CHAPTER TEN
Eld ~ North of the Heras
Rain’s Fey’cha flew true, burying hilt-deep in the Elden soldier’s throat. Tairen venom did its job. The young man’s eyes rolled back instantly, and he dropped to the ground.
A shout rang out from the squad farther up the road.
“Come on!” Rain grabbed Ellysetta’s hand, launched out of their hiding place, and headed due south. The time for backtracking to a safer crossing was over. They needed to get to the river—and fast.
He sent a blast of Fire up the road and whispered his return word to retrieve his red Fey’cha from the fallen soldier’s throat. As they sprinted across the dirt road, Earth rumbled to Ellysetta’s command, shifting beneath the feet of the squad of soldiers. A chorus of screams rose as trees toppled down on top of them, and another gout of flame lit a deadly bonfire.
One of the white stones on the trees began to glow as Rain and Ellysetta ran past, and a glowing rune appeared in its center, as if written in fire.
“What is that?” Ellysetta pointed at the glowing stone.
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good. Run faster, shei’tani.”
She put on a burst of speed, then faltered as a wave of ice washed up her spine, and her knees went weak. “Rain… My legs…” Her legs abruptly folded, and she went sprawling into the bracken. Rain circled back and snatched her up off the ground, but her trembling legs would not hold her weight. She collapsed against him, clinging to him to hold herself upright. “I’m sorry.”
“Las. There is nothing for which you should be sorry.” He scooped her up against his chest and continued to run. Behind them, the screams of the burning soldiers died out, leaving only the crackling of Rain’s Fire.
Ellysetta’s trembling increased until her entire body shivered uncontrollably with the familiar sensation of ice spiders crawling up her spine. Her temples ached, and there was a strange pressure at the backs of her eyes, not unlike the burn of unshed tears. She stared over Rain’s shoulder as he ran, and watched in horror as a black spot began to widen in the place where the glowing chemar stone had been.
“Rain! It’s the Well! The Well of Souls is opening!” Her fingers clawed into his shoulders as a sudden, powerful blast of cold, gagging sweetness swept over her. Robed Mages rushed out of the Well, globes of deadly blue-white fire whirling in their hands.
“Run!” she cried. She flung a series of five-fold weaves behind her, but the sel’dor weakened her threads, and the Mages easily batted them aside.
Rain clutched her to his chest and raced across the rolling hills of Eld. The exertion opened his barely healed wounds, and drops of bright scarlet marked a trail that would be all too easy to follow. Of course, with Mages at their back, leaving a visible trail was the least of their worries.
Ellysetta didn’t think the situation could get worse, then two—no, make that three—new portals opened. She saw one of the white stones with the fiery rune glow bright, just before a fifth portal opened where the stone had been. “It’s the stones! They’re using those stones to open the portals.”
The Eld were gaining on them. Carrying her as an extra burden slowed Rain down too much. She squirmed in his arms. The tingling, ice-spider feeling was still strong, but the initial rush of weakness had faded. “Put me down. We have no chance of outrunning them if you keep carrying me.”
He set her on her feet without breaking stride, and she landed running.
«If we can make it to the river, we might have a chance at escape.» The Heras was fed by the powerful faerilas Source at Crystal Lake, and its waters worked like acid on Mage flesh. Even with their magic tightly leashed, Mages avoided wetting so much as their smallest toe in the fierce waters of the Heras. «The river won’t stop the Mages completely, but at least it might slow them down.»
They raced through the trees, leaping over small rocks and fallen tree trunks. As he approached a final, small ridge, Ellysetta could smell the brisk, clean waters of the Heras and hear the rushing burble of its swift current.
Almost there. Five more tairen lengths, and they would be over that last ridge and speeding down its slope to the protection of the river and away from those gods-scorched chemar stones that were spitting out Mages by the dozens.
An arrow slammed into Rain’s back, knocking him offbalance and sending him sprawling.
“Rain!” Ellysetta scrambled down the hill towards him.
“Leave me! Run! Get to the river! I’ll be right behind you.”
“I’ve already told you, I’m not going anywhere without you.” Her eyes went wide, and she lunged for him. “Look out!”
Rain threw himself to one side. The arrow in his back snapped in two as he rolled onto his back, and two more barbed arrows thunked into the ground at the exact spot he’d just vacated. A third arrow sank into a tree trunk near Ellysetta’s head.
