Lord of the Fading Lands (The Tairen Soul Book 1)

Ten thousand swords before you, ten thousand daggers drawn,

Ten thousand lives defend you, ten thousand warriors strong

Our blood will spill ten thousand times.

In hope, ten thousand sigh.

For love we face ten thousand deaths,

With joy, ten thousand die.

Ten thousand Fey before you, ten thousand fierce and tall,

Ten thousand souls protect you, beloved of us all.

—Chorus from Ten Thousand Swords,

a Fey Warrior’s Song

Even with seven pairs of hands, unwrapping and recording all the wedding gifts was tedious work. To pass the time, Adrial vel Arquinas began to hum a rhythmic tune. His brother Rowan soon joined him, then Kiel. Then Kieran began to sing. To Ellie’s amazement, Rain soon joined in, his voice a deep, rich baritone.

They sang in Feyan, and though Ellie only understood a word or two here and there, the song’s beat and the melodious sound of the lyrics made her smile. ‘That was beautiful,’ she said when they finished. ‘What was it?”

‘A Fey warrior’s song called `Ten Thousand Swords,’ ‘ Rain told her. ‘It is a song all Fey youths learn when they are training to become warriors.”

‘Can you translate it for me?’ With a nod, he did so, and tears sprang to her eyes as she listened to the words that vowed the death of thousands to protect the life of one woman. She gave a little shiver. ‘Surely it’s just a song. I, for one, wouldn’t want any of you dying for me.”

‘It is the greatest of honors to die in the defense of a shei’tani,’ Kiel protested. ‘Such a warrior will be born to this world again, to find a truemate of his own.”

Holding a forgotten package on her lap, she looked at the faces of the men around her. ‘Do you all believe that?”

They exchanged glances, then nodded. ‘Of course,’ Adrial told her, and a chill worked up Ellysetta’s spine as she suddenly realized how dear to her the warriors had become in such a short time. The thought of any one of them dying was like a knife to her heart.

‘Peace, Ellysetta,’ Rain murmured. She felt a warm touch on the back of her hand, another on her face, even though he sat several feet away from her and had not moved a muscle. ‘None of them seek death yet.”

‘Seek death?’ she repeated weakly.

‘Sheisan’dahlein,’ Rowan supplied. ‘The Fey honor death.”

‘You seek death?’ She stared at them all in horror.

‘When we must,’ Belliard said. His cobalt eyes held a calm acceptance she couldn’t begin to fathom.

‘Why?”

The five warriors glanced at Rain, who hesitated, regarded Ellie with a searching look, then nodded briefly.

Setting aside the small golden dish he’d unwrapped and recorded, Bel began to explain. ‘Each time a Fey warrior claims a life, he takes the weight of that soul upon his. He absorbs the darkness of that soul and the pain of that soul’s unfulfilled promise, its sorrows and regrets, and he carries the weight and the pain of it always, like a burning stone hung round his neck.”

Ellie covered her mouth. ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

‘It is the price the gods decreed for the many gifts they have bestowed on the Fey,’ Bel said. ‘And it is just. How much more greatly we value peace, knowing the price for taking a life. It is one of the reasons the Fey avoid war. In war, many good men die, and the soul of a good man is far harder to bear than that of one steeped in darkness, even though killing a dark one brings terrible pain.’ His voice dropped. Shadows dimmed his eyes, turning cobalt to brooding navy. ‘I would rather slay a thousand dark ones than cut down one good man.”

‘Aiyah,’ Rowan and Adrial agreed quietly.

‘Is there nothing you can do to … get free of these souls?”

Bel blinked, and the shadows fled from his eyes. His hard, handsome face softened. His lips curved, not quite a smile, but almost. ‘If a warrior is lucky enough to find his shei’tani,’ he said, ‘she can help ease his burden, for hers is the spirit of compassion and healing and she alone can touch her warrior’s soul. He will still feel pain when he takes a life, but she can banish the darkness that comes with the pain and heal his soul.”

‘But shei’tanis are rare and precious,’ Kiel added. He brushed a lock of golden hair behind his ear, then deftly stripped silver paper from a small package to reveal a delicate china vase. He held it up to the glow of the lamp hanging from the ceiling and smiled as the lamplight illuminated the translucent porcelain. ‘Most warriors will live and die without ever finding their truemate, yet all of us still hope.’ With great care, he set the vase aside, and made note of both the gift and its sender on the paper before him.

Hope. Bel’s small, not-quite-revealed smile was hope. Ellie felt her throat grow tight. It grew tighter when she realized that even that tiny hint of emotion was already gone from his face, replaced with careful blankness, as if he dared not display his hope for fear of its being stolen from him.

Bel reached for a large package with a huge blue bow. ‘So, when the weight of the souls he has taken becomes too much for a Fey to bear,’ he concluded, pulling the ends of the ribbon to unravel the extravagant bow, ‘when the stain on his soul grows so dark it threatens to consume him, the warrior has only two choices: sheisan’dahlein, the honor death, which gives him the hope of being born again to find the one who will complete his soul, or becoming dahl’reisen, a lost soul, outcast from the Fading Lands, in danger of turning to Azrahn and other dark magics, doomed for eternity.’ Bel’s face went momentarily grim as he mentioned the last.

‘But that’s horrible.”

‘That is the lot of the Fey warrior,’ he answered. ‘Of all possible honor deaths, the greatest of them is to die protecting a truemate, for then the warrior is assured of finding his own truemate in his next life. It is one reason we dedicate our lives to the Dance of Knives. We strive for centuries to become the best of all Fey warriors, to earn the right to protect a shei’tani, to earn the right to die for her.’ Pulling a black- handled Fey’cha from the bands across his chest, Bel slit open the seals on the box he had just unwrapped.

