Queen of Song and Souls (53 page)

He didn't look at her, but a gentle, sweet breeze of Air caressed her face. «
It's too late for that, shei'tani. This is me only
way now. We
will be together again, I promise you. But not in this
life. May I prove more worthy in the next.»

«
You're worthy now! Please don't do this. The Feyreisen and Feyreisa are coming. Wait for them. Perhaps they can find some
other
solution. Adrial!»

"Your Majesty can't be considering it?" Colum huffed when King Dorian did not immediately reply. "This jaffing wife thief deserves nothing more than a common criminal's execution. To be hanged by the neck until dead, his body left for the carrion birds to feast upon."

"As do the other criminals who aided him!" his father agreed. "Including the Tairen Soul, who knew this was going on and turned a blind eye to it!"

Dorian flashed a hot look at father and son. "And how many immortal lives will it take to assuage bruised Sebourne pride? Your son was cuckolded. The Fey-Celierian treaty was broken, but for no purpose more calamitous than that. I will not demand the execution of a Fey king because your son's wife jaffed another man. You are mad to even suggest it."

"But—"

"Be silent." Dorian rose to his feet. "Adrial vel Arquinas, you have been charged and have confessed to crimes punishable by death. You have agreed to accept the king's justice."

Adrial gave a curt nod. Behind him, his brother, Rowan, stood like a warrior carved from stone, unmoving, unflinching, his face pale as death but otherwise wiped clean of all expression.

"Very well then." The king drew a breath. "Adrial vel Arquinas, as you have confessed to all abuses of magic and crimes charged against you and claimed sole responsibility for the same, I do hereby find you guilty of the charges in their entirety. As punishment for all crimes committed by you and on your behalf, I sentence you to death. In deference to the centuries of alliance and kinship between our two nations, I commute the sentence of death by hanging to
sheisan’dahlein,
the Fey honor death, and order that it shall be carried out within the bell. You may use that time to say your good-byes and make your peace. May the gods have mercy on your soul."

As King Dorian turned and walked towards his tent, Talisa broke into tortured sobs. She would have fallen to her knees except for the strong hands of her father and brother Luce holding her up.

"Adrial... Adrial. .." Weeping, she stumbled towards him and fell into his arms.

Colum stepped towards her, an ugly look on his face, but Luce bared his teeth. "Back off, diSebourne. You've done more than enough for one day."

Colum feigned affront. "Me? I am the injured party here!"

"If that were true, you'd be the one crying like your heart was being ripped from your chest." Luce stood back and swept a cold gaze over his sister's husband. "You're a selfish, self-serving
rultshart
, and I'm sorry we ever thought any better of you. You knew she didn't love you. If you'd loved her even the least little bit, you would have let her go when the Fey came. This is all your fault. Because you're a greedy, grasping, controlling little turd pretending to be a man."

"Luce!" Cann snapped. That's enough." To Colum he said, "But Luce is right. You've done enough for one day. So now I suggest you and your father get the Hells out and leave Talisa in peace to share this last bell with the man she loves." His other two sons, Parsis and Severn, joined Luce and Cann to form a barrier between Talisa and the Sebournes.

Colum snarled and spat a foul curse, but the two of them were no match for four Barrials, and they knew it. Together, puffed up with arrogance and self-righteous indignation. Lord Sebourne and his son stalked away.

"Adrial, I love you. I love you so much." Talisa cupped his beloved face in her hands and showered him with tears and kisses. "I don't want to live without you. I can't bear to lose you. Not like this."

"Shh." Adrial smiled into her eyes. His heart was breaking. Each tear that spilled from her eyes burned his soul the way the
sel'dor
chains burned his flesh. He'd done this to her. He'd brought this sorrow to her door. Because in his own way, he was as selfish as diSebourne. Both of them fighting over her like dogs over a bone.
"Sieks'ta, shei'tani.
I did not do right by you in this life, but I swear to you, I will be everything you deserve in the next." He took her hand and carried it to his lips. "This isn't the end,
shei'tani
. No matter how many years or lifetimes it takes, I will find you again. And we will be happy. You have my oath on it."

