Queen of Song and Souls (26 page)

She flinched but stood her ground. "Rain. It's me. Ellysetta. The battle is over,
shei’tan
. We are safe. The enemy is gone. Sheath your blades,
shei'tan,
and come back to me."

There wasn't an inch of skin or a fingerspan of his steel that wasn't drenched in blood and gore. His hair hung wet, thick with blood. The fierce blaze of his lavender eyes was filled with tairen power and unfocused Rage.

This was the savage side of his tairen that he'd tried so hard never to show her. The side that had no mercy. The side that could kill without remorse. The wildness that lived in every tairen. The same wildness that lived in the tairen part of her.

It frightened her, but she stepped closer to him, her hands outstretched. "
Las
, beloved.
Las."
She sang to him across the threads of their bond, spinning weaves of love and warmth. "Come back to me now. I need you, and so do the Fey." She spun images of the Fading Lands, the tairen killings, Amarynth blooming in Dharsa, the pair of them locked in an embrace, everything they stood to lose if they lost the war with Eld.

Gradually, the wild whirl of his eyes began to slow and his breathing grew deeper, less ragged. She reached for his hands, gently pried the blades from his grip and dropped them to the ground at their feet. She raised his bloody hand to her face and pressed it against her cheek, then laid her own against his.

He blinked, and a pinprick of darkness formed in the whirling brightness of his eyes. A pupil that expanded slowly, growing and lengthening as awareness returned and Rage faded. His eyes focused, fixing on the bloody hand cupped against her cheek, the spatter of drying scarlet across her face. "Ellysetta?”

He frowned and pulled his hand from her cheek. He stared at his bloody palms, his armor coated in gore. His lips pressed tight, but even that could not stop their trembling.
"Nei.
Ah,
nei.
Did I..." He glanced around, horror stamped on his face.

She caught his hands. "Only Eld, beloved. None other." She knew without words what he feared he had done: that he'd slain Fey again in his madness as he had the day he'd turned Eadmond's Field into the Lake of Glass.

His face crumpled. "Ellysetta." He fell to his knees and the tears he'd once lost the ability to shed poured from his eyes. His body shuddered in an outpouring of grief and shame.

And she did the only thing she could: She held him, and loved him, and crooned songs of peace and forgiveness to his ravaged soul.

Vadim Maur called the tendrils of his weave back into himself and breathed in short, quick pants. Sitting for bells on end while his consciousness traveled outside his body to coordinate and oversee the attack had drained him.

Tremors shuddered through his frame, and muscles knotted in painful lumps beneath his skin. As he rubbed at the worst of them, something wet trickled down his arm. He opened his eyes and pushed back his sleeve to find that several new, gaping sores had opened in his deteriorating skin.

Vadim grimaced and dabbed at the suppurating skin with his sleeve hem. Such was the price of weaving magic when the Rot had you in its teeth. The stronger the spell a Mage wove, the weaker he became. The weaker he became, the faster the Rot consumed him.

He'd been taking a chance, holding out for the capture of Ellysetta Baristani. But if he didn't incarnate into a new vessel soon, he risked losing the ability to do so altogether. And no matter how much he wanted Ellysetta Baristani's power for his own, that was not a risk the High Mage of Eld was willing to take.

Two bells later, with much of his strength returned after a lengthy visit to the healers, Vadim Maur stood before the thick, reinforced
sel'dor
-and-steel door of the torture chamber he reserved for Mages who displeased him. The hinges groaned as the two guards outside the door pulled the weighty thing open. Light from the passageway torches cast a thin, fragile illumination in the chamber's gloom, revealing the shivering form huddled on the chamber's cold floor.

"Get up, Kolis."

The huddled figure flinched but did not respond.

Vadim gestured, and two of the guards hurried into the chamber to grab the High Mage's apprentice by his arms and drag him out into the warmer, less frightening light of the flame-lit hallway. The stench of sweat and worse rose up from the apprentice's limp body, making Vadim's nose wrinkle in disgust. He uttered a spell that blocked the odors and reached out to lift the apprentice's face. The remnants of mucus, blood, and vomit clung to Manza's skin.

