Sybharukai's ears flicked. «Nei. There was only the Fire Song, and then peace and sorrow when Merdrahl and Cahlah flew free of this life.» She paused, then added softly, «Of the kitling, there was nothing.»

Rain nodded. He had not felt the unborn kit's passing either. As with all the other victims of the withering disease, it was as if his soul had leached away before he could be sung into the next life.

Rain's gut still told him the Eld were to blame, yet there was no hint of Azrahn at work, and no indication that any sort of magic had breached the protective shields of the Faering Mists.

And yet, Ellysetta had sensed evil…dark and cold and beckoning.

A quiet splash drew his attention. Ellysetta had completely submerged herself and was lying still beneath the surface of the lake. With her eyes closed and the long coils of her bright hair floating around her, she looked like one of the beguiling Danae water sprites who delighted in luring unwary mortals to watery graves.

«She brings song back to your heart,» Sybharukai observed.

"Aiyah."

«You no longer wish for your own Fire Song.»

Rain met Sybharukai's eyes. "Nei, I want to live." Until that night when he'd flown along the borders of Eld, the tairen had never discussed how he'd longed for death after Sariel's murder, but of course, all the pride had known. They had accepted his desire. Tairen mated for life. But they had always known he would not seek death until his responsibilities to the Fey and to the tairen were met.

Sybharukai purred and stretched, flexing her claws. «Ellysetta-kitling is a better mate for you than the other.»

"She is my shei'tani. Sariel was e'tani." The tairen had never called Sariel by name. Always, she had been "your mate" or "that one." And now, apparently, "the other."

«The other was friend, but not tairen.»

Rain glanced at Sybharukai in surprise. It was unusual for the makai to be so talkative. "Nei," he agreed. "Sariel was not tairen, but Ellysetta is."

The great cat's ears flicked. «She smells so, but her song does not sing to us. We cannot choose her sorreisu kiyr or lead her through First Change until we know her song.»

"Perhaps she does not yet know how to sing. The Celierians never could have taught her."

«Tairen sing in the egg. There is no need to teach.»

"But she is tairen. I saw it in her eyes. She hears my song."

«Yet you do not hear hers.»

He frowned, perplexed. No, he had never heard her song. He'd seen the tairen in her eyes, he'd felt its power coiling inside her, witnessed its devastating fury, but he'd never heard it sing. "Nei," he said slowly. "I thought perhaps I had not heard it because our bond is not complete."

«You hear the songs of the pride.»

"Aiyah, I hear all the pride, but we are not mates. I hear the thoughts of all the Fey, too, but until Ellysetta and I complete our bond, I can hear only the thoughts she deliberately sends to me. Perhaps her song works the same way."

«We do not hear her either. She is … » Sybharukai abandoned words and sang a series of notes that summoned the image of a tangled net of string with tairen kits diligently tugging at the loose ends, only to tangle the string even more.

Rain nodded. "Aiyah. I could not have said it better." Ellysetta was a conundrum, a fascinating mix of innocence, astonishing power, and countless secrets that taunted him with their presence while remaining stubbornly concealed.

«When you return to the Fey-lair, the tairen will fly with you and sing pride-greetings to Shei'Kess for your mate, since she has no song of her own.»

His jaw dropped open. The tairen had not entered Dharsa since before the Mage Wars. "Why would you do that? You didn't even come to ask the Eye for help saving the kits."

Sybharukai sniffed. «Why should we have gone then? We sent you.»

He blinked, nonplussed. They'd sent him? Nearly a month ago, in an act of sheer desperation, he'd laid bare hands on the Eye of Truth in an attempt to wrest answers from it. The oracle had not been pleased. Now, Sybharukai implied that she'd somehow been responsible for his actions. His eyes narrowed. "Did you put the idea of confronting the Eye of Truth in my head?"

She extended her claws and began sharpening their tips against the rock. «You are pride. You knew our need. You did what was necessary when the time was right.»

Rain gave a short laugh and shook his head. That nonanswer was answer enough. The Fey would never dream of using their magic to manipulate other Fey, but the tairen had never pretended to be so civilized. They were not tame and did not live by the laws of those who were. "And Ellysetta? Why would you sing pride-greetings for her? What are you not telling me?"

Sybharukai heaved a breath and flapped her wings. Tairen might be wild, wicked, and unpredictable, but like the Fey, they never lied. «Ellysetta-kitling smells tairen,» she finally said, «but she smells of something else too.» Her eyes closed, and a low purr hummed in her throat. «Old magic.»

He sat up straight. "What kind of old magic?"

Sybharukai's purring ceased. Her bright green eyes opened and her claws dug into the rock. «The scent is too ancient. This tairen's pride-memory does not go back far enough to name it, but Shei'Kess will know. Shei'Kess keeps the memories of all the prides.»

More ancient than Sybharukai's pride-memory? The possibility shocked him. Sybharukai was makai of the Fey'Bahren pride. She herself had lived more than two thousand years, and her pride-memory stretched back to the start of the Second Age, passed on from each dying makai to her successor.