Lady of Light and Shadows (39 page)

Rain filled his tairen lungs with air. A strong twenty-five-fold weave could resist tairen flame for quite a while. A fourfold weave could not.

Wings pumping, he reared back, hovering over the weak spot in the weave, and exhaled. A fine spray of venom from his fangs mixed with tairen breath and tairen magic ignited just inches from his muzzle. An enormous jet of flame roared forth.

More like Fey Fire than simple match-to-tinder, tairen flame could burn anything in its path: wood, rock, metal, flesh, even magic.

The small, four-fold patch burned quickly, leaving a hole too small for a tairen to fit through but just wide enough for a lean Fey king.

Rain's tairen form dissolved. His Fey form plunged neatly through the opening, falling freely, rapidly. He waited until the last possible moment to summon a slide of Air to break his fall and landed running.

Weeping, Lauriana watched her daughter's tortured form and prayed for forgiveness. She'd witnessed at least part of the first exorcism when Ellie was a child, but this was a hundred times worse. The way Ellie screamed, as if her very soul was being ripped from her body .. .

She was quieter now. Her screams had tapered off to a moaning, delirious ramble after Father Bellamy inserted the eighth of the required twelve needles. Her body was shivering violently, making the needles at her knees, thighs, hips, and shoulders tremble, and she was breathing in shallow, shuddering gasps.

Lauriana pressed her hands to her lips.
Oh, Ellie, dearling, forgive me. I never wanted to hurt you. I only wanted you safe.

A muffled roar filled the Solarus, quiet at first, then growing louder. Greatfather Tivrest cast a frightened glance over his shoulder. "The Fey! They're breaching the Solarus door! Flaming hells, Bellamy! I thought you said they couldn't break through.”

Father Bellamy stared at the melting metal. "That's impossible! I saw the ancient designs myself. This Solarus was built to withstand a direct assault by a five-fold weave.”

"But not a six-fold weave," Nivane said. "Someone out there is weaving Azrahn.”

Lauriana's lungs stalled. The Fey were breaking in? Dread shivered down her spine. The archbishop had promised her the Fey would not be able to detect the exorcism, and he'd been wrong. He'd promised her the Fey could not break in, and now it seemed he'd been wrong about that too. She had witnessed the Fey's fierce defense of Ellie. They would not treat kindly anyone who brought her harm. Gaelen vel Serranis had once murdered an entire family line for the actions of only one member. Oh, gods, what had she done?

"There's not much time, then. We must exorcise what demons we can.” Father Bellamy reached for the ninth needle.

"You're right, Father," Nivane agreed. "There's not much time. Not enough to continue with this charade in any event.”

Before Father Bellamy could do more than look up in surprise, Nivane plunged a black dagger in his back. On the other side of the altar, the third exorcist drew another blade from within his robes and drove it between the archbishop's ribs.

Lauriana screamed. "Dear gods! You've murdered them!”

"I do love a keen sense of the obvious," Nivane sneered.

"No one ever claimed she was the brightest candle in the lamp. But at least she came in useful." The third exorcist threw back the hood on his robe, revealing an all-too-familiar face.

Lauriana clutched her throat. "Den? Den Brodson? What's the meaning of this?”

Den gave a dark smile. "I'm fulfilling my vow, madam. I'm claiming what's
mine.
Thank you, by the way, for all your help in making it so convenient for me.”

For the first time, Lauriana saw Den for what he truly was-not the brutishly handsome son of a friend or a potential suitor for her daughter's hand, but as a sneering, cold-eyed manipulator who'd stop at nothing-not even murdering the Archbishop of Celieria-to get what he wanted. "Ellie was right about you all along. You
are
a filthy little toad.”

Den's face darkened with a scowl. He turned to Nivane. "Let me kill her," he urged.

"Not unless she gives us no other choice. The master wants her alive. He thinks she may yet come in handy.”

Lauriana clutched Selianne's arm. "Selianne," she whispered urgently, "we've got to stop them. We've got to save Ellie.”

Her spine went rigid at the feel of a cold, sharp blade pressed against her ribs. She turned a shocked, disbelieving gaze on the girl she'd all but helped raise. "Selianne?”

