The Black King: Book Two of The Black Throne

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Epic, powerful, and stunningly written, New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The Black King concludes this thrilling saga of the Fey-for now.

While Gift makes his way to Blue Isle, and Rugad's hold on Arianna's mind strengthens, Gift faces impossible choices. As the fight for his sis

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088056103

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. She publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.   

Book preview

Chapter

One

Gift stood on the prow of the Tashka , his hands clasped behind his back, his feet spread slightly apart. He wore his hair longer than he ever had, and used a leather tie to hold it back. The sun and weather had darkened his skin, making it the same color as that of the Fey around him. His hands had calluses, his body more muscles. He had learned a lot on this trip, much of it about survival.

The Infrin Sea was choppy. A wind had come up, carrying with it a light mist. The skies were overcast, the air chill, but something in it smelled of home.

If he squinted, he could see Blue Isle ahead. At first its mountainous shore had looked like a gray shadow against the gray ocean, but as the ship drew closer, the shapes were becoming clearer.

The Stone Guardians protected the only natural harbor in Blue Isle. They were huge rocks, three times taller than most ships, staggered throughout the harbor and its entry way. The Guardians created unusual currents that changed with the tides and the weather. No ship had ever made it through the Guardians without guidance. For decades, Gift’s Islander father and grandfather kept Blue Isle isolated by destroying all the maps and getting rid of the people who watched the currents.

Now that Gift’s sister, Arianna, was Queen of Blue Isle, she had reopened the trade routes. Maps existed again, as did the on-land watchers. Navigators learned the patterns of the currents, and some Fey had even been trained in reading the waters.

Gift unclasped his hand and wiped his eyes. Soon his Gull Riders would return with news of the conditions near the Guardians. Then he would put his Sailors and Navigators into action.

His stomach was jumping. He was coming home after almost a decade away. He had traveled across the Fey Empire, and then he had gone to the Eccrasian Mountains to train as a Shaman. There he had touched the Black Throne and his life had changed.

He shuddered, remembering how the Throne had clung to him, how it had tried to absorb him, and the strength he had used, both mental and physical, to pull away. The Throne was a living thing, and it wanted to make him Black King. But his sister Arianna ruled the Fey.

Arianna was a good Black Queen, and an excellent Queen to Blue Isle. Except there was something wrong now. He had Seen it in Visions. Something was wrong with her. And no one would tell him what it was.

He took a few steps forward, as if that would bring him closer to the Stone Guardians. Once he had vowed not to return to Blue Isle until he became a Shaman. But he would never be a Shaman. A Shaman couldn’t practice with blood on his hands, and for years Gift hadn’t known that, in his youth, he had accidentally killed a Wisp.

Now he didn’t know what he’d do if something was wrong with Arianna. He was the oldest, the one who should have taken the Throne, but he had renounced it. Arianna was the ruthless one, the one who had the willingness to make the hard decisions and the enemies that leadership required. He had always been the gentler of the two, the one less willing to take risks.

Standing and squinting at the Isle won’t bring it any closer.

Gift turned. Skya stood behind him, her black hair in its customary knot on the top of her head. The wind had pulled strands from it, whipping them about her narrow face. He had always thought that she looked like the perfect Fey—her features symmetrical and upswept, her chin so narrow that it looked almost pointed, her black eyes filled with life and intelligence. She was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen, and although he’d spent the last six months with her, he was still surprised at the depth of that beauty.

Part of me wants to get there now, and part of me doesn’t want to return, he said.

She didn’t answer him. She tried not to discuss what she called matters of state. But he sometimes saw that as her way of avoiding anything personal.

The Gull Riders are back, she said.

I told them to report to me, he said.

They’re waiting in the hold. She put a hand on his arm. Her touch was gentle. He put an arm around her and pulled her close. Her gaze met his and in it was a warning he ignored. He kissed her, slid his hands into her soft hair, pulling it free as he had done almost every night on this trip when she slipped into his stateroom after everyone else had gone to sleep. The kiss was long and deep and he didn’t care who saw it.

She did. She believed they did not belong together.

She had never told him that, not in so many words, but he knew. It was one of the few times he knew what she was thinking, and he had no way to reassure her.

Finally she pulled away.

Gift, she whispered. We can’t—

I thought you didn’t follow rules, he said, placing his wet forehead against hers. The mist ran down their faces like tears.

Only the rules I make myself.

You’ve made up rules about me?

