The Black King (Book 7) (32 page)

Arianna stared at her, blue eyes so pale and cold that they looked sharp. “I do not have to defend myself to a Shaman.”

“Of course you don’t,” Xihu said. “But you asked my reasons. I’ve told you.”

“Lyndred is a power-mad girl,” Arianna said. “She wants the Throne so she is trying to pit my brother against me, have him throw me off the Throne. And while we struggle against the Blood, she seizes power.”

“I think that’s a likely possibility.”

Most people would have softened when she agreed with them. Arianna did not. In fact, her gaze got even sharper.

“But I also watched you yesterday with Gift,” Xihu said. “You treated him too harshly.”

“Did I? He came here for the Throne.”

“He came here for you.”

“Perhaps he believes that. Perhaps he has you believing that. But anyone who has touched the Black Throne is in service to it.”

“Gift rejected the Throne.”

“Did you see it?”

“I Saw the Seeking Light from the Throne. It was released when he let go.”

Arianna looked away. “If I prove to you that I am not Blind, will you serve me?”

Xihu had hoped Arianna would not ask that question. “How would you do that? Tell me your most recent Vision?”

Arianna held out her hand. She folded it into a fist. Then she slowly unclenched it. In the center of her palm, a tiny Shadowlands rose. It was barely the size of a stone, but it was clearly a Shadowlands. Yet Arianna did not release it as most would do. She also did not make it grow.

Xihu stared at it. She felt as if there were something wrong with it. Perhaps it was Arianna’s willingness to prove her Sight, even when she claimed she would not defend herself against the charges.

“So,” Arianna said. “Would you be at my side, following my orders and answering my questions?”

Something about this woman struck Xihu as unnatural. Arianna had said nothing when Xihu mentioned the Seeking Light, but logically she wouldn’t. Xihu would have been startled at a confession.

“Why is this so difficult to answer?” Arianna asked.

“Because,” Xihu said. “I love your brother and trust him. I do not like you.”

Arianna closed her fist, crushing the Shadowlands. She stood rapidly and turned her back, but not before Xihu saw the complete fury on her face.

“Liking should not enter into it,” Arianna said. “Your training said you must serve the Black Family.”

“It’s that training you ask me to deny.” Xihu spoke as calmly as she could.

Arianna was silent for a moment. She lowered her head as if in thought. “So I did.” She turned. “You are an amazing woman. You have proven, with a single sentence, to be the kind of Shaman I want.”

The heat from the fire prickled against Xihu’s side. The room was almost too hot.

“And yet,” Arianna said, “your professed love of Gift shows me that I can never trust you. How very sad.”

She sighed and circled the chair, flouncing into it like a young man who hadn’t learned manners.

“Since you will be going back to my brother, and since you will probably accompany him to Leut, which means we will never see each other again, would you do me one favor?”

“How can I deny the Black Queen?” Xihu said, not answering the question. She would wait for the favor.

“Give me a ruling.”

“On what?”

Arianna sat up. The image of youth was suddenly gone. In her eyes was an ancient wisdom, a cunning that startled Xihu with its ferocity. “Golems,” she said. “Golems and loose souls.”

Xihu stiffened. “I have little practical experience with them.”

“Most people who lived off Blue Isle have little practical experience with them. I am asking something in theory.”

“I will tell you my understanding of the theory,” Xihu said. “I cannot guarantee that my understanding is correct.”

“Such a proper Shamanic hedge. For one who defies tradition, you fall back on it often.”

Xihu waited.

Arianna sighed, as if she were disappointed that her jab had not found its mark. “Is a person, freed from his body, subject to Blood against Blood?”

Xihu felt her palms grow damp. She didn’t want to think about the implications of that question. “What do you mean?”

“Let me use an example,” Arianna said. “My brother Gift left part of himself in a bit of stone, a Golem.”

“Your brother Sebastian.”

“The Golem lived for eighteen years, and then his Link to Gift was severed, making them separate creatures. For the sake of argument, if I were to destroy the Golem and its soul, would I as Gift’s blood relative, commit Blood against Blood?”

