«Belay that command!»Tenn shouted on the same path.«By order of the Massan, you will fall back to the Fading Lands! Do not engage the Eld!»To Rain, he shouted, “Even if she isn’t speaking as the mouthpiece of the Mages, you have no right to command the armies of the Fey! You aredahl’reisen!You are cast out!”
Later, Bel would tell him that at that moment, Rain seemed to grow half a manlength taller, his shoulders twice as wide, and that his eyes blazed like twin purple suns. But all he knew at the time was the rush of his tairen’s power, hot as the raging Great Sun and just as furious, filling him until his body all but exploded with its wrath. In a voice so low and deadly that the very ground rumbled beneath his feet, he growled, “War has begun and still you would divide us?”
Tenn stood his ground, refusing to back down. “War has not begun! Whatever trap the Eld are waiting to spring, I will not let the Fey rush into it! I will not sacrifice what precious few Fey lives we still have left for the sake of Celieria!”
Rain could easily have ripped out Tenn’s throat and danced in the shower of his blood. “The Eld aren’t attacking Celieria, you fool. Teleon and Orest are the gateways to the Fading Lands. They’re coming for us!”
He spun away and sent a second desperate shout on the Warriors’ Path.«Fey! My brothers, you must each make your choice. Those who would hide from the Eld and hope the Faering Mists will protect you, retreat as the Massan have commanded. The rest of you, prepare to fight!»
He leapt into the air, summoning the Change.«Fahreeta, Torasul! Take two of the pride and fly to the Garreval. Protect the Feyreisa’s family. Steli, guard Ellysetta. The rest of you, follow me as quickly as you can.»He circled Su Reisu.«Gaelen, Bel, I may no longer be your king, but as your friend, I could use your blades.»
Bel exchanged a look with Gaelen, then said,«We would follow you through the Seven Hells, Rain, if you will but give us a ride.»
Rain swooped down. Bel and Gaelen leapt onto his back, shouting, “Miora felah ti’Feyreisa! Miora felah ti’Feyreisen!And death to the Eld!” With a whooshing rush of powerful magic, Rain raced east towards Orest and war.
Celieria ~ Teleon
Theshei’dalinsdid not get to finish their last session of Lady Darramon’s healing. Within chimes of Rain’s warning, Kieran and Kiel were hustling them and Ellysetta’s family out of Teleon and towards the Garreval. Behind them, the Fey who had chosen to stay and fight were rushing Lord Darramon’s party to the safety of the hidden fortress.
«What in the name of the Seven Hells is going on, Kieran?»Kiel asked privately as they hurried across the mountainside. After Rain’s cry to prepare for war, the Warriors’ Path had resounded with Tenn v’En Eilan’s commands to retreat, claiming that he and the Massan were in charge of the Fey armies and that Rain wasdahl’reisen, cast out for weaving Azrahn.
«Scorched if I know. The Massan have gone mad. Right at this moment, all I care about is getting the Feyreisa’s family and the shei’dalins to safety before the Eld unleash every demon in the Well upon us.»Kieran glanced back at the small group behind him.«Quickly,»he urged them.«And quietly.»
Lillis and Lorelle clambered over the rocks, shrubs, and tangled grasses. Small slings were tied around their necks, holding the kittens they had brought with them. In addition, each child carried asmall bag containing the belongings she’d packed the previous night. Sol hurried after his daughters, his own, larger pack on his back.
Behind Sol, the fiveshei’dalinsfollowed in swift and graceful silence, their long scarlet robes and veils exchanged for brown traveling leathers. Fifty Fey, silent and grim, surrounded the small group. Their eyes glowed with power, the elongated pupils lengthened and widened like a hunting cat’s. A shifting dome of Spirit hid them as they made their way across the unprotected mountainside towards the Garreval.
Kieran kept the small party moving and did his best to hide his worry. Not one booted foot had emerged from the Mists since Rain’s cry to prepare for battle.
Eld ~ Boura Fell
“Master Maur.” The Primages of the Mage Council bowed low as he entered the war room, his ravaged face hidden by the folds of a deep-hooded robe. He knew better than to reveal how damaged his physical body had become. The moment he revealed such weakness, ambitious Primages would be after him like thistlewolves stalking an injured ram.
“Status?” he snapped.
The Primages turned their attention back to the war map. Sib Vargus, the oldest of the Mages, touched his fingers to the Celierian section and swept upward in a single motion, whispering the Mage spell as he did so. A dark, shimmering image of the Celierian map rose over the table, dotted with several dozen pinpoints of bright light. He waved again, enlarging the view of the northeast quadrant of Celieria, from the Garreval to Orest.
“The Teleon force is in position in the Well, as you ordered. The rest have assembled in Boura Dor, awaiting your command.”
Vadim examined the map. “Tell the commanders to attack. Here.” He pointed to one of the pinpoints of light, whispered aFeraz witchword, and the light changed from white to red. He touched several other pinpoints in succession. “And here and here and here.” His eyes narrowed on the section that showed the Garreval. A cluster of white lights was moving south along the very edges of the map.
He smiled and touched a pinpoint of light just east of them. “And here. Bring Ellysetta Baristani’s family and theshei’dalinsto me, alive.”
Celieria ~ Teleon
The Eld appeared from nowhere. Thousands of them. They came without warning and seemingly from every direction: the guard house, the barracks, the watchtowers, the bailey, all the fields surrounding the outpost. They simply poured out of great gaping black holes in the air, preceded by a hail of barbedsel’dorarrows and blue-white balls of Mage Fire.
The first scores of Celierians to die didn’t even have time to cry out. Their only sound was the thud of their bodies falling from the walls.
The others, the ones who lived long enough to see their brothers fall and hear the crash of stone and splintering wood as Mage Fire blasted away towers and barracks, raised the cry. “To arms!” they shrieked, lifting sword and crossbow. “To arms! We’re under attack!”
From the shadows of the outpost and behind the invisibility weaves of Teleon, Fey warriors who had gathered after Rain’s urgent call sprang from their concealment, steel flashing in the sunlight.
“I san, sheisan, te Liss!”For love, honor, and Light!
They screamed the Fey battle cry and dove into war.
Three miles away, near the Mist-filled pass of the Garreval, Kieran paused to glance back at Teleon. The outpost was ablaze. Flashes of Mage Fire and Fey magic exploded like lightning in thesky. Even from this distance, he could hear the muted screams and crashes of battle.
