“You should let Teleos’s hearth witches tend you,” Bel said. “Some of these wounds are deep.”
«There are others in greater need. I will be fit to fly again in half a bell, and the Change will heal my wounds. What news of Teleon?»
Bel’s eyes went dark as midnight. “Lost. Teleos got the word while we were in the Mists. Therasaare dead. More than a thousand of them. Teleon is destroyed again. Lord Darramon is slain and his wife missing. The Eld hold the Celierian side of the pass.”
«What of Ellysetta’s family? The shei’dalins?»
“Gone,” Bel gave him the news bluntly. When it came to sorrow, warriors preferred their news served on a sharp blade. A clean cut hurt just a little less. “Kiel and Kieran, too. Dead or captured or lost in the Mists.”
Rain flung his head back and roared in anguish. The Change swirled around him, burning with pain as thesel’dorbarbs still embedded in his flesh twisted magic to agony. He embraced the pain, welcoming the acid burn. The roar became a scream that tore his Fey throat raw.
Gods.Ellysetta could not lose her father and the twins. Not after everything else. “Has anyone told her?” He didn’t need to say her name.
“Nei.”Gaelen’s eyes were dry but haunted. “None of us had the courage to break her heart.”
They’d been waiting for him to do that. “How long ago were they lost? Could they still be in the Mists?”
“If they entered the Mists, it wasn’t through the Garreval,” Bel said. “One of the few survivors of the battle says he saw them running up the mountain, trying to escape Eld anddarrokken.”
Hope left him on a low, pained groan. Traversing the Faering Mists was a journey fraught with danger even in the best of times. The Garreval was the preferred path because the pass was flat and wide, unlike the treacherous cliffs of Revan Oreth behind the Veil. Those caught by the illusions of the Mists were unlikely to fall down a cliff and break their necks in the Garreval. The Rhakis mountains, though, were precious littlebutcliffs.
“I will tell her. She deserves to know the fate of those she loves.” He swam to the shores of the lake and pulled himself out. He dried off with a simple weave of Fire and Water, and then there was nothing left to do but spin the news to Ellysetta across their bond threads.
She answered instantly, as if she’d been waiting for his call, but though Bel had served the news to him on a sharp knife, Rain could not bring himself to tell her so bluntly. Instead, he told her about Orest, about the battle and the never-ending supply of enemy troops.
«The Eld are here in force. More than I dreamed they would send. Orest and Teleon are just the beginning. Warn Marissya. Have her get word to Eimar and Loris. They will listen when Tenn and the others will not. The Fey must prepare for war.»
«They know, Rain. Sybharukai sent Xisanna and Perahl to fetch Marissya and Dax. Venarra controls the shei’dalins, but Marissya is going to Orest. The tairen are, too. Steli says the pride will reach Kiyera’s Veil within two bells. Wait for them.»
«I wish I could, kem’reisa, but the Eld will insist on making war.»He tried to infuse his words with dry amusement.
«Rain... »The warmth of her presence dimmed slightly as worry cast a chill shadow.«Have you news from Teleon?»
He hesitated. There was no putting it off. She had to know the truth.«There is word, beloved... but it is not good.»In a haltingvoice he told her. All of it. Everything, because she would want nothing less. Because despite the heart he could feel breaking in her chest, she was a strong, fierce, brave woman. A Tairen Soul.
«Lost?»Her voice trembled.«Papa and the twins? Kieran and Kiel?»Her voice caught on a sob, and silence fell between them. A moment later, in a firmer voice, she said,«Nei. Nei, if they were gone, I would know it. Half my heart would be dead, but it is not. They are not gone. They cannot be. I will not believe it. Nei.»He could almost see the tilt of her chin, the spark of defiance lighting her eyes.«Someone saw them running for the Mists. That’s where they must be. We just have to wait until they make it through, just as you and I did.»
If they found their way out at all. If they did not fall from a cliff and break their necks. If they weren’t already captives of the High Mage of Eld. He left the possibilities unspoken. What Fey would rob his mate of hope?«May the gods will it so, shei’tani.»
Bel, Gaelen, and Dev were wolfing down a quick meal and poring over a map Dev had produced. The sounds of battle were growing louder and the calls across the Warriors’ Path more numerous. Without him in the sky, the Eld were on the march again, and gaining ground.«I must go.»
«Light keep you safe, shei’tan, and please... please, Rain... wait for the tairen. Give them two more bells.»
He would not make a vow he could not keep, so instead he gave her the vow he would never break.«Ver reisa ku’chae. Kem surah, shei’tani.»
By the time Rain and the others returned to the fight, Lower Orest was black with thousands of Eld troops. In just the brief half bell he’d taken to rest and restore his strength, trebuchets had been positioned in a semicircle around the lower levels of Maiden’s Gate, each protected by half a dozen bowcannon aimed at the sky. The Fey had thrown up five-fold shields to protect the defenders, butsel’dorrained down in a ceaseless barrage, and their shieldshad begun to fail. The trebuchets launched massive hunks of rock and exploding mortars into each breach.
Protected by airborne missiles and magic shields, an entire company of Mages lobbed sphere after enormous sphere of Mage Fire at the defenders. Hundreds vaporized in instants. Half of the first three levels simply disappeared, as if scooped out of the mountainside by the hand of a god.
«Fey!»Rain cried on the Warriors’ Path.«Twenty-five-fold weaves! Hold off that Mage Fire.»
He took to the air, twisting and turning as the air around him went black withsel’dorarrows and great barbed spears catapulted from the bowcannon. The arrows were a nuisance.
The massive spears, however, were tairen killers.
«Rain! Bank left! Left!»Bel’s scream tore through his mind. Instinctive trust in his oldest friend sent him rolling left, and the bowcannon spear that would have ripped through his chest tore a gaping hole in one wing instead. He barely made it back to Maiden’s Gate before his ripped wing gave out. He fell from the sky, crashing right into the center of an Eld attack force.
Fortunately, tairen didn’t need wings to breathe flame. The entire level went up in a boiling sea of fire. Screaming Eld leaped from the walls and fell, burning, to their deaths.
