King of Sword and Sky
Page 68

Rain regarded Ellysetta. There was no hint of the weariness he could feel beating at her. Was she even aware of it? Her concentration was wholly focused on communicating with the five small, unborn tairen huddled in their eggs. She was weaving love around the unborn killings the way Fey wove the elements, only her weave wasn't Spirit. It wasn't illusion. It was genuine emotion, real love, warming and welcoming. Tenderness. Devotion. Pride. Encouragement. It shone from her like sunlight, bathing the kitlings in its warmth.
"Shei'tani." He touched her shoulder. Still singing, she turned towards him, and for a brief moment the song of warmth, love, and tenderness poured over him, soaking into his skin. His breath stalled, and his eyes half closed in pleasure.
He gave a small frown of protest as Ellysetta cut her song short.
"I'm sorry." She started to rise, and a surprised look crossed over her face as her legs—cramped for so long in their crouched position—collapsed beneath her.
He caught her, swept an arm under her legs, and lifted her off her feet, carrying her with effortless strength up the main entrance tunnel.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked as they veered right into one of the larger passageways branching off of the main tunnel.
"You are weary. You need to eat and sleep. There is a sleeping chamber above where you can rest." Globes of light flared to life as they walked, illuminating their path. This tunnel was narrower than the main tunnel but still quite wide. The walls were smooth, the floor well worn.
"But the kitlings—"
"We have time." The tunnel forked in three, one path leading below, two others leading up. They went up and to the left. "The sickness attacking the tairen comes most often in the bells between dusk and dawn."
"I don't think it's really a sickness, Rain. When I was singing to them, I tried to find signs of injury or illness, but I couldn't. I could be wrong, of course—Marissya is a far more experienced healer—but to me they all seem healthy. Tired and frightened, but healthy."
He gave her a grim look. "I feared you might say that."
"So you don't really believe it's a sickness."
"Nei. My instinct has always told me the Eld must surely be to blame, but I have watched far too many kitlings die in the egg—dozens of them in my arms when I tried to cut them from the shell to save them—and never once have I sensed Azrahn."
"Well, if it's not Azrahn and the Mages, do you think whatever I sensed during the Fire Song could be behind the deaths of the kitlings?"
"I don't know, shei'tani. I just don't know."
The passage snaked around, doubling back upon itself and continuing to rise. Above, dim light shone in from a large opening at the top of the next U-shaped curve. As they passed it, Ellie glimpsed the bright blue afternoon sky. She lifted a hand to shield her eyes, surprised that it was still light outside. She'd lost all sense of time deep within the caverns of Fey'Bahren.
She squirmed in his arms. "You should put me down. I'm certain I must be heavy."
"You are no burden." He bent his head to take her mouth in a long, sweet kiss. "Besides," he added when he lifted his head, "we are already here."
He carried her through another, slightly smaller tunnel that ended in a tall, Fey-sized wooden door. A flick of his fingers sent green Earth spinning out to lift the latch, and silvery Air blew open the door to reveal the chamber beyond. He gestured again, and Fire blossomed in sconces all about the room, adding their light to the sunlight filtering in from yet another passage leading off the main chamber.
Rain finally set Ellysetta on her feet, and she turned in slow circles to glance around the room. The chamber was obviously made for Feyreisen: spacious enough for a tairen to maneuver, yet furnished with human comforts, including a bed piled thick with furs and pillows, and large, beautifully woven rugs to soften the hard stone of the floor. Against one wall stood an elegant, carved desk and matching gilded chair.
"This is your room," she guessed.
"It used to be Johr's—the previous Tairen Soul—but it's been mine since I returned to sanity. There were other furnished rooms, but I burned them out in the early days of my madness and never made the effort to restore them." The corners of his eyes crinkled at her look of dismay. "I'm much better now."
"How can you joke about it?"
He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking. "Because you restored my joy."
"Rain…" She reached for him, wanting to wrap her arms around him and hold him close, but he stepped back.
"Food first. Then rest. Then perhaps I will show you what a grateful shei'tan I am."
Heat curled in her belly at the sight of the silken promises in his eyes. Until Rain, she'd never realized lavender could be such a seductive shade, but now she realized she'd never see it again without thinking of breathless passion and love.
"Come," he murmured. The dark velvet of his voice slipped over her skin, making her breath quicken and her pulse speed up. "I thought we'd eat outside. The view is spectacular." He gestured for her to precede him through a broad archway.
Ellysetta walked past what appeared to be a private bathing chamber and through a smaller, unadorned cave with a large opening that led to the outside world.
She passed through the opening to the broad, wide-lipped ledge that jutted out from the side of the mountain, walking slowly to the farthest point. There, with the wind whipping around her, clouds close enough to touch, and the ground so far, far below, it was easy to believe she was once again aloft in the winds, flying over the Fading Lands. Her belly tightened with exhilaration. She closed her eyes and drew the cool, fresh air into her lungs.