As the courtroom emptied, Sol cleared his throat to gain the attention of the infamous Fey holding Ellysetta. ‘My Lord Feyreisen? Er… Your Majesty?”
Lavender eyes snapped open, bright and fierce. Sol felt his knees tremble, but he stood his ground. ‘I am Sol Baristani, sir, the father of that young woman you’re holding so closely. It would make me quite a bit happier if you would release her.”
‘Sol …’ Lauriana muttered a barely audible warning.
‘Ah, the father.’ Anger skated across the Tairen Soul’s face. ‘The man who would sell my shei’tani to the rultshart with the filthy, roving mouth and disrespectful hands”
Sol drew in a sharp breath. ‘Despite what you obviously believe, I love my daughter. I urge you not to cast judgment when you know nothing of me or the reasons for my actions.”
‘Papa?’ Ellie emerged from the folds of the Tairen Soul’s cloak. Her hair was mussed. A few of her curls had won freedom from their confinement and now dangled in springy ringlets from their anchor pins. Her green eyes were heavy-lidded and slumberous, though as she glanced from Sol to Rain, her gaze sharpened considerably. ‘My Lord Feyreisen?”
The Tairen Soul’s expression relaxed, and he reached out to wind one loose flame-colored coil around his index finger. He rubbed the curl with his thumb, a tender expression warming his eyes. ‘I would never bring nor allow harm to my shei’tani’s family,’ he announced, and his fingers set to work on the intimate task of putting Ellysetta’s escaped curls back in order. ‘To do so would be to harm her. You may speak your mind, Master Baristani, without fear of reprisal.’ He tucked the last ringlet in place and secured it with a pin.
The Tairen Soul’s knuckle lightly caressed Ellie’s cheek while his gaze met and held Sol’s. Sol understood. The boundaries had just been established. Though Sol was Ellie’s father, the Tairen Soul was her mate and he claimed the right to protect and guide her.
Sol expelled a weary breath. ‘Den Brodson isn’t the husband I would have chosen for Ellie, but once he marked her— with or without her consent—she would have been shunned here in Celieria had I not signed the betrothal. I made what I considered to be the right decision under the circumstances, to protect both Ellie and the rest of my family.”
‘To protect her, you sell her to a man she despises? A man who takes advantage of her innocence to trap her into a union she does not want?”
‘And what of you?’ Sol retorted. ‘Your actions are certainly not beyond reproach. I don’t know how things are done in the Fading Lands, but here in Celieria a man of honor does not approach an innocent girl and overwhelm her with intimate attentions the likes of which no decent, unmarried young woman should be subjected to.”
‘Ah—’ Rain’s lips curved in a mockery of a smile. ‘Then I should have come into your house to `overwhelm her with intimate attentions,’ as you allowed the butcher’s son to do.”
‘Don’t twist my words.’
‘They are untwisted. I merely spoke them back to you.”
Ellie laid her hand on the Tairen Soul’s arm. ‘Stop,’ she told him quietly. ‘He is my father. Do not mock him. In my own ignorance, I have shamed him not once but twice.”
The Tairen Soul took her chin between his fingers and compelled her to meet his eyes. ‘What is between us shames no one, shei’tani. And any shame brought by the mark forced upon you lies with your parents and the butcher’s offspring, not with you. You are bright and shining.”
Despite Sol’s distress, he couldn’t mistake the astonishing gentleness in the fierce man’s face. If Sol had been able to choose a husband for his daughter, he would not have hesitated to choose one who looked at her with such tenderness.
The Tairen Soul raised his other hand to brush a wave of bright hair away from Ellysetta’s face. ‘Where is this mark that has caused such trouble?’ When Ellie tugged her chemise aside, he bent his head and frowned at the dark spot on her skin. ‘Unattractive custom,’ he murmured. ‘Why blemish beauty to claim it?”
‘I’m not beautiful,’ she protested.
‘You are to me.’ He raised his head and rapped out a command in Feyan that brought the red-shrouded shei’dalin and her mate to his side. When the shei’dalin reached out a hand, Ellie shrank away from her touch. ‘Do not be afraid, shei’tani,’ Rain said. ‘Marissya will only remove the mark. Like she healed your hand. There is nothing to be afraid of”
‘She won’t try to pry into my mind? You promise?”
