Queen of Song and Souls
Page 99
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Gradually, other not-so-happy memories emerged as well. Kelissande Minset's sneering superiority. Queen Annoura's scarcely veiled mockery as she assessed Ellysetta during her first appearance at court. The Church of Light priests in Hartslea who'd come to examine her for demon possession. Rain drawing back from her in horror as the black smudge of the Mage's Mark bloomed like a dread flower over her heart.
Bayas. You are. doing well. Keep concentrating. Let the memories come.
The memories turned darker still. Nightmares from her childhood. Dreams of blood and death and war. Screaming. The exorcists with their terrible needles. Pain! Oh, dear gods, such pain! Hot tears gathered in her eyes. The tairen dying. The High Mage, with his burning, ember-kissed eyes, laughing in triumph. You’ll kill them, girl. You'll kill them all. It's what you were born for. Mama dying in her arms. That horrible, unchangeable moment when a sel'dor blade had flashed and Mama's head rolled away from her body.
Rage.
She cried out and started to pull her hands from the mirror's surface, hoping that breaking the contact would stop the onslaught.
Anio! Hawksheart barked, his voice a hammer of command. No. You must continue.
"I don't want to." She whimpered like a child afraid to set foot into a dark room. Cold shivered down her limbs. She couldn't feel her legs tucked beneath her, but her hands and arms had turned to lumps of ice, freezing and burning all at once.
You must. This is the price for the truth you asked of me.
"I've changed my mind. I don't want it anymore."
The bargain was Elf-struck. It cannot be undone.
The images of her life began to flash faster as the events became more recent. The Massan. Venarra holding the soul of a dying Fey woman to life while other shei'dalins worked frantically to heal her broken body. The death of the tairen kitling Forrahl. Ellysetta's descent into the Well of Souls to save the other kitlings. The terrible piercing anguish of two more Mage Marks, and Rain's own daring plunge into the Well to rescue her. The battle of Orest. Rain emerging from Veil Lake, wreathed in blinding magic as he donned the golden war steel of the Feyreisen. Saving Aartys and Truthspeaking the Mage. The dark voices whispering in her mind. The Azrahn-gifted children conceived as a result of her weave. Rain's Rage during the Eld attack. The way Fey'cha fit so comfortably in her hands. The moment she made her bargain with the Elf king.
The images came faster and faster as the scenes they depicted grew closer to the present. When they reached this moment, Ellysetta cried out and her spine went rigid. The flashing images became a blur, yet she could see them with vivid clarity.
War. Armies stretched as far as she could see. Dharsa in smoldering ruins. Rain, in tairen form, roaring in pain as a sel'dor bowcannon bolt ripped through his chest and sent him tumbling from the sky. Rain and Ellysetta, captured by the Eld and draped in sel'dor chains as black-armored soldiers and a blue-robed Primage prodded them towards a great gaping black maw.
In slow motion, so that each moment seemed to last a lifetime, Ellysetta saw a red Fey'cha plunge into Rain's back, saw Rain's eyes widen in surprise and pain. He fell dead at her feet, his limbs shaking with tremors as the lethal venom from the blade raced through his body. She saw herself standing over his body. Her eyes were black as night, sparkling with malevolent red stars, as she raised the bloody Fey'cha over her head and laughed.
"No!'" Ellysetta shrieked the denial and tried to pull her hands from the mirror, but something held them in place. She could not free herself, and the visions continued to flash in the bright light of the pool, each more awful than the previous. The worst visions from every nightmare she'd ever harbored. A future so grim she could not bear it.
The world in flames. Millions slaughtered. Celierians, Fey, and Elves in chains. Fey'Bahren a scorched boneyard baking in a merciless sun, while overhead winged monsters that once had been tairen dominated the sky, their hides as bare and scabrous as those of the foul darrokken. Acid dripped from their fangs, leaving smoldering pits in the monsters’ wakes.
Lillis and Lorelle not dead, but worse: dark-eyed imps of evil, Laughing and dancing in showers of blood while they played Stones with the skulls of slaughtered children. And watching them fondly, from a diseased throne of death: herself, the Queen of Darkness.
"Stop!" Ellysetta cried. "Did you bring me here only to torture me? You said there was still hope! Where is the hope in this?" She writhed and yanked at her hands, fighting the unseen power that kept her chained to the mirror pool, but she could not free herself. «Rain. Help me!» she called on the bond threads that tied part of his soul to hers.
He didn’t answer.
Fear hollowed her out and left her shaking. "Where's Rain? What have you done with him?" She tried to see him but both her Fey vision and her physical sight were now completely blinded by the blazing magic that filled the chamber. All she could see was burning, blinding, dazzling white light.
Calm yourself, Ellysetta Erimea, Hawksheart chided. Your fears are groundless. Your mate is safe, and exactly where you left him. Be calm.
Calm? She was blind and trapped and couldn't reach Rain, and this stranger whom Rain didn't trust wanted her to be calm?
"Then why can't I hear him? Why can't I see him? Why are you holding me against my will?"
