The Black King (Book 7) (2 page)

He was the Heir to Arianna’s throne because, like him, she had never married and she had no children. If they both died, the Black Throne would revert to his grandfather’s oldest son, Bridge, whom his grandfather and great-grandfather had never trusted. That was on the Fey side.

On the Islander side, things were worse. If Gift and Arianna died without issue, the throne would go to someone who wasn’t a direct descendent of the Isle’s Roca.

Gift climbed down the steps, his hands on the rope railing, past the lower decks. The steps became a rope ladder on the last part of the descent leading him into the darkness of the hold.

When he reached the bottom, he hurried down the narrow corridor to the mess hall. He pushed open the door to find the five Riders he had sent out. They were naked and in their Fey forms, their bird selves subsumed into their torsos. But they still had the look of birds. Their hair grew in a light feathery pattern down their backs and their noses curved like beaks.

The ship’s captain, Wave—a Sailor who, at a hundred, decided he was too old to send his consciousness into the sea—leaned against the wall. His powerful arms, tattooed in the L’Nacin tradition, were crossed against his chest and Gift could tell from the expression on his face that the news was bad.

“Well?” Gift asked.

One of the Gull Riders, a woman named Uhgse, looked over at him. Her dark eyes were beady.

“There’s a lot of chop,” she said, “and eddies that actually form holes in the surface of the water. The waves are hitting the stone at an incredible height. There’s no clear way for the ship to make it through.”

“It’d be like sailing in a hurricane,” said Abdal, another of the Gull Riders.

But there was one Gull Rider Gift had come to trust more than the others. “Ace? What do you think?”

Ace, whose real name was Graceful, had taken one of the Domestic-spelled towels and was drying his hair. He stopped when Gift spoke to him.

“I think the surface always looks like that.” He had a deep voice and warmer eyes than most of the Gull Riders. “I felt no wind while I was between the Guardians, but the air currents were unsteady. The weather’s not bad enough to make the chop anything out of the ordinary. I think we trust our maps and go in.”

Gift nodded. Ace had proven himself over and over. Originally, Ace had served Gift’s uncle, Bridge. Then a Gull Rider from Blue Isle had arrived on Bridge’s ship, near death. Ace had taken her mission—to find and report to Gift about Arianna’s troubles—and had completed it in record time. He had found Gift shortly after Gift had arrived in Etanien, in a place Skya insisted was impossible to locate.

“I won’t go through chop and whirlpools with just a map for guidance,” Wave said.

“Of course not,” Gift replied. “We use all the Sailors and Navigators, and if we don’t find a Ze, we don’t go any farther.”

“A Ze?” Ace asked.

“It’s a fish,” Gift said, “and it’s native to these waters. Sailors have found it to be a useful guide through the currents around the Stone Guardians.”

“You’d better find that Ze well away from those stones,” Uhgse said. “We’re not going to be able to anchor, and I’m afraid the currents’ll pull us into the rocks.”

“It’s my job to worry about that.” Wave gave her an odd look as he pushed past her. “I’ll get the Sailors working.”

“Good,” Gift said.

Wave left the room.

“I’ve gone through the Guardians before,” Gift said to the Riders, “and the water was as you described it. I suggest that you rest until we get into the currents, then Shift to your Gull forms and fly above us. You might see some things that will help us through.”

“Are you worried about this?” Abdal asked.

“No more than any sane man would be,” Gift said.

He left the room and headed back toward the ladder. The ship was rocking more than it had before, and he wondered if they were taking action too late. He’d heard that the currents to the Stone Guardians began far out at sea. Perhaps he should have sent the Riders out the day before.

He shivered once, then grabbed the ropes and pulled himself up. When he reached the deck house, he found Xihu.

She was a Shaman who had defied the rest of her kind to travel with Gift. She felt the Black Family needed a Shaman, and since they had none, she had volunteered. She was younger than most Shaman, which put her in her nineties. Her face wasn’t as lined as most, although she had her share of wrinkles. Her white hair frizzed around her skull, making her face look like the center of an explosion.

