Chapter Twenty #3
“Not everyone has betrayed me,” she retorted. “Gaelen and Bel haven’t. They’re out there fighting for me even now. They will save me.”
“Will they? Do you think they did not sense the exorcist hiding in the Solarus? Or read your mother’s and the archbishop’s intentions in their unguarded thoughts? They knew what was in store for you, and they wove a cage of magic around you to ensure you could not escape.”
For one instant, her certainty faltered. Was it possible? Her heart fluttered in her breast, and doubt stabbed her like an icy dart.
“Why would they do that?” she challenged weakly. She was ice cold and shivering. Some dark, invisible force was pulling at her, tugging her towards the Mage like steel to a lodestone. She resisted the pull, but her efforts were sluggish and exhausting.
“Because they know what you are. My child, Ellysetta. My daughter. My greatest achievement. The child I created to destroy the Fey.”
“Liar.” She tried to laugh, but the chattering of her teeth ruined the effect.
She felt so cold, as if all the warmth of the world had been siphoned away.
“You outwitted yourself, Mage. Sel’dor doesn’t burn Eld flesh, but it burns mine.
I’m no daughter of yours, and the Fey know it, despite your trying to convince them otherwise. ”
She’d hoped to rattle him, but it didn’t work. “You think in such common, limited terms,” he sneered. “Any mongrel dog can breed a whelp. Where’s the genius in that? I’m talking about siring something far greater than flesh.”
Cold winds swirled around her. Icy, invisible fingers tugged and poked and prodded, seeking every weakness in her defenses, leeching away her resistance, her hope.
“Your soul, girl. I’m the father of your soul. I created it, and now I’ve come to claim it.”
On the lawn surrounding the cathedral, Fey warriors battled what appeared to be an army of demons. Many—too many—warriors lay dead or dying on the ground, and the others fought a grim battle for their lives.
As Rain ran, he saw yet another demon rising out of the ground and tasted the cold sweetness of Azrahn. He slammed a concentrated five-fold weave at the spot, and the selkahr crystal buried there exploded.
?Fey, follow the scent of Azrahn. Selkahr crystals are buried in the ground. Destroy them to close the demon gates. Miora felah ti’Feyreisa!?
“Miora felah ti’Feyreisa!” The shout echoed from all corners of the embattled isle.
Rain took the cathedral steps four at a time and burst through the carved double doors leading to the nave.
In one glance, he took in the shattered altar to the left of the door, the unmistakable signs of battle, and the group of six Fey weaving powerful magic at the back of the nave.
Frost was forming on the pews near Gaelen, and the entire cathedral was filled with a sweet smell so thick Rain’s stomach churned.
The former dahl’reisen was weaving deliberate, powerful Azrahn.
Rage rose up inside Rain. A billowing gray mist surrounded him, sparking with the powerful magic of the Change.
A tremendous roar shook the cathedral, filtering through the small breach in the Solarus shields and making the crystal sconces rattle. Lauriana flinched and cried out.
“The Tairen Soul has arrived,” Nivane said. He raised a brow. “I wonder if he’ll scorch the Fey wielding Azrahn, as Fey law dictates.”
The second hinge melted, and now scorching tongues of tairen flame licked voraciously at the door frame. A sardonic smile twisted Nivane’s mouth. “Apparently not. So much for Fey law. Grab the girl and let’s go.”
Den bent down to grab Ellie, then hesitated when she moaned and her eyelids fluttered. “She’s waking up.”
“She’s got enough sel’dor in her now to be no trouble to us. Pick her up. I’ll open the portal.” Nivane yanked the long, wavy-edged Mage blade from Father Bellamy’s back and dragged the exorcist’s crumpled form to the far side of the room.
He gave a short laugh and glanced back at Den. “The Guardians are so used to pocket-sized bits of flesh, Bellamy will be quite a banquet for them.” He jabbed the Mage blade deep into the dead man’s chest. The large, dark crystal in the pommel of the knife flickered with ominous red lights.