‘Nei, she will not. I promise’ Black brows arched. ‘Would you rather keep the mark? I had thought it distressed you and that you would be pleased to be rid of it.”
‘It does distress me. I would like it removed, if she can do it. But nothing more than that. No … probing.’ Ellie stared at the red-veiled face beside her with trepidation.
‘I was wrong to trespass before, Ellysetta Baristani,’ the shei’dalin said. ‘I will not do so again. You have my oath as Celieria’s Truthspeaker. May I touch you to remove this mark?’ Marissya waited for Ellie’s nod before proceeding. Even then, Ellie flinched as the shei’dalin’s fingers touched her throat. ‘Peace, little sister,’ Marissya murmured. ‘You will feel heat and tingling where I touch. I call upon your body to unmake the stain on your flesh, to break it down and expel it.’ Her thumb brushed over Ellysetta’s collarbone, removing the dry dust that was all that remained of Den Brodson’s attempt to claim a Tairen Soul’s mate. ‘There. The mark is gone as though it were never there.”
Ellie touched her throat, rubbing the spot that still tingled. Her eyes widened in surprise when Rain produced a mirror out of thin air and presented it to her.
‘It is made of Spirit,’ he told her, ‘but the reflection is true.”
‘I see,’ she said, though she didn’t really. Understanding the engineering nuances of magic was far beyond her realm of comprehension. ‘Thank you.’ She lifted the mirror and ran her fingers over the spot where Den had bitten her. The mark was gone. She released a breath, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted from her. ‘Thank you, Lady Marissya”
‘Sha vel’mei. I am glad to be of service to the Feyreisa.”
Rain turned back to Sol. ‘You were chastising me. You may continue.”
Sol shook his head. His anger, justified though it had been, was gone. ‘My point,’ he said wearily, ‘is that you are a stranger to me. And you have sent other strangers—lethally armed ones at that—into my home to work gods only know what magical mischief. You appear to care for my daughter, but that doesn’t excuse your behavior. You summoned my family to a public forum and put our most private family matters on display for the titillation of the masses, including things better saved for the privacy of a bedchamber. And you’ve done it all without having the common decency to present yourself to me as any honorable man would have done when seeking to win my daughter’s hand”
After a moment of silence, the Tairen Soul bowed his head. To Sol’s surprise, twin flags of color stained the man’s cheeks. Who would have thought the king of the Fey could be put to blush? It made Sol like him a bit better.
‘The father of my shei’tani is right to upbraid me for failing to introduce myself and request his blessing. Even in the Fading Lands, a man must approach his mate’s family before he begins the courtship. My only excuse is that the bond caught me unawares and has left me … unsettled.’ The Tairen Soul grimaced, and Sol had the feeling there was a great deal left unsaid on that subject.
‘As for the Fey I sent into your home, they are there to protect Ellysetta and your family. I am not without enemies, and they might do you harm to hurt me through her. With your permission, Master Baristani, I would introduce you to the warriors who protect your daughter.’ At Rain’s wave, the five Fey who served in his truemate’s quintet came closer.
‘This is Kieran vel Solande.’ He gestured to the brown- haired, blue-eyed Fey who always seemed to be smiling. ‘He is the son of Marissya and Dax, and as you may have already learned, he enjoys a good joke. There are none among all the Fey who can wield Earth better than he.’ Four hundred fifty years old, Kieran was the last child born to the Fey people. Though he had only recently completed the final level of the Dance of Knives and earned the right to guard a shei’tani outside the Fading Lands, he was so strong in Earth, Air, Spirit, and Fire that Rain had not hesitated to appoint him to Ellysetta’s quintet.
‘This is Kiel vel Tomar.’ The lean, blond-haired, blue- eyed Fey bowed low with a supple grace that exceeded even Fey standards. ‘He is a master of Water magic. He likes small children, and they usually like him, though it appears your Lorelle may have a different opinion.’ The black eye and scratches Kiel had earned yesterday had healed considerably thanks to the natural Fey recuperative powers, but he still bore the marks of Lorelle’s displeasure.
‘These two are Rowan and Adrial vel Arquinas.’ Rain gestured to the two black-haired, brown-eyed Fey who closely resembled one another. ‘They are brothers. Rowan is a master of Fire, and Adrial is unbeatable in Air.’ Both were also strongly gifted in Earth.
