King of Sword and Sky
Page 101
"Weeping? And wailing?" Rain's brows shot up. "Poor Marissya, is that what you think she does?"
Ellysetta gave him a shove. "You know very well that's not what I meant. Be serious." She dragged a sheet over her body. "I'm truly worried. Tealah said something about my thriving on the violence of the training battles, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. What if she's right? And what if that's some sign of the Mage's power growing stronger?"
The teasing humor on Rain's face faded in an instant. "Nei," he said flatly. "It's true you are more at ease within the walls of the Academy than any other shei'dalin, but that has nothing to do with the Mage's power. You are a Tairen Soul, Ellysetta. And tairen are fierce, not frightened…predators, not prey. Challenge is play to us."
"Yes, but—"
"Ask any warrior out there on the training field if he is enjoying himself. Hard and painful as the training may be, every one of them will tell you aiyah. We all feel the same rush of energy—of power and magic and life—when we match blades with one another. It is the tairen rising. The tairen rises in you, too, kem'reisa. That is what you feel, not the Mage."
She frowned at him. "What if you're wrong and I'm not really a Tairen Soul? What if the High Mage only manipulated my soul to make me seem like one so you would bring me back to the Fading Lands—and that's the real reason the tairen can't hear my song? What if I really am what Gaelen first thought and the Massan now fear: a creature the High Mage of Eld created to destroy the Fading Lands from the inside out?"
"You're forgetting one very important fact, Ellysetta. Your soul called out to mine." He caught her hands in his. "You are my truemate. No matter what part of you the High Mage may have manipulated, shei'tanitsa is a bond of infinite love and unconditional trust. That is a power the Mages could never understand—and certainly never create with their corrupt magic."
Sincerity, unwavering and absolute, flowed from his fingertips to hers. She could not doubt him. The problem was, she had little but doubts about herself. "I'm afraid of what I am, Rain. I always have been. Even here, I'm still different, still the odd one, the dangerous one. The one people look at with suspicion. You can say they don't, but I know they do. Venarra, Tenn, some of the others. I hear it in their stray thoughts, sense it in their emotions."
"Perhaps they fear because you do," he suggested. "You live among powerful empaths now, not mortals. They can sense your self-doubt."
"So how do I stop being afraid?"
He sighed and enfolded her in his arms. "When we discover that, shei'tani, I think we will have discovered the key to completing our bond."
Chapter seventeen
The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa
By month's end, the number of warriors training at the Academy had increased to sixteen thousand. The Spirit masters among them could weave invisibility without a trace and extend the weave to mask a full quintet from detection. Certain of those Fey had also discovered the near-unlimited potential true invisibility offered to the practical jokers amongst them. They and their traps for the unwary popped in and out of sight with gleeful abandon until Gaelen threatened to skewer the next idiot who annoyed him. (That didn't stop their pranks; the culprits just became more selective of their victims.)
Spirit masters weren't the only ones to benefit from Gaelen's experience. The Earth masters had learned a little trick that, while not effective for long, could block an oncoming rush of sel'dor missiles or blade strikes. All the warriors could fire the Fey'cha in their chest straps half a chime faster than before, and Gaelen promised that with additional practice, their speed would increase even more.
All told, Gaelen's training was a resounding success. And though Loris had sent word from Elvia that an emergency in South Elvia had prevented him from even meeting with the Elf King yet, Rain was pleased with the month's progress. The warriors were ready and spirits were high.
Ellysetta wished she could say the same for herself. Each passing day brought Rain's departure nearer, but she was no closer to discovering what was killing the tairen.
"What in the name of all the gods made me believe I could find answers that have eluded Fey who've been searching for a thousand years?" she groused to Rain after reading what seemed the millionth scroll. They were sitting on the chairs overlooking the Academy's training grounds, the remains of their midday meal sitting nearby. "I don't even know what I'm trying to find. For all I know, the answer could have stared me in the face a hundred times and I'm just too blind to see it."
She slumped in her chair in dispirited frustration. "I haven't found any answers. I haven't found my tairen song, and I don't even know how to complete our bond." She covered her face in her hands. "Maybe Tenn and Venarra are right. Maybe I have already done all I was meant to do."
Rain's hands closed around hers in a firm grip. Emotion flooded her senses: trust, belief, reassurance, all riding on a rumbling undercurrent of irritation. "Venarra should never have shared that with you. All it did was make you doubt yourself even more than you already do." His lips thinned. "Sieks'ta, shei'tani. I have been too preoccupied to look after you as I should. I have not even been courting you properly since we reached Dharsa."
Ellie sighed and leaned against him. "You've been busy. We both have." She had a growing collection of courtship gifts tucked away in glass cases in their room, but once their training had begun, the only real time they'd spent alone was when they flew to and from Fey'Bahren to tend the kits, or the few bells of restless sleep they snatched each night.