Nivane backed several paces away from the body, and Lauriana heard him murmur something in a foreign tongue. The dead priest’s body began to smolder. A small black pinprick formed in the air above. Dark shadows swept out of the small opening, hissing and circling around the body.
Ellysetta cried out at the sudden familiar sensation of ice spiders crawling over her flesh. The feeling was much stronger than ever before.
“You see?” the Mage whispered. “You can feel it, can’t you? The darkness in your soul. The great gift I gave you when you were still a child in your mother’s womb. Open yourself to it, girl. Embrace it.”
?Do not heed him.? A strong voice, familiar yet not, penetrated her consciousness. A man’s voice. ?Don’t grant him access to your soul. He uses your fears to hold you here when those you love most need you. Look at the truth he hides from you.?
Faint light penetrated the shadows enveloping her. The Solarus stretched out below her, as if she were perched above the chamber looking down through a tinted glass.
“You!” the Shadow Mage hissed. “You will regret your interference.”
Ellysetta cried out at the sight of Selianne holding Mama at knifepoint. Greatfather Tivrest lay sprawled on the marble floor, a knife protruding from his back. Den was hefting Ellysetta’s own limp body over his shoulder.
And Father Bellamy . . .
The exorcist was obviously dead, his mouth open in a soundless scream. Above him, a dark shadow widened like a gaping maw.
In the swirling shadows, Ellysetta caught frightening glimpses of wild eyes, gnashing teeth, and wide, bloody mouths.
She watched in horror as the priest’s body was torn to shreds before her eyes.
Flesh peeled back from bones. Blood sprayed up in unnatural red fountains.
Bones splintered and turned to swirling white powder.
Clicking, hissing, slurping, the demons consumed every last scrap of Father Bellamy’s body and soul.
In seconds, all that remained was a shredded red silk tunic, sucked dry even of bloodstains.
Above the remains, the dark hole widened rapidly and formed what appeared to be a doorway leading into utter blackness. The demons pulled back to frame the doorway, hissing, their formless shapes undulating like deadly shadow snakes.
The second exorcist, Nivane, motioned, and after a brief hesitation, Den walked towards the drowning blackness of the portal. Weeping, Mama stumbled towards it as well, prodded forward by the knife in Selianne’s hand.
Ellysetta heard what sounded like a muffled groan, and a sudden sharp pain in her chest made her cry out.
“Listen to me, girl.” The High Mage’s voice was back, but where there had been crooning seduction, now there was cold command.
“Everyone you love has betrayed you. No one is coming to help. They’ve all abandoned and reviled you.
You are alone. Your struggles only postpone the inevitable. You cannot hope to stand against me.”
The oppressive weight of his will pressed hard against her own, urging her to give up and let the inevitable happen.
She wavered on the knife’s edge of surrender; despair washed over her in steady, unrelenting waves.
She was no warrior, the despair whispered.
She had neither the skills nor the strength to defeat him.
?No, child,? a second voice urged. This time, it was a woman’s voice, throbbing with encouragement.
?Do not heed him. The ones you love are near.
Your mate is with them. They fight for you.
You must not surrender. If you let the Evil One claim you, your mate will die, and without him, nothing can prevent the Evil One from destroying your soul.
Fight him, child. For your mate. For your soul.
Fight him for all the lives he has destroyed. ?
?Ellysetta! Shei’tani!? Rain’s call flared across her senses, a bright, warm light blooming in the icy darkness.
The pain of the exorcism and betrayal had driven her here, to this shadowy realm. The High Mage had kept her distracted, filling her mind with doubts, playing on her fears. But now, revitalizing energy filled her, a wellspring of renewed hope.
Rain. He’d come back.
“Do not listen to those foolish creatures!” the Mage cried. “You cannot stop what is happening. Do not fight it. Let yourself go.”
“No!” she shouted defiantly. The shadow world fell away in a dizzying rush. Her senses flooded back to her, nerves howling, sel’dor burning like live coals embedded in her flesh.
She woke screaming.