Xihu had to work to control her expression.

Arianna smiled. “I’ve shocked you.”

“it seems an odd thing to need a ruling on,” Xihu said.

Arianna straightened in her chair. “A light crossed Blue Isle threaded with black. Ever since that, Sebastian has acted strange. But I think something has happened to him and I do not feel safe around him—and I was afraid for what would happen if things had gotten out of control. I could ask the question in reverse. If he manages to kill me, is that Blood against Blood?”

Odd that she mentioned the Search Light in this context. Was it possible that the light had caused problems within a Golem? Perhaps. Had this been what turned Arianna dark and made her distrust Gift? Because his Golem had tried to harm her?

“So,” Arianna said. “You’re going to be traditional again and not answer.”

Xihu shook her head. “I’m considering. There is nothing in the history of the Fey that helps me here.”

Arianna folded her hands over her stomach and leaned back. She would have seemed like someone who was in no hurry if it weren’t for the tautness of her body. There was something in the question that was extremely important to her. She tried to hide it, but Xihu could see it in her posture.

“I have not met Gift’s golem,” Xihu said slowly. “I know that their Links are shut off, so there is no way to reach Gift through the golem. This leads me to believe that the golem is a separate entity with its own personality and thoughts. But its body is stone. It has no blood. So the question you are actually asking me is: what causes the Blood against Blood? The actual physical death of a person’s body? Or the destruction of the soul?”

Arianna sat up, looking interested.

“I do not know the answer to that,” Xihu said, “but I am inclined to believe that the death of the body is the important thing. Souls can be trapped in Fey lamps. They can change form and become Mysteries. There are many who believe that the Powers are ancient souls as well. I am not even sure the soul passes away. For example, if a Black family member murders you, your soul will probably live on as a Mystery. But the Blood against Blood will happen as well. That leads me to believe the body is extremely important.”

Xihu felt a trembling inside herself. She hated this question and she was certain she was causing a problem with her honest answer. “But then there are the historical concerns.”

“Which are?” Arianna leaned forward.

“There is a story that Rugad’s great-grandfather created a golem for himself, and when his body died, had the golem run the Empire until his grandson—the only one who was competent—was old enough to rule. That Black King was already dead, yet part of him lived on in the golem. So, if someone had destroyed that Golem’s
body
, would it be murder? And if that someone who destroyed the golem was a member of the Black family, would it bring on Blood against Blood? After all, the original possessor of the soul was dead.”

Arianna nodded. Her eyes were extremely bright.

“But,” Xihu said, “there are many who believe that the Black King had put his entire personality, his entire being, into that golem through a Link, so that what died wasn’t the man only the man’s body. In that case, would the destruction of the Golem’s body decades later be murder? Would it cause Blood against Blood? I do not know.”

Arianna was frowning.

Xihu had to hold her hands tightly together to keep them from trembling. “As to Gift’s golem, this case is even stranger. Gift lives separately from his golem. They haven’t seen each other in years. They have had different lives. The golem is regarded by his family as a person. Does that make a difference? What if it isn’t the destruction of the body or the soul that creates the Blood against Blood, but the intent of the killer? If the killer has set out to destroy a
person
, then Blood will happen. If the killer wants to ruin a walking stone statue, then no Blood will happen.”

“This must be a conscious attitude?” Arianna asked.

“I think it must be the unconscious one. So even if someone tried to delude herself into thinking that Gift’s golem is just stone, it will not work. She must truly believe it. If she was raised—as you were—to believe the Golem is her brother, then Blood against Blood will occur.”

Arianna grunted and leaned back. “Let me alter the question slightly. What if the golem trapped me outside my own body, in a Link perhaps, and took over the body for himself? If I destroy the golem and not the body is that Blood against Blood?”

“If you destroy the stone, so that the golem has nowhere to go if banished from your body?” Xihu asked, trying to clarify.

Arianna shook her head. “If I destroy the being—the personality—that has taken over my body, is that Blood against Blood?”