“What is it?” he asked. He was taller than she was, a sign that he had more magick, which always astonished him. He had been raised to believe that Shaman had the most power.

“A Vision,” she said softly.

And then he saw the evidence: the tear tracks that lined her eyes, the moisture beside her mouth, the crease in her cheek where her face had rested against something.

He put a hand on her arm. She felt thinner than she had when they started this journey over six months before.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded, then led him out of the deck house.

Sailors were standing near the rails, holding their hands out so that their fingers could be pricked by the Navigator. Five Navigators would work with over twenty Sailors. The link between them was established through blood. Then the Sailors would send their consciousness into the water while their bodies remained on the ship. They would contact fish, and learn the gossip of the waters. In this area, the Ze had become the third part of the chain that went from Sailor to Navigator, who then imparted that information to the Captain. Other crew members would stand behind the Sailors’ bodies and protect them so that they wouldn’t get lost in the sea.

No one paid Gift or Xihu any attention. The Sailors and Navigators were too focused on the links; the remaining crew too worried about failing to protect the Sailors after the links were finished. Still, it felt strange to be on deck with this many people.

“What was the Vision?” Gift asked.

“I’ve been seeing Blood against Blood.” She was referring to the chaos that would descend on the world if Gift’s Fey family—the Black Family—fought against itself. The last time the Blood against Blood had happened, all but a handful of Fey had died at each other’s hands.

If it were to happen now, the effect would be even more devastating as the Fey Empire covered half the world.

He swallowed. “I won’t attack my sister.”

“It is more complex than that,” Xihu said. “I am seeing your great-grandfather.”

“Rugad’s dead. He’s been dead for fifteen years.” But Gift’s voice shook a little as he said that. He had Seen Visions of his great-grandfather as well—had been seeing them since his great-grandfather died near Blue Isle’s Place of Power. “Maybe you’ve been seeing my uncle Bridge. He’s on the Isle now.”

At least, Gift assumed he was. That was where Bridge had been heading six months ago, according to Ace.

“Yes, I’ve heard the argument,” Xihu said. “It could be you as well. There is a frightening similarity of features among the men in your family.”

The Navigators had finished pricking fingers and pressing their own hands against those of the Sailors. The Sailors were assuming their positions against the rail. Gift looked past them. The mist was almost a rain now, but not worth troubling the Weather Sprites over. He could see the Stone Guardians in the distance, growing larger as they came closer.

“Tell me the Vision,” he said.

Xihu folded her hands together. She looked toward the Stone Guardians, but seemed strangely unaffected by them. The mist dotted her face, and caught in the wrinkles, like dew.

“I heard voices first,” she said. “Voices whispering that you’d come to destroy Blue Isle. Then I Saw arrows covered with blood, and I heard a woman’s laughter. Then I Saw someone who looked like you, only it was a woman.”

“Arianna,” he said.

“With your blue eyes and a birthmark on her chin. She had a cruel face.”

He frowned. Arianna did not have a cruel face. She had been impulsive and difficult, but she had never been cruel.

“Then she turned and sat in a throne that had a crest above it: two swords crossed over a heart. And she laughed. She said, ‘Gift will never rule the Empire.’ Her eyes were cold.” For the first time since he met Xihu, Gift thought he saw real fear in her face. “It was as if she had no soul.”

A breeze rose, sending shivers through him. That didn’t sound like Arianna at all.

“What else?” he asked. He knew there had to be more because Xihu was too silent.

“Assassins,” she whispered. “I heard the voices of assassins, looking for you, trying to kill you to protect the Isle.”

“Fey Assassins?” He had heard of them, but thought they were a myth.

She shook her head. “I could not tell.”

“Who would hire assassins? Arianna, even if she has gone crazy, can’t do that. And neither could my uncle. The Blood against Blood would affect them. They know that.”

“Have you ever thought,” Xihu asked softly, “that the messages you received were false? Perhaps your sister is fine. Perhaps someone only wants to kill you here, on the Isle.”

He shook his head. “No one would want to do that.”

“Why?” Xihu asked. “You’ve been to both Places of Power. Maybe someone is afraid you’ll find the third.”