"Kolis." The High Mage snapped his fingers in the younger man's face, but still received no response.

Vadim ground his teeth together and released the younger Mage's chin. Perhaps the tortures he had devised for his apprentice had been a bit more severe than necessary. But then, he'd not expected to need Kolis so soon.

Vadim stared in distaste at the bodily fluids clinging to his hand, then wiped them off on the uniform of the nearest guard. "Clean him up and take him to the healers. I want him fit for use within the week."

Celieria

Except for Bel, who came to cut the
sel'dor
shrapnel from Rain's body, neither Elf nor Fey intruded as Ellysetta spun her healing weaves on Rain and pulled him back from the brink of Rage. Instead, with swift, silent efficiency, the Elves healed the worst of the wounded Fey, while the able-bodied cleared the battlefield. The Fey Fired the bodies of the dead and gathered the
sorreisu kiyr
of the slain lu'tan, to be given into Ellysetta's keeping. Forty
lu'tan
had perished in the battle with the Eld.

Several bells later, as dawn broke over southern Celieria, the worst of Rain's Rage had passed. With Ellysetta's help, he had rebuilt the fragile walls of discipline in his mind. Together, they rejoined the others and offered greetings to the Elves.

Tall and slender—clearly not mortal—the Elves shone faintly gold in the pale morning sunlight rather than glowing with silvery luminescence like the Fey. Sleeveless tunics of iridescent bronze scale mail lay over embroidered shirts and leggings in varying woodland hues of green, ecru, and brown. Bows and quivers filled with arrows were slung across their backs. They wore their long, rippling hair pulled back off their faces with a series of small beaded leather ties, baring ears that swept back to a distinctive, tapered point.

Rain cast a narrowed gaze over the Elves' faces. They were strangers. None he had ever met before. Their obvious leader had hair the burnished gold hue of amberleaf trees in the fall The beaded ties in his hair fluttered with a collection of bird feathers. And his eyes—those distinctive, too-piercing Elvish eyes—were the clear, translucent green of a sunlit forest pond.

Those eyes met Rain's with uncanny directness.

Ellysetta's fingers tightened around his. The Elf s attention switched to her, and she shivered as if she could feel his gaze prying into her soul.

But that was what it always felt like to be Seen by an Elf. As if your skin had been peeled back and your mind and soul had been opened up for inspection. All of the Elves possessed the talent to some degree, but with certain of their number, the effect was decidedly pronounced.

This Elf seemed one of the latter.

"Las,
shei’tani
." After a grief-racked night of her weaving peace upon him, he was grateful to return the favor. He ran a thumb over the back of her hand in a soothing caress, but with each subtle stroke, he could feel her tension rising higher. She was afraid of the Elf. Or, rather, unnerved by his presence and disturbed by his gaze. "This Elf is a Seer, like Hawksheart. It is his power you feel."

"He is probing me?”

"Not with deliberate force."

Her brows drew together. "It feels deliberate. And very unsettling."

"Build a barrier in your mind. Use the strongest weave of Spirit you can in a pattern like this." He demonstrated a dense, complex pattern of lavender threads. "It won't stop him from Seeing more than you'd like, but it will help you bear his gaze without discomfort."

She did as he suggested and together they approached the blond Elf, who introduced himself as Fanor Farsight of the Deep Woods clan.

The Elf fixed his penetrating gaze on Rain and said, "Galad Hawksheart, Lord of Valerian, Prince of the Deep Woods, King of Elvia and Guardian of the Dance, sends you greetings, Rainier vel’En Daris of the Fey."

Rain inclined his head. "I accept his greetings, and I offer his envoys welcome to our camp and my deepest thanks for your aid last night. Our hospitality is not so fine here as it would be in Dharsa, but we offer you all that we have." Rain waved towards the center of the makeshift camp. "Please join us and refresh yourselves."

"Alaneth.
With pleasure, we do accept."

Fanor Farsight nodded and he and his Elves followed Rain and Ellysetta into the center of the gathered Fey. Earth masters spun a simple wooden table and stools for their use, and set out a platter of journeycakes while Water masters filled cups with cool water drawn from a nearby stream.

