Chapter Six
Fierce as the sun, she made shadows take flight
The Star of Chakai, who spun souls back to Light.
From “The Star of Chakai,” a warrior’s song of Ellysetta the Bright
The Fading Lands ~ Chatok
“Tesk, Feyreisa, release me. I beg you.” Tajik once again began frantically trying to pull free of Ellysetta’s grip, his efforts
hampered by his unwillingness to use force against her. “Rain, kem’Feyreisen, sieks’ta. Forgive me. I should have refused. The blame is mine entirely.”
Rain eyed the group grimly. “I know exactly where the blame lies.” Bel wouldn’t meet his eyes, and even Gaelen looked shamefaced—which
had to be a first for the arrogant former dahl’reisen. “Nei, don’t release her, you idiots,” he snapped when the guilty pair started to step away. “It’s much too late for that. Flames
scorch it, Ellysetta! You simply could not listen, could you?”
“Rain—”
“Be silent.” He was furious with her for sneaking out of their bed to do this—and furious with himself for not realizing she
would. If nothing else, the last few weeks should have taught him his sweet, gentle shei’tani had a will of steel—and a head hard as a rock! When she set her mind on a thing, she would no more be diverted from her aim than a starving tairen from its prey.
His hands clamped her waist. “Finish it,” he snarled. “Now, before I lose what little control I have left and rip their throats
out for laying hands on you.”
His knees went weak as Ellysetta drew so much energy from him, so quickly, she left him dizzy.
Connected to her, his hands upon her, he felt the flows of magic spin together with extraordinary speed as vibrant, glowing
threads formed a weave so bright he could not see its pattern. The magic poured out of her, and Tajik went stiff, his eyes
widening with shock as the swirling cloud of brightness enveloped him in a sparkling haze, then sank into his skin.
Eld ~ Boura Fell
?Shan!? Elfeya gasped her truemate’s name.
He was slow to answer, his mental voice thready and weak. The High Mage had not let her go to him yet. ?I feel it, beloved.?
The High Mage’s darkest magic had forged a connection between Shan and Ellysetta, and through her shei’tanitsa bond with Shan, Elfeya shared the connection too. They had used it over the years, doing what they could to help reinforce
the barriers they’d placed around their daughter’s magic, sending subtle thoughts and weaves that urged her to keep hidden
from the High Mage.
Now that power flared anew, and both of them felt a draining tug, as if some portion of their own magic, so long locked away
from useful summoning, were being siphoned off.
Just as suddenly the draw stopped and their power surged back to them in a wave. With it, like a subtle fragrance wafting
through an open window, came the scent of a dear and familiar magic. One Elfeya recognized and had never thought to sense
again.
A name breathed from her lungs on a sigh, sorrowful and wondrous all at once. “Tajik.”
The Fading Lands ~ Chakai
“Tairen’s scorching fire,” Tajik breathed. When Ellysetta released him, he was trembling from head to toe. “Blessed gods.
I knew it must be true—the dahl’reisen is proof—but still I did not truly believe.” He lifted shaking hands, staring at the palms as if searching for some now-absent
mark of shame. “The shadows on my soul are gone. My heart weeps again.” Tears shimmered in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks.
He did not even bother to brush them aside. “How is this possible?”
“I told you,” Bel said, “there is no other like her in all the world.”
Rain gave a warning growl. Bel and Gaelen both snatched their hands away from Ellysetta, and he drew her firmly back against
him. ?You need a good shaking,? he snapped on their private thread.
?Because I can’t sit here like the rest of you and do nothing while these brave Fey suffer?
? She twisted around to glare up at him, her jaw set and thrust out in the mulish lines he’d come to know and dread.
?I tried to stay away, as you asked me to, but I couldn’t.
I’m just not made that way, Rain. Their pain beat at me until I
couldn’t stand it any longer.? Her expression softened and her hands rose to cradle his face. She stood up on her toes to press her lips to his. ?Forgive me??
He should have stepped away, lest she think him so easy to control, but he could not deny himself the pleasure of her kiss.
When their lips met, his arms locked tight around her, dragging her close against him. He filled his lungs with the sweet
intoxication of her fragrance, and his mouth with the equal enchantment of her kiss.
Who was he deluding? She could control him.
One crook of a slender finger or a flutter of those dark red lashes, and he became clay in her hands.
He could attempt to stand firm, to protect her even from her own self, but in the end there was nothing he would deny her if she wanted it badly enough. And both of them knew it.
When she released him, his eyes were glowing again, but this time not with anger.
