Lady of Light and Shadows (7 page)

She swallowed, holding his gaze even though he could see that her hands shook and her pulse beat rapidly beneath the delicate skin of her throat. "What is it, Rain?”

"Do you remember when I told you that the Eye of Truth sent me to find you?”

"Because I am your truemate.”

Rain nodded.
"Aiyah,
I'm certain that was part of it, but in truth our matebond was an unexpected boon. I had consulted the Eye on another matter, and asked it to show me the solution to my problem. It showed me Celieria... and you.”

Ellie took a half step backwards before stopping herself. "What problem did the Eye say I would solve, Rain?" There it was again, that quiet courage. She wanted to flee. He could feel the urge fluttering within her like a trapped bird. Yet she stood where she was.

There was no easy way to tell her, no segue to lessen the blow. So he gave her the truth bluntly. "That dream you told me about this morning-the one where you were standing in Fey'Bahren watching kitlings dying in the egg and you heard me vow to Sybharukai that I would find a way to save them-that was no dream. The tairen
are
dying, Ellysetta, and if we cannot find a way to stop it, the Fey will die with them. I asked the Eye for the key to saving the tairen and the Fey, and it sent me to you."

Selianne pushed open her home's small side gate and walked through the tidy garden, untying the strings of her straw bonnet as she approached the lace-curtained kitchen door. Her troubled thoughts returned as they had all afternoon to Ellysetta and her pending marriage to Rain Tairen Soul. Though Selianne could see Ellie was all but glowing with happiness, she simply couldn't bring herself to share that joy.

Ellie was too dear a friend, and Selianne had read too much about the dangers of magic and the dread power of the infamous Rain Tairen Soul for her to consider this marriage a happy occasion. Far better if Ellie
had
wed that brute Den Brodson-or even the lecherous old gilding Master Norble Weazman. At least the harm
they
could do would only be physical. The Fey could control people's minds-and gods only knew what else-with their terrible magic.

Selianne opened the side door and let herself into her small, sunny kitchen. "Mother?" she called as she hung her bonnet on a peg by the door. "Bannon, Cerlissa, Mama's home." The kitchen was empty, and she couldn't hear the children. "Mother?”

She walked down a short hallway to the main room and froze in sudden fear. A man stood over the sleeping bodies of her children as they lay on a blanket laid out before the hearth. Her mother stood motionless beside the hallway entrance, wearing a vacant look.

The man turned, his vivid blue-green eyes finding Selianne without hesitation, and a wave of ice washed over her. Though she could place neither his name nor his face, the sight of him seemed dreadfully familiar-like a vision from one of the dark nightmares that had plagued her these past few days since the Fey had come to Celieria.

A smile spread across his handsome face. "Ah, Selianne, there you are. We were beginning to worry.”

Her hand clutched at her chest where a cold ache began to throb. She took a frantic half step towards her children, then gave a choked cry and stopped again at the sight of the wavy black blade in the man's hand, its sharp point gleaming a deadly threat.

"Who are you?" Her voice shook with fear. "What do you want?”

"What do I want?" The man's eyes darkened to a terrifying shade of black, endless, bottomless, soulless black that began to sparkle with malevolent red lights. "Why, you, my pet.”

Before Selianne could react, her mother stepped in front of her, lifted an open palm, and blew a cloud of sparkling white dust in Selianne's face. She gasped in shock, then choked as the powder filled her lungs.

A strange, sapping lethargy crept over her. Her vision blurred, and she swayed. Her hands reached out, and she heard her own voice, sounding curiously distant, mumbling in confusion, "Mama?"

Kolis Manza watched the girl succumb to the
somulus
powder, and despite last night's endless orgy, he felt the familiar stirring of desire. She was undeniably lovely, with her blond hair and deep blue eyes. Even amongst the beauties of the High Mage's palace, she would hold her own.

