In that instant of unfettered connection, Ellysetta sensed a familiar, frightening consciousness, a distant, dark awareness that turned with sudden interest in her direction.
The skin over her heart went suddenly and icily cold. Horror coated her mouth with a bitter metallic tang.Oh, gods. Oh, gods, no.
Power inside her shifted with a swift, hard lunge, eager and fierce and furious. Magic fountained in a shocking response. It filled her in an instant, then billowed out in a blinding cloud before she could slam her shields tight.
The force flung her backwards, sprawling against Rain’s legs.
“Ellysetta!” He grasped her arms and helped her right herself. “What is it? What just happened?
Before she could answer, the tairen screamed.
“Oh, no!” Ellysetta whirled back to the nest of tairen eggs, gathering her magic to fight, but the moment she peeled back her barriers, she knew she was already too late.
The enemy was gone, but he had not left in defeat.
Just moments ago, five tairen kitlings had shivered in their eggs. Now only four did so.
“No... oh, no...” Ellysetta ran to the motionless egg that belonged to Forrahl, the sweet little tairen whose egg rocked with joy when she sang to him. “Gods, please,teska. Don’t do this.” Summoning her power with desperate hope, she laid her hands upon the egg and spun the brightest healing weave she could summon.
This time, she sensed nothing. No whispering voices. No familiar evil. Just a dead, empty silence where before a precious kitling’s voice had sung.
Eld ~ Boura Fell
Vadim Maur clutched the edges of the birthing table in a fierce grip as his servants carried the child to the cleansing pool. His hands and legs were trembling so hard he didn’t dare release the table for fear of falling.
For the second time, Ellysetta Baristani had caught him by surprise. He’d sensed her presence mere instants before she’d sensed his, and if not for that brief advantage, her furious blast of power might have scorched him as it had once before. As it was, she’d sapped the strength from his limbs and forced him to flee to avoid serious injury.
She’d forced him toflee. Him. The High Mage of Eld.
The mere thought was an abomination.
The only consolation from tonight’s near-disaster was the prize now held in his servants’ arms. He turned his head to watch hisumagibathe the newborn infant. The child was another boy. Despite Ellysetta Baristani’s interference and his abrupt departure from the Well, the binding had gone smoothly, without the violent battle he’d fought for Tyrkomel. Unfortunately, Vadim was also not nearly as certain of his success this time. The baby’s eyes had not swirled with radiance as Tyrkomel’s had when he emerged from his mother’s womb.
Of course, this child had not torn his mother apart during his birth either. Fania was unconscious but unharmed. That was a victory of sorts. Even if the boy was not the fierce triumph Shia’s son was, Fania would live to breed again.
“Bring him to me,” he barked, and a servant hurried over to hold out the baby for his inspection.
At least the infant appeared Fey rather than mortal. His eyes were a clear, vibrant green with slightly elongated pupils, and though scarcely a quarter bell had passed since his birth, his skin had already assumed the pearlescent paleness of the Fey. He didnot cry and flail about, nor object to the servants’ careful yet brisk handling of him. Instead, he lay quietly, his bright eyes scanning the room with seeming intent.
Vadim bent closer. Deep within the pupils of the child’s green eyes, Vadim glimpsed the shimmer of latent magic. He lifted one hand and summoned a small ball of Mage Fire. The child grew still, and his eyes focused on the concentrated glow of blue-white magic. Now the shimmer in the child’s eyes grew more pronounced, magic rising in response to the presence of Mage Fire.
Satisfied, Vadim dissolved the glowing ball. Such a swift and unmistakable response bespoke substantial power. This child was gifted, considerably so. Fania had done well.
“He shall be called Coros.” The name meant potential, not a certainty but a possibility. “Take him to the nursery and lay him beside Tyrkomel.”
As the servants carried the child away, sudden weariness fell upon the High Mage like hundredweights. He sagged and only kept from falling by grabbing hold of the nearest servant.
Vadim fought back a wave of dizziness and nausea. He thought he’d escaped the searing lash of Ellysetta Baristani’s magic, but apparently he hadn’t evaded it all.
The servant helped him to a cushioned chaise in the next room and began to tend him, washing the blood from his hands. He allowed their assistance without protest. Only his ownumagi, the ones he owned utterly, were allowed to enter this room and tend him when he was at his most vulnerable. There was no thought in their minds, no desire in their souls, that he had not put there himself. They would plunge a knife into their own hearts if he commanded it.
“Fetch Elfeya,” he ordered. He didn’t have the strength to climb the stairs, and he couldn’t risk being seen in such a weakened condition. “Bring her to me. Quickly. And make certain no one sees you.”
The Fading Lands ~ Fey’Bahren
Ellysetta sat slumped against the lifeless, silent shell, stunned by searing grief. Night after night, for weeks now, she’d flown to the lair to sing to the kitlings. She knew every note and measure of each infant tairen’s song, knew the happy patter of each small heart and the little sounds the kitlings made when they sensed her approach. They’d loved her, trusted her.
And she’d failed them.