‘Twins?’ Lauriana asked.
‘Nei. There are seventy-three years between them.’ Her look of surprise amused him. ‘That makes them almost cradle-friends by Fey standards.”
‘And this’—Rain clapped a hand on his friend’s leather- clad shoulder—’this is Belliard vel Jelani. The oldest and fiercest of all Fey warriors, and my friend. Bel is a master of Spirit.’ He was also a master of every elemental magic save Earth, which to his undying shame he could not wield at all. He had walked the earth for more than 1,400 years and was now the oldest unmated Fey warrior in the Fading Lands, a fact that made Rain both proud of and afraid for his friend. It would not be long before the burden of the many deaths on Bel’s soul either sent him to eternal rest or eternal wandering as an outcast, a dahl’reisen, one of the death-and sorrow-shadowed lost souls who were forever banished from the Fading Lands.
‘Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Each of these `strangers’ I sent to guard your daughter masters one of the four elemental magics and the one mystic that we wield. Alone, they are more powerful in their particular magic than any Fey you are ever likely to meet. Together, they are nearly invincible. I sent the best warriors of the Fading Lands to protect your daughter, Master Baristani. Each of them has pledged his steel and his life to keep her safe. They will remain by her side whenever she is not by mine.”
‘Well …’ said Sol, eyeing the Fey warriors with new respect.
‘And as for bringing you into this court to air your private affairs, I would never have done so had Den Brodson not tried to use your legal system to rob me of my shei’tani. King Dorian and Marissya persuaded me that this was the best way to handle the situation. It was not done to bring shame. The Fey are a very proud people, though I have not done them honor since entering Celieria. With your permission, I would begin anew”
With grave graciousness, Rain Tairen Soul bowed low before the spectacled mortal who, at less than one-tenth his age, would—gods willing—be his bond-father in the not too distant future. ‘Blessings and peace on the house of my beloved. Life, soul, steel, and magic I do pledge to her protection. May I prove worthy of her trust.’ In Feyan, then in Celierian, Rain spoke the traditional words of a courting Fey warrior to his mate’s family. That much honor, at least, he could do this man, after all the unintentional dishonor Rain had shown him thus far.
Rain bowed again. ‘These are the words a Fey warrior speaks to the family of the woman he courts.’ He had spoken those words once before, to Sariel’s parents more than eleven hundred years ago. Then, he had failed in his pledge. Sariel had joined him in the matebond and died while under his protection. It would not happen again.
After a moment, Sol held out a hand. ‘I welcome you as a suitor for my daughter’s hand. And I thank you for the honor you do my house.’ He smiled a little. ‘Those are the words Celierian fathers speak to young men who come courting their daughters in the proper fashion.”
Rain stared at the extended hand in surprise. It took him a moment to realize he was supposed to shake it. Fey senses being what they were, the Fey did not use touch as casually as other races did, especially not the skin-to-skin contact favored by the non-Fey of the earth. Still, to refuse this handshake would be to insult his prospective bond-father.
Rain clasped his hand carefully around the smaller man’s and was pleased to sense almost no darkness in the woodcarver. The brightness of his spirit was refreshing, and it proved that he was an honest, humble man who was happy in his life and his family. As Sol shook his hand, his thoughts poured freely into Rain’s mind. Out of respect for the man’s privacy, Rain tried to block most of them out, but he could not prevent himself from hearing the thoughts concerning Ellie’s happiness, her safety, and Sol’s related concerns about the security of his family.
Though Rain would have liked to erase the man’s fears, he could not promise more than he already had. Danger always courted the Fey people. They had too much power, too much wealth, too much that other races coveted.
‘For a Fey, the blessing of a truemate is the greatest gift that can be bestowed. Master Baristani, you have my thanks for guarding her so well and for keeping her safe until now. I add my strength and vigilance to your own until the honor of protecting her becomes mine alone.”
‘Thank you, my lord.’ Ellysetta touched the back of his bare hand with her fingertips.
Rain drew in his breath at the sudden rush of feelings that sprang from the simple feel of her skin meeting his. The strength of his connection to this young Celierian went so far beyond what he had felt for Sariel, he could hardly fathom it. She was so young, so incredibly new to the world and to him, and yet regardless of the cost to his soul, Rain would destroy anyone and anything that dared to stand between them. And if any dared to harm her, he would shred them without mercy and dance as he drank their blood.
