King of Sword and Sky (46 page)

When she didn't answer, he frowned and called her on their bond threads, but she still didn't respond. Growing concerned, Rain sent a private weave to Bel. «
Bel? I cannot reach Ellysetta.»

There was a silence. Then, «
Ellysetta's in Fey'Bahren, Rain.»

Hope flickered in Rain's breast. «
She has found a way to save the kits?»

There was another silence, longer this time. «
She thinks she has.»

Rain closed his eyes in relief. It was the best news he'd heard in days. «
Thank the gods. What is it? Some long-forgotten healing weave? How did she find it?»
Bel's third long silence made Rain frown. «
Bel?»
he prodded.

The Fading Lands ~ The Feyls

Rain raced across the peaks of the Feyls like a dark comet streaking against the twilight sky. He flew parallel to the northern section of the Faering Mists, careful to avoid dipping even a wing tip into the radiant cloud of magic.

The Mists had challenged him again when he'd flown through over the Veil, but this time he'd been in no mood to stand for their torment. After a brief, unpleasant few chimes, he'd answered the challenge the way any aggravated tairen would: with a blast of tairen fire. The spirits in the Mists had gone silent then. Perhaps because they'd realized that if they'd tried to stop him, he would have scorched them out of existence. Whether a single Tairen Soul could destroy the Faering Mists was not at all certain, but if they'd continued to stand in his way, he would have found out.

Screaming ropes of Spirit shot out ahead of him, calling to Ellysetta on their private path. When she did not answer, he nearly set the threads of their bond afire with his furious shout. «
Ellysetta! By the gods, you will answer me now!»

At last, she did, and her voice sounded hesitant. Startled. «
Rain, beloved, what is it?»

Fire exploded from his muzzle. «
You are weaving Azrahn? You would do that to us? To me?»

Shock rippled across their bond. And
guilt. «How did you kn
—» Her voice broke off. «
Bel.»

He didn't bother to confirm it. «
You will stop this madness immediately! I'm coming to Fey'Bahren. If Gaelen is still there when I arrive, I will kill him.»

«Rain! Wait! It's not what you think. I'm not weaving Azrahn. I wouldn't do that to you. I learned my lesson at Chakai. What choices we make, we make together, shei'tan. Please, you've got to believe me. I'm only
—»

Whatever else she had to say was lost when he cut the connection of their bond threads. He powered the energy of his Rage into his flight, and he raced across the sky faster than he ever had before.

It was full night when he reached Fey'Bahren, and the campfire on Su Reisu shone like a beacon in the night, illuminating the slender figure of Ellysetta and the tall, dark warrior in her company.

Vel Serranis.

Rain's wings tucked in tight. He put on a last, powerful burst of speed and shot towards the ground like a meteor.

Ellysetta must have sensed both his presence and his intent, because she leapt in front of vel Serranis and flung her arms out protectively. "Rain, wait!"

He didn't slow a bit. He simply Changed. The rainbow mist of his magic swept over Ellysetta and Gaelen like a hard wind and gathered together into his Fey body behind them. He hit the ground in a tucked roll and came up in attack stance, teeth bared and snarling.

"Rain!" Ellysetta cried again. "It's not what you think!"

He shoved her back with a puff of Air and bound her in place with a five-fold weave. To Gaelen, he growled, "Defend yourself," just before his fist shot out, plowing into the underside of Gaelen's jaw. Vel Serranis went flying. Rain leapt on him and began pummeling.

The fight didn't last long. Rain had not spent those weeks of training under Gaelen's tutelage without learning a great deal about how the other Fey fought and how best to defeat him. And Gaelen, cocky
rultshart
though he was, knew he had it coming. When vel Serranis was groaning and breathless and his pretty face was sufficiently bruised and bloodied, Rain shoved him aside, got to his feet, and released Ellysetta from his weave.

"We weren't weaving Azrahn, Rain," Ellysetta protested. "We only used Spirit. I wouldn't make a choice so grave without you."

"I know." He wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of one hand. "I realized the truth not long after we spoke. You asked me to believe you. Once I shook off the worst of my Rage, I realized you were right. I did need to believe you, to trust that you would never intentionally bring us to harm. Then I realized what Bel believed had to be wrong. That there had to be some other explanation."