Rain’s eyes flamed at the sight of the poisonous black missile quivering in the tree so close to his shei’tani. Despite the howling protest of the sel’dor embedded in him, he sent Fire spinning from his outflung hand. It scorched several trees and ignited the three Elden bowmen who’d shot the arrows.
Ellysetta grabbed him and yanked him to his feet. Together, they raced up the final ridge, scrabbling over slick piles of fallen leaves and tumbled rocks. A storm of arrows erupted from the trees at their backs. Ellysetta flung a blast of Air to knock them off course.
At the bottom of the hill, a pair of yellow-robed apprentice Mages stood surrounded by archers and swordsmen. Magic crackled around them in a visible nimbus, and in their hands they coaxed deadly globes of blue-white flame to life.
One of the two Mages sent his ball of Mage Fire roaring towards them. Rain attempted a five-fold weave, but sel’dor howled through his flesh. His resulting weak, crippled weave only managed to deflect the Fire, not destroy it. The Fire plowed through another clump of trees, eradicating portions of them from time and space.
In a battle of magic today, even those two apprentice Mages would win.
“To the river, shei’tani. Hurry!”
Behind them, at the bottom of the hill, the second Mage released his fire. Rain looked back just in time to see it hurtling towards them. “Get down!” He flung himself at Ellysetta, knocking her to the earth and covering her body with his own as the enormous ball of blue fire roared over their prone bodies, close enough to singe Rain’s skin with the burning ice.
A hail of arrows followed on the heels of the Mage Fire, and yet another volley of Mage Fire followed the arrows. Ellysetta deflected the arrows but Rain could not even slow the Mage Fire.
“Rain.” Ellysetta gasped softly and grabbed his hand, squeezing tight.
A sudden blast of energy from the west ridge intercepted the hurtling balls of Mage Fire and destroyed them.
Their unlikely savior was a blue-robed Primage heading up a second troop of soldiers and archers. “Kill the Tairen Soul, if you must, idiots,” the Primage shouted in Eld to the two apprentice Mages, “but harm the girl, and the High Mage will roast and eat your livers out of your still-living bodies.”
Rain glanced behind them, to the Mages approaching from the west, north, and east, then looked down at the troops standing between them and the river. “That’s our only chance,” he said. “I don’t see any Mages there.”
Ellysetta raised her brows. “So what are we standing here for?”
He laughed, loving her. Then his expression went serious as he handed her two red Fey’cha.
She took the poison blades and searched his face.
“In case, I cannot save us,” he admitted in a low voice.
Her gaze fell, and she nodded in solemn understanding. Their situation was grim. Rain would die before letting the Mages take her, and if he did, the Fey’cha would at least give her a way to avoid capture. She sheathed the poison blades carefully in the knife belt across her chest.
He touched her cheek. “Lend me your strength, shei’tani?”
“You need not ask.”
“And give me one last kiss?”
She smiled and moved into his arms. “You need not ask for that either.”
Her lips, so warm and soft, parted beneath his. She tasted of life and sweetness and all the dreams he’d ever dreamed as a boy. She tasted of hope and of a future he’d never allowed himself to want since he’d found his wings. Regret dimmed his pleasure. She was so young, her life so unfulfilled.
Ellysetta pulled away to look into his eyes. “No regrets, Rain. I have none.”
Peace settled over him. He nodded, his throat too tight for words, and kissed her once more. «Ver reisa ku’chae. Kem sera, shei’tani.»
Her hands closed around his. The brightness that was Ellysetta flowed up his arms and filled him with peace and warm, rejuvenating strength. He gave her back the essence that was himself and watched her eyes flutter closed. She smiled, a secret, womanly smile. “Ke vo san, shei’tan. I always have. I always will.”
Together they turned to face the advancing line of soldiers.
“There.” Rain directed her attention to the spot where the line of soldiers was thinnest. He gathered his power. They would not have more than a few moments to make their escape. He would have to strike hard and fast, with only one or two concentrated weaves to open up a corridor between the advancing Eld.
She squared her shoulders. “Let’s go.”
They ran down the hill, magic blazing. Earth shuddered violently. The ground split open to the left and right, and dozens of soldiers toppled into the fissures. Fire and Air roared down the hillside, plowing through the remaining line of men and clearing a direct path to the Heras River.
Sel’dor screamed in Rain’s flesh, amplified by the echo of Ellysetta’s matching pain, but he roared his defiance of it and held his weaves until his very bones rebelled. They raced through the burning carnage as the remaining soldiers converged on them, swords drawn.