‘No,’ Ellysetta protested. ‘No. I won’t allow it. I won’t have any of you dying for me, not for any reason.”

Silence fell in the room. All rustling of paper ceased. All motion ceased. It seemed to Ellie as if all breathing ceased.

Rain touched Ellie, this time with his hand rather than his magic. His long fingers closed over hers. His lavender eyes shone intently.

‘You will allow it, shei’tani,’ he told her in a gentle voice lined with steel. ‘You will not deny these men their right to the most honorable of all Fey deaths. They live now to protect you, to die for you if they must. Because you represent hope for all Fey, and especially for them.”

For a long, shocked moment, Ellie stared into Rain’s steady, resolute eyes. It was one thing to believe these warriors were there to protect her. It was another thing entirely to realize that they would die for her. Perhaps she’d been foolish not to realize it before, yet it had never occurred to her that if her life was in danger, their lives were in danger too. Or that they would each die before allowing harm to come to her. Not even Bel’s stirring pledge to devote life and soul to her protection had made her realize, truly, what was at stake.

Everything in her screamed against allowing such a thing. She was plain, awkward Ellysetta Baristani, the woodcarver’s daughter, and though for some incredible reason Rain Tairen Soul believed she was his truemate, she knew there was nothing within her important enough for these men, these oddly dear friends, to protect at the cost of their immortal lives. How could she live with herself if even one of them died on her account?

«They will protect you whether you agree or not, because I will command it. You are my shei’tani, and immeasurably valuable to us all,» Rain told her silently. «But if you rail against their protection, you take away their joy. Do not make this great honor a burden to them.»

She lowered her eyes and dragged in a breath. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, forcing her voice not to tremble. ‘Of course, I am honored by your protection.”

Breathing resumed. Paper crinkled. Silence lifted. «Beylah vo, shei’tani. »

Ellie fiddled with the ribbons on the package in her lap and did not respond.

Bel finished unwrapping the large package and held up an object made of shining steel and shaped like a very ugly coiled serpent. ‘What in the name of tairen fire is this?”

Kieran laughed. ‘I think it’s a keflee pot.”

Bel stared at the object in his hand, twisting it this way and that. ‘And what’s the matching cream pot, I wonder? A scorpion?”

They were joking. How could they be joking?

«Would you have them cry every day of their lives? »

She looked at Rain and blinked back the tears that sprang to her eyes. ‘I thought you couldn’t read my mind,’ she accused. Her anger was weak, but she grabbed it, not wanting to cry in front of these men who had far more reason for tears than she.

Rain only shook his head. ‘Your thoughts are plain on your face.’

They managed to open, record, and pack away all of the gifts in the parlor before lunchtime. Lillis and Lorelle returned from their morning’s instruction with Madam Nolen, a widow who supported herself by teaching the local guildmasters’ children basic reading, penmanship, maths, and household management. Ellie reviewed their morning’s work, fed them, then sent them out into the rear garden to play with their kitten so the Fey could do a swift, magical spit-and-polish of the house before Master Fellows arrived.

Lillis and Lorelle weren’t pleased when they realized Ellie would be too busy the next three afternoons to take them to the park, and nothing mollified them until Rain offered to spend a portion of tomorrow’s courtship bells playing Stones with them in the park. The offer transformed their expressions from utter dejection to soaring delight, and the sudden change of emotion made Ellie’s eyes narrow with suspicion.

‘I think you’ve just been manipulated,’ she told Rain.

He glanced after the girls as they disappeared through the kitchen door, then shrugged. ‘Ah, well, it pleases me to see them smile. They are young and bright, and their laughter lightens my heart.”

She felt her own heart squeeze a little. Behind that simple statement lay centuries of indescribable torment: the pain he’d shared with her that first night in the museum, the loss of the people he’d loved, and now, as she’d just learned, the suffering from every life he’d ever taken in defense of his people. And yet despite all that, he could still find happiness in making a child smile.

She reached for his hand. Her fingers curled around his, measuring through touch the unyielding strength of his grip. She was tall, but beside him she felt slight. He stood a full head above her. His body, while lean, was hard with muscle, his shoulders broad and squared. He was a man built to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders. And she was a woman just learning how much she longed to lighten his burden.

He stood motionless as she reached up to lay her other hand along the side of his face. ‘You’re a good man, Rainier vel’En Daris.’ She rose up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

A shudder rippled through him. His free hand slid round her waist, and he started to pull her hard against him, then stopped. Though she could feel the surge of longing in him, the fierce desire to capture and claim, he conquered it. The tairen roared for dominance, but Rain refused to give in. He kissed her with breathtaking passion that left her in no doubt of his desire or need, yet when she broke the embrace and stepped back, he opened his arms and let her go.

He held her stunned gaze with eyes that glowed bright and fierce. ‘I am not a good man, shei’tani,’ he corrected. ‘I never have been. But for you I will strive to be better.”

She pressed a hand to her lips. He could make her feel so much, so deeply and so quickly it was frightening. Just then, while he’d kissed her, a powerful sensation had moved inside her. She could feel it still, drawing her skin tight, shuddering through her bones as if at any moment they might dissolve.

She took a deep breath and dragged a ragged veil of calm around her, tamping her emotions down until the feeling faded. ‘I should go freshen up. Master Fellows will be here soon, and I don’t want to embarrass you by looking a mess when he arrives.”