Ellysetta misunderstood the fierce look on his face, because she snatched her hand back and apologized for touching him.
‘Nei, do not apologize.’ Rain could barely restrain himself from reaching for that hand and putting it back on his skin. His fingers itched to do so, and he clenched them into fists. He craved her touch, ached for it as only a Fey warrior could. But admitting to his need was the same as admitting a weakness, something a Fey rarely did willingly. ‘I was merely surprised. You may touch me if you like.’ But she didn’t lay that sweet hand upon him again. He cursed his own unguarded reaction that had cost him such a small but much-desired pleasure and wondered how he might contrive to get it back. He bent his head to her, his gaze intent as he willed her to touch him again. To his disgruntlement, she did not.
Laughter sounded in his mind. Laughter he recognized but had not heard in any form for centuries.
«Bel?» He turned to his old friend in disbelief. Though to most, the solitary Fey would still appear blank as a wall, Rain knew better. Bel’s dark eyes glinted with amusement, and the grim stoicism of his face was less pronounced. There was even the faintest crinkling at the corners of his eyes—humor struggling to find expression.
«if you could see yourself, Rain. Pouting like a tzicaida whose lunch just got away.» The corner of Bel’s mouth actually twitched. You could always just command her to put her hand back on you.”
Despite his amazement over Bel’s incredible rediscovery of levity, Rain scowled. To issue such a command would be to admit he could not win his desire any other way. It would be the same as admitting defeat, another thing no Fey warrior would ever willingly do. Nei, he was tairen enough to be crafty, to lure his shei’tani into giving willingly that which he desired, without revealing to her how badly he desired it. You babble like a child, Fey.”
«Aiyah, but then the babblings of a child so often hold truth, My King.»
«Your shei’tani, thank the gods. »
Rain’s scowl was immediate, the hand reaching for a Fey’cha instinctive, though before Rain could pull the blade free, Bel’s quick denial sounded in his mind.
«Nei, nei. Nothing like that! By the Flame, Rain, no Fey would dare.» In an odd tone, torn between shock and something that almost sounded like hurt, Bel added, «Red, Rain? You would pull red against me?”
Rain’s gaze darted to the scarlet Fey’cha handle his fingers still clutched. With an oath, he snatched his hand away. «For-give me, Bel.» All Fey steel was tempered in Fire and imbued with magic as a result, but red Fey’cha daggers were doused in tairen venom as they were forged, making them deadly poison, even to Fey. Fey did not pull red against other Fey. To actually attack another Fey with red was a banishing offense. «These … feelings … drive me mad. I cannot think.”
«Peace, Rain. This is a difficult time for any Fey, you more so than others.”
Rain nodded curtly and lifted a hand to run his fingers through his hair, only to stop when he realized what he was doing. To continue showing his distraction was yet another sign of discipline unraveling. He forced his hands down and extended an arm to his shei’tani. ‘Come. We are through here. I will escort you and your family home.”
When Ellysetta would have linked her arm through his in the Celierian fashion, he stopped her. ‘Nei. In time of need, I would lose time untangling my arm from yours.’ He took her hand, straightened her fingers, and laid them on his wrist, bathing in the pleasure of her touch and ignoring the sound of Bel’s laughter in his mind the whole while. ‘This is the Fey way. My hands and arm are free should I need to call steel or magic to your defense’ In a flash, he had an unsheathed black Fey’cha in his hand. ‘You see?”
She eyed the naked blade with obvious worry. ‘You think there will be trouble here? In the palace?”
His lips thinned. ‘Trouble has begun here before.’ He regretted the fear that sprang to her eyes, but he could not lie to her. Outside the Fading Lands, danger was never far from the Fey. She must learn that and be wary enough to watch for it. Still, she was his truemate, and it was his duty to keep her from harm and worry. ‘Will there be trouble today, shei’tani? I doubt it. But we must always be on guard.’ He sheathed the blade and extended his arm to her again. ‘Come. Let us walk. I will send the Fey to bring your sisters to us.”