Her jaw dropped. "Then why … ?" She gestured to Gaelen, who had rolled into a sitting position and was massaging his dislocated jaw.

"Because he deserved it." Rain nudged Gaelen's thigh with the toe of his boot. "You need to accept the laws of this pride, vel Serranis. You may be her
lu'tan,
but I am her mate. Endanger her again—even by her command—and you will answer to me."

Gaelen held his gaze for a long moment, then laughed, spat a mouthful of blood, and nodded. "Accepted."

"Kabei."
Rain turned his complete attention back to Ellysetta. "And now,
shei'tani,
you can explain to me just
what in the jaffing fires of the Seven Hells you were thinking?"

She flinched at the bottled fury that turned each word into a whip of flame, but she stood her ground. "I know how to save the tairen, Rain, but I have to weave Azrahn to do it."

The Fading Lands ~ Fey'Bahren

Rain wrapped his arms around Ellysetta, holding her even as her arms extended to the nearest tairen egg. He wanted to snatch her back, out of the path of danger. What was he thinking even to consider this? She was his
shei'tani,
his truemate, the one being he must protect at all cost—even if that cost was the life of every tairen and Fey who still walked the earth.

"Ellysetta…"
Forgive me, Sybharukai.
"What if the Eye was wrong? You aren't a trained seer. You could easily have misunderstood its message."

"I didn't misunderstand."

He shook his head, afraid for her, desperate to stop her. "
Nei
, I've changed my mind. This is too dangerous." He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss into her palm. "No Fey would ever ask such a sacrifice of you."

She laid her free hand over his. "But the Fey haven't asked it of me, Rain. The gods have." She feathered her fingers across his skin. «
For every great gift, shei'tan, there is a great price.»

"This price is too great."

She forced a wobbly smile. "One more Mark isn't so much to save the world." When his eyes continued to bore into her, burning with despair, her smile faded into somberness. "I have to try. And you have to let me. If I don't do this, the tairen will die. Marissya's child will die. And so will all the Fey. If I don't do this … if I don't stop the High Mage now … it will be too late for all of us."

"Ellysetta—"

"These are not just tairen, Rain. These are the brothers and sisters of the tairen tied to my soul. They are … my family." She drew him close and pressed her lips to his throat. She was acting far braver and more certain than she felt, and she wanted him to know that.
"Sieks'ta,
I am bullying you, and I should not. This choice is one we must make together. I won't make it for us. I've done enough of that already.
Ku'shalah aiyah to nei, shei'tan.
Bid me yes or no. And know that if your choice is
nei,
I will accept it and walk away."

"And the world of the Fey will die."

"Aiyah."

He closed his eyes and bent his head, touching his forehead to hers. "I am afraid," he whispered. "Afraid with a fear I would never feel for myself."

Tears gathered in her eyes. She blinked them back. "I know."

His lips slanted over hers in a fierce, passionate kiss. His breath, his essence, poured into her, while his arms wrapped her tight and held her close. «
Ver reisa
ku'chae. Kem surah, shei'tani.»

«Ke vo san, shei'tan.»

He drew back briefly, then returned for several more kisses before he nodded and stepped away.
"Aiyah.
Though it's like stabbing a
lute'cha
into my own heart, my answer is
aiyah.
Do what you must. But just this once, beloved. Just this once to save the ones we love."

"Just this once," she agreed. She knew how difficult it was for him to let her proceed. She could feel the fear, the desperate need to protect her battering his will. If the tairen's plight were any less dire, he would have refused and let the gods and the Eld determine which kitling lived or died.

Sybharukai approached, her paws silent on the sands, her sleek body regal and purposeful. «
Be brave, Ellysetta-makai.»
The shimmering music of the
makai's
voice sounded in every cell of Ellie's body, pure and beautiful, ancient and wise. «
Your mate offers you his strength, and I offer you the strength of the pride. You do not face this evil alone.»
Sybharukai bent her head and opened her mouth. Tairen's Eye crystals dropped to the sands, several dozen of them, large and gleaming with bright rainbow lights in a matrix of deepest ruby. «
You have not found your song, but these are crystals carved from the kiyranis of my most powerful ancestors. Use them. Let their magic supplement and focus your own.»