Rain’s brow’s drew together. ‘You bring pride to this Fey just as you are.”

She laughed ruefully. ‘Yes, well, be that as it may, we both know the nobility won’t share that view—which is why I spent this morning and last letting the queen’s craftsmasters try to change me into something more acceptable. And why I’m going upstairs now to freshen up before Master Fellows gets here.’ She turned and started for the stairs.

‘Ellysetta’ The sudden thread of steel in his voice made her halt and look back. His expression was carved stone. The pupils of his still-glowing eyes had lengthened to slits, ‘I meant what I said. I have no wish to change you. All this’— he flung out his hand at the mess of fabrics and pattern books still strewn around the main room—’was Marissya and your mother’s idea, to help you feel more at ease among Dorian’s nobles. For myself, I’d proudly take you as you are. Just say the word, and so it will be.”

Her eyes widened. He would do that. He’d take her before the court dressed as a peasant and expect them to treat her like a queen.

And be furious when they didn’t.

‘I thought the whole purpose of this Kingsday’s dinner was to win the favor of the lords so they would vote to keep the Eld border closed,’ she said.

‘And so it is, but any Celierian worthy of Fey regard will appreciate the honor of your presence no matter what your garb.”

Her brows almost disappeared into her hairline. ‘Oh, truly? You know as well as I do that I don’t dare appear before the court dressed in anything even remotely resembling this.’ She waved at her simple skirts and thick-soled boots. ‘They’d be insulted beyond words, and you’d lose all hope of winning their support.”

She wasn’t sure she believed the Mages had reconstituted their power. The dahl’reisen murdering innocent villagers up and down the borders seemed a greater and more obvious threat than anything in Eld. But she knew Rain believed Eld was the true menace. And he needed the support of Celieria’s aristocracy to ensure that his fears did not come to pass. He was already starting off at a disadvantage. No noble—especially Queen Annoura—would easily forgive him for raising a woodcarver’s daughter to the rank of queen.

Rain couldn’t dispute her reasoning, though the flush of angry color beneath his pale skin said he wanted to. ‘Be that as it may,’ he snapped, ‘we’re not talking about the court right now. We’re talking about a servant of the court, the queen’s Master of Graces. I assure you I don’t need his vote, Ellysetta, and that means you have no cause to put yourself out on his behalf.”

She put her hands on her hips. ‘No cause except common courtesy and care for my own pride. Master Fellows may look at me and see a peasant, but at least he’ll see a tidy one. And thank you so much for making me admit to such conceit.”

Rain’s brow creased in a bewildered look, as if he could not understand how the conversation had ended here, with her glaring at him for embarrassing her. He shook his head and pinched the ridge between his eyes. ‘It’s been too long since I’ve been a mate. I had forgotten the two rules.”

‘The two rules?’ she echoed.

‘Aiyah. Sariel taught me.’ He held up his index finger. ‘Rule one: in any dispute between mates, the male is always to blame, even when he is clearly blameless. Rule two’—his middle finger joined the first—’whenever in doubt, refer to rule one.”

The laugh popped out before she could halt it.

His eyes crinkled at the corners. He reached out and brushed the back of his fingers across her cheek in a light caress. ‘Very well, shei’tani. Tidy yourself for this Master of Graces if that will put you at ease. Have the seamstresses provided you with a court gown yet?”

‘No, I was just going to put on my green gown. The maestras haven’t had time to finish anything finer.’ She gestured to the bolts of cloth stacked against one wall. ‘I’m still picking patterns and fabric.”

He glanced over at the bolts she’d indicated. ‘I like that silk.’ He pointed to a bolt of golden yellow watered silk. ‘The color would become you.’ His brows drew together in a frown of concentration. A surge of powerful magic burst from his hands. Half the bolt of cloth disappeared. ‘There,’ he said when the shining green Earth threads faded. ‘You have a dress now, in your room upstairs. And don’t bother with your hair. Kieran will fix it for you when you come back downstairs.”

She shook her head. Now she was the one bewildered. ‘You just finished arguing with me about how I should not change myself for members of the court.”

‘That was before you expressed your fear of being shamed. As your mate, it is my duty to protect you in all ways. For the pride of the nobles, I care nothing. For yours, I do.’ He shrugged. ‘Go, shei’tani, don these garments you think you need. We Fey will tidy your home and wait for this Master of Graces.”

She went. Upstairs in her room, laid neatly across her narrow bed, lay an exquisite gown of saffron silk. She tried it on, not surprised to find it a perfect fit. But as she regarded her stylish reflection in the long mirror inside her wardrobe, her pleased smile faded. Despite her angry claims this morning that she was the same person she’d always been and always would be, Ellysetta knew it wasn’t true. She’d already begun to change, and she would have to change still more. Fast. Because when he faced the nobles this Kingsday evening, Rain Tairen Soul would need a queen by his side, not some naive, graceless gawk of a girl.

Precisely as the city clock tower rang fourteen bells, Master Gaspare Fellows, the queen’s Master of Graces, arrived at the Baristani home. He stepped across the threshold, threw back the edges of his satin-lined demi-cape, and executed a perfect court bow before Ellysetta.

‘Ah, My Lady Feyreisa, a pleasure to meet you.’ He straightened and cast a swift, appraising, hazel gaze around the interior of her family’s home. Ellie was glad the Fey had tidied up, because she had a feeling the Master would describe everything he saw in the minutest detail once he returned to court.

Master Fellows concluded his perusal and cleared his throat delicately. ‘Very quaint.’

