Now a sense of triumph filled the distant hollowness that seemed to have overtaken her senses. She looked about the room and her chest expanded on a swell of pride. She lifted her hands and summoned her power, and the infants burbled unintelligibly in response, waving their tiny fists in the air as if happy to see her. She walked from one cradle to the next, peering in at the tiny occupants. Each infant’s eyes shone up at her like gleaming black coins, and on each tiny, pale chest, a dark smudge lay like a spot of ink over the baby’s heart.
Without Rain, there would never be a child born of her body. But that did not mean she would be childless. These infants were her offspring, souls summoned from the Well into bodies created by and infused with her magic. They might be flesh of another’s flesh, but she was the one who’d breathed life and magic into their bodies.
They were hers, and they were just the beginning.
Ellysetta returned to consciousness with a sudden gasp. Her eyes flashed open, and she straightened in the saddle abruptly. Her hands clutched at the leather pommel as she dragged breath into her lungs and tried to still her pounding heart.
«Shei’tani.» Rain’s tairen head turned, and one glowing purple eye fixed on her in concern. They were still in the air, and the sky was still dark.
Feeling hazy and disoriented, she peered down at the night-shadowed land below them. «Where are we?»
«About two hundred miles southeast of Celieria City.»
They’d traveled at least one hundred miles since last she remembered. «I think we need to stop,» she said. «I fell asleep, and I was dreaming again.» She couldn’t keep the tremor out of her Spirit voice. The gloating triumph in her dream had felt all too real, and she knew that if the Mage succeeded inincarnating into her body and claiming her magic for hisown, he would use that magic to build an army of Azrahn-gifted children who would be bound to him, serving only him. He and they would rule the world of Eloran like gods.
Without another word, Rain tucked in his wings and dove for the earth, spreading them wide again just in time to break his fall. He landed with smooth grace in a grassy field, back claws digging into the earth for balance as he settled. He set Ellysetta on her feet in the center of her quintet and Changed.
“Bel, bas paravei taris,” he told his second in command. We stop here. Ellysetta needs to sleep.
Bel gave a swift nod and gestured to the gatheringlu’tan. Protective twenty-five-fold shields sprang up in an instant, and the quintet added a smaller six-fold weave around Rain and Ellysetta for added protection.
Rain spun a bower for them from tender grass and divested himself of armor and steel before gathering her in his arms. He didn’t ask about her dream. He didn’t pry. He simply held her close, resting his head against hers and stroking one hand along her spine. “Ke sha taris, shei’tani,” he said. “I am here if you need to talk.”
She closed her eyes. She hadn’t told him about her visits to the pregnant noblewomen and the magic their children possessed. He was so preoccupied with worries about the war and fear that he wouldn’t be able to gather allies powerful or numerous enough to turn back the Eld, she hadn’t wanted to add another burden. But now, she could keep silent no longer.
“Annoura’s baby isn’t the only one with magic,” she confessed. “They all have it—and they all wield Azrahn. I’m to blame, Rain. I gave them magic—or the Mage did through me. There’s no other possible explanation.” Quickly, before she lost her courage, she told him about her dream.
He heard her out, but his only reaction was one of concern, not fear or horror. “I will have Bel contact thelu’tanand bid them guard those women. The Mage can’t do anything to their children if he can’t get his hands on them.” He pulled back to look into her eyes. “And you need to stop blaming yourself for everything. You didn’t mean to spin that weave. You certainly didn’t mean for those women to become pregnant or for their children to be magical.”
“But I did…and they are.”
“You gave them a gift, Ellysetta. A great and wondrous gift. What comes of that has yet to be seen, but I will not be so quick to assume the worst. No matter what the Mage may have done to you before you were born, I will not believe you are anything less than the gods intended you to be.”
“But—”
“Shh. You are myshei’taniand my truest love, and all that you are is bright and shining. I know this, even if you do not. And that means whatever gift you gave these children came from the Light, not the Dark.” He spun a small Earth weave to free her hair from its plait and ran his fingers through the spiraling curls before nudging her back into his arms with a gentle push of Air. “Liath dai taris. Sleep now. And do not fear to dream. I am with you.”
She closed her eyes and settled against him. In his arms, protected by the six-fold weave of her quintet, the twenty-five-fold weaves of herlu’tan, and the unwavering warmth of Rain’s love, she slept.
She woke to the oppressive weight of evil. The night was eerilly still. Moonlight shone down upon the encampment, illuminating the forms of Rain and the other warriors lying motionless on the ground around her, and everywhere the bright scarlet of blood lay upon them.
Panic seized her by the throat.
They were dead and she was sitting in a field of corpses.
But then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to find one of herlu’tan, his Fey skin shining faintly silver in the night, walking along the perimeter of the encampment. He paused to speak with another warrior seated on a tree stump and whatever they were saying made them laugh softly.
Ellysetta blinked and the wash of red disappeared. She looked at Rain more closely and noted the faint glow of his skin and the rise and fall of his chest. The air left her lungs on a relieved breath. Not dead, thanks the gods. Only sleeping.
Gods save her. She scrubbed her hands over her face. She’d had so little sleep this last week, her mind was playing tricks on her. She could have sworn that when she first looked at them, she’d seen them all dead. She’d been sure of it.
Even now, she could still smell the bitter stench of death in the air, taste it with each breath she dragged into her lungs. Evil crouched in the darkness, reeking of malevolence. The sensation was so real, so vivid, every muscle in her body drew tight. Her skin throbbed with revulsion and stabbing pain.
Ellysetta drew her hands slowly from her face and strained her eyes to pierce the darkness beyond the borders of the camp. Neither physical eyes nor Fey vision could detect anything amiss, but she knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong, and it wasn’t her imagination.
“Rain.” She reached for his shoulder, keeping her movements small. «Shei’tan, wake up. I think we’re in trouble.»
His breathing stilled. He went motionless as stone; then his eyes opened.