"I'm sorry, Madame Baristani. I can't let you interfere.”

"No." Lauriana's lips trembled as she whispered the denial. "Not you, too. Ellie loves you like a sister. How could you betray her?”

"How could I betray her? Oh, Madame Baristani, what is it you think
you've
done?" Selianne's face twisted in anguish. "They have my babies. They vowed to kill them if I didn't help them. You, of all people, know there's nothing a mother wouldn't do to save her child.”

"They who? Who's behind this?”

"The Mages of Eld.”

At last, too late, Lauriana realized how completely she'd been duped. They'd discovered her greatest fear and played expertly on it, convincing her that Ellysetta's soul was in danger. All Selianne's visits, her whispered worries, had been designed to feed Lauriana's fears so she would lead her daughter into this trap.

Everything Rain vel'En Daris had said was true. The Mage! were at work, and they would do anything to capture Ellie. They would turn Ellie's friends-and even her own mother-against her.

Instead of saving Ellie, Lauriana had betrayed her in the worst possible way.

Darkness whirled past Ellysetta, but if there was ground beneath her racing feet, she did not feel it. When she stopped running, the High Mage was still there, a malevolent shadow among shadows, a chilling breath of ice down her back.

"Any hope of escape is futile," he whispered. "No one will come to your rescue. Everyone has betrayed you. Your mother..

your friend, the Tairen Soul. You are all alone.”

"Not everyone has betrayed me," she retorted. "Gaelen and Bel haven't. They're out there fighting for me even now. They will save me.”

"Will they? Do you think they did not sense the exorcist hiding in the Solarus? Or read your mother's and the archbishop's intentions in their unguarded thoughts? They knew what was in store for you, and they wove a cage of magic around you to ensure you could not escape.”

For one instant, her certainty faltered. Was it possible? Her heart fluttered in her breast, and doubt stabbed her like an icy dart.

"Why would they do that?" she challenged weakly. She was ice cold and shivering. Some dark, invisible force was pulling at her, tugging her towards the Mage like steel to a lodestone. She resisted the pull, but her efforts were sluggish and exhausting.

"Because they know what you are.
My child,
Ellysetta. My daughter. My greatest achievement. The child I created to destroy the Fey.”

"Liar." She tried to laugh, but the chattering of her teeth ruined the effect. She felt so cold, as if all the warmth of the world had been siphoned away. "You outwitted yourself, Mage.
Sel'dor
doesn't burn Eld flesh, but it burns mine. I'm no daughter of yours, and the Fey know it, despite your trying to convince them otherwise.”

She'd hoped to rattle him, but it didn't work. "You think in such common, limited terms," he sneered. "Any mongrel dog can breed a whelp. Where's the genius in that? I'm talking about siring something far greater than flesh.”

Cold winds swirled around her. Icy, invisible fingers tugged and poked and prodded, seeking every weakness in her defenses, leeching away her resistance, her hope.

"Your soul, girl. I'm the father of your soul. I created it, and now I've come to claim it."

On the lawn surrounding the cathedral, Fey warriors battled what appeared to be an army of demons. Many-too many-warriors lay dead or dying on the ground, and the others fought a grim battle for their lives.

As Rain ran, he saw yet another demon rising out of the ground and tasted the cold sweetness of Azrahn. He slammed a concentrated five-fold weave at the spot, and the
selkahr
crystal buried there exploded.

«Fey, follow the scent of Azrahn. Selkahr crystals are buried in the ground. Destroy them to close the demon gates. Miora Felah ti'Feyreisa!
»

"Miora Felah ti'Feyreisa!"
The shout echoed from all corners of the embattled isle.

Rain took the cathedral steps four at a time and burst through the carved double doors leading to the nave.

In one glance, he took in the shattered altar to the left of the door, the unmistakable signs of battle, and the group of six Fey weaving powerful magic at the back of the nave. Frost was forming on the pews near Gaelen, and the entire cathedral was filled with a sweet smell so thick Rain's stomach churned. The former
dahl'reisen
was weaving deliberate, powerful Azrahn.

