«Vel Serranis! Release her!»
Dahl’reisenthough he was, Gaelen vel Serranis was still Fey. Any Fey who took Gaelen’s life would lose his own soul.
Bel never once paused as he pulled two wickedly sharp, red-handled Fey’cha free of their sheaths and leapt forward to kill thedahl’reisenwho had laid hands upon Ellysetta Baristani.
Behind him, Rain’s shouts changed to the chilling, full-throated roar of an enraged tairen.
Held in the viselike grip of the man she’d thought to save, Ellysetta’s consciousness wavered uncertainly in a mirrored hall of madness. She was Ellysetta Baristani, yet not. She was a man, naked and howling beneath an Elden Mage’s lash. She was a woman screaming as tears of blood poured from her eyes. She was Gaelen vel Serranis, descending into madness as he watched his sister, the person he loved beyond all others, die in one swift, shocking moment at the point of an Eld assassin’s blade. She was Rain, locked in an agony of old memories and new nightmares, teetering on the brink of destruction.
She was herself, shrieking from the horrors that battered her mind, even as a violent rage swelled within her, fierce as any tairen’s fury.
The pain must stop.Wouldstop.
Bel was in mid-leap when Ellysetta’s screaming abruptly ceased and a fist of Air slammed hard against his chest, batting him to the ground. All breath left him, and the red Fey’cha flew out of his grasp.
«Kill him!»Bel shouted the command to his brother Fey, demanding the sacrifice without a second thought.«He’s got the Feyreisa.»
«Nei. You will stand down.»The command came from Ellysetta, but her voice was different, resonant with power, her order irresistible. Blades fell harmlessly from Fey hands.
Behind Bel, the warriors guarding Rain gave a shout. “The Tairen Soul! He’s free! Our weave is down! We cannot call magic!”
At first Bel thought it was Gaelen vel Serranis using darkdahl’reisenmagic to control them all, but then Ellysetta turned her head ever so slightly towards him. Her face was expressionless, her eyes glowing.
Fear shivered up Bel’s spine. “Ellysetta...” The soul that looked out at him from those glowing eyes was not the gentlespirit that had claimed his devotion. “Ellysetta, you must let us stop Rain. In his present state, he’s a danger to us all.” He tried to summon his magic, but nothing came to his call. He could sense the source within him, rich and powerful, but it was as if the flows of his magic had been redirected.
To her.
«Aiyah, it must stop.»With strength beyond her slender form, she turned thedahl’reisenon his back and ripped the wet leather of his tunic down the middle, baring the pale skin of his chest and the myriad bleeding wounds that marred it. She laid her hand over thedahl’reisen’sheart, and a brilliant weave blazed to life, intricate and bright as the Great Sun. Bel raised a hand to shade his eyes against the stabbing brightness. The weave spread out like a net above thedahl’reisen’schest, then dropped, sinking into him, and every fingerspan of Gaelen vel Serranis’s exposed skin glowed like a candle shade lit from within.
Thedahl’reisencried out, a sobbing, ragged sound. His body convulsed in a rigid arch, muscles clenched and straining. An anguished moan rattled out between gritted teeth, the sound of torment beyond bearing. And Belliard vel Jelani saw something he’d never believed possible.
The scar bisecting the Dark Lord’s brow—the mark of his lost soul—began to fade.
Bel raised astonished eyes to Ellysetta. The picture of her at this moment would be indelibly burned into his mind for all eternity. Her eyes so fierce in a face of pure serenity.
Her body stiffened. Her head reared up, and her eyes blazed with a sudden flare of blinding light that lit the river’s edge bright as day for a moment’s span. Then the light in her eyes and the glow in vel Serranis’s body winked out, gone as quickly as a snuffed candle flame.
“Rain... Where’s Rain?” Ellysetta’s voice was a thin whisper; then she gave a tiny sigh and crumpled over thedahl’reisen’sstill form.
Chapter Fourteen
Vadim Maur backed away from his two Fey captives. The cold sweat of terror—something he’d not felt in centuries—trickled down his spine.
The v’En Celay matepair lay motionless on the dirty stone floor of their cage. The sudden blaze of light that had enveloped them was gone, and the broken shards of what had beensel’dormanacles and earrings lay scattered around their whole, unblemished bodies.
The High Mage backed out of the cage, slamming the door shut and locking it with shaking hands. He shouted for the guards waiting outside the chamber. “Get the manacles! Pierce them both. Hurry! Before the male wakes.”
If Shannisorran v’En Celay woke unrestrained bysel’dor...
Vadim shuddered. The Fey lord had been unshackled only once since his capture, and then only to test the success of Vadim’s experiments. The crazed beast that raged into life had slain four Mages and two platoons of guardsmen. A barrage ofsel’dorbarbed arrows had done little to slow him. A knife in the chest of theshei’dalinwas the only thing that had finally brought him back under control.
The Fey lord and his mate flinched but never roused as the guards snapped needle-barbedsel’dormanacles into place. Only then did the tension begin to leave Vadim’s body.
What had happened just now? Where had that blast of concentrated power come from? Vadim had never known anything thatcould vaporizesel’dorwithin a Fey’s skin. He’d never heard anything like the commanding voice in his mind that said,“It must stop.”Even the memory of it made him shiver.
One of the guards paused a short distance away and cleared his throat. “What shall we do with the captives, Most High?”
Vadim took a breath and struggled to keep his voice level. “Have the servants tend them.”