What was she supposed to say to that? ‘Thank you for coming, Master Fellows.’ The slender, elegant little man stood almost a full head shorter than Ellysetta, but despite his small stature, her stomach was still tied in nervous knots. This man was the chief authority on the noble graces to which all members of the royal court adhered.

‘Hmm.’ Master Fellows subjected Ellie to as thorough a gaze as he had the house. Even though she knew she looked her best, her knees were all but knocking as she waited for his approval. ‘Turn, please,’ he commanded, wiggling one finger in an impatient spiral. ‘Hmm,’ he said again. ‘Well, I see I have my work cut out for me if I’m to impart some meaningful modicum of the graces to you over the next few days.”

‘Master Fellows.”

‘Oh!’ The man gave a start as Rain stepped from the shadows behind him.

‘I am Rainier vel’En Daris, the Tairen Soul.’ No hint of welcome softened Rain’s expression. Less than half a bell earlier, Ellie had thought him the kindest of men, but now he looked downright frightening. His steel seemed to gleam brighter—and more menacing—than usual against the darkness of his leathers. Apparently, Master Fellows thought so too, because the little man backed up several paces. ‘What graces, exactly, do you think a Celierian could teach the queen of the Fey that she does not already possess?”

‘Uh . . ahem …’ Master Fellows cleared his throat again and backed up yet another step, only to bump into the equally imposing figure of Bel, who’d come to stand between Master Fellows and Ellie. The Master of Graces swallowed. ‘No insult was intended, My Lord Feyreisen. The graces are an art. The manner of comportment, of speech, the language of the fans and flowers … they take a lifetime to master.”

‘I see.’ Rain nodded. Then he smiled, showing teeth. ‘You have three days.”

Master Fellows gasped like a beached fish.

‘I suggest you start with the things she’ll need to know for the palace dinner we are attending this Kingsday evening. I’m sure you’ll find the Feyreisa a quick study.’

The palace dinner was to be a formal state affair where the heads of the noble houses would gather together for a reception followed by a banquet. As Master Fellows explained, that meant he had three appointments of four short bells each to teach a completely untrained woman the graces of court greetings, bows and curtseys, polite conversation, deportment, flatware, and dining.

At first, Master Fellows talked so fast he barely took time to breathe. But after he survived the first bell without being skewered on a Fey blade, he calmed down a bit. By the second bell, he had regained his composure, but his patience had begun to go missing.

‘If you are to be treated like a queen, My Lady Feyreisa, you must comport yourself as one. If you think of yourself as regal, others will too. You have a lovely neck, my dear. Like a swan’s. Hold your head high. No, not that high. Let them see your lovely eyes, not your nostrils. Yes, like that. Now, spine straight. Shoulders back. No, not so far back that your shoulder blades touch one another. You’re a queen, not a prize hen.’ He started to take hold of Ellysetta’s shoulders, but the hiss of Fey steel leaving scabbard froze him in place. All five warriors of Ellysetta’s quintet had unsheathed their blades. ‘Sers,’ he complained. Ellysetta’s quintet just stared blankly at him. He turned to Rain. ‘My Lord Feyreisen, really. I’ve tried, but I simply cannot do this without touching her.”

‘I agree,’ Rain answered. ‘You cannot do it”

Master Fellows’s expression—which had started to brighten with triumph—fell once more. ‘This no-touching rule of yours is ridiculous! You would not let me guide her through her curtseys. You would not let me show her how to use her hands in polite conversation. And now, you will not allow me to adjust the way she comports herself. How do you expect me to teach her the graces if you hobble me at every turn? This is impossible!’

‘Do you shrink so easily from a challenge, then?”

‘A challenge, no. But you, My Lord Feyreisen, are setting me up for disaster. Is that what you want? For me to fail and your queen to become the butt of Celierian jokes?”

Every spark of warmth fled from Rain’s eyes. ‘Mind your tongue, Celierian.”

‘Or what? You’ll cut it out? Go on, then! You might as well. My life will be ruined in any event if Lady Ellysetta falls on her face before the entire court. They all know it’s I whom the queen tasked with tutoring her in the graces!’ With a great flair of drama, Master Fellows yanked open his silk coat, baring the pristine white linen shirt below. ‘Go ahead, Tairen Soul! Do your worst! Slay me! Drive one of those poison Fey blades through my heart! I’d rather die than live with such shame”

Rain’s irritation melted away. It was impossible to stay irritated while trying hard not to laugh. He didn’t like Celierians. He’d always found them to be arrogant, false, and weak. But one thing he could respect was a man who took pride in his life’s work and had the courage to defend it. Even if he was a dramatic, posing little prat.

‘Let him use whatever methods he thinks are best to teach me,’ Ellysetta said. ‘I don’t want to embarrass you or my family when I’m presented to the court.”

‘You could never do that, shei’tani,’ Rain replied. ‘But neither can I allow him to touch you.’ Silently, he admitted, «Until our bond is complete, the tairen would never permit it, and I don’t want to kill this man, if only because I would regret the loss of entertainment.»

She looked shocked.

Behind her, Bel smothered a smile. «You like him.”

«I don’t,» Rain denied, then reluctantly recanted. «All right, maybe a little. A very little.» Who could completely dislike a banty little mortal brave enough to dare Rain Tairen Soul to do his worst?

Rain turned to Master Fellows. ‘Will you accept a compromise, Master Fellows? Permit me to read your thoughts with Spirit, and I will give you the use of my hands. You need only think what you would like me to do, and I will do it for you. Will that suffice?”

