Crown of Crystal Flame (3 page)

His head bowed.
Shei’tani.
The word escaped his battered mind, filled with sorrow and despair. “I need to keep you safe.”

“The safest place for me is at your side. Whatever happens, we face it together.”

His eyes closed and he nodded.
“Doreh shabeila de.”
So shall it be. She pulled him close, stroking his hair and back, and he kissed her tenderly. But when tenderness blossomed to passion, and he would have borne her down upon the bed, she stopped him.

“If this is to be our last night together,
shei’tan,
I don’t want to spend it here, in a strange room in a cold castle on the borders.”

His brows rose. “Then where would you have us go?”

“To the Fading Lands.” When he frowned in confusion, she lifted a hand. The lavender glow of Spirit, the magic of thought and illusion, gathered in her palm. “I want to spend our last night in Dharsa, with our friends and family around us and the tairen singing from the rooftops and the scent of Amarynth in the air.”

Rain’s lips curved in understanding. “I think, between the two of us, we can arrange that.” His weave joined her own, threads merging and spilling out across the room. The walls, the bed, all of Celieria faded away, replaced by the perfect beauty of Dharsa and the gardens near the golden Hall of Tairen.
Faerilas,
the magic-infused waters of the Fading Lands, burbled in exquisite marble fountains, and the air was redolent with the scents of jasmine, honey-blossom, and Amarynth, the flower of life. The Fey were singing, the music rising into a soft evening sky. Fairy flies winked and glittered amidst the flowers and trees.

And there, standing in the great marble arches, stood Ellysetta’s family. Mama and Papa and the twins. Her Fey parents, Shan and Elfeya, healthy and whole and free, their faces alight with love. Kieran and Kiel, Adrial and Talisa, and Rain’s parents, Rajahl and Kiaria. Even sweet, shy, gentle Sariel, Rain’s first love, was there, dancing the Felah Baruk with the joyful Fey maidens and fierce-eyed Fey.

Rain and Ellysetta joined them. They danced and they sang, and as the night deepened, they walked out into the perfumed gardens and made love beneath the stars.

And overhead, the sky was filled with tairen.

And the world was filled with joy.

The Faering Mists

Lillis Baristani had never been happier in her life. She didn’t know if she’d died and gone to the Haven of Light or if the Faering Mists was a magical place where dreams came true. Either way, she never wanted to leave. Mama, who died in the Cathedral of Light this summer, was here. And Lillis spent every day glued to her side, sitting beside her on a wooden swing in the misty garden, cooking and laughing with her in the kitchen, lying with her head in Mama’s lap as Mama read to her at night. Everything she’d missed since Mama had died. Everything she’d wished she could do again.

Every moment seemed perfect, enchanted. And Mama was even more wonderful than Lillis could ever remember her being. It was as if whatever had happened that day in the Cathedral of Light had changed Mama, stripping her of the fear and disapproval that had so often darkened her eyes.

Tonight, Lillis and Mama cuddled together on the suspended wooden swing Papa had installed on the back of their house, rocking gently as they watched the fairy flies dance across the garden, trailing glittering fairy-fly dust in their wake. As they rocked, Lillis heard herself confess that she and Lorelle had revealed their magic to Papa and to the Fey.

The chime the words were out, she clapped a hand over her mouth and wished them back, but instead of delivering the sharp chide Lillis expected, Mama only smiled and stroked Lillis’s hair.

“It’s all right, kitling,” she said. “I should have told the truth myself long ago, but I was afraid.”

That made Lillis’s eyes go wide. Mama? Afraid? But she never feared anything. Lillis was the scaredy-cat of the family. “What were you afraid of, Mama?”

“Oh, many things.” Mama sighed. “Mostly I was afraid to face the truth about myself. And afraid that what happened to my sister might somehow happen to you or Lorelle or Ellie.”

Lillis leaned back to look up at her mother in surprise. “I never knew you had a sister.”

“She died long ago.” Mama’s eyes were dark and sad. “Her name was Bessinita… my sweet little Bess… and I loved her more than anything in the world.” Then Mama had told her how Bess had been a Fire weaver, too, like Lorelle and Mama, only when Bess was two, she accidentally burned a neighbor’s house down. The villagers had insisted on winding Bess—taking the baby out into the dark Verlaine Forest and abandoning her there to die.