She smiled and slipped out of his grasp. The Gull Riders are waiting.

He sighed. All right. Are you coming with me?

She shook her head. This is your ship, remember?

There was a bit of rancor in that. He’d hired Skya to be his guide, to get him out of Ghitlas and to Nye. He had told her time was of the essence, and that he needed to be to Blue Isle within a month. She had laughed at him, and told him the best way was to go through Vion, and catch a ship out of Tashco on the Etanien continent, bypassing Galinas altogether. Her guidance had saved them months of travel. She was going to leave them in Tashco, but he persuaded her to come to Blue Isle, a place she had never been.

At that point, they hadn’t been lovers, but the possibility had been there. He liked to think she had made this trip for him, but she had never said that. He knew that her natural curiosity and distaste for rules might have been the thing that convinced her to come.

Also, having been to Blue Isle made her much more valuable as a guide. She needed as much experience as possible. The Fey were not known as natural guides. It wasn’t part of their magick. It wasn’t really part of Skya’s magick either, but that didn’t seem to matter. She was born with a Spell Warder’s talent—the ability to create spells for all types of magicks, which meant that she had a little bit of all of the magicks that existed among the Fey—but the Warders were also the most rule-bound of all the Fey. Such a job would have driven her crazy.

It may be my ship, he said, but I can always use your advice.

I have no advice to give, she said. I’ll watch you maneuver through the Stone Guardians, but I’m still not sure they’re as dangerous as you say.

He stared at her for a moment, measuring.

She raised her eyebrows, then shrugged. This is a new world for me, Gift.

He nodded. Just as everything had been new for him in Vion and Etanien. She had been surprised at that. She had thought that the Heir to the Black Throne should have understood everything about the Empire. Now that he had traveled a lot, that concept made sense to him too. But Arianna had never been off Blue Isle. She had no idea that women went shirtless in half the Empire or that there were still slaves in rebellious regions like Co.

To Arianna, Blue Isle had been the entire world.

It felt strange to be back here. Sometimes he questioned his own motives in returning. Was he coming back to solve a problem he didn’t entirely understand? Or had the touch of the Black Throne done something more to him?

When he had wrenched his hand free of the Throne, it had emitted a white light that had triggered a series of Visions, Visions he could still see if he closed his eyes.

—His long-dead great-grandfather, 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—

—He was in water, thrashing, an undertow pulling him down. Water filled his mouth, tasting of brine and salt. The old Fey in the boat—his great-grandfather again? Or someone who looked like him?—reached for Gift, but if Gift took his hand, the old man would die. And Gift didn’t want that. He didn’t want to cause someone else’s death—

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

—His long-ago best friend, the man to whom he’d always be Bound, Coulter, kissing a Fey woman, kissing her, and then Gift grabbed him, pulled his head back, and put a knife to his throat. He had to—

—His sister, screaming—

—In the Places of Power, two Shamans stood at the door, preparing to find the Triangle of Might. He couldn’t stop them. He was trying, trying, but he didn’t have the strength—

Gift? Skya said.

What?

You looked strange for a moment.

I always look strange. He kissed her again, lightly, then headed toward the hold.

As he stepped into the large deck house, he nodded at one of the Nyeians braiding rope. This ship carried a larger crew than most ships, and it seemed as if most of the crew did nothing. But they were there for an emergency.

Gift had a cache of Weather Sprites to bring storms or to hold them back, five Navigators whose services he would probably need in a few moments, and a large group of Sailors to get him through the Guardians. Those were all magickal Fey. Then there were the Tashil and Nyeian crew who actually tacked the sails and swabbed the decks, and did all the necessary manual labor. They had carried the bulk of the work on this trip.

The Bird Riders Gift had with him were also necessary for long ocean voyages. Most of the Bird Riders he had brought were Gull Riders, although he had a few Hawk Riders for their strength and a few scattered Bird Riders from Sparrows to Pigeons to Robins who had come to him from various places on Etanien, all carrying messages from Seger.

Seger was a Healer who had served Gift’s Fey great-grandfather, whom Gift’s Islander father had eventually defeated in battle fifteen years before. Seger had proven loyal to Gift and his family by saving the life of Sebastian, a golem that Gift considered to be his real brother.

Now Seger served as Arianna’s Healer and sometimes adviser. The fact that Seger had sent for Gift—and by more than one messenger—told him that things were very bad indeed.

