Lady of Light and Shadows (13 page)

"Of course. You'd have to. Eternal life." She gave a dazed laugh. “Just think of all the possibilities. The twins can take all the time they want to find a man they truly love.”

Rain frowned. "You misunderstand, Ellysetta. This gift is not one I can extend to your family. We grant it only to those who share the matebond with a Fey.”

Dreams of sharing the centuries with her family crashed abruptly. "But they're my family," she protested. "You can't think I'd want to live forever without them?”

"Everlasting life would be the greater cruelty,
shei’tani.
Mortal souls were not fashioned to endure the darkness of the ages. They become ... twisted and bitter.”

"Is that the fate in store for me?”

"Nei,
never. The
shei’tanitsa
bond ensures eternal strength for both our souls, until the gods call us home. But a mortal soul unanchored by a matebond has no such protection." When she continued to frown, he added gently, "You know as well as I do your mother would never accept that gift at such a price, even if we could offer it to her.”

Ellie's gaze fell. He was right. Mama would never risk corrupting her soul.

Rain drew her into his arms. "This much at least I can offer: If your family comes to the Fading Lands, they will live free of illness and the effects of age until the end of their time.”

"Thank you, Rain." She knew how jealously the Fey guarded their borders, Rain more than most. Not since the end of the Mage Wars had the Fey opened the Fading Lands to any but their own kind, but his offer still seemed small consolation. Her parents were the beacons in her life, standing bright and strong even against sometimes terrifying darkness. She couldn't imagine facing centuries of life without them.

"I have upset you.”

"No, you haven't ... not really. All mortals know they must eventually face the fact of their parents’ deaths, but it's never been a thought I could bear without crying.”

"If I could offer you more, I would.”

"I know." She rose to her feet. "It's late. I should probably go to bed.”

"Of course." With a wave of his hand, her shimmering gown changed back to her plain, cotton night rail. He helped her slip back in through her bedroom window. "Will you be able to sleep now? Your fear is gone?”

She bit her lip. "You knew?”

"I knew.” He laid his palm over his heart. "I felt it here, through the first thread of our bond. It's why I left Teleos's dinner. I could not stay there once I sensed your distress. You should have asked Bel to call me earlier. I would have come.”

"I didn't want to be a bother.”

"You could never be that." He nodded towards the bed. "Shall I stay with you again, as I did last night?”

"Would you?" The hopeful question popped out before she could censor it. Immediately embarrassed, she hurried to demur. "I'm sorry. You don't have to. Really. I'll be fine.”

His brows rose. "You think spending another night holding you in my arms is an onerous task? Surely I did not leave you that impression." Without waiting for an answer, he swept her up into his arms and deposited her on the bed, then deftly stripped off his weapons belts and leather tunic before joining her. His arms slid around her, pulling her to the warm security of his chest, and as her eyelids began to droop, she felt the press of his lips against her hair.

"Sleep,
shei’tani."
His whisper spun over her like an enchantment. Without a whisper of protest, she did, and for the first time in weeks, she passed the entire night in dreamless peace.

I live

I fight

I bleed

I die

For love.

I am Fey.

-I am Fey, a warrior's poem by Evanaris vel Bahr

Dressed in a form-fitting coat and trousers, with a waistcoat woven of Tuelis Sebarre's precious spider-silk in shades of blue and green to accent his vivid eyes, Kolis Manza climbed Celieria's palace steps. Appreciative female gazes followed him as he went, but he ignored them. When he donned the persona of Ser Vale, Queen Annoura's Favorite, the Sulimage was used to drawing feminine attention.

Everything was progressing on schedule. The butcher's son, Den Brodson, was packed and heading up the North Road to put Master Maur's plans for Ellysetta Baristani in motion, Selianne was delivering Kolis's gift for the Feyreisa, and Kolis's newest pamphlets were already papering the streets of the South End, their incendiary accusations stirring the mobs into a frenzy. Now, as Vadim Maur and Kolis had agreed last night, it was time for Jiarine Montevero to earn the gifts and titles Kolis had bestowed upon her.

Kolis made his way towards the back of the palace, where the grand ballroom opened to marble terraces overlooking sprawling, immaculately groomed gardens and fountains. King Dorian and Queen Annoura were hosting a luncheon to introduce their son's soon-to-be betrothed to the lords and ladies of the court.

A large white canopy had been erected on the lawn to keep the warm summer sun from overheating Annoura's noble guests. Snowy linen tablecloths fluttered in the slight breeze. Long serving tables offered an abundance of culinary delights: plum-stuffed hummingbirds artfully arranged in fields of candied flowers, roast peacock displayed in a fan of brilliant feathers, spit-roasted boar served on a bed of sautéed greens, iced fruits, and tiny vegetable sandwiches. A small string orchestra played beneath a blue-and-cream-striped canopy.

Annoura sat on a gilt chair beneath the largest canopy next to Prince Dorian and his future bride, Lady Nadela. The
shei'dalin,
robed and veiled in unrelieved scarlet, was seated nearby, with her black-leather-clad Fey quintet behind her. Dorian and Lord v'En Solande stood some distance away in a smaller, less festive gathering of lords that included Teleos, Clovis, Nin, and Fann. Kolis had no doubt what they were discussing.