Ellysetta gathered the stones, and Rain spun them into a golden necklace that he set around her throat. The
kiyr
were powerful indeed. The moment they touched her skin, their energy amplified hers. Her body tingled, and the heavy, curling mass of her hair crackled with energy.

She turned and approached the eggs. Her heart was pounding like a wild drum in her chest, and her throat felt tight and dry, as if all moisture in her body had been sucked away.
Please, gods, if you listen to me at all, listen to me now. Please let this work. Please help me save them. Don't let me fail.

The weaves the Eye had revealed weren't all that different from some of the more advanced healing weaves the
shei'dalins
had shown her this week as they'd sought ways to save the tairen. But where healing was fragrant and warm, Azrahn had a sickly sweet odor and froze the blood in her veins. Even the illusion of it during practice had made her feel ill, which just went to show what a master of Spirit Gaelen was and how intimately he'd come to know the effects of weaving Azrahn.

She now knew, thanks to Gaelen's detailed instruction, exactly where to find the source of Azrahn within herself, how to summon it, how to feed the power into the patterns the Eye of Truth had shown her.

This time, however, the Azrahn she spun would be real, not illusion.

She drew a breath and steadied her nerves before taking the last, resolute steps towards the waiting eggs. Time to do what she'd come for.

She nodded to Rain. He raised his hands and spun a five-fold protection weave around her. It was a fool's hope—she already knew she would not survive this night without another Mark—but he had insisted on weaving what protection he could.

"Sing to them, please, Sybharukai."

Instantly, the vibrant beauty of the great
makai's
song filled the cavern, swirling around the eggs in flashes of gold and silver. Within their shells, the hatchlings began to croon along with their grandmother's melody. The rest of the pride and Rain joined in, filling the air with magic.

In the deliberate calm of her mind, Ellysetta anchored herself as Venarra had taught her, forming the small partition in her mind, securing the heart of her essence within: the safety valve that would cut her off from her weaves before she lost herself in her healing.

Then she began to weave.

She summoned the elements first, spinning the threads into the patterns the
shei'dalins
had taught her to encourage the growth of flesh and bone. The kitlings wiggled and stretched in their eggs and chortled with little chuffs of laughter, as if the warm weaves tickled them.

Into the warm, healing weave, Ellysetta added the first cool thread of Azrahn.

The kitlings' songs and laughter turned to whimpers of distress. The tiny bodies that had wriggled against the confines of their shells now shrank and shivered in fear.

«Nei, little kits,»
she crooned, adding her voice to the songs of the pride. «
It's me, sweetlings. Ellysetta. Don't be afraid.»

But even as she coaxed them, she felt the flutter of something dark and dangerous. Something roused by her thread of Azrahn.

Frightened, she started to pull back, but the whimpers of the kitlings made her stop. She was their only hope. She could not abandon them. And these were the patterns the Eye had shown her she must weave.

Gritting her teeth, she spun another thread of Azrahn and added it to the mix, then another and another, weaving the chilly, rippling threads of red-tinged darkness into the shining mix of healing magic.

Eld
~
Boura Fell

In the chambers of the Mage Council, the High Mage and Eld's most powerful Primages were meeting to discuss the final preparations for war. Vadim Maur stood before the map of Eloran's largest continent, where their first targets had already been decided.

"The troops are ready, Most High." Primage Sib Vargus bowed to his superior. "Give the word and they will enter the Well."

Vadim Maur opened his mouth to utter the command, but before he could speak, a wholly unexpected, wholly familiar tingle of powerful magic swept over him. He grabbed the edges of the map table to keep himself steady and closed his eyes in a shudder of delight.

Ellysetta Baristani was weaving Azrahn. Sweet, powerful, glorious Azrahn.

It sang across his veins, resonating with incredible vitality and power. Even here, half a world away, he could feel the enormous wellspring of her potential. Her mastery of the great power was sublime—such fine weaves. Such innate comprehension and prodigal talent.

