Queen of Song and Souls (25 page)

At the sight of the Mages, hot anger sparked to life deep inside her, and a familiar voice hissed,
Vengeance
.
Vengeance. Make them pay for what they've done.
She clapped frantic hands over her ears and cried, "Stop it!"

Another demon spawned barely two man lengths from her, and two
lu’tan
died before her quintet vanquished the dark thing with blazing tenfold weaves.

"Flames scorch it," Tajik swore. "If we don't get rid of those archers and the Mages calling those demons, we'll all be dead inside of half a bell."

"If we can get rid of the dahl'reisen holding the invisibility weaves, the Eld won't find it so easy to evade our blades." Bel glanced at Ellysetta, then away. His eyes took on the faint lavender glow of Spirit.

A few moments later, Rain's voice sounded urgently on a private Spirit weave.
«Ellysetta. Forgive me, shei'tani, but we need your help to locate the dahl'reisen. None of us can sense
them, but you can if we lower your shields. And if you can find them, you can guide our aim so we can take them out and bring down their invisibility weaves.»

She looked at the fallen
lu'tan
and the desperate battle raging around her. Once more, the familiar terrible rage rose up from within her and clawed for release.
Kill them all. Shred
their flesh from their bones.

Having just felt Lathiel's torment after he'd slain that
dahl'reisen,
she knew what Rain was asking her to do. Simply opening herself up enough to sense the
dahl'reisen
would cause her incredible pain. But that would pale in comparison to the agony the
lu'tan
—and she, through their
lute'asheiva
bond-would feel when they killed the
dahl'reisen
holding the weaves. But she also knew that if they didn't do something soon they were all dead. Or worse than dead. What choice was there?

«
Do it
,» she said. And the wild, angry thing inside her hissed its delight.

Rain sent the instruction to Bel on a grim private weave. «
Do
it, Bel.
» He stifled his protective
shei’tan’s
instincts and braced himself for a fierce surge of Rage. Once those shields came down and Ellysetta could sense the
dahl'reisen,
her pain would drive him to the edge of madness. He knew it. Bel knew it. He just hoped he had strength enough to keep the tairen in check.

Sel'dor
burned in his chest, arm, and thighs where the Eld's foul missiles had struck him, leaving the barbs buried deep in his flesh. His Fey body continually tried to heal the wounds, but the
sel'dor
responded by burning like acid and twisting his magic into pain. There was enough
sel'dor
in him make each breath an effort and set his teeth on edge each time he spun a weave, but not enough to stop a tairen in full Rage from changing.

He had been hiding the truth these last weeks from Ellysetta . . . from everyone. Bel suspected, but then, Bel had known him too well for too long. There wasn't much he could hide from his oldest and dearest friend.

The bond madness had begun. The little slips of control were growing more frequent: The times he broadcast thoughts he'd meant to keep private, how quick he was to anger—and how hotly his temper burned when it came- He didn't know how much time he had left, but it wouldn't be long. The war would see to that. Every battle—each life he took in defense of Ellysetta and the Fading Lands—drove him that much closer to the edge of his control and his sanity.

«Prepare yourself,
Rain,» Bel warned on a private weave. «
We're lowering her shields now.»

Rain closed his eyes and drew as deep a breath as the throbbing shrapnel in his chest allowed.
Please, gods, whatever
happens, don't let me fly. Teska, don't let me fly.
One scorching of the world was enough for any lifetime.

Ellysetta thought she was prepared to open her unshielded senses near
dahl'reisen.
She thought she knew what to expect.

She was wrong.

Dark emotions screamed down her veins, invaded her blood, ate at her body from the inside out. Despair. Rage. Hatred Vile, virulent emotions. Whatever had once been good and honorable when these
dahl’reisen
were Fey was utterly gone now. What remained in its place was such bitter hate that the briefest touch of her mind against it made her whole body revolt.