Before taking his arm, she adjusted a golden chain at her waist and curled the fingers of her left hand around the black hilt of a blade sheathed at her hip. Only then did she place the fingers of her right hand on his wrist in the manner he had taught her. If there were to be danger, she and her Fey’cha would be ready for it. Even as the gesture took him aback—no Fey woman would ever lift a blade against a living creature— gentle amusement and pride mingled inside him. His Celierian shei’tani might be foreign and far too young, but her spirit was fierce. She would not cringe from the possibility of trouble; she would meet it with steel.
As Rain, Ellysetta, and her parents made their way through the palace, Rain looked more closely at the dagger in his shei’tani’s grasp. His brows climbed skyward as he recognized the identifying mark carved into the black pommel. ‘You have made a conquest, I see.”
She blushed faintly. ‘Belliard gave it to me,’ she admitted. ‘In some sort of Fey ceremony. He said I should always look to you to be my first protector, but that he would always be my second. It’s all right that I accepted the knife, isn’t it?”
‘Aiyah,’ Rain agreed, frowning. Bel had blood-sworn himself to her?
«That’s what I was trying to tell you, Rain. She touched me and wished me joy, and now my heart weeps again.»
Rain turned to Ellie’s parents. ‘Is there a history of magic in your families? Fey blood, perhaps?’ Fey had intermarried with Celierians in the past.
Sol shook his head. ‘No, Laurie and I are both pure mortal. Simple folk from simple stock.”
‘Not so simple. You have produced a Tairen Soul’s shei’tani. That has never been done before in all of Fey memory.
‘The Baristanis looked at each other, then back at him.
‘Oh, no,’ Sol informed him. ‘Ellie’s our daughter, but she’s not of our blood.’ The woodcarver quickly related the tale of how he and his wife had found the infant Ellie in the woods of Norban, a week’s journey north of the Celierian capital.
‘There was no sign of a parent? Nothing to identify where she came from?”
Sol shook his head. ‘Nothing except a note asking someone to take her. She was just there, sitting under a tree. I don’t think she’d been there very long when Laurie found her. She was awake, but she wasn’t crying.’ He smiled fondly at his adopted daughter. ‘She was a solemn little waif with big green eyes and the brightest hair you’ve ever seen. Laurie and I didn’t think we could have children, so we took her in. Not that we had much to offer. Poor as mice we were. My hands had been crippled in an accident. I didn’t think I’d ever carve again.”
‘But your hands have healed.”
‘Yes,’ Sol agreed, grinning and flexing his fingers. ‘Better than ever.”
‘And the little girls with the brown hair? Are they adopted also?”
‘No. Lillis and Lorelle are ours. Ellie’d been with us almost fifteen years when we were blessed with the twins. She was almost as happy as we were. She’d been wanting her own little sisters to love.”
‘You enjoy good health?”
‘The best. Hardly ever even get the sniffles”
‘And good fortune.”
‘We do well enough. We’ve never been rich, but we’ve never lacked for anything either. And now that we’ve received a royal commission, we’ll not lack for money to dower our girls. We’re simple folk with simple needs. And we’re happy. That’s all that really matters in the end, isn’t it?”
‘Aiyah,’ Rain murmured. ‘Happiness is a fortune beyond compare.’ He glanced at Bel and the other Fey and saw comprehension dawning in their eyes. «Bel, send two men to Norban. Perhaps someone there knows more.’ Bel nodded, and Rain turned his attention back to Sol and Lauriana. ‘So, you took in an abandoned child. After that, your hands, which were crippled, were healed. Your wife’s womb, which was barren, bore fruit. You have enjoyed excellent health and happiness, and you’ve never lacked for anything you truly needed. And when you needed a little more, you received a royal commission. Have there been any other small miracles since you took her in? Any other dreams that have come true?”
‘We’ve always said she was our good luck charm, but surely you’re not implying that Ellie… No. These are coincidences. Nothing more.”
‘Any one on its own might be a coincidence. But taken all together, with Ellysetta also being a Tairen Soul’s shei’tani, it can be no coincidence’ The slender hand covering his wrist jerked. Rain caught it in a loose grip before she could pull away.
‘What are you saying? That she’s Fey?’ Sol asked. ‘Fey? Possibly. Magic? Most definitely”
With a yank, Ellie pulled her hand free, crossing her arms and stuffing her hands in her armpits where he could not reach them. ‘I’m not magic. There’s not a magic bone in my body. If there are miracles here, it’s the work of the gods, not me.”