His for the claiming.

He struck, swift and hard, lashing out across the connection of her existing two Marks with a brutal whip of power and a triumphant salutation. «
Hello, girl.»

The Fading Lands ~ Fey'Bahren

Even knowing it was coming—even expecting the pain and despair of it—Ellysetta still screamed and fell to her knees when the High Mage's power stabbed deep into her breast and pierced her heart. Ice gripped her in a paralyzing embrace. Her vision went black, and in the darkness she saw the twin bloody moons of glowing ember eyes, heard the familiar taunting voice of her enemy. «
Hello, girl.»

There was no point in fighting. She'd spun the forbidden magic, knowing it would open her soul to him. Just as it had that day in Celieria's cathedral.

This time, she let the power wash over her and accepted the Mage's gloating triumph without resistance. She let it stab her, freeze her, bind her.

Then she crawled back to her feet and continued to weave.

The Mage's consciousness flickered with surprise. He was linked to her through his three Marks and the power she was wielding. He knew she was still weaving. «
What are you doing, girl?»
She felt the cold, probing fingers reaching into her soul, prying at her mind in an effort to read her intentions, looking for some clue that would tell him where she was and what she was up to. She clenched her teeth and tried to block him out, all the while continuing to spin the forbidden magic.

Her whole body was shivering now, her mouth filled with gagging sweetness. A third shadowy Mark had joined the first two on her left breast, and the dark trio throbbed in time with her pulse, like knives of ice thrust into her heart, vibrating with every rhythmic beat.

Rain, in tairen form, continued to sing to the kits. He didn't try to connect to her through the threads of their truemate bond. She'd made him swear he wouldn't do that while she wove the dark magic, afraid the Mage would be able to use her as a tool to Mark him. But she could still sense his fear and horror. He sang strength and reassurance to the kits, but for himself and her he had none. His tairen claws dug deep into the sand, and his tail whipped against the rock walls of the cavern in helpless distress.

Ellysetta forced herself to block out his emotions and the cries of the kits so she could concentrate on her weaves. There was no room for mistakes or wild, instinctive, uncontrollable magic. As Gaelen had impressed upon her again and again during their bells of practice, Azrahn was too dangerous a magic to allow even the tiniest lapse of control.

She drew upon the discipline Venarra and Jaren had drilled into her, keeping her mind focused and her weaves steady and strong, using the power of the Tairen's Eye crystals around her neck and waist and wrist to amplify and concentrate her magic.

She went from egg to egg, spinning Azrahn, carefully weaving the threads down the invisible, spider-silk-thin connections that tied the egg-bound kitlings to the Well of Souls. She used those threads as the conduit through which she fed her Azrahn-enhanced healing weaves.

The High Mage sensed what she was doing. His glacial anger washed over her. «
Foolish girl. You are tampering with powers you do not understand.»

Eld ~ Boura Fell

Vadim Maur shoved back from the map table. She dared? The
umagi
he had created—the creature whose extraordinary powers he had engineered for his own greatness—dared use those gifts to challenge her master?

The room was silent and icy. The Primages were staring at him, expressionless and watchful. His brows plummeted, and the temperature in the room fell further.

If that troublesome little
petchka
thought she could best the High Mage of Eld, she had a harsh lesson to learn.

"Order your commanders to assemble their troops. If I'm not back within four bells, send the armies into the Well."

He turned and stalked out of the room and down the corridor to his personal chambers.

"Master Maur!" The
umagi
who tended his personal affairs leapt to his feet when Vadim stormed in.

"Fetch Tallinn," he snapped, referring to the third near-term pregnant woman awaiting her child's gift from the Well. "No, wait, fetch her and the other three who are closest to term. I want them all in the birthing chamber in half a bell!" Each word cracked with ice.

The servant bowed and scraped and nearly fell over himself rushing for the door. "Of course, great one. Immediately."

Ellysetta Baristani thought she would rob him of his Tairen Souls? She would regret her impudence. Purple robes swirled as Vadim stormed into his office and headed for the chamber where he kept his most precious implements of power, including the two remaining needles that held Ellysetta Baristani's blood.