifts are the strongest they will ever be. The ground around her literally blooms with life. To share that magic, she walks the land. It wasn't so bad before the Mage Wars—Amarynth grew abundantly—but after the Wars, there were no births. The Amarynth faded. By the time I became pregnant with Kieran…Well, let's just say I had plenty of exercise for twelve months."

Beside her, Dax made a haggard face.
"We,"
he interjected.
"We
had plenty of exercise. I measured it. Four thousand miles we walked, and that's not counting the miles spent going from house to house blessing all the other matepairs who were hoping some of Marissya's
fellana
magic would spread to them." He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Best you and Rain pray for a sudden epidemic of fertility among the Fey before the gods shower their gifts upon you. By my reckoning, the first matepair to carry will need to run, not walk, the Fading Lands even to make a dent."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Ellysetta leapt over another
kaddah
plant, spreading her arms as her body momentarily took flight. "I've discovered I like to run." Rain smiled.

Eld ~ Boura Fell

His hand was trembling again.

Vadim Maur clasped his palms together, squeezing his fingers tight, and looked across his desk at Gethen Nour, one of the Mage's most promising former apprentices who had long ago joined the rank of Primages. "I'm sure you've heard that Kolis has recently disappointed me."

Though he tried to hide it, Gethen couldn't completely restrain his instinctive flinch. Kolis's fate had become common talk in the Mage Halls upstairs.

"He still lives," Vadim assured him. Then he smiled. "Unfortunately for him."

Gethen managed to keep his gaze steady. "I hope never to disappoint you, master."

The High Mage nodded. "That is my hope, too, Gethen. And now you have an opportunity to remind me how skillfully you can serve me." Three stripes adorned the cuffs of Gethen's blue Mage robes, only two less than those Primages who served on the Mage Council. Vadim wasn't going to make the same mistake he'd made with Kolis. This time, his envoy would be a full-ranked Mage, as experienced as he was powerful.