‘I don’t know’ Master Fellows straightened his clothing and carefully smoothed back his hair. ‘I’m not sure I like the idea of having you in my head. What would it be like?”

‘You would not know I was there. Simply picture in your mind how you wish Ellysetta to stand’ He plucked the images easily from the man’s mind and wove them in Spirit so Ellysetta could see, then made the smaller adjustments himself, tilting her shoulders and chin gently to achieve exactly the stance Master Fellows imagined. ‘Like this, Master Fellows?’ He heard her breath catch as his hands touched her, felt her helpless rush of desire and the hot echo of it in his flesh. She might fear the tairen, but this much she could not deny. It gave him hope that the rest would come in time.

‘Exactly! I mean’—the man coughed—’that will do nicely, My Lord Feyreisen”

‘I feel like a posed doll,’ Ellysetta muttered.

‘You look like a queen.’ Fellows was right; she did have a lovely neck. Rain bent to press a kiss against the soft skin of Ellysetta’s throat. ‘You bring pride to this Fey, shei’tani.’

‘Oh, but none of that,’ Master Fellows objected, ignoring Rain’s frown. ‘Celierian courtiers may enjoy passion in private, but in public, they must observe all the proprieties”

Ellysetta’s lessons in the graces continued throughout the afternoon. It was late when Master Fellows took his leave and hired a gentleman’s coach to carry him back across town to the palace, where he was promptly ushered into the queen’s private audience chamber to give a report of his session with the Tairen Soul’s mate.

Queen Annoura was seated on a carved and gilded armchair, dressed to perfection and shining with a seemingly effortless combination of luminous beauty and regal grace that Master Gaspare Fellows knew had taken years of careful study to perfect. He’d still been an apprentice when the queen had first come to these shores, and he’d helped his old Master train her to take her place at King Dorian’s side. The lessons had ended when the old Master died, but by then Annoura had already been transformed from the reserved young princess so in love with her handsome husband into the Moon of Celieria, the Brilliant around whom the entire court revolved.

Lately, Gaspare had begun noticing changes in her: a hardness that had never been there before, a cutting edge to her wit. After the last four bells spent in the fresh, artless kindness of Ellysetta Baristani’s company, the difference seemed even more obvious.

Gaspare’s gaze flicked to the bevy of Dazzles gathered around the queen, among them many a grasping, brittle beauty like that sapphire-eyed jade, Jiarine Montevero. Youngest daughter of a poor, minor house, she’d ascended beyond anyone’s expectations to claim a seat in the queen’s inner circle and title to her family’s holdings after the untimely passing of her parents and older siblings. Beside her stood one of the queen’s Favorites, the handsome Ser Vale, who for no reason at all made the little hairs on the back of Gaspare’s neck stand up whenever the man’s vivid blue-green gaze was fixed upon him.

As it was now.

Gaspare threw himself into a deep, elegant bow. The bend of his knee was exact, the flourish of his arm a perfection of grace … except for the faint tremors which he hoped no one noticed. Ser Vale disturbed him. Almost as much as the Tairen Soul had at first, only with Vale, the unsettledness never went away.

When Gaspare straightened, he focused his gaze on the queen, not allowing so much as a flicker of a glance in Vale’s direction. That helped. A little.

‘My Queen, you asked me to keep you informed of my progress with the young Feyreisa.’ Forcing himself to speak in confident, well-modulated tones, Gaspare related the details of his interactions with Ellysetta Baristani and the Tairen Soul.

Annoura kept her grip on the armrests of her chair light as Master Fellows gave his report. She’d hoped he would return full of sneering condescension for the woodcarver’s daughter’s attempts to master the noble graces, but somehow the girl appeared to have won him over. Oh, he was careful not to sing her praises too loudly—Gaspare Fellows was too experienced a veteran of noble society for that—but Annoura could tell by what he did not say that’d he’d liked her.

‘So, in your opinion, Master Fellows,’ she said when he finished, ‘Ellysetta Baristani will be able to master sufficient graces so as not to embarrass either the Fey or my husband, at the dinner on Kingsday?”

‘I believe so, Your Majesty.”

Conscious of the Dazzles observing her smallest reaction, Annoura kept her irritation well hidden. ‘Let us hope you are right. I realize I’ve set you a difficult task, Master Fellows. Turning a commoner into a lady fit for presentation to the heads of all Celieria’s noble houses is no small accomplishment—and to have only three short days in which to achieve it—well, just consider that a measure of my confidence in you.”

Master Fellows bowed with impeccable grace. ‘Nothing could give me greater pleasure than to be worthy of your confidence and regard, Majesty.”

‘Excellent. We thank you, Master Fellows.’ She fixed a coolly polite smile on her face. He recognized her unspoken dismissal and, with a final bow, excused himself.

When he was gone, Vale caught her eye. He’d been gone from her court since that morning in the garden when he’d acted so impudently, and though it galled her to admit it, she’d missed him. Scarcely a year since he’d first joined the court, and already he was indispensable to her. How had that happened? A mysterious, knowing smile lurked at the corners of his well-shaped mouth, and a tingling shot of energy raced up her spine in response. She’d seen that look before. He was hiding something, some naughty trinket or choice bit of gossip, and he was waiting for a moment alone to share it with her.

She shouldn’t let him. He’d grown too bold by half.

But she was still angry at the way Dorian had betrayed her this morning. She’d given him her love, given him years of devotion and loyalty and her tireless efforts to make him the most powerful king in the mortal world. And what had he done when asked to choose between her pride and his Fey kin? He’d chosen them. He’d thrown everything she’d ever given him back in her face.

