A wave of ice washed over her.

The floodgates opened in her mind. Memories tumbled out in a stunning rush. Her childhood nightmares of wings and fire and fang…Sybharukai's pleasure as she sniffed Marissya's scent and announced, «The Fey-kin bears one of the pride.»…the image of Ellysetta's dead body rolling from the tairen egg, and Cahlah mourning her lost kit…the two shadowy Fey, chained and imprisoned…the triumphant cold silver eyes of the High Mage as he lifted a newborn high…the Mage's sneering voice that horrible day in the cathedral when he'd declared, I'm the father of your soul, girl. I created it, and now I've come to claim it.

And, lastly, Gaelen saying, The Well of Souls…the Eld have long used Azrahn and selkhar crystals to summon demons from the Well…

The Well of Souls. The Underworld.

Home to the souls of the dead who hadn't yet earned passage to the next life.

Womb to the souls of the unborn.

Good sweet Lord of Light.

"Ellysetta!" Marissya cried out as Ellysetta ran for the ledge and leapt off.

Air came without effort, the weaves spinning exactly as Jaren had instructed to cushion her descent. The Fire Song was over and the flames had already dissipated. She landed on her feet beside the eggs. Another weave of Air blew the hot sands away so she could touch the cooler leathery shells beneath. One by one she went to each egg and found the kitling inside shivering and whimpering in fear; one by one she sang to them until they calmed and she received their response.

Each kitling had felt the cold. Each had heard the whispering dark voices calling its name.

"What is it, Ellysetta?" Rain stood beside her. The tairen, growling in agitation, had gathered around as well.

She looked at them all in a daze. "I know why I sensed the High Mage. I know why the kitlings are dying." She moistened trembling lips, stunned by the enormity of the puzzle she'd finally pieced together. "You were right, Rain. It is the High Mage. It's been him all along. He's behind everything."

Chapter nineteen

The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa

"The High Mage is using the Well of Souls to steal the souls of unborn tairen." Rain announced the news without preamble to the carefully selected group of Fey he'd gathered in the King's Courtyard behind the Hall of Tairen.

Dax sat on a stone bench, his arm wrapped protectively around Marissya. Ellysetta's quintet stood near the small fountain, and Steli, who had flown back with them from Fey'Bahren, squeezed into the corner, crouched on the flattened remains of a small flower garden, her blue eyes whirling with scarcely contained menace. A privacy weave glowed around the courtyard.

"Stealing their souls?" Tajik repeated. "For what reason?"

"To tie them to the souls of unborn children," Ellysetta said in a low voice, "so he can create his own Tairen Souls."

The gathered Fey exchanged shocked glances.

"But…that's not possible," Gil protested. "Even if he could tie the two souls together, he'd need Fey children who are masters of all five Fey magics—and for that he'd need Fey matepairs. No half-breed child has ever been born a master of one magic, let alone five."

"He has matepairs," Ellysetta said. "At least, he must have when I was born."

"When you were—" Tajik's voice broke off and his face went blank. "You're one of them. One of the Tairen Souls he bred."

"Yes." It was just as well Rain was standing several paces away. If he were within reach, she'd be squeezing his hand so tight she'd break all his fingers. "Rain took me to the Bay of Flame. We swam in the waters at sunset and we dreamed…" She drew a quick breath, near tears as she remembered the shadowy Fey mates clutching each other in desperation. "I dreamed of my birth…and of my parents. My Fey parents as well as the tairen whose kitling's soul was stolen and tied to mine." Cahlah and Merdrahl had been the kit's parents. Forrahl had been its—her—brother. "Here, see for yourself." She summoned Spirit and spun the entirety of her dream.

When she finished, Marissya was weeping, Steli was growling pride-warnings, and the warriors stood in frozen silence.

"They must have been captured during the Wars," Bel said. "How else would the High Mage get his hands on a Fey woman?"

Marissya covered her mouth. "Dear gods, and they've been prisoners all this time?" The horror stamped on her face made each of the warriors' expressions turn to stone.

Ellysetta turned to Rain. "Do you recognize them?"

Rain shook his head. "Nei. There were several Tairen Souls who had green eyes, but I don't recall any of them disappearing with his mate."

"Perhaps the male wasn't a Tairen Soul when he was captured," Gaelen suggested: "If the Feyreisa is right, and the High Mage is stealing the souls of unborn tairen in order to create his own Tairen Soul, perhaps she wasn't the first."

Steli growled low in her throat and ripped at the flower bed with her front claws. «Many kitlings have died,» she sang to Rain and Ellysetta. «Many times many.»

"Does it matter who they are?" Marissya cried. "We've got to save them."

Rain's expression went grim. "Marissya, how can we do that when we're barely staving off our own extinction as it is?"

"We can't just leave them there!"

"What choice do we have?" His eyes were bleak. "We don't have any idea where they are—or even if they're still alive—and we certainly don't have the strength to invade Eld to find them."