A badly burned soldier leapt from the smoking ruins of his fallen comrades to make a grab for Ellysetta. She slashed out with Rain’s red Fey’cha. Blood spurted from the Eld’s torn throat, splashing her face. She swiped her forearm across her face and kept running. Beside her, Rain swung his seyani sword in his left hand and fired off red Fey’cha with his right.
Behind them, the Mages had reached the crest of the ridge. A line of archers fired a volley of arrows. As they soared overhead, Rain saw the white stones attached to each arrow shaft already brightening. Rain grabbed Ellysetta’s hand and put on a desperate burst of speed.
Too late. Portals opened like gaping black maws directly in their path. Mages and soldiers poured out, blocking their path to the river and cutting off their only hope of escape.
Cornered, breathing hard, Rain and Ellysetta turned to face the enemy.
The Fading Lands ~ Chatok
With the Baristanis healed and safely in tow, Kieran and Kiel led their small group back up and over the shattered mountain to the edge of the Faering Mists. Though Teleon and the Garreval now appeared completely clear of Eld, Kieran and Kiel took no chances. They traveled just inside the edge of the Mists, following that edge to the Garreval and emerging only to make a swift dash into the Mists-filled pass between the Rhakis and Silvermist mountains.
They stayed close to the shei’dalins, walking in the thinner mist that surrounded them, and the passage into the Fading Lands went without incident. Kieran held Lillis on his back, while Lorelle rode on Kiel, and the girls’ kittens, who had also survived their ordeal, purred happily inside their slings on Kiel’s and Kieran’s chests.
Within a few bells of entering the Garreval, they emerged onto Taloth’Liera, the great, walled field that marked the boundary of the Fading Lands. Fey in full war armor stood atop the wall and flanked the mighty steel gates that led into the Fading Lands.
The warriors guarding the gate greeted Kieran and Kiel as if they’d risen from the dead. Which, Kieran supposed, they had.
“We’re glad to see you alive and well,” the captain of the gate said. “I’m sure Marissya-falla will make the Feyreisa’s family feel right at home.” «Despite the current circumstances,» he added on the Warrior’s Path.
Kieran and Kiel shared a frown. «What circumstances?» Kieran asked.
The Forests of Eld
Eld surrounded Rain and Ellysetta on all sides, swords drawn, sel’dor-barbed arrows nocked and aimed. And with them were Mages. Scores of them. Yellow-robed Apprentices, red-robed Sulimages, and twelve of the most dangerous, the blue-robed Primages. The Mages’ eyes were alight with the unholy red-sparked black of Azrahn, and each of them held globes of lethal Mage Fire at his fingertips.
“Throw down your weapons, Tairen Soul,” one of the red-robed Sulimages ordered, “or we’ll see how your mate likes dancing with our Fire.”
Rain sneered at the threat. “Harm her, and the High Mage will roast your liver and eat it from your still-living body,” he reminded them in fluent, perfectly accented Elden.
To the right, the blue-robed Primage gave a wry laugh. “Very true,” he acknowledged pleasantly in equally fluent Feyan. “You have good ears, and a wonderful command of our language.” Suddenly, his eyes blazed black with red lights, and the line of Eld bowmen behind Ellysetta let their arrows fly.
Ellysetta cried out as half a dozen arrows plowed into her back and shoulders, dropping her to the ground and pinning her there. The red Fey’cha in her hands fell harmlessly to the dirt.
Rain let out a choked snarl of fury and reached for his own red Fey’cha, but five more bowmen shifted their stance to aim directly at Ellysetta.
“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 more sel’dor your 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 across dahl’reisen from 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 the sel’dor spikes 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 where sel’dor shrapnel 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, a dahl’reisen stripped 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 two shei’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 a ba’houda steed 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 the shei’dalins. Kieran watched it swirl and tumble through the air, with the shei’dalin running 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?”
Kieran gave her a grin. “Lillis, kem’alia, haven’t you ever heard the story about the Feraz desert boy and his magic, flying carpet?”
Her eyes widened. “Oooh. We’re going to fly?”
He laughed. “Aiyah, you are. Hop aboard. You, too, Master Baristani and Lorelle. Kabei. Now, hold on.” Kiel and he combined their powers in an Air weave strong enough to lift the carpet several handspans above the sand. Another simple weave propelled the levitating carpet through the air. Soon, the flying carpet and its riders were racing across the sands towards Dharsa, with Kieran, Kiel, and the shei’dalins sprinting swiftly alongside.
