Lord of the Fading Lands (9 page)

Water pure, the path to cleanse

Azrahn these souls enthrall.

—Magecraft Seeking Spell

The coast was clear at last.

Night had fallen. Ellie's parents and the twins had turned in for the night, and the Fey who'd been swarming around the Baristani house seemed to have finally left. Ellie could no longer even sense the tingling awareness of their presence.

She secured a brown shawl over her distinctive hair and slipped out her bedroom window, careful not to let the leather boots hanging about her neck bang against the glass or windowsill. While the Fey warriors outside the house might be gone, the five who'd followed her into the house and declared themselves her "quintet" were still very much in attendance. They'd stayed despite Mama's outrage, despite even Papa's coming home and ordering them to leave his house.

Faced with the direct order from Papa, the Fey called Bel- hard had merely bowed and politely refused, just as he had with Mania. He'd offered to make himself and the other four Fey invisible, so as to minimize the family's discomfort with their presence, but the idea of invisible magical beings roaming through her house had nearly sent Mama into palpitations.

"Thank you, but no," Papa had answered. "We would rather see you so that we may know where you are." And then, to Ellie's surprise, he'd demanded that the Fey swear an oath of honor not to use magic to hide their presence in his home, and not to read nor influence the minds of any of his family members.

The demand had obviously surprised Belliard vel Jelani, but he'd sworn the oath, first in lyrical Feyan, then in the formal eloquence of ancient Celierian court-tongue. Ellie knew enough about Fey honor to know that no Fey would go back on his sworn word.

Papa had also tried to get Belliard to swear not to call magic for any reason inside the house, but the Fey refused to do that.
"Nei,
honored one, we may need to use magic to protect the Feyreisa and her family. I will make no vow that puts her at risk." And that had been the end of it.

Ellie's bare feet made no noise on the wooden shingles as she crept across the back-porch roof and climbed down the ivy trellis to the small, bricked courtyard at the back of the house. She kept to the shadows, avoiding the brightening moonlight in the hope that no one would notice her furtive departure.

Just before supper, one of the neighbor children had smuggled a note to Ellie through Lillis and Lorelle. From Selianne, Ellie's best friend, the note had been scrawled in a shaking hand and read:
Meet me. You know where. Twenty-two bells. URGENT!!!!

Selianne's fear all but leapt off the parchment as Ellie held the note. Her terror was understandable. A few years back, as Selianne had prepared for the birth of her first child, her mother, Tuelis, had confessed that she wasn't Sorrelian as everyone assumed, but that she'd actually been born and raised in Eld and sold in marriage to her sea-captain husband at age fourteen. Selianne had kept her mother's secret. She'd only told Ellie in a moment of fear, when she'd been plagued by nightmares of Eld Mages stalking her son Bannon to steal his soul.

Now, with Rain Tairen Soul in the city and suddenly becoming a fixture in Ellie's life, Selianne was probably terrified that he would find out the truth about Selianne and her mother and come to kill them. Despite the risk of discovery, there was no way Ellie could ignore Selianne's summons.

On the ground, she ducked into the deeper shadows of a small alcove near the courtyard gate and bent to don her boots. When she rose, she let out a strangled cry.

Belliard vel Jelani stood before her, his Fey skin shining faintly, his dark eyes watchful. "You wish to go somewhere, Ellysetta Baristani?”

"I …" Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. Behind Belliard stood the other four Fey of her quintet, each wearing a similar blank but watchful expression. "I wanted to go for a walk to get some fresh air.”

Belliard glanced at the ivy trellis behind her and followed the path she'd taken out her bedroom window, then returned his flat gaze to hers. "You are the Feyreisa," he said. "You need only to ask, and we will accompany you to your chosen destination.”

She paused a moment to regain her composure, then lifted her chin. "I'm going to meet a friend, and your presence will only alarm her.”

"We will accompany you, all the same. You are Rain Tairen Soul's truemate, and all the city knows it. There are those who might think to harm the Fey through you.”

