Chatok emptied. Its inhabitants made their way across the wall to the white towers of Chakai to witness the miracle.
Marissya found Ellysetta in Chakai’s main hall, healing therasawho had laid pallets upon the floor there. Her eyes were afire, her body enveloped in a shimmering aura of golden white light. Behind Ellysetta, his own eyes blazing with restrained fury, Rain bored crumbling holes into stone with his bare fingers as he allowed Fey after Fey to lay hands upon his mate.
All thelu’tanswere feeding Ellysetta their power now. As each newly healed Fey fell to his knees and bloodswore himself to her, she seized his strength and added it to her shining web. The glow of magic surrounded them all, bright and golden white.
Marissya stared in horror at the Fey warriors who should have been protecting Ellysetta—the same warriors who were instead crooning encouragement. “Gaelen! Bel! What are you doing? Have you lost all sense? How can you allow this madness?”
“She said the pain is manageable,” Gaelen said.
“Shesaid?” Her voice rose. Her hands clenched into fists. “Gods save me from fools and men! One may have been manageable—she’s so strong, even the first dozen or so might be bearable—but how manyrasahas she healed? Do you not understand that theirs is the sort of pain thataccumulates?”
Marissya bit her tongue to stop from launching into a furious tirade. Even though her brother and Bel should have known better—much better!—they could not feel Ellysetta’s emotions.They did not know what this was truly costing her. Marissya and the fiveshei’dalinsstanding in stunned silence beside her did.
And so did Rain.
A familiar burst of wild power flared around him. No matter what Ellysetta may have claimed at the outset, the torment of healing so manyrasasouls had left her empathicshei’dalinsenses raw and throbbing, as if a gaping wound had been ripped through her chest straight to her heart. The wild fury of Rain’s tairen was rousing in response to his mate’s pain.
And an equally fierce anger was writhing and hissing inside of Ellysetta. The glow around her flared with sudden brightness.
The warrior in Ellysetta’s grip gave a sharp cry and fell to his knees, shaking like a leaf as his hands reached for the leather straps holding his black Fey’cha. Even as he swore hislute’asheivabond, she was reaching for the next Fey standing behind him.
“Sisters,” Marissya commanded the othershei’dalins,“give me your strength.” The five Fey women offered her their power without question. Neither Marissya nor the othershei’dalinscould heal the warriors as Ellysetta was doing, but they could add their strength to hers and weave away at least some of her pain so she could continue.
Marissya wove theshei’dalins’power into multi-ply threads of healing and laid her hands on Ellysetta’s shoulders. Sparks snapped and popped when their bodies made contact, and Ellysetta’s head whipped around, eyes narrowed in threat.
“Las, Ellysetta,” Marissya soothed. “Take what we can give. Use our weaves. Spin our strength into your own.” Weaves of peace and healing flowed from her hands, ropes of Earth and Fire and Spirit, all gleaming with the warm golden glow ofshei’dalinlove. “Long have we all wished these Fey more joy than we could grant. Whatever power we have is yours to use. Heal our brothers. Make them whole once more.”
Ellysetta’s blazing eyes examined Marissya’s weaves. Without a word, she turned back to the Fey in her grip, and Marissya’smouth opened on a gasp as Ellysetta seized the threads ofshei’dalinpower and thrust them deep into the blinding brightness of her own pattern.
“Light save me,” she whispered.
“Shei’tani?” Dax clutched her arm.
“I’m all right,shei’tan.Just surprised. She is buffering me, but her pain is terrible.” Quickly, Marissya spun peace and absence of pain upon Ellysetta, then swallowed and shook her head. “I can feel the pattern of her weave. It’s not so different from weaving peace, except for the love.... Light save me, I’ve never felt ashei’dalin’s love so strongly.”
That was the strength of Ellysetta’s weave. Bright, unyielding, indefatigable love. Love that did not know surrender. Love that did not understand limitations or even basic self-preservation. Love that would batter itself to death before giving in to defeat.
“Dax,” she said, “gather a group of Fey. Have them go room to room through the rest of Chakai. Bring any otherrasawho wish for healing here. Hurry. Those of you who have refused her gift, get out. Now!” she barked at several of the warriors who stood off to one side, arms crossed, eyes grim and filled with suspicion. The men looked startled at Marissya’s vehemence, but they’d been too long conditioned to respect her command to do anything but obey. Wordless, casting final glances over their shoulders, they departed.
“She must stop,” Rain growled.
Marissya knew how hard he was fighting to keep his tairen in check. “Nei, Rain.Sieks’ta, I know how hard this is for you, but she must finish. She has put too much of herself into the weave, holding nothing back. I fear what will happen if you make her stop before she is finished.” She muttered a curse. “I spent all those days trying to teach her how to weave her magic with restraint, when what I should have been teaching her was how to restrain herself instead of her magic.”
Shei’dalinsanchored themselves before they touched therasa.Always. The pain of so much death, so many sorrows crying out for healing was overwhelming. Even the strongestshei’dalinrisked losing herself in the torment of the one she was healing if she did not keep a portion of her soul, of her oneness, carefully blocked off, preferably tied to some other person such as a mate or anothershei’dalin.
Ellysetta was holding none of herself in reserve. Though that impenetrable barrier still guarded her mind fromshei’dalinintrusion, the floodgates of her empathic power were wide-open, and the shining brightness of Ellysetta’s soul was pouring out upon therasalike searing beams of the Great Sun’s light. Even before one warrior was healed, her power was already reaching for another, drawn by the need to end the pain she felt so acutely.
Allshei’dalins—all strong empaths, for that matter—felt a similar driving need to heal and bring peace to tormented souls. The only difference was that Ellysetta was somehow able to withstand the pain.
Not because she didn’t sense it, though. Instead, it was as if she absorbed therasa’s pain and transformed at least some part of it into the healing light she poured back into them.
A dull throb gathered at Marissya’s temples as warriors began streaming into the hall. Therasadid not broadcast their despair like thedahl’reisen, but even well-shieldedshei’dalinsfelt the echoes when a dozen or morerasagathered together. That was why they lived here, by the Garreval, isolated from the women of their kind.
Gritting her teeth, Marissya spun Spirit tinged with the barest hint of compulsion.«Ellysetta, listen to me. You cannot continue to heal each warrior individually. You will lose yourself long before you are finished.»
“Nei.”Ellysetta frowned and shook her head, but gave no other sign that she realized Marissya was “pushing.” Still, that frown was enough to make Marissya back off. She’d felt the hard edge ofEllysetta’s power earlier today, and she wasn’t eager to confront it again.
“Las, little sister. I can feel your need to bring them peace. But you don’t need to restore each warrior’s soul to complete innocence. When all therasaare gathered here, the othershei’dalinsand I will help you spread your weave over all of them at once. It may not heal them as completely as you are doing now, but it should pull them back from the shadows of the Dark Path. Later, if you must heal them fully, you can do so without putting your mate at such risk.”
