CHAPTER TWENTY #2
She’d tried to stay strong. She knew her presence—her empathic sharing of his pain—was as deliberate a part of his torture as Den’s foul deeds. But she had not been able to stop herself from screaming any more than Rain had. She’d not been able to stop herself from weeping, from begging.
Through it all, Rain had been there in her mind, telling her to stay strong, to be brave, not to give in. As if she, not he, were the one whose body was being shattered and maimed.
“You are a monster,” she told Vadim Maur.
“I am a Mage,” he countered. “And you can end this anytime you like. You know how. I will get what I want, one way or another. But how many of your loved ones die before that happens—how long they must writhe in agony—is entirely up to you.”
Her breath caught on a hiccuping sob.
“I ask you again, Ellysetta Baristani: Accept my Mark.” He gripped her head between his icy hands, and the oppressive weight of his Dark magic closed around her, trapping her, squeezing her soul in a vise.
“If you refuse me, your mate will die. When I am done with him, I will put his body on display in the Mage Halls and I will leave it there to rot. The great Rain Tairen Soul, Worldscorcher, Destroyer of Eld, food for maggots and rotworms.” Then his voice softened, became kind.
“But if you submit to me, I will let you heal him. He will live. You can be with him. You can hold him in your arms. Take him into your body.”
The pressure of his will receded. Her mind filled with feelings of warmth and love. She could almost smell the fresh bloom of spring on the air, the intoxicating scent of Rain’s skin. She could almost feel his hands stroking across her body, hear her gasp as pleasure washed over her in waves.
Just as she began to reach for the sweet seduction of the dream, the Mage snatched it away. “But you can have that only when you give me what I want.”
?Nei, shei’tani.? Rain’s voice whispered on a ragged thread of Spirit. ?Never. You mustn’t. Not for me…not for anyone…? Each syllable throbbed with pain.
“Every word you speak is a lie, Mage,” she rasped. “You’ll never let him live. And even if you did, he’d rather die than see me surrender my soul.”
“Perhaps, but can you bear to watch it? Can you let him die?” The Mage barked a command to Den, “Do it.”
“Nei!” Ellysetta screamed as Den pulled Rain’s head back and slashed a blade across his throat. Rain’s blood fountained in a scarlet mist.
On the pretext of serving food, Melliandra entered the level where Vadim Maur kept the magically gifted female prisoners he used in his breeding program.
If Lord Death was successful, the High Mage would soon be dead.
Melliandra intended to wait for that moment here, close to the warded corridor that led to the nursery where the Mage kept his program’s most promising offspring.
Moving as slowly as possible, she pushed her kitchen cart from cell to cell, opening them with the key the captain of the guard on this level had given to her.
He was supposed to walk with her from room to room and watch her as she fed the female prisoners, but she always snuck him a treat from the kitchens and left him to eat it while she made her rounds.
When she reached the cell of the black-eyed shei’dalin she’d dragged with her weeks ago to save the life of Lord Death’s mate, her nerves were strung tight. The anxiety must have made her careless, because the shei’dalin stopped her at the door. “Sha de dai?“
“Is it time?” Melliandra repeated. “Time for what?”
“Dai ve heber eva bebahs.” She signed the words as she spoke them, poking a finger at Melliandra, rocking her arms in front of her body as if cradling a baby in arms, then walking her fingers. She looked intently at Melliandra, and said, “Ke am.” I know.
Melliandra felt her heart drop into her stomach.
The shei’dalin knew what she was planning.
Somehow, Melliandra had given her secret away.
She cursed silently and berated herself for the questions she’d asked the other women—questions about how to tend babies.
This shei’dalin must have overheard and realized what she was planning.
Determined to brazen it out, Melliandra snorted and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She turned away and reached for the door handle.
The shei’dalin caught Melliandra’s arm. “Teska. Ve ku’jian valir eva vo.” She pressed her lips together and tried broken Elden. “You… me… go… eva bebahs.” She rocked her cradled arms again.
“Are you saying you want me to take you with me?”
“Aiyah!“
Melliandra held up her hands. “No. I’m not going anywhere, but even if I were, I wouldn’t take you with me. No. No!” She pushed the shei’dalin’s hand off her arm. “You’re mistaken. Wrong. Neida. Do you understand? Ve sha neida.”
“Teska!” Though it must have hurt her terribly, the shei’dalin spun a Spirit weave showing Melliandra with a screaming baby, a sick baby, a hungry baby. Melliandra all alone, weeping beside a small mound of dirt. “Ke sha shei’dalin. Ke shaverr vo’vallaren.” I’m a shei’dalin. I can help you.
