Arianna had never learned how to be still.
After a moment, she pushed away from him, and looked around the area. Her gaze stopped on Gift's face. They stared at each other for a moment, then she looked away. She met each face with that strong stare, not finding what she was apparently searching for.
"Where's Coulter?" she asked.
Nicholas felt stunned. The boy had taken his hand away from Nicholas's heart moments before Arianna stirred. The pain had disappeared, and Nicholas had watched his daughter's face, going from immobile to mobile to becoming itself again.
"Right here," the boy said, and he sounded almost ashamed.
Arianna looked past him, then back at him.
The boy shrugged. "I'm not the same out here. I told you."
"You're not Fey," she said. "You're not even half-Fey."
"No," he said.
"Then how did you do that?"
He looked down, his face so red that Nicholas felt pained for him. A teenage boy in the presence of a pretty girl. Plus something else. They had spoken before she had awakened. She had expected him, but not like this.
"Coulter has all the powers of the Fey without all the curses of them," Adrian said. "Sometimes I think he absorbed them from the world around him."
"I was raised among the Fey," Coulter whispered. "I was kidnapped as a baby."
But there was more to it. Even Nicholas knew that. This place proved it.
"You look so different," Arianna said. She reached out a hand and touched Coulter's blushing face.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I'm not."
Nicholas was, suddenly. He didn't like having his daughter look at a boy — a near-man — like that.
Jewel touched his arm. "She'll be all right," Jewel said, then put a finger to Nicholas's lips. "She can't see me. So don't say anything. It'll just confuse her."
He nodded.
"Let them be for a moment. I need to talk to you."
He stroked Arianna's hair. It was tangled and coarse from the days of traveling and the disorganized Shift. "I need a moment to myself," Nicholas said. "Will you be all right?"
"Don't leave me, Dad," she said.
"I'll be right over here." He pointed to the steps.
She took a deep breath, nodded once, then looked at Gift. "You're my brother," she said, and it sounded like an accusation.
"So?" Gift said.
"If you'd just said that, I wouldn't have attacked you that day."
"You wouldn't have believed me. You thought Sebastian was your brother."
"He is," she said.
Nicholas opened his mouth, and Jewel took his arm, pulling him away. "Let them settle this," she said. "You can't."
He looked at the Red Cap. "Keep them from going after each other, would you?"
"I don't get involved in Black Family affairs."
Adrian snorted and shook his head. "I'll watch them," he said.
"I won't do anything to this Gift, Dad," Arianna said. "I remember the last time."
"I know," Nicholas said. But he wasn't sure about his son. The Shaman had said that Gift reminded her of Nicholas's father. So far, Nicholas could see no similarities.
Jewel dragged him to the steps, then she hugged him so fiercely it took his breath away. He ran his hand down her back, and up again. His fingers bumped the ridges of her spine. Her skin was smooth, the muscles taut beneath it. She felt familiar, as if she had never left his arms.
He leaned into her, kissed her, and she tasted just as he remembered. He closed his eyes.
He could lose himself in her.
God, he had missed her. He had missed her more than he had ever thought possible.
She held him tightly for a moment, then she pulled back. That was one thing he had forgotten. Jewel was as mobile as her daughter. Jewel had never remained still, either.
She put a finger on his lips, stopping any questions he may have had. Behind him, he heard his daughter's voice rising.
" … and you left him alone!"
"First you didn't want me to have anything to do with Sebastian, and then you're angry that I left?" Gift asked, voice rising too.
"Actually," Coulter said, loudly, to cover their voices, "that was my fault. . .."
And then their voices softened again.
"The Black King knows where you are," Jewel said. "Or at least, he knows where Gift is."
Her finger left his mouth. He still wasn't sure what she was. All he knew as that some kind of Fey magick had brought her back to him.
"How did he find out?" Nicholas asked. "Has a member of this group betrayed us?"
She shook her head. "A Wisp flew in here just before you arrived. Since there are no more Fey from my father's invasion, she had to have come from Rugad. He will come here as soon as he learns of it, and he will try to take this place."
"Because it is a Place of Power."
"The Shaman told you that," Jewel said.
"Yes." He looked up the steps to the place where the Red Cap had left her body. Nothing had happened to it. He had hoped that the magick of this place would help them.
At least he had gotten help for Arianna.
"Nicholas," Jewel said, "you have nothing right now, except an Islander and a Fey without magick, another Fey who has yet to come into her own, an Islander who has the skills of an Enchanter, and our children."
Nicholas sighed. He knew that.
"Your people are scattered, and they never were warriors. Matthias" — Jewel spit out the word — "is alive, and will come back here. You know that, too."
He suspected it. He didn't know it. He had hoped that Matthias's innate cowardliness would prevail. Perhaps it would still.
Yet the Shaman had saved Matthias.
"You need me," Jewel said. "You'll need to trust me."
Nicholas nodded. He did trust her. To a point. But he had learned in all the years around the Fey that sometimes things were not what they seemed. He wasn't sure if Jewel was the shade of his wife or something else, something that only appeared to be his wife.
"I don't know what you are," Nicholas said.
"I am your wife. Ask the Red Cap about the Mysteries. He seems to understand them. Gift sees me. You do. And Coulter has felt my presence. I am real," she said.
