CHAPTER ELEVEN

Live well.

Love deep.

Tomorrow, we die.

-Fey warriors' creed

"What happened? What was that thing?" Ellysetta stared in horror first at the place where the demon had disappeared, then at the dead Fey lying on the living-room floor. Mama and Papa had taken the twins out back while the warriors put the Baristani home back in order and took care of Dajan's body.

"That was the proof Dorian has been wanting," Rain told her grimly. "That was a demon, summoned by Azrahn. The Elden Mages are here, and already at work.”

"What?" Her head jerked upwards. A sudden stabbing pain behind her eyes made her cry out and press the heels of her palms to her temples.

Rain's concern, sweet and fierce, enveloped her senses. "You are injured." A spate of rapid Feyan followed, commands snapped out with a force that had warriors scurrying to obey.

"Nei ... no, I'm not injured. But my head feels like someone is jabbing a knife in my brain." What had happened to her? One moment she'd been arguing with Rain, and the next, she was surrounded by her quintet watching some horrible black, formless creature attack him. And Dajan, the bright-eyed warrior who usually guarded her front door, was lying gray and dead on her family's living-room floor. "You say the Mages sent it? For me?”

"Aiyah." His eyes, pale and piercing, searched her face. "Do you not remember?”

"No." She frowned, trying to recall. "You and I were arguing. I turned and knocked over a pile of wedding presents. You helped me pick them up. The next thing I remember, Bel was holding me while that thing ... that demon ... was attacking you “

"You don't remember opening the gift?”

"What gift?”

He lifted a hand and gestured to a point across the room. The remains of the music box and a collection of strange black chips rose into the air and flew into his hands. "This one.”

"I've never seen that before. Are you sure this came from the Mages?”

"See these shards?" He showed her the handful of black chips that looked like shattered crystal. "This is selkahr. Tairen's Eye corrupted by Azrahn and other Eld magic. The Mages make it. No other race knows the secret-not even the Fey. If this doesn't convince Dorian to invoke primus, nothing will.”

"Rain.” Bel murmured an apology as he interrupted. "Will you send our brother's body back to the elements?”

Rain's fingers closed around the selkahr shards, and the anger on his face faded briefly to grief, then stony blankness. "The honor is yours, my friend.”

At Bel's signal, Ellysetta's quintet circled Dajan's body. In low, melodious voices they sang a spare, mournful elegy commending the dead Fey's bravery and honor, and summoned their power. She could see the magic in the air. Five separate strands-one from each warrior-folded into a single fiercely glowing ply that they used to form a shining net between them. Still chanting the death song, the warriors lowered the shining net. It settled over Dajan like a blanket of light, and the chant ended.

"Soar high, Dajan," Bel said, "and laugh on the wind. May you find joy before we meet again." He looked at the other four who each held a thread of the weave, sharing a silent communication. As one, they bowed their heads. The weave they had placed over Dajan's body flashed painfully bright for an instant. Ellie shielded her eyes.

When the light dimmed, the shining weave was gone, and so was Dajan. Nothing remained save a single round stone, Dajan's sorreisu kiyr, which Bel picked up and handed to Kieran. The younger Fey cupped the crystal in the palm of his hand, and his blue eyes glowed green for several long moments. A matching green glow surrounded the crystal. When the glow faded, he opened his hands to reveal Dajan's Soul Quest crystal, now set in an oval lozenge of gold filigree suspended from a gold chain.

"Dajan's crystal is yours now, Ellysetta," Bel said. "Fey custom dictates that when a warrior dies in the service of a shei’tani, his sorreisu kiyr goes to her.”

He placed the dark, shining jewel in her palm. It felt surprisingly warm, almost as if it were alive. Her skin tingled where it touched the crystal, and the pounding in her head seemed to grow fainter. She stared into the whirling rainbow of light flickering in the crystal's depths.

"Why didn't the crystal disappear along with Dajan's body?" she asked.

"Tairen's Eye is made of a magic beyond our powers," Rain said. "Fey can neither make nor destroy it.”

"What am I supposed to do with it?”

"You wear it, shei’tani," Rain said, taking the pendant from her and slipping it around her neck, "in honor of the warrior who gave his life in your service.”

There was a certain awful symbolism to that idea which didn't escape her. Fey warriors wore the soul of every person who died at their hands like a burning stone around their necks. Now, it seemed, she would wear the "soul" of every warrior who died protecting her as a literal stone about hers.

Rain bent his head to take her lips in a gentle, reassuring kiss.

"Ahem." The delicate clearing of a throat made them break apart. Master Fellows, looking bright as a newly minted coin in a perfectly starched linen shirt and ice-blue silk brocade breeches and coat, stood in the doorway. "I do apologize for interrupting such an obviously tender moment, but as we have only four short bells remaining to perfect Lady Ellysetta's mastery of the Graces, we don't have a moment to spare.”