Her stomach took a sickening lurch. “I’m going to be sick.” Best just to die now and get it over with, because surely she would die of mortification the next time she had to face anyone else who’d been in the banquet hall the night before. She’d woven lust on the highest-ranking nobles in Celieria—worse, on the king and queen!
Rain muttered a soft curse and came to her side. His thumbs slid over her cheeks, caressing gently. Regret and shame whispered against her senses from the point where his skin touched hers. “Sieks’ta. I am tired and behaving badly. I should have found a way to give you the truth without causing you such distress. You are not to blame for last night’s weave. You did not understand what you were doing. Even I did not understand it at first.” He tilted her chin up and waited for her to meet his eyes. “One thing, however, is inescapably clear. There is great magic in you. Of that, there can be no doubt.”
She nodded miserably. She could no longer deny the truth.Somehow, by some wicked trick of the gods, Ellysetta Baristani possessed magic. And it seemed determined to get out.
“You must be trained. Great power such as yours can be dangerous in untutored hands.”
“All right,” she whispered. If training would keep her from doing something as mortifying as what she’d done last night, she would be a devoted student. “When we reach the Fading Lands, I’ll take whatever training you think I need. I’m sorry I made such a mess of things.”
He finished dressing and stood regarding her for a moment. “Hold out your hand, Ellysetta.” Hesitant, she did, and he placed a small velvet bag in her palm. “This is your courtship gift for today. Open it.”
She loosened the silk cords and tilted the bag. Three large, perfect pearls, one white, one pink, one deep blue-gray, rolled out into her palm.
“Beautiful, are they not?”
“Did you make them?”
“Nei. Except when magic is part of the symbol being offered, the Fey do not use magic to make their gifts.” His mouth curved. “It can be an inconvenient custom. I dragged an unsuspecting glassblower from his bed to make the globe for the small weave I gave you last week.” His small smile grew rueful. “And while your weave was still spinning last night, a cold swim in the ocean seemed a prudent idea.” He plucked the dark pearl from her hand. “Do you know how a pearl comes to be?”
“Oysters make them, from a bit of sand.”
“Aiyah. From a bit of sand.” He rolled the pearl between his fingers. “All pearls begin as something unpleasant that the oysters cannot expel from themselves, even though they may want to. So they embrace these things that will not leave them, shaping them and smoothing away the sharp edges, until over time, they make of these unwanted things great treasures.”
“What are you saying? That in time the heads of Celieria’s noble Houses will behappythat I wove seven bells of lust on them? Or that, after a few centuries, it will turn out to be agoodthing that I singlehandedly destroyed the Fey-Celierian alliance?”
Strengthening that alliance had been the real purpose behind last night’s dinner. For a thousand years, Celieria and the Fading Lands had been the staunchest of allies, but recently, anti-Fey sentiment had exploded throughout large portions of Celieria.Dahl’reisen—terrifing former Fey warriors who’d slipped down the Dark Path and been banished from the Fading Lands—had been accused of murdering Celierian villagers in the north. Many powerful Celierian nobles were promoting a new, more welcoming relationship with the Eld—the Fading Lands’ oldest and most bitter enemy—as a way to counteract centuries of Fey influence over Celieria.
Last night had been Rain’s chance to win the confidence and support of Celieria’s lords before they voted whether or not to reopen their borders to the Eld... and what had she done? She’d wovenluston them! They would never forgive such humiliation.
Ellie groaned in misery and spun away, covering her face with her hands.
“Las, shei’tani.”Rain closed a hand over her shoulder and pulled her gently back to him. “If this is the turn the gods decided our path should take, we will follow it together.”
“But, Rain—”
“Ssh.” He pressed a kiss to her lips to silence her objection, then smiled with tender reassurance. “Listen to me, Ellysetta. The purpose of the gods is not always obvious, but believe me when I say that even from the most unpleasant beginning can come a treasure beyond price.” He returned the pearl to her palm and closed her fingers over it. “I thought my heart would always belong to Sariel. My will was to live only until my duty to the Fey was done and I could join her in death. And then you entered my soul. I did not want the connection, I admit. But in these few short days, you have wrought unexpected changes upon me. You’ve brought backto me the laughter I lost a thousand years ago, you’ve made me remember what hope is.” He ran a finger down her cheek. “I would not change you, Ellysetta. To me, you are already a pearl beyond price.”
“But the alliance... I know how important it is, and since the day we met, I only keep making things worse.”
Rain sighed. “If the Fey-Celierian alliance does not survive last night’s excitement, then it was not long for this world in any event. Would I change that if I could? Of course. As you reminded me yesterday, the Fey need Celieria. For millennia, your country has guarded the gates to our lands. But the Fey needyou,also.Ineed you... more than any alliance. All I ask is that you try to find a way to live in comfort with those gifts you are afraid to face. I do not know all there is to know aboutshei’tanitsabonding, but I do know both parties must accept what lies within themselves before they can open their souls to the other, as they must to complete the bond.”
Ellie bit her lip and glanced down at the pearls in her hand. “I’ll try, Rain.”
“Beylah vo. I must return to the palace briefly,shei’tani, but I will return as quickly as I can so you do not have to face the tradesfolk alone.”
Ellysetta knew what he left unsaid. He needed to return to the palace to begin repairing the damage she’d wrought with her weave. “I’ll be fine on my own. I’m sure there are much more important matters requiring your attention this morning.”
“Are you certain?”
That he didn’t deny it proved she was right. He was worried about how the nobles would react to what she’d done to them. And she would not compound the trouble she’d already caused him by acting like some clinging ninnywit. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
“Beylah vo, shei’tani.” He brushed a kiss across her lips. “Do not punish yourself for what happened at the dinner last night. Your weave may have embarrassed some, but ultimately it washarmless. Your countrymen will realize this. Besides,” he added, “only those who wield magic themselves could know it was you who spun the weave.”
“Lucky me,” she said glumly.
He smiled and kissed her again, longer this time, his lips coaxing hers to open, his arms holding her until she melted against him. When passion warmed between them, he gave a regretful sigh and pulled back.
“I will return at midday to take you flying.” He slipped through the window and leapt into the sky. His body dissolved in a cloud of sparkling magic and mist, only to re-form as an enormous, sleek black tairen winging across the early morning sky.
