“Flames scorch it,” Tajik swore. “If we don’t get rid of those archers and the Mages calling those demons, we’ll all be dead inside of half a bell.”
“If we can get rid of thedahl’reisenholding the invisibility weaves, the Eld won’t find it so easy to evade our blades.” Bel glanced at Ellysetta, then away. His eyes took on the faint lavender glow of Spirit.
A few moments later, Rain’s voice sounded urgently on a private Spirit weave. «Ellysetta. Forgive me, shei’tani, but we need your help to locate the dahl’reisen. None of us can sense them, but you can if we lower your shields. And if you can find them, you can guide our aim so we can take them out and bring down their invisibility weaves.»
She looked at the fallenlu’tanand the desperate battle raging around her. Once more, the familiar terrible rage rose up from within her and clawed for release.Kill them all. Shred their flesh from their bones.
Having just felt Lathiel’s torment after he’d slain thatdahl’reisen, she knew what Rain was asking her to do. Simply opening herself up enough to sense thedahl’reisenwould cause her incredible pain. But that would pale in comparison to the agony thelu’tan—and she, through theirlute’asheivabond—would feel when they killed thedahl’reisenholding the weaves.
But she also knew that if they didn’t do something soon, they were all dead. Or worse than dead. What choice was there?
«Do it,» she said. And the wild, angry thing inside her hissed its delight.
Rain sent the instruction to Bel on a grim private weave. «Do it, Bel.» He stifled his protectiveshei’tan’s instincts and braced himself for a fierce surge of Rage. Once those shields came down and Ellysetta could sense thedahl’reisen, her pain would drive him to the edge of madness. He knew it. Bel knew it. He just hoped he had strength enough to keep the tairen in check.
Sel’dorburned in his chest, arm, and thighs where the Eld’s foul missiles had struck him, leaving the barbs buried deep in his flesh. His Fey body continually tried to heal the wounds, but thesel’dorresponded by burning like acid and twisting his magic into pain. There was enoughsel’dorin him now to make each breath an effort and set his teeth on edge each time he spun a weave, but not enough to stop a tairen in full Rage from changing.
He had been hiding the truth these last weeks from Ellysetta…from everyone. Bel suspected, but then, Bel had known him too well for too long. There wasn’t much he could hide from his oldest and dearest friend.
The bond madness had begun. The little slips of control were growing more frequent: The times he broadcast thoughts he’d meant to keep private, how quick he was to anger—and how hotly his temper burned when it came. He didn’t know how much time he had left, but it wouldn’t be long. The war would see to that. Every battle—each life he took in defense of Ellysetta and the Fading Lands—drove him that much closer to the edge of his control and his sanity.
«Prepare yourself, Rain,» Bel warned on a private weave. «We’re lowering her shields now.»
Rain closed his eyes and drew as deep a breath as the throbbing shrapnel in his chest allowed.Please, gods, whatever happens, don’t let me fly. Teska, don’t let me fly.One scorching of the world was enough for any lifetime.
Ellysetta thought she was prepared to open her unshielded senses neardahl’reisen. She thought she knew what to expect.
She was wrong.
Dark emotions screamed down her veins, invaded her blood, ate at her body from the inside out. Despair. Rage. Hatred. Vile, virulent emotions. whatever had once been good and honorable when thesedahl’reisenwere Fey was utterly gone now. What remained in its place was such bitter hate that the briefest touch of her mind against it made her whole body revolt.
The difference between them and what Gaelen had been before she restored his soul was staggering. His torment had defied description, true, but his soul had still stubbornly clung to the Light, to some concept of honor. He’d still retained the memory of love in his heart. Thedahl’reisenin the service of Eld were well down the Dark Path, beyond redemption. They took savage pleasure in watching the deaths of their former brothers. They hated them for the Light that still shone within them, and they wanted to crush it, to extinguish it.
“Ellysetta.” Bel prodded her urgently. “Ellysetta, quickly, show us where they are so we can reweave your shields. Hurry. For all our sakes.”
She turned her head in Rain’s direction. Across the field of battlinglu’tan, she could see him clearly, see the fierce determination on his face as he fought not only his enemies but also his response to her pain. She was broadcasting it to him through the threads of their bond. She was broadcasting it to thelu’tanas well.
Gods. She pressed the heels of her palms against her temples and tried to slam her barriers back in place, tried to block out the overwhelming flood of tormented emotion.
«Ellysetta,» Bel urged again, «I know it hurts, but we need you to concentrate on finding the dahl’reisen. Find the source of your pain, and you will find them. That’s all we need. Teska, kem’mareska.»
It wasn’t as easy as all that. At the moment, the source of her pain was all of them. Her pain hurt Rain and thelu’tan, and their pain echoed back at her, each amplifying the other, building a harmonic of agony and despair, until she could hardly stop herself from screaming and ripping at her own skin.
“Kem’falla.”A hand gripped hers. A cool clarity cut through the layers of pain. She opened her eyes to find Gaelen standing before her, his ice blue gaze steady and direct. “Give me the pain. Feed it to me. I’ve borne it before, and I can bear it again. You know I can. Let me bear it for you, for all of them.”
“Gaelen…”
“Give it to me.”
She wasn’t certain whether she fed him the pain or he just took it. Either way, the blinding agony began to fade. The flicker of Gaelen’s eyelashes and the tightening of his mouth were the only outward signs of his suffering.
“Kabei,” he said. “Now, forget about the pain. The pain doesn’t exist. Find the hate. Find the bitterness, the blame. The anger towards the Fey. Find self over sacrifice. That’s how you’ll know thesedahl’reisen.”
She nodded. Concentrating was easier now, without the debilitating overload to her senses. Slowly, hesitant to open herself up to agony again, she peeled back the outer layers of her internal shields and sent a questing thread of empathic awareness outside herself. As Gaelen instructed, she tried to filter her senses to detect only the dark, selfish emotions Gaelen had described, the blame and anger towards the Fey.
There. Her mind zeroed in on a well of bitterness and hate.
“I see it.” Gaelen gestured to the others, directing them to the location in Ellysetta’s mind. A moment later, the foul hatred simply…disappeared. A sharp pain lanced across her senses, but it was gone almost instantly. “Well-done,kem’falla.” Gaelen’s voice sounded breathless, strained. “That was perfect.”