He caught a nearby page and handed him a folded, sealed note. "Deliver this-discreetly, mind you-to Lady Montevero, that lady in blue standing near the queen." He tossed the boy a gold coin for his troubles and headed back into the palace to a small reading library to wait.

A quarter bell later, the library door inched open and Jiarine slipped inside, locking the door behind her. Sky-blue sapphires and diamonds glittered at her throat and wrists, accenting the pretty blush in her cheeks and the soft powder-blue silk of her gown.

"That blue suits you, my sweet." The color lent a deceptive air of innocence to a woman who was anything but. He dragged her to him and tsked over the bruises on her throat hidden by carefully applied layers of powder. "Those buffoons at the dinner were careless with you. You should have insisted on better manners. But then, I know you didn't mind, did you, pet?" He smiled and stroked a finger along her jaw as the color in her cheeks deepened.

She yanked her face away and scowled at him. "You didn't tell me what that Feraz spell would do," she accused. "Why didn't you warn me?”

He lifted a brow, but let her impertinence pass. There would be time enough later to teach Jiarine the expected subservience of an
umagi.
"My dear, I didn't know. The
talis
doesn't cause a specific reaction; it only enhances its target's emotions and rouses a magical response. If she'd been cold, the room might well have ended up coated in ice.”

"You left me. You left me there to them.”

"I don't favor men. Especially not foul, drooling
bogrots
like Lord Bevel. Not even while existing in your sweet body." His hand trailed down her throat and followed the low scoop of her gown's neckline. Her breasts swelled against the bodice's narrow bands of fabric. He saw the hint of another bruise disappearing beneath the fabric and knew those marks on her throat weren't the only ones she bore.

"Who had you, Jiarine? Give me their names." His hands stroked across her bodice in feather-light, teasing brushes.

She shuddered and closed her eyes.

"Their names, pet. Bevel I know. Who else, hmm?" He knew her well enough to know there'd been more than one.

"Purcel." The admission grated its way past clenched teeth.

"Purcel?" Kolis chuckled. "You're a stronger lure than I suspected. The man's a walking corpse. I doubt he's been able to raise more than a finger in a decade." His mind raced through reams of data he'd committed to memory long ago. Purcel's estates were rich with iron and coal, and his foundries placed him second only to Lord Clovis as Celieria's greatest producer of steel. Vadim Maur would be pleased to gain such a conquest. "Who else?”

Kolis's hand slid into her bodice and lifted one breast free. The creamy skin, porcelain-fine and pale as milk, was marred by dark, finger-sized bruises and curved lines that looked like teeth marks. Her nipple was tight and pebbled. He brushed his thumb across it and watched her flesh jump in response. "Who gave you these little bites?" He bent his head and traced one of the bite marks with the tip of his tongue.

She gasped and grabbed his shoulders. "Ponsonney.”

"Ah ... yes, I've heard that about him. Did he show you his walking stick?" He licked her nipple and grazed it with his teeth. She rewarded him with a sudden wave of heat and the musky-sweet scent of her arousal.

"Yes," she gasped.

"Did he use it on you?" He raised her skirts and ran his hand up over the silk of her stockings, past the beribboned garters to the soft, bare skin of her inner thighs. Her hips jumped forward.

"Yes." Her voice was tight and choked.

"And did you like it?" Wetness soaked his hand as he stroked her. She rose up to the tips of her toes in an unconscious move to give him better access. Her hips began a familiar rhythmic grind against his hand.

"Yes!”

Kolis smiled and worked her with his hand and mouth, enjoying the eager way she responded to his touch and the scattered images and remembered sensations from the other night that filtered from her mind to his. She'd let them use her in every way a man could use a woman, and she'd reveled in it, begged them for it, wept and pleaded for their hands, their mouths, their cocks inside her. He bit down on her nipple at the same time as his thumb pressed hard on the small bud of straining flesh until she cried out and came in a sudden, jerking rush.

"Good," he purred when her spasms slowed to small shudders. "I want their votes. Get them for me. And I want Mull and Great Lord Harrod too. Do what you must." He clasped her shoulder and pressed her down to her knees before him. Without instruction, her hands went to the buttons of his trousers. Of all his umagi, Jiarine was the one whose insatiable appetites most closely matched his own. "I know how"-his voice broke off and he gave a faint groan as her mouth closed around him-"persuasive you can be." It was his turn to close his eyes.

A half bell later, Kolis stood watching from behind a marble column as Jiarine rejoined the courtiers gathered beneath the large canopy. She moved around the crowd with easy grace, pausing at the queen's side to murmur something in Annoura's ear that made the queen smile. After one brief glance over her shoulder, Jiarine lifted a flute of iced pinalle from a passing servant and strolled across the lawn towards Great Lord Harrod.

