Lord of the Fading Lands (34 page)

"There is a glade like this in the Fading Lands," Rain said. "Near Blade's Point, overlooking the Bay of Flame. When the sun sets, the waters of the bay turn to liquid fire, and the fairy- flies awake and light up the hills just like this. Legend says a great tairen called Lissallukai, the first ever to cast a wing shadow over the Fading Lands, once breathed her fire across the waves of the bay at sunset and sang the magic of this world to life.”

"That's a beautiful story.”

He smiled faintly. "Oh,
aiyah,
we Fey are known for the beauty of our tales.”

The warm night air swirled over them, fragrant with the verdant lushness of the glade, an intoxicating mix of wildflowers and the fresh scent of the night sea. He turned his head towards her, his long, dark hair draping down around his face like onyx silk. His skin shone with Fey luminescence, a light in the darkness.

"Wilt share with me the joy of your kiss,
shei'tani?"
A finger brushed across her lip.
"Ku'shalah aiyah to nei."
Bid me yes or no.
"Aiyah,"
she whispered. His head bent towards her, his mouth touched hers with exquisite lightness, letting her confirm her choice. With a sigh of breath that he drank as if it were the water of life, she parted her lips and melted into his arms.

Up until now, modesty had made her reticent to offer him passion without his first coaxing it from her, but this time she met his desire with hunger of her own. Kiss for kiss, breath for breath, she matched him, and his soul rejoiced. The tairen roared, but Rain held it fast and bound it with flows of steel-clad will.

Ellysetta threaded her fingers through Rain's silky hair and ran them over the smooth, warm leather covering his back. A whisper of frustration snaked through her at the small barrier that stood between her touch and his skin. She brought her hands around to his chest, fretting at the maze of fastenings that kept his tunic closed and kept her hands from touching him. She wasn't bold enough to release the numerous catches, nor to ask him to remove his tunic. Irritation over her own cowardice and thwarted desires made her nip at his ear.

A low, purring growl rumbled in his chest. "Wouldst share more than a kiss,
shei'tani?”

"I …"
The temptation was great. Heat pooled deep in her belly at the mere thought of it. Her flesh felt hot and swollen, and she could feel the hot, rapid throb of her heart pounding through her veins. "We shouldn't. We're not yet wed.”

He pulled back just far enough to meet her eyes. "Since the moment you called me from the sky, I have been more wed to you than any Celierian who stands before a priest to take a wife." He stroked her lips with his finger. His eyes flared with a slight glow, and invisible lips traced his finger's path, pressing fevered kisses across her skin. He smiled a little as she gasped and her eyelids fluttered down. "But I will not take more than you are willing to give. Besides, your father made me swear a Fey oath that there would be no mating before the marriage.”

Her eyes flew open. "He did
what?
When did he do that?”

"That first night, after we returned from the river... Why else do you think your parents allow us to spend our courtship bells without a chaperon?" He gave a rueful smile. "He is canny, your father. And protective. Good traits for a father to have”

"You and my father talked about mating … about you and me and …" She sat up and covered her hot cheeks with her hands.

His eyebrows lifted. "Why does this embarrass you? There is nothing more natural than mating. When tairen mate, it is a spectacle of great drama and beauty in the sky. All the Fey within a hundred miles come out to watch. When people mate, it is a bit less spectacular, and certainly more private, but: no less beautiful in its own way.”

"Rain . .

"I can show you.”

She pulled back, shocked. "But you just said Papa made you promise not to. You swore a Fey oath." He couldn't seriously be suggesting he would break his oath?

He shook his head. "I vowed not to mate you. I never said anything about showing you with Spirit what your father has forbidden me in flesh." His eyes were slumberous and filled with masculine satisfaction. "When you wager with tairen …”

. take care with your words." They finished the Fey maxim in concert.

"Well?" he prompted in the brief ensuing silence. "Would you like to know what it is like to mate with this Fey? In all modesty, there are few who can equal my mastery of Spirit. You would not know it was a weave.”

