King of Sword and Sky
Page 114

"I bear two Mage Marks," Ellysetta reminded her grimly. "I may have been the unwitting connection." She glanced away from the horror in Marissya's eyes. "Gaelen should check the child for Mage Marks when we return to Dharsa."
"Nei, he cannot." Rain held up a silencing hand when she started to object. "We're in the Fading Lands now, Ellysetta. What leeway I granted him in Celieria, I cannot grant him here. Weaving Azrahn, even to check for Mage Marks, is a banishing offense."
Before she could argue, Sybharukai moved closer, her green eyes whirling. «The pride must sing the Fire Song.»
Ellysetta glanced around. She'd been so caught up in her worry over Marissya and the High Mage, she'd blocked out the fierce grief of the pride. All around them, the gathered tairen were almost wild with distress over the loss of yet another kitling.
"Should I take Marissya out of the lair?" Rain asked.
Sybharukai's ears twitched. «She may stay. Her kitling should hear our song. But Ellysetta-kitling and the mother-kin should take shelter on the upper ledges, as before.»
"I will fly them." Rain summoned the Change as Sybharukai bent to take Forrahl's egg from the nest and carry it off to a safe distance. Fahreeta and Torasul used their paws to sweep a thick protective layer of black sand over the remaining eggs.
"What is it?" Marissya asked. "What's going on?"
"Another kitling was lost," Ellysetta told her. "The pride is going to sing the Fire Song. It's similar to what the Fey do when they return a fallen warrior's body to the elements." Rain lay on the sand so the two women could climb into place. "Get on Rain's back. We need to fly to safety before they start."
"Which kitling perished?" Marissya asked as Rain leapt into the air towards one of the upper ledges.
Ellysetta's fingers squeezed the leather pommel. "Forrahl. The sweet little one who loved to sing."
Marissya's arms tightened on Ellysetta's waist. "I'm so sorry. I know how much you loved him."
Shei'dalin compassion and sympathy swirled around Ellysetta in shining waves, but it didn't soothe her. She had loved Forrahl. She'd loved him as if he were her own. But in the end, that hadn't mattered. She'd still failed him. Whatever she was supposed to do—whatever gift she supposedly had that made her the only person who could save the tairen—she hadn't discovered it yet.
Rain deposited the two of them on an upper ledge seven levels above the sandy lair floor. From this distance the tairen looked so much smaller…and so few. The pride—all the tairen left in the world—consisted of those fourteen great cats and the four remaining eggs that held the only hope left for the survival of their kind.
Ellysetta watched them in growing agitation as Rain glided down to join the pride in the ring around poor Forrahl's dead egg. What was she missing? What was she failing to understand?
Now, like Rain, she couldn't help thinking that somehow the High Mage must be involved. She'd sensed him, and if Rain was right about the Eld never doing anything without purpose, then he'd been there for a reason. He hadn't been trying to Mark her again.
So what had he been doing?
Down below, the tairen had begun to sing. Ellysetta closed her eyes as the vibrant song resonated within her. She could hear each tairen's unique song as a thread in the tightly woven pattern, Sybharukai, Rain, Steli, even the small voices of the surviving egg-bound kits.
As the song swelled, Marissya reached out to clutch her hand, and reverent joy flooded into her. "It's so beautiful…" Marissya breathed. "When this child is born, and I can no longer hear the glory of tairen song, I will mourn the loss."
The Fire Song reached its crescendo. Flame burst from tairen throats. Heat exploded upwards in a blast.
And then, just as before, Ellysetta felt the finger of ice scrape down her spine, heard the whisper of voices calling her name.
The hand in hers gave a sudden squeeze…but this time not from joy or awe.
"Ellysetta." Marissya's voice trembled. The ocean of flames below had lit the nesting lair bright as day. Marissya's eyes were wide and frightened. Her free hand splayed across her belly, while the hand clutching Ellysetta's squeezed tight. She was shivering.
"You feel it, too." Relief warred with horror. "Can you hear them as well? The voices? The whispering?"
Marissya's head jerked in wild agreement. "They're saying 'Keralas.' " Tears filled her eyes. "He's afraid. He's so afraid."
Terrified that the evil haunting the nesting lair might claim yet another victim, Ellysetta dropped to her knees before Marissya, and without hesitation flung open every one of her senses and sent her consciousness plunging into the shei'dalin. She found the baby, barely more than a tiny candle burning within his mother's brilliant light. He was whimpering, terrified, just as the kitlings had been.
Gathering all the warmth and love in her soul, she sang to him, just as she'd sung to the baby tairen. Love and warmth poured out of her, into him, soothing, calming. Gradually his whimpers fell silent, and then Ellysetta heard a small, tremulous echo, so soft it was barely audible. Shock made her pull back.
Marissya's child, still barely formed in her womb, was singing. His voice was sweet and soft, his notes barely more than dim flickers of color, but he was singing tairen song.
Just like the unhatched kitlings did when she sang to them.