“We wear the faces of those whose counsel you once sought,” his mother said. “We wear the faces we hope will make you seereason. Listen to us, my son.”
But even as she spoke, her image shimmered. Both she and Rajahl faded, and then it was Johr vel Eilan who stood there, the Tairen Soul who had been king when Rain first found his wings. Johr, the fearsome, granite-jawed warrior who had led the Fading Lands for eight hundred years.
When Johr had sat upon the Tairen Throne, the Fading Lands had been strong.Hehad been a king worthy of his crown: strong, decisive, unwavering, fierce. Not some untried Feyreisen who’d been handed the crown simply because there was no other to take it, but a Tairen Soul who had trained for centuries in military tactics, diplomacy, leadership. A man who had earned the right to lead both in times of peace and prosperity as well as the grimmer years of blood and battle.
To see Johr—a true and rightful Defender of the Fey—roused all of Rain’s most bitter self-doubts. He knew he was not the king the Fading Lands deserved.
The Mists knew it too.
“You cast a shadow on the Tairen Throne, Rainier vel’En Daris. You are not worthy of your crown.”
Rain gave a bitter laugh. “That much I will grant you. My soul is black with the deaths of those millions I slew in the Wars. But if you banish me, who will be the Tairen Soul?”
“You know of what I speak—and of whom. You know whose dark hand lies upon her. She will cement the destruction of both the tairen and the Fey. Yet still you bring her. Because you choose self over duty.”
Johr’s jaw flexed, and his green-gold eyes flared with a sudden, angry burst of power. “This is not the choice of a king, Tairen Soul. You shame your crown, your steel, and the line of your forebears. She brings death to our world.”
For one dreadful moment, Rain remembered Ellysetta’s seizure and her black, Azrahn-filled eyes and her low, hoarse voice shouting, “I am Death.”
Almost as soon as the doubt arose, he shook it off.Nei. Nei, he wouldn’t believe that. The only death associated with Ellysetta was the foul Eld evil that stalked her, the dread reason the gods had fashioned a tairen for her mate.
He thrust out a clenched jaw. “Ellysetta is bright and shining. She is the one the Eye of Truth sent me to find—because she brings life to the Fey, not death. She is ashei’dalinand a Tairen Soul and my truemate. You will not speak against her.”
“And when the evil she bears comes into bloom? What will you do then, Rainier vel’En Daris? How will you defend the Fey against this serpent you clasp to your breast?”
“She will not fall. We will complete our bond, and the Mage whose Marks she bears will lose all power over her.” He clung to that hope, because without it he had nothing. “What else should I have done, if not bring her here? Left her out there in the world, unprotected? I did what any Fey—what anyshei’tan—would have done. I brought her to safety.”
“And endangered us all.”
Rain stiffened his spine and lifted a clenched jaw. “The tairen do not agree. Sybharukai,makaiof the Fey’Bahren pride, does not agree. Tairen do not abandon their kin. Tairen defend the pride.”
A cold smile curled the edges of Johr’s mouth. “Tairen also honor Challenge, for the health of the pride.”
Sudden cold swept over Rain, leaving his flesh clammy and his heart stuttering with fear.
“Where is Ellysetta?” he demanded. “What have you done to her?” He spun away from the image of Johr and cried,«Ellysetta!»
Ellysetta screamed until she thought her throat would burst. With none of the gentleness and compassion Marissya had always shown her, theshei’dalinsof the Mists plundered her mind, tearing into private thoughts and memories, prying loose even her most closely guarded secrets and deepest fears. She tried to rally a defense, but each time she managed to focus her will againstthem, they would turn those fearsome eyes upon her and her thoughts would scatter like hapless leaves in the wind.
Ruthless, efficient, they rifled through her mind, examining every memory. Her childhood in Hartslea, the seizures, the priests’ declaration that she was demon possessed. Her first exorcism and the howling, bloody, violent rage that had swept through her eight-year-old mind when the long, shining needles of the exorcists had plunged into her body. Theysawwhat she’d been thinking, knew how she’d dreamed of rending those exorcists limb from limb and dancing in the shower of their blood.
Ellie wept in shame and horror at her own evil thoughts. When she’d shared the awful truth of her childhood with Rain, he had offered acceptance and loving, healing forgiveness. Theseshei’dalinswere not so compassionate. They dissected without mercy and left her writhing in an agony of self-loathing.
The tairen hissed a furious warning, its claws beginning to shred the last of her control.
“Please,” she begged. “Please stop.”
Theshei’dalinsonly dug deeper, finding the memories of how she’d restored Gaelen’s soul, the devastating recollection of the black Mage Mark lying like a shadow over her heart. They summoned the ghastly, shocking moment in the Grand Cathedral of Light when the Eld blade sliced and Mama’s head rolled free of her body.
Heat bloomed. The first warning flare of Rage.They hurt us.
“Stop!” she cried, fearing what would happen if they didn’t. Anger was growing inside her.
They found the memories of that terrible nightmare when she’d stood amid a field of corpses and seen herself leading the armies of darkness, slaughtering all who stood in her way. The vile, mocking claim of the Shadow Man rang in her ears:You’ll kill them, girl. You’ll kill them all. It’s what you were born for.
Within Ellysetta, the coiling power gave a terrible hiss. Her muscles grew taut. Her skin burned and strained as pressure builtwithin.Vengeance on those who hurt us... vengeance for what they did...
Theshei’dalinssummoned more visions, every foul, horrifying nightmare of war and death she’d ever had. Bodies torn and shredded, blood running in scarlet rivers. Only this time all the dead wore the faces of those she loved: Mama, Papa, Lillis, Lorelle, Bel, Selianne, and, everywhere she turned, Rain. In every face, she saw Rain. Rain dead. Rain dying. Rain split asunder, burning, bleeding his life out. Screaming in defiance as Mage Fire consumed him.
