“She is your truemate,” Tenn said. “Of course that is what you see.”
“Your loyalty to your mate does you honor,” Yulan added, “but no one here can deny that our concerns are valid. The future shown by the Eye may be only a possibility, but it proves the Feyreisa is a potential threat to the safety of the Fading Lands.”
“All great gifts of the gods come with a price,” Rain countered. “Why should you think the first truemate of a Tairen Soul would be any different?”
Loris stepped towards Rain, the folds of his blue robes swirling around him. “I stand with Rain.” His dark blue eyes caught and held them all, and his voice, though calm, brooked no defiance. “Regardless of what threat the Feyreisa may pose to us in the future, she is ashei’dalin, our king’s truemate, and a Tairen Soul of the Fey’Bahren pride in her own right. I will accept and defend her. The only other choice leads down the Dark Path. No matter what risk or sacrifice may be required, that is a road I will not travel.”
“I stand with Rain also,” Marissya said. “No matter what the High Mage may have done to her, no matter what he may intend, Ellysetta is as bright a soul as I’ve ever known.”
“Rain, Loris, and Marissya are right,” Eimar agreed. “As ashei’dalinof the Fey, the Feyreisa deserves all the protection and aid we can offer her.”
The four of them standing in agreement was enough to earn Tenn’s and Yulan’s grudging silence, and the matter was decided. Shortly thereafter, Rain sang his farewells to the tairen, took his leave of the Massan, and returned to his suite to comfort hisshei’tani.
“They must hate me now.” Ellysetta sat curled up in Rain’s lap in a broad chair by the open archway in their suite, her eyes still red from the storm of tears she’d shed against his neck.
“Nei, they do not hate you.” Rain stroked his hand down her back, tracing the delicate ridges of her spine. “They are concerned, of course, but sooner or later we would have had to tell them the truth. Tairen do not keep secrets from their pride.” He pressed his face into her hair, breathing the sweet aroma of her bright curls. “They have even all agreed that you should be trained both by theshei’dalinsand by thechatokof the Academy. So you see? The Eye’s vision caused no irreparable harm.”
“Rain...” She pulled away and gave him a chiding look. “I know it was not so easy.”
Much as he wanted to, he would not lie nor dance the blade’s edge of truth, not even to set her mind at ease. “Nei, it was not. What futures the Eye shows are not certain, but they are possible. Several of the Massan are afraid what they saw may come to pass.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We do exactly as we planned: save the tairen, complete our bond, and defend Celieria against the Eld.” He gave a little huff of rueful laughter. It sounded so easy, but he knew they were facing the most difficult challenges of their lives. “Tomorrow, Venarra will take you to the Hall of Scrolls while I make arrangements for your magic training and meet with the Massan and the warriors to begin preparations for the defense of Celieria. There is much to do, and little time to do it if I’m to march warriors and weapons to Orest by month’s end.”
Ellysetta laid her head in the hollow of Rain’s throat and stared out through the billowing veils framing the open balcony. Last night she’d floated on a euphoric cloud of joy, thinking she’d finally come home to the place she belonged, and that the Fey-tale life she’d always dreamed of was finally at hand.
Today, the Eye had brought her crashing back down to earth and shown her in no uncertain terms that the nightmares she’d lived with all her life were far from over.
The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa
The moment she met Venarra v’En Eilan at the palace entry hall the next morning, every last fear and doubt stirred by Shei’Kess rose up again.
Either Venarra had seen Ellysetta’s Azrahn weave and the vision in the Eye or Tenn had told her what happened. Either way, when the woman’s black eyes fell upon her, Ellie was instantly reminded of the cold, relentlessshei’dalinsin the Mists. The sensation intensified as they walked in silence through the morning mist that wreathed Dharsa’s central hill. The city was still sleeping, and the world was shrouded in white silence. With each step, Ellie half expected to find herself back in the avenue of trees with the wall ofshei’dalinsand their grim-eyed warriors standing in wait.
Instead, halfway down the hillside, they left the palace grounds and turned down a white stone road. Ellie’s soft-soled, embroidered half boots whispered along the stone. A few chimes later, the mist began to clear, and they came to an enormous beautiful, columned structure built at the foot of a lacy, multitiered waterfall.
“This, Feyreisa,” Venarra said, breaking her silence, “is the Hall of Scrolls, repository of all Fey knowledge since the dawn of the First Age.”
Ellysetta tilted her head back, speechless with awe. The building appeared to grow right out of the hillside, and the sheer size ofit was intimidating. She followed Venarra through the massive, towering columns into an exquisitely tiled entrance gallery, where a Fey woman in a sumptuous blue-green gown was waiting by the entrance.
“Feyreisa, this is Tealah vol Jianas, my assistant here in the Hall of Scrolls. If you ever need anything when you visit the hall, just call for either of us and we will come.”
“Meivelei, Feyreisa.” Tealah had a shy smile, warm blue-green eyes, and skeins of shining black hair hanging in waves down to her waist. “Nalia said you were bright as a star. I can see she was not exaggerating.” Tealah bowed and waved a hand at the doorway behind her. “Teska, enter and be welcome.”
Beyond the large, arching doors a massive and multilevel atrium opened up, stealing the breath from Ellie’s lungs with its sheer magnificence. The glassed ceiling soared so high and so long, a tairen could easily take wing within its confines. Light filtered down, bright and plentiful, illuminating case after case containing piles of neatly stacked books and scrolls. Ringing the perimeter of the hall, five balustraded levels opened to the center of the atrium, whose floor was a neatly ordered field of tall bookcases and reading desks.
“How many books and scrolls are there?” Ellysetta asked. Compared to this wonderland of Fey history, Celieria’s extensively stocked National Library was a meager collection.
“There are close to four million documents in the main hall. And there are five storage levels below this one, each containing at least three times the number of texts you see here.”
“It would take a lifetime to read everything.” The amount of knowledge waiting to be discovered was both staggering and exhilarating.
“Several lifetimes,” Venarra corrected. “Even among the Fey, I can’t think of a single keeper who ever managed it.”
Ellysetta’s heart sank. “But how will I ever have any hope of finding the information I need to save the tairen? Just reading thetitles of the books on this one level will take me months.”
“Come. I will show you.” With a wave of one elegant, tapered hand, Venarra led Ellysetta down the curving staircase to the center of the hall, where an oval frame containing what appeared to be a clear sheet of silver-tinted glass was mounted on a pedestal.
