«Did Ellysetta weave it?» Rain asked.

«I don't know. I'll touch it to see if I can sense the maker.»

Marissya approached cautiously, surprised that she couldn't sense power emanating from the weave. A five-fold weave with threads that thick should have throbbed with power. But this one would have been invisible if Marissya had not sent her consciousness into Ellysetta's body. It was-like so many things about the woodcarver's daughter-a mystery.

Marissya reached out with her senses, brushing gently against the outermost curve of the shining sphere ... and gave a shrill cry as something attacked. She had a brief impression of blazing eyes and deadly fury before she found herself flying out of Ellysetta's body, returning to her own with a painful jolt that sent her sprawling backwards into the grass.

She groaned and heard the sound echoed by several others. Hands reached out, helping her to sit up. "I'm fine," she muttered, waving her quintet away. It wasn't exactly true. Her head felt as if someone had taken a hammer to it.

Dax and Bel were struggling to sit up, each rubbing his head.

Beside them, surrounded by glowing magic and naked poison blades, Gaelen was doing the same.

"Are you all right?" Marissya's question to them all was instinctive, even though she knew before they nodded that they had suffered no serious harm. Her gaze rested longest on Gaelen, drinking in the sight of him. She would have thought that after a thousand years as a dahl'reisen, his appearance would have changed. But he was Fey, immortal, held forever in the beautiful perfection of his prime, as familiar to her as he ever had been.

Love filled her and flooded her eyes with shimmering tears. "Gods' blessing on Ellysetta Baristani," she whispered to herself, giving the spread-fingered fanning wave of the Lord of Light. She turned to Rain. "The weave wasn't hers, Rain. The Spirit weaves were-all of them, even the most powerful ones-but the five-fold weave belonged to someone else. Someone put it there deliberately.”

"What?" Rain stared at her in surprise. "But why?”

"If I were to guess, I'd say someone wanted to be sure she would never use her magic. Maybe they even wanted to prevent anyone from realizing she had magic.”

"Why would anyone do that to her?”

"I don't know, Rain. But I can tell you this: If the strength of that five-fold weave is a measure of what it was made to contain, her magic isn't just strong, as we've suspected. It's a vaster power than I've ever known."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ellysetta groaned and peeled open her eyes. The now-familiar headache was worse than ever, pounding sharply at her temples. A loud, confusing barrage of thoughts and concerns flooded into her. She had a blurred image of faces hovering over her; then hands reached out to touch her. The cacophony in her mind grew deafening. She gave a small cry and flinched back, coming up against a solid wall of blessed quiet. She huddled closer, seeking shelter, and Rain wrapped his arms around her. Warm peace, edged with fierce protectiveness, blanketed her, muffling the noise of the others.

«What is it, shei’tani?”

al can hear them all. In my mind, all at once, I can hear them.,, "Shield yourselves," Rain commanded. "Your thoughts disturb the Feyreisa.”

Immediately the voices quieted, though sensations of surprise and curiosity rose sharply.

"Ve to dor," Marissya said. "Ve ku jian vallar”

You are in pain. Allow me to help you. For the first time, Ellysetta understood how hard it was for Marissya to stand there, waiting patiently for permission to weave comfort, while Ellysetta's headache beat at them both.

«Do not fear Marissya, shei’tani. She means you no harm.»

"I know.” Ellysetta frowned. That was no lie. She knew Marissya wanted only to heal the headache, nothing more. She knew it as surely as she'd ever known anything in her life. It was as if she could see into the other woman's mind, into her soul even, and find her intentions shining like a beacon.

Ellysetta looked at Dax, wondered what he was thinking, and the answer was simply there. He was worried for his mate; she was so weary, yet would not cease trying to heal Ellysetta. He distrusted Gaelen vel Serranis, no matter what the Feyreisa had done to make his scar disappear, no matter even that Marissya believed he had been returned to them without a taint of evil.

Ellysetta's gaze moved from Fey to Fey, plucking thoughts from their minds as easily as picking wildflowers in a meadow. Many thoughts bordered on reverent awe. She could take the scar from a dahl'reisen and restore his soul! She was a gift from the gods, or perhaps a god herself, sent to save them. She flinched away from those thoughts, even more quickly than she flinched from the darker suspicions of a few of the warriors, who were thinking that in taking the scar from a dahl'reisen, she had overturned the judgment of the gods and upset the balance of millennia of Fey law. To change that which the gods had ordained could never be good, no matter how wonderful it seemed at first.

Ellysetta sought out the dahl'reisen whose scar she had supposedly removed, found him ringed by watchful warriors. She skimmed his mind and discovered his thoughts were as easy to read as the others. Stunned disbelief was foremost in his mind, followed by joy at the unexpected treasure of standing in his sister's presence and causing her not even the slightest twinge of pain_ Pale, ice-blue eyes met Ellysetta's. He knew what she was doing, knew she was plucking thoughts from the minds of all the Fey, knew she was in his mind now.