The difference between them and what Gaelen had been before she restored his soul was staggering. His torment had defied description, true, but his soul had still stubbornly clung to the Light, to some concept of honor. He'd still retained the memory of love in his heart. The
dahl’reisen
in the service of Eld were well down the Dark Path, beyond redemption. They took savage pleasure in watching the deaths of their former brothers. They hated them for the Light that still shone within them, and they wanted to crush it, to extinguish it.

"Ellysetta." Bel prodded her urgently, "Ellysetta, quickly, show us where they are so we can reweave your shields. Hurry. For all our sakes."

She turned her head in Rain's direction. Across the field of battling
lu'tan,
she could see him clearly, see the fierce determination on his face as he fought not only his enemies but also his response to her pain. She was broadcasting it to him through the threads of their bond. She was broadcasting it to the
lu’tan
as well.

Gods. She pressed the heel of her palms against her temples and tried to slam her barriers back in place, tried to block out the overwhelming flood of tormented emotion.

«
Ellysetta
.» Bel urged again, «
I know it hurts, but we need
you to
concentrate on finding the dahl'reisen. Find the source of
your pain, and you will find them. That's all we need.
Teska,
kem'mareska.»

It wasn't as easy as all that. At the moment, the source of her pain was all of them. Her pain hurt Rain and the
lu'tan,
and their pain echoed back at her, each amplifying the other, building a harmonic of agony and despair, until she could hardly stop herself from screaming and ripping at her own skin

"Kem'falla."
A hand gripped hers. A cool clarity cut through the layers of pain. She opened her eyes to find Gaelen standing before her, his ice blue gaze steady and direct. "Give me the pain. Feed it to me. I've borne it before, and I can bear it again; You know I can. Let me bear it for you, for all of them."

"Gaelen.. ."

“Give it to me.”

She wasn't certain whether she fed him the pain or he just took it. Either way, the blinding agony began to fade. The flicker of Gaelen's eyelashes and the tightening of his mouth were the only outward signs of his suffering.

"Kabei,"
he said. "Now, forget about the pain. The pain doesn't exist. Find the hate. Find the bitterness, the blame. The anger towards the Fey. Find self over sacrifice. That's how you'll know these
dahl’reisen.
."

She nodded. Concentrating was easier now, without debilitating overload to her senses. Slowly, hesitant to open herself up to agony again, she peeled back the outer layers of her internal shields and sent a questing thread of empathic awareness outside herself. As Gaelen instructed, she tried to filter her senses to detect only the dark, selfish emotions Gaelen had described, the blame and anger towards the Fey.

There. Her mind zeroed in on a well of bitterness and hate.

"I see it." Gaelen gestured to the others, directing them to the location in Ellysetta's mind. A moment later, the foul hatred simply... disappeared. A sharp pain lanced across senses, but it was gone almost instantly. "Well-done,
kem'falla.”
Gaelen's voice sounded breathless, strained. "That was perfect.”

"Gaelen." She started to open her eyes and turn to him. He'd absorbed the pain of the dahl’reisen’s death. "
Nei
. I'm fine.
Teska,
find the next. Quickly."

Ellysetta's efforts were working. The invisibility weaves were failing, and now the Fey weren't the only ones dying.

Rain found what hope he could in that and clung to it desperately. His breath came in ragged gasps. Fey'cha flew like lightning from his fingertips, and scores of Eld fell to his blades. Each death was a bitter, searing draft of darkness, another heavy weight slung around his neck until he could scarce move beneath the weight,

Still, he fought grimly. Ellysetta's life was at stake. If he didn't fight, the Eld would take her. There was no choice but to fight. His blades flew and came back with each choked mutter of his return word, to be plucked from their sheaths and sent flying again. His vision went red and blurry as pain battered him and the Rage crowded the edges of his control. Mage Fire roared towards the Fey. He flung a five-fold weave in its path, and the two magics exploded with concussive force. He heard the Eld scream, The Tairen Soul! Kill the Tairen Soul! Bring him down now!"

