"Nothing like that," she assured him. "Just a worrisome thought of war."

His arms tightened. "Your family will be safe. The Fey will see to it."

"I know." And she did. Kieran and Kiel would die to defend her family. All the Fey staying at Teleon would.

Rain rubbed a thumb across her lower lip, then bent his head to follow the small caress with a kiss. "There is a thing I need to do tonight before returning to the Fading Lands. I had hoped you would come with me, but perhaps you should stay here, instead, and try to get some sleep."

"No, I'm fine." She reached for his hand. "You know I can't sleep without you beside me." He was her talisman against the call of the High Mage of Eld, and she feared to fall asleep without him lying there beside her, him arms wrapped about her, protecting her from the very real terrors of the night.

"Then let's go—and bring your cloak."

Ten chimes later, they were soaring through the night skies high over Teleon. Ellysetta stretched out her arms and turned her face up to the stars. Rain spun a light Fire weave to keep her warm as the chill, thin air swept past.

«Hold on.» The brief command was her only warning before Rain twitched back his rounded tairen ears, spouted a warming jet of flame that lit the night, then tucked in his mighty wings and dove.

Ellysetta screamed with laughter and grabbed for the high, curving pommel of her saddle just as the unsettling thrill of weightlessness came over her. Together, she and Rain fell through the sky, plummeting freely towards the ground miles below. The moonlit sky went silvery white, and fine droplets of water misted Ellysetta's face as they plunged into a cloud bank. She caught the tangy-fresh chill of cloud mist on her tongue, drinking its bracing sweetness.

One heartbeat; two; then they burst through the clouds back into the crisp, clear darkness of the night.

Tairen wings spread wide, snapped taut, and the wild, reckless plunge became a swooping ascent. Ellysetta screamed again, a breathless, exuberant sound, and clutched the saddle tight. «Rain! I think I left my stomach back there.»

The now-familiar, chuffing sound of tairen laughter joined the rush of the wind in her ears. «Hold on again, shei'tani. This is even better.»

Flows of magic spun out to bind her securely into place, and Rain shot forward on a thrust of magic-powered speed. The world rushed by in a dizzying blur, and with a subtle shift of his wings, he sent them spiraling into a corkscrew roll. Shadowy earth and moonlit sky whirled in a wild kaleidoscope before Ellysetta's dazzled eyes.

Another woman might have shrieked in fear and begged him to stop. Ellysetta only flung back her head and laughed in delight. Freedom coursed through her veins like a potent drug.

She would never tire of flying. The limitless joy of dancing, laughter-spangled winds, the thrill of diving through misty clouds and soaring so high she could almost scoop Stardust with her fingertips: Flying was a joy so rich, it chased back all sorrows and fears. Well, she amended silently, almost all.

«Rain, do you honestly think when we get to Fey'Bahren, I can just walk in and spin a weave that will cure the kitlings of whatever is killing them?» That was the reason Rain had come to Celieria to find her. Unbeknownst to the outside world, a mysterious sickness had been killing unborn tairen in the egg for centuries, decimating their numbers until scarcely more than a dozen of the great cats still lived. The Eye of Truth had sent Rain to Celieria to find the key to saving them.

She, Ellysetta Baristani, was that key. Even if none of them actually knew how she was going to manage the miracle.

«I know it doesn't sound like much of a plan,» he said, «but the tairen have never let any of our healers into the lair—not even Marissya. You, however, are both a Tairen Soul and my truemate. You'll be able to enter the lair and weave healing on the kits as no other shei'dalin has been able to.»

«This assumes I'll even know what weave to spin when I get there—let alone how to spin it.»

«That's why Marissya will be going with us to Fey'Bahren—so she can continue your training and counsel you while you're healing the tairen. But you may not even need her help. I heard you healed Ravel's new Fire master well enough this afternoon while I took your sisters flying.»

She gave a short laugh. «Oh, yes, I healed him all right. I made that wound vanish as if it had never been.»

«There, you see—»

«And I erased every hint of weariness from the last week of travel,» she informed him. «And wiped clean every shadow on his soul. And filled him with such an abundance of energy that he shone like a newly minted coin and spent the rest of the day racing circles around my quintets until Bel and Ravel both threatened to pull red on him if he twitched another muscle.»

There was a brief silence; then Rain said in an oddly choked voice, «Well, shei'tani, there are worse tribulations in life than healing a Fey too well.» Chuffing tairen laughter vibrated in his throat.

Her eyes narrowed. He found that amusing, did he? «And when he wasn't annoying his brother Fey, he was following me around like a lovesick puppy.»

The chuffing laughter changed instantly to a low, rumbling growl. Licks of flame seared the air before Rain's muzzle. «Oh, was he?» The fur on the back of his neck rose up, and his rounded ears lay back. Tairen were territorial creatures, and they definitely did not appreciate encroaching males trespassing too near their mates.