“But,” the Primage continued calmly, “there are degrees of harm. The High Mage wants her brought to him alive, but he won’t mind a scratch or two. And I’m quite expert at knowing how to bring a Fey close to death while keeping her chained to life.” All pretense of warmth left his voice, and his smile vanished. Eyes swirling with Azrahn threatened from the hard, cold face of an unforgiving enemy. “Now drop your weapons, or we’ll see how much moresel’doryour mate can take before she cannot stop herself from screaming.”
Rain dropped the sword and Fey’cha still clutched in his hands, then began to unbuckle the straps that held the rest of his weapons.
“Nei,Rain,” Ellysetta moaned. Her face turned towards him, her eyes glazed with pain. “Don’t do it!”
He shook his head.«I have no choice, shei’tani, and they know it.»He’d given her the red Fey’cha to take her own life if he was slain. But fighting would only ensure her torture and his certain death, and she would be left alone and vulnerable in the hands of the Eld.
When all his steel lay in the dirt at his feet, two soldiers and one of the apprentice Mages approached. Two of them gathered his weapons and retreated out of reach.
“Hold out your hands,” the yellow-robed Mage ordered.
Rain extended his arms.
The Mage nodded, and the soldier beside him pulled a pair of black metal manacles from a large leather pouch. Long, sharp black spikes drove inward from the metal cuff, and thick, heavy metal chains joined the manacles together.
“We run acrossdahl’reisenfrom time to time,” the apprentice Mage informed him, “so we’ve learned to always be prepared.”
Rain shuddered and dropped to one knee as the Eld clapped the manacles over his wrists and drove thesel’dorspikes into his bones. The dark metal, poisonous to the Fey, burned where it touched him, making his skin redden and blister, short-circuiting his body’s natural self-healing abilities. His wrists, like every burning wound wheresel’dorshrapnel still lodged, would remain unhealed and in constant pain until the foul metal was removed.
The Eld stripped off his boots and drove a second set of spiked manacles into his ankles. The raw, searing pain left him breathless and dazed. Ellysetta wept openly, sobbing his name.
“What about her, Master Keldo?” the Apprentice Mage asked.
“Bind her hard,” the Primage answered. “Wrists, ankles, and throat. Master Maur said this one is dangerous.”
The apprentice Mage approached Ellysetta with heavy black manacles and chains.
“Leave her alone!” Rain ordered. He strained against his chains. “Do not dare to touch her.”
“The bindings will cause no permanent injury,” the Primage assured him. “But her magic will be contained.” He issued a sharp command, and several soldiers rushed to hold Ellysetta down as the apprentice clapped the spiked manacles into place around her wrists and ankles.
Ellysetta screamed and began to struggle. Panic grabbed Rain by the throat. He lunged forward, trying to reach her, dragging the four Eld soldiers holding his chains off their feet. Someone cracked him hard over the back of his head, and he collapsed facedown on the ground.
The Fading Lands ~ Chatok
Kieran could scarcely believe the “circumstances” that the captain of the gate had been referring to. Once again, Orest was under attack. This time with dragons to combat the tairen. Once again Rain had called for every warrior in Dharsa to head for the Veil.
And once again, proving that his incalculable stupidity knew no bounds, Tenn v’En Eilan had countermanded that order just as he had countermanded Rain’s order to defend Orest and the Garreval this summer.
To justify his command, Tenn had reminded the Fey that Rain was an outcast, adahl’reisenstripped of his crown and banished for spinning Azrahn. He’d even gone so far as to warn that any Fey who chose to fight alongside their deposed king did so at his own peril and should expect no aid from the Fading Lands.
Kieran met Kiel’s gaze in grim silence.«That scorch-brained fool,»he hissed to Kiel on a private weave.«Teleon was destroyed, Orest nearly taken, and Tenn’s still hiding behind the Mists, thinking that will save us? How can he think dividing us will make us stronger?»
«We could head for Orest now,»Kiel suggested.«The shei’dalins can take Master Baristani and the girls the rest of the way to Dharsa without us. If we hurry, we could make the Veil in a little over two days. From the sounds of it, the Fey at Orest need every blade they can get.»
Kieran glanced at the girls standing alongside their father and the twoshei’dalins.He wanted to head for Orest. His hands itched to hold his blades and feel the razor-sharp steel slice through Eld flesh and bone. He could almost hear the voices of his slain blade brothers at Teleon crying out for him to avenge their deaths.
He clenched his jaw and silenced them.«Nei,»he said.«Nei, the Feyreisa entrusted her family’s safety to us. I will not abandon that duty to another. We see them safe to Dharsa, and into my parents’ care. And then we head for Orest.»
«Agreed, but we need to move quickly. The sooner we reach Dharsa, the better.»
Kieran tugged at his lower lip. Where was aba’houdasteed when a Fey needed one? Celierians couldn’t run even half the speed of a Fey for more than a few chimes, and they tired much too easily. Kieran and Kiel didn’t have the strength to carry all three of them—and with a war on, the Garreval couldn’t spare a single warrior to help them.
A gust of sandy wind whipped a long scarlet veil off one of theshei’dalins.Kieran watched it swirl and tumble through the air, with theshei’dalinrunning in pursuit, and his lips curved in a slow smile.
«I think I have an idea. Wait here.»Turning, Kieran jogged back into Chatok, returning a few chimes later with a pile of blankets he’d filched from the barracks. He set the blankets on the ground and summoned his Earth magic.
Lillis watched his weave with interest. “A carpet?”
