“A wise choice, cousin.” Turning to Rain and Ellysetta, Hawksheart said, “Go now. The night grows late. Enjoy the comforts of Navahele tonight. We will talk again tomorrow.”
A dozen Elvian guards were waiting for them at the top of the stair when they reemerged from the bowels of Grandfather Sentinel’s heartwood chamber. Rain requested an escort back to their rooms, and with polite bows and distant courtesy, the guards led the way.
Fifteen chimes later, the seven of them ducked into Rain and Ellysetta’s cozy bedchamber.
“What are we going to do, Rain?” Ellysetta asked as soon as the door closed behind them. “We can’t just leave the v’En Celays in Eld. We’ve got to find a way to save them.”
Rain touched a finger to his lips and shook his head, nodding to the rich wood surrounding them. On a narrow Spirit weave, he warned her, «This tree, like all the trees in Navahele, is a watcher. Wait for the Fey to spin a privacy weave.»
Tajik and Gil spun breezy patterns of Earth and Air that swept through every nook and cranny in the chamber, dislodging dust, dirt, insects, and even a small, very disgruntled-looking tree frog. They disposed of their weaves’ findings through one of the chamber’s small, round windows, then spun swift, dense privacy weaves on every surface in the chamber.
“Do you really think Lord Galad would send frogs and insects to spy on us?” Ellysetta asked.
“Spying is what Elves do,kem’falla,” Tajik said. “And everything here in Elvia—from the plants and insects, to the animals, to the very soil we walk on—spies for them as well.”
“But what could they tell him that he cannot already See?”
Gil grunted. “Probabilities. Despite the destiny that may be mapped out for us, the gods still gave us free will. Hawksheart, for all his power, can never know for certain which verse of their Song a person will choose to sing. Everything the Elves learn, everything they see, everything the sentient creatures of Elvia gather, he uses to interpret the Dance and determine the most likely turns the Songs will take.”
“And right now,” Tajik said, “he wants to know what we will do to save my sister and her mate and whether or not he needs to stop us.”
“Tajik, he isn’t as heartless as you think,” Ellysetta protested. “Perhaps he doesn’t show it, but none of this was easy for him.”
“He just admitted he watched my sister suffer for a thousand years because he was determined to see your Song come to fruition.” Tajik’s blue eyes burned like flame. “He’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she stays there if it fits his needs for the Dance.”
Gil flung back his long, white-blond hair, and the silvery specks in his black eyes flashed like angry stars. “Well, Hawksheart may be able to stand and watch their suffering without lifting a finger, but we Fey cannot. We must rescue them. Even if Lord Shan and Lady Elfeya were not the Feyreisa’s parents—even if they were not two of the greatest truemates born in this Age—we would still be honor-bound to rescue them.”
“Aiyah,” Rijonn agreed, his voice a low, gravelly rumble. “Just say the word and I will grind every vein ofsel’dorore in Eld to dust to find them and set them free.”
When Rain didn’t immediately answer, Ellysetta turned to him. “Rain? You cannot intend to just leave them there.”
“Even if we knew where they were being held—which we do not—I cannot see a way to save them that holds hope for any outcome but certain death…or worse.”
“Since when has risk stopped a Fey from doing what he knows is right?” Bel countered before Ellysetta could speak. His face was as hard as Tajik’s, his cobalt eyes as flat and cold as Tajik’s flame-blue eyes were fiery. “Now that we know they live—now that we know what they’re suffering—we cannot leave them there. You know we cannot. Fey honor isn’t just a word. Truemates of the Fey are being held by the High Mage of Eld. They must be saved. There’s no other option.”
“I know, Bel.” Rain thrust a hand through his hair and began to pace. “I know.”
Gaelen glanced at the hard, determined expressions of his brother Fey. “Has it not yet occurred to anyone that there may be some specific reason why Hawksheart showed us the truth about Lord Shan and Elfeya? That he wants us to go after them?”
Rain’s spine stiffened and his shoulders drew back. “What could Hawksheart possibly hope to gain? If the Fey perish on some hopeless mission into Eld, the Mages win.”
“Think about it, Rain. He let Lord Shan and his mate be captured, let them suffer a thousand years of torture, because he believed it necessary to the Dance. And the first time he reveals their fate, to whom does he show it? Their daughter. Their daughter’s Tairen Soul truemate. Elfeya’s brother. The five bloodsworn warriors who have already pledged their souls to Ellysetta’s service. He brought us here. Just us. He let us see what his mirror had to reveal, because he meant us to have that information. He wouldn’t let me take Tajik’s memory because heneedsTajik to remember. What purpose could there be except to use this new knowledge to drive us to action? Not the Fey. Us.” He drew a circle with one finger. “We seven.”
Ellysetta frowned. “You’re suggesting he planned everything that just happened down there? That he manipulated me into demanding the truth about my parents just so we’d go after them because he wants me to confront the High Mage?”
“You are still young,ajiana. Still trusting.” Sadness and affection softened the ice blue of Gaelen’s eyes. “I have beendahl’reisen. I learned long ago to trust no one. I also learned long ago that the world holds precious few surprises for an Elf. Do I think he manipulated us? Oh,aiyah, I think he did. I think the Lord of Valorian knew precisely what he was doing every step of the way. He wants us to go into Eld.”
“Well, he can want all he likes,” Rain snapped. “There’s no way in the Seven Hells I would ever let Ellysetta set foot in that accursed land. Hawksheart surely knows that.” He began to pace again. “Nei. No matter what your suspicion tells you, Hawksheart is not such a fool. Besides, you heard him. Ellysetta is the one born to defeat Shadow and secure this world for Light. He would not risk her life so stupidly.”
“And how can she defeat Shadow if she never confronts it?” Gaelen countered. “Stop thinking like a Fey, Rain, and start thinking like an Elf. To them, no one life is more important than the outcome of the Dance. Hawksheart said Ellysetta was born to defeat Shadow, but did you even once hear him say she was supposed to survive her fate?”
Rain stopped in his tracks. His expression went blank. “I—”
“Nei, you did not.” Gaelen supplied the answer himself. “Because he was very carefulnotto say it. Just as he was very careful to block Ellysetta’s memories of what she saw, even though he would not let me erase the truth about Elfeya from Tajik’s mind.”
Silence fell over the chamber. Rain and the rest of Ellysetta’s quintet shared troubled glances. They all clearly wanted to refute Gaelen’s claims, yet they could not dismiss the formerdahl’reisen’ssuspicions.
“Rain was the last Fey to call a Song in the Dance,” Gaelen reminded them. “We all know how that turned out. If not for the tairen, he would not have survived.”