"I know," Nicholas said. He looked down, spread his hands, then sighed. "I'm just afraid that you're — say — a ghostly Doppelgänger who only appears to be my wife."
She smiled and took his hands. "No," she said. "And I'll prove that to you later. There are things only you and I know. We'll discuss them." She glanced over her shoulder at their children. They were arguing softly, Coulter waving his hands at them as if to stop them. "Right now, we have another matter to take care of."
"Many other matters," Nicholas said.
"No," she said. "Between us."
He waited.
She touched the side of his face. "My grandfather is a warrior. The best of all the warriors. I was good. I was not yet great. I never had the chance. But I was raised by him. I know how he thinks. I know how the greatest warriors in the world work."
"But you can't fight any more," Nicholas said. "You're trapped here."
"There is more to fighting than holding a sword, Nicholas," she said. "You know that."
He did.
She said, "I don't want my grandfather to have the Isle. It is ours, Nicholas, and it belongs to our children. I'll help you keep it."
He had missed her. He had missed her so much. "I'll need your help," he said, leaning into her touch.
"We're better together," she said.
He smiled. "We always were."
" … all the advantages!" Gift's voice rose.
"I did not!" Ari shouted. "You were raised Fey! You know all their tricks!"
"I was raised in Shadowlands. As if that's an advantage."
"It might be now."
"Our children are fighting," Jewel whispered.
"What's so surprising about that?" Nicholas
asked. "We were fighting from the moment we met."
Jewel laughed, and to his surprise, he did too.
His family, together for the first time. Maybe the only time. The Fey had taken so much from him, and they had given him so much.
They had given him this second chance with Jewel.
They had given him such spectacular children.
They had given him his family again.
He let Jewel lead him back to the group. Arianna and Gift were leaning toward each other, their profiles male and female versions of the same face. They were shouting at each other, their words mingling and getting lost. Coulter was trying to come between them, and the Red Cap had his hands over his ears. Adrian, who had promised to watch them, was doing just that.
"I don't think we're going to win any victories if you two are at each other's throats," Nicholas said calmly. His children looked at him as if his presence were a surprise.
Jewel moved to the side. Gift watched her.
Nicholas didn't. "We have a lot to work out," he said. "And not a lot of time. Let's save the fighting until we've won the war, all right?"
"Daddy — " Arianna said.
He held up his hand and smiled at her. "You need food and rest, my girl. And while you do that, we need to think about fortifying this place. I suspect the Black King will want it for his own. And I won't let him get it."
He spread out his arms. "The Fey call this a Place of Power. It is something they've been searching for since they started invading other countries. I suspect there may be things here that can help us. We need to find them."
"So we're staying here?" Arianna asked.
Nicholas nodded. "It's the new seat of government for Blue Isle. Not as cozy as the last, but it's the best we can do."
"It might be real good," Coulter said.
He looked at the boy. That was one person he would have to figure out. A possible ally. A source of great power.
"Yes," Nicholas said. "It might be."
He glanced up at the top of the stairs. His dear friend was up there. She had brought him here. She had known something, and she hadn't been able to tell him all of it. But this was where she wanted him to be.
How sad that he could trust her now, when he hadn't been able to trust her during the last day of her life.
"I think we'll be fine here," Nicholas said.
"But do you think we can defeat the Black King from here?" Adrian asked.
"If we can't," Nicholas said, "no one can. We have the heirs to the Black Throne, a Place of Power, an Enchanter, and several great minds all in this room. We have a chance. We will make the best of it."
And, he thought to himself, when the time came, he would kill the Black King. He would do it right this time, and he would give his children the opportunity they deserved.
He glanced at his wife, who smiled encouragingly at him. Then he went and sat between his children. They were magnificent, tall and Fey and magickal. Yet they had some of him in them, too. And they were their own people. He could feel their strength.
He would need it.
They would all need it.
But at least they had hope now.
They were together. And that gave them power. Like this place gave them power.
He had the tools for victory in this place with him.
And he would sacrifice everything — except his children — to keep the Black King from taking Blue Isle.
Nicholas would sacrifice everything to keep the Place of Power from the Black King's hands.
Everything, to keep his children away from the Black King.
He would sacrifice everything, if he had to.
Even the Isle itself.
About the Author
Bestseller Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won or been nominated for every major award in the science fiction field. She has won Hugos for editing The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and for her short fiction.
She has also won the Asimov’s SF Magazine Readers Choice Award five times, as well as the SF Age Readers Choice Award, the Locus Award, and the John W. Campbell Award. Alien Influences, first published in England, was a finalist for the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award.
I09 said her Retrieval Artist series featured one of the top ten science fiction detectives ever written.
She also writes mystery, romance, and fantasy novels, occasionally using the pen names Kristine Grayson and Kris Nelscott.
If you liked The Rival, you might try these books by Kristine Kathryn Rusch:
Sacrifice: The First Book of the Fey
Changeling: The Second Book of the Fey
Diving Into The Wreck
City of Ruins
Alien Influences
The Disappeared
Extremes
Consequences
Buried Deep
Paloma
The Recovery Man
The Recovery Man’s Bargain
Duplicate Effort
The Possession of Paavo Deshin
The Retrieval Artist
Five Fantastic Tales
Five Short Novels
The War And After: Five Stories of Magic & Revenge
The Resistance: The Fourth Book of the Fey (Fey Series) Page 51