Kolis stepped away from the column into plain view and waited for Queen Annoura to catch a glimpse of him. He knew the moment she did. Even from a distance, he could see her body go motionless. He held her gaze for a long, hypnotic moment, long enough to refresh her memory of sultry Ser Vale's appeal, then turned away, knowing she would be thinking of her Favorite for the rest of the day. Temptation, as Kolis had long ago learned, worked best when delight was just out of reach, and despite Annoura's resistance, her hunger for forbidden pleasures was growing stronger with each passing day.

Lauriana sat across from Selianne Pyerson at a small window-front table in Pimbold's bustling keflee shop on King's Street, where she and Selianne had come after the day's devotions. A small blue-and-silver-wrapped gift-Selianne's wedding present to Ellysetta-lay forgotten on the table between them. Lauriana's reflection in the window showed a face as stricken as her heart felt upon hearing Selianne's whispered news ... rumors whispered in confidence from a friend with palace connections.

Ellysetta had been part of some ... some
carnal banquet
at the palace two nights ago. The results of a spell woven by the Tairen Soul.

"I'm sorry, Madame Baristani." Selianne reached across the table to clasp Lauriana's hands. "I didn't know what to do, but I thought you should know.”

"No, Selianne, you were right to tell me." Pulling her distracted thoughts back to order, Lauriana patted the younger woman's hand.

"I'm frightened for Ellie, Madame Baristani. I'm frightened of what's happening to her, of what will become of her when the Fey take her away. I know you've always been a beacon of strength for her. I fear what will happen when she doesn't have you to guide her." Selianne lowered her eyes and hesitated, as if gathering courage to speak. "My mother has a friend ... a sea captain ... He's agreed to offer Ellie safe passage on his return voyage. He can take her away to someplace where she'd be safe from the Fey.”

"What?" Lauriana snatched her hands away and drew back to regard Selianne with shocked disbelief. Two days ago, awash in tears, Selianne had shared her fearful concerns about Ellie being exposed to the corruption of the Fey, but Laurie hadn't realized her worries would take her down
this
path. "Selianne, I know you mean well, but-”

"Please, Madame Baristani, hear me out. He can take all of you. Your whole family. There would be no repercussions and you'd all be safe ... together and free of the Fey.”

"No repercussions? Oh, killing, by the king's own command, before the Supreme Council and with half the court as witness, we pledged Ellysetta's troth to the Tairen Soul. If we fled our bound oath, we'd all be outcasts, exiles. And the Fey would never give her up so easily. We'd be hunted for the rest of our lives.”

Tears sparkled in Selianne's blue eyes. "I'm only thinking of Ellie. I can see her changing before my eyes, and it frightens me. I'm afraid of what the Fey are doing to her.”

"As am I," Lauriana agreed grimly. "But we cannot right a wrong with a more grievous wrong, Selianne. No matter how tempting or justified it may seem. Every teaching in the Book of Light tells us that is the first step down the Dark Path.”

"But what else can we do, Madame Baristani?”

Lauriana stared helplessly at the younger woman. Her eyes felt dry and burning, and the small luncheon they'd shared churned uncomfortably in her belly. "I don't know.”

She was still worrying over it a bell later as she walked home, her arms full of packages she'd collected from various tradesmen. Her steps slowed as she neared the corner of West Avenue and Poppy. An unshaven man in a moth-eaten coat stood on the corner beside the lamppost. He held a large sign that proclaimed "The Shadows Are Among Us" and cried out for Celierian to repent their sins and seek the Light.

Lauriana grimaced. Shadow Seer. One of the crazed religious zealots who saw the end of the world in every cloud and flickering lamp. His sort gave true followers of Adelis a bad name.

She shifted closer to the street to give the man a wide berth, but as she passed him, he leapt at her and grabbed her arms. She gave a shrill scream of fear. Her purse and packages tumbled to the cobblestones. The man thrust his face so close to hers, she could see the spidery red veins in the whites of his wild eyes.

"He's here!" the man cried. "The demon-beast of the Dark Lord. He'll steal her soul, mother! Save her! Only you can save her!”

"Here now, let that woman go." Several men rushed to Lauriana's aid, prying her from the ragged Seer. "Get on back to the slums, you crack-skull." Two of the men shoved the Seer down the street, while a third bent to gather Lauriana's fallen belongings.

"You all right, madam?" A fourth man with kind eyes helped her to her feet.

"I ... yes." Lauriana pressed a shaking hand to her face and battled back the threatening hot rush of tears. "I'm fine. Thank you. Just a little shaken." She took the packages and her bag back from the third man. "Thank you all," she repeated. Gathering her composure as best she could, she turned down Poppy and headed towards home.

She couldn't stop herself from glancing back over her shoulder. The Shadow Seer stood to one side of the cobbled road, watching her. His mouth was moving. She couldn't hear what he was saying, but she knew the words all the same.
Only you can save her.

Deeply troubled, she made her way back home. Rain and Ellie were still out on their "courtship bells," those long, unchaperoned periods of time when they flew off to engage in gods only knew what kind of mischief together. Sol was certain the Fey-oath the Tairen Soul had sworn would keep their daughter and her virtue safe, but Lauriana wasn't nearly so trusting. Especially after Selianne's dreadful revelation.