She looked at Vale. This handsome man had made it clear in so many ways that he longed to serve and please her, that he would do anything for her.

A sharp staccato beat broke the air as Annoura clapped her hands sharply. ‘Out. All of you. Give me a moment.’ She held Vale’s gaze for a steady, expressionless moment. His faint smile deepened—then was wiped away as he turned towards the door and exited with the rest of the courtiers. The door closed behind them.

Silence fell over the room. She drew a deep breath, her breasts straining against the tight confinement of her corset. Her heart was beating quickly. This was not wise. Dorian was not a jealous or suspicious man—she’d never given him cause to be—but many a courtier with whom she’d battled in the past would leap at the chance to disgrace her.

Nerves shrilling, Annoura rose from her chair. Across the room, the door through which the courtiers had exited beckoned. Already she was having second thoughts. She should leave. Now. Before she encouraged Vale’s improprieties any further and gave herself cause for regret. Before she gave her enemies a weapon to use against her.

She started for the door to her bedchamber.

From behind, the sound of tinkling dishes and a low murmur of voices drifted in through the half-closed door leading to the adjoining antechamber. She stopped. Drew another deep breath. Turned.

Vale stood in the doorway, elegant and sensual, thick, smooth waves of dark hair gathered in a queue at his nape, blue-green eyes vivid in his bronzed face. Expertly tailored clothes hugged his body, outlining his muscular limbs, broad shoulders, trim hips.

She yanked her gaze back from where it had wandered and gathered her composure, drawing on every lesson engraved upon her being by the stern taskmaster who’d been Gaspare Fellows’s old master. One silvery brow arched. ‘You wished to see me privately?”

Vale smiled. It was not the smile of a supplicant or a courtier. It was, instead, a man’s smile, brimming with dangerous promise, whispering of silken sheets and forbidden desires. ‘I’ve brought you a gift, My Queen.’ He gestured behind him, to a small silver serving cart.

Annoura’s tension changed to irritation. ‘Keflee? Vale, really, my nerves are strung tight. They need no further stimulation.’ Keflee, the powdered nut of the kefloa tree, was a sensory enhancer. When brewed with cinnabar water, it acted as a mild stimulant to the senses, creating a feeling of invigoration and higher mental acuity.

Vale lifted a purple silk bag from the tray, and handed it to her. ‘Ah, but My Queen, this is no ordinary keflee. I know you to be a connoisseur, and this is a very rare and potent blend. One I think you will enjoy. Open the bag and just smell the aroma. It’s enthralling.”

Intrigued, she loosened the braided ties holding the top closed, parted the opening of the bag, and took an experimental sniff. A rich, dark fragrance filled her nostrils, heady, dizzying. A potent blend indeed. And now she knew the reason for the wicked light in Vale’s eyes.

For a rare few, the more potent forms of keflee could cause mild aphrodisiacal effects—and occasionally even more than mild, depending on the concentration of the brew, and the imbiber’s level of susceptibility and state of mind. Annoura had never experienced those side effects herself, but Dorian had a particularly interesting response to keflee in its most concentrated form. Ever since discovering that, she’d made a point of stocking new blends, and encouraging him to try them whenever she was feeling romantic.

‘I made a special trip to my estate just so I could bring it to you,’ Vale said, pouring the steaming liquid into two porcelain cups. He added a stream of thick, chilled honeyed cream, stirred, then held one cup out to her. ‘I thought if my gift pleased you, you might forgive me for my earlier transgression. I cannot bear to be out of your favor, My Queen.”

She gave a brief, disbelieving laugh. ‘So to apologize for one boldness, you offer an even greater one?”

‘Is it boldness to offer my queen a treasure I know she enjoys?”

A quick, sharp yank on the silk cords closed the purple bag tight. She tossed it on her desk and turned away, regretting the irritation and spurt of wickedness that had led her to encourage him. ‘You presume too much, Vale, and for your information, keflee does not have the effect on me you may think. My .. ardent pursuit of the rarest blends is an interest I indulge for reasons of my own.”

‘Then my gift is not bold in the least,’ he returned smoothly, ‘and there is no reason why you should not share a cup with me.’ He smiled invitingly. ‘Come, will you not at least taste a little? The blend is sinfully delicious.”

She started to refuse and dismiss him, but he lifted his own cup of keflee and blew to cool it. The rich, moist aroma swirled around her. Sweet Lord of Light, the fragrance alone was intoxicating … as was the spellbinding intensity of Vale’s vivid eyes. Between his look and the seductive aroma of the keflee, she had trouble remembering what was so objectionable about an innocent drink between friends.

‘Oh, very well. Where’s the harm?’ She took the cup from him, started to raise it to her lips, then stopped with a faint smile. ‘You first, though, Vale. Old habits die hard.’ Growing up in Capellas, where poisons and potions were standard fare among courtiers, she’d long ago learned to be wary of gifts. Except for Dorian, she trusted no one.

‘Of course.’ Vale didn’t hesitate to raise his cup. ‘To your beauty and grace, Majesty.’ He took a small sip, then gave a short laugh when she did not respond in kind. ‘Your suspicion cuts me to the quick, My Queen.’ With a shrug and a wry smile, he tilted his head back and emptied the remaining keflee in one quick gulp.

She sipped hers, then made a pleased sound and sipped again. He was right about the blend. She did like it. The brew was strong, like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Pure enchantment in liquid form. She sipped again, taking more of the keflee into her mouth and letting the flavors caress her senses.

