With all the shields around her, Ellysetta should not have dreamed of darkness. But she did.
She did not dream her usual nightmares of war and destruction or of herself, pitiless and damned, leading the Army of Darkness to destroy the earth.Nei, this time she dreamed of something smaller, more personal, and therefore infinitely more terrifying.
She dreamed of Lillis and Lorelle, huddled together in the dim filth of a black pit, sobbing her name, pleading for her to save them.
Above, standing on a viewing platform two levels above, a shrouded figure in purple robes watched their torment. At his side, Ellysetta saw herself, clad incongruously in a boatnecked gown of rich forest green velvet, her hair unbound and spilling across her shoulders like a fall of flame. She looked more pampered guest than prisoner, except for the chains fastened to thesel’dorbindings locked tight around her neck and wrists. Two large guards stood behind her, holding her chains in their meaty fists.
Hovering overhead, like a soul cast out of its body, she watched the scene unfold. She was an observer, distant and disconnected, yet some part of her remained intimately linked to the people in her dream. She felt each emotion, each terror, each gloating triumph, as if it were her own.
The robed Mage raised an arm, and the sound of rattling chains and cogs welled up from the darkness of the pit. Then came the howling and the rasping scrabble of claw on rock, as slaveringdarrokkenwith eyes like red flames rushed towards Lillis and Lorelle.
The girls shrieked in terror and shrank back against the slimy wall of the pit, clutching each other and crying her name. “Ellie! Ellie, help us! Help us!”
Ellysetta lunged against her bonds, crying, “Parei! Stop! I beg you, stop!”
The Mage, his face hidden by the folds of his purple shroud, remained unmoved. “There is only one way to stop this. You know what that is.”
“Please.” Weeping, she fell to her knees. “I beg you. I’ll do whatever you want, only stop this. Let them live. Please let them live.”
Helplessly watching from above, Ellysetta cried a warning to herself: “Nei! Do not!” But the weeping Ellysetta did not hear her.
The Mage’s hands shot out. A sharp blade sliced across the captive Ellysetta’s wrist, and the Mage pressed the wound to his pale, bloodless lips. A hand splayed across her left breast. She threw back her head on a silent wail of despair. Slowly, beneath the Mage’s hand, a sixth black shadow appeared on the skin over her heart and her eyes turned from Fey green to pits of darkness that flickered with red lights.
Ellysetta wept in horror as freezing ice penetrated her soul, robbing her of hope, of Light, of all will to resist.
Darkness fell. She floated there, alone, cold, her senses void.
When light returned, it was a dim red-orange flame that slowly drove back the gloom to reveal a different shadowy cave. Lillis and Lorelle were gone. In the flickering light, she saw Rain, bloodied and broken, his body wrapped in heavysel’dorchains and pinned to a rough-hewn wall. A man in executioner’s garb stood before him, asel’dorsword gripped in one gauntleted fist. The purple-shrouded Mage stood in the shadows off to one side. Of herself, there was no sign.
Rain. She whispered his name, and though neither the executioner nor the Mage gave any indication of having heard her, Rain lifted his head. His gaze swept around the cell, eyes narrowed as if to pierce the impenetrable darkness in search of her.I am here! Rain, I am here!For a moment, she thought he could hear her, but then his eyes closed and his head dropped to his chest in weary defeat. He did not look up again, no matter how she called to him.
The Mage lifted his hand in command, and with an abrupt savagery that made her gasp in horror, the executioner drove his sword into Rain’s heart. His beautiful eyes opened wide on a breathless gasp and his body sagged against his chains, head lolling forward against his chest.
The Mage pushed back the robe’s deep cowl, baring hair the color of tairen flame and monstrous black eyes that observed Rain’s death with pitiless detachment.
Nei!Ellysetta screamed a denial. The face beneath that purple cowl was her own, but the heart that beat inside the slender chest was a cold, unfeeling thing, barren of remorse or grief, void of even the tiniest flicker of remembered love.
The executioner yanked his bloody blade from Rain’s chest and raised it high, then glanced at the Mage who wore Ellysetta’s face. At her nod, he brought the sword slashing down against the back of Rain’s exposed neck. Flesh split. Bone severed. Blood sprayed in a scarlet fountain.
She felt the sword as if it fell upon her own neck, and she knew the instant Rain’s soul fled his body, because her own was ripped asunder. Invisible, unheard, Ellysetta screamed and screamed until her voice shattered and the edges of her vision went dim.
The last thing she saw before the world went dark was two small figures darting from the shadows. Lillis and Lorelle, their eyes turned black as death, danced in the shower of blood as if it were a warm summer rain. They opened their mouths to catch scarlet droplets and laughed with chilling childish glee. The air filled with the baying howls of thedarrokkenand a chorus of voices calling her name.
“Ellysetta! Ellysetta, wake up! Wake up,shei’tani.”
Her eyes flew open, and for a moment she was still locked inside the nightmare, her ears filled with the baying of the Mage’s monstrous hounds, her vision dark and blank. Then the blackness lightened to a starry night sky, and a familiar face, beautiful and beloved, hovered over her, his features drawn with worry.
Rain! Air-starved lungs expanded on a sudden, desperate gasp. With a sob, she sat up and flung trembling arms around him, clutching him tight. She cried his name, but the only sound that passed her lips was a harsh, painful whisper. Her throat felt so raw she couldn’t talk. She babbled on a weave of Spirit, instead. «Shei’tan, shei’tan! You’re alive! It was just a dream. Please, gods, let it just have been a dream.» She pulled back and ran frantic hands across his beloved face, his neck, his chest, searching for wounds, but thankfully—blessedly—finding none. She flung herself back into his arms, clinging to his strength, dragging the warm, sweet, reassuring scent of him into her lungs. «You’re real. You’re unharmed. Tell me you’re real!» She had felt him die, felt it so keenly her soul still ached like an open wound.
Strong arms closed around her. “I am real,shei’tani, alive and unharmed. whatever you saw was just a dream. I am with you.” Again and again, he murmured reassurances, both aloud and across the threads of their bond, while his broad hands stroked her hair and down her back in a steady rhythm until she calmed.
When finally her shivering stopped and her heart slowed to its normal rhythm, he pulled back enough to look into her eyes. He smoothed the wild curls off her face and stroked her cheek tenderly with his thumb. “Talk to me,shei’tani,” he said. “What happened? What did you dream of that frightened you so badly?”
“I—” She tried to speak, but her voice was ruined. «Rain, my throat…I can’t talk.»
Gentle, worried lavender eyes searched her face. “You screamed,shei’tani. A scream like I’ve never heard before. Your skin went cold as ice and I thought—” He broke off and closed his eyes against a sudden well of emotion. «I thought I’d lost you. You were here in my arms, but I couldn’t feelyou.It was as if your soul had fled, and all I held was an empty shell.» Even his Spirit voice broke on that memory, and his arms clenched tight around her. «You frightened me,» he rasped. «You frightened me as I never want to be frightened again.»
There were tears in his eyes, and the sight nearly broke her heart. «Oh, Rain, I’m sorry.»
