Lady of Light and Shadows (43 page)

Ellysetta's breath caught in her throat, and she reached for the gleaming treasure in Rain's hands. Fingertips touched grainless ebonwood and satiny fireoak. The carving seemed so real, she could almost feel the warmth of life in the wood. "Papa did this? It's the most beautiful piece he ever made.”

"It is a masterful work of art," Rain agreed. "No Fey could have done better.”

Beneath Sol Baristani's skillful hands, a tairen matepair had come to life in fireoak and ebonwood. The female was a lithe and lustrous creature with emerald eyes and gold-veined wings folded against her back. She sat on her haunches, a feline queen. At her side, a larger male Tairen carved of almost grainless ebonwood had extended one wing, curling it protectively over his mate, the underside of his shadowy wing sparkling with diamond dust. Ebonwood and fireoak tails were entwined in an utterly tairen gesture of devotion, but the twining was so intricate that Ellie could scarcely believe her father had managed it without magic. Both tairen wore a look of tender pride as they gazed down on a pair of round little kitlings playing at their feet, one black, one a rosy auburn, both slightly mottled.

"The matepair look exactly as I imagined them," Rain said. "From that very first night,
shei’tani,
I saw you more clearly than I knew. I saw your true soul-and my true place at your side, protecting and defending you from harm. The kitlings were your father's touch," he added. "He called them a father's wish for his daughter. When I went to see him in the chapel just now, he gave me the statue and told me I should tell you that.”

Outside, the sun hung low on the western horizon. Night was approaching. Rain held out a hand. "Come,
shei’tani.
Let us see your mother's soul safe to rest. When it is done, I ask that you consent to be my wife. Not because your father pledged to me your troth, and not because the gods declared it should be so, but because
you
wish to bind your
life
to mine.”

Ellysetta looked up from the exquisite tairen family in her hands. Rain's eyes were filled with open longing and shining with promise. Perhaps the girl who loved Fey tales wasn't completely gone, after all.

She slid her fingers into his.
"Aiyah,
Rain, I will marry you."

Lauriana's body was placed on a gilded litter and borne by Ellysetta's quintet down the cobbled roads to her funeral bier outside the city walls. Sol walked behind the litter, holding the twins by the hand. Rain and Ellysetta followed them, then Marissya and Dax. Bringing up the rear marched all the Fey in Celieria, clad in full ceremonial dress, steel gleaming in the waning light, silken banners of red, violet, and gold waving in the breeze. It was a funeral procession worthy of a queen.

"I never thought you would so honor her," Ellysetta whispered, brought to tears by the unexpected tribute. "I thought you would despise her for arranging my exorcism.”

"If honor were reserved only for those who never err, none of us would be worthy," Rain answered. "When she saw how she'd been used against you, she gave her life to set you free. There is much to honor in that.”

As they walked through the city, Fey voices rose in crystalline waves to sing an ancient Fey lament for valiant, fallen heroes. The song was one Ellysetta recognized, usually reserved for warriors who died performing great deeds, and she wept with a mix of love and sorrow and pride. She could not have held back her emotions even if she'd tried. They poured forth like a river overflowing its banks, weaving into the notes of the song.

Ellysetta wore no
shei'dalin's
veil. She'd refused when Marissya made the suggestion, saying she'd already spent too much of her life hiding who and what she truly was. Her unveiled brightness shone like a beacon. Now unleashed, her innate magic, the compassion and healing peace of a
shei'dalin,
spread out in waves of light all around her.

In the wake of the procession, the Celierian who had spent their last week in growing turmoil and groundless anger found themselves sobbing as if their hearts would break. The Shining Folk, who'd seemed so threatening of late, now appeared like heroes of old, noble and gracious and good. In their midst walked a woman of incomparable beauty, bright as the Great Sun, her hair like coils of sacred flame. Just the sight of her banished the shadows from their minds, and those who caught her verdant gaze felt seeds of love and hope bloom in their breasts.

