Inside, another well-lit corridor opened to a wide room. Several tables dominated the center of the room, each fitted with leather restraining straps. The tables were currently occupied by women in advanced stages of pregnancy. Their faces were flushed with exertion. Sweat beaded upon their brows, and it was obvious they were giving birth.

As she drew closer, she gasped in shock, recognizing several of the faces.

These were the Celierian noblewomen she had just visited this morning. The women pregnant because of her carnal weave.

Attendants scuttled around the room, moving with swift efficiency as they tended the laboring women. As Ellysetta watched, one of the women strapped to the tables gave a straining grunt that turned into a shrill wail. The attendant waiting between her spread knees lifted a squalling newborn in triumph. Two more attendants hurried over to swiftly cut the cord and carry the baby away to a nearby table, where they washed the child and swaddled it tight in white linen wraps. The woman lying on the table mumbled, "My baby . . ." but one of the attendants was already carrying the infant away to a connecting room. The mother began to weep and struggle weakly against her bonds.

The empathic part of Ellysetta's soul seemed strangely distant, unmoved by the woman's obvious distress. Instead, drawn by the same driving compulsion that had brought her to this room, she followed the attendant carrying the child. A short corridor led from the birthing room to a nursery. Inside, dozens of cradles lined the walls of the room, and in each lay a swaddled in/ant.

Now a sense of triumph filled the distant hollowness that seemed to have overtaken her senses. She looked about the room and her chest expanded on a swell of pride. She lifted her hands and summoned her power, and the infants burbled unintelligibly in response, waving their tiny fists in the air as if happy to see her. She walked from one cradle to the next, peering in at the tiny occupants. Each in/ant's eyes shone up at her like gleaming black coins, and on each tiny, pale chest, a dark smudge lay like a spot of ink over the baby's heart.

Without Rain, there would never be a child born of her body. But that did not mean she would be childless. These infants were her offspring, souls summoned from the Well into bodies created by and infused with her magic. They might be flesh of another's flesh, but she was the one who'd breathed life and magic into their bodies.

They were hers, and they were just the beginning.

Ellysetta returned to consciousness with a sudden gasp. Her eyes flashed open, and she straightened in the saddle abruptly. Her hands clutched at the leather pommel as she dragged breath into her lungs and tried to still her pounding heart.

«Shei'tani.» Rain's tairen head turned, and one glowing purple eye fixed on her in concern. They were still in the air, and the sky was still dark.

Feeling hazy and disoriented, she peered down at the night-shadowed land below them. «Where are we?»

«About two hundred miles southeast of Celieria City.»

They'd traveled at least one hundred miles since last she remembered. «I think we need to stop,» she said. «I fell asleep, and I was dreaming again.» She couldn't keep the tremor out of her Spirit voice. The gloating triumph in her dream had felt all too real, and she knew that if the Mage succeeded in incarnating into her body and claiming her magic for his own, he would use that magic to build an army of Azrahn-gifted children who would be bound to him, serving only him. He and they would rule the world of Eloran like gods.

Without another word, Rain tucked in his wings and dove for the earth, spreading them wide again just in time to break his fall. He landed with smooth grace in a grassy field, back claws digging into the earth for balance as he settled. He set Ellysetta on her feet in the center of her quintet and Changed.

"Bel, bas paravei taris," he told his second in command. We stop here. Ellysetta needs to sleep.

Bel gave a swift nod and gestured to the gathering lu'tan. Protective twenty-five-fold shields sprang up in an instant, and the quintet added a smaller six-fold weave around Rain and Ellysetta for added protection.

Rain spun a bower for them from tender grass and divested himself of armor and steel before gathering her in his arms. He didn't ask about her dream. He didn't pry. He simply held her close, resting his head against hers and stroking one hand along her spine. "Ke sha taris, shei'tani," he said. "I am here if you need to talk."

She closed her eyes. She hadn't told him about her visits to the pregnant noblewomen and the magic their children possessed. He was so preoccupied with worries about the war and fear that he wouldn't be able to gather allies powerful or numerous enough to turn back the Eld, she hadn't wanted to add another burden. But now, she could keep silent no longer.

"Annoura's baby isn't the only one with magic," she confessed. "They all have it—and they all wield Azrahn. I'm to blame, Rain. I gave them magic—or the Mage did through me. There's no other possible explanation." Quickly, before she lost her courage, she told him about her dream.

He heard her out, but his only reaction was one of concern, not fear or horror. "I will have Bel contact the lu'tan and bid them guard those women. The Mage can't do anything to their children if he can't get his hands on them." He pulled back to look into her eyes. "And you need to stop blaming yourself for everything. You didn't mean to spin that weave. You certainly didn't mean for those women to become pregnant or for their children to be magical."

"But I did... and they are."