Behind him, two of the Fey walked slowly around the perimeter of the nave, checking under altars and opening the rows of carved and gilded wooden devotionals to peer inside the privateprayer rooms. The other two warriors went row by row through all the pews, lifting cushions, inspecting hymnals, and checking under the pews themselves.
Selianne huddled closer. “What do you think they’re looking for?” she whispered.
“I don’t know, dear,” Laurie lied. She patted the girl’s hand. “I’m sure it’s just a precautionary measure to ensure Ellie’s safety.”
Ravel and the archbishop finished an equally in-depth inspection of the main altar and the raised platform of the luminary, and began heading towards the Solarus. Lauriana couldn’t tear her gaze away as the two men opened the heavy connecting door and entered the small, sacred chapel. She forced herself to remain calm, breathing slow and steady, working hard to marshal her thoughts. The archbishop didn’t once look back her way, and his manner bespoke nothing more consequential than stiff affront at the invasion of the holy site entrusted to his care.
They remained in the Solarus for what seemed like ages. All the while, Lauriana waited for the accusatory cry. Time inched by... one chime... five... a quarter bell. Perspiration gathered on her upper lip and slicked her palms. Her nerves stretched to the breaking point.
Just as she grew certain of discovery, Ravel and the archbishop returned to the nave. Without a word, Ravel gathered up his steel, and all five warriors headed for the main entrance of the cathedral. He paused at the doorway. “Thank you for your time, ladies, Greatfather. The Fey regret any inconvenience, and we appreciate your gracious understanding and cooperation.” He bowed quite deeply, then spun away and made his exit.
“Well,” Selianne murmured. “That was exciting.”
“Yes.” Lauriana excused herself and hurried to the archbishop’s side. “Greatfather?”
The cleric patted her hand. “Do not trouble yourself, daughter. All is well.”
A few chimes later, Lauriana’s ears detected the clap of approaching boot steps, and the familiar, despised tang of freshly woven magic soured her tongue.
Ellysetta and her Fey guards had arrived.
Ellysetta climbed the thirteen steps of the Cathedral of Light’s Grand Entrance, and stood waiting while her quintet, with a great show of grudging acceptance, surrendered their steel to the young novitiate priest waiting by the cathedral door. Behind her, at all corners of the Isle of Grace, the Fey were spinning dense, impenetrable twenty-five-fold weaves that rose up around the Isle like a massive dome of shimmering, sunlit mist. Through the open double doors of the cathedral, she could see the archbishop’s pristine white form standing at the far end of the nave. Selianne stood on his left side, looking pale and frightened, no doubt waiting for the Fey to scream “Eld spy!” and slay her. Mama stood on his right.
The sight of her mother made Ellysetta reconsider her suspicions about who had betrayed Gaelen to the queen. If Mama had done it, why would she show up for the Blessing? To willingly lock herself behind magic shields with a hundred Fey after turning Gaelen in for crimes against the crown seemed uncharacteristically reckless.
With her quintet following close behind, Ellysetta approached the altar. She stopped directly before her mother. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
Lauriana’s lips trembled before she clamped them tight. “You’re my daughter, Ellysetta,” she replied. “If you insist on leaving with the Fey, I can at least see you properly blessed and wed before you go.” Her jaw worked for a moment. “Don’t think that means I approve of your choice. I don’t.”
Ellysetta nodded. Disapproval she could live with. The loss of her mother’s love, she could not. Then, because she had to know, she lowered her voice to a whisper and asked, “Did you say anything about... the guest who came with me to the house this morning? Did you report him to the queen?”
Lauriana drew back in genuine surprise. “No!” Her brows lowered to a scowl. “Though I probably should have, come to think of it.”
Though Ellysetta was far from accomplished with her Fey gifts, she couldn’t detect any hint of a lie. Her mother was very nervous and tense—which made perfect sense, considering her intense dislike and suspicion of the Fey—but she hadn’t been behind Gaelen’s arrest.
Ellysetta exhaled a relieved breath. “Thank you for coming, Mama,” she said. “I know it wasn’t an easy decision for you, and I love you for caring enough to be here, despite your reservations.” She wished she could weave time like the Fey wove the elements and erase the harsh words she and her mother had exchanged this morning. “You’ve always been my beacon. It wouldn’t have felt right to receive the Bride’s Blessing without you by my side.”
Tears filled her mother’s eyes, but when Ellysetta stepped forward, intending to embrace her, Lauriana turned away and choked out, “Please, Greatfather, let’s get started.”
Ellysetta’s arms fell to her sides. The rejection hurt almost as badly as Rain’s abandonment last night. But Mama was here, she reminded herself. Despite her doubts and obvious fears, Mama had come to stand at Ellysetta’s side. Rain, wherever he was, hadn’t even offered that much.
Chapter Eighteen
Rain woke to the astonishing sensation of velvety horse lips moving over his face, and the loud sound of equine teeth munching in his ear. He peeled open one eye and stared into a horse’s large, thickly lashed brown eye.
Above him, a dazzling bright blue sky stretched out. Below him was the soft, musty prickle of—he pulled a handful of the stuff up and stared at it—hay. He was lying in a haystack. In the middle of some farmer’s field. With a big, heavyset shire-horse nibbling haystraw from his face and hair and munching loudly in his ear.
He shoved himself off the haystack, away from the horse’s hungry, grazing mouth, and staggered to his feet. Gods, he hurt. Every muscle, joint, and sinew ached from the bitter, arduous bells he’d spent battering himself against last night’s fierce, unnatural winds.
Sybharukai, bless her for the wicked tairen she was, had known exactly how to punish him for his stupidity while leading him roaring and fighting from rage back to reason. She’d beaten the fury out of him, shoved bilious truth down his throat until he gagged on it, then left him exhausted and filled with the bitter taste of humiliation, to make the final choice on his own.
Now, in the bright light of day, as he stood in the quiet peace of a farmer’s field with Eld behind him and hope beckoning from Celieria City far to the south, he knew, with a certainty of purpose he’d long been lacking, that his choice was the right one.
For every great gift the gods demand a great price. Rain shouldhave known the gods wouldn’t grant him the stunning, unexpected miracle of a truemate without demanding something in return. Even Marissya had warned him of it on that very first night after he’d claimed Ellysetta.You cannot shirk your duty, not to the tairen, not to the Fey, and definitely not to your truemate. Because, Rain, one other thing seems certain... whatever task the gods have set before Ellysetta Baristani, it is fearfully dangerous. Else she’d not need a tairen to protect her soul.
What could be more dangerous to her than bearing the taint of the High Mage himself? Yet just as Ellysetta had flinched from her first encounter with the tairen, Rain had flinched from his first true test of courage as well. Worse, he’d fled and left her thinking she repulsed him.
She was not to blame for who her father might be, nor for any cursed Mage Mark set upon her in infancy. And Rain’s first duty was not to the world, or the Fey, or even the tairen. His first duty was to her.