‘Well? Is it everything I promised?”

She swallowed and stifled a moan as the languid warmth slid down into her belly. ‘Hmm?’ She struggled to pull her thoughts together. ‘Oh, yes, it’s quite good.”

‘I’m so glad. Here, let me warm your cup.’ He poured another small stream of steaming liquid into her half-full cup, and the gentle splash of liquid became a soft melody ringing in her ears. The room grew warmer, the scent of the keflee stronger and more intoxicating. Her eyes closed against the riot of colors and sensations bombarding her. Her hands—or were they someone else’s?—guided the cup to her lips. A voice crooned, urging her to drink more, and, helpless to resist, she did.

A fresh wave of warmth suffused her body. The cacophony of sound faded, grew muffled, and then there was only a voice, low and hypnotic, murmuring to her, saying something about Dorian, something troubling.

Feeling dizzy, Annoura lifted a hand to her head. Just that faint tightening of her bodice as her arm moved sent bursts of heat exploding all over her body. Fire raced through her veins, licking at her skin with hot little tongues. Her knees went weak. Gods have mercy. The sensations flooding her body were more potent than the sexual energy that had rushed through the courtroom the day the Tairen Soul had claimed his mate. Her eyes fluttered, trying to open, but her lids were so heavy.

‘Shh. Hush, my sweet.’ A hard hand slid round her waist, a man’s hand, firm and strong, fingers splayed on her spine, pressing her forward. She leaned into a hard, muscular chest, and moaned as lips tracked burning kisses up her throat and swirled around her ear. Tremors shot through her like lightning bolts. Ah, gods, Dorian had always delighted in tormenting her ear, knowing what it did to her. He would laugh deep in his throat and do it again and again until she melted against him, pleading for mercy.

‘Dorian,’ she protested.

‘You don’t want him, darling. He doesn’t appreciate you the way he should. I’ve seen how he puts the Fey before you, how he allows the rabble to hold you up to ridicule.”

She frowned. No, no, that was wrong. Dorian was the only man for her. She’d never known what love was until she’d met him. Her parents led cold, political lives, using each other, their children, any and everyone to their personal advantage. Dorian had shown her a different way. He’d been the first man to make her believe there could be—should be—something more to marriage than power, politics, and procreation. He’d come to Capellas as an envoy from his father. And when he’d been brought before the royal family for presentation, he’d taken one look at her and forgotten every word he’d been supposed to say. His steward had had to read the message for him from the parchment that had slipped out of Dorian’s hands.

For the next two months, he’d pursued her with such single-minded dedication and romance, she’d been utterly overwhelmed. He’d made it clear he wanted her for his queen, and made it equally clear that his desire had nothing to do with politics or power. When he left the shores of Capellas, she went with him, his ring on her finger. She’d never once looked back, never once missed the cold beauty of her homeland.

‘You should be more than a queen.’ The voice pulled her back from her memories. ‘You should be an Empress. The Fey should bow to your rule, not you to theirs.”

Yes, that was what she’d always wanted. Glory for herself and Dorian, the power to rule with wisdom and benevolence. He’d always been content with Celieria alone, but she was Capellan enough to want more.

‘You can have all the power you desire. All you have to do is give yourself to me”

A hand slid up her waist. A rich, male scent, cool and darkly sweet, filled her nostrils. She frowned in confusion. That wasn’t Dorian’s scent; it was another’s. Fingers cupped her breast and squeezed through the stiffened layers of her bodice. Not Dorian’s hand.

‘Give yourself to me, sweetness,’ the voice crooned again. Her flesh swelled at the sound, aching, eager to obey. But the speaker wasn’t Dorian.

Her eyes flashed open and she looked up into Vale’s face, beautiful, sexual, ruddy with passion. He was holding her in his arms, his hips tilted in and up, pressing his sex against hers through the thick layers of her skirt, touching her with an intimacy no man but Dorian ever had. Shock shattered her strange hypnosis. She wrenched herself out of his hands and shoved him away.

‘Oh, gods.’ She cupped her hands over her mouth. Her blood was still pounding, her breasts and womb aching, all but weeping. Her whole body was on fire, screaming for release, but she couldn’t—wouldn’t—do this. ‘Oh, gods, what am I doing? What was I thinking?”

‘Annoura?’ Vale reached for her.

She lurched back, evading his hands. ‘Don’t call me that!’ Only Dorian called her that. Only he had the right. ‘You must go! Now! Now!’ she shrieked when he reached for her again. No matter how hurt and angry Dorian had made her this morning, she still loved him. Even if that weren’t the case, she was his queen, and this was treason.

Vale drew back instantly. ‘I’m sorry. Forgive me.’ His face had lost its color. ‘The brew went to my head. I’ll go, of course.’ He bowed low, and for the first time his movements were stiff and graceless rather than the dance of sensual masculine beauty that had always so enticed her. ‘Forgive me, My Queen. I never meant to cause you such distress.”

‘Just go,’ she cried. ‘Get out of my sight!”

Straightening, he pivoted on one heel and strode out.

Oh, gods, oh, gods. The keflee pot was still steaming its treacherous seductive fragrance. She snatched it up in a burst of fury and threw it against the wall. Dark liquid splattered, spreading out in a huge, ruinous stain, a blot as dark as the one on her honor. The smell became an overwhelming stench. She ran for the garderobe, leaned over the privy shaft, and vomited in violent, racking heaves until nothing remained in her stomach but emptiness and bile. Frantic to rid herself of every last vestige of the hideous potion, she rinsed and scrubbed her mouth and teeth again and again until she could no longer taste the slightest hint of keflee.