"Come here, Selianne." Patient, smiling, he waved her towards him. Unlike her Eld-born mother, she'd not been soul-bound in childhood, so Kolis used drugs and careful weaves of Spirit and Azrahn to place Selianne in a dream state and plant directives that would guide her thoughts and actions without her knowledge. Like the directive that amplified her fear and distrust of the Fey, and the directive that would soon command her to deliver Kolis's wedding present to her friend, and the one that brought her to him now. In her current trancelike state, she knew and obeyed her master, even though he'd carefully removed all memory of his visits from her conscious mind.

Beautiful eyes unfocused, she approached. stopping only when he indicated she should and obediently holding out her left arm. On all three of their previous meetings, he had blooded her from that arm-and after the first blooding he'd taken the pleasure of drinking directly from her flesh after opening the vein with his dagger.

"No, my dear." Gently he clasped her hand and raised it to his lips, pressing a kiss on her fingers. "I'm in the mood for a change." He guided her hand to the ties of her bodice, accompanying the gesture with a weave of Spirit that roused memories of her husband from her mind.

Selianne's lips curved in a sensual smile as she loosened the ties that held the fabric of her gown. Soft, pale flesh found freedom. Kolis raised his dagger to one plump breast and sliced the tender skin beside her nipple as he murmured the ritual words. When the jewel in the pommel glowed a rich, satisfied red, he replaced the blade with his lips, suckling her, laughing as the sweet, warm taste of mother's milk joined the salty, sweet flavor of her blood.

"The tairen are dying and the Fey, with all your vast powers, can't find a way to save them-but you think
I
can?" Stunned, Ellie slumped back against the thick, knobby trunk of the fireoak behind her. Her fingers dug deep into the hard furrows of the bark. She stared at Rain in utter shock. Whatever she'd been expecting him to say, it hadn't been that. "How can you possibly believe such a thing?”

"It isn't as farfetched as it seems," he replied. "What's killing the tairen attacks only kitlings in the egg. None but tairen can enter the nesting lair, so I am the only Fey to set foot in Fey'Bahren since the Mage Wars. You, however, are my true-mate, and the tairen will welcome you as kin. You can get close to the eggs, as none of our
shei'dalins
have been permitted to do.”

"And what good will that do? I'm no
shei'dalin.”

"Ellysetta, you healed Bel's soul with a touch. You mitigated my own torment with a simple embrace. Marissya is our most powerful living
shei'dalin,
yet in a thousand years she's never achieved so much. And you did it without even trying-and with no training of any kind. There's no doubt in my mind that if anyone has the power to save the tairen, you do.”

She stared at him, aghast. "I can't even get through a state dinner without mucking it up. Instead of saving the tairen, it's more likely I'd doom them to a speedier extinction!”

"You just need to learn control,
shei’tani.
I can help teach you that”

Bright Lord, save her. "I really don't think that sounds like a good idea. Isn't there some other way? Maybe you could go back to this Eye of Truth and tell it you want another answer.”

Rain gave a wry laugh.
"Nei.
Even if the world itself hung in the balance, I doubt I could summon the courage to ask the Eye for another seeing. It wasn't pleased with me the last time, and the Eye has a very ... effective way of making its displeasure known.”

A vision of Rain screaming in torment flashed through Ellysetta's mind. A muted memory of pain stung her senses. Her hands curled instinctively into fists and her spine went stiff. "This Eye ... it
hurt
you when you asked it for help?" Her voice was low, almost a growl.

The humor dancing at the edges of Rain's mouth deepened to satisfaction, and his eyes began to glow. He closed the distance between them. "I did not ask. I demanded. Quite rudely. The Eye punished me for my arrogance, as was its right." He brought her fists to his lips and kissed the clenched fingers. "Look at you, ready to fight the Eye of Truth, one of the Fading Lands' greatest powers, for the harm you think it did me. And you still believe you are a coward?" He smiled and shook his head. "It may take more to rouse the tairen in you,
shei’tani,
but never doubt it lives in your soul, and it is fierce indeed.”

Pride and approval radiated from him, wrapping her in warmth and soothing away her fierce reaction to the Eye's rough treatment of him. But even his approval could not soothe the choking tightness in her chest. The fates of both the tairen and the Fey rested on her shoulders, and he expected her to somehow miraculously save them.

"You do not stand alone in this, Ellysetta," Rain said, clearly sensing the emotions swirling about her like a fearful cloud. "This task belongs to both of us. All I ask is that you help me find a way to save my people.”

She looked up into his beloved face, so beautiful, so sincere. All her life she'd dreamed of him, all her life she'd wept for the sorrows he'd endured and prayed that the gods would give his soul peace. And now here he was, standing before her, asking for her help.

How could she possibly deny him?

She drew a deep breath, wrapped what little courage she possessed tight around her like a warming shawl, and nodded. "I'll do everything I can, Rain, though I'm not at all sure what help that will be.”

"Approaching the line is the first victory of battle,
shei’tani.
Learn to celebrate your small braveries. They light the way to greater courage.” He raised her hands to his lips. "It is my honor to be your
chatok,
your mentor, in this first dance.”

Despite her knocking knees, she firmed her jaw and lifted her chin. "So where do we start,
chatok?”

His low laugh rippled across her senses. "As with all adventures, we start with the first step. Something small, something simple. Before you can truly control magic, you must first learn its patterns. We'll start with the commonest patterns of all: the inherent magic that exists in all living things.”

Her brows rose. "You believe all living things possess magic?”

He smiled. "Of course, Ellysetta. Life is the magic. It is Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Spirit, and Azrahn combined. Energy, substance, consciousness, and soul.”

"This tree"-she pointed to the broad trunk of the fireoak behind her-"is conscious?”

"Not as you and I would know it, but
aiyah,
it is. Do not all trees know to send their roots towards the best source of water? Do they not all bend their branches to find sunlight?”

"That's just the natural way of things. Branches grow where there is more sunlight because they cannot survive without it, not because they want to.”

"Have you never touched a thing and felt its magic?"

"No.”

"I have. When I was a boy, just before my Soul Quest, when my own magic was awakening within me, I spent bell after bell walking the streets of Dharsa and the plains of Corunn, touching all manner of things to see if I could detect the magic within them, to see if I could make them respond to my presence.”

She tried to imagine Rain Tairen Soul as a boy, but couldn't. "Did they respond?”

"Aiyah."
He smiled, a tiny echo of a long-ago boy's satisfaction. "Even then, before I had tapped the wellspring of the Tairen Soul power within me, they knew and welcomed me.

The trees would rustle their leaves. The grass would bend towards me.”

"It could have been the wind.”

He gave her a disgusted look. "How can you be such a devotee of Feytales yet still be such a nonbeliever? It was not the wind, I assure you. Here. I will demonstrate." He moved around her in one graceful motion and laid a hand on the rough trunk of the fireoak. His eyes didn't glow the slightest bit to indicate he was working magic, but as Ellie watched, the thick canopy of branches bent slowly downward, towards him. All the other trees continued to rustle in the wind. "You see?”

"You aren't using magic to make the branches do that?" She had to ask, just to be sure, even though she could detect nothing.

"Nei. I
am just touching the tree and asking it to acknowledge me, to share its magic with me." He took his hand from the trunk, and the branches sprang back into place. "Come. You try it. Put your hand on the tree like this." He guided her hand to the tree and gently pressed her palm against the bark. "What do you feel?”

"Bark.”

He sighed. "Besides that." He eyed her sternly. "You think you are funny.”

She gave him a small grin. "That was funny. Admit it.”

"I admit nothing. Be serious. Just for a moment,
pacheeta,
then you can poke fun at me some more.”

She smoothed the humor off her face and cleared her throat. "All right." She stretched out her fingers and pressed her hand more firmly against the trunk of the
tree. "I'm being
serious, but I don't feel anything but a tree.”

"Close your eyes. Concentrate. Think about where your hand meets the tree, about what you feel beneath your fingertips, beyond the bark. There's energy, magic. It's like a pulsating glow, a soft light. It's warm and alive. Can't you feel it?”