The Black King (Book 7)

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “You think that’s what this was?” Lyndred asked. “Saving the Empire?”

  “I think Rugad knew that Arianna and Gift were untrained in our ways. I think it was a precaution.” Bridge looked at Gift. “If it’s true.”

  It was true. It had to be. He pushed off the side of the deck and walked away from the group. All of the Visions he’d had when he touched the Black Throne were finally making sense.

  —his long-dead great-grandfather alive as if he had never died, sitting on the throne in Blue Isle, smiling at him—

  —And his sister was standing before the Black Throne, looking at it with such longing that it frightened him. He wanted to warn her, to tell her to stand back, but he almost didn’t recognize her or the look on her face. He took a step toward her—

  —His sister, her face gone as if someone had drawn it and then wiped it away, calling his name—

  —His sister, screaming—

  —Arianna wrapped her hands around her skull. She was screaming—

  —His great-grandfather said, “You will never defeat me. I know more about Fey magick than you ever will.”—

  Then there were the Visions of the Shaman in Protector’s Village, seeing a man with coal black hair being given the Throne by Arianna. They saw his great-grandfather kill a man with no tongue. They saw him touch the ground in Leut. They saw him threaten Protector’s Village. But they hadn’t been sure it was Rugad, because they all thought Rugad was dead.

  And then there was the clearest thing of all, the Warning sent by the Powers to Madot: The hand that holds the Scepter will hold it no more and the man behind the Throne will reveal himself in all his glory.

  The man behind the Throne had been Rugad. The hand holding the scepter was Arianna’s, and she lost it to Rugad, just as the Visions said she would.

  His mother had tried to warn him. She had said that Arianna was infected with dark magick, magick triggered by the Searchlight from the Black Throne. The Searchlight, she had said, sought dark magick or Black Blood to fulfill the Throne’s mandate. It wanted the Triangle and then the world.

  But Arianna wouldn’t have gone for the Triangle of Might any more than Gift would have. She had been a peaceful Queen. And Gift had rejected the Throne. So the Searchlight had awakened Rugad inside Arianna’s mind.

  It all made sense now. No wonder his mother hadn’t wanted him to come here. If that woman in the palace had Rugad’s mind and memories and cunning, he would find a way to get rid of Gift.

  You must be vigilant, his mother had said. You must do all you can to avoid the Blood against Blood.

  Now he knew why she was saying that to him. He couldn’t just go after Rugad. Rugad was inside Arianna’s body. Rugad had Black Blood. And Gift had sent his own Shaman away. To be with Rugad. Who had been asking questions about Golems. He hadn’t been asking about Sebastian. He had been asking about Arianna.

  Gift turned. They were all watching him: Coulter, looking the same as ever; Con, who had grown up; the Islander he didn’t know; Lyndred whose eyes were wide; Bridge who seemed uncertain; and Arianna. His sister. His fluid, graceful sister, who was being forced to live in a house of stone.

  The Nyeians had left their posts and had gathered around as well. They must have seen him from a distance, seen that something was wrong and come to protect him.

  “You can go back to work,” he said. “Leave us here.”

  They nodded, and went back to the other side of the deck. He was shaking, but he no longer felt paralyzed. He had been reluctant to move against Arianna. It got easier, knowing that the person he had seen was Rugad.

  What Gift had to do—what they all had to do—was find a way to get rid of him without causing the Blood.

  “It is me, Gift,” Arianna whispered.

  He walked across the deck and took her in his arms. The stone was cool, like Sebastian’s skin was cool, but that only made it feel familiar. She bent her head and placed it on his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly so that no one else could hear. “I knew something was wrong. I just didn’t know what. I thought it was you and I thought you hated me, Ari. I was having trouble figuring out why.”

  “I’d never hate you, Gift.”

  “I should have known.” He rocked her. “I had a feeling something was wrong. It was what brought me home. But I didn’t know what it was. And when I got here, I was so confused”

  She raised her head. “It wasn’t something we knew about. How could you have figured it out?”

