The first touch of his hand made her flinch, and he frowned in concern. Her flesh felt chill to the touch. She was shivering—andclearly terrified. “It is over,shei’tani. There is no need to fear.” Tenderly he brushed her hair back from her face and cupped her cheeks, letting the warmth from his flesh seep into hers. All he could think was that the tairen rite of passage had terrified her. She’d probably believed she would be burned to death in the flames. “Sieks’ta. I am sorry. I should have warned you about the Fire Song. I know how frightening the rite can seem, but I swear to you,shei’tani, you were never in danger.”
Sariel had always feared the tairen. They had welcomed her as Rain’s mate, but she had never been comfortable around them. She had rarely accompanied him to their lair. Ellysetta was a Tairen Soul, so he’d thought she would understand better, would feel at home here, as he did, but clearly he’d expected too much, too soon.
He stifled his disappointment and pressed his lips to the smooth skin of her forehead.«Sieks’ta, beloved. Forgive me. I should have prepared you, given you time to adjust before thrusting you into the pride and expecting you to understand our ways.»He had not pushed Sariel to accept the tairen half of his soul, nor would he press Ellysetta to accept more than she could. When she was ready, the pride would be waiting.
“I’m not afraid of the tairen.” Ellysetta’s voice was a hoarse whisper. “I wasn’t afraid of the fire either, though perhaps I should have been.”
Rain pulled back to look at her. Her eyes were open, her face pale. Her fear was just beginning to subside. “Then what was it that frightened you so badly?”
“It was the darkness, the cold.” Her voice shook, and she began to shiver again. “The voices, calling to me.”
His brows drew together. “Ellysetta, there was no darkness or cold, only fire. There were no voices, except the tairen singing Cahlah and Merdrahl and their lost kit into the next life. We did not call to you.”
“It wasn’t you or the tairen. It wasn’t the Shadow Man either. Itwas something else. Something horrible. Something evil.” Her fingers clenched, digging into his shoulders. “Rain, it knew my name.”
“Shh.” Rain smoothed a hand over Ellysetta’s wild curls and sent a concerned look to Sybharukai. Neither he nor the tairen had sensed any danger, and yet he could not doubt Ellysetta. What she believed, she believed absolutely.
What if Ellysetta, who could bring adahl’reisenback into the light, could sense what even Sybharukai, wise one of the tairen, could not? Worse, what if the evil that had drained the life’s essence from Cahlah and her kits had made Ellysetta its next target? A low growl rumbled in his throat. The entity that had slain Cahlah and her kits was a mysterious, invisible, untrackable foe that had triumphed over Fey and tairen alike for centuries.
Ellysetta continued to shiver in his arms, and her teeth began to chatter as fear gave way to shock. Rain gathered her in his arms, dropped smoothly to the lair floor on a slide of Air, and headed for one of the large tunnels leading away from the nesting lair.
“Where are we going?”
“You are chilled. There is an underground lake in Fey’Bahren, warmed by the mountain’s volcanic heart.”
“I’m all right,” she protested. “I don’t need a hot bath. And there’s no need for you to carry me.”
“You will take the bath to ease my mind. And it is my pleasure to carry you.” If the formless evil attacked her again, he wanted to be close enough to hold her and sense what she sensed.
“What of Merdrahl? He’s gone, isn’t he?”
“Aiyah. He is gone. That was the purpose of our Fire Song: to free him, Cahlah, and their dead kit from this life so they could enter the next.”
She glanced across the sands to the place Merdrahl had been. Rain knew the moment she recognized what remained of the two tairen and their lost kit. Despite her shivering, her spine stiffened, and amazement flooded every point of contact between them.
“Rain, put me down.” She squirmed free. “Is that... ?” She took three steps before he caught her hand to halt her.
“Nei, do not touch it. It is still quite hot.” He glanced at the tumble of dark, glossy crystal, radiance glimmering in its multifaceted depths. Kingdoms had been conquered for the minutest portion of what lay there in the black sands. “Aiyah, it is what you think.” Tairen’s Eye crystal, two great boulders and one smaller, darker globe of it: all that remained in this world of Merdrahl, Cahlah, and their kit.
“How is that possible? You once told me that Tairen’s Eye crystal could not be made or unmade.”
“I said that the Fey could not make or unmake it. Only the tairen can do so, and only by performing the rite of passage that you just witnessed. The rite requires at least twelve adult tairen to sing the Fire Song.”
She touched the two crystals that hung around her neck. “These are the... bodies of a dead tairen?”
“They once were, but the Fire Song transforms what was and leaves in its place something quite different.” He laid the back of his hand against her cheek. “And that, Ellysetta,” he warned gently, “is a secret you must never tell another soul. Even the Fey do not know how Tairen’s Eye crystal comes into being. It is a treasure guarded by the tairen and the Feyreisen who walk among them as brothers.”
She nodded. “I will not speak of it.”
They passed through the tunnel entrance, to the broad, timeworn pathway that led down deeper into the heart of Fey’Bahren. Small pebbles clattered behind them, and Ellysetta turned her head towards the source of the noise.
“The tairen are following us.” She sounded surprised.
“They are curious. It has been a very long time since anyone but me has come to Fey’Bahren.”
She stopped. “I am not bathing with an audience. Even if they are tairen.”
Celierian modesty. Part of him hoped she would never lose it. He loved the way her cheeks turned pink when she blushed. “I will weave a screen for you,shei’tani.”
