The patience in his voice made Ellysetta feel petty. Rain was the one going to war. She was the one staying safely behind in the Fading Lands, risking nothing.
Nothing except the possibility of spending the rest of her life without him. She bit her lip and looked away, blinking against a sudden rush of tears. That possibility didn’t bear thinking about.
“Sieks’ta. I’m being childish. It’s just that...” Her chin trembled. Her throat grew so tight she couldn’t speak, and the tears she was fighting spilled over. She swiped at them with the backs of her hands. “I don’t want to lose you, Rain.”
His arms enfolded her, drawing her against his warm strength. “That is an impossibility,shei’tani. I am yours forever.”
She turned, burrowing against him, pressing her face to the hollow of his throat. “You know what I mean.” She spoke against his skin, feeling the pulse in his throat against her lips, the taste of him mingling with the salty wetness of her tears.
“I know.” He stroked her hair and held her. “If I could, I would stay by your side and never leave you. But that’s not a choice I can make. I must be a Feyreisen worthy of my crown. Only then will I be worthy of your bond.”
“You’re worthy now,” she protested.
“Nei, I am not. You’ve always believed me better than I truly am, but now it’s time for me to become that honorable Fey I see in your eyes.” He tilted her chin up and thumbed away her tears, smiling with such gentleness she nearly started crying again. “Las,kem’san. Come share the magic of the bay with me. I’ve never known anyone yet who hasn’t found a measure of peace after swimming the waters at sunset.”
She drew in a ragged breath and nodded, drying her eyes withher palms. He would be leaving in a matter of days. There was no guarantee he’d ever return. She wasn’t going to waste the time left to them on tears and accusations.
She gave him her hand to help her into the slender craft. Once she was seated, he pushed off from the dock, then took his own seat near the stern and spun a weave of Air to fill the sail and send them skimming across the bay towards the black sand beaches on the distant northern shores. The small, Elvish-made craft was swift and sleek, cutting through the waves and swells with ease.
The Bay of Flame was large, more a small gulf than a bay, and even with the Air-spun winds driving them, the sail from Blade’s Point to the northern shores was going to take almost a bell. Needing to be close to Rain, she carefully made her way to the back of the craft to sit between his feet and rest her head on his thigh as he manned the tiller. “Do you know any Elvish sailing songs?”
“A few.”
“Will you sing them for me?”
He smiled and stroked her hair. “If you wish.” A moment later, his deep baritone joined the sounds of the wind and waves. She closed her eyes and let the melancholy ancient Elvish melody wash over her like the fine spray blowing up from the swells.
When the boat touched shore on the black sand beach at the base of the Feyls, the Great Sun was nearing the horizon, and already the waters of the Bay were glimmering with gold and orange lights. Rain lifted Ellysetta out and carried her to shore, setting her down in the soft black sand.
“We have about twenty chimes before sunset,” he estimated. His hands went to the buckles of his leather Fey’cha straps and sword harnesses.
“Do you really think we’ll find any answers here?”
“How can it hurt to try?” Deftly slipping the strips of leather free of their binding, he shed his steel with a quick shrug. He shed his tunic next and tossed it casually on the sand before sittingdown to remove his boots and leather trousers. He jumped to his feet, completely and magnificently naked, and arched one speaking black brow.
Ellysetta cast a nervous glance towards the towers and ramparts of Blade’s Point across the long miles of bay. Fey sight was far keener than mortal, and though more than sixty miles of bay stretched between this shore and those towers, she still half expected to see Fey eyes gleaming at her from the silhouettes of the distant turrets. “Are you certain we’re alone?”
“You mean apart from the legion of Fey that followed us from Dharsa?”
“Ha-ha.” With an exaggerated sigh, she stripped off her own leathers and arched a brow back at him, refusing to be cowed, though she was quite certain she wasn’t glowing Fey silver but rosy red. Her chin tilted up.
His brows rose. “Tema storris,” he acknowledged with grave approval. “Very brave.”
Ellysetta made a face, tossed her leathers and steel in the boat, and dove into the waves. She surfaced immediately, shrieking and trembling from head to toe. “It’s freezing!”
He laughed. “Of course. What did you expect? The currents that feed these waters come from the Pale, the ice desert that lies north of the Feyls. If you hadn’t been in such a hurry, I would have told you most boys who come here on their Soul Quest wait to take the plunge until the Great Sun touches the horizon.” His lips curved. “That way they spend less time freezing in the water.”
“Oh!” She swiped her arm across the waves, sending an icy spray showering towards Rain, but he spun a quick weave of red Fire to evaporate the spray before it touched him. She clasped her arms over her chest, shivering and glaring at him. “It will serve you right if I catch my death of cold.”
Rain smothered his laugh and tried to look penitent. “Ah,nei, do not say such things.” He stepped into the waves and waded to her side, unflinching as the icy water lapped around him. “You areFey. The cold cannot harm you. You need not even feel it, unless that is your wish. Here, I will warm you.” His eyes glowed, and red light gathered around his right hand. He touched one finger to the water, and brilliant fiery red weaves spun out. The water around them rose quickly to the temperature of a warm bath. “Better,kem’san?”
“Much.” Her teeth stopped chattering. She let her knees fold and sank beneath the now-steaming waves to warm her head and shoulders. They swam together in the circle of water kept warm by Rain’s magic and watched the Great Sun descend slowly in the western sky until its lower edge almost touched the horizon. “So if the Fey don’t feel the cold,” she asked as they waited for the sun to set, “then what was that Fey tale you were telling me about boys on their Soul Quest freezing in the water? Or were you just taunting to get a rise out of me?”
“I? Taunt you?Nei, I am too sweet ashei’tanfor that.” When she narrowed her eyes, he laughed again and stopped teasing. “I said Fey don’tneedto feel the cold. Even those who do not weave Fire can spin a simple Spirit weave to block the chill. But the Soul Quest is meant to be a journey without magic. Those who swim here for their Quest do not weave even for their own comfort.”
She frowned, cast a regretful look at the steamy water, and said, “Then you should stop weaving. Quickly, before the sun touches the water. We came here for answers. I wouldn’t want to ruin our chance of finding them by breaking the rules.”
“As you wish,shei’tani,” he said. His Fire weave went out and the water’s pleasant warmth quickly faded.
