"There's more to love than big tits, Garlie." Den dipped a ratty old quill into Garlie's tarnished inkwell and labored to scratch his name on the parchment.

"Yeah, like money, but she's got none of that either, Den. And don't even think I'm dimskull enough to fall for that `love' line. You never liked her. `Flat-chested, freckle-faced, wood-scratcher's git' was the nicest thing you ever called her. And stop your glaring. You know it's true.”

Den gave the scrawny, big-nosed paper-pusher a last, hard look. "Careful there, Tavitts. That's the future Madam Brodson you're insulting." He sprinkled sand over his signature and helped himself to Garlie's blotter to remove the excess ink from the parchment. "There." He blew on the document for good measure before handing it back to the apprentice clerk. "She might not have tits, coin, or much to recommend her in the looks department—though that does seem to be slowly improving—but Ellie Baristani has something else that out-weighs all the rest. Something that's going to make me a rich man.”

"And what's that, Den?”

Den smiled, his eyes twin coins of cold blue greed gleaming in a broad, brutishly handsome face. "Magic."

CHAPTER FOUR

Water pure, the path to cleanse

Blood to bindings call

Tairen's Eye to forge the bridgeAzrahn these souls enthrall.

—Magecraft Seeking Spell

The coast was clear at last.

Night had fallen. Ellie's parents and the twins had turned in for the night, and the Fey who'd been swarming around the Baristani house seemed to have finally left. Ellie could no longer even sense the tingling awareness of their presence.

She secured a brown shawl over her distinctive hair and slipped out her bedroom window, careful not to let the leather boots hanging about her neck bang against the glass or windowsill. While the Fey warriors outside the house might be gone, the five who'd followed her into the house and declared themselves her "quintet" were still very much in attendance. They'd stayed despite Mama's outrage, despite even Papa's coming home and ordering them to leave his house.

Faced with the direct order from Papa, the Fey called Bel- hard had merely bowed and politely refused, just as he had with Mania. He'd offered to make himself and the other four Fey invisible, so as to minimize the family's discomfort with their presence, but the idea of invisible magical beings roaming through her house had nearly sent Mama into palpitations.

"Thank you, but no," Papa had answered. "We would rather see you so that we may know where you are." And then, to Ellie's surprise, he'd demanded that the Fey swear an oath of honor not to use magic to hide their presence in his home, and not to read nor influence the minds of any of his family members.

The demand had obviously surprised Belliard vel Jelani, but he'd sworn the oath, first in lyrical Feyan, then in the formal eloquence of ancient Celierian court-tongue. Ellie knew enough about Fey honor to know that no Fey would go back on his sworn word.

Papa had also tried to get Belliard to swear not to call magic for any reason inside the house, but the Fey refused to do that. "Nei, honored one, we may need to use magic to protect the Feyreisa and her family. I will make no vow that puts her at risk." And that had been the end of it.

Ellie's bare feet made no noise on the wooden shingles as she crept across the back-porch roof and climbed down the ivy trellis to the small, bricked courtyard at the back of the house. She kept to the shadows, avoiding the brightening moonlight in the hope that no one would notice her furtive departure.

Just before supper, one of the neighbor children had smuggled a note to Ellie through Lillis and Lorelle. From Selianne, Ellie's best friend, the note had been scrawled in a shaking hand and read: Meet me. You know where. Twenty-two bells. URGENT!!!!

Selianne's fear all but leapt off the parchment as Ellie held the note. Her terror was understandable. A few years back, as Selianne had prepared for the birth of her first child, her mother, Tuelis, had confessed that she wasn't Sorrelian as everyone assumed, but that she'd actually been born and raised in Eld and sold in marriage to her sea-captain husband at age fourteen. Selianne had kept her mother's secret. She'd only told Ellie in a moment of fear, when she'd been plagued by nightmares of Eld Mages stalking her son Bannon to steal his soul.

Now, with Rain Tairen Soul in the city and suddenly becoming a fixture in Ellie's life, Selianne was probably terrified that he would find out the truth about Selianne and her mother and come to kill them. Despite the risk of discovery, there was no way Ellie could ignore Selianne's summons.

On the ground, she ducked into the deeper shadows of a small alcove near the courtyard gate and bent to don her boots. When she rose, she let out a strangled cry.

Belliard vel Jelani stood before her, his Fey skin shining faintly, his dark eyes watchful. "You wish to go somewhere, Ellysetta Baristani?”

"I …" Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. Behind Belliard stood the other four Fey of her quintet, each wearing a similar blank but watchful expression. "I wanted to go for a walk to get some fresh air.”

Belliard glanced at the ivy trellis behind her and followed the path she'd taken out her bedroom window, then returned his flat gaze to hers. "You are the Feyreisa," he said. "You need only to ask, and we will accompany you to your chosen destination.”

She paused a moment to regain her composure, then lifted her chin. "I'm going to meet a friend, and your presence will only alarm her.”