Her cheeks felt as if they were on fire. "I don't think that's the best idea …" She didn't even want to contemplate facing her parents after such a thing.

Rain laughed softly, not offended by her refusal. "Little coward. No mating, then, in any form, just a deeper taste of pleasure." He bent his head again, and his tongue did things to her ear that made all thoughts of her parents fly out of her head. She moaned helplessly, and her eyes squeezed shut as sensation grew to stronger pleasure. "Is that Spirit?”

"Nei,
that's just me … do you like it?”

Gods help her. "Too much, I think.”

His lips brushed her cheek.
"Parei
is the Fey word for stop. Say it, and I will cease. No matter when, no matter why.

Ku'shalah aiyah to nei.”

There was no possible answer but one. Despite a lifetime of modesty reinforced by her parents' strict but loving guidance, ever since the moment Rain had given Ellysetta her first, searing taste of passion, she'd wanted more.

"Aiyah,"
she said, and her breath caught in her throat as the pleasures of Rain's touch multiplied exponentially. Real and Spirit hands held her, stroked her. Real and Spirit lips rained kisses on her mouth, her throat, the soft skin exposed by her gown's modestly scooped neckline.

He tracked nibbling kisses around her ear and the sensitive nape of her neck. His hand stroked a searing path down her side, then back up to cup her breast. Her back arched, filling his palm more fully with her flesh. He ran a finger down the center of her bodice, and the fabric parted without protest, forming a long, deep vee that exposed the inner curves of her breasts. The warm summer air felt cool against her heated flesh. Rain stroked the soft, exposed skin.

Invisible Spirit limbs guided her hands to his chest, as swirling Earth magic effortlessly peeled away his black leather tunic and Fey'cha belts, baring the pale, leanly muscled perfection of his Fey flesh. At last she could touch him as she'd wanted to do just moments ago.

Fevered heat and naked skin filled Ellysetta's palms. Her fingers clutched at the rock-hard swell of pectoral muscles, felt the pounding drum of his heart. He brushed aside the remaining scraps of fabric covering her breasts and lowered his head.

Incredible, searing, glorious heat consumed her. Coherent thought eluded her. She could not think. She could not speak. With a helpless gasp of pleasure, she surrendered. Her arms twined around his neck, clutching him to her.

Kolis Manza locked his door at the Inn of the Blue Pony, closed the shutters, and activated the privacy wards he'd set into every surface of the room. On the desk near the bed lay the paraphernalia he hated but was forced to use to avoid Fey detection: the silver salver, the sacrifice, and the Mage blade whose
selkahr
crystal pulsated with sated fullness.

It was time to return to Eld and make his report to the High Mage. He prepared the physical ingredients of the spell. then began to murmur the Feraz witchwords he had long ago committed to memory. Energy gathered, then pulsed in a bright flash. If not for the blackout spell laid on the window shutters, passersby in the street would have seen a curious blast of light emanating from one of the windows on the third floor of the inn.

When the light dimmed, the inn's bedchamber was empty.

The sensation of ice spiders came without warning, crawling up Ellysetta's spine and dousing passion with brutal force. She tore herself out of Rain's arms and jerked into a sitting position, gasping for breath and crossing her arms as violent shivers shook her body.

"Shei'tani?"
Rain drew her back into his arms. He chafed his hands across her shivering skin. "What happened?”

"I—" Already the feeling was gone. She pressed a hand over her heart where a cold chill still throbbed with every beat. "I'm sorry. It's nothing." Suddenly conscious of her nakedness, she fumbled to draw the scraps of her gown over her breasts.

He spun swift Earth to repair her clothing. His eyes held hers, full of concern and worry. "Ellysetta, that was not `nothing.' “

"It was just another ghost treading on my grave." She rose on unsteady legs. "I told you, it happens all the time." He rose to his full height, looking very intimidating as he towered over her, frowning. "This I do not like.”

She laughed without humor. "Believe me, neither do I" She glanced up at the position of the dual moons in the sky. "We should go. It's getting late.”

