King of Sword and Sky
Page 99

Much to the disgruntlement of the Massan, Eimar v'En Arran joined the warriors training at the Academy and turned himself over to Gaelen's tutelage.
"If another Mage War is indeed on our doorstep," the Air master said with calm pragmatism, "all Fey may be called to defend the Fading Lands. I am not too proud to learn what I can to ensure the safety of my mate…even if that means learning from a chatok who once walked the Shadowed Path."
Eimar's participation encouraged more of the Fey to join as well. Rain's meetings with the Massan became tense, curt skirmishes, and Gaelen's grueling training classes at the Academy filled to capacity. Soon, they even spilled over into the Academy's surrounding fields and buildings to accommodate the increasing number of chadins who came to learn the new skills their brothers had shown them. Even Tenn's cousin Tael showed up to learn Gaelen's magic Spirit weave.
As Rain and the warriors prepared for war, Marissya and Dax walked the hills of Dharsa to sow Amarynth and weave blessings of fertility on the Fey. Ellysetta concentrated on her magic studies and continued searching the Hall of Scrolls for information that might help her save the tairen kitlings. Most nights she and Rain would fly back to Fey'Bahren, so she could sing love and healing on the kits and begin to learn the ways of the pride.
Despite her rocky start with the Massan, Ellysetta began to make friends among the men and women of the Fey. Hardly a day went by without half a dozen couples coming to her for a fertility weave, and at least a score of beaming Fey maidens and former rasa had asked her to bless their e'tanitsa union. Though war was on the horizon, hope was blooming in Dharsa as quickly and abundantly as the tracts of Amarynth dotting the hillsides.
Ellysetta began to make significant progress with her magic. Though she still couldn't summon the trust necessary to throw open her mind to Venarra, she did manage enough of a connection to let the shei'dalin correct imperfections in her weaves and guide her in the summoning and control of her magic. Ellysetta's resulting weaves were reliable enough that Venarra had begun to allow her to heal the wounded chadin under her supervision.
Trust was much easier when practicing warriors' weaves with Jaren v'En Harad, whose affection for Rain Ellysetta could sense every time he took her hands to lead her through her next lesson. In truth, she owed much of her increasing discipline and control to his kind but strict guidance. The most difficult thing he required of her was spinning the weaves exactly as he showed her—without the golden glow of her shei'dalins love coloring the threads— because he feared that allowing shei'dalins love in her weaves might leave her open to the same empathic death other shei'dalins suffered when they spun killing weaves. Determined not to disappoint Rain's mentor, Ellysetta struggled tirelessly to eliminate the golden tint from her warriors' weaves while still infusing it in her healing patterns.
After each morning's magic lessons, she returned to the Hall of Scrolls to continue combing through the texts, looking for any clues that would help her solve the mystery of what was killing the tairen. The texts from her initial search hadn't turned up anything useful, so she began searching for everything related to the tairen, past sicknesses or mysterious deaths among the prides, and even demon lore, hoping something would lead her in the right direction.
Ellysetta learned how to ask the Mirror to lead her to a particular book, and began exploring even the tightly packed lower levels. The tomblike silence of the hall began to make her restless, so she had the Mirror make copies of the texts and began packing a bag of documents each day and carrying them to the Academy. She read while she watched her lu'tans and the other willing Fey master the skills Gaelen had to teach them.
At first some of the Fey worried that the violence of Gaelen's training methods would torment her empathic senses. But surprisingly, though the soul pain of the rasa had driven her nearly to madness with the ceaseless need to ease their suffering, the bruises, blood, and even broken bones of the warriors on the training field didn't cause the smallest twinge. Even the rare handful of times one of the Fey suffered a truly life-threatening injury, her alarm sprang more from concern for the warrior's life than empathic distress.
Until the day Rain suffered a serious wound.
One of the warriors sparring near Rain rushed in for an attack, stumbled, and sent his seyani plunging into Rain's unprotected back. The sight of a Fey blade protruding from Rain's chest, glistening scarlet with his blood, brought Ellysetta out of her chair, power crackling so furiously that her hair rose up in a fiery nimbus around her head. She was across the field, at his side, in an instant, not even aware of the warning growl rumbling from her throat or the blaze in her eyes that sent the warriors stumbling back in alarm.
Forgetting all the lessons of control and moderation Venarra and Jaren had taught her, Ellysetta healed Rain with an instinctive, searing blast of power. As was typical with her magical outbursts, she healed him so swiftly and so well that when he came up off the ground, his eyes were blazing bright as stars, and his own power was rising as quick and hot as his blood. He carted her off the field to the nearest room with a door—an armory, as it happened—and they proceeded to rattle every shield and scrap of armor off the shelves. When they returned, Rain was smiling, the lu'tans and even the other warriors were grinning, and Ellysetta's cheeks stayed red as apples the rest of the day.
After that, the lu'tans began boasting of her tairen fierceness and calling her Ellysetta-makai instead of Feyreisa.