King of Sword and Sky (50 page)

"Then they must be trying to draw
you
out," Yulan snapped when Tenn frowned in perplexed silence.

Gaelen sneered. "Considering you just banished him, what do you care?"

"It isn't a trap."

All eyes turned to Ellysetta.

Her lids opened, revealing eyes of bright Fey green, glowing and just beginning to whirl with the radiance of the tairen. "It isn't a trap. The Eld are coming. I don't know how I know it, but I do. Orest and Teleon are in danger." She rose to her feet, though her body continued to shake with helpless tremors, and her eyes held his in an unwavering gaze. «
Believe me, shei'tan. Our friends are in danger. We must warn them.»

Her urgent concern and unshakable certainty filled his veins first with ice, then with blazing fire. She had no doubt. And because she had none, he could not doubt either.

Rain flung his head back and sent the cry on the Warriors' Path. «
Fey! To arms! Orest and Teleon, prepare for war! Kieran! Kiel! Get the shei'dalins and Ellysetta'
s
family to safety! Now, Fey, now! The Eld are coming!»

«Belay that command!»
Tenn shouted on the same path. «
By order of the Massan, you will fall back to the Fading Lands! Do not engage the Eld!»
To Rain, he shouted, "Even if she isn't speaking as the mouthpiece of the Mages, you have no right to command the armies of the Fey! You are
dahl'reisen!
You are cast out!"

Later, Bel would tell him that at that moment, Rain seemed to grow half a manlength taller, his shoulders twice as wide, and that his eyes blazed like twin purple suns. But all he knew at the time was the rush of his tairen's power, hot as the raging Great Sun and just as furious, filling him until his body all but exploded with its wrath. In a voice so low and deadly that the very ground rumbled beneath his feet, he growled, "War has begun and still you would divide us?"

Tenn stood his ground, refusing to back down. "War has not begun! Whatever trap the Eld are waiting to spring, I will not let the Fey rush into it! I will not sacrifice what precious few Fey lives we still have left for the sake of Celieria!"

Rain could easily have ripped out Tenn's throat and danced in the shower of his blood. "The Eld aren't attacking Celieria, you fool. Teleon and Orest are the gateways to the Fading Lands. They're coming for us!"

He spun away and sent a second desperate shout on the Warriors' Path. «
Fey! My brothers, you must each make your choice. Those who would hide from the Eld and hope the Faering Mists will protect you, retreat as the Massan have commanded. The rest of you, prepare to fight!»

He leapt into the air, summoning the Change. «
Fahreeta, Torasul! Take two of the pride and fly to the Garreval. Protect the Feyreisa's family. Steli, guard Ellysetta. The rest of you, follow me as quickly as you can.»
He circled Su Reisu. «
Gaelen, Bel,
I may no longer be your king, but as your friend, I could use your blades.»

Bel exchanged a look with Gaelen, then said, «
We would follow you through the Seven Hells, Rain, if you will but give us a ride.»

Rain swooped down. Bel and Gaelen leapt onto his back, shouting,
"Miora felah ti'Feyreisa! Miorafelah ti'Feyreisen!
And death to the Eld!" With a whooshing rush of powerful magic, Rain raced east towards Orest and war.

Celieria ~ Teleon

The
shei'dalins
did not get to finish their last session of Lady Darramon's healing. Within chimes of Rain's warning, Kieran and Kiel were hustling them and Ellysetta's family out of Teleon and towards the Garreval. Behind them, the Fey who had chosen to stay and fight were rushing Lord Darramon's party to the safety of the hidden fortress.

«What in the name of the Seven Hells is going on, Kieran?»
Kiel asked privately as they hurried across the mountainside. After Rain's cry to prepare for war, the Warriors' Path had resounded with Tenn v'En Eilan's commands to retreat, claiming that he and the Massan were in charge of the Fey armies and that Rain was
dahl'reisen,
cast out for weaving Azrahn.

«Scorched if I know. The Massan have gone mad. Right at this moment, all I care about is getting the Feyreisa's family and the shei'dalins to safety before the Eld unleash every demon in the Well upon us.»
Kieran glanced back at the small group behind him. «
Quickly,»
he urged them. «
And quietly.»