Fanor was the only Elf to take a seat. The others remained standing in a semicircle at his back, but one of them leaned forward to pluck a journeycake and a cup of water from the table. He took a bite of the journeycake and passed it to the Elf beside him, then took a sip from the cup and passed that on, too. The gesture was an Elvish sign of courtesy acceptance of Feyan hospitality shared by all the members Farsight's party. The last Elf to eat and drink handed the final bit of the journeycake and the near-empty cup to Fanor, who consumed what was left.

Rain waited for the Elf lord to finish before he leaned forward and put his palms on the table. "I must tell you, Farsight, I am as surprised as I am grateful that the Elves have decided to join us in this war after all."

"You misunderstand, Worldscorcher." The Elf’s expression did not change. "We know what you wish from us, but that Song ended before it could begin. The aid you seek from the Elves can no longer help you."

Rain's eyes flickered, the only outward hint of the anger coiling in his veins. "If you are not here to join us, then why did you come?"

"Because my king sent me to escort you and your mate safely to Navahele."

"Keita?
Why?” Rain's shoulders drew back.

"You already know the answer. Your mate calls a Song in the Dance. My king wishes to understand that Song better."

Anger rose, swift and furious, threatening to rip the fragile rebuilt barriers in his mind. Ellysetta laid a hand over his, and that warm touch gave him the strength to stifle his Rage.

He drew a short, hard breath and curled his free hand in a fist. "I do not understand you or your king," he said in a low voice. The Eld slaughtered thirteen hundred Fey and nearly five thousand Celierians at Orest and Teleon less than a month ago; as you saw yourself last night, the High Mage hunts my mate to claim her soul; we're facing a new Army of Darkness; and still you tell me the Elves will do nothing to help us?" Despite his efforts, anger spiked. He flattened his palms on the wooden surface of the table and half rose from his chair. "What will you do when the Fey are gone from this world and there are none left with the strength or will to champion the Light! What good will your Dance be then?”

Rather than taking offense, the Elf lord crossed his hands ever his heart and bowed his head in a polite Elvish gesture. The Elves have Seen your plight and the dangers that exist for your truemate. Our king understands what hangs in the balance, but the way is not certain. That is why you must come to Navahele." Farsight turned to Ellysetta. The Song call is more powerful than any living Elf has ever Seen.

More powerful even than the Worldscorcher's Song. Many will die; that much is certain. How many will live is yet to be |Seen."

Ellysetta flinched, and Rain wrapped an arm around her in a protective gesture. "Enough, Elf," he growled. "You will not frighten my mate with Elvish visions of doom."

The Elf looked puzzled.
"Tenala.
Forgive me. But how did I offer fright, when your own Eye of Truth has already shown a much grimmer future in greater detail?"

"The future
Shei'Kess
showed us is only a possibility, not a certainty," Rain replied with an aggressive thrust of his chin.

"Banas ," the Elf agreed, "but the possible outcomes of the Song are far fewer than they were when Ambassador Brightwing extended my king's first invitation this summer. Lord Hawksheart regrets you did not come then."

"Well, our apologies for his regret, but tell him we will make our way to Elvia once we've been to Danael. Celieria needs allies willing to fight at her side, and time is of the essence.” Navahele was on the other side of the continent. If they traveled there first, there would be little hope of Danae aid reaching Celieria before the Eld attacked.

"We Saw your intent, but Lord Hawksheart bids you come now, without delay. We will escort you safely to Navahele. Lord Hawksheart will summon the Danae to meet you there once his business with you is concluded." Farsight lifted his hand and several hundred more Elves emerged from the a rounding vegetation, bows in hand.

Rain regarded the small army of Elves. Mad though he was becoming, he wasn't a foot. That show of force meant Hawksheart's request was a command, and one he was prepared to enforce. Rain closed his eyes against an instinctive surge of anger. He'd never taken well to commands of that sort, even without Rage and bond madness urging him to rebel. "As you insist," he growled. "We will accompany you to Navahele."