The tairen closest to the tunnel mouth growled and fluttered their wings when they saw Marissya, but a roar from Sybharukai kept them in place. Her eyes whirled bright and green in the smoky gray of her face, and she remained curled around the eggs, her tail thumping the sand.
«The Fey-kin may approach the eggs, but if she wounds the kitlings, her blood will soak the sands.»
One of Marissya’s hands rose to her throat; the other held Ellysetta’s in a crushing grip. Sybharukai had spoken in very distinct Feyan, on the common path.
“I... I have no intention of harming them, wise one,” Marissya assured the tairen. “I am here only to offer what help I can to the Feyreisa.”
«The Fey-kin is warned.»With that, Sybharukai rose up on her paws and backed up three steps to grant Ellysetta and Marissya access to the eggs. In a show of silent menace, the great cat extended the long, ivory spikes in her tail and stabbed them into the sand.
Ellysetta led the way, moving towards the center of the clutch of eggs. She laid a hand on each and crooned a quiet song of greeting. “They like when you sing to them. This is Miauren.” She stroked the closest egg. “He is a fine, brave tairen. And this is Hallah, who I think will be fierce and beautiful like Steli-chakai. And these little ones are Letah, Sharra, and Forrahl.”
“You picked fine tairen names for them,” Marissya said, cautiously stepping closer.
“I didn’t pick them. The kitlings told me their names when I sang to them earlier today.” Ellysetta smiled at theshei’dalin’s surprise. “Rain tells me tairen kitlings are sentient even in their mother’s womb, months before she lays the eggs in the nest. Here, come lay your hand on Hallah’s shell and sing to her.” She moved aside so Marissya could step in beside her. “She likes warriors’ songs. Letah and Sharra prefer lullabies.”
“What does Forrahl like?”
Ellie smiled fondly. “Everything. When I sing to him, he purrs so loudly his egg shakes. Watch.” She turned and began to sing a Celierian hymn, and sure enough, the egg beside her began to rock happily.
“You are a wonder, Feyreisa,” Marissya murmured. “I don’t think it’s the song he enjoys half so much as the love you’re weaving on him when you sing it.” Still, gamely, she crouched beside the eggs closest to her. “So you two like lullabies, do you?” Tilting her head, she began to croon the tunes Feyan mothers sang to their children when they were small.
As they sang, Marissya reached out with her magic to check the kitlings. She kept her weaves featherlight and as unobtrusive as possible without sacrificing efficacy. The care slowed her down, but her results were conclusive. Just as Ellysetta had said, there was nothing physically wrong with the kitlings. Marissya could find no infection, no imperfections, weaknesses or blockages in their vital organs, no malignancies anywhere in their bodies. They weren’t even tired anymore, thanks to the inadvertent healing Ellysetta was weaving on them as she sang.
And yet, without a doubt, they were dying.
Ellysetta hadn’t been around enough death yet to recognize it, but Marissya had. She’d served too long in the healing tents during the Wars, knelt by the sides of too many mortally wounded Fey, Elves, and men. Death was here. She’d fought it so often, so desperately, it was as familiar to her as the sight of Dax’s beloved face. A faint, cold shadow buried in the heart of the kitlings’ warm brightness.
Marissya closed her eyes and summoned theshei’dalinpower that could rip truths from even the most corrupted souls and anchor mortally wounded warriors to life while she healed them. She closed her senses to everything around her, condensing her awareness. Gently, carefully, she reached out to the kitling closest to her, the one named Sharra, and on a weave of intense Spirit, blazing golden white with the power of her considerableshei’dalinmagic, she sent her consciousness into the egg.
The kitling’s bright light abruptly winked out, and steely shackles clapped around Marissya’s wrist, yanking her hand from the shell of the egg. Her eyes flew open in confusion. She blinked away her Fey vision and found Ellysetta beside her, holding her wrist in a bruising grip. The Feyreisa’s eyes were glowing green and whirling with opalescent lights, and her pupils had completely disappeared.
“Whatever you’re doing, Marissya, stop.” A vibrating hum deepened Ellysetta’s voice to a growl.
A louder, much more menacing growl sounded behind Ellysetta. Marissya looked up and her mouth went dry.
Sybharukai’s pupil-less green eyes whirled faster and brighter than Ellysetta’s, fixed on Marissya with such intensity, theshei’dalincouldn’t move. Venom dripped from the tairen’s exposed fangs, her poisonous tail spikes were completely extended, and she was whipping that tail through the air like a weapon.
Marissya released her magic. “I-I’m sorry.” Once the first wordescaped, the rest began tumbling out in a rush. “I didn’t mean any harm. The kitlings aren’t sick or injured, but theyaredying. I was just trying to find out why. Rain... tell them.” She turned to him, only to find that his eyes, too, had gone more tairen than Fey.
Her first instinct was to call Dax, but she didn’t dare. If she called him, he would come for her. He would come and the tairen would kill him. Frightened, but desperately trying to keep that fear from spilling over across her truemate bond with Dax, Marissya slowly rose to her feet, careful not to make any sudden moves.
“What was that you were weaving?” Ellysetta asked, and a measure of Marissya’s tension drained away when she turned and saw that the Feyreisa’s eyes were slowly returning to normal.
“It was Spirit.”
“That didn’t feel like any Spirit I’ve ever woven.”
“The pattern was ashei’dalin’s weave, Ellysetta. I was trying to merge with the kitlings, to see if I could sense what is killing them.”
Ellysetta released her and gave a humorless laugh. “No offense, Marissya, but I suggest you not try to merge with any more tairen. Apparently they don’t like it.”
Marissya glanced back up at Sybharukai, who was still eyeing her as if she were a meal on the hoof. “So I see.” She backed away from the eggs. “I’m sorry, Rain. Whatever’s killing the kitlings, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop it.”
His jaw worked and he nodded. “I’ll take you back to Dax, but I’d like you to stay the night, in case what hunts the kitlings returns. Perhaps when that happens, you’ll be able to sense something you can’t now.”
She looked around the cavern at all the tairen crouched overhead.
“The choice is yours of course,” Rain added. “As you just discovered, it’s not a choice without risk.”