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 descendant 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 Shamans, 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? Gift 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 Shamans 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, Gift 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.

Chapter

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 nonresponsive 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.

Most of the time, though, she found herself on this bench, staring at the Cardidas. It was hard for her to believe that this river bisected all of Blue Isle. Yet right now the river seemed to be the only constant in her life.

And somehow, every time she sat here, she felt threatened. She knew that the capitol city of Jahn lay only a few days from here by ship. She and Coulter, in making their escape from the palace, had left an easy-to-follow trail. Sometimes she thought Coulter did it on purpose. She thought Coulter wanted to lure Rugad to the Place of Power in the Cliffs of Blood and either kill him or trap him there.

Arianna wasn’t so sure it would be that easy, but she was surprised that Rugad hadn’t come. For all his power madness, Rugad believed in the Fey way. And the most important tenet of Fey Leadership was Vision. Arianna had it, and so did her brother Gift. That was how they were able to create and sustain golems, how they were able to move their consciousness across Links between people, and how they were able to survive outside of their own bodies as long as their consciousness had a place to reside.

Rugad had had Vision when he was alive, but the bit he had left inside Arianna had none. He had told her, while they were sharing her brain, that he would force her to use her Vision to help him lead. Only she wasn’t there anymore, and he was leading Blind. She couldn’t believe that was something he would do for long. He had to find another Visionary or else come after her.

Maybe he had been sitting in Jahn for six months planning his attack. After all, he had waited twenty years after his son’s defeat on Blue Isle before trying to take over the Isle himself. Rugad was known for his strategy, his cunning, and his patience.

She shuddered—or at least, she thought a shudder. All of Rugad’s schemes looked at the long term. He had backup plan after backup plan. Rugad acted and schemed and took his time until he got things right.

Arianna had not planned anything in her life. Her decision to become Black Queen had been impulsive. She had even governed with short-term goals. First she had gotten the Fey Empire to accept a half-Fey, half-Islander queen. Then she had gotten them accustomed to peace. Then she had gotten them to develop the resources they already owned instead of conquering new ones.

She hadn’t foreseen the problems that policy would bring, but she would wager that Rugad would have analyzed every aspect of it, from the results of success to the reactions of his own people. And he would have known the price of failure.

It was ironic that in many ways she had been reduced to little more than a brain. She was the one who was always active, physically as well as emotionally. She always made the final decision—weighing options, examining cost—but she left the actual work of analysis to someone else.

Rugad never had. And right now, he stood poised to rule the Fey Empire for the next hundred years.

There you are.

She didn’t turn. Turning would have taken too much effort. She recognized Coulter’s voice.

He sat down beside her. She envied his graceful movements, his unconscious fluidity. He was thoroughly Islander—short, round-featured, blue-eyed—and yet he was the strongest Enchanter she had ever encountered. In the fifteen years they had spent apart, he had learned how to control that magick and how to make it work.

He folded his hands together and studied the river. Thinking of jumping in?

He’d asked her that the first time he found her here, months ago.

She smiled and said what she had said back then. I’d sink, but I wouldn’t drown.

That was the nice thing about golems. They couldn’t really be killed.

Coulter smiled at her. Whenever he looked at her, his expression was filled with a love so strong that she could feel it. Sometimes she wondered why he was still interested. She clearly wasn’t the woman she had been.

Then his smile faded. You’re spending a lot of time here lately.

I’m trying to learn how to think.

You’ve always had an agile mind.

Maybe. But now I need more than that. She leaned against the back of the bench and heard the grating as stone met stone. She winced, but Coulter didn’t seem to notice. Why do you think Rugad hasn’t come for me?

Coulter brought his legs up and wrapped his arms around them. He rested his chin on his knees. I’ve been wondering that same thing for some time now.

And you haven’t come up with an answer?

Oh, I have. He continued to stare at the water. Sunlight reflected off of it, creating diamonds of red light that played across his pale skin.

Then why you haven’t told me?

He shrugged.

Coulter, she said. I could cross our Link and find out anyway.

They had originally designed the golem as a place for her to go and be private. But Coulter had assumed, and perhaps she had as well, that she would keep up her residence in the corner of his mind he had set aside for her.

She couldn’t tell him that she found it claustrophobic. Much as she cared for him, she became nothing when she was inside him. She had no control, no body, no freedom at all. At least in the golem she was half a person.

I wouldn’t mind if you crossed it, Coulter said, so softly that she almost didn’t hear him.