The procession wound through the streets and through the western gates to the last unlit pyre. Ellysetta's quintet bore Lauriana forward and laid her body gently on the oiled wood, then stepped back as Father Celinor began the Celierian service for the dead. When he was done, Sol stepped forward with a lighted brand to ignite his wife's pyre.

Lillis and Lorelle clutched Ellysetta's hands, not at all frightened by her changed appearance but seemingly comforted by it instead.

"Does it hurt her, Ellie?" Lillis asked in a small voice as the flames engulfed her mother's body.

Fresh tears spilled from Ellysetta's eyes. She knelt quickly and caught her sister up in a fierce hug. "Oh, kitling, no. Not at all. She's with the Bright Lord now.”

"In the Haven of Light?" Lorelle asked.

"Yes, Lorelle, in the Haven of Light, singing glorias with the Lightmaidens." She caught Lorelle in her arms as well, holding both girls tight and sending up a heartfelt prayer for the gods to grant them both peace and help them past the loss of their mother. The twins sighed and snuggled closer, their small arms twining tightly about her neck.

Lauriana's pyre burned quickly through sunset and the ensuing twilight, extinguishing itself just as night fell over the city. When the last flame subsided, Fey Fire-masters dispersed the remaining heat and gathered the ashes. Ellysetta and her sisters returned to the palace while Rain took Sol aloft to throw the ashes to the winds so they might settle in the soil of the land Lauriana Baristani had loved.

Afterward, in King Dorian's private chapel, with the Fey, Ellysetta's family, Lords Barrial and Teleos, and the king and queen in attendance, Rain Tairen Soul wed Ellysetta Baristani in a quiet ceremony officiated by Father Celinor. The grand pomp of the royal wedding Lauriana had envisioned gave way to simple elegance, consisting of a few exquisite flowers and a priest, which was all Ellysetta had ever really wanted to begin with.

She wore the gown Maestra Binchi had created and the wreath of the Gentle Dawn roses her mother had selected, but there the Celierian bride ended and the Fey
shei'dalin
began. Around her neck and waist, dripping in loops of golden links, gleamed the
sorreisu kiyr
of all the Fey who'd died on her behalf. Bel and Gaelen's bloodsworn daggers hung in jeweled sheaths at her hips, and Rajahl vel'En Daris's crystal glittered at her wrist.

Marissya stood as Ellysetta's Beacon, and with impeccable, unflinching grace, Master Fellows served as her Honoria-because no matter how scandalous it might be to have a man stand as Honoria, he said it simply wouldn't do for a queen to wed without one. When Father Celinor invoked the final blessing and pronounced them man and wife, a sense of peace and rightness settled over Ellysetta, almost as if Mama were standing there beside her, watching with love and approval while Ellysetta joined her life with the man the gods had chosen for her.

Following a brief bridal supper, Rain escorted Ellysetta to their suite for a few bells of privacy while the Fey prepared for departure. Once there, however, Rain found himself at a loss.

He was freed at last from the restrictive Celierian customs and oaths of honor that had bound him since the day of their betrothal, and need for his mate beat at him.

The call of her soul was so strong, the echoing desire in his body just as powerful, and the tairen clamored for its mate, but she had just lost her mother. He could feel her grief, her sorrow, battering at her, and through her, him. To pounce on her now, demanding mating, seemed the vilest sort of selfishness. She needed time to grieve.

Determined to do the honorable thing, he escorted her to his bedchamber, spun a swift Earth weave that changed her wedding gown into a fine linen nightrail, and kissed her once, gently, on the lips before turning to leave.

"Rain?" she called when he reached the door. "You're leaving me?”

"Nei,
of course not," he vowed. "I'll be right next door. You get some rest. We leave in the small bells, before the city wakes, and our journey will be long.”

Ellysetta frowned at him, perplexed by the way he was clinging to the bedchamber door. He looked ready to bolt. "But this is our wedding night.”

His gaze dropped. The knuckles on the door frame clenched harder.
"Aiyah,
and I know it is not the happy day you wanted. You are grieving. My needs can wait.”

Relief filled her. His hesitation wasn't because of her Marks or the forbidden magic she wielded. "But my need cannot," she told him softly. "Yes, I'm grieving, but there's been too much sorrow, too many tears. I would end this day in hope-with joy between us. Is that so strange a request?”

