Lady of Light and Shadows (22 page)

A broad smile warmed Lord Barrial's face. "Please excuse me, My Lord Feyreisen, Lady Ellysetta, my lords and ladies." Barrial executed a swift bow. "My daughter and her new husband have finally arrived.”

Ellysetta watched him stride towards the grand stairs where a young woman was descending on the arm of a handsome, haughty-looking Celierian lordling. Lord Barrial's daughter had her father's chestnut hair, caught up in a profusion of thick, lustrous ringlets that spilled down the back of her deep rose gown. Her heart-shaped face seemed made for the dazzling smile that broke across it when she caught sight of her father. She rushed down the last few stairs and fell into Lord Barrial's arms for a laughing embrace, and Ellysetta felt her own heart swell with empathetic joy.

Beside her, Rain stiffened. "What is he doing?”

She followed his gaze and found Adrial standing near the edge of the ballroom. Adrial's brother Rowan came bursting through the terrace doors and started shoving his way through the crowd towards him.

«Bel,»
Rain snapped, his Spirit voice harsh as a whip.

Before Bel could move, Adrial gave a raw, choked cry, and Ellysetta's feelings became a tumult of emotions so intense that tears flooded her eyes. "Adrial?" she took half a step towards him, just as Rain jerked to attention and Rowan cried out,
"Nei,
Adrial!”

Before anyone could stop him, Adrial crossed the room in a blur of speed to stand before Lord Barrial's daughter. When his shadow fell over her, the young woman went totally still. The smile faded from her face and she slipped free of her father's embrace.

"Talisa?" Lord Barrial frowned at his daughter in open confusion, but she was not looking at him. Her gaze was locked on the Fey-pale, Fey-beautiful face of Adrial vel Arquinas.

She stared at Adrial, her eyes wide and dazed. "I know you," she said. "I've dreamed of you since before I can remember. I dreamed of you only days ago.”

"Talisa?" The young lord who was her husband moved closer. "Who is this man? How do you know him?" His voice was heavy with suspicion.

His wife didn't appear to hear him. "I waited for you," she told Adrial softly, "but you never came.”

"I am here now, beloved.” In a voice husky with emotion, Adrial declared,
"Ver reisa ku'chae. Kem sera, shei’tani."
He held out his hands, palms up.

Slowly, Talisa Barrial diSebourne reached out.

"By the gods, you will
not!"
Lord diSebourne snarled and grasped his wife's arm to yank her away from Adrial.

In a flash, Adrial lunged for him, lethal red Fey'cha clutched in each hand, murder on his face.

"Rain!" Ellie cried. "Stop him!”

Before the first syllable left her lips, bright shields sprang up around Adrial and around Lord Barrial, his daughter, and her husband. Ellie found her vision tinted as shields formed around her, too. With a push of Air, Rain thrust her protectively behind him even as the remaining warriors of her quintet closed tight around her.

In the same instant, dozens of Fey warriors appeared as if by magic, black-leather-clad shapes leaping from the balconies above, from the corners of the room, from the very woodwork itself, it seemed to Ellie. One moment the room was a sea of glittering pastel courtiers, the next, it was a dark abyss of black leather, grim faces, and naked steel.

King Dorian jumped to his feet as his personal guard swarmed around him and Queen Annoura, weapons at the ready. Beside them, Prince Dorian clutched his affianced bride.

Adrial lunged against the shield surrounding him, sparks of white and red flashing around him. "Release me! You have no right to keep a Fey from his
shei’tani!”

Talisa was weeping, her hands reaching out to Adrial even as her father tried to pull her away. Her husband, enclosed in his own protective bubble, had drawn his sidearm, and violence glittered in his eyes. "And you have no right to touch another man's wife!”

"Peace.” Marissya's voice was pitched low and tranquil.

"Don't you dare try your witch's tricks on me, Fey
petchka,"
Lord diSebourne hissed. He called across the tomb-silent ballroom, "Is this what Celierian have become, sire? The lackeys of Fey magicians? My father told me what's been going on here in the city with these Fey. They murder our villagers-even our children!-and you do nothing. They steal a man's betrothed and you allow it. Will you also stand by while they steal a man's wife?”

King Dorian's face turned pale, then grew dark with wrath.

"You are overset, Lord diSebourne," he replied tightly. "Though your anger is understandable, you will marshal your tongue when speaking to your king.”

"Sire, my family has lived and died protecting the borders for the last few hundred years. I am your loyal subject, but you either uphold a man's right to his wife or you do not. I will have your answer.”

Lord Sebourne called out in support of his heir, "As will I, sire.”

Lord Morvel echoed him, then another two border lords and a dozen other nobles followed suit.

Silent, watchful, Rain waited for Dorian's response. The Celierian king looked around the ballroom, his gaze moving slowly over the faces of the nobles who supported his rule, and over the still, pale faces of the Fey, once revered allies, now on the verge of becoming a polarizing force that could tear his kingdom apart. His eyes met Rain's for a long instant. When he spoke, Dorian's voice was clear, unhesitating. "Without a doubt, I support a man's right to his wife, Lord diSebourne. Above and beyond the claims of any others.”