Gift crossed his arms. The breeze had given him a terrible chill. “Who does that threaten?”

“All of us. Whoever finds the third Place of Power will create the Triangle of Might which is supposed to reform the world. None of us knows what that means. There are ancient stories that say it means only the greatest of us will survive.”

“And someone thinks I’m arrogant enough to place myself in that category?” Gift wiped the water from his face. “I set guards on the Place of Power here on Blue Isle. I lived near the Place of Power in the Eccrasian Mountains for five years. I never once tried to arrange a meeting between someone in Blue Isle’s Place of Power and myself so that we could find the third Place of Power.”

Xihu was silent for a long time. Then she closed her eyes. “It was merely a suggestion.”

“Because of your Vision?”

She shook her head. “Because that is the second greatest thing to fear about you, Gift.”

“What’s the first?”

She didn’t answer him. She stood in front of him with her eyes closed, the mist beading on her face, and said nothing.

“What’s the first?” he asked again.

She opened her eyes. There were tears in them. “That you will kill your sister.”

TWO

ARIANNA SAT on a small stone bench overlooking the Cardidas River. It flowed red here, almost as if there was blood in the water. She knew that the color came from the stones beneath the surface and from the reflection of the Cliffs of Blood above. But she found the water eerie anyway, considering how many people had died near here.

It was sunny, but the sunshine was not warm. Strange that she could know the temperature but not really feel it. She didn’t feel much of anything these days. Not outside, anyway.

Coulter and Seger had built her a body, and she had put her consciousness inside it. The body was built out of the same stone that made the river turn red. Only the body didn’t have red skin. Its skin was slightly grayish, very smooth and cold to the touch. At least, that was what Coulter told her.

From inside, it felt like her body, only wrapped in cotton and unable to move with any speed. But it didn’t function like her body. She was a Shape-Shifter, and even though she still remembered how to Shift form, this body wouldn’t change.

Six months ago, she had thought being in the body would be temporary. Now she wasn’t so sure. Rugad, the Black King, had tried to take over her mind. He had made the assault on her when she was fifteen. He was a Visionary like she was, and he traveled across her brother Sebastian’s Link into her mind. First Rugad had tried to take over her body by force, and when that hadn’t worked, he had left a tiny bit of himself inside her brain.

That bit had been the equivalent of an infant then. In fifteen years, it had grown into the equivalent of a young man. It wasn’t supposed to awaken inside her for another ten years, but something triggered it—a bright light with black threaded through it, a magickal sending that had come from far away. If Rugad had waited another ten years, he would have subsumed her entirely, holding her body and her consciousness hostage forever.

Coulter, who was an Enchanter, had tried to kick Rugad out of her and failed. But Coulter did manage to carry Arianna’s consciousness out of her body and away from the palace before Rugad could stop him.

The problem was that she lived inside Coulter’s mind while her Golem body was being built. And, much as she cared for Coulter, the lack of privacy had driven her crazy. Just as this non-responsive body was driving her crazy.

All of the people around her—Seger, Coulter, Con, Matt, and the other students at Coulter’s school—treated her as if she were an invalid. She wasn’t. She simply didn’t have the mobility she’d had in her natural body. Or the power. Right now, all of Blue Isle—all of the Fey Empire—thought that she was still ruling the country. Her body was, but it was being guided and powered by Rugad, the most ruthless Black King of all.

She put her hands on the edge of the bench and leaned forward. It seemed to take forever to make the movement. She had to concentrate on speeding up these commands. She didn’t want to move like Sebastian for the rest of her life.

Sebastian was a Golem too, but he had been formed as an infant. He had his own personality that was originally composed of bits of her brother Gift. Sebastian was a special type of Golem, one that Seger said was maintained by the Mysteries and Powers, a creature that had a life of its own. Whereas if Arianna left her Golem’s body, it would remain immobile until she entered it again. Eventually it would revert to the stone it had once been.

Sebastian was the only one who seemed to understand how she felt. Sometimes he would sit with her and hold her while she wished she could cry.