"I understand," she agreed solemnly. "His father and I will choose for him a Fey name of strength and valor, a name that will do his pride-name honor."

Fahreeta purred her approval. «You understand pride-law well for one without wings.»

Marissya smiled. "I come from the vel Serranis line. My family bred many Feyreisen in the generations that came before mine."

The golden cat nodded sagely. «Explains much. Prey scent not so strong on you.»

Steli glanced back. «You may come, mother-kin. Keralas-kitling should hear our song to the Eye.» Marissya accepted the invitation with alacrity, but when Dax offered her his wrist and they both began to follow, Steli growled low in her throat. «The Fey-kin may not come. Pride-song is for pride ears only. The mother-kin may come, but no others.»

Marissya stopped and shook her head. "I will not go without Dax. He is my pride—and our child's as well. He is my shei'tan. If you want our child to hear your song, both Dax and I must come."

Fahreeta chuffed. Steli considered silently, then growled assent. «The mother-kin's mate may come, but he may never speak of what he sees or hears. What songs we sing to the Eye are for pride only.»

The Hall of Tairen was easily the most spectacular palace chamber she'd seen yet. Ellysetta gazed around in goggle-eyed amazement. Within the massive room, a domed ceiling soared above the wide hall, flanked on both sides by intricately carved marble columns. On a raised dais at the end of the hall, the golden Tairen Throne rose in gleaming splendor, its back a pair of fully extended wings gleaming with platinum, scimitar-shaped midspan claws. The armrests were snarling tairen's heads with bright, rainbow-swirled Tairen's Eye crystals for eyes.

But it was the object in the center of the room that captured Ellysetta's attention and held it.

Shei'Kess. The Eye of Truth.

Perfectly spherical, the Eye was an enormous globe of Tairen's Eye crystal—even larger than the still-smoldering crystals left after Cahlah and Merdrahl's Fire Song. A man-high stand fashioned from three golden tairen held the Eye aloft on the backs of their outstretched wings.

This was the oracle that could see the past, the present, and the future. The oracle that had sent Rain to find her.

The oracle that had hurt him when he'd asked it for help.

She knew Rain and the tairen were hoping the Eye would reveal how Ellysetta was supposed to save the kitlings, but she didn't trust the thing. If it was so willing to help, why wouldn't it have done so before? And what sort of power hurt those who came to it for aid? Not an honorable one, it seemed to her.

Besides—and here her belly curled into tight, painful knots—if the Eye could see into the past and the future, what would it see about her? She hadn't forgotten what those voices in the Faering Mists had said to her. Mage claimed! Dark soul! ENEMY!

"Ellysetta?"

She bit her lip and glanced up into Rain's too-understanding eyes. "I'm afraid, Rain," she whispered. "Afraid of what it might show…about the future…and about me." Another voice from another nightmare hissed in her mind. You'll kill them, girl. You'll kill them all. It's what you were born for.

"Las." Rain brushed his lips across hers. "Fear is for the hunted, not for the hunter. Trust that I will protect you. And trust in your own strength. You are a tairen of the Fey'Bahren pride. The Mage cannot take what you refuse to give him. And even if the Eye does show something unpleasant, remember that visions of the future are only possibilities, not destiny. Only the past is certain. All else can yet be changed." He held her gaze until she lifted her chin and nodded.

The tairen had approached the Eye without any of Ellysetta's hesitation or trepidation and were sitting in a loose circle around it, each facing one of the three gleaming tairen statues holding Shei'Kess aloft. The cats dwarfed both the Eye and the tairen statues.

«Join us, tairen-kin,» Steli invited. «Six sing pride-song better than three.»

"But I don't sing tairen song," Marissya said.

«Keralas will sing.»

"What about me?" Ellysetta asked.

Steli purred, her tail swishing. «Sing whatever song rises in your throat, kitling. You are tairen-kin. The Eye will hear you.»

Rain Changed and the three of them went to stand between the tairen. Steli began to croon, her voice a growling vibrato purr that reverberated through the room. Fahreeta and Torasul joined in, as did Rain, who stood between Steli and Torasul. Their eyes began to glow and whirl. The notes of their song were bright and full, swirling in the air around them and shimmering like sparkling multicolored jewels. Flanked by Fahreeta and Torasul, Marissya closed her eyes and swayed as the vibrant tones of tairen song swept over and through her.

At first, Ellysetta remained silent as the tairen sang. She did not know the pride-song, but each note was like a powerful bell pealing deep inside her. The pattern of the sounds resonated in her heart, her soul, setting off tiny avalanches of emotion. Longing. Joy. Belonging. Pride. As the notes swirled around and through her, she could almost feel the brisk rush of wet air against her face as she soared through the clouds, the rhythmic pull of powerful muscles as her wings bore her aloft on a swirling updraft of warm air, the burn of fire on her tongue, the visceral thrill of being tairen, master of the sky, fearless and free.

The scent of Fey'Bahren filled her nostrils, rich, earthy, magical. With pride-song ringing in her ears, she could discern particular scents within the whole, like bright threads shining in a darker weave, each so distinct and vivid the scent became a picture: calm, majestic Sybharukai, fierce Steli, wise warrior Corus, playful, pretty Fahreeta.