“I spoke with the reinforcements I sent to the village. The Eld beat them there by half a bell, but the Brotherhood was able to rout them. The Mharog and a dozen Mages escaped—I expect they’ll join the others here shortly—but the rest perished. The dahl’reisen have already Fired the village and gone to escort the women and children safely to the Garreval.”

Something about Farel’s expression made her stomach clench with dread. “But everyone got out safely before the Eld arrived… didn’t they?”

“Almost everyone. A woman and her newborn son perished, along with ten of the dahl’reisen who stayed behind to protect her while she gave birth. Sheyl was wounded.”

“Is she going to be all right?”

“Aiyah. The warriors found her unconscious and trapped beneath a fallen tree, but once they were able to free her and revive her, she was able to heal herself. She’s running with them now to catch the others up.”

Ellysetta watched him closely. “You don’t look happy at the news.”

“I’m happy she’s alive—especially as that gives me the chance to wring her neck when I see her again.” His lips compressed in a thin line, and a hint of anger lit his eyes. “She admitted to me she’d seen her death. The night you came to our village, she told me she’d had a vision of me escorting you both out of the Verlaine, but that was a lie. The only vision she saw was of her own death, and she sent me away with you because she didn’t want me to die trying to protect her from a death she knew couldn’t be stopped.”

“But she’s alive,” Ellysetta pointed out. “So clearly her vision was wrong.”

“Her visions are never wrong. She was supposed to die, just as she saw.” Farel straightened and met her gaze full on. “But you changed that. You gave her a gift—a sorreisu’kiyr pendant. It stopped the arrow meant for her heart. You changed her fate, Feyreisa. You saved her life, in a way no one but the gods could have done, and for that I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

“I will not hear any more talk of debts owed,” Ellysetta said. “You saved our lives. Any possible debt has already been paid in kind.”

“Nei, we rescued you from Eld for Gaelen, for all the times he sacrificed for us. My debt to you still stands.” He shifted his gaze to Rain. “I have spoken with the dahl’reisen and told them how your mate saved Sheyl. Many of them have been thinking about Varian and the others. About how like Fey they looked when they left. They died with joy—and with more honor than a dahl’reisen has a right to expect.”

“They died with the honor of a lu’tan,” Rain corrected. “No matter what Dark choices they may have made in the past, today they chose sheisan’dahlein.”

Farel’s fingers plucked one of his Fey’cha from its sheath, and he bent his head to polish a nonexistent spot on the gleaming steel. “We are also prepared to die for the Feyreisa today, but we want…” He broke off, cleared his throat, and rephrased. “That is to say, my brothers and I would humbly ask…”

Rain cut him off. “You wish to bloodswear yourselves to Ellysetta.”

The dahl’reisen leader looked up, making a visible effort to meet and hold Rain’s gaze. “I know that you have no reason to offer us a salvation we do not deserve… and in all honesty, I must tell you we intend to weave Azrahn in her defense.”

“Aiyah.”

Farel continued in a rush. “Six-fold weaves are much more effective than five, and we could do more to defend her with them if we were free to weave Azrahn without fear of Mage Marks.”

“Aiyah.”

“Bloodsworn to a shei’dalin as bright as the Feyreisa, we might even—” Farel broke off, blinking in shock at Rain’s swift, unequivocal assent. “Aiyah? You mean… you agree?”

“Aiyah.” Rain covered Ellysetta’s hand with his and threaded his fingers through hers. “I agree it is the best solution.”

“I—” Farel’s mouth opened and closed. “Just like that?”

Rain gave a weary smile. “Just like that.”

The last few bells, with the torment of the dahl’reisen and the foul presence of the Mharog beating at Ellysetta, forcing her to divert more of her energy to shield herself, he’d begun to feel the effects of the bond madness more strongly. His thoughts were becoming cloudy and confused. Rage simmered just below the paper-thin surface of his control, and he knew that open battle with Mages and Mharog would quickly shred what semblance of sanity he still retained. When that happened, Ellysetta would need as many protectors as she could get—including ones willing and able to slay him.

Even if he did survive this battle, he had no illusions about surviving the war. Without him, all hope of erasing Ellysetta’s Mage Marks through shei’tanitsa would be lost, and the Massan would never let her return to the Fading Lands. These dahl’reisen, so unafraid of spinning Azrahn, were no strangers to protecting those Marked by the Mages. Perhaps, after his death, they would be able to find a way to free her of her Marks as he had not.

It was a risk. A scorching triple tairen-sized risk. If Ellysetta did fall to the Dark, a bloodsworn army of dahl’reisen would make her even more dangerous. But, then, Hawks-heart had already said if Ellysetta fell to the Dark, all Light in the world would fall with her. Whether she went with the dahl’reisen at her side or without them, the end result would be the same.