The five bond-threads he shared with Ellysetta warmed with golden brightness, infusing him with warmth. Her voice, as calming as a tranquil summer sea, washed over him in soft waves.

«Las, shei’tan. Ke sha eva ku.» I am with you.

He closed his eyes, absorbing her Light, drawing her gentleness into his soul and knitting her proffered strength into the ragged threads of his self-control. When he was calm once more, he told her what was happening.

«Gaelen believes it’s an ensorcelment that’s somehow being passed like a contagion,» she told him. « Bring some of the affected to me. If we can figure out how the spell is controlling them, we may be able to counteract it.»

Rain hesitated. They didn’t know what this evil was or how it spread, and he was loath to let a single possessed combatant within a tairen-length of Ellysetta.

His hesitation must have given him away, but Ellysetta wouldn’t permit his over protectiveness. «Rain, we don’t have a choice. If I can’t figure out what this is and how to stop it, the Eld will just use it against us again and again.»

«One,» he capitulated with ill grace. «One only. Under heavy guard the entire time and slain at the first hint of danger to you. And don’t bother trying to negotiate. It’s that or nothing. I won’t risk you, shei’tani.»

«Very well,» came her grudging agreement. «Send me your one… but hurry. We’re getting more reports from elsewhere in the camp. The contagion is spreading.»

“My Lord Feyreisen?” Bonn prodded. “What are your orders?”

Rain opened his eyes. “We will try to save as many as we can,” he told the Celierian. On the new Warrior’s Path, he gave the command, «Fey, do whatever you must to immobilize them, but don’t kill them unless you have no other choice. And shield yourselves. Until we know what this spell is and how it is passed, do everything you can to minimize your risk of being affected.»

A moment later, the weaves spun out like ropes of lightning, vivid green and lavender and silvery white, shining bright in the darkness of the night.

Weaving enemies unconscious was much easier when those enemies did not include Fey warriors bombarding you with red Fey’cha and countering your weaves as quickly as you could spin them… especially when you were trying not to kill the ones thwarting you.

In the end, Rain sent three quintets after each ensorcelled Fey, one to stop his weaves, one to stop his weapons, and the last to render him unconscious. Once all the ensorcelled Fey were contained, the lu’tan made quick work of immobilizing the mortals.

“Careful, Fey!” he called, as warriors rushed towards the mass of limp bodies. “Don’t touch them. Whatever this is, we don’t know how it’s spread. Use weaves only to bind and move them.”

Turning back to Bonn, he said, “Can you point out one of the ensorcelled men who you know is not Mage-Marked? The Feyreisa is going to try to counter the spell that has addled their minds, but I won’t take the chance of sending a Mage-claimed to her.”

As the Fey lined the still-living magic-bound soldiers on the ground, Bonn searched through the rows of unconscious warriors until he came across a face he recognized. “This one. He’s one of Avis’s men. He was one of the first vel Serranis checked.”

“Kabei. Take him to the Feyreisa.” Rain gestured to the Fey, who hoisted the man onto an Earth-weave stretcher and carted him off the field towards the shining dome of magic where Ellysetta waited.

“What shall we do with the wounded, Feyreisen?” the Fey commander asked.

“Have the Fey do what they can to keep them alive, but don’t send any more of them to the Feyreisa until they’re free of this ensorcelment.”

Rain regarded the carnage grimly. Hundreds lay dead and dying. Hundreds more were useless to the allies until a cure could be found. The Eld could not have devised a more effective attack. Using the allies’ own men against each other had dealt twice the damage of any conventional attack—and all without the loss of a single Eld life.

He bent over one of the fallen to bind his limbs and seal the deep slice in his side. The puddle of blood that had gathered beneath his fallen form shone like black oil in the waning moonlight. A faint, exotic scent made Rain’s nostrils twitch.

“Do you smell that?” he asked the Fey closest to him.

“What?”

“That smell… a sweet spice… very faint.” Rain lowered his head closer to the unconscious Celierian.

On the ramparts of Kreppes, an armored man lowered a small brass spyglass and turned to hurry down the stone steps to the yard below. Though he wore the colors of the King’s Army, the pallid skin that had never seen daylight belonged to no Celierian. The man crossed the yard and ducked into the common room of the large barracks, where a blue-robed Primage and a trio of red-robed Sulimages stood waiting.

The soldier bowed to the Mages. “The Fey have contained the infected, master. They have rendered them unconscious and are binding them now.”

The Primage accepted the news without expression and waited for the soldier to bow again and exit before he turned to the Sulimages. “You know what to do.”

The dome of magic surrounding Ellysetta and the allies’ command center parted to admit the Fey carrying the unconscious body of the ensorcelled Celierian. They deposited the man on one of the empty tables set up for the wounded. Unwilling to leave Ellysetta’s safety to anyone else, her primary quintet closed around her protectively, and their magic swirled around them and her in visible auras.