?Bas’ka. You’ve done your good deed, Feyreisa; now come back to bed with your mate, where you belong.
? He purred the words, accompanying them with the vibrant sparks of near-visible sound that were tairen song, and watched with
satisfaction as her eyelids fluttered closed. He might not be able to control her, but she was no more immune to him than
he to her, thank the gods. ?Come with me,? he urged again, filling his tones with seduction and sweet promise.
She began to sway towards him until Tajik coughed and broke the spell. Rain could have leapt upon the Fey and rent him in
two for the interruption.
Ellysetta’s eyes opened. The haze of desire clouding her gaze changed swiftly to a blush of self-consciousness when she realized
Bel, Gaelen, and Tajik were still there, watching. The self-consciousness became a narrow-eyed look of suspicion that settled
on Rain, who had never been any good at looking innocent. Too much tairen in him for that.
“Come,” he said again. “It’s late and we have a long way to travel tomorrow. You should get what sleep you can.”
“But, Rain, I’m not done yet. I still need to do what I can for the other rasa.”
His spine went stiff. “Nei. Absolutely not.”
“But—”
“Nei!” He clutched her shoulders in a tight grip and gave her a little shake. “Do you think I did not feel what just happened
to you? Do you think I will let you go through that again?”
?It hurts me more to do nothing.?
?And when I kill a Fey because his hand upon you drives me mad, what will you feel then??
?I have more faith in you than that.?
?Perhaps you should not.?
“Rain, please. If I can help even a little, I must at least try.” ?And you must allow it.?
He glared at her. “Do you think you are the only woman of the Fey ever to feel this need? A warrior’s lot is to suffer. A
shei’dalin’s is to bear it. And as your shei’tan, my duty is to help you bear it and to stop you from doing anything foolish”—he turned his glare upon Gaelen and Bel—“which
should also be your lu’tans’ duty, though plainly they have both forgotten it.”
The pair had the grace to look shamefaced.
“Rain, no other shei’dalin can take away the pain like I do.” She turned to Tajik. “Tajik—do you still suffer?”
“Nei.” His voice was hoarse, his eyes filled with wonder. “My soul is bright as a child’s.”
She turned back to Rain. “There, you see? How can you demand that any Fey live with such pain when you know I have the power
to stop it?”
“When it hurts you to use that power? Very easily.”
She ground her teeth in frustration. He was so stubborn. “I can do what no other shei’dalin can. I don’t know how or why any more than you do, but this is the gift I was given. Surely the gods meant me to use it.”
“She has a point,” Gaelen murmured.
Rain shot him a hot look. The last thing he needed was Gaelen encouraging this madness. “She does not have a point. The gods
gave you Azrahn, too, but that doesn’t mean you should spin it. Some gifts were not meant to be used. Some gifts are too dangerous.”
“All gifts come with a price, Feyreisen,” Gaelen shot back.
“And sometimes the price is so high it should never be paid,” he snapped. “Nei. I will not allow it.”
“Rain, these men may soon be leaving the Fading Lands to defend Celieria—the people I begged you to defend. They could die fulfilling the vow I urged you to make. You must let me give them what comfort I can before they go. The pain I feel when healing them is momentary. It ends as soon as their souls are restored. But if I don’t do this and they die, their pain will never leave me.
” She grasped his arms. ?Would you have me bear the same sorrow and regret you shared with me at the Lake of Glass? ?
No matter how much Rain wanted to deny it, he knew the shei’dalin in Ellysetta had risen as strongly as the tairen. To sense the pain of the rasa and do nothing to assuage it was hurting her. It had tormented her dreams, woken her from sleep, and driven her here, prepared
to endure whatever pain she must to stop their suffering.
And she’d come alone, without him, because she’d not trusted him to let her do what she felt she must.
?Kem’jeto.? My brother. Bel’s voice whispered on the private weave forged between them centuries ago. ?I think perhaps Gaelen and Ellysetta are right.?
?You too, Bel?? It stung to hear Bel, the most honorable Fey Rain knew, whose opinion he trusted in all things, agreeing with this madness.
?How can you suggest such a thing??
?Our numbers are too few. If our most experienced fighters lose their souls in the first battles, too few will be left to
protect the Feyreisa and the Fading Lands.? Bel’s cobalt eyes were steady, filled with a mix of bleak sorrow and grim acceptance. ?She is here, in our time of deepest need, wielding a power no shei’dalin before her ever has. I do not claim to know the
minds of the gods, but the pattern in this weave seems clear.?