Lady of Light and Shadows

by C. L. Wilson

  Her hands dove into the silky thickness of his hair, clutching tight. Her hips bucked against him in restless invitation, but he only laughed against her skin and left his weaves to tease and provoke her while he pressed a burning trail of kisses down the smooth, sweet softness of her belly, tasting each tender fingerspan of skin, drinking in her scent, rubbing it on his face and lips, breathing it in until her essence filled him so completely he could not take a breath that did not taste of her. Lower still his lips traveled. Hands found the soft swell of her rounded buttocks and gently lifted her hips.

  Elysetta gave a thin, breathless cry as he bent his head to feast on her. She tried to close her legs against him in a last, instinctive rush of Celierian modesty, but he would not allow it. «As you reminded me, our vows have been spoken, shei’tani. By your customs as well as mine, there can be no shame between us. All that you are is mine to discover and adore.»

  She felt the slow, lingering lap of a tongue and nearly leapt off the bed.

  «You taste of honeyed cream, shei’tani.» He took another leisurely taste of her, followed by an insistent, probing dart that was wholly wicked. All the while, his weaves cupped and teased her breasts until she thought she would fly apart. «Open for me.»

  Gods save her. Inner muscles clenched tight in rippling spasms. She squirmed against the hands that held her fast and groaned as he laughed softly against her most intimate skin. Helplessly her legs fell open, and her eyes closed on wave after wave of indescribable sensation as teasing tastes became long, savoring strokes that turned her veins to rivers of smoldering fire. Pressure built up inside her as her hips assumed an instinctive rhythm, rising and falling to meet each sinful stroke of his tongue.

  At this moment, all he wanted in life was the taste of Ellysetta on his tongue, the scent of her filling his nostrils, the feel of her soft skin filling his hands. Through touch, skin to skin, he shared every fevered emotion speeding across her shattering senses. The sound of her sobbing pleas and the restless leap of her hips drove him wild. Within his soul, the tairen roared.

  Ellysetta closed her eyes as a torment of sensation rolled over her. The roar of the tairen resonated along the thread of their bond like a bolt of lightning, setting every fiber of her being blazing to sudden, incandescent, throbbing life. Her back arched. She flung her head back.

  “Rain!” Oh, dear gods. “Rain!” The climax burst over her in a thousand shuddering explosions, each stealing her breath and shaking her to the core.

  He rose up above her, eyes blazing, his mouth parted in a triumphant, near-savage smile. The hard, thick length of his sex entered her body on a single breathtaking thrust. If there was pain, he stole it from her, leaving only the feel of his body inside hers, stretching her, filling an emptiness she’d never known existed.

  His hips drew back, and she almost wept in protest, clutching at his hips with an instinctive plea. He surged forward again, and she cried out in wild pleasure.

  Within her mind she saw the tairen, roaring in triumph as it leapt to claim and dominate. For the first time, her own wildness rose up in savage answer. Within her soul, she felt the sweep of wings and claws, the thunder of tairen bodies meeting in an ancient, untamed mating, while together, on their silken bed, Rain and Ellysetta’s Fey bodies surged in an equally fierce union. Her hand curled, and she raked her nails down his back, matching his unrestrained passion with her own.

  Rain threw back his head and roared. He rose up on his knees and drew her hips up with him as his body pounded in a relentless beat. As she sprawled on the silken sheets of their bed, Ellysetta’s hair spilled across the pillow in coils of flame. Her breasts bobbed with each powerful thrust of his hips, and as he watched, the Fey glow of her eyes grew brighter and brighter until they were whirling opalescent pools, blazing with an inner fire. Tairen eyes.

  Again and again he drove her to the edge and pushed her beyond it, loving the sound of her cries ringing in his ears, loving the shocked, dazed look on her face as pleasure shook and shattered her. Her inner muscles convulsed around him, silken, tight, rippling in a series of fierce spasms that stole the breath from his lungs. Every muscle in his body clenched tight in response, straining as her climax detonated his own.