Weeping, she curled in his lap and laid her head on his shoulder. 'Tell me what it will be like, shei'tan, when we're together."

He pressed his face to her hair and closed his eyes as his own tears fell. His throat was too tight to speak, so he wove Spirit, not just words but pictures, bringing the images from his last courtship gift to life. Dharsa in full bloom, and the two of them, together, forever. For each chime of the next bell, he spun his hopes for them, his dreams of their future, their love, the children they would have in another lifetime when joy, bright as sunlight, would suffuse their united souls. And when they came for him, though she wept and clung to him until they pulled him away, the first of their bond threads had formed, and light like the warmth of a thousand suns shone on both their souls.

They gathered outside King Dorian's tent.

Her tearstained face proudly unveiled, her spine straight and unyielding, Talisa stood at her father's side. It would kill a part of her soul to watch Adrial's death, but since she could not stop it, she wanted the last thing he saw to be her face, and the last thing he felt to be her love.

A shadow moved across the corner of her eye and she glanced to her right to find Colum standing there. "We will get through this, Talisa. It is hard for me to forgive you your transgressions, but you are my wife, and I am determined we will build a good life together."

She drew a breath, her hands curling tight together. "Heir to a great House you may be, but you are a despicable
rultshar
t
, Colum diSebourne. And you're a fool if you think you'll ever be anything to me but the monster who killed the man I love. I will give you nothing—not a touch, not a smile, not a kind word." She looked at him then, to make sure he saw the utter loathing in her eyes. "Your name is a curse to me."

His brows drew together in a dark scowl. "You dare—"

He started to grab her, but she swiftly sidestepped his grip and bared her teeth in a snarl every bit as dangerous as her father's. "Lay a finger on me, and I'll kill you myself." And the pure hatred that vibrated in her voice was enough to make him stop in shock.

She swept her skirts away and moved to the other side of her father and brothers.

Silence fell over the gathering as King Dorian emerged from his tent. He took his place between Colum and Talisa's father, then nodded, and the king's guard led Rowan and the other Fey—still shackled—to one side of the circle, where they stood, under guard. A moment later, four more guards marched Adrial to the center of the circle.

He'd changed his black leathers for red. His dark hair hung loose about his shoulders and his face was pale but calm, almost serene.
Sel'dor
shackles still encased his wrists and ankles.

She forced her lips into a trembling smile. «
I am here, shei'tan. I will always be here.»

He didn't smile back, but his love poured over her in waves, and the sweet promises he'd spun for her in Spirit filled her mind once more.
«Ver reisa ku'chae, Talisa. Kem surah shei'tani
.
In this life and every life to come.»

The king's drummers began to play as one of the king's guard stepped forward in between Colum and the king, holding one of Adrial's Fey'cha harnesses draped across his two hands. A second guard withdrew one of the red Fey'cha, but before he could carry it across the short distance to Adrial, a roar rumbled through the sky like thunder.

They all glanced up to see the Tairen Soul soaring in the skies to the south. From this distance, which must have been twenty or thirty miles at the very least, he looked more like a great bird than a tairen. He winged with purpose across the sky, heading straight for the encampment.

"Adrial! The Tairen Soul is here!" Hope bloomed in Talisa's breast. If anyone in Celieria could stop this travesty of justice, it was the Fey king and his mate.

Colum must have had the same thought, because while all eyes were on the Tairen Soul, he lunged forward, snatching one of the remaining red Fey'cha from the harness held by the guard in front of him and pulling back his arm to throw it. Talisa didn't think. She just leapt forward, calling a warning to her truemate. "Adrial! Watch out!" And she threw her body between Adrial and Colum.

The dagger struck her between the shoulders. It didn't hurt much. Just a tiny explosion of pain. A single searing stab, gone almost in an instant. But the blow robbed her of breath and strength, and she felt forward into Adrial's arms.