Sel'dor
arrows flew towards him. Savage blasts of Air and Fire knocked down and incinerated many, but his body shuddered and fire seared his veins as the longer, more damaging spears pierced his armor and his flesh. He roared and yanked the missiles free. His hand shot up, but the magic he called didn't come. Too much
sel'dor
burning, twisting acid eating at his flesh as the Rage consumed his brain. He roared again. A bloody red haze covered his vision. There was nothing in his mind now except the need to kill, to slaughter, to destroy. Screaming a wordless battle cry, he plunged into the midst of the Eld,
meicha
in one hand, red Fey'cha in the other, slashing, gutting, stabbing, rending. Blood bathed him in hot, red death, and he howled with triumph and savage joy.

"Got him!" Tajik cried. "I think that's the last one." The invisibility weaves were down, the enemy now in full view.

"Beylah
sallan," Ellysetta wept. She slammed her shields back into place while the warriors around her respun the protective twenty-five-fold weaves. With a ragged moan, Gaelen released her. He managed to add a thread of Azrahn to her shield weaves before he staggered a short distance away, doubled over and began to vomit helplessly in the blood-soaked grass.

"Gaelen." She started to go to him. He'd suffered far worse than she. He'd taken the brunt of the
dahl'reisen
pain into himself, using his soul's connection with hers to shield her.

"Ellysetta." Bel grabbed her shoulder with sharp urgency. "Gaelen will be fine. You need to call Rain. Call to him now.”

She turned, and her heart froze. Rain stood in the middle of an Eld horde, separated from the main force of the Fey soaked in blood from head to toe, his face a mask of gore. His teeth bared in a snarl of savage, mindless Rage while his blades hacked and slashed without mercy or surcease. An Eld soldier, little more than a boy, fell to his knees before him clearly pleading for his life. Rain's sword swung and the boy’s head flew from his shoulders.

"Rain." Ellysetta gasped in horror. "Oh, dear gods, Rain.” Then her eyes caught sight of the three Primages behind him, of the growing ball of Mage Fire gathering above their hands. Horror turned to terror, and she screamed a warning: "Rain! Look out! Fey!
Ti'Feyreisen! Ti'Feyreisen!"

The Mages prepared to launch their Fire.

A sudden streak of light zipped across Ellysetta’s vision. The Mage Fire winked out as the three Primages clutched the blazing arrows embedded in their chests. Their bodies shuddered and began to glow, as if lit from within by the light of the Great Sun. Shrieking, they burst into flames.

More streaks of light flew across the night sky, and more Eld wailed as they lit up like candleshades and burst into flames.

"What is that?"

"Not what. Who." Bel's grim expression tightened with the first signs of genuine hope, and he pointed to a line of warriors who had appeared in the distance, surrounded by a faint golden glow. "The Elves have come."

With their invisibility weaves gone and the sun-bright arrows of the Elves dispatching Primages and Eld soldiers at a swift rate, the Eld fled in full retreat. Azrahn weaves opened portals to the Well of Souls, and those lucky enough to be near one as it opened ran for the relative safety of the Well. The rest of the enemy force died beneath Fey and Elvish firepower.

Even before the enemy was gone, Ellysetta was racing across the field towards Rain. She summoned her full strength of
shei’dalin’s
love, gathering as much power as her body could. hold and more, spinning it in weaves of peace and love that she flung towards Rain,

Shei'tan!»
The first slight touch of his mad, ravaged mind made her weep. There was nothing of her beloved Rain left, nothing of his gentle Fey heart, his guilt and grief, nothing of the Fey who wanted to be better than he was. There was only Rage, a savage bloodlust, a driving need to kill and destroy.

Tears trembled on her lashes and spilled down her cheeks.
Nei
, she wouldn't accept that. She couldn't. «Rain,
shei'tan,
ku'ruvelei. Come back to me, beloved.»
Along every thread of their bond she called to him, spinning love and peace and compulsion.

For once, at least, the savage sentience in her own soul was quiet, and though she didn't know why, she was grateful for the small reprieve. She'd reached Rain's side.
"Shei'tan."

He spun to face her, blades clutched in his hands and raised in threat. Droplets of the wet blood drenching his steel flew off as he whirled, and splattered across her face and neck.