“What did you do?”

“There wasn’t anything I could do. I wasn’t even as old as you are now.” She rested her chin on the top of Lillis’s head. “I prayed and prayed that someone would find her before the
lyrant
did, or if nothing else, that the Bright Lord would send his Lightmaidens to carry Bess away to the Haven of Light.”

Tears turned Lillis’s vision hazy. “Poor little baby. Poor little Bess.”

“That was why I was always so afraid of magic, kitling. Not because I thought you or Lorelle was horrible for having magic, but because I’d been taught that magic was evil, that it could make the people who had it evil, too. I was so afraid of what people would do if they knew.”

“But you’re not afraid anymore?”

Mama smiled gently. “No, kitling. When I let love be my guide, fear lost its power over me.”

“So you’re not mad at us for telling?” Lillis asked.

“Of course not.” Mama pressed a kiss in Lillis’s curls. “I’m very proud of you and Lorelle both, and I’m proud of Ellie, too. I love you all more than I can say.”

“I love you too, Mama.” Lillis snuggled closer and closed her eyes in bliss. Her arms squeezed tight around Mama’s neck, holding her close, and she breathed deep of the special scent that was Mama’s own, the scent of home and love and security, where bad people never came, and monsters never howled. “I never want to lose you again.”

Mama caressed Lillis’s hair in slow, rhythmic strokes, and the beat of her heart thumped reassuringly beneath Lillis’s ear. “I’ll always be with you, Lillipet. No matter what. If ever you’re feeling alone or afraid, just remember that. And remember this, too: We are all the gods’ children. All our gifts come from them. It’s what we do with those gifts that determines whether we walk in Light or Shadow. The choice is ours. When you see Ellie again, will you tell her that for me? And tell her I said to let love, not fear, be her guide.”

“You can tell her yourself. Once Kieran and Kiel get here, we can all go find Ellie together.”

Mama smiled. “I think she’ll understand it better if it comes from you. Will you promise me, kitling?”

Lillis frowned a little but agreed with an obedient, “Yes, Mama.”

“And you won’t forget? No matter what?” “No, Mama.”

Her reward was a kiss and another hug. “That’s my sweet Lillipet.”

Lillis burrowed into her mother’s arms, closing her eyes in bliss as Mama’s love and warmth enveloped her.

Celieria ~ Kreppes
25
^th
day of Verados

As the watchtower of Kreppes rang six golden bells, the guards fresh from the dining hall and a good night’s sleep climbed the steps to replace the night watch. Soft light from the rising Great Sun lit Celierian fields untouched by war and the perfectly aligned rows of creamy canvas tents fanned out to the west and south of the castle walls. Across the Heras River to the north, the dark fir-and spruce-filled forests of Eld remained empty of all signs of an approaching army.

“Are you so sure they
are
coming?” Dorian asked Rain, as the two kings toured the ramparts. “You claimed the attack would come last night, yet it did not.”

“Hawksheart said the attack would come last night,” Rain corrected. “I don’t know why he misread what he Saw.”

“What if you’re wrong about
where
the attack is coming, too? What if Celieria City is the real target? I’ve effectively emptied the city of defenders. I marched half my armies here and sent the other half to King’s Point with my son on your word that an attack was imminent. I left only a few garrisons to protect the city itself. Please, tell me I have not made the most colossal mistake of my lifetime.”

“Celieria City was neither the target specified by the Mage we captured nor the target Hawksheart warned us to protect,” Rain said.

“And yet, here we stand, and there is not an enemy in sight.” The Celierian king folded his arms over his chest. “Or is there perhaps some other important little tidbit of information you’ve been keeping from me? Some reason you wanted me here that you thought I’d be better off not knowing?”

“Nei,
there is not. I have always spoken true. I may not have told you everything, but I’ve never lied to you.”

“Oh, right. You don’t lie. That would be dishonorable. Instead, you just manipulate and deliberately mislead.”

Rain’s muscles drew tight as his temper rose. Dorian had a right to his suspicions, but this was deliberate insult. “Are you going to throw that in my face every time I advise you? The enemy may not have attacked last night, as Hawksheart said they would, but there remains no doubt in my mind that they will. There is no doubt in my mind that we are facing the deadliest battle of our lifetime. Our ability to strike any sort of significant blow against this High Mage’s army will depend on how closely we can work together, how much we can trust each other.”

