“What?” Lauriana snatched her hands away and drew back to regard Selianne with shocked disbelief. Two days ago, awash in tears, Selianne had shared her fearful concerns about Ellie being exposed to the corruption of the Fey, but Laurie hadn’t realized her worries would take her downthispath. “Selianne, I know you mean well, but—”
“Please, Madame Baristani, hear me out. He can take all of you. Your whole family. There would be no repercussions and you’d all be safe... together and free of the Fey.”
“No repercussions? Oh, kitling, by the king’s own command, before the Supreme Council and with half the court as witness, we pledged Ellysetta’s troth to the Tairen Soul. If we fled our bound oath, we’d all be outcasts, exiles. And the Fey would never give her up so easily. We’d be hunted for the rest of our lives.”
Tears sparkled in Selianne’s blue eyes. “I’m only thinking of Ellie. I can see her changing before my eyes, and it frightens me. I’m afraid of what the Fey are doing to her.”
“As am I,” Lauriana agreed grimly. “But we cannot right a wrong with a more grievous wrong, Selianne. No matter how tempting or justified it may seem. Every teaching in the Book of Light tells us that is the first step down the Dark Path.”
“But what else can we do, Madame Baristani?”
Lauriana stared helplessly at the younger woman. Her eyes felt dry and burning, and the small luncheon they’d shared churned uncomfortably in her belly. “I don’t know.”
She was still worrying over it a bell later as she walked home, her arms full of packages she’d collected from various tradesmen. Her steps slowed as she neared the corner of West Avenue and Poppy. An unshaven man in a moth-eaten coat stood on the corner beside the lamppost. He held a large sign that proclaimed “The Shadows Are Among Us” and cried out for Celierians to repent their sins and seek the Light.
Lauriana grimaced. Shadow Seer. One of the crazed religious zealots who saw the end of the world in every cloud and flickering lamp. His sort gave true followers of Adelis a bad name.
She shifted closer to the street to give the man a wide berth, but as she passed him, he leapt at her and grabbed her arms. She gave a shrill scream of fear. Her purse and packages tumbled to the cobblestones. The man thrust his face so close to hers, she could see the spidery red veins in the whites of his wild eyes.
“He’s here!” the man cried. “The demon-beast of the Dark Lord. He’ll steal her soul, mother! Save her! Only you can save her!”
“Here now, let that woman go.” Several men rushed to Lauriana’s aid, prying her from the ragged Seer. “Get on back to the slums, you crack-skull.” Two of the men shoved the Seer down the street, while a third bent to gather Lauriana’s fallen belongings.
“You all right, madam?” A fourth man with kind eyes helped her to her feet.
“I... yes.” Lauriana pressed a shaking hand to her face and battled back the threatening hot rush of tears. “I’m fine. Thank you. Just a little shaken.” She took the packages and her bag backfrom the third man. “Thank you all,” she repeated. Gathering her composure as best she could, she turned down Poppy and headed towards home.
She couldn’t stop herself from glancing back over her shoulder. The Shadow Seer stood to one side of the cobbled road, watching her. His mouth was moving. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she knew the words all the same.Only you can save her.
Deeply troubled, she made her way back home. Rain and Ellie were still out on their “courtship bells,” those long, unchaperoned periods of time when they flew off to engage in gods only knew what kind of mischief together. Sol was certain the Fey oath the Tairen Soul had sworn would keep their daughter and her virtue safe, but Lauriana wasn’t nearly so trusting. Especially after Selianne’s dreadful revelation.
At home, she carried her packages upstairs and set them down on her bed. As she did so, a sheet of paper fluttered to the floor. She bent to pick it up and frowned at the smudged block print of the headline that proclaimed: “Beware the Shadow Lord, Corrupter of Souls!”
Oh, for the Haven’s sake. That Shadow Seer must have thrust one of his religious tracts in her bags. She’d never been a woman to pay the Shadow Seers much mind. She’d always been too intrinsically orthodox in her devotion to the Bright Lord to find their fanatical mysticism appealing.
Lauriana started to toss the pamphlet away, then stopped. What if, for all their wild-eyed madness, the Seers were right about the Fey? Hadn’t Selianne just told her of the unholy carnal spell the Tairen Soul had woven over Dorian’s court?
She scanned the text. Most of it was the hysterical drivel she’d come to expect from the Seers, but there was a line or two that hit a little too close to home regarding the beguiling lure of evil, and how the most dangerous of all the Shadow’s servants were the kind that approached cloaked in beauty and false goodness. She reread those lines several times and shivered. The description of the Shadow’s servants fit Rain Tairen Soul and the Fey perfectly.
Two bells later, Lauriana sat in silence, knitting with fervor and sneaking grim glances at the Fey king as he led Ellysetta through the steps of an intricate court dance Master Fellows insisted she must learn before the prince’s prenuptial ball.
The corrupter of innocents moved with inhuman grace as he twirled Ellysetta in a series of elegant pirouettes. He looked so shining and pure and beautiful, not at all like the serpent of iniquity she knew him to be. Luring Ellysetta to carnal banquets. Endangering her soul. As the priests always said, the swiftest road to sin was down the path of pleasure...
Ellie glanced over, frowning a little. “Mama? Is everything all right?”
Conscious of the Tairen Soul’s sudden interest, Lauriana blanked her face and did her best to blank her emotions as well. “I’m fine, kitling.” She forced a smile. “Just a little aggravated by some of the tradesmasters I had to deal with today.”
Deciding it was best not to sit in the Fey’s presence with her thoughts in such a turmoil, she set her knitting aside and went upstairs to her room to finish sorting through the packages she’d brought home.
She emptied the contents of the largest bag on her bed. Along with the boxes of gratitudes and wedding programs she’d picked up from the printer, the small blue-and-silver gift Selianne had given her tumbled out. Selianne had asked Lauriana to put it somewhere that Ellie would be sure to find it and open it herself, without an audience. (“It’s a little something from one married friend to another soon-to-be-married friend, Madame Baristani,” Selianne had whispered with a faint blush.) Lauriana had forgotten about the gift, but now, looking at the reflections shimmering in the shining silver ribbons, she felt compelled to tuck it safely away in Ellie’s room as quickly as possible.
She carried the gift down the hall and set it on Ellie’s dressing table. When she turned back towards the door, a strange light-headedness struck her and her vision went blurry. She stumbled out of the room and put her hand against the hallway wall to steady herself until the dizziness passed.
“Lauriana, you ninnywit. What did you think would happen after not eating all day?” Her constitution wasn’t as hardy as it had been in her youth. She returned to her bedroom and splashed cool water on her face before heading downstairs to fix herself something to eat.
As she passed Ellysetta’s open bedroom door, a glint of blue and silver caught her eye and she paused, scowling with exasperation.
Now, who had put that gift there in Ellie’s room? How many times had she told her daughters and the Fey that all wedding gifts needed to be kept together downstairs. Argh! She might as well talk to a stone wall, for all the good it did her!