Lillis and Lorelle clambered over the rocks, shrubs, and tangled grasses. Small slings were tied around their necks, holding the kittens they had brought with them. In addition, each child carried a small bag containing the belongings she'd packed the previous night. Sol hurried after his daughters, his own, larger pack on his back.

Behind Sol, the five
shei'dalins
followed in swift and graceful silence, their long scarlet robes and veils exchanged for brown traveling leathers. Fifty Fey, silent and grim, surrounded the small group. Their eyes glowed with power, the elongated pupils lengthened and widened like a hunting cat's. A shifting dome of Spirit hid them as they made their way across the unprotected mountainside towards the Garreval.

Kieran kept the small party moving and did his best to hide his worry. Not one booted foot had emerged from the Mists since Rain's cry to prepare for battle.

Eld
~
Boura Fell

"Master Maur." The Primages of the Mage Council bowed low as he entered the war room, his ravaged face hidden by the folds of a deep-hooded robe. He knew better than to reveal how damaged his physical body had become. The moment he revealed such weakness, ambitious Primages would be after him like thistlewolves stalking an injured ram.

"Status?" he snapped.

The Primages turned their attention back to the war map. Sib Vargus, the oldest of the Mages, touched his fingers to the Celierian section and swept upward in a single motion, whispering the Mage spell as he did so. A dark, shimmering image of the Celierian map rose over the table, dotted with several dozen pinpoints of bright light. He waved again, enlarging the view of the northeast quadrant of Celieria, from the Garreval to Orest.

"The Teleon force is in position in the Well, as you ordered. The rest have assembled in Boura Dor, awaiting your command."

Vadim examined the map. "Tell the commanders to attack. Here." He pointed to one of the pinpoints of light, whispered a Feraz witchword, and the light changed from white to red. He touched several other pinpoints in succession. "And here and here and here." His eyes narrowed on the section that showed the Garreval. A cluster of white lights was moving south along the very edges of the map.

He smiled and touched a pinpoint of light just east of them. "And here. Bring Ellysetta Baristani's family and the
shei'dalins
to me, alive."

Celieria ~ Teleon

The Eld appeared from nowhere. Thousands of them. They came without warning and seemingly from every direction: the guardhouse, the barracks, the watchtowers, the bailey, all the fields surrounding the outpost. They simply poured out of great gaping black holes in the air, preceded by a hail of barbed
sel'dor
arrows and blue-white balls of Mage Fire.

The first scores of Celierians to die didn't even have time to cry out. Their only sound was the thud of their bodies falling from the walls.

The others, the ones who lived long enough to see their brothers fall and hear the crash of stone and splintering wood as Mage Fire blasted away towers and barracks, raised the cry. "To arms!" they shrieked, lifting sword and crossbow. "To arms! We're under attack!"

From the shadows of the outpost and behind the invisibility weaves of Teleon, Fey warriors who had gathered after Rain's urgent call sprang from their concealment, steel flashing in the sunlight.

"I san, sheisan,
te Liss!"
For love, honor, and Light!

They screamed the Fey battle cry and dove into war.

Three miles away, near the Mist-fdled pass of the Garreval, Kieran paused to glance back at Teleon. The outpost was ablaze. Flashes of Mage Fire and Fey magic exploded like lightning in the sky. Even from this distance, he could hear the muted screams and crashes of battle.

A shout—not so muted—rang out. Their party had been spotted. Dark shapes rushed across the grassy plain towards them, a scant mile away. Eld soldiers. And with them something else. Something on four legs rather than two.

One of the
shei'dalins
cried,
"Darrokken!"

The snarling, slavering beasts gained on the Fey with deadly ease. Red eyes gleamed with menace, and Kieran's blood ran cold. He'd never seen a
darrokken
before, but he knew the beast didn't need to bring down its prey to kill it. The yellow fangs dripped poisonous saliva, and the long, razor-sharp claws carried plague and putrescence. One bite, one slash of those foul claws and, without healing, a victim would die within half a bell.