She heard something that sounded like a sigh. You cannot leave because our bargain was Elf-struck. Your own magic binds you until the price you agreed to is paid. The harder you struggle, the more powerful the bonds become. You cannot see because the magic that blinds you is a reflection of your own power. The more magic you expend trying to free yourself, the more blinding the light becomes. If you calm yourself and cease your struggle, the light will begin to fade.
Bayas. You are. doing well. Keep concentrating. Let the memories come.
The memories turned darker still. Nightmares from her childhood. Dreams of blood and death and war. Screaming. The exorcists with their terrible needles. Pain! Oh, dear gods, such pain! Hot tears gathered in her eyes. The tairen dying. The High Mage, with his burning, ember-kissed eyes, laughing in triumph. You’ll kill them, girl. You'll kill them all. It's what you were born for. Mama dying in her arms. That horrible, unchangeable moment when a sel'dor blade had flashed and Mama's head rolled away from her body.
Rage.
She cried out and started to pull her hands from the mirror's surface, hoping that breaking the contact would stop the onslaught.
Anio! Hawksheart barked, his voice a hammer of command. No. You must continue.
"I don't want to." She whimpered like a child afraid to set foot into a dark room. Cold shivered down her limbs. She couldn't feel her legs tucked beneath her, but her hands and arms had turned to lumps of ice, freezing and burning all at once.
You must. This is the price for the truth you asked of me.
"I've changed my mind. I don't want it anymore."
The bargain was Elf-struck. It cannot be undone.
The images of her life began to flash faster as the events became more recent. The Massan. Venarra holding the soul of a dying Fey woman to life while other shei'dalins worked frantically to heal her broken body. The death of the tairen kitling Forrahl. Ellysetta's descent into the Well of Souls to save the other kitlings. The terrible piercing anguish of two more Mage Marks, and Rain's own daring plunge into the Well to rescue her. The battle of Orest. Rain emerging from Veil Lake, wreathed in blinding magic as he donned the golden war steel of the Feyreisen. Saving Aartys and Truthspeaking the Mage. The dark voices whispering in her mind. The Azrahn-gifted children conceived as a result of her weave. Rain's Rage during the Eld attack. The way Fey'cha fit so comfortably in her hands. The moment she made her bargain with the Elf king.
The images came faster and faster as the scenes they depicted grew closer to the present. When they reached this moment, Ellysetta cried out and her spine went rigid. The flashing images became a blur, yet she could see them with vivid clarity.
War. Armies stretched as far as she could see. Dharsa in smoldering ruins. Rain, in tairen form, roaring in pain as a sel'dor bowcannon bolt ripped through his chest and sent him tumbling from the sky. Rain and Ellysetta, captured by the Eld and draped in sel'dor chains as black-armored soldiers and a blue-robed Primage prodded them towards a great gaping black maw.
In slow motion, so that each moment seemed to last a lifetime, Ellysetta saw a red Fey'cha plunge into Rain's back, saw Rain's eyes widen in surprise and pain. He fell dead at her feet, his limbs shaking with tremors as the lethal venom from the blade raced through his body. She saw herself standing over his body. Her eyes were black as night, sparkling with malevolent red stars, as she raised the bloody Fey'cha over her head and laughed.
"No!'" Ellysetta shrieked the denial and tried to pull her hands from the mirror, but something held them in place. She could not free herself, and the visions continued to flash in the bright light of the pool, each more awful than the previous. The worst visions from every nightmare she'd ever harbored. A future so grim she could not bear it.
The world in flames. Millions slaughtered. Celierians, Fey, and Elves in chains. Fey'Bahren a scorched boneyard baking in a merciless sun, while overhead winged monsters that once had been tairen dominated the sky, their hides as bare and scabrous as those of the foul darrokken. Acid dripped from their fangs, leaving smoldering pits in the monsters’ wakes.
Lillis and Lorelle not dead, but worse: dark-eyed imps of evil, Laughing and dancing in showers of blood while they played Stones with the skulls of slaughtered children. And watching them fondly, from a diseased throne of death: herself, the Queen of Darkness.
"Stop!" Ellysetta cried. "Did you bring me here only to torture me? You said there was still hope! Where is the hope in this?" She writhed and yanked at her hands, fighting the unseen power that kept her chained to the mirror pool, but she could not free herself. «Rain. Help me!» she called on the bond threads that tied part of his soul to hers.
He didn’t answer.
Fear hollowed her out and left her shaking. "Where's Rain? What have you done with him?" She tried to see him but both her Fey vision and her physical sight were now completely blinded by the blazing magic that filled the chamber. All she could see was burning, blinding, dazzling white light.
Calm yourself, Ellysetta Erimea, Hawksheart chided. Your fears are groundless. Your mate is safe, and exactly where you left him. Be calm.
Calm? She was blind and trapped and couldn't reach Rain, and this stranger whom Rain didn't trust wanted her to be calm?
"Then why can't I hear him? Why can't I see him? Why are you holding me against my will?"
She heard something that sounded like a sigh. You cannot leave because our bargain was Elf-struck. Your own magic binds you until the price you agreed to is paid. The harder you struggle, the more powerful the bonds become. You cannot see because the magic that blinds you is a reflection of your own power. The more magic you expend trying to free yourself, the more blinding the light becomes. If you calm yourself and cease your struggle, the light will begin to fade.