“Perhaps you should have thought of that before you chose to deceive me.” A hard north wind blew Dorian’s blue cloak back off his shoulders and tugged strands of dark hair from his queue to whip about his face.

“Spit and scorch me!” Cursing under his breath, Rain stalked to the crenellated edge of the battlement. He grabbed the edges of the stone and held on as tightly as he was holding the fraying edges of his temper.

Ellysetta was down in the encampment with her quintet, checking on Rowan and making the rounds of the Fey and Celierian armies—ostensibly to see if any of the warriors needed healing, but really to start mending fences and rebuilding damaged trust. As important as that was, Rain should have known better than to take this walk with Dorian without her. Thanks to his encroaching bond madness, his ability to control his temper proved elusive when he strayed too far from Ellysetta’s side. Even the smallest conflict sparked his tairen’s ire—and considering that a tairen’s idea of diplomacy was to flame-roast his opponent and eat his smoking carcass, that was not particularly helpful.

Rain stared across the river at Eld and counted to ten. The enemy, he reminded himself, lay there—across the river. Not standing here beside him. He clung to that truth and used it to force back the growing threat of his tairen.

“I’ve already said I was wrong,” he told Celieria’s king. “But do not forget—the decision I made came after a summer full of difficulties dealing with your people. I warned you war was coming, but you and your Council ignored my concerns and rejected my warnings until the Eld attacked the Grand Cathedral of Light and tried to capture my
shei’tani.”
Ellysetta would have been proud of how calm and controlled he sounded, how neatly he laid out his argument, when all he really wanted to do was grab Dorian by the throat and shake some sense into him. “The anti-Fey sentiment so prevalent amongst your nobles—your Queen, among them—was still fresh in my mind.”

“All Annoura and those nobles ever did was warn me that Fey would manipulate mortal minds. It seems to me that all you did with the whole Talisa and Adrial fiasco was prove them right!”

Rain drew a long, deliberate breath. “As I told you,” he reiterated slowly, “I did what I thought best at the time. Adrial remained with his
shei’tani,
but I tried to make certain that if his presence had been discovered, you would be absolved of all blame.”

“So you lied to me—manipulated me—for my own benefit?”

“You and I are kings, Dorian. You know as well as I do that in politics, truth is often the first casualty. I doubt you can claim with any shred of honesty that you’ve never manipulated facts or obfuscated in order to avoid a conflict or do what you believed was right.” When Dorian did not immediately reply, Rain knew the thrust had struck home. “Fey do not lie. That puts us at a severe disadvantage when dealing with mortals who have no such scruples. So, we have learned to dance the blade’s edge of truth, to veil truths we do not wish to share. It is a survival tactic we have found necessary when dealing with your kind.”

“I
am
your kind—or so I always believed myself.” Dorian was the descendant of Marikah vol Serranis of the Fey, Gaelen vel Serranis’s twin. “But apparently my blood is not Fey enough for you to feel the same—or to trust me as I have always trusted you.”

“Setah,”
Rain rumbled. “Enough.” His hands slashed through the air with curt command. “What is done cannot be undone. Will you allow hubris to keep us at each other’s throats, or can we agree mistakes were made on both sides and move on? “

“Hubris?” Dorian’s brows rose. “Is it hubris to want to know how far I can trust an ally? “

“You can trust us to defend Celieria from the Eld!” Rain snapped. “You can trust us to stand against our common enemy and give no quarter. To die by your side. You can trust that the Fey will not leave this battlefield so long as a single Eld soldier stands with weapon in hand. Can that not be enough? “

“I suppose it will have to be.”

Ill-humored and grudging though it was, that was the sound of capitulation. Rain closed his eyes for a brief moment and drew another long, deep breath of the icy northern air. His nerves felt as if he’d just spent a full day being scoured and pummeled by the Spirit masters of the Warrior’s Academy. His head hurt, and every muscle in his body was clenched tight with the effort he’d expended to keep his dangerous temper and wayward thoughts in check.

“Beylah vo,
King Dorian.”

Dorian put his hands on the cold stone and leaned over one of the deep crenels as he gazed northward into Eld. “So you do truly believe they’re coming?”