Rage rose up inside Rain. A billowing gray mist surrounded him, sparking with the powerful magic of the Change.

A tremendous roar shook the cathedral, filtering through the small breach in the Solarus shields and making the crystal sconces rattle. Lauriana flinched and cried out.

"The Tairen Soul has arrived," Nivane said. He raised a brow "I wonder if he'll scorch the Fey wielding Azrahn, as Fey law dictates.”

The second hinge melted, and now scorching tongues of tairen flame licked voraciously at the door frame. A sardonic smile twisted Nivane's mouth. "Apparently not. So much for Fey law. Grab the girl and let's go.”

Den bent down to grab Ellie, then hesitated when she moaned and her eyelids fluttered. "She's waking up.”

"She's got enough
sel'dor
in her now to be no trouble to us. Pick her up. I'll open the portal." Nivane yanked the long, wavy-edged Mage blade from Father Bellamy's back and dragged the exorcist's crumpled form to the far side of the room.

He gave a short laugh and glanced back at Den. "The Guardians are so used to pocket-sized bits of flesh, Bellamy will be quite a banquet for them." He jabbed the Mage blade deep into the dead man's chest. The large, dark crystal in the pommel of the knife flickered with ominous red lights.

Nivane backed several paces away from the body, and Lauriana heard him murmur something in a foreign tongue. The dead priest's body began to smolder. A small black pinprick formed in the air above. Dark shadows swept out of the small opening, hissing and circling around the body.

Ellysetta cried out at the sudden familiar sensation of ice spiders crawling over her flesh. The feeling was much stronger than ever before.

"You see?" the Mage whispered. "You can feel it, can't you? The darkness in your soul. The great gift I gave you when you were still a child in your mother's womb. Open yourself to it, girl. Embrace it.”

«Do not heed him.»
A strong voice, familiar yet not, penetrated her consciousness. A man's voice.
«Don't grant him access to your soul. He uses your fears to hold you here when those you love most need
you.
Look at the
truth
he hides
from you.»

Faint light penetrated the shadows enveloping her. The Solarus stretched out below her, as if she were perched above the chamber looking down through a tinted glass.

"You!" the Shadow Mage hissed. "You will regret your interference.”

Ellysetta cried out at the sight of Selianne holding Mama at knifepoint. Greatfather Tivrest lay sprawled on the marble floor, a knife protruding from his back. Den was hefting Ellysetta's own limp body over his shoulder.

And Father Bellamy .. .

The exorcist was obviously dead, his mouth open in a soundless scream. Above him, a dark shadow widened like a gaping maw.

In the swirling shadows, Ellysetta caught frightening glimpses of wild eyes, gnashing teeth, and wide, bloody mouths. She watched in horror as the priest's body was torn to shreds before her eyes. Flesh peeled back from bones. Blood sprayed up in unnatural red fountains. Bones splintered and turned to swirling white powder. Clicking, hissing, slurping, the demons consumed every last scrap of Father Bellamy's body and soul. In seconds, all that remained was a shredded red silk tunic, sucked dry even of bloodstains.

Above the remains, the dark hole widened rapidly and formed what appeared to be a doorway leading into utter blackness. The demons pulled back to frame the doorway, hissing, their formless shapes undulating like deadly shadow snakes.

The second exorcist, Nivane, motioned, and after a brief hesitation, Den walked towards the drowning blackness of the portal. Weeping, Mama stumbled towards it as well, prodded forward by the knife in Selianne's hand.

Ellysetta heard what sounded like a muffled groan, and a sudden sharp pain in her chest made her cry out.

"Listen to me, girl." The High Mage's voice was back, but where there had been crooning seduction, now there was cold command. "Everyone you love has betrayed you. No one is coming to help. They've all abandoned and reviled you. You are alone. Your struggles only postpone the inevitable. You cannot hope to stand against me.”

The oppressive weight of his will pressed hard against her own, urging her to give up and let the inevitable happen. She wavered on the knife's edge of surrender; despair washed over her in steady, unrelenting waves. She was no warrior, the despair whispered. She had neither the skills nor the strength to defeat him.