Without warning, the Eld soldiers behind them gave choked gasps and crumpled. Even as they fell, a red Fey’cha glanced off Azurel’s own, ever-present shields and sliced the unprotected hand of the Eld captain standing beside him. The captain’s eyes widened in horror at the sight of his bleeding hand. His fingers spasmed. Then his arm began to shake as the tairen venom spread rapidly through his veins. Within moments he was gasping for air and clutching at his throat as a white froth bubbled at the corners of his mouth. The poison reached his brain, and he dropped to the ground, stone dead, eyes staring.
Azurel nudged the body aside with one foot and scanned the trees around them. Another barrage of Fey’cha ricocheted off the Mages’ hastily erected shields, followed by a concussive blast as a twelve-fold weave from the first group ofdahl’reisenslammed into the forward shields.
“These twelve are not alone. Have your archers clear our flanks.” Azurel directed the attention of the Mages to the dense forest on either side of them. He could sense nothing, butdahl’reisenweren’t fools enough to send a mere twelve blades against five Mharog and so many Mages.
Dur snapped the command on a whip of Azrahn.«Archers, fire. Rain sel’dor on our flanks!»
The air turned black with flying arrows. Azurel watched closely, looking for the telltale energy flares ofsel’dorhitting Fey shields. He would be very surprised if thedahl’reisen’sadmittedly impressive invisibility weaves could completely hide shields strong enough to blocksel’dor.
«One in the large fireoak there, another near that tumble of rocks. Two more in the trees to our left. Earth, on my command. Shake them out of the trees. Now!»
Green Earth arced outward from two of the Mharog, with Azurel directing rippling flows of it both to his left and his right. The ground bucked and heaved. The tumbled pile of boulders shuddered, massive rocks shifting and falling, and thedahl’reisentaking cover there gave a sharp cry, quickly silenced. Nearby, the large oak that sheltered the seconddahl’reisenshook wildly from the force of the powerful quake. With a mighty groan, the tree toppled, and as thedahl’reisenin the branches tumbled to the ground, two of the Mharog broke his shields with a six-fold weave, and Dur followed with a blast of Mage Fire that sliced the warrior in half.
The line of trees to the right shivered but stood firm beneath the attack of the two Mharog as a masterful counteractive weave of Earth dispelled the rippling force. The Eld bowmen released another hail of barbed arrows while Mages peppered the woods with globes of blue-white Mage Fire. Beneath the Mharogs’ feet, the earth gave a sudden, heaving lurch that knocked them off-balance.
A shout rose from the back of the infantry formation, and Azurel turned to see the Eld soldiers falling upon themselves, teeth bared in feral snarls as they sliced and hacked at one another. A heavy black-and-lavender weave lay over the Eld like a shroud. He tracked the weave back to its source—moredahl’reisenhidden by their admittedly impressive invisibility weaves—and flung a blistering combination of Fire, Air, and Azrahn at them, but that blast exploded harmlessly against another six-fold shield.
From the front, another brutal, twelve-fold hammer cracked the forward shields. An intense Spirit and Azrahn weave shot through the breech, plowing into two Mages, who suddenly turned and began to throw Mage Fire at their own brothers—incinerating half a dozen Mages and enough of Azurel’s shields to crisp his hair and singe the side of his face before his own red Fey’cha dispatched them.
Azurel touched his scorched flesh. His eyes narrowed.
“Time for you Mages to earn your jewels, Dur,” Azurel snarled to the Mage. “Take out the Spirit masters before all your soldiers slaughter themselves and your weak-minded Mages kill the rest of us. And send something with a kick, not your easily diverted little fireballs. The ones spinning Spirit are directing most of their energy into the illusion weaves, but the others are shielding them. The Mharog will take care of the blades in front.”
Dur nodded grimly. “Mages!” Blue-white Mage Fire gathered in Mage hands, a glowing ball that grew larger and brighter, illuminating the concentration and strain on the Mage’s face as he fed power into it. The massive fireballs shot out of the Mages’ hands straight at the Spirit master. The Mharog spun a four-fold weave to box in the Spirit master so he couldn’t leap clear of the Mage Fire’s path.
Trapped, thedahl’reisendropped his invisibility weave. He faced, unflinching, the approaching fire and screamed defiance into its consuming maw,“Miora felah ti’Feyreisa!“
The Mage Fire plowed into him and flared with a thunderous boom. When it dissipated, thedahl’reisenSpirit master was gone. Without his energy to sustain it, his weave dissolved, and the Eld soldiers under its control came to their senses, shaking themselves and looking about in shock.
Dur took out the other Spirit masters in the same manner, and after that the air filled with flying Fey’cha, Mage Fire, arrows, and magic. The remainingdahl’reisenfell after a brief but intense battle.
The last to die was a lavender-eyeddahl’reisen.He lay mortally wounded, the lower half of his body in ruins. As Azurel approached, the fallen man gave a bloody, triumphant smile and plunged a red Fey’cha into his own chest.
“Miora felah ti’Feyreisa,”he whispered as his body spasmed. A moment later, his eyes went blank, and his head lolled to one side. The smile remained on his face even in death.
Azurel knelt beside the corpse. Azrahn came to his call, whirling in his palm as he tried to summon the dead man’s soul.
But for the first time in his five hundred years of being Mharog, something blocked him.
Frowning, he fed more energy into his Azrahn weave, trying to force thedahl’reisen’ssoul to answer his call.
Still, it did not come.
Instead, a great blinding light rushed up at him. Furious, defiant love, so hot it made the ice of his soul crack and shudder. In sudden, breathless terror, he ripped apart his Azrahn weave and threw himself back away from thedahl’reisen‘s corpse.
“What’s the matter?” Dur asked.
Azurel bit back a sharp curse and rose to his feet. “His soul is bound. It cannot be summoned.”
“What do you mean ‘bound’? Bound to what?”
“To her, you idiot. His soul is bound to her. Bloodsworn.”
Azurel stalked to the next closestdahl’reisencorpse. Steeling himself to confront the white light, he tried to summon the seconddahl’reisen’ssoul. It, too, defied his call. As did the next, and the next, and the next. “They’re all bloodsworn. Every scorching one of them. That’s why you could not Mark them when they wove Azrahn.” Azurel’s fists clenched, and his teeth ground together. “Never would I have believed Rainier vel’En Daris would allowdahl’reisento bloodswear themselves to his truemate.”
Dur eyed him skeptically. “The Mages bind the souls of all their followers, but those souls can still be summoned after death.”
“Bloodswearing is different. It is more likeshei’tanitsathan your soul-binding. They have willingly tied their souls to hers, dedicated themselves to serve only her in life and in death. It is a compact that cannot be broken or perverted.” Through a combination of Magecraft, Feraz black magic, and Merellian demon sorcery, the High Mage had managed to tie a tairen’s soul to Shannisorran v’En Celay’s but never had he succeeded in calling v’En Celay’s soul to his service. Nor had he ever been able to claim a bloodsworn soul. “Step aside and let me try.”