A noisy thrum of whispering voices followed his pronouncement.

Without the smallest change of expression, Rain bowed his head in the Celierian king's direction. "Nor would the Fey presume to think otherwise, Your Majesty. We honor your marriage rites as we honor our own matebonding. Both are inviolable.”

"he
ta nei keppa!"
Adrial cried out. You have no right!

"Ni ve ta!"
Rain snapped back. Nor do you.
«You will be silent. We will speak, but not here for the entertainment of these mortals. You will leave your truemate in her father's care, and you will come with me. Now.»
He razored a hard look at Lord Barrial and for the first time sent a thought straight into the border lord's mind.
«Keep your daughter safe, even from her husband. If he harms her, there will be death, and I will
not
be able to stop it.
»

Shock, indignation, and concern battled for supremacy on Lord Barrial's face, but Rain turned away. As long as the border lord guarded his daughter, this crisis might pass without bloodshed. Just to be safe, however, Rain issued a silent command, and five of the warriors in the room shimmered into invisibility. It wasn't that he didn't trust Cannevar, but no Fey would ever leave a truemate's safety entirely to the keeping of mortals.

Rain gestured, and the remaining Fey silently departed-warriors, Dax, Marissya and her quintet. Adrial didn't move. That was no surprise. But neither did the rest of Ellysetta's quintet.

Rain glanced down at his truemate, the faintest of frowns creasing his brow. Still enveloped in the protective shield, she stood behind him, motionless. Her gaze was fixed on Adrial and Talisa diSebourne, and tears spilled unchecked from her eyes.

Ellysetta wasn't aware of watching, nor of weeping. She wasn't even consciously aware of her own flesh and bone. All she knew, all she could feel, was emotion. Soaring joy, shattering pain, a longing so fierce and so immense that it filled her entire being and made her tremble. And she could hear voices, their voices, somehow strangely a part of her.

«I waited for you, but you never came.»

«I am here now.
»

«Its too late. I've already pledged my life to another.»

«Leave him. Come with me. You are my shei’tani. Your place is with me.»

«I am his wife. My place is with him.
»

«I have waited eleven centuries for you. Does that count for nothing?»

Devastating sadness swamped Ellie's senses.
«I dreamed of you. With those others. With those women.
»

Oh, gods. An agony of self-recrimination, self-loathing, stole her breath. She was gasping. She was dying.

"Ellysetta!" Firm hands grasped her shoulders and gave her a quick, hard shake.

She came back to herself in a whooshing rush. Dazed, she stared up into Rain's face. His eyes blazed with fear.

"It's all right." She touched his hand and drew a deep breath, trying to still her racing heart. "I'm all right. But Adrial ...”

Adrial stood trembling, and his face had turned a worrisome shade of gray. With an oath, his brother Rowan stepped forward and slammed one rock-hard fist into Adrial's jaw. The younger Fey crumpled, unconscious, into his brother's arms.

Talisa gave a small cry, but she choked it back quickly. With a presence of mind Ellysetta had yet to fully master, Talisa managed to collect herself and remain at her father's side as Rowan carried Adrial from the room. She stood as proud and aloof as the haughtiest Celierian noblewoman, even though Ellie knew her heart was breaking. It was shattering, in fact, splintering into a thousand tiny shards that shredded what precious happiness she had found in her marriage and her life.

Ellysetta shook her head, pulling back from the drowning lure of the young woman's emotions. Why could she now feel someone else's pain so clearly? First Adrial's, now Talisa's. She glanced up at Rain as he led her from the room. What was happening to her?

They gathered in Rain's chambers, Marissya's quintet wove the privacy wards around the room while Rowan laid his brother on one of the empty couches. Marissya sat beside Adrial and threw back her veils. Her face radiated concern as she laid her hands on him. Rain watched broodingly. After a moment, she stood.

"Physically, he is well. I have done what I can to ease his emotions when he wakes. But you know he won't leave Celieria now." She looked at Rain. "No matter what you, Dorian, or even Talisa herself says, he won't leave her.”

"I know." No warrior would leave his truemate once he found her. "I've never known a married woman to recognize a
shei’tanitsa
bond.”

"If this husband truly held any part of Talisa's heart or soul, she would not have. Not that that will matter to the Celierians. Lord diSebourne will not stand by while a Fey takes his wife. And his father will support him. Lord Barrial may as well.”

"I know that too.”

"It could mean the end of the Fey-Celierian alliance.”

"Shall I kill Adrial now, then, and save us the trouble?" Rain said. Ellysetta gasped, and Rain bit back his temper. "The alliance is already lost. There's no way Dorian will declare
primus
now, and we don't have enough votes to keep the Eld out of Celieria.”