  It swept over him like a wild wind, ripping away all thought, all doubt, leaving only a bedrock of unshakable certainty in its wake. This was the primal, elemental beauty of life, the passionate exchange of flesh and breath and essence, two halves made whole. This moment with her was the reason he’d been born. She was the reason for his life.

  He fell back beside her against the softness of the mattress and regarded her from dazzled eyes as his ragged breathing slowly grew even. She was such a wonder to him in every way. A salvation he had never expected. A joy he had never deserved. And here, now, lying beside him, her soul so bright she shone like a star, she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. Strength blazed beside her shei’dalin’s compassion; her will was threaded with the purest steel and the tairen’s fierce wildness. When she finally embraced the entirety of her abilities, she would be a force of nature, a Feyreisa of such power as the world had never known. It humbled him to realize that he, Rainier vel’En Daris, was the warrior chosen by the gods to stand beside her, to protect and aid her, to…love her.

  Unexpected tears gathered with surprising swiftness, filling his eyes and spilling over.

  “Rain?” She reached for him in concern.

  He gave a small, embarrassed laugh and lifted a knuckle to wipe away the betraying moisture. “This Fey learns humility after all.”

  She did not return his smile. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Las, kem’san. Nothing is wrong. I only just realized something I should have known all along.” He carried her hands to his chest, then cupped her face with one hand while wrapping the other around her waist. He held her close, skin to skin, so that with her shei’dalin senses she would feel for herself the wonder that bloomed within him.

  “From this day forward, no matter what happens between us—even if we never complete our bond, even if we cannot save the tairen or the Fey—I want you to know this one thing, Ellysetta Baristani.” He smiled into her eyes and gave her the words.

  “My heart has followed where my soul has led. Ke vo san, Ellysetta. I love you.”

  He felt the faint tremors that rippled through her when the truth of his emotions washed over her senses. Her brows drew together and her forehead creased in a confused frown. She wanted to believe, longed to believe, but her fear of opening herself up to another betrayal made her doubt him.

  He pressed a kiss first at one corner of her mouth and then the other. “Your soul calls out, shei’tani. Mine answers.” He drew back to meet her gaze, and held it with a steadiness she could not doubt. “And I would have it no other way.” He lowered his head and claimed her lips with aching gentleness and dazzling intensity, pouring into his kiss every hope, every dream, every ardent wish, all coupled with a steadfast vow. He repeated the words in Feyan, then sang them to her in the rich tones of tairen song, his song, the song she had been born to hear, carrying in its wordless symphony the essence of all that was Rain.

  Tears shimmered in Ellysetta’s eyes. She could taste his emotions like a rich, many-layered spice, a truth she could not disbelieve, a promise she knew he would die before betraying again. He was offering her, at last, the love she’d always dreamed of, the acceptance she’d always longed for.

  Closing her eyes, she returned his kiss and drank in his shining promise of devotion. Her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him close. «I love you, too, Rain. I always have.»

  Against her hip, his body stirred as love became passion and passion became need. She took him into her body, smiled with breathless wonder as once more he filled and completed her.

  And afterward, as they lay together in spent silence, the first fragile thread of communion that had fallen silent last night began softly to sing once more. A second, shimmering new thread joined t
he first, adding its own melody, tender and bittersweet, tempered by loss, deepened with forgiveness, and stronger than the song sung between them before.

  In the small silver bells of the night, with no fanfare to mark their passing, the Fey departed Celieria City.

  Sol and the twins were packed up as well, traveling west with Lord Teleos and the Fey. They would stay on Lord Teleos’s lands near the Grarreval, guarded by ten quintets who would help Lord Teleos fortify his defenses and train his men in the Fey arts of war.

  Outside the western city gates, Rain stepped away to summon the Change. Ellysetta closed her eyes as the swell of his magic swept over her, calling to her own, long-buried gifts. And when he crouched before her in tairen form, magnificent and fierce, his black fur gleaming like the richest ebonwood in the silver-bright light of the moons, she was glad she’d been born to stand at his side.

