The Eye filled with images of war and devastation. The Fading Lands in smoldering ruin. The white beauty of Dharsa scorched and ravaged, its golden spires melted, its soaring towers fallen and crumbled, a wasteland of ashes and shattered beauty.

Atop the blackened hilltop, where the Hall of Tairen stood, the soaring white walls had been seared black, the golden spires transformed to great, threatening spikes of sel'dor that stabbed the sky like spearheads. The water of the Source ran red, a thick, scarlet river pouring down the mountainside like blood gushing from a mortal wound. All along the mount, beside gardens turned into grim orchards of impaled and rotting corpses, the High Mage's legions gathered, a grim, malignant shadow on the land.

Inside the palace, beside a dark and twisted mockery of what had been the Tairen Throne, stood the figure from Ellysetta's dreams: herself, clad in dark red armor the color of blood. A goddess of destruction, beautiful and fell, whose hand poured poison upon the earth, whose kiss blew death on all who dared oppose her.

Her face was death white, hair flame red, and her eyes were twin bottomless black pits sparkling with red lights. She wore a full complement of Fey blades made of sel'dor instead of shining steel. Rain's Tairen Crown rested upon her brow, but its six gleaming globes of Tairen's Eye crystal had been turned to black selkahr glinting with malevolent flashes of scarlet.

Before her stood a dark congregation cheering her name, but this time they were not Eld and their corrupt allies. This time they were faces she recognized.

Gaelen. Bel. Tajik. Gil. Rijonn. Each and every one of the lu'tans who'd bloodsworn themselves to her service. Their faces pale as corpse flesh, their eyes black, soulless chasms.

Ellysetta's hands rose to her face, fingers curved into claws. The horror left her breathless. She'd restored their souls. She'd meant to save them. And they, who'd sworn to serve and protect her in this life and the next, had fulfilled their oaths.

When the Feyreisa they had proclaimed to be their Light fell into darkness, they had followed.

The dark Ellysetta looked up, her hideous gaze pinning the real Ellysetta where she stood. A cruel, mocking smile curved her lips.

Fury, hot and searing, burst in Ellysetta's chest. The tairen rose with shocking swiftness, wild with rage. Power, vast and deadly, rose with it. They hurt us! the tairen howled. We will scorch their souls!

"Ellysetta!" Marissya gasped.

«Shei'tani, nei!» Rain cried.

The doors to the Hall of Tairen burst open. Ellysetta's quintet raced in, swords and magic blazing. The lords of the Massan followed swift on their heels, five-fold weaves spinning with vibrant power.

All of them stopped in their tracks, stunned at the sight that met their horrified eyes. Ellysetta crouched before the Eye of Truth, her mouth pulled back in a snarl of fury, her fingers curved into claws. Above and behind her loomed a great, shadowy black tairen formed entirely of swirling, ember-kissed Azrahn.

Chapter fifteen

A sword in the sheath is safe, but that's not what Fey steel was made for.

Tevan Fire Eyes, first Feyreisen of the Fading Lands

The Fading Lands ~ Dharsa

"You knew what she was, knew what taint lay upon her, yet still you brought her." Tenn paced the Hall of Tairen. The soles of his deep red leather boots slapped the marble tiles in an agitated rhythm.

"What would you have done? Left her there, among the mortals, for the Eld to take at their whim?" Rain glared at the leader of the Massan. He'd given them the truth, about Ellysetta and the Marks she bore, about the High Mage's interest in her. There hadn't been much point in hiding it after Gaelen leapt forward crying, "Quickly, Fey! Five-fold weaves around her before the Mage traces that Azrahn back to her!" Apparently, their quick action succeeded. Ellysetta—who had been escorted back to Rain's suite by her quintet—said she hadn't received a third Mark, but damage of a different sort was unavoidable.

"She wove Azrahn!" Yulan, the Earth master, accused. "It is a banishing offense."

Rain's spine went straight as seyani steel, and magic surged in an instinctive rush, ready to fly in defense of his mate. "Only an intentional use of the forbidden magic is cause for banishment, and Ellysetta wove it by accident. Aiyah, she wields Azrahn. All of us do to some extent—just as all of us weave Spirit—but she does not yet control her power. Her tairen perceived what she saw in the Eye as a threat and tried to defend herself against it."

"She is Mage-claimed!" Tenn snarled. "She is a threat to the safety of the Fey."

"She is my truemate! The first truemate to a Tairen Soul the world has ever seen."

"Even more cause for grave concern!"

Rain's face went blank as stone. "What is that supposed to mean?" His voice was soft as silk, but the last word ended on a faint, throaty growl.

The leader of the Massan continued to pace, either not hearing the telltale rumble of sound, or not recognizing it for what it was: a tairen's hunting purr. "A Mage-claimed, Azrahn-wielding female of questionable parentage and incredible power appears out of nowhere—and she just happens to truemate the only Tairen Soul still living after the Mage Wars?"

Rain leaned forward. "I do not like what you imply, v'En Eilan. Do you truly believe the Eld could have found a way to create a woman who appears Fey in all ways, truemates a Tairen Soul, and houses a tairen in her own soul?"

"It's no less incredible than the idea that a Fey lord would keep his shei'tani outside the Fading Lands, unprotected and away from her kin, for a thousand years after the Mage Wars."