Ellysetta’s head reared up. Her blinding gaze shot towards Rain. “Shei’tan, I wound you?” The fingers clamped around the current warrior’s wrists flew open, and the Fey fell to his knees, shuddering as his hands fumbled for his Fey’cha belts.
Her grief and guilt swamped Marissya’s senses. It was clear she had not realized what she was doing to Rain. She’d been so intently focused on therasa, she’d blocked out everything else. Even Rain’s torment.
“Just finish it, Ellysetta,” Rain bit out. “Either stop or heal them all. But whatever you do, do it quickly.”
Ellysetta pinned Marissya with a blinding gaze. The bright power in those eyes hit like a blow, soul-deep and searing. “How can you help me?”
“Allow me and the othershei’dalinsto join your weave. Let us anchor you and help direct and disperse the threads of your magic to heal all therasa, rather than just one.”
Already the drowning pain of the nextrasahad Ellysetta in its grip, dragging her thoughts, her concentration, away from Marissya. Her magic surged in powerful response, sending brilliant threads spinning around her. Ellysetta seized the warrior’s hands as the searing fury of her magic poured out upon him. Like his many brothers before, he cried out and fell to his knees, trembling from head to toe and reaching with a shaking hand for one of the black Fey’cha strapped to his chest.
As he wept and uttered the vows oflute’asheivabonding, Ellysetta turned to Marissya. “Bas’ka.Do it.” She pinned the othershei’dalinswith a blazing green gaze. “And do not dare to trespass. The tairen will not treat you kindly.”
Not one of theshei’dalinspierced by that whirling glare doubted the Feyreisa’s threat was real.
Chapter Seven
Swiftly, under Marissya’s direction, theshei’dalinsspun the threads of their own magic into Ellysetta’s weave. The instant the threads combined, Ellysetta’s power shot out like bolts of golden white lightning, tracing the glowing lines of magic back to the women who’d spun them. Light flashed as theshei’dalins’natural Fey luminescence suddenly blazed sun-bright. Their light filled the entire room, intensifying until the gathered warriors lifted their hands to shield their eyes.
Marissya gasped as she and the othershei’dalinsfell to their knees. Ellysetta wasn’t weavingwiththem. She was draining them. Absorbing their power and commanding their flows as if they were her own, just as she’d done with thelu’tans. Only there was nolute’asheivabond between theshei’dalinsand Ellysetta. She should not have been able to command their magic.
Yet commanding them she was.
Marissya could feel her own will falling away. The deep, strong well of her power rose in response to Ellysetta’s summons, pouring into Ellysetta as quickly as it came. Marissya began to tremble. So much power... so unbearably bright. How could Ellysetta hold so much?
Beside her, two of the othershei’dalinsbegan to sway, and their Fey brightness dimmed.
“Ellysetta... little sister...teska...you must stop. Spin the weave. Spin it now.” With the last ounce of her control, Marissyawove the command in Spirit and buried it in the river of magic pouring unchecked from her body into Ellysetta’s.
Later, she would not be sure whether her command worked or Ellysetta’s wilding magic had simply gathered as much power as it could, but all at once, the ravenous consumption ceased. Ellysetta’s weave shot out in great streams of burning filaments, spinning into a brilliant net of gold power. It enveloped the gathered Fey, swirling above and around them. Then, with a final flare of light, the magic sank into the warriors’ flesh. Their bodies flashed golden bright, then dimmed to the natural silvery luminescence of their kind.
Ellysetta’s power went out. Marissya and theshei’dalinsstaggered to their feet, reaching blindly for the brace of stone walls to keep from falling.
The warriors in the hall locked shocked gazes on Ellysetta. One by one, then in increasing numbers, they fell to their knees, reaching for their Fey’cha.
“Nei.No more.” Ellysetta backed away, her hands flung up. “Parei. I won’t accept another bond.” She turned, hands extended in a pleading gesture. “Rain,shei’tan, get me out of here.” He was standing by the wall behind her, the stones around him a crumbled ruin, his eyes blazing purple suns in a face carved by a grim blade.«I can feel the unhealed rasa already pulling at me again. Quickly, take me away from here to someplace I cannot feel their pain. If we stay, I don’t think I will be able to stop myself from healing them, even if they refuse me.»
He surged away from the wall in a rush, power crackling around him in a swirl of multicolored sparks. Without a word, he caught her up in his arms under her knees, and an enormous thrust of Air sent them spiraling into the night sky.
They flew south until the lights of Chatok and Chakai were far behind them and the tug of therasahad faded enough that Ellysetta could breathe again.
That small peace did not extend to Rain. His wings beat the sky in furious sweeps. Jets of flame shot into the air before them, sending clouds of heat and magic bursting across the shields Rain barely remembered to fling up around her.
The enraged snarl of his tairen screamed along their bondthreads, half-wild with fury over the Fey males who had laid hands upon its mate.She is ours. Ours! Scorch the Fey-kin. Burn away their scent upon her!The tairen’s rage whipped at her, making her own tairen roar and dig its claws deep.
Abruptly, Rain put on a powerful burst of magic. A blazing cone of Fire and Air took shape around them, and they shot forward with such force, Ellysetta fell back against the high back of her saddle. Magic poured from Rain in rivers, condensing into great, powerful jets that propelled them across the sky faster than they’d ever flown before. The ground below them flashed by in a blur. Rain’s tairen fell silent, the full force of its raging energy now diverted to keeping its wings held steady and tucked close to its body in a backswept vee as they shot through the sky.
Only then, without the scream of his tairen rousing her own, did Ellysetta realize the magnitude of the harm she’d done with her stubborn, selfish determination to heal therasa. The barriers of Rain’s control were stretched so thin, they were all but shredding. He’d kept his torment from her during the healing—or perhaps she simply had refused to see—but now she could not blind herself. Violent clouds of bloodlust and fiery Rage boiled inside him, shot through with streaks of icy fear and grim desperation as he fought to keep control of his tairen and his magic.
Horror consumed her. Oh, gods, what had she done to him?«Rain?»
He did not answer.
Ellysetta could still feel the furious roil of emotion through the touch of her bare leg against Rain’s tairen pelt, but he had closed off their bondthreads, silencing the connection between them.«Rain, teska. Please talk to me. I’m sorry, shei’tan. I’m so sorry.»
She leaned forward to bury her hands in his pelt, trying to weave peace upon him. Slowly, far too slowly, she felt some of the terrible Rage begin to calm.
She did not know how long or how far they flew, but when they came to a silver ribbon of river shining in the starlight, Rain swooped down, skimming the treetops of the dense forest growing on the slopes of the Silvermist mountains. Flocks of birds squawked and took startled flight. The shadows of grazing animals darted into the trees and brush, seeking cover from the predator overhead. A growl rumbled deep in Rain’s tairen chest. He dove for the ground, and Ellysetta gasped as a slide of Air lifted her from the saddle on his back and deposited her in the dark woods beside the river.