  She would choose him. She would always choose him. She would leave her family and everything familiar to her. She would embrace her magic. She would defy laws and kings and Mages and demons and even the Church of Light to be with him. She would tear down the barriers that still lived in her mind, confront whatever darkness lurked behind them, and defeat the Mage who thought to claim her soul. That soul—and every part of her—belonged to Rainier vel’En Daris. There could never be happiness for her that did not include him.

  At Rain’s word, Ellysetta ran forward and vaulted into place with a boost of Air. When she was seated, Rain drew back on his haunches and sprang into the sky. His wings unfurled, snapping taut as they caught the wind, pumping to gain height and speed.

  The night air was warm and sweet, and the Mother’s light gleamed like a beacon, calling the Fey home. Rain Tairen Soul’s shadow raced over the moonlit ground, heading west towards the Fading Lands.

  Key Celierian Terms

  Bell: hour

  Chime: minute

  Dorn: Furry, round, somnolent rodent. Eaten in stews. “Soggy dorn” is an idiom for someone who is spoiling someone else’s fun. A party pooper.

  Keflee: A warm beverage that can act as a stimulant or aphrodisiac.

  Lord Adelis: God of light. While Celierians worship a pantheon of gods and goddesses (thirteen in all), the Church of Light worships Adelis, Lord of Light, above all others. He is considered the supreme god, with dominion over the other twelve.

  Rultshart: A vile, smelly, boar like animal.

  Key Elden Terms

  Azrahn: The soul magic forbidden by the Fey for its corrupting influence but used and mastered by the mages.

  Primage: master mage

  Sulimage: journeyman mage

  Umagi: a mage-claimed individual, subordinate to the will of his/her master

  Key Fey Terms

  Beylah vo: thank you (literally, thanks to you)

  Cha Baruk: Dance of Knives

  Chadin: student in the Dance of Knives

  Cha’kor: Literal translation is “five knives.” Fey word for “quintet.”

  Chatok: mentor in the Dance of Knives

  Chatokkai: First General. Leader of all Fey armies, second in command to the Tairen Soul. Belliard vel Jelani is the chatokkai of the Fading Lands.

  Chervil: Fey expletive similar to bastard, as in “you smug chervil.”

  Dahl’reisen: Literally, “lost soul”. Dahl’reisen are unmated Fey warriors who have been banished from the Fading Lands either for breaking Fey taboos or for choosing to walk the Shadowed Path rather than committing sheisan’dahlein, the honor death, when the weight of all the lives they have taken in defense of the Fey becomes too great for thier own souls to bear. Dahl’reisen recieve a physical scar when they make the kill that tips thier souls into darkness.

  E’tan: beloved/husband/mate (of the heart, not the truemate of the soul)

  E’tani: beloved/wife/mate (of the heart, not the truemate of the soul)

  E’tanitsa: a chosen bond of the heart, not a truemate bond

  Felah Baruk: Dance of Joy

  Fey’cha: Fey throwing dagger. Fey’cha have either black handles or red handles. Red Fey’cha are deadly poison. Fey warriors carry dozens of each kind of Fey'cha in leather straps crisscrossed across their chest.

  Feyreisa: Tairen Soul’s mate; Queen

  Feyreisen: Tairen Soul; King

  Ke vo san: I love you.

  Kem’falla: my lady

  Kem’san: My love/My heart

  Krekk: Fey expletive

  Ku’shalah aiyah to nei: Bid me yes or no.

  Las: peace, hush, calm

  Maresk, mareska, mareskia: friend (masculine, feminine, plural)

  Mei felani. Bei santi. Nehtah, bas desrali: Live well, love deep. Tomorrow, we (will) die.

  Meicha: A curving, scimitar-like blade. Each fey warrior carries two meicha, one at each hip.