When she was done, she dragged in a long, shuddering breath and tried to calm herself. The task was an impossibility. Vale’s brew was still inside her, still working its vile magic upon her. Every move was a torment, every swish of silk an acute torture.

She needed Dorian. Now.

Pausing only to straighten her hair and appearance—there was nothing she could do about the wild glitter in her eyes— she exited the chamber through the main door. She sailed past the crowd of courtiers lingering in the sunlit atrium nearby and walked as swiftly as she dared to Dorian’s office. He was still there, his steward with him.

‘Leave us,’ she commanded.

The steward cast her a startled look, then glanced uncertainly at her husband. Dorian eyed the flush of color on her cheeks and signaled the steward to obey.

‘We aren’t to be disturbed,’ she ordered, then closed the door in the steward’s face.

‘What is it, my d—’ Dorian’s voice broke off. His hazel eyes widened as she strode towards him, ripping at the laces of her bodice as she went. ‘Annoura?”

The bodice string snapped in her hands. The stiffened fabric parted. ‘Dorian … ‘ She ripped at the sleeves of her gown, almost sobbing as she struggled to pull the loose fabric free and shove it down in a puddle at her feet. She stepped out of the pile of silk, clad only in a sheer chemise, corset, silk hose, and heels. He started to rise from his chair, but she pushed him back down and straddled him. ‘Dorian, tell me you love me. Tell me now”

Bewildered, he said, ‘Of course, I love you. You know I do.’ He frowned. ‘What’s wrong, my dearest?”

‘Nothing. Everything.’ She clutched his face in desperate hands and kissed him, rocking her hips against his until she felt his body begin to harden in response. When his arms came up around her, she closed her eyes to hold back the tears of relief. ‘Love me, Dorian. Right here, right now Love me and make everything all right”

Yanking off Ser Vale’s silk doublet to cool his overheated body, Kolis stalked down the palace hallway. Fury vibrated in his bones and his blood thundered in his veins. Dark Lord steal his soul! He’d almost ruined everything. The keflee had been potent indeed, laced with a Feraz additive intended to drive her into his arms. He’d had to drink it too, thanks to her suspicious nature, and the effects were far stronger than even the most concentrated keflee could have been. He’d thought that drink would be enough to cloud her senses and get her to accept the first Mark. Instead he’d come close to destroying months of work in one rash, unthinking act. If he lost the queen—if she banished him from her court—the High Mage would be enraged. He opened the door to the small suite Annoura had given him when Ser Vale had become one of her Favorites. A flash of bright color caught the edge of his vision and he turned to see the trailing edge of a woman’s skirts disappear around his bedchamber door. Temper bit hard. Lust bit harder. ‘Come here,’ he commanded.

Fabric rustled. Jiarine Montevero stepped out of his bedchamber into the small parlor of his suite. ‘It didn’t go well, I presume.’ Her lips twisted. ‘I told you it wouldn’t. It’s too soon. She still loves him. You must break that before you can break her.”

‘I said come.’ The temperature in the room dropped sharply.

Jiarine turned pale. The sardonic triumph fell from her like an untied veil. She hurried towards him. When she drew close enough, he grabbed her arm and pinned her against the wall, grinding his hips against hers. His hands plunged into her bodice and tugged her generous breasts free of their confinement, finding the nipples and squeezing them until she cried out.

‘You find my failure amusing, umagi?”

‘No!’ she gasped, groaning as he twisted her flesh. ‘Never.’

‘Whom do you serve, Jiarine?”

She gasped again and offered up her mouth, her throat, those lush, lovely breasts. ‘You, master. Only you.”

His head ducked. He took a nipple in his mouth and bit down. She moaned, her hand clenching tight in his hair, a shudder rippling through her. The hot, sweet smell of surrender burst from her in a heady rush, sweeping across his heightened senses. He traced his fingers over the creamy skin of her left breast. Trails of carefully masked magic followed behind. Six shadowy Marks grew visible on her flesh, six small points of darkness forming a circle over her heart. Six Mage Marks that ensured his absolute power over her.

‘I own you, my sweet umagi. Let me hear you say it.”

‘You own me, my lord, body and soul. I live only to serve you.’ Savage triumph roared through him at the completeness of her willing, even eager, surrender. He spun her around roughly and flipped up her skirts. Beneath them, she wore the pleasure girl’s undergarments he’d given her months ago, slippery red satin, slit from crotch to anus for his convenience. Plump, shaved flesh pouted through the edges of the fabric, and the scent of musk wafted up in rich waves. His cock jumped in response.

‘Then find a way to break her for me, pet. You’ve had a year, and still she resists. You must do better.’ He grabbed her hair and pulled her head back, forcing her back to arch. The motion shoved her bare breasts against the chamber’s fabric- covered walls. Her nipples, already tight, became diamond- hard points as the textured fabric rubbed against them.

She was sobbing, hips squirming. ‘I will, master. I promise.”

‘Good. You won’t like the consequences if you fail me.”

He kneed her thighs apart, and drove into her in one brutal thrust. There was no time for niceties—not that he’d ever been a tender lover, and not that Jiarine had ever minded. Her body slammed against the wall from the force of his penetration. She gave a soft, choked cry, then a raspy, muttered plea for more as her hot, wet flesh clasped tightly around him. Sweet, succulent Jiarine. Such a pleasure in so many ways. So willing to take whatever he had to offer, no matter how brutally he offered it. Obligingly, his hips drew back, then rammed forward again.