  “The Visions.” He was speaking louder now, conscious of the others watching him. “I had Seen so much of this, but it hadn’t made sense until now. I kept Seeing Rugad and I kept Seeing you being hurt. I even went to all the Shaman in Protector’s Village. They didn’t understand the Visions any more than I did. In fact, they said that I looked like Rugad, so the Visions could have been about me.”

  “You do look like him.” Coulter stepped closer.

  Gift shook his head.

  “You do. We do, I guess.” Arianna nodded toward Bridge. “Coulter and I saw the part of Rugad that grew inside my head. He was young, and he was handsome then. He had lost the looks as he grew older.”

  “In the end, we wear the face we deserve,” Bridge said.

  Arianna frowned. She seemed uncertain about him. Gift was becoming more and more certain all the time.

  “Did you See Rugad?” Gift asked.

  “No,” Bridge said, “but my Vision is limited. Though I must say that Arianna—I mean the woman in the palace—reminded me of Rugad and I told her so once. She seemed pleased.”

  “She was pleased,” Lyndred said. “She said she was using Rugad as a model.”

  “I would never have used Rugad as a model.” Arianna sounded shocked. “What is he doing?”

  “He’s continuing where he left off,” Gift said. “And I sent Xihu to him. She said he was asking questions about Golems. We thought he was asking about Sebastian, but he was asking how to get rid of you without starting the Blood.”

  “Rugad will come at us sideways,” Bridge said. “That’s his method. He’ll find a way to get rid of you, Arianna, and you, Gift, without touching you. That’s how he got rid of my father.”

  “Xihu said she would do what’s best for the Black Family, but she’s thinking that the person in the palace is Arianna.” Gift ran a hand through his hair. “I’m so relieved that it’s not.”

  “Maybe you can send a message to her,” Lyndred said.

  Gift shook his head. “Contact from me would be very suspicious. She knows something is wrong.”

  “None of us can go to the palace,” Bridge said. “We’ll have to find another way.”

  Gift looked over at Coulter, suddenly realizing he was missing a piece of information. “How did you know I’d be here?”

  “We didn’t until we came to Jahn. We have our own plan for getting Arianna’s body back.”

  “We can use more ideas, though,” Arianna said. “I want to make sure this works.”

  “You’ve taken a long time to fight him,” Bridge said. “You should have fought earlier. Six months gave him time to consolidate his power.”

  Arianna shot a look at Coulter. Coulter looked down. No one spoke.

  “Well that explains one thing,” Lyndred said. “It explains why he’s Blind. He doesn’t have his own body, and I’ll bet he can’t use yours.”

  “He can Shift mine,” Arianna said. “But he was trying to keep me alive and trapped so that he could use my Vision.”

  “He has Vision,” Gift said. “Xihu saw him make a Shadowlands. It was one of the reasons she decided to go to the palace.”

  “He doesn’t have Vision, Gift,” Arianna said. “I know this for a fact. He’ll never get it. It was one of the things that caused him great distress.”

  “Then how would he make a Shadowlands?”

  “What did she say about it?” Arianna asked.

  “Only that it was small and didn’t look all tha
t impressive.”

  “If you were trying to convince someone of your Vision,” Bridge said, “would you make a large Shadowlands?”

  “A Shadowlands from the outside is just a box,” Arianna said. “If I could still Shift, I could create one at the tip of my finger or in the palm of my hand.”

  Gift let out a small sigh. Of course. He hadn’t thought about that. Neither had Xihu. Why would they? It was conflicting magick.

  “He’s got a lot of tricks. I had a Vision in which he told me he knew more about magick than I ever would.”

  “Have you ever had changing Visions?” Bridge asked. “The kind where it seems like there could be a hundred different versions of the same event?”

  “Yes,” Gift said. He saw Lyndred nod too.

  “All those Visions rest upon one moment. When that moment goes away, so do most of the Visions. Only one of them comes true.”

  Gift waited. Arianna was watching Bridge carefully.