The images horrified Melliandra as much as the idea of having a healer to help with Shia’s son appealed, but she wouldn’t be swayed. “No,” she said again. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not taking you anywhere.” She turned to leave. She had to get out of here.
“Wera!” Wait. “Teska, wera.”
The desperation in the shei’dalin’s voice made Melliandra stop. The black-eyed shei’dalin had been battered and raped for weeks on end, and never sounded so frantic as she did now.
Against her better judgment, Melliandra stood by the door and watched the shei’dalin kneel beside her bed.
She lifted the edge of the pallet and reached inside a slit cut into the bottom of the pallet cover.
A moment later she pulled out a small, bruised flower…
actually, it was the whole flower plant: stem, leaves, roots as well as the distinctive, six-petaled bell-shaped starflowers.
“De sha Amarynth. Ve am Amarynth?”
“Yes,” Melliandra said, staring at the flower. “I know Amarynth.” She lifted her gaze to the shei’dalin with dawning comprehension “Are you telling me you’re going to have a baby?”
“Aiyah.” The woman’s expression crumpled, and for a moment Melliandra thought she would break into tears, but this Fey woman was made of sterner stuff.
She shook off the emotion and reached for Melliandra’s hand again.
“Teska. Ve bos’jian valir eva vo. Ku te kem’behba.
” She laid a palm on her still-flat belly.
Melliandra closed her eyes. If there was one thing she understood, it was the driving need to free an innocent baby from this dark place. “All right. All right, you can come.” She thrust her chin out. “But the chime you fall behind, I leave you. Understand?”
The woman nodded, the black tangles of her hair falling across her face. Tears glistened in her dark eyes. “Beylah vo. Beylah vo. Sallan’meilissis a vo.”
“Yes, yes. I get it. You’re grateful. Now, stay here and don’t say anything to anyone. I’ll come get you when it’s time.” Melliandra turned back to the door. She’d been in here so long, any watching guard would get suspicious.
“Ke sha Nicolene,” the shei’dalin said in a rush as Melliandra reached for the handle. The shei’dalin pressed her palm to her chest. “Nicolene. Ke sha Nicolene.”
“Your name is Nicolene.” She nodded and pointed to Nicolene to indicate she understood.
“Te ve?” Nicolene asked. “Arast sha ver mana?” What is your name?
Since the day Shia had gifted a worthless umagi with a name, that umagi had never shared that name with another. Until now.
“I am Melliandra.”
Ellysetta lunged towards Rain, shrieking and writhing like a mad thing when her chains yanked her back. Her hands clawed at the air. Her eyes flamed as her tairen rose, deadly fierce and furious.
She would kill Den and the Mage. She would shred them. She would snap their bones and rip their still-living flesh from their bodies while they screamed and begged for mercy.
Power gathered in a wild, savage rush—only to slam her to the stone floor as her sel’dor bonds turned the fullness of her Rage back against her. She lay there, dazed, lungs wheezing, muscles convulsing as she struggled to stay conscious.
The spray of Rain’s blood fell upon the faces of the twins, and to her horror the pair of them opened their mouths to catch the droplets on their tongues. Their frozen, doll-like expressions changed. Blood-reddened lips curled into macabre smiles.
Black-eyed and laughing in delight, the twins began to dance in the shower of Rain’s blood just like the vision from the most frightening dream she’d ever had.
Only now she knew it wasn’t their own evil that drove them.
It was the Mage’s. He was controlling them like human puppets, watching her with his cold, merciless eyes as he did.
Rain’s glazing eyes met hers. His lips moved. Though Den’s knife had cut clear to Rain’s spine, severing his windpipe and making speech impossible, she read the words on Rain’s lips. Ke vo san, shei’tani.
“Shei’tan,” she rasped in a broken whisper. “Stay with me. Stay with me, Rain!”
She watched in horror as the light in Rain’s eyes began to dim, and with it dimmed the silver luminescence of his skin. With each drop of blood that flowed from his throat, more and more of his Light faded. His lashes fluttered closed.
Forgive me, shei’tani. I have failed you. The words brushed across her mind, a whisper of regret sighed on the faltering threads of their bond.
His hands, the hands that had caressed her a thousand times, so broad, so strong, twitched weakly, then went limp. His head fell forward onto his chest, and the long, straight strands of his silky black hair hung down over his face like a shroud.
“Nei, Rain. Nei! Stay with me, shei’tan!” Tears flooded her eyes, blurring her vision. “Sterr eva ku!”