She took his hand in her own, wishing she could feel more than the pressure of his fingers. Why do you think Rugad hasn’t come?

Coulter closed his eyes, briefly enough to seem like a long blink, but Arianna knew better. I think he no longer perceives us to be a threat.

The words hurt. I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you could be right.

Coulter didn’t respond. That seemed to be his way of dealing with the topic of Rugad. Saying nothing. Letting time handle it.

She stood slowly, so that she didn’t overbalance and fall into the water below.

Coulter opened his eyes and looked up at her.

I think we have to act before Rugad does, Arianna said, and we have to be smart about it. We have to have a plan and a backup plan, and another plan after that. Fifteen years ago, we defeated him mostly with surprise. We can’t do that anymore. He knows what the Isle is capable of. He knows what I’m capable of. Now’s the time to be smarter than he is.

Coulter made a small snorting sound. He’s the greatest tactician your people have ever known and you believe that we can best him?

I do. My father beat him. We can do it if we need to. We can’t hide here anymore.

We can wait for him, Coulter said.

How long? Months? Years? Until he finally decides to come to us? She shook her head once. "I can’t live like this that long, Coulter. He has conquered me."

No, he hasn’t. You’re right here.

I’m more than just my mind, Coulter. In my own body, I can feel things. I can change form. I— She stopped herself. She had almost said that she had a place of her own. She had said that to him once before, and he hadn’t understood. He had thought the golem was enough.

We can’t rush into this, Coulter said.

This time she did turn, and as she did, her foot slipped on the bank. She tried to catch herself, but the body didn’t respond fast enough. She slid along the grasses and would have gone into the water if Coulter hadn’t caught her.

She let him pull her back up. He cradled her against him.

I can’t even feel you touch me, she whispered.

Sure you can, he said. I’ve touched you from the back, and you felt it.

Not like skin against skin. Not in any meaningful way. She sat up, making him release her. She brushed the dirt off her legs and back. Even that took longer than it should have.

When she finished, the words she’d been holding back for months finally came out. When did you stop believing you could make a difference?

He turned away, but not before she saw the look of pain cross his face. He stood up and ran his hands through his blond hair.

I do make a difference, he said. I teach children how to control their magick. Sometimes I’m the only parent they have.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

He didn’t answer her. He stood with his back to her, his head bowed.

It must have taken something pretty powerful to convince you to leave here, to come to Jahn and confront Rugad.

That worked well, he said sarcastically.

It did. She spoke quietly. You saved my life.

Coulter shook his head. He’d have let you live.

While he controlled me. I couldn’t break free of him. You got me out.

And now he controls the Empire.

As he would have whether or not you came. At least this way, he does it without my help. Without my Vision.

Yet you want to go back there. Coulter spoke just as softly as she had.

I don’t want him to win.

He did rule the Fey for seventy years, Arianna.

He was a ruthless man who sacrificed thousands of lives, maybe millions, for a glory that no one needed.

I’ve heard some of the Fey around here, Coulter said. They want to go back to fighting. They think that peace robs them of their identity.

She clenched a fist. And most of them, like Seger, are happy the generations of war are over. Why are you arguing for Rugad? Have you forgotten what he is?

I haven’t forgotten, Coulter said.

Then why?

Because— Coulter’s voice broke. That way you stay here. You stay safe.

She felt the breath catch in her throat. Coulter had stayed safe ever since she had become Black Queen. What had he said to her then?

You can’t have everything you want, Ari. Sometimes it’s better to wait.

See? she said. "Safety. You said it again. If I listen to you, I give Rugad control over two Places of Power, the one in the Eccrasian Mountains and one in the Roca’s Cave. He’ll find the third. He’ll own the Triangle of Might, and if the Fey are right—if the world reforms when someone creates that Triangle—then it’ll be created in his image. Do you want that?"

Coulter’s head was down. We’ll guard this place. Maybe he’ll come here, and we can get him then.

Maybe. Or maybe he’ll go to the Eccrasian Mountains, get someone to murder Gift, and send someone else here. We’ll lose everything that way, Coulter. Because you’re being cautious.

Coulter didn’t answer her. She could hear his breathing, rapid and fast as if he had been running. The river seemed faint behind it.

Finally he sat on the bench. Is this why you come here? To plan revenge against Rugad?

Revenge? Arianna asked. Against a man who violated me and who now threats the entire world? That’s not revenge, Coulter. That’s survival.