  “You are one of those focal points,” Bridge said, “and from what I can tell, you’re the focal point around which the future of our people is going to be decided.”

  “But Arianna is the one everything is happening to,” Gift said.

  “Everything has happened to,” Arianna said. “I can’t be a center, Gift. My magick is gone. My power is gone too. No one would accept me as Black Queen—and certainly no Islander would accept this. They’ll continue to see Rugad as the leader as long as he wears my skin. If the center is one of us, of course it has to be you.”

  He stared at all of them. “I can’t just charge the palace.”

  “Of course not,” Bridge said. “Rugad will be more subtle than that. So will we.”

  The use of “we” caught Gift’s attention. Bridge was speaking with complete sincerity. He was willing to fight with them.

  Lyndred smiled.

  “All right,” Gift said. “You need to tell me exactly what’s going on. I want the history and I want your plan, and I want to know how you developed this golem for Arianna.”

  He was speaking to Coulter, but it was Lyndred who caught his attention. Her smile had faded.

  “Can I say something?” she asked. “I mean, I know I’m not considered part of this yet, but I was the one who spent the most time with Arianna. I mean, with Rugad.”

  Arianna turned her head toward Lyndred. The movement was slow, but the look was sharp. It seemed as if Arianna were re-evaluating her opinion of Lyndred.

  “Go ahead,” Gift said.

  “I told you about the archers, and how Arianna—I mean Rugad—implied that she was the one who set up the Islanders to attack you.”

  “You were attacked?” Arianna asked.

  Gift held up his hand. “I’ll tell you later.”

  Lyndred glanced from Gift to Arianna and back again. Then her gaze met Coulter’s. “Well, the last time I saw Ar—Rugad, he already knew that I had come to see you. But he let me see something anyway and I thought it was just directed at me, but now I’ve met Coulter and I’m not sure.”

  Bridge leaned his head back as if in recognition. Obviously Lyndred had shared this with him.

  “Is this why you told me I shouldn’t be here?” Coulter asked.

  “Tell me what Rugad did.” Gift tried to keep his voice calm, but he had trouble. Lyndred irritated him and he wasn’t sure why.

  “He brought in an Assassin.”

  “An Islander?” Arianna asked.

  Lyndred shook her head. “A Fey Assassin.”

  “I thought they were myth,” Gift said. He’d mentioned them once to Skya, and she had given him such a furious look that he hadn’t asked again.

  “I thought so too,” Lyndred said, “but this person wasn’t a myth and Daddy says that Rugad has used Assassins before.”

  “It should have been clear to me who we were dealing with right then and there,” Bridge said. “There was no way you could have known about Assassins, Arianna.”

  “Anyway,” Lyndred said, “he gave the Assassin an assignment and I knew he was doing something subtle, but I didn’t know what it was. I still don’t. All I thought was that it was a warning and that I should be careful now that I wouldn’t be beside Ari—Rugad anymore.”

  “It had something to do with me?” Coulter asked.

  She nodded. Gift was watching her closely. He found that when she spoke of the palace, he believed her completely.

  “Rugad sent the Assassin to the Cliffs of Blood to kill you,” Lyndred said. “Why would he do that?”

  Arianna had taken Coulter’s arm. Coulter’s gaze met Gift’s. Their gazes held for a long moment. Coulter understood, just like Gift did.

  “He’s brilliant,” Coulter said. “How can we fight anyone that brilliant?”

  “We did it before,” Arianna said.

  “And obviously we didn’t win,” Coulter said.

  “Would someone tell me what’s going on?” Lyndred raised her voice plaintively. She was young. That was part of the irritation. And she had been badly spoiled. How could a man as sensible as Bridge spoil his child like that?

  Gift let out a small breath. He was thinking about his cousin because he didn’t want to think about the implications of what he had just heard. He was glad he learned it now, not a few hours ago, when he thought that the woman in the palace was his sister.

  “Coulter and I are Bound,” Gift said. “It’s a Life Binding. You kill him, and you kill me.”

