CHAPTER FOURTEEN #5
Ellysetta watched him closely. “You don’t look happy at the news.”
“I’m happy she’s alive—especially as that gives me the chance to wring her neck when I see her again.
” His lips compressed in a thin line, and a hint of anger lit his eyes.
“She admitted to me she’d seen her death.
The night you came to our village, she told me she’d had a vision of me escorting you both out of the Verlaine, but that was a lie.
The only vision she saw was of her own death, and she sent me away with you because she didn’t want me to die trying to protect her from a death she knew couldn’t be stopped. ”
“But she’s alive,” Ellysetta pointed out. “So clearly her vision was wrong.”
“Her visions are never wrong. She was supposed to die, just as she saw.” Farel straightened and met her gaze full on.
“But you changed that. You gave her a gift—a sorreisu’kiyr pendant.
It stopped the arrow meant for her heart.
You changed her fate, Feyreisa. You saved her life, in a way no one but the gods could have done, and for that I owe you a debt I can never repay. ”
“I will not hear any more talk of debts owed,” Ellysetta said. “You saved our lives. Any possible debt has already been paid in kind.”
“Nei, we rescued you from Eld for Gaelen, for all the times he sacrificed for us. My debt to you still stands.” He shifted his gaze to Rain.
“I have spoken with the dahl’reisen and told them how your mate saved Sheyl.
Many of them have been thinking about Varian and the others.
About how like Fey they looked when they left.
They died with joy—and with more honor than a dahl’reisen has a right to expect. ”
“They died with the honor of a lu’tan,” Rain corrected. “No matter what Dark choices they may have made in the past, today they chose sheisan’dahlein.”
Farel’s fingers plucked one of his Fey’cha from its sheath, and he bent his head to polish a nonexistent spot on the gleaming steel.
“We are also prepared to die for the Feyreisa today, but we want…” He broke off, cleared his throat, and rephrased.
“That is to say, my brothers and I would humbly ask…”
Rain cut him off. “You wish to bloodswear yourselves to Ellysetta.”
The dahl’reisen leader looked up, making a visible effort to meet and hold Rain’s gaze. “I know that you have no reason to offer us a salvation we do not deserve… and in all honesty, I must tell you we intend to weave Azrahn in her defense.”
“Aiyah.”
Farel continued in a rush. “Six-fold weaves are much more effective than five, and we could do more to defend her with them if we were free to weave Azrahn without fear of Mage Marks.”
“Aiyah.”
“Bloodsworn to a shei’dalin as bright as the Feyreisa, we might even—” Farel broke off, blinking in shock at Rain’s swift, unequivocal assent. “Aiyah? You mean… you agree?”
“Aiyah.” Rain covered Ellysetta’s hand with his and threaded his fingers through hers. “I agree it is the best solution.”
“I—” Farel’s mouth opened and closed. “Just like that?”
Rain gave a weary smile. “Just like that.”
The last few bells, with the torment of the dahl’reisen and the foul presence of the Mharog beating at Ellysetta, forcing her to divert more of her energy to shield herself, he’d begun to feel the effects of the bond madness more strongly.
His thoughts were becoming cloudy and confused.
Rage simmered just below the paper-thin surface of his control, and he knew that open battle with Mages and Mharog would quickly shred what semblance of sanity he still retained.
When that happened, Ellysetta would need as many protectors as she could get—including ones willing and able to slay him.
Even if he did survive this battle, he had no illusions about surviving the war.
Without him, all hope of erasing Ellysetta’s Mage Marks through shei’tanitsa would be lost, and the Massan would never let her return to the Fading Lands.
These dahl’reisen, so unafraid of spinning Azrahn, were no strangers to protecting those Marked by the Mages.
Perhaps, after his death, they would be able to find a way to free her of her Marks as he had not.
It was a risk. A scorching triple tairen-sized risk.
If Ellysetta did fall to the Dark, a bloodsworn army of dahl’reisen would make her even more dangerous.
But, then, Hawks-heart had already said if Ellysetta fell to the Dark, all Light in the world would fall with her.
Whether she went with the dahl’reisen at her side or without them, the end result would be the same.
“Gather your men. She will not bless them—I don’t think either of us could survive her blessing four hundred dahl’reisen—but they can swear their bonds, and I will stand witness.”
“I—” Farel closed his gaping mouth and snapped into a deep bow.
“Beylah vo, Feyreisen. For my men and I, I thank you.” Farel started to leave, then turned back.
“I almost forgot. Sheyl gave me a message for you, Feyreisa. She had another vision while she lay trapped beneath that tree. A vision about you. She said to tell you that when all seems lost, let love, not fear, be your guide.”
Ellysetta looked surprised. “Hawksheart said almost the exact same thing to me when we were leaving Navahele.”
“I would say it was coincidence,” Rain answered, frowning, “but when it comes to Elves and their portents, there’s no such thing.”
“At least the message sounds more hopeful than ominous,” Farel said. “I hope it serves you well.” And with that, he gave a final bow and strode away to gather his men.
The bloodswearing went quickly. With the enemy approaching, there was no time for pomp or ceremony.
The dahl’reisen knelt in groups, and in unison each group of warriors swore on their life’s blood and black Fey’cha steel to protect and defend Ellysetta Feyreisa in this life and the death that followed.
Farel was among the last to pledge his bond.
When they were done, the pile of steel at Ellysetta’s feet was too large to even contemplate weaving into her leathers.
Instead, dahl’reisen Earth masters gathered and spun her leathers and bloodsworn blades into a gleaming, more feminine steel replica of Rain’s golden armor, complete with its own full complement of blades and a scarlet-plumed helm.
The dahl’reisen formed a circular Wall of Steel twelve dahl’reisen deep around Rain and Ellysetta.
Earth magic pulsed with sudden energy, and black leathers flashed to vivid scarlet, emblazoned with a golden tairen rampant with green eyes.
The shout rang up from hundreds of dahl’reisen throats, a joyful, defiant cry: “Miora felah ti’Feyreisa! “
And they began to sing.