“Nei, not thedahl’reisen,”Rain corrected. “Azrahn. Azrahn is the key—and the connection between the tairen and the Fey, not only because our magic sprang from Lissalukai’s great fire, but because every Tairen Soul starting with Tevan Fire Eyes are the descendants of Fellana, who was the last of Lissallukai’s bloodline. That’s why our fates are so closely entwined. The Tairen Souls keep Lissallukai’s blood—and, with it, her greatest magic—alive and strong. And Ellysetta, who combines Fey, tairen, Elvish, and even Mage powers, is the most powerful master of Azrahn born since Lissallukai herself. It is Ellysetta—both through the children we will bear, and every child conceived as a result of her fertility weaves—who will return the fullness of Azrahn back to the tairen and the Fey.”
Ellysetta curled her fingers around his and smiled. One day in their lifetime, they would see the skies over the Fading Lands once more filled with tairen and hear the streets of Dharsa ring with the laughter of Fey children. Her children—their children—would be powerful Tairen Souls, just as they were, raised in love amid the Fey and the pride. And that was reward enough to make the great price of her gifts worthwhile.
“The Elf king of Tevan’s time Saw what would happen,” Rain concluded, “including the fact that Ellysetta would be born to bring the fullness of Azrahn back to the tairen and the Fey. So upon his advice, Tevan ordered the creation of the Mirror of Knowledge and the Elf king told his descendants to watch for her birth.”
“You really were born to save us,” Marissya said.
“And so she has.” Rain raised a glass of chilledfaerilas.“To the treasures of the past, my friends, and to the joys of a bright future.”
27thday of Seledos
Rain stood on the balustraded terrace just outside the ballroom of the Dharsa’s newly restored royal palace and looked out at the gleaming gold-and-white beauty of Dharsa nestled in the forested hills. He closed his eyes and inhaled the aroma of jasmine and honeyblossom and the sweet, intoxicating fragrance of Amarynth that wafted on the cool evening breeze.
For a thousand years, the world behind the Faering Mists had been his prison. Now, at last, the Fading Lands was home once more, and for the first time in centuries—perhaps for the first time in his entire life—he was truly at peace.
His quest to save the tairen and the Fey was complete. He had found the woman Shei’Kess had sent him to find, and together they had saved the tairen and the Fey and brought the promise of life back to the Fading Lands.
Rain drew in his breath again, and a slow smile curved his lips as a new scent, familiar and beloved, danced across his senses like a warm caress. Turning, he held out his hand.
As it always had—and as Rain knew it always would—his heart leapt at the sight of her. She was a vision in white and silver and stunning flame.
Her white silk gown—overlaid with Elvian lace and studded with tiny diamonds like morning dewdrops caught in a spider’s fine web—whispered across the marble terrace stones as she crossed to his side. Rajahl vel’En Daris’s crystal gleamed at her wrist, while Rain’s crystal hung from a platinum chain around her neck. Her hair tumbled about her shoulders and down to her waist like a cloud of tairen fire.
Her fingers slid across the back of Rain’s wrist, but he turned his hand to thread his fingers through hers and hold her hand the way Celierians—and now he, as well—preferred.
His thumb brushed across hers in a tiny caress, and he smiled into Ellysetta’s bright Fey eyes.“Beylah vo, shei’tani.”
She tilted her head to one side. “For what?”
“For… everything.” The Eye of Truth had sent him to Ellysetta to find the salvation of his peoples. But in her, he had also found the salvation of his own soul.
He had longed for death until she renewed his fierce desire for life. She had smashed countless Fey traditions and taboos, and forced him to rethink everything he believed of the world as she forged her own, unique path with quiet but relentless courage. He had thought alldahl’reisenwere beyond redemption, yet she had restored Gaelen’s soul and won the bloodsworn loyalty of the Brotherhood of Shadows and brought the gift of their powerful magic and fertility back to the Fey. He had thought Azrahn was evil, yet even before the Mirror of Knowledge had revealed its secrets, she had proven the forbidden magic could be just as powerful a force for good.
She’d made the world beautiful and wondrous once more, as it hadn’t been for him since he was a boy. She made him believe the Fey would again become the great, shining Light they had once been to this world. A beacon of hope and freedom and strength that would forever stand fast against the Dark.
She smiled at his thoughts and shook her head. “You give me too much credit. Most of that is not my doing.”
“And there you are wrong. Without you,shei’tani,none of this would have been possible.” He waved his hand to indicate the rebuilt beauty of Dharsa with its fully restored Hall of Scrolls and the crowds gathering at the foot of Dharsa’s central mount. Fey, Elves, Celierian friends and dignitaries, all standing side by side in the heart of the city, garbed in splendorous raiment as they attended Rain and Ellysetta’s truemating celebration and the coronation of the Fading Lands’ new queen.
“He is right,” Marissya said, as she and Dax joined them on the terrace. Like dozens of other mates of the Fey, the pair were garbed in the verdant green-and-white hues they would both wear until the birth of their child. The heady scent of Amarynth perfumed the air around them, blooming in abundance from every bower and garden in Dharsa. “You have changed our world.”
“I never meant to.”
Marissya smiled. “The gods weave as the gods will, Feyreisa.”
The breeze blew a wayward curl against Ellysetta’s cheek. Rain reached out to brush it back out of her face. “Where are your parents?”
“With Tajik and Papa, keeping Lillis and Lorelle out of trouble until the ceremonies begin. Papa has been regaling them with stories of my childhood.” She laughed, but a sheen of tears glimmered in her eyes. Despite her overwhelming joy at freeing her Fey parents, he knew she still sorely missed her adoptive mother. Today’s bonding ceremony would be the second time Ellysetta and Rain had celebrated the joining of their lives. Mama’s absence, and the absence of other dear friends lost to the evil of the Eld, was a somber Harmony to the now-joyous verse of her Song.
Happiness was hers, but as with all great gifts of the Fey, that happiness had come at a steep price.
“I think Lauriana would have liked Shan and Elfeya,” Rain said.
Ellysetta nodded, as she thumbed away her tears.“Aiyah.I know she would. And I know they would have liked her, too.”
“How could we not?” A warm, vibrant voice replied. “She is the woman who kept our daughter safe and guided and loved her in our stead.”
Rain and Ellysetta both turned to the open archway leading from the ballroom as Shan, Elfeya, Sol Baristani, and the twins stepped outside to join them.
