Steli’s offer tempted Rain, but after a brief consideration, he turned it down.«Nei. They are Fey, my kin whether I like it or not. Reason may be enough.»
The white cat growled.«Reason? The wingless ones have already reasoned themselves stronger than you, or they would not have issued Challenge. Show them fangs, not belly, Rainier-Eras, and keep your claws sharp. Even Sybharukai knows a bite on the neck will remind the unruly to show respect. Show the wingless ones who is makai of this pride.»
«Steli-chakai is as wise as she is fierce.»He fixed his eyes on the Massan. “Explain your presence here, Tenn v’En Eilan. Explain to me why fifty warriors of the Fey, three of the Massan, and threeshei’dalinshave come to the foot of Fey’Bahren to imprison their king and accuse the Tairen Soul’s mate of weaving the forbidden magic.”
“Do you deny our accusations?” Tenn retorted instead. “Your mate has already woven Azrahn once, and we had very good reason to believe she was bringing Gaelen vel Serranis here with the deliberate intent of weaving it again.”
Rain’s jaw worked. “How long did it take you to run here from Dharsa?”
The question took Tenn aback. “Eighteen bells. What has that got to do with—”
“Eighteen bells. Eighteen bells ago, you set out for Fey’Bahren because you believed my mate was planning to weave a magic that could corrupt her soul and endanger the Fading Lands.” His lips drew back in a snarl. “And yet not once in all that time did I receive a single word of warning from you or any of your fellow Massan that my mate was endangering herself. Why is that, Tenn?”
The Fire master clenched his jaw and did not answer.
Yulan leapt to his friend’s defense. “We are not the ones who have done wrong!”
“Are you not?” Sparks began to fly around Rain as magic and fury bubbled up inside him. “Every warrior of the Fey swears on his honor and his life to protect the women of the Fading Lands from harm. Any one of you could have sent me a warning. I could have arrived in time to stop her. But you didn’t. Which leads me to only one conclusion: You meant her to weave Azrahn. You hoped she would. Because that would give you the opportunity to banish her from the Fading Lands.”
He seared each of the Massan with a glare so hot, it was a wonder they did not burst into flame where they stood. “You dishonor your names and your steel.”
Venarra stepped closer to her mate. “Aiyah, we allowed her the opportunity to weave Azrahn,” she said, “but we did not make her do it. She knew the danger. She knows the law. Yet still she chose to put the Fading Lands at risk. We all saw what will happen if we allow her to continue leading honorable Fey down the Shadowed Path. She is the Eld’s creature, sent here to destroy us, and it is our duty to stop her.” Venarra’s traveling leathers became scarletshei’dalinsilks, and a scarlet veil covered her face. “Rainier vel’En Daris, your mate stands accused of weaving the forbidden magic. She will confess or be Truthspoken.”
Even before he sensed Ellysetta’s instinctive, horrified recoil, Rain’s hands moved in a blur. Four red Fey’cha thunked hilt-deep in the dirt a finger span from the boots of the three Massan and theShei’dalinVenarra. The other Fey’s answering blades froze inmidair—caught by the swift, masterful weaves of icy-eyed Gaelen and Bel.
“Touch her and you die,” Rain stated coldly. “Consider warning given.”
“She has bewitched you!” Tenn accused.
“She has led me back from death to life and opened my eyes to truth. She has saved us all and risked her soul to do it. If that is bewitchment, then the gods themselves are the sorcerers who taught her the spells.”
“Rainier Feyreisen.” Venarra seized his wrist and spoke, her voice laden with the resonant, irrefutable command of ashei’dalin’s compulsion weave. “Did your mate Ellysetta weave the forbidden magic?”
He could not resist, so he spat the truth defiantly. “Aiyah,she did and so did I!And I would do it again.”
Silence fell over the plateau. The eyes of the Massan and theShei’dalinwent hazy as private Spirit weaves passed between them. A moment later, Tenn turned back to Rain and Ellysetta, his face a mask of unflinching stone.
“Ellysetta Baristani and Rainier vel’En Daris, you are guilty of weaving the forbidden magic, Azrahn. For your crime, the Massan declares that you both shall be stripped of your steel and banished for all eternity from the Fading Lands.”
Rain laughed without humor. “Banish us? You overstep yourself, Tenn. The Tairen Soul does not answer to the Massan, and the Massan’s will does not trump the Tairen Soul’s.”
“You are mistaken, Rain. The Fey vested the Massan with the power to override your will a thousand years ago to ensure that you, in your madness, did not lead us astray, as you are doing now.”
The words struck Rain like a mortal blow. He turned in stunned disbelief towards Bel, and the knife slid deeper into his heart when his best friend looked away. All this time... all this time the Massan had not simply been wielding power in his name. They’d been wielding powerover him.
And not even Marissya had ever told him.
Not even Bel.
Eld ~ Boura Fell
Elfeya lay panting on the stone floor, every finger span of her body bruised and bloodied. She sensed the instant Shan regained consciousness, and she reached out to him on the threads of their bond, desperate to give him what information she could before her tormentors began again.«Orest and Teleon, beloved. They strike at Orest and Teleon.»That much she’d been able to pull from the High Mage’s mind as she’d healed him.«Tell her, Shan.»
«Elfeya... »
«Tell her to warn them.»
She cried out as hands seized fistsful of her hair and hauled her to her feet. Rough hands slammed her hard against the stone walls of the cell, knocking the breath from her lungs. Glowing, red-hot metal filled her vision. She tried desperately to close her bonds to Shan before the scream was ripped from her lungs and the smell of sizzling flesh assaulted her nose, but she wasn’t fast enough.
