Hawksheart studied her with those too-intent eyes, and she could feel him in her mind, probing her thoughts. The tairen shifted inside her, sensing a threat. It gave a warning growl and began to rise. Afraid of what it might do, Ellysetta lowered her lashes to break the Elf king's gaze and bowed her head in greeting.

"My Lord Hawksheart," she murmured. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Ellysetta Erimea." The Elf king had a voice like a song, low and musical and enchanting. The accented Feyan rolled off his tongue like water tumbling over the stones in a brook. "Long have I waited for the day you would stand here among the ancients of Navahele."

She raised her eyes in surprise. "Y-you have?"

"Bayas. I have lived ten thousand years, Ellysetta Erimea, and I have been waiting for your arrival since I saw my first glimpse of the Dance as a boy." His eyes bored into hers once more. Despite herself, she flinched, and her tairen growled and roared.

"Parei," Rain commanded curtly. "Ellysetta is not used to your Elvish ways. You are unsettling her."

The Elf turned his piercing gaze on Rain, but Rain just narrowed his eyes and stood his ground.

Galad Hawksheart smiled. "We meet again, Worldscorcher."

The Elf turned back to Ellysetta. "Your truemate and I met many years ago in Tehlas when I went there to visit kin of mine." He paused briefly, almost expectantly, before adding, "Though perhaps he does not remember it. He had only just returned from his Soul Quest and was still absorbing the wonder of being a fledgling Tairen Soul."

"I remember," Rain said. "You were there for the bonding ceremony of your cousin Hollen Stagleaper to the niece of Shanisorran v’En Celay. You told my father the next Song of the Dance had begun, and that I was the one who called it. I didn't understand why that left my father so troubled, until I learned that the ones who call the Song always suffer for it. You can imagine my concern when I learned that Ellysetta calls a Song, too."

"Is that why you stayed away! Did you think that by ignoring my summons, you could stop her Song?"

"My only concern was to get her to safety behind the Faering Mists."

"And yet here you stand, and she is less safe now than she was then. The Dance will not be denied, Worldscorcher. Of all people, you should know that."

Rain reached out with Spirit to probe Galad Hawksheart's mind, intending to discover exactly what Hawksheart's intentions were and what he knew of Ellysetta's role in the Elvish prophecy.

Galad brushed aside Rain's weave with a careless wave. "Fey weaves could never hope to enter an Elvian mind, Worldscorcher; nor is there need. I mean your mate no harm. Look to others for that and guard her well. She will need all the protection those of the Light can give her."

"Hundreds have already sworn to guard her, in this life and the death that follows," Tajik growled before Rain could reply.

"Kinsman." Galad turned to Tajik. "So you have returned to Elvia after all."

"As you Saw I would," Tajik said.

"Bayas." The Elf king held out an arm, which, after a brief hesitation, Tajik clasped in greeting. "I am pleased indeed to see your Light shining bright once more."

Tajik dipped his head in Ellysetta's direction. "That is the Feyreisa's doing, cousin, which surely you must already have Seen as well."

"I did, but that does not make me any less glad to know that what I Saw came to pass."

Ellysetta glanced between them. "You and Lord Galad are related, Tajik?”

Tajik shrugged. "His father's sister wed one of my ancestors fifteen thousand years ago, but Elves never forget their family lines. Once Elf blood joins your own, you and your descendants will always be Elf-kin."

"Great Lord Barrial of Celieria is another of your kinsmen, is he not?" Rain asked.

Hawksheart nodded. "Descended from a different cousin. Our line comes directly from the first Elf king, who founded Navahele in the Time Before Memory."

"How many kinsmen do you have?" Ellysetta asked.

Galad turned to her and his mouth curved in a smile that surprised Rain with its warmth. Elves were notoriously aloof with those not of their kind. They lived too long and Saw too much for them to easily form attachments with others.

"Since the dawn of the First Age," Hawksheart said, "this world has greeted nine hundred eighty-nine thousand, two hundred seventy-three of my kin, but fewer than one hundred of us still live."

"How many of those that remain are your direct descendants?"

The Elf king's smile turned pensive. "I have no young; nor does my sister, Ilona. We two are the last Elves born to the direct royal line of the first king. Our remaining kin are cousins.”

"The family history lesson is all well and good," Gaelen interrupted, "but surely that is not the reason you summoned Rain and Ellysetta to Navahele."

Now Hawksheart's expression went cool again. He regarded vel Serranis with an unblinking gaze. "Anio, it was not. Feyreisen, you and your mate please follow me." He hesitated and gave each Fey a measuring look before adding, "The rest of you must remain here."

"Ellysetta goes nowhere without her quintet." Rain's tone was as hard as stone. "Whatever you have to say to us, you can say before them as well."

"I assure you, your mate is in no danger here."

"All the same, we all go, or none of us do," Rain insisted.