"The Eld who killed the woodsman and your Fey wasn't looking for just any red-haired child," Gaelen told the room. His eyes never left Ellysetta's. "And I did not come to Celieria City just to warn you of Eld troop movements along the border.”

"I knew it!" Kieran muttered. "I told you we couldn't trust him.”

"Las, Kieran," Bel hissed. "Let him speak.”

Rain held up a hand to silence them both. "Why, then, did you come, vel Serranis?”

"In a moment. First let me say I no longer believe what I thought was true. And let me remind you all-you especially, Tairen Soul-that no great gift from the gods comes without an equally great danger. The price of the gift is the willingness and courage to embrace the danger. If you cannot accept the one, you are not worthy of the other.”

"I need no lecture on the price the gods demand for their blessings. I have lived with those prices all my life," Rain said.

Gaelen bowed his head in acknowledgment. His expression grew still, becoming the blank, impenetrable stone mask of the Fey. "The Eld were searching for the lost daughter of the High Mage," he said baldly. He met Ellysetta's gaze. "And I came to kill her."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Though once with joy our garden greened

Love's blossoms fade round salted spring

My heart is lost, my hope is gone

And sorrow now my only song

-Sorrow's Garden, a lament by Mara vol Elias

Ellysetta's quintet surrounded her in an instinctive reaction to the perceived threat. But even as they flung up magic in her defense, their emotions slapped at her. Astonishment. Disbelief. Fear.

Worse, much worse, was the way Rain withdrew his hand from hers.

"It cannot be true," Rain said. But Ellysetta sensed his uncertainty, heard it in the faint vibration of his voice.

"I don't want to believe it either," Gaelen said. "But the possibility exists, and for her sake if for no other, we cannot ignore it.”

"It cannot be true. It is not true." Rain turned and swept a hand, palm up, towards Ellysetta. "Look at her. She is bright and shining. No Eld could ever be so bright. Especially not the daughter of the High Mage.”

"The Eld are not born evil," Gaelen answered. "They are corrupted by their environment and chained into dark servitude by the Mages. The Mages bind the souls of Eld children on the first anniversary of their birth and continue until they own them utterly. But if she is the one they sought, she was smuggled out of Eld as a child. The soul-binding was never completed.”

"Gaelen, you must be mistaken," Marissya said. "It's just another Mage trick, meant to manipulate us and cast doubt and suspicion where there can be none.”

"That is entirely possible," he acknowledged. "But when I called Azrahn a moment ago, all of you reacted the way Fey do. She did not." He met Ellysetta's gaze again, his own filled with bleak sorrow "She reacted like one who bears the Mark of the Mages.”

Ellysetta flinched as though he'd struck her, and clutched a hand over her betraying heart. "No. No, it's not true.” But even as she denied it, she recalled the cold, insidious voice from her nightmares hissing, Girl ... you can't hide from me forever He'll kill you when he learns what you really are. Even worse came the mocking sneer from last week's horrific nightmare, You'll kill them all. It's what you were born for. "Rain ..." Tears welled in her eyes as she turned to face Rain and saw the horror and the revulsion in his stricken gaze. She reached out. "Rain, please." He flinched away, and her tears spilled over in hot lines that chilled rapidly as they slid down her cheeks.

Rain's jaw clenched tight. "Vel Serranis, you said Azrahn reveals the Marks”

"Aiyah.”

"Then do it.”

"No!" Ellysetta shrank back from Gaelen's approach.

"I will not hurt you, kem'falla," Gaelen vowed in a sorrowful voice. "But we must know one way or another. Knowledge is better than blind fear.”

Gods. She wanted to turn and run. She wanted to flee them all-even Rain-and hide some place where no one would ever find her.

«Courage, Ellysetta,» Gaelen whispered in her mind. «A Mage Mark does not make you evil, but it does put you in danger. We cannot protect you properly if we do not know how badly your defenses have been compromised. »

Courage? When had she ever had that? She avoided confrontations and hid from her own magic because she was afraid of what was inside her and always had been! And now Gaelen wanted her to stand there and let him bare the horrible, secret blackness of her soul to the man she loved?

If you won't think of yourself, then think of your shei'tan,' he urged. gust the possibility of this Mark has raised doubts in you both. You'll never complete your bond without knowing and accepting the truth. Rain will die.”

The mere thought filled her with fear greater than any she harbored on her own behalf. She stopped retreating. "All right," she whispered. "See if I bear this Mark.”

"Beylah vo, kem’Feyreisa.”

Gaelen's hand rose, palm up. His eyes began to glow as he summoned magic. His pupils stretched wide, revealing the inner dark of his eyes, a deep blackness flickering with red lights.

A shadowy wisp of Azrahn swirled in his palm, and the sickly sweet chill of it pebbled Ellysetta's flesh. A cold, throbbing ache began in her chest, just above her rapidly pounding heart. Her fingers ached to clutch at the spot, to hide it, to repress it as she had all her life. She looked down at her chest. A single, despairing tear trickled from the corner of her eye.