Coulter’s head was still bowed. He was silent for a long time.

Finally, she said softly, Why won’t you even try, Coulter?

He ran his hands over his face. His entire body seemed to fold in on itself, and she saw, perhaps for the first time, how he must have looked as a child. Frail and vulnerable and unloved, a captive of the Fey, a curiosity that they held onto because he was Islander and had magick.

Because I’ll fail, Ari, he said.

The comment startled a laugh out of her. You don’t know that.

Yes, I do. His hands dropped from his face. He clutched his knees, staring down as he did so. The first time I ever fought with my magick, I killed a hundred people to save five. And they didn’t die fast either. I didn’t do the spell right—

You didn’t know how. Gift had told her this. He had thought Coulter a hero.

—and they all died horribly. Then I helped your father attack Rugad’s army with that beam of light, and he turned it back on us, and Adrian, the only father I ever had, died. I saw the light come back and I didn’t stop it. I didn’t do anything until he was already dead.

He knew the risks, Coulter. He was fighting just like we were.

Coulter still didn’t look at her. And the spell that could still hurt us—the one that could ruin everything—is the one I did first.

She frowned, waiting.

When your mother died, her Link to Gift hadn’t been severed and he nearly died. I saved him, and wrapped us up together. We’re Bound.

I know, she said. You’ve told me.

But you don’t seem to know what it means. Finally Coulter looked at her. His cheeks were still red, his lower lip trembling so slightly that she almost didn’t notice it. It means that if I die, Gift will too. And if you happen to be inside my head at the same time, all of us will die. I’ll kill you and Gift, and where will Blue Isle be then?

Where would the Empire be then? Strange that he only mentioned the Isle.

You’re frightened, she said.

Of course. Who wouldn’t be?

You’re frightened of yourself. She sat beside him on the bench. You tell all the children who come to your school to trust their own abilities, to believe in themselves. You tell them that if their magick frightens them it will eat them alive, and yet you do none of those things.

How do you think I understand them?

She let out a long breath of air. She had let his fear infect her. Or perhaps the fact that they had shared his mind had made his emotions bleed into hers. For six months, she had been idle because she had listened to Coulter. For six months, she had let Rugad gain control of her Isle, her Empire. Her body.

It was time to fight back.

I’m going after Rugad, she said, and I want you beside me.

Coulter shook his head. It’s a risk.…

We need to take risks.

Some risks aren’t worth it.

She stiffened. Maybe not to you, but this is my life we’re dealing with. My identity. My entire world. I have to fight for it. Whether or not you’ll be beside me is up to you.

He didn’t say anything. He turned back toward the river. The diamonds of light continued to play on his face.

Fifteen years ago, you said you loved me, she said. I’ve been inside your mind. I know it’s true.

Don’t, he whispered.

Would you ask me to sacrifice everything to stay beside you? Because you’re afraid? Well, I can’t, Coulter. And besides, you made me a promise in the palace garden the day you left me. Do you remember it?

He looked at her. I said I’d always be your friend.

He had, but she wasn’t referring to that at all. You said, ‘Every Visionary needs an Enchanter at her side. I’ll be yours.’ Remember?

His lips thinned.

"I need an Enchanter. I need my Enchanter. I need someone I can trust."

You could be dooming us all.

Staying here will doom us all. I’m going to give us a fighting chance.

He leaned back, a grimace on his face. And what if we fail?

Then at least we’ve tried. She took a step closer to him. "Coulter, I can’t feel anything in this body."

I know. But I think I can find some way to fix that.

I love you, she said and his eyes widened. She hadn’t said that to him in fifteen years. I want to be with you. I want to make love to you. I want to have children with you. I can’t do that like this. Please, Coulter. If I stay here, I lose everything. I even lose you.

His face had gone white. He apparently hadn’t realized what she meant, or how she felt. Or perhaps he hadn’t believed it. They had shared themselves more intimately than most people ever did. He had to know, on some level, that she was telling the truth.

He swallowed, rubbed his face, then took a deep breath.

We need a plan, he said.

Chapter

Three

Bridge took the last bite of his lunch and sipped water from the tankard in front of him. The eating nook in the family suite was large and cold, but Bridge knew better than to complain. Arianna would taunt him as she had before. She thought him weak and stupid, and she wasn’t afraid to say so.

Arianna sat across from him, her posture cool and regal. She rubbed at the birthmark on her chin as