  Miora felah ti’Feyreisa: Joy to the Feyreisa

  Pacheeta: A silly bird; not very smart.

  Sel’dor: Literally “black pain.” A rare black metal found only in Eld that disrupts Fey magic.

  Selkahr: Black crystals used by Mages. Made from Azrahn-corrupted Tairen’s Eye crystal.

  Seyani: Fey longsword. Fey warriors wear two seyani blades strapped to their back.

  Sheisan’dahlein: Fey honor death. Ceremonial suicide for the good of the Fey. All Fey warriors who do not truemate will either commit sheisan’dahlein or become dahl’reisen.

  Shei’tan: beloved/husband/truemate

  Shei’tani: beloved/wife/truemate

  Shei’tanitsa: the truemate bond, a mating of souls

  Sieks’ta: I have shame. (I’m sorry; I beg your pardon)

  Tairen: Flying catlike creatures that live in the Fading Lands. The Fey are the Tairenfolk, magical because of their close kinship with the Tairen.

  Tairen Soul: Rare Fey who can transform into tairen. Masters of all five Fey magics, they are feared and revered for their power. The oldest Tairen Soul becomes the Feyreisen, the Fey King.

  Teska: Please

  Ver reisa ku’chae. Kem surah, shei’tani: Your soul calls out. Mine answers, beloved.

  Acknowledgements

  A special thanks to all the terrific folks at Dorchester Publishing, especially Alicia Condon, Renee Yewdaev, Erin Galloway, Brooke Borneman, Tim DeYoung, and Diane Stacy. All of your enthusiasm, encouragement and support these last months has meant the world to me.

  As always, thanks to my friends and critique partners, my wonderful parents, and especially to my husband Kevin and our children Ileah, Rhiannon, and Aidan for being so understanding of all the long hours I’ve spent sequestered in my office.

  A special thanks to bookseller Rosemary of Rosemary’s Romance Books in Brisbane, Australia for all the wonderful e-mails and support. Rosemary, you are great!

  Thanks to the richly talented artist, Judy York, who so perfectly captured my vision of Rain, Ellysetta, and the tairen with her gorgeous covers—and for letting me use them on my Web site!

  And once again, thanks to the wonderful men and women of Tampa Area Romance Authors (TARA) who’ve been my writing family for the last five years. TARA Rocks!

  PRAISE FOR C. L. WILSON’S EPIC DEBUT!

  “An absolutely wonderful new voice for romance with all the bells and whistles for pure escapism! It exceeded all my expectations.”

  —Kay Meriam, RWA Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year 2003

  “I LOVE this book! A thrilling, captivating story that stays with you after you put it down. The best book I’ve read in years.”

  —Christine Feehan, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “Lush and evocative. A powerful epic fantasy to savor.”

  —Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author

  “Brilliant and breathtaking! Lord of the Fading Lands debuts a fascinatingly unique world populated with characters I fell in love with—and can’t wait to read about again.”

  —Alyssa Day, USA Today bestselling author of Atlantis Rising

  “This debut will draw you into a ma
gical weave of spirit and air that won’t release you until the last word is read.”

  —Jessica Stachowski, bookseller, The World’s Biggest Bookstore

  Other Leisure books by C. L. Wilson:

  LORD OF THE FADING LANDS

  About the Author

  C. L. WILSON wrote her first story at age six, and though she took a number of long detours during her life, she never gave up her lifelong dream of being published. Many years, hundreds of false starts, and five completed novels later, she received “The Call” in October 2006 and sold her epic fantasy romance, TAIREN SOUL, at auction. Her debut novel spent two weeks on the USA Today list of bestselling books in America, and her subsequent novels have gone on to hit a variety of lists including USA Today, the New York Times, and Publishers Weekly. When not writing, C.L. enjoys relaxing with her husband and three children in sunny Florida and daydreaming of a world where people exercise in their sleep and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream is a fat-burning food.

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