"Oh, yes." Snowfoot was purring quietly against her chest. The comfort of Eiliss's peaceful Fey presence soothed him, too. Lillis stroked the kitten's downy fur and scratched beneath his tiny black chin. His eyes closed in bliss and his purring grew louder. "What about Kieran and Kiel? Are they safe, too!"

"Their fate is not mine to know, but if they entered the Mists, they will find the welcome due all warriors of the Fey."

When Eiliss smiled into Lillis's eyes as she was doing now, Lillis just knew everything would turn out all right. Her concern for Kieran and Kiel melted away like the fingerling curls of mist swirling around them.

Elvia ~ Deep Woods

"Do you think Gaelen is right about a warrior's soul being tied to mine?”

Ellysetta and Rain walked along the crystalline hanks of an indescribably beautiful Elvish river called the Dreamer, whose bed and banks were lined with sparkling cabochon jewels worn smooth by the river's gentle current.

After their bell's rest at lunchtime, they'd ridden hard and fast throughout the day, stopping only to rest and water their horses. They'd reached the river just before dusk and made camp. Tomorrow, they would cross the Dreamer and enter Deep Woods, the ancient forested heart of Elvia.

"You are a Tairen Soul," Rain replied. "Most of your abilities can be explained by that fact."

"But not the warrior's skills."

Ellysetta hadn't touched another blade since lunchtime, half-afraid of what other deadly skills and disturbing revelations might come if she did. All afternoon, she'd felt the curious and speculative gazes of the Elves—and even her quintet-—upon her. Once more, she had become an oddity, a mystery, a puzzle to be solved, and she hated it.

"It occurred to me that the High Mage could be a swords-master and that I know how to throw a blade because he does," she confessed, when Rain didn't answer immediately. "But he wouldn't know the Cha Baruk, would he?" The tiny jewels that lined the riverbank like sand crunched beneath their boots as they walked.

“It is unlikely," Rain said. "Chadin train for three hundred years before they stand in the Dance as you did with Gaelen this afternoon."

"So then you do think Gaelen's right?"

"I don't know what to think," He stopped and turned to take her arms. "Shei'tani, I can see this troubles you, and I know my reaction earlier is partly to blame. Believe me when I say that any horror you sensed was not directed at you but rather at the idea that the Mages might have discovered how to manipulate truemating."

"Rain..."

"Here, feel for yourself." He took her hands in his, and her acute empathic senses—heightened further by their shei'tanitsa bond—could detect his sincerity. "No matter how your soul came into being, it is still the soul—the only soul—that calls to mine. And I would have it no other way." He brushed a curling tendril of hair back behind her ear. "Ver'reisa ku'chae. Kem surah, shei'tani."

She did not doubt him. With his skin touching hers, his emotions as clear as words on a page, she could not. Still...

"But what if the next skill I discover isn't something good, Rain? What if it's something horrible?"

He gave her a smile so sad it nearly broke her heart. "You're speaking to the man who scorched the world, Ellysetta. There is little even a Mage could do that is worse than that."

"Rain..."

He bowed his head and resumed walking. "I do not pretend to understand how or why you can do most of the things you do. I merely accept all that you are, and wait for the day that you can do the same."

That was the crux of the matter. Rain struggled every day with his guilt at what he'd done, just as she struggled every day with her fear of what she one day might do—and not even just what she might do if the Mage claimed her soul. She was beginning to think Mama had been right to fear Ellie's magic and try to rid her of it.

"And if that day never comes, Rain? If I never can accept what I am?"

"You will. You seek answers to the questions you hesitate to voice—even though you fear what those answers might be. I see it each time you discover some new, unexpected talent." He reached up to stroke a hand through the thick, unbound curls spilling down her back. "You insist on thinking yourself a coward, when you are braver than any woman I've ever known. And though I do not much care for the Elves, there is no one better than Hawksheart to unravel the mysteries of your past and reveal the possibilities of your future."

"Our future," she corrected. He'd taken to doing that these last days since the Eld attack .. . talking about events to come as if he wouldn't be there to share them with her.

"Our future," he agreed. For what little time we have left.

"'What little time we have left'? Why do you keep saying things like that?" When he didn't answer, she stopped walking. "What's going on, Rain? I know you're not thinking of returning to the war without me, because I won't be left behind. We're stronger together than we are apart. I thought that was already settled."

"Ellysetta ... shei'tani..."

He reached for her but she brushed his hand away. "Don't 'Ellysetta shei'tani' me. Talk to me. Tell me the truth."

"I always tell you the truth."

"Nei, you don't. You never lie, but you don't always tell the whole truth either. You simply don't talk about things you don't want me to know."