Eld ~ North of the Heras
When Rain awoke, he was collared as well as manacled. The heavy metal yoke around his neck wasn’t spiked like the manacles, but it blistered his skin, constricted his airway, and made breathing an effort. Even if he managed to break free of the Eld, there was no way he could run or fight with the collar limiting each breath to shallow, hard-won gasps.
Ellysetta lay beside him in the dirt, curled into a small, trembling ball. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow and labored. Both her wrists and ankles were bound in heavy sel’dor and a matching collar circled her neck, attached to a thick chain. Rain’s gaze followed the length of hated black metal links to the Eld soldier holding the other end of the chain.
He couldn’t have been out for very long. They were still in the forest. If much time had passed, he and Ellysetta would already be halfway to whatever foul den the High Mage called home.
Half a tairen length away, the Mages stood together, arguing over something. After a furtive but thorough look around, Rain estimated there were about five hundred Eld soldiers and bowmen gathered in the surrounding trees, weapons in hand but not aimed. Rain turned his attention back to the Mages, focusing on the blue-robed Primages. They were the greatest threat, the strongest source of enemy power. The other Mages were powerful—no Mage advanced beyond green robes without mastering the ability to wield dangerous levels of his own innate magic—but they were only apprentices to the darkest secrets of Azrahn.
The Primage called Keldo was the obvious leader. There was both arrogance and temper in the haughty arch of his blond brow and the unmistakable snap of command in his voice. A sash bedecked with sparkling jewels attested to his many victories, and rings of power gleamed on each of his fingers, including two thumb rings set with large black selkahr the size of Soul Quest crystals. Which Fey, Rain wondered, had died—or worse—so this Mage could wear those rings?
The Mages were still arguing. Keldo scowled and said something, but he kept his voice too low to carry far. Rain strained his ears to catch the tail end of what Keldo was saying.
“… You think Primage Garok could ever have conceived—let alone carried out—the capture of the Tairen Soul and his mate? Don’t be such fools. Master Maur is the greatest Mage in the history of Eld, and thanks to his vision and leadership, we stand on the eve of the greatest victory Eld has ever known.” Keldo made a slashing gesture. “No. We deliver Master Maur’s prize to Boura Fell, as ordered. If Garok believes he is the better Mage, let him issue challenge. I, for one, will never bet against Master Maur.”
So… there was apparently dissension in the Eld ranks. Rain wished there was some way to put that knowledge to use, but once the High Mage had Ellysetta in his control, he’d be able to put his last Marks on her, and there would be nothing and no one with the power to defeat him.
He dragged himself closer to Ellysetta and reached out for her hand, but before his fingers could touch hers, the soldier holding Rain’s chain gave his collar a vicious yank. Rain fell backward, choking and grabbing at the collar.
The Eld soldier smirked. “Not so almighty without your magic, are you, Tairen Soul?”
Rain narrowed his eyes. Even with all the sel’dor in him, he could still summon enough magic to weave the Air out of a pair of lungs.
The sight of the man’s shocked, bulging eyes and sudden terror was worth the vicious beating Rain received as half a dozen soldiers leapt on him and bludgeoned him mercilessly until he released their comrade.
The choking soldier fell to his knees in the dirt, coughing and wheezing. Rain flung his hair out of his bruised and bloodied face and sneered. “Not so arrogant with no air in your lungs, are you, Eld rultshart?”
“Ah, you’ve awakened,” the Primage observed in a cool voice. “And still full of defiance, though I’m sure the High Mage will rid you of that soon enough.” His eyes went cold as he turned them on the still-wheezing Eld soldier. “Get up. You are a fool to taunt a Tairen Soul, even if he is sel’dorpierced and bound. Unlike your friends I would not have intervened while he killed you. If you bait him again, I’ll kill you myself, and I promise you, your death at my hands will be far more painful than mere suffocation.”
The choking man blanched and lurched to his feet. “Understood, Primage Keldo.” He saluted briskly and resumed his station, standing stiffly at attention.
“As for you,” the Primage continued, piercing Rain with a cold stare, “bringing you back alive will add a substantial jewel to my sash, but your mate is the true prize. Cause me trouble, and I’ll slit your throat without a second thought. Captain!” An Eld officer snapped to attention along with several of his men. “Prepare him.” As the soldiers moved forward, the Mage told Rain, “These men are going to clean your wounds and pack them with sel’dor powder. We’re all going to take a trip to the High Mage’s palace, but in your current condition you’d never survive a journey through the Well of Souls. The smell of your blood would drive the demons mad with hunger.”