"Very well," he conceded with obvious reluctance. "But we'll talk of this again." He dispersed the magic woven over the glade, then moved to the center of the clearing and summoned the Change.

Throughout the return flight, occasional, involuntary shivers that had nothing to do with the chill of the high-altitude air shook Ellysetta. The ice spider sensations were happening too frequently. In the past, they had often preceded the other, more frightening episodes. The seizures that left her howling and shrieking like a wild thing, that made her family fear for her sanity and their own safety. That made her terrified of her own existence.

Because when those seizures came, she knew there was something inside her, something dangerous and evil that must never be released.

The twin moons had reached their zenith when a knock on Vadim Maur's door heralded the arrival of his apprentice. Kolis Manza entered and made a deep bow.

"Do you have it?" the High Mage demanded brusquely.

"I do, master." The Sulimage straightened and held out a sheathed Mage blade. "Her blood, my lord—more than enough to strengthen your seeking spell.”

Vadim snatched the knife, half pulled it from the sheath, and inspected the ruby lights flickering in the pommel's dark jewel. He pressed his thumb to the razor-sharp edge to test the blade's hunger and glanced up sharply. "You did not get this much blood without calling attention to yourself. How badly did you wound her?”

Kolis's skin lost some of its color. Vadim made a mental note to himself. Such a betrayal of emotion was a tell that Kolis would need to overcome if he was ever to become more than just a skillful tool. The younger Mage was a mere two hundred years old. Barely beginning his first incarnation. Gifted, but still too inexperienced to control his weaker emotions.

"How badly?" Vadim asked again. If the Sulimage had slain her … The temperature in the room grew notably colder. A tell of his own, but one he allowed himself to reveal. Showing fear was a weakness.
Inducing
it was something quite different.

The sudden chill had the desired effect. Kolis's reply spilled from him in a rush. "My
umagi
struck her more deeply than he should have, but the Tairen Soul was with her. She was healed and had been returned to her home before I left. There was no lasting damage to her, and my
umagi
paid for his mistake with his life.”

"But now you have raised suspicions.”

"The suspicions were already there, master. The Tairen Soul has sensed our growing strength.”

Vadim's brows drew together. "Impossible. We are warded by
sel'dor,
witchery and magecraft. No hint of our existence should be felt by any Fey" He'd tested the wards on many subjects over the centuries. There was no doubt as to their effectiveness.

Kolis did not back down. "Possible or not, master, the Tairen Soul has Dorian half convinced the Mages have regained power in Eld.”

The Sulimage had regained his color. He was telling the truth—at least insofar as he knew It made no sense. Vadim had tested the shields of Boura Fell and the other Mage holds often enough throughout the years to be certain of their efficacy. Had the Tairen Soul truly sensed the growing Mage power in Eld, or was he merely passing off suspicion as fact in an effort to revitalize his faltering alliance with Celieria? The former was a troubling concern, the latter an encouraging sign of weakness but still an unwelcome development. They had been making such excellent progress these last few years.

"Do not let the Tairen Soul trick you into acting rashly," Vadim warned. "Overt hostilities now will undermine decades of careful planning." The girl might yet prove prize enough to capture even at the cost of revealing their existence, but failing that, he still had many months of preparation to complete before he was ready to move openly against Celieria. He pinned his apprentice with a cold stare. "I would not kindly view the ruination of those plans.”

"My every effort has been designed to turn suspicion away from us, master." Kolis related how he'd arranged for the Fey to find vel Serranis's blade on the dead boy, and how he'd used the boy's death to accuse the Fey of murder. "The warrior was released, but the seed of doubt has been sown. Already it is taking root. Our efforts to make the mortals fear Fey power are working.”

"But not well enough yet to countenance haste," Vadim cautioned. "Patience must be our watchword." Much as he longed to conquer Celieria, such things took time. The world was full of useful fools; the trick was cultivating the right ones … and carefully encouraging them to usher in their own destruction. "How go your efforts to turn Celieria's queen?”