by C. L. Wilson
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 truemate, 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?”
“No.” There was the sound of the river in her ears, the feel of tree bark beneath her hand, the cool breath of wind on her face. But she didn’t feel or see any pulsating magical life force emanating from the tree.
“You’re cluttering your mind with other thoughts, Ellysetta. You’re still too focused on the physical. Block out what you hear, what you feel through physical touch. Those things are unimportant.” His voice dropped to a low murmur, and he began speaking to her in Feyan, a chant of words she didn’t completely understand but found oddly calming all the same.
The sounds of the river faded away. The breath of the wind on her skin was only a faint, distant sensation, soothing, relaxing. She could no longer feel the bark of the tree beneath her hand. She was floating in a well of warm darkness that changed slowly to a landscape of glowing lights pulsing with a multitude of colors and intensities. She could make out the shapes of everything around her, but it was as if she were seeing them through different eyes. Rain stood before her, a shimmering rainbow of lights—red, white, lavender, green, blue, black—all dimmed as if he were wrapped in a dark veil.
Beside her, the fireoak stood tall and strong. It was no pulsating glow. It was a brilliant light, blazing with vibrant shades of green and blue, marbled with veins of lavender, red, and black. It was beautiful, glorious.
“Do you see it?” Rain asked.
“Yes.” Her tongue felt thick, as if she were trying to speak while half asleep.
“Do you see where your hand touches the tree?”
“Yes.”
“Then call the light of the tree to your hand. Imagine it flowing into your fingers and up your arm. Ask the light to come to you, to share its magic with you.”
With her eyes still closed, she looked at the glowing life beneath her hand. She wanted to know what that brightness would feel like rushing through her own veins. She opened her senses and asked it to flood her with its beauty.
The light of the tree rushed towards her in a blinding flash, shooting up her arm. Startled, Ellie cried out and yanked her hand away from the trunk. Her eyes flew open. Rain leapt forward to snatch her to his chest and fling a protective barrier around them as fireoak branches snapped and rained down from above, blanketing the ground around Ellie and Rain.
When the shower of tree limbs ceased, Rain looked at the destruction at his feet and glanced up at the tree. Not a single branch remained. The once-lush fireoak was now a thick, denuded pole thrusting up from the ground.
“I think we need to teach you moderation,” he murmured.
“What happened?” Ellie looked at the tree in dismay. “Did I do that?”
“Nei, it wasn’t really you, Ellysetta. You weren’t weaving magic. You only asked the tree to respond to you. But you must have asked very, very strongly.” He shook his head.
“Can you fix it?” She couldn’t bear to leave the poor tree like this.
“Aiyah.”
As Ellie watched, Rain’s eyes began to glow with summoned power. He gestured with his hands, and silvery white threads of what Ellie now knew was Air wrapped around one of the branches and raised it high overhead. Bright green Earth threads knit the branch back in place. Rain continued, branch by branch, until the fireoak was once more whole and undamaged.
When he was done, Ellie thanked him and whispered a heartfelt apology to the tree, not daring to touch it again lest she feel it quivering like a frightened puppy.
“That was good,” Rain said.
“Good? I almost killed the poor tree!”
“But you did not. I want you to try weaving magic.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I just destroyed a tree without even trying to weave magic. I shudder to think what I might destroy if I was trying…”
“Shei’tani, trust me. You promised me you would accept instruction.”
“I promised to accept instruction when we reached the Fading Lands,” she countered. “We’re not there yet.”
He opened his mouth, then shut it. A rueful smile tilted up one corner of his mouth. “When you wager with tairen, take care with your words.” Then his expression grew serious. “This is important, Ellysetta. I will not allow you to harm yourself or anything else, but you need to understand what magic you possess, and you need to learn to control it. Both our bond and the tairen depend on it.”
She hesitated in indecision. On the one hand, she was terrified of the magic she seemed to possess. On the other hand, she was desperate to learn how to control it so she could stop herself from weaving it accidentally or with unexpected consequences as she had last night and with Adrial this morning.