He peeled his fingers away from the door frame. He crossed the room and approached the bed.
"Nei,
not so strange. There is nothing I want more." Slowly, giving her ample time to change her mind, he took her in his arms. Her long hair spilled over the crook of his arm, silken soft and so fragrant every breath was a scented bliss. He bent as if to kiss her, then paused again just before his mouth met hers. “Be sure,
shei’tani,
that this is what you want. If you have the slightest doubt, say so now, and I will go.”

"I don't want you to go." She reached up to touch his face and pull him down to her. "I want this, Rain. I want you.”

He took her mouth in a long, slow kiss, his lips parting hers gently to share the moist heat of a breath as the kiss deepened.
«You are so beautiful, shei’tani.»
His voice whispered in her mind, husky, low, intimate.«You
always were, but now, with your brightness unveiled, even more so.»

«You make me feel beautiful.»
He always had. Even when she'd still been plain, mortal Ellysetta Baristani, he'd made her feel like the loveliest woman in the world.

He kissed her slowly, leisurely, taking his time. Nibbling her lower lip, teasing the upper one, feathering kisses across her face until she shifted and nipped at his mouth in impatience. His brows rose. "Impatient,
shei’tani?
What would you prefer? This?”

His hand trailed down the front of her nightgown. The fabric parted without a whisper of protest, falling away in silken swaths to bare the soft fullness of her breasts. The delicate torment of the sliding fabric and the subsequent small breath of air drew her nipples tight, twin buds of soft pink. His thumb brushed across them, sending a tiny quake of sensation shooting through her that echoed across his own senses.

"Or perhaps this?" Slowly he bent his head and took her in his mouth.

"Rain ... yesssss. That." Her breath hissed out on a heated sigh, and she clasped him to her breast. Her head tilted back and her eyes closed as his tongue teased the sensitive peak.

She tasted of sunlight and springtime, of blossoming flowers and crystal waters. Each stroke of his tongue on her flesh was a tiny sensory illustration of what life would be like in the Haven of Light. Beauty, pleasure, peace, completion. Belonging. Everything he'd always wanted, and the promise of much more than he'd ever imagined.

His body answered with an ardent surge, hungry for more than teasing glimpses of fulfillment, ravenous for the gift every Fey warrior dreamed of.

He pulled back just enough to drink in the sight of her, pale and shining in his arms, the silvery glow tinted with deep, warm tones as her own passion rose in response. Her bright Fey eyes glowed a verdant green so rich and deep he could lose himself in them.

Ducking his head again, he scattered soft kisses across her skin. "When I was a boy, before I found my wings, I tried to dream of what my
shei’tani
would be like. I could never picture her, because in my heart I knew I was destined to fly, and I knew the sacrifice that would require. But there's not a Fey warrior born who does not dream of finding his truemate, so at night, after my parents went to bed, I would sneak out of the
shellaba
and lie beneath the stars and ask the gods if they could somehow find a way to give a tairen a truemate”

"You never told me that before.”

Color rose in his cheeks, making him look far younger than his years, and more vulnerable. "It was such a foolish, selfish dream," he said. "Being a tairen is a rare and great gift of its own, and as I grew older, remembering how I begged for more made me ashamed.”

Her hands reached up to frame his face. The sweet kiss of her fingertips and the warm glow of her eyes bathed him in acceptance, soothing the sting of ancient childhood embarrassment. "Wanting love is not selfish, Rain. We're all born missing the connections that make us complete." Her thumb smoothed across his lips, and she smiled when he answered the caress with nibbles and kisses. "I dreamed of finding a place where I truly belonged, even though I had a family who loved me. And even though I knew I was neither as good nor as beautiful as the princesses I read about in Fey tales, I still dreamed of finding my one true love.”

He caught her thumb between his teeth, the flare of jealousy small but instinctive. Tairen did not share. Just as quickly, he realized what he'd done. He unlocked his jaw to release her and feathered a quick kiss of apology. "Did your true love have a face?”