  Lyndred’s face paled. “Wouldn’t that bring on the Blood? I mean, Rugad had to know that, right? So really he’d be killing you.”

  “He could claim accident,” Bridge said. “It’s the way my grandfather works. He did something similar with my father. My grandfather had had a Vision of my father’s death here, and still he sent him. Should that have brought on the Blood? I would have thought so. The Powers, apparently, did not.”

  “That’s why he said three weeks,” Lyndred said.

  “What?” Gift asked.

  “He said to try to kill Coulter after three weeks. If he couldn’t that was all right, but waiting for three weeks was perfect.”

  Gift nodded. Somehow this made him calmer. He had fought Rugad before. He was familiar with the man’s mind. Even this order made sense. “I would have been on the sea in three weeks. No one who knew about the Binding would have made the connection.”

  “You would have just died,” Coulter said.

  Gift looked at him again. “Like you.”

  “That means we have an additional problem.” Bridge looked even more upset than his daughter did.

  “The Assassin,” Gift said. “We’ll be able to deal with him.”

  “He expects Coulter to be near the Cliffs of Blood,” Lyndred said.

  Bridge shook his head. “You don’t understand. Assassins never give up. And to my knowledge, Assassins rarely fail.”

  THIRTY-TWO

  MATT STOOD in the listening booth. In his right hand, he clutched one of the dolls. He had been standing there for a long time—he had no idea how long—and a moment ago, he had heard a door close.

  He had pushed himself closer to the back wall. Earlier he and Wisdom had opened the secret door wide enough for him to slide through. The door’s hinges creaked, and Matt didn’t want to make a lot of noise when he entered the room.

  They didn’t open Wisdom’s door. Wisdom said he wanted to make noise.

  Matt glanced toward Wisdom, but couldn’t see past the platform. They had doused the lightsticks long ago.

  There was shuffling inside the room. Matt peered through the small crack of light he got from the open door, and saw what he had seen every other time: part of a stone column, a chair, and in the distance, a bit of blue sky through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. He had a feeling they were in one of the towers, but he wasn’t sure which one. They had climbed too high to be in that great hall with all the swords. He hadn’t gotten a complete look at the palace, but that seemed to be the only other place that had windows which covere
d an entire wall.

  The outside door opened and then closed, as if someone had entered the room.

  “Good.” It was the Black Queen. “We have a lot to discuss.”

  “You wanted me to discuss troop readiness, Arianna,” said a male voice that Matt didn’t recognize. “The Infantry is hopeless. I can’t believe you’ve let them deteriorate this far.”

  “You’re insubordinate,” she replied, but the words were spoken with affection. “I’m mending my ways.”

  “But not fast enough. I wish you had taken on this task years ago. Maybe then we’d be ready to sail to Leut by spring. As it stands, if you take these troops to Leut, you’ll make the Fey into a laughingstock.”

  “Are you telling me this is impossible, DiPalmet?”

  “I dislike the word ‘impossible,’” DiPalmet said. “How about ‘extremely unlikely’?”

  The Black Queen laughed, and a chill ran down Matt’s spine. “You are good, and you anticipated my objection before I could even utter it. I don’t like extremely unlikely either, but I am willing to listen to that. Tell me, then, when do you think it is likely?”

  “I think you should send for some of the older troops from Galinas. Most of Rugad’s elite forces were killed fifteen years ago, but the older troops, the ones left behind to keep the peace, are good as well. Most of what I have to work with now are second-rate soldiers who were either left behind to keep track of Jahn while Rugad fought his battles and whom you decided to keep alive for some reason, or the descendents of the handful of Rugar’s soldiers who had somehow managed to survive the Destruction of the Failures years ago. Not a promising bunch.”

  “You fit into that category,” the Black Queen said. “You’re one of the few I let roam free on Blue Isle.”

  “I’m a Charmer, not a military leader. And I’m sure there are better Charmers in Nye.”

  The words sounded charming enough to Matt. Smooth and political and exactly the right thing to say.