"Parei! Stop!" In desperation, she dropped to her knees before the High Mage and seized his hands. "Teska, I beg you. I will heal you. Remove these bonds, stop Shan's torture, and I will heal you."

The High Mage nodded to the guard. "Remove the manacles on her wrists." To Elfeya, he hissed, "You will heal me now. If your results please me, I will halt his torture."

Weeping, she spun the weaves, feeling the acid burn of sel'dor as she channeled as much power as she could into the rotting shell of Vadim Maur's body. When she could do no more, her hands fell away. Her head drooped in defeat. "Please."

He commanded one of the umagi to bring him a mirror. His face was still disfigured, the flesh mottled and drooping like melted wax, but most of his strength had returned. He stood, grabbed a fistful of Elfeya's hair, and hauled her to her knees.

"Did you think you could interfere as you did tonight and I would not know it?" he hissed. "Did you think I could not feel you feeding her the weaves, showing her how to spin her power?" He shook her like a child. "You and your beloved Lord Death will pay for what you have cost me. You will pay dearly…and for a very long time." He flung her against the wall. Her head cracked against the stone, making stars flash before her eyes.

He pinned the guards with his scarlet-filled silver gaze. "Take the male back to his cell. You may begin with him again tomorrow."

"And her?"

Vadim Maur glanced down at Elfeya, the edge of his disfigured mouth curling. "Make her scream. Make her beg for death. But do not give it to her. I want her alive the day I claim her daughter's body and soul."

The Fading Lands ~ Fey'Bahren

Dawn turned the eastern sky over the Fading Lands to pale pink. Rain sat in the center of his magical cage, his body relaxed, his mind calm. He'd Raged the first few bells of his imprisonment, but no longer. Now, his tairen lay coiled within him, a silent hunter, not mindlessly wild but lethally patient, waiting for the first chance to spring. Isolated by the dense weaves of their cages, he and Ellysetta could not call for help, and could not even speak to each other except through their bond threads.

Their Fey guards stood up and turned to the west, Fey'cha in hand. A moment later, they sheathed their blades and waved to the approaching party. Tenn, Yulan, and Nurian crested the Su Reisu plateau, their shei'dalin mates close behind.

The six of them approached their imprisoned king and his mate. Tenn nodded to the guards, and the dome of magic around Ellysetta dissolved, leaving five-fold weaves of Spirit surrounding her so she could not call to the tairen for aid, while gleaming circlets bound her arms to her chest so she could not spin any other magic in her defense.

Tenn stepped forward. His expression was as stony as any Fey battle mask she'd ever seen. "Ellysetta of Celieria, you stand accused of weaving the forbidden magic. Will you admit your crime willingly, or must you be Truthspoken?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Release Rain. You imprison your king. In Celieria, Tenn v'En Eilan, you would be branded a traitor and sentenced to death by torture."

"We are not in Celieria," the Fire master said softly, "and our actions are not treason. We"—he gestured to include Yulan, Nurian, and Venarra—"are here to stop Rain's madness and keep him from destroying the Fading Lands."

"Madness?" she spat. "Everything he's done, he's done to save the Fading Lands! How can you betray him this way?"

"You dare suggest we betray him?" Tenn's eyes burned with red-gold flames, and his voice dropped to a low note that vibrated with fury. "He has broken every Fey law that does not suit his whim and made a mockery of the honor that serves as the cornerstone of our existence! He brings a dahl'reisen through the Mists and installs him as an honored chatok in the hallowed halls of Dharsa's Warriors' Academy. He grants a Mage-Marked woman entrance to the Fading Lands…stands idly by while she enchants hundreds of our finest and noblest warriors into bloodswearing themselves to her service…then makes her his queen even though the Eye of Truth reveals her for the foul, Azrahn-wielding corruptor she is!"

Tenn drew himself up to his full height, righteous fury swirling around him in swaths of fiery red magic. "He has betrayed us in every way possible! Because he brought you into the Fading Lands!"

"He brought me because the Eye told him I would save the tairen," she cried. "And I have! Four kitlings were born in Fey'Bahren tonight—because Rain and I saved them."

Consternation flashed across Tenn's face. For a moment—just a moment—she saw doubt flicker in his gold-sparked eyes.

Yulan stepped forward, his brows drawn together in an accusing scowl. "How did you save them, Celierian? With Azrahn? Did our king knowingly allow you to weave the forbidden magic?"

"Everything Rain has done, he has done to save the Fading Lands!" she cried. "He is your king, and he would die to save his people!"

"Then he should have done so a thousand years ago!" spat Nurian, Sariel's cousin. "He is as much an abomination as you! A madman who inherited a throne he did not deserve because he did not die with his mate, as a bonded Fey should. Everything about his rise to power is as corrupt as his existence and his rule. I reject him as the rightful king of the Fey."

Ellysetta stared at him, aghast. "You hate him because Sariel died and he did not. Dear gods, all this time, he has held you in his heart, and you have wished him dead."