Xihu put a hand to her forehead. Her fingers shook and she no longer cared that Arianna saw her nervousness. “Has this happened? Is this why you do not want him here any longer?”

“He tried once,” Arianna said.

There was bitterness in her tone. Bitterness and that sense, not so much that she was lying, but that the truth she told was not what she intended Xihu to understand.

Xihu stood. “If your brother Gift attacked you with a knife, and you killed him in self-defense, that would still be Blood against Blood.”

“I know that,” Arianna said irritably.

“So,” Xihu said, unperturbed by the interruption, “if you were to destroy the body of someone who had taken over your body by crossing a Link, you would bring on the Blood.”

Arianna let out a small sigh. Xihu looked at her, but could not read her expression.

“However, if you shatter a golem without touching its personality, it can—with the proper magick—reassemble. So you can destroy the stone visage without creating the Blood because the golem isn’t really dead.”

Arianna rubbed her chin with her right hand. Her fingers stopped and traced the edge of her birthmark as if it were unfamiliar to her.

“So if you destroy the stone body and banish the soul from yours,” Xihu concluded, “you haven’t killed it and there will be no Blood against Blood.”

Arianna froze. And then she smiled. It was a cold, nasty smile. “You are better than I thought,” she said. “You are a tremendous Shaman. Are you sure you will not serve me?”

Xihu’s skin was still flushed, but she felt a chill run through her. She had done something, changed something, with her answer. “You said you could not trust me.”

“I’ve had advisors I couldn’t trust before.”

Xihu touched the back of the chair. An advisor to the Black Queen. Staying in this strange place for as long as she had to. Living near someone she didn’t trust, someone she actually feared. Leaving Gift alone.

“You are so silent when you think,” Arianna said.

Xihu didn’t acknowledge her. Shaman served as advisors to the Black Family, but there was one other purpose, one they never told anyone outside the Shamanic ranks. Shaman kept an eye on the Black Family. When Kerde returned to Protector’s Village, she had failed in two ways: she had failed her service to the Black Family and she had failed in her service to the Shaman. There hadn’t been a Shaman in close contact with a Black Ruler in nearly a hundred years.

“You are actually considering this, despite your love for my brother.” Arianna sounded both pleased and surprised.

The Shaman who guarded the Black Ruler had an obligation to make certain the ruler remained on track. If the ruler did not, the Shaman was to contact the other Shaman and find a solution. Kerde had done that, but the Shaman had agreed there was no solution.

Xihu had a sense this Black Queen needed watching. But Xihu had no idea whether or not she could do anything, should extreme action be needed.

She took a deep breath and faced Arianna. Arianna had her head tilted up. She was smiling. Her features had softened. She looked intrigued.

“I will serve you,” Xihu said, “if you do not banish Gift.”

“No. I will not bargain for your services. You will work for me on my terms or not at all.” Arianna pushed herself out of her chair. “Let’s forget that last interchange. I will think of it as a reflection of your love for Gift, and you will think of it as a sign of our future relationship. Gift will be on his own, as he should be. You already heard my reasons for that, and I believe you understand them. If you can serve as
my
Shaman only, not the Black Family’s; if you can think in terms of the Empire and not in terms of Gift, you are welcome to stay.”

Xihu knew where her duties lay. If she had a choice, a real choice, she would stay with Gift. But he needed her less. Something was wrong here, something she might be able to correct if she stayed.

“I’ll have to let Gift know my decision,” she said softly.

“Of course,” Arianna said. “I expected no less.”

TWENTY-THREE

BRIDGE HAD NEVER felt like a supplicant in his life. He had always had a place to go, a job to do. Even when he had come to Blue Isle, he felt as if he were in charge of something—maybe not as important as the Empire, but a leader, nonetheless. Now he stood beside Lyndred at the base of the ramp and stared at Gift’s ship.

Over Bridge’s shoulder he carried some of his possessions. The rest were being stored by the loyal members of his crew. His ship had been confiscated by Arianna, and his crew dismissed. If things worked the way he hoped, he might get them work on Gift’s vessel.