Ellysetta gave him a shove. "You know very well that's not what I meant. Be serious." She dragged a sheet over her body. "I'm truly worried. Tealah said something about my thriving on the violence of the training battles, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. What if she's right? And what if that's some sign of the Mage's power growing stronger?"
The teasing humor on Rain's face faded in an instant. "Nei," he said flatly. "It's true you are more at ease within the walls of the Academy than any other shei'dalin, but that has nothing to do with the Mage's power. You are a Tairen Soul, Ellysetta. And tairen are fierce, not frightened…predators, not prey. Challenge is play to us."
"Yes, but—"
"Ask any warrior out there on the training field if he is enjoying himself. Hard and painful as the training may be, every one of them will tell you aiyah. We all feel the same rush of energy—of power and magic and life—when we match blades with one another. It is the tairen rising. The tairen rises in you, too, kem'reisa. That is what you feel, not the Mage."
She frowned at him. "What if you're wrong and I'm not really a Tairen Soul? What if the High Mage only manipulated my soul to make me seem like one so you would bring me back to the Fading Lands—and that's the real reason the tairen can't hear my song? What if I really am what Gaelen first thought and the Massan now fear: a creature the High Mage of Eld created to destroy the Fading Lands from the inside out?"
"You're forgetting one very important fact, Ellysetta. Your soul called out to mine." He caught her hands in his. "You are my truemate. No matter what part of you the High Mage may have manipulated, shei'tanitsa is a bond of infinite love and unconditional trust. That is a power the Mages could never understand—and certainly never create with their corrupt magic."
Sincerity, unwavering and absolute, flowed from his fingertips to hers. She could not doubt him. The problem was, she had little but doubts about herself. "I'm afraid of what I am, Rain. I always have been. Even here, I'm still different, still the odd one, the dangerous one. The one people look at with suspicion. You can say they don't, but I know they do. Venarra, Tenn, some of the others. I hear it in their stray thoughts, sense it in their emotions."
"Perhaps they fear because you do," he suggested. "You live among powerful empaths now, not mortals. They can sense your self-doubt."
"So how do I stop being afraid?"
He sighed and enfolded her in his arms. "When we discover that, shei'tani, I think we will have discovered the key to completing our bond."
Chapter seventeen
The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa
By month's end, the number of warriors training at the Academy had increased to sixteen thousand. The Spirit masters among them could weave invisibility without a trace and extend the weave to mask a full quintet from detection. Certain of those Fey had also discovered the near-unlimited potential true invisibility offered to the practical jokers amongst them. They and their traps for the unwary popped in and out of sight with gleeful abandon until Gaelen threatened to skewer the next idiot who annoyed him. (That didn't stop their pranks; the culprits just became more selective of their victims.)
Spirit masters weren't the only ones to benefit from Gaelen's experience. The Earth masters had learned a little trick that, while not effective for long, could block an oncoming rush of sel'dor missiles or blade strikes. All the warriors could fire the Fey'cha in their chest straps half a chime faster than before, and Gaelen promised that with additional practice, their speed would increase even more.
All told, Gaelen's training was a resounding success. And though Loris had sent word from Elvia that an emergency in South Elvia had prevented him from even meeting with the Elf King yet, Rain was pleased with the month's progress. The warriors were ready and spirits were high.
Ellysetta wished she could say the same for herself. Each passing day brought Rain's departure nearer, but she was no closer to discovering what was killing the tairen.
"What in the name of all the gods made me believe I could find answers that have eluded Fey who've been searching for a thousand years?" she groused to Rain after reading what seemed the millionth scroll. They were sitting on the chairs overlooking the Academy's training grounds, the remains of their midday meal sitting nearby. "I don't even know what I'm trying to find. For all I know, the answer could have stared me in the face a hundred times and I'm just too blind to see it."
She slumped in her chair in dispirited frustration. "I haven't found any answers. I haven't found my tairen song, and I don't even know how to complete our bond." She covered her face in her hands. "Maybe Tenn and Venarra are right. Maybe I have already done all I was meant to do."
Rain's hands closed around hers in a firm grip. Emotion flooded her senses: trust, belief, reassurance, all riding on a rumbling undercurrent of irritation. "Venarra should never have shared that with you. All it did was make you doubt yourself even more than you already do." His lips thinned. "Sieks'ta, shei'tani. I have been too preoccupied to look after you as I should. I have not even been courting you properly since we reached Dharsa."
Ellie sighed and leaned against him. "You've been busy. We both have." She had a growing collection of courtship gifts tucked away in glass cases in their room, but once their training had begun, the only real time they'd spent alone was when they flew to and from Fey'Bahren to tend the kits, or the few bells of restless sleep they snatched each night.
