Chapter Seventeen #4
I can make. I must be a Feyreisen worthy of my crown. Only then will I be worthy of your bond.”
“You’re worthy now,” she protested.
“Nei, I am not. You’ve always believed me better than I truly am, but now it’s time for me to become that honorable Fey I see
in your eyes.” He tilted her chin up and thumbed away her tears, smiling with such gentleness she nearly started crying again.
“Las, kem’san. Come share the magic of the bay with me. I’ve never known anyone yet who hasn’t found a measure of peace after swimming
the waters at sunset.”
She drew in a ragged breath and nodded, drying her eyes with her palms. He would be leaving in a matter of days. There was no guarantee he’d ever return. She wasn’t going to waste the time left to them on tears and accusations.
She gave him her hand to help her into the slender craft. Once she was seated, he pushed off from the dock, then took his
own seat near the stern and spun a weave of Air to fill the sail and send them skimming across the bay towards the black sand
beaches on the distant northern shores. The small, Elvish-made craft was swift and sleek, cutting through the waves and swells
with ease.
The Bay of Flame was large, more a small gulf than a bay, and even with the Air-spun winds driving them, the sail from Blade’s
Point to the northern shores was going to take almost a bell. Needing to be close to Rain, she carefully made her way to the
back of the craft to sit between his feet and rest her head on his thigh as he manned the tiller. “Do you know any Elvish
sailing songs?”
“A few.”
“Will you sing them for me?”
He smiled and stroked her hair. “If you wish.” A moment later, his deep baritone joined the sounds of the wind and waves.
She closed her eyes and let the melancholy ancient Elvish melody wash over her like the fine spray blowing up from the swells.
When the boat touched shore on the black sand beach at the base of the Feyls, the Great Sun was nearing the horizon, and already
the waters of the Bay were glimmering with gold and orange lights. Rain lifted Ellysetta out and carried her to shore, setting
her down in the soft black sand.
“We have about twenty chimes before sunset,” he estimated. His hands went to the buckles of his leather Fey’cha straps and
sword harnesses.
“Do you really think we’ll find any answers here?”
“How can it hurt to try?” Deftly slipping the strips of leather free of their binding, he shed his steel with a quick shrug.
He shed his tunic next and tossed it casually on the sand before sitting down to remove his boots and leather trousers.
He jumped to his feet, completely and magnificently naked, and arched one speaking black brow.
Ellysetta cast a nervous glance towards the towers and ramparts of Blade’s Point across the long miles of bay. Fey sight was
far keener than mortal, and though more than sixty miles of bay stretched between this shore and those towers, she still half
expected to see Fey eyes gleaming at her from the silhouettes of the distant turrets. “Are you certain we’re alone?”
“You mean apart from the legion of Fey that followed us from Dharsa?”
“Ha-ha.” With an exaggerated sigh, she stripped off her own leathers and arched a brow back at him, refusing to be cowed,
though she was quite certain she wasn’t glowing Fey silver but rosy red. Her chin tilted up.
His brows rose. “Tema storris,” he acknowledged with grave approval. “Very brave.”
Ellysetta made a face, tossed her leathers and steel in the boat, and dove into the waves. She surfaced immediately, shrieking
and trembling from head to toe. “It’s freezing!”
He laughed. “Of course. What did you expect? The currents that feed these waters come from the Pale, the ice desert that lies
north of the Feyls. If you hadn’t been in such a hurry, I would have told you most boys who come here on their Soul Quest
wait to take the plunge until the Great Sun touches the horizon.” His lips curved. “That way they spend less time freezing
in the water.”
“Oh!” She swiped her arm across the waves, sending an icy spray showering towards Rain, but he spun a quick weave of red Fire
to evaporate the spray before it touched him. She clasped her arms over her chest, shivering and glaring at him. “It will
serve you right if I catch my death of cold.”
Rain smothered his laugh and tried to look penitent.
“Ah, nei, do not say such things.” He stepped into the waves and waded to her side, unflinching as the icy water lapped around him.
“You are Fey. The cold cannot harm you. You need not even feel it, unless that is your wish. Here, I will warm you.” His eyes glowed, and red light gathered around his right hand.
He touched one finger to the water, and brilliant fiery red weaves spun out.
The water around them rose quickly to the temperature of a warm bath. “Better, kem’san?”
“Much.” Her teeth stopped chattering. She let her knees fold and sank beneath the now-steaming waves to warm her head and
shoulders. They swam together in the circle of water kept warm by Rain’s magic and watched the Great Sun descend slowly in
the western sky until its lower edge almost touched the horizon. “So if the Fey don’t feel the cold,” she asked as they waited
for the sun to set, “then what was that Fey tale you were telling me about boys on their Soul Quest freezing in the water?
Or were you just taunting to get a rise out of me?”
“I? Taunt you? Nei, I am too sweet a shei’tan for that.” When she narrowed her eyes, he laughed again and stopped teasing. “I said Fey don’t need to feel the cold. Even those who do not weave Fire can spin a simple Spirit weave to block the chill. But the Soul Quest
is meant to be a journey without magic. Those who swim here for their Quest do not weave even for their own comfort.”
She frowned, cast a regretful look at the steamy water, and said, “Then you should stop weaving. Quickly, before the sun touches
the water. We came here for answers. I wouldn’t want to ruin our chance of finding them by breaking the rules.”
“As you wish, shei’tani,” he said. His Fire weave went out and the water’s pleasant warmth quickly faded.
When her teeth began to chatter, Rain wrapped his arms around her and shared the heat of his body to ward away the cold. Together,
they floated in the salty bay, Rain’s face pressed against hers, as they watched the Great Sun sink towards the horizon.
The moment the huge, glowing orange ball of the Great Sun touched the horizon, the waters of the bay lit up as if they’d caught fire. Across the vast expanse, dolphins and whales broke the surface of the waves to watch the sun’s descent and dance on the fiery waves.
“It truly is magic,” Ellysetta whispered as tingling warmth and breathtaking wonder washed over her.
“Aiyah. Every night, so long as the Fading Lands still live, this is Lissallukai’s great and lasting gift to this world: a moment
of pure magic to celebrate the greatest magic of all.”
Enchanted, Ellysetta turned to Rain, her body bobbing and sliding against him in the rhythmic rock of the waves. “What greatest
magic?”
“Life, Ellysetta.” His hands slid up to cup her face and carry her lips to his. “And love.”
Her arms wound about his neck, holding him close. All the world around them burned with the cooling fire of the setting sun,
while between Rain and Ellysetta the now familiar flame of passion ignited.
“Aiyah,” she murmured against his lips. “The greatest magic.”