"Las, little sister. I can feel your need to bring them peace. But you don't need to restore each warrior's soul to complete innocence. When all the rasa are gathered here, the other shei'dalins and I will help you spread your weave over all of them at once. It may not heal them as completely as you are doing now, but it should pull them back from the shadows of the Dark Path. Later, if you must heal them fully, you can do so without putting your mate at such risk."

Ellysetta's head reared up. Her blinding gaze shot towards Rain. "Shei'tan, I wound you?" The fingers clamped around the current warrior's wrists flew open, and the Fey fell to his knees, shuddering as his hands fumbled for his Fey'cha belts.

Her grief and guilt swamped Marissya's senses. It was clear she had not realized what she was doing to Rain. She'd been so intently focused on the rasa, she'd blocked out everything else. Even Rain's torment.

"Just finish it, Ellysetta," Rain bit out. "Either stop or heal them all. But whatever you do, do it quickly."

Ellysetta pinned Marissya with a blinding gaze. The bright power in those eyes hit like a blow, soul-deep and searing. "How can you help me?"

"Allow me and the other shei'dalins to join your weave. Let us anchor you and help direct and disperse the threads of your magic to heal all the rasa, rather than just one."

Already the drowning pain of the next rasa had Ellysetta in its grip, dragging her thoughts, her concentration, away from Marissya. Her magic surged in powerful response, sending brilliant threads spinning around her. Ellysetta seized the warrior's hands as the searing fury of her magic poured out upon him. Like his many brothers before, he cried out and fell to his knees, trembling from head to toe and reaching with a shaking hand for one of the black Fey'cha strapped to his chest.

As he wept and uttered the vows of lute'asheiva bonding, Ellysetta turned to Marissya. "Bas'ka. Do it." She pinned the other shei'dalins with a blazing green gaze. "And do not dare to trespass. The tairen will not treat you kindly."

Not one of the shei'dalins pierced by that whirling glare doubted the Feyreisa's threat was real.

Chapter seven

Swiftly, under Marissya's direction, the shei'dalins spun the threads of their own magic into Ellysetta's weave. The instant the threads combined, Ellysetta's power shot out like bolts of golden white lightning, tracing the glowing lines of magic back to the women who'd spun them. Light flashed as the shei'dalins' natural Fey luminescence suddenly blazed sun-bright. Their light filled the entire room, intensifying until the gathered warriors lifted their hands to shield their eyes.

Marissya gasped as she and the other shei'dalins fell to their knees. Ellysetta wasn't weaving with them. She was draining them. Absorbing their power and commanding their flows as if they were her own, just as she'd done with the lu'tans. Only there was no lute'asheiva bond between the shei'dalins and Ellysetta. She should not have been able to command their magic.

Yet commanding them she was.

Marissya could feel her own will falling away. The deep, strong well of her power rose in response to Ellysetta's summons, pouring into Ellysetta as quickly as it came. Marissya began to tremble. So much power … so unbearably bright. How could Ellysetta hold so much?

Beside her, two of the other shei'dalins began to sway, and their Fey brightness dimmed.

"Ellysetta…little sister…teska…you must stop. Spin the weave. Spin it now." With the last ounce of her control, Marissya wove the command in Spirit and buried it in the river of magic pouring unchecked from her body into Ellysetta's.

Later, she would not be sure whether her command worked or Ellysetta's wilding magic had simply gathered as much power as it could, but all at once, the ravenous consumption ceased. Ellysetta's weave shot out in great streams of burning filaments, spinning into a brilliant net of gold power. It enveloped the gathered Fey, swirling above and around them. Then, with a final flare of light, the magic sank into the warriors' flesh. Their bodies flashed golden bright, then dimmed to the natural silvery luminescence of their kind.

Ellysetta's power went out. Marissya and the shei'dalins staggered to their feet, reaching blindly for the brace of stone walls to keep from falling.

The warriors in the hall locked shocked gazes on Ellysetta. One by one, then in increasing numbers, they fell to their knees, reaching for their Fey'cha.

"Nei. No more." Ellysetta backed away, her hands flung up. "Parei. I won't accept another bond." She turned, hands extended in a pleading gesture. "Rain, shei'tan, get me out of here." He was standing by the wall behind her, the stones around him a crumbled ruin, his eyes blazing purple suns in a face carved by a grim blade. «I can feel the unhealed rasa already pulling at me again. Quickly, take me away from here to someplace I cannot feel their pain. If we stay, I don't think I will be able to stop myself from healing them, even if they refuse me.»

He surged away from the wall in a rush, power crackling around him in a swirl of multicolored sparks. Without a word, he caught her up in his arms under her knees, and an enormous thrust of Air sent them spiraling into the night sky.

They flew south until the lights of Chatok and Chakai were far behind them and the tug of the rasa had faded enough that Ellysetta could breathe again.

That small peace did not extend to Rain. His wings beat the sky in furious sweeps. Jets of flame shot into the air before them, sending clouds of heat and magic bursting across the shields Rain barely remembered to fling up around her.