‘Do not fear what you are, shei’tani. It is a wondrous thing.”
‘No. I’m Celierian. Just plain mortal like my parents. I’m no different than they are.”
‘Las. Peace, Ellysetta. I do not mean to upset you.’ The frightened, almost frantic look in her eyes reminded Rain of the desperate fear that radiated from an animal as he swooped upon it in tairen form. ‘I don’t understand why you would fear your magic so.”
‘What Celierian wouldn’t?’ That bitter question came from Lauriana. ‘How many magic-blighted forests do we have, thanks to you and the rest of your kind? How many dark places to trap unwary travelers?’ Her mouth turned grim. ‘Sol and I both knew what it meant when we found Ellie abandoned in the woods. She was born in the dark lands, infected with magic left over from the Mage Wars. But neither of us could bear to leave a child to die, so we took her in and did our best to raise her in the Light and keep her safe from magic and magical creatures.’ She gave her husband a hard look.
‘You were compassionate, indeed, to take her in despite your fears,’ Rain replied. ‘But rest assured, she possesses no mere remnant of magic, dark or otherwise. Her power is bright and shining and very strong.’ It had to be, or she could never have reached Bel’s heart.
‘Arrogant Fey rultsharts. Think they can come in and take whatever they want. Thrice-damned soul-scorched sorcerers.’ Den Brodson sat at the bar of the Charging Boar pub and glared into his nearly empty pint of dark ale. ‘Another pint of Red Skull, Briggs,’ he growled as he downed a swallow of what was already his third pint in half a bell.
‘Make that two.’ The smooth, accented voice behind him brought Den’s head around for a quick, assessing glance. The newcomer, a foreigner wearing a blue sea captain’s coat, smiled slightly and gestured to the barstool beside Den. ‘May I?”
Den shrugged. ‘As you like.”
The man straddled the barstool. ‘I couldn’t help overhearing your story. The young woman claimed by the Tairen Soul—she was yours?”
‘My betrothed. At least she was until that damned Fey sorcerer stole her from me.’ Den flicked another appraising glance over the foreigner, noting the man’s oiled curls, woven with gold rings, and the dark blue tattoo in the shape of crossed swords high on one sun-bronzed cheek. ‘What’s it to you?”
‘A matter of interest. And perhaps a problem I can assist you with.’
‘What makes you think I need any help?”
The man held Den’s gaze steadily, and for a moment, Den glimpsed something hard and dangerous in the man’s vivid blue-green eyes. Then the man blinked, and said mildly, ‘Perhaps I misunderstood you earlier. I thought you wanted the woman back.”
‘I do.”
‘Then do not be foolish. A powerful immortal has claimed your woman, and the courts have upheld his claim. You cannot possibly hope to stand against him unaided.”
Briggs approached with two pints in hand. The foreigner pulled a money purse from an inside pocket of his coat and extracted a gold coin. ‘Shall I buy this round?”
Den shrugged again, his eyes watchful. ‘I never turn down a free pint.”
The man smiled, revealing impressively white teeth. He tossed the coin to Briggs, then held out a hand to Den. ‘The name’s Batay. Captain Batay. I sail a merchantman from Sorrelia.”
‘Den Brodson.’ Den shook the captain’s hand. ‘And just how, exactly, do you think a Sorrelian merchantman can help me best Rain Tairen Soul?”
‘Is there somewhere we can speak privately, Goodman Brodson?”
Without taking his gaze from the Sorrelian, Den called over his shoulder, ‘Briggs, is the back room open?”
‘It is,’ the bartender replied. ‘Help yourself, Den.”
Den led the Sorrelian to a small, private room at the back of the pub. As the door closed behind them, he turned and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘Well? How can you help me?”
Captain Batay smiled. ‘Not I alone, Goodman. I am but the humble servant of a very powerful man. But first, as a gesture of your goodwill—’ He pulled a small oval object from his pocket and held it out. The mirrored surface appeared cloudy at first, but then an image began to form in the misty glass. A wizard’s glass, Den realized, used for scrying and for recording images. ‘—tell me everything you know about this woman.”
The wizard’s glass was clear now, and the image of Selianne Pyerson, Ellie’s best friend, stared up at Den from the crystalline surface.