“All right,” she agreed. “Teach me.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Terkaz, Blood Drinker, slake your thirst.
Frathmir, Flesh Eater, feed your hunger.
Boraz, Bone Grinder, mill your dust.
Choutarre, Soul Taker, claim your due.
—Feraz Witchspell
“We’ll start with something simple,” Rain said. “You’ve already shown you are strong in Air, and it is weightless and easy enough to direct for what I have in mind. Sit here.” He indicated a grassy spot beside the Sarne River.
Ellysetta sat where he directed.
“Now we’ll borrow a little bit of the river and shelter both it and us from the current and the breeze.” He lifted his hands and wove a curtain of still Air around them and a small portion of the river near Ellie’s feet. She started to dip her toe in, but he stopped her.
“Nei, do not touch the water. The surface must be perfectly still for this exercise.” His eyes glowed faintly and a pale blue light shone around his hands. A moment later, the small portion of the river before them was smooth as glass. “There. Now I want you to try to weave enough of a breeze to make the water ripple.”
“How do I do that?”
“Find the silence inside you. Just a moment ago, when you asked the fireoak tree to respond to you, you found the silence and through it you could see the weaves that make up all living creatures. The silence is the source from which your magic springs. You call the magic from there and let it flow through your body. And when it fills you and becomes you, then you can direct it as you do your own limbs. The process takes effort at first, but eventually the path will become as easy to find when you seek it out as it currently is when you travel it instinctively.”
Once again he guided her through the meditative exercise to find the silent, shining place where the world was lit with glowing threads of magic.
“All around you is Air. You will see it as a soft whiteness. Summon it to you.”
“I see it, but how do I summon it?”
“Much the same way as you asked the fireoak to share its essence with you. Open yourself to it. Imagine that you are a cistern and magic is the water that must flow to fill you.”
Ellie gave it a try, but no shining white light answered her call. “It’s not working.”
“I will show you what I mean; then you can try again.”
The shadowy world evaporated in an instant when Rain set aside his sword belts and settled behind her. He pulled her back against him. Tingling warmth raced up her spine as his body pressed against hers. He surrounded her. His thighs cradled hers, his arms covered her own, his fingers interleaved with her own.
“What are you doing?” Her voice came out a bit thready.
“If you were my chadin, my pupil, I would
be able to enter your mind to observe your efforts and guide you. Since our bond is currently unfulfilled, I cannot enter your mind yet, but by holding you close this way, you will be able to feel what I do as I call and weave Air. I’m hoping you will be able to emulate my efforts and perform this exercise on your own.” Against her cheek, she could feel him smile. “And besides, shei’tani, not a moment passes that I do not seek an opportunity and excuse to touch you.”
Pleasure shuddered over her. “If you think I’ll be able to concentrate with you snuggled up against me like this, think again,” she warned him.
His lips brushed her ear. “It is good to know you are not unaffected by my touch.” His low voice whispered across her skin, echoed in her mind. “But do try to concentrate, ajiana. When we are done, I will reward us both.”
Her heart began to pound. How did he expect her to focus when he said things like that?
He began to murmur in Feyan, quiet, liquid syllables, words she couldn’t make out that played in her mind like a peaceful song. The sound of his voice flowed over her and warmth seeped into her skin, making her feel drowsy. His fingers, long and capable, stroked her hands. The starch in her spine wilted, and she relaxed against him, tilting her head back against his shoulder.
“Now, Ellysetta, I will call Air. Can you feel it gathering inside me?”
“Yes.” The Air stirred almost imperceptibly as it responded to Rain’s call. The magic didn’t come to his hands, as she had always thought it would. Instead, it filled him from within, welling up and permeating his body, until the Tairen’s Eye signet on his right hand began to glow faintly.
“I do not need much Air. The strength of the weave depends on the amount of magic called and the way in which it is woven. For now, I only need a gentle breeze, so I call just a little Air and release it in a loose weave. All the elements have their own natural patterns. Weaving magic is learning to bend those patterns to a particular purpose.”