Free Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson Page A

Ellie's face was flaming with embarrassment long before they reached her street.
    Unlike Ellie, once the twins had recovered from their initial fear, they found the attention quite entertaining. They darted to and fro, giggling when they managed to catch a warrior's eye. The Fey did not smile at their antics. They just watched them, stone-faced and gimlet-eyed, except for the brown-haired, blue-eyed warrior, who would give Lillis a tiny grin each time she stuck her little snub nose in the air to show that she still had not forgiven him for not falling prey to her earlier tears.
    The warrior beside Ellie was named Belliard vel Jelani. She gathered he was quite, quite old, though his face was as unlined as that of a Celierian just leaving his twenties. It was his eyes, dark and fathomless, that showed his age. Looking into those eyes, she felt an oppressive weight and terrible sorrow, as if he had lived countless centuries without joy. He did not, she noted, look directly at her for more than a moment at a time, and his stern, studious avoidance of her gaze invited little in the way of conversation.
    As they neared the Baristani home, Ellie's step faltered and her stomach clenched in nervous knots. Her mother stood in the doorway of their house. Someone had obviously run ahead to announce her coming, and Mama did not look happy. As the first of the Fey neared the Baristani residence, the procession smoothly parted in two separate columns that circled around the sides of the house like a black river flowing around an obstruction in the effluvial plain. Within moments the house was surrounded and Ellie found herself deposited on the doorstep, looking up at her mother's grim face.
    The twins ran to her, chattering excitedly about the Tairen Soul and fire cages and having been very afraid though now they weren't. Lauriana listened with half an ear, then shooed them into the house.
    "What's this about the Tairen Soul and fire cages, Ellysetta?" she demanded as Ellie drew close. Her voice was sharp, filled with a brittle combination of fear and anger. She held no affection for the Fey. In her opinion, magic was the scourge of the earth. "And why is this … this army of Fey bringing you home?”
    Ellie cast a glance at the surrounding avid faces of the neighbors. "Can we talk about this inside, please, Mama?" There was a note of desperation in her voice.
    Fortunately, Lauriana firmly believed that respectable folk did not air laundry on the front steps. "Very well. Get yourself inside" Her eyebrows shot up into her hairline as Belliard vel Jelani and four other Fey—including the two who'd seen to Lillis and Lorelle—followed Ellie up the steps. "Sers, thank you for escorting my daughter, but you need not follow her into our home." Her teeth made an audible click as she gave the men a grimly pleasant smile. "Especially as you have not been invited.”
    Belliard gave her a deep bow. "Eternal apologies, honored one, but we must enter. We protect the Feyreisa. We go where she goes.”
    "The Fey-who?" Lauriana turned to Ellie. "What is he talking about?”
    "Please, Mama. Let them in, if that's what they want. Let's go inside." Ellie glanced again at the crowd and tried to direct her mother towards the privacy of their home.
    "And what are they doing?" Outraged, Lauriana turned to glare at a group of warriors weaving an intricate, nearly invisible mass of shining magic over the front of the house. "You there! Stop that this instant!" Four of the Fey behind her took advantage of her distraction to slip into the house. Belliard remained, his gaze intent and watchful as he waited for Ellie.
    "Mama, I'll explain inside. Please!" Ellie tugged her mother across the threshold as yet another group of Fey took up guard beside the front steps. The rest seemed to melt away into the shadows of alleyways and rooftops. Ellie knew they were still there, unseen. She could feel them, like a ripple of wind on the back of her neck.
    Inside the house, the