"Run!" Kieran snatched up Lillis, while Kiel grabbed Lorelle. "To the Mists!" They began to run. They pelted over rock and scrub. The warriors fell back to the rear flank to offer what protection they could.
"Fey! Ti'Kieran! Ti'shei'dalins!"
He broadcast the cry on the Warriors' Path.

Behind him, Fey'cha filled the air like rain, but for every
darrokken
felled, another took its place, and the acid blood of the loathsome creatures ate at Fey steel so that each blade called back to its owner's sheath was pitted and brittle and smoldering with foul vapors that burned Fey eyes and skin.

Two Fey at the back of the line were the first to fall as the massive, leathery, slime-covered bodies of the
darrokken
tackled them to the ground and fangs ripped through Fey throats.

The pack split up, a dozen of the foul beasts racing to cut off the approach to the pass and herd the Fey back towards the Mages.

"Up! Go up! Run for the Mists!" Kieran changed directions, charging up the mountainside. It was beyond dangerous to enter the Mists on mountainous terrain, but that risk paled in comparison to the certain death posed by the
darrokken.

Globes of Mage Fire pelted through the air. Sol stumbled and went sprawling. The warrior who paused to haul him to his feet died without a sound as Mage Fire took his head.

Larger spheres of the deadly blue-white flame showered down. Earth exploded all around them. Rocks and trees—everything the Mage Fire touched—vanished in an instant, and great hunks of the mountainside tore away, tumbling down in an avalanche of falling debris.

"Gods have mercy!" Sol cried.

"Hang the gods," Kieran snarled. "Where are the jaffing Fey?" «
Fey! Ti'Kieran! Protect the shei'dalins! Fey! Ti'Kieran! Ti'shei'dalins!»
Lillis clung to him, her face buried in his neck, showering his skin with hot tears.

"Kieran!" Kiel shouted. "The mountain!" Another fearsome barrage of Mage Fire had dissolved half the mountaintop above their heads. The remaining rock and stone gave a rumbling shriek and collapsed, sending countless tons of dirt, stone, and wood rushing towards them in a deadly wave.

"Hold tight to me,
ajiana,"
Kieran whispered to Lillis. He turned to raise both hands. Green Earth fountained inside him, wrenched up from the center of his soul, spinning in flows of extraordinary mastery and strength. He was Kieran, son of the Solande and Serranis lines, descended from many of the greatest and most powerful Fey the world had ever known, an Earth master of tremendous power.

Screaming defiance, he flung out the weaves.

The crumbling mountainside froze. Kieran gritted his teeth, feeding his power into the weave, holding up the weight of the mountain through sheer force of magic and strength of will.

Raising his voice, he shouted to the warriors behind him, "Five-fold weaves,
kem'jetos!
Keep that scorching Mage Fire off us!"

But the Fey were already locked in a desperate battle for their lives.

And they were losing.

Between the snarling filth of the
darrokken
and the fury of Mage Fire, the warriors couldn't protect themselves against the barrage of
sel'dor
arrows as Eld archers came within bow range. Weaves faltered, and Kieran screamed in helpless rage as his blade brothers began to fall. Acid seared his thigh as a barbed
sel'dor
arrow sank deep.

"Master Baristani, take the girls. Go with the
shei'dalins
into the Mists! Run!" Another
darrokken
crashed through the Fey, ripping and slashing warriors. Two of the
shei'dalins
grabbed Lillis and Lorelle and ran up the mountain towards the Mist-shrouded peaks. The other three screamed as Mage Fire,
sel'dor
arrows, and
darrokken
herded them back away from the safety of the Garreval and towards the waiting Eld army. "Kiel, scorch it, where are the Fey?"

Kiel slammed a furious Spirit weave towards Chatok and Chakai. «
Fey! Ti'Kieran! Ti'ku! Ti'Teleon!»
To me! To Teleon! Spinning blue weaves shot out from his fingertips, desiccating the
darrokken
pursuing Lillis and Lorelle.

Rumbling thunder shook the ground at Kieran's feet.
Krekk! More Mage Fire?
If the ground gave way beneath him, he was dead. He didn't dare divide his weave or the mountain would come down upon them all.

But this time, the rumble wasn't an avalanche spawned by Mage Fire.