Tairen’s Flight, by Cadrian vel Sorendahl, Tairen Soul
“Why did I bring my coat?”
Rain cast an amused glance at Ellysetta. Hisshei’tanihad been an uncorked bottle of questions since they’d dropped off the twins at her home. Her hesitance with him had been replaced by incessant curiosity and wide-eyed wonder that reminded him very much of a young tairen eagerly examining the world for the first time.
“Because,shei’tani,” he replied, “it is very cold in the high reaches of the sky. If it gets too cold, I will weave Fire and Air around you to keep you warm, but then you will not feel the wind on your face. Feeling the wind is one of the best parts of tairen flight.”
“What if I discover that I’m afraid of heights?”
“You will not be.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you know you will always be safe in my care.” Ah, blessed arrogance. He wanted to grin. He astonished himself. The Fey and tairen were teetering on the brink of extinction, darkness was rising again in Eld, and Rain Tairen Soul, Defender of the Fey, was happier than he’d been in a thousand years, all because he was taking his mate for a ride in the skies. Even the anger that had simmered in him since leaving Dorian—and roused again upon learning of Ellysetta’s treatment at the hands of Annoura’s tradesfolk—was gone. If Ellysetta was weaving ashei’dalin’speace on him, he could not detect it.
“Lillis and Lorelle are probably still wailing because they couldn’t come,” Ellie said. The twins had pitched an unholy fit, complete with copious tears, when Lauriana had informed them that, no, they were not going to ride on tairenback, and, no, they were not going to tag along with their sister and her betrothed this time.
“This I doubt,” Rain replied. “Kiel and Kieran would not permit their unhappiness.” Kiel and Kieran had both stayed behind to entertain the girls, while the holders of Water and Earth in Ellysetta’s secondary quintet took their places for the afternoon.
They walked through the city gates, out into the open fields that ringed the city. “Tell me again, why do we have to come out here?”
“I prefer to have space for the Change. Besides, there are fewer eyes.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the crowds gathered on the walls. “Right.”
She had a dry sense of humor, very Fey, that made him want to laugh as he had not in centuries. “Just imagine the audience we’d have if we had stayed in the city,” he replied.
Rain brought the group to a halt about two hundred yards from the city wall. “Stay here, Ellysetta, and wait until I tell you it is safe to come forward.” She nodded.
He turned and began jogging away, slowly at first, then faster and faster until he was sprinting. With a tremendous Air-powered leap, he catapulted himself into the sky and flashed into tairen form, winging high above the earth. Skyward he soared, up towards the mid-afternoon sun and into the bright, endless blue of the warm spring day. Black wings spread wide, he banked left and circled back over Celieria, back over the small knot of black-clad warriors and the single slender figure in navy skirts standing safely in their midst.
He knew he was an impressive tairen, large, sleek, powerful. In flight, his tairen body was even more graceful, forelegs flattened aerodynamically against his belly, powerful hind legs trailing behind, his long, thick tail trailing even further, its blunt, curling tip acting like a rudder in flight. He watched his shadow speed across the Celierian landscape, and basked in the warmth of Ellysetta’s dazed admiration.
Slowly, lazily, he glided down to earth and settled with graceful precision on the ground not far from Ellysetta and the Fey warriors. He stretched his wings high, flapped them, then tucked them against his back and padded towards Ellysetta. Stopping a few feet from her, he lay down on his belly beside her and gave a rumbling purr.
«That was a prideful display.»Bel’s dry voice sounded in his mind.
Tairen fangs bared in a grin. Bel knew him too well. Rain could have transformed without taking flight, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive. And he had wanted to impress hisshei’tani. From the dazzled look on her face and the wonderment that he felt through their bond, it was plain he had succeeded.
«Tairen are prideful creatures,»he replied. His glowing lavender eyes turned to Ellysetta. His tail swished slowly.«You can come closer now.»
Ellie heard the voice in her mind, but it didn’t register. She had never seen anything so incredible or so beautiful as the sight ofRainier vel’En Daris leaping into the sky like a human dart and flashing into a huge, sleek, soaring tairen. He’d ridden the sky on broad, black wings, and she’d stood, earthbound and wingless, aching to fly beside him. Not on him, but with him. Beside him, under the power of her own broad wings.
«Shei’tani.»His voice sounded in her mind again, more insistent this time. His tairen head, larger than her body, bumped her gently, bringing her back to the present.
She laughed as she stumbled back a half step. Lillis’s kitten bumped people with her head to demand attention in just the same way, though with considerably less force. An instinctive reflex made Ellie reach out to scratch the bony spot between his eyes. Beneath her hands, his tairen pelt was thick and silky, with a particularly lush nap. She had not expected something so huge to be so soft.
The fur on his majestic head was short, thick, and velvety, growing at a very close crop as it neared his muzzle. His ears, alert and rounded at the tips, were set to either side of his tairen skull. Past his head, his fur grew thick and sleek. He glistened a glossy, intense black, rich and deep, without a hint of brown. His eyes, each larger than her head, were pure lavender with no visible pupil, and they seemed to be lit from within. His proud neck merged gracefully with his powerful chest and the rest of his long, sleek great cat’s body. Muscular forelegs ended in toed paws with sharp, retractable, curving ivory claws, while his hind legs bulged with undisguised strength. The end of his long tail curled and uncurled. His wings, tucked tightly against his body, seemed fragile compared to the rest of him, though she could see that the lightly furred membrane stretched across his wing bones was thick and supple.
“You are beautiful,” she told him, petting the heavy muscles of his furred jaw, forgetting for a moment that this fiercely gorgeous creature was the same being as the fiercely gorgeous man who had claimed her.
«I am glad you think so.»He gave a pleased vibrating purr as she continued to rub his head, and his eyelids half lowered over his large, shining tairen eyes.«I like that. You have a pleasing touch.»
Green light flashed, and a small black leather saddle appeared where his neck joined his torso just above the jutting bones of his shoulders and wings. Long leather straps circled his neck and threaded behind his forelegs, holding the saddle firmly in place.
«Come, shei’tani. Let us dance the winds.»
“How will I get up there?” She gave a surprised cry when her body floated up into the air and settled in the U-shaped saddle. The high-backed cantle cradled her body. “Oh my.” She felt the unfamiliar sensation of a breeze blowing against her legs, and looked down. Her skirts were hiked up to her thighs, her long legs exposed for all to see. “Rain...” Before she could even voice her concern, black leather breeches appeared out of nowhere to cover her. She gaped for a moment, then blinked and closed her mouth. Casual magic was something she was going to have to get used to. “Earth?” she asked, because the breeches felt too real to be even a masterful illusion.