"Adrial." She blinked in dazed surprise. "Adrial, I..." Her thoughts tangled. Her vision began to blur, and her words slurred. "Adri... al..."

The last thing she saw was his beloved face, and the last thing she felt was his love, tinged by desperate horror as tairen venom raced through her veins and death dimmed her vision.

Adrial clutched Talisa's body to his chest, her chestnut hair spilling over his arms. "Talisa...
shei'tani . . . nei . . .
nei
.
Nei va.
Don't go!
Ster
eva ku.
Stay with me.
Teska
.
Teska."
His shoulders quaked with racking sobs and tears poured freely down his face as her eyes glazed over. Her limbs gave a final, weak twitch, then went limp. "Ah,
nei, nei. Teska sallan. Ku'ruveli,
shei'tani
. Come back to me." He knew the instant her soul slipped free of her slender body. Her passing ripped him apart from the inside out, leaving a gaping hole where her brightness had taken root.

He flung back his head and howled as the agony of her death shredded his soul,

In the skies over Celieria, Adrial's pain seared Ellysetta's empathic senses like a bolt of lightning. Her fingers clenched around the pommel of the saddle and her body shuddered with the force of his devastation. Then another emotion chased after the first, every bit as jotting, and infinitely more alarming.

«
Rain!
» She leaned forward, grasping thick handfuls of the fur at his neck in her urgency.
"Hurry. Hurry!»

Without a word, Rain put on a burst of magic-powered speed, and his tairen form raced across the sky, leaving the
lu’tan
far behind.

Adrial's head snapped down. His eyes flashed open, glaring from beneath dark brows, pinning Colum diSebourne with the deadly force of the Rage in his blazing gaze. Setting Talisa's body on the ground, he rose to his feet. White sparks of Air whirled around him, flashing with red sparks of Fire. Green Earth flowed out from his body like wild, ravenous tendrils of some carnivorous plant. They dove into the soil, and the ground began to tremble and shake. The wind began to howl and spin, gathering force and speed.

Adrial vel Arquinas was a master of Air and Earth, and in his Rage, not even the
sel'dor
shackles that bound him could suppress his great magic.

"Adrial!" Rowan called his brother in desperation. He tried to summon his own command of Fire and Earth, hoping to counteract Adrial's weaves, but without the Rage to feed his power, the
sel'dor
shackles blunted his efforts.

Fearful for the king's life, archers fired arrows at Adrial, but the cyclones whirling about him snatched the arrows in mid-flight and tossed them to the ground like matchsticks. His shining Fey skin grew brighter and brighter as he drew deep from the source of his power, gathering the magic, absorbing the energy into his own flesh, and holding it there until he glowed star-bright and looked more like an avenging Light Warrior of Adelis than a Fey.

The ground trembled, and everyone but Adrial stumbled and nearly fell. Weaves of green Earth erupted like vines from the grass at Colum's feet, twining up his legs, imprisoning him in curling shackles of solid stone. The vortexes spinning around Adrial expanded and joined together, forming a single, large cyclone of air that encompassed Adrial and diSebourne, isolating them in the center of a whirlwind.

"She was returning to you." Magic vibrated in Adriel’s voice, each word filled with palpable energy that reverberated like the deep tolling of a giant bell. "We had agreed I would go back to the Fading Lands and she would live out her life with you. But you would not even give us that. You would rather shatter her heart and destroy her hope than live knowing that any part of her belonged to another."

Adrial raised his shackled hands. His palms, like his eyes, now radiated blinding light. Colum began to choke and gasp for air. His eyes bulged. The skin at his temples rippled and his head tossed from side to side. His mouth opened in a wordless, gurgling scream, and his body swelled like a grotesque balloon.

"For your crimes against my
shei'tani
, mortal, I sentence you to death. May your soul rot forever in the Seven Hells."

Adrial brought his hands together in a thunderous clap. Magic shot from his fingertips like a geyser of fiery light, shooting not up into the sky but horizontally across the distance and into Colum's chest. DiSebourne's body lit up like a candleshade.