Rain suffered the ungentle ministrations of the Eld as they doused him in water to wash away the blood, then rubbed his wounds with powdered sel’dor to soak up any fresh blood that might ooze from them. Keldo himself cleansed and packed Ellysetta’s wounds, then stroked a hand over her cheek when he was done.
Rain’s chains rattled. “Do not,” he hissed.
The Primage arched a brow. For a moment, Rain thought he might dare some other, graver indecency, but apparently he remembered his own warning about baiting Tairen Souls. The Primage removed his hand, and Rain crawled over to pull Ellysetta into his arms. This time, the soldier holding his leash did not try to stop him.
At his touch, Ellysetta’s trembling lessened. One arm crept up around his neck, and she turned her face into the hollow of his throat, flinching back when her skin touched his sel’dor collar, then settling against a spot on his chest instead.
His embrace seemed to draw her back from whatever nightmare had gripped her mind, and he felt her return to full consciousness. “Rain…”
“Shh. Las, shei’tani. I am here.” He feathered a kiss on her pale brow, another in her bright hair, and kept his wary gaze on the enemy that surrounded them.
“Touching,” the Primage sneered, but he made no move to separate the pair of them. Instead, he turned sharply to two of the yellow-robed apprentice Mages. “Gelvis, Harryl, open the portal.”
“Yes, Master Keldo.” The two apprentices raised their arms. The cuffs of their saffron robes fell back, and the air around their hands began to glow as they gathered their energies. Rain clutched Ellysetta close as the sickly sweet odor of Azrahn filled the air, and the temperature dropped several degrees.
He watched the patterns of the weave form, dark ropes of red-tinged black writhing like snakes, looping and intertwining, undulating, pulsing like blood through veins. The chill of Azrahn grew colder until Rain felt his skin tingle with false warmth. The weave outlined a wide rectangle and began to bleed inward upon itself, forming an impenetrable, pulsating darkness in the late-afternoon shadows of the forest. As the edges of the weave touched and the last light shining through was blotted out, Ellysetta began to moan. Her limbs trembled violently.
Bright shafts of white blazed out from the edges of the weave, and it fell inward, like a cloth falling down an abyss. Sheer, inky blackness loomed in the middle of the forest. A low, keening cry issued from deep within the darkness. Whispers, insidious, hungry, frightening, snuck into the world.
“Rain…” Ellysetta clutched at him, her skin gone clammy, her eyes open and unfocused.
“Interesting,” the Primage observed. “She feels the Well open, just like a demon.”
At last Rain’s mind made the connection that had been eluding him for months. The wandering souls that occasionally sent shivers through Ellysetta and made her legs go weak. The whispering voices that had so terrified her when the tairen sang the Fire Song to cut the invisible bonds that tied Cahlah and Merdrahl to the earth and freed their souls to dance the stars. The pieces of the puzzle finally began to fall into place. When the Well of Souls opened, Ellysetta sensed it. The opening of the portal sapped her strength, leaving her weak and trembling. As if some part of her were being drawn back into the Well each time it opened.
Could the infant tairen whose soul had been stolen from the Well and tied to hers be trying to get back where it belonged? Or had whatever black magic the Mage had spun on her in the womb left her somehow uniquely connected to the things that dwelled in the Well?
“Rain…” she whispered. Her body went limp, and she slumped against him, unconscious.
Rough hands grabbed Rain’s arms and hauled him to his feet. Ellysetta dangled from his arms, her head back, her curls spilling to the ground like a waterfall of flame. “Wait!” he snapped. “Something’s wrong with her!”
Primage Keldo sneered. “Perhaps the fact that she’s carrying her weight in sel’dor?” His expression hardened. “Pick her up and carry her, or we’ll do it for you. The High Mage is expecting us, and he doesn’t like delays. You two”—he jabbed a finger at two armored soldiers standing nearby, then jabbed again to the swords, Fey’cha, and weapons’ belts piled a short distance away—“bring their weapons.”
As the two soldiers rushed to gather the Fey steel, Rain lifted Ellysetta into his arms. The Primage nodded, and the soldiers standing behind Rain shoved him towards the gaping maw of the Well of Souls.