"Who cares about politics?" Dax interjected. "Doesn't anyone besides me realize that for the first time in a thousand years we have not only one but two
shei’tanitsa
bonds recognized within ten days of each other? To Celierian women? Doesn't that strike anyone else as odd?" He glanced around the room at the other Fey. "No warrior has ever found a truemate outside the women of the Fey, yet a week ago, Rain, you found Ellysetta, and now Adrial has found Talisa. It defies all logic.”

"At least there is some manner of explanation for Talisa," Rain said, remembering Cann's
sorreisu kiyr.
"There's Elvish blood in the Barrial line, and apparently Fey blood, too." He looked at Marissya. "Lord Barrial wears your cousin Dural's crystal.”

She sank onto the couch where Adrial lay. "Dural?”

"I discovered it the night of Teleos's dinner. I wasn't certain they shared kinship, but now it seems impossible that they do not.”

"But Barrial wasn't truemated to his wife," Dax protested. "The bond was purely mortal-clearly mortal or he would have died when his wife expired in childbirth. And if Lord Barrial is Fey, as you say, how could he sire a daughter outside the bonds of
shei’tanitsa?”

Female Fey were only born to truemated couples, and even then such a blessing was so rare, a girl child's birth was cause for great celebration.

"I don't understand it any more than you do, Dax." Rain lifted his hands. "Talisa and Ellysetta are both from the north. Perhaps there is something there we have too long discounted. Perhaps something about the remnant magics from the Mage Wars, when combined with other magical blood, can make the impossible possible.”

One thing seemed certain to Rain: Lord Barrial's heritage and Talisa's existence explained the twenty-five
dahl'reisen
camped on Barrial lands and the personal interest Gaelen had taken in Lord Barrial. There was vel Serranis blood in the Barrial line, and somehow, though he'd not been truemated to his wife, Lord Barrial had sired a daughter. A daughter who had never felt comfortable around
dahl'reisen,
as if she-like all Fey women-could feel the pain of their lost souls. The
dahl'reisen
had been protecting a potential truemate. And probably hoping that somehow the Barrial line might produce a truemate for one of them.

"Does it really matter how Talisa came to be Adrial's
shei’tani?"
Rowan interrupted. "She is, and he will not leave her. No matter what you say, Rain, no matter what the cost to our relationship with Celieria, he will try to win her bond. None of us has the right to deny him that. If any wish to try, they'll have to take me first." He glared his challenge at them all.

Without warning, Adrial jolted back to consciousness. His body jackknifed into a sitting position, and his eyes scanned the room with fast, frantic sweeps. "Talisa-”

Rowan was at his brother's side in an instant. "She is safe. She is with her father.”

Adrial clasped Rowan's arms, holding on tight, as if he needed his brother's strength to anchor his own. "The Celierian ... diSebourne?”

"With his father.”

"Gods, Rowan, it's not supposed to be this way. How could I not know she was there? How could I not have found her before she wed that man?" Adrial covered his face with his hands. "That night, at the pleasure house, she was there in my mind." His fingers raked through his hair in agitation. "I betrayed her even as I found her, and she was with me the whole time. She felt it all." He gave a harsh, choked laugh. "I don't even remember anything I did under that cursed Spirit weave, but she does. And she blames me for it.”

Ellysetta gasped, and her hand flew to her throat as she finally understood the full extent of the sorrow that had been in Talisa's mind. "Adrial .... She started to reach out to him, but he flinched away from her. "Adrial, I'm so sorry.”

A hand closed over her shoulder, and fierce reassurance poured into her. "It is not your fault, Ellysetta." Rain's
voice
was firm. "It is no one's fault. Even without the weave, Adrial's
shei’tani
would still be wed to another.”

Adrial stood abruptly. "Your pardon, Ellysetta. The Feyreisen is correct. I should not have implied that you were at fault in any way. I am ... not myself.” He turned towards Rain. "I must forfeit the honor of holding Air in the Feyreisa's quintet. I no longer have the right to guard her, nor can I return to the Fading Lands. My place is with my own
shei’tani."
He squared his shoulders and raised his chin in a faintly defiant challenge. "I cannot ask that you provide a quintet to guard Talisa, only that you do not try to stop me from doing what I must.”

"Five guard her already," Rain answered evenly. "They are yours to command. No Fey will stop you from following your
shei’tani.
But, Adrial-do not shed Celierian blood. No matter the provocation.”

"Not even to protect her?”

"Only if her life is in immediate danger. For no other reason.”

Adrial nodded stiffly. "Agreed.”

"And stay out of her husband's path. There will be trouble if he knows you're there.”

"I will try.”

"Do more than that.”

Their gazes met over Ellysetta's head, and wills clashed for a brief, tense moment. Then Adrial bowed his head, and Ellysetta knew that for the moment, at least, duty to his people and his king would keep Adrial from provoking war.

Adrial took a step backward and bowed.
"Miora felah ti'Feyreisa,"
he murmured as he rose from the bow "May the gods grant you long life and fertility, Ellysetta Baristani, and may you find happiness in the Fading Lands.”

Adrial met his brother's gaze in a brief exchange, then pivoted on his heel and left.

As the door closed, Rowan's shoulders slumped. "This should have been a joyous time.”