For a moment, Ellie considered heading straight back to her room, but she couldn't just leave Selianne waiting at the museum. Remembering the way her father had bargained with the Fey warriors earlier, Ellie gathered her courage and said, "If you insist on coming, Ser vel Jelani, you must swear an oath of honor that you'll give my friend and me privacy. No eavesdropping or mind reading.”

Belliard's expression never wavered.
"Aiyah,
Ellysetta Baristani. I do so vow" When her gaze flickered to the four Fey behind him, he added, "I speak for all of your
cha'kor,
your quintet. We are here not to spy, but to protect.”

She took a deep breath. "Well, let's go, then. I don't want my friend to worry.”

Surrounded by her escort of five leather-and-steel-clad immortals, Ellie hurried down the alleyway, then turned east on the lane that ran through the West End's quiet merchant district. Fire-lit lamps cast a golden glow over the cobblestones and storefronts.

"Do you climb out of your bedroom window often,
kem'falla?"
Belliard asked as they walked.

Ellie felt her cheeks heat up. "No." Her parents were sound enough sleepers that she usually went out the kitchen door. "But this is not the first time you have done so.”

"Not the first time, no.”

"I had not thought Celieria's daughters were so … adventurous”

"Most aren't." If her parents had known she slipped out of the house at night, they would have put an immediate stop to it. But the nightmares that plagued her all her life made sleep difficult, and alone in the silence of the small bells, Ellysetta had often found peace by walking in the night air. At first she'd kept to the private courtyard behind the house, but as she grew older the courtyard began to feel too confining and she started to roam farther. Most nights, she ended up at the same place she was going now—Celieria's National Museum of Art.

"You are either very brave or very foolish, Ellysetta Baristani. Night streets are no place for young women alone.”

Ellie shrugged. In all the years she'd walked alone at night, she'd never had a problem. Indeed, no one had ever even seemed to notice her presence before. "Celieria is well patrolled, the streets are well lit, and this is an honest part of the city.”

"Evil has an affinity for the night. Even in well-lit, well- patrolled, honest quarters.”

"I'll keep that in mind." She glanced at the other four Fey, then back to Belliard. "Since you seem determined to guard me, perhaps you should tell me your names”

The five Fey bowed and introduced themselves one by one. The smiling, brown-haired Fey was Kieran vel Solande, son of the
shei'dalin
Marissya and her truemate Dax. The blond warrior whose face Lorelle had scratched was Kiel vel Tomar. The other two, both black-haired and brown-eyed, were brothers, Rowan and Adrial vel Arquinas.

"There are another five Fey in your secondary quintet who will guard you for the few bells in the night when we must sleep," Belliard added.

"Mama will just love that," Ellie muttered.

"Your mother does not like magic or magical races?”

"She's from the north. The magic from the Mage Wars left behind many evil things. Dangerous, mutated creatures; dark places no one dares enter." Even children with frightening afflictions. "Magic and Celierians don't mix well.”

"And yet, here in Celieria City, the people accept magic and its benefits without question." Belliard pointed to the Fire-lit lamps.

"Well, the Mages never sacked Celieria City, did they? The worst of the Wars never reached south of Vrest. People here would feel different if mutated predators like lyrant roamed their woods, or if their children were born with ghastly deformities and deadly powers.”

"Do you share your mother's fear of magic?”

Ellie hesitated before answering. "Magic … makes me uncomfortable." For the past year or so, if anyone wielded strong magic around her, she would get terrible headaches and her sleep would be tormented by particularly horrible nightmares. She didn't even want to think what her dreams held in store for her tonight.

They reached Celieria's main thoroughfare and turned north. Though most of the hardworking families of the West End were asleep, that was not true of all of Celieria's population. Carriages rolled down the cobbled street, carrying nobles in colorful silks and satins to their night's entertainment. Men and women, some well dressed, some more commonly so, strolled down the wide bricked sidewalks on either side of the road. Boisterous laughter and music poured through the doors of numerous pubs. Normally, Ellie didn't come out until much later at night, when fewer people roamed the city. She was very aware of her Fey escort's distinctive garb. "You're going to draw attention.”

Belliard vel Jelani shared a glance with his fellow Fey, then gestured. Lavender light glowed around them, and when it faded, all five warriors were dressed in simple Celierian clothing and their Fey skin had lost its luminescence. They were still too handsome to be pure mortal, but their disguises would allow them to walk without drawing too much attention to themselves.

Ellie rubbed at the goose bumps that rose on her skin in response to Belliard's magic. "Nice trick.”

They turned the corner and slipped into the streams of people walking the sidewalks. A number of women gave the Fey long, hungry looks, but no one stopped them or acted as though their presence were anything out of the ordinary. Ellie led the way up the remaining half mile to the arched bridge that spanned the Velpin River.

Celieria's National Museum of Art lay on the other side of the river. The domed building was the crowning feature of a sprawling, manicured park that bordered the Velpin's magic- purified waters. Circled by Fire-lamps, the building gleamed like a jewel in the night.

Ellie hurried up the wide brick walkway to the museum's entrance and pushed open the leaded-glass doors. Though the museum staff departed promptly at seventeen bells each day, the museum doors were never locked. Something far more powerful than bolted doors protected the building's many priceless treasures. Any thief could wander in and look to his heart's content, but let him touch a single precious piece of art and he'd be paralyzed until the curator arrived in the morning.

"Don't touch any of the exhibits," Ellie warned. Her voice echoed in the marbled vestibule. She led them through the domed rotunda, where marble columns ringed a twenty-foot statue of King Dorian I holding his sword upraised in one hand, his Fey wife beside him with healing hands splayed over the upturned face of a child. At the base of the statue, deeply carved letters painted with pure gold proclaimed the majestic promise of Celieria's creed:
Might and mercy shall vanquish all foes.

She headed down the second arching corridor on the left. Sculpted tairen heads with glowing ruby eyes flanked the entrance to the Fey wing.

Ellie's friend Selianne Pyerson was sitting on a cushioned bench beside the alcove that housed an eight-foot bronze of a tairen rampant perched on a boulder of white marble veined with gold. Selianne's normally tidy blond hair was disheveled, as if she'd been running her hands through it, and her pretty face was drawn tight in lines of worry and agitation. She jumped to her feet when she caught sight of Ellie, then froze when she realized her friend was not alone.

"Who are they?" Selianne gestured to the five men standing behind Ellie.

"They are … um … my guards." Faint lavender light shimmered, and the Fey assumed their true appearance.

Selianne stumbled back a step. "It's true, then. The Tairen Soul really did claim you as his mate.”

"Apparently so." Ellie introduced the five warriors to her friend. "Selianne and I have been friends since my family first came to Celieria City." They'd been childhood outcasts together, Selianne for being the foreign-born daughter of a Sorrelian sea captain and his wife, and Ellie for her odd appearance and strange ways.

Selianne dragged Ellie back a few steps and hissed into her ear, "I can't believe you brought Fey with you. What if they … you know … read my mind or something?”

"They won't," Ellie assured her. "I made them give an honor oath not to eavesdrop or mind read before I let them come with me." She glanced at Belliard behind her. "Would you mind giving us that privacy now?”

He bowed. "I will build a privacy shield around you both. You may walk and speak freely to one another without worry that others will hear." He raised his hands, and threads of faintly glowing white and lavender magic spun out from his fingertips. Ellie felt a soft, cool wind swirl around her. It smelled of springtime, full of sweet rain and crisp morning air. As it closed about her, she felt a strangely light and tranquil silence enter her mind, as if a pressure she'd never realized existed had been lifted.

Selianne stared at Ellie. "You can feel their magic, can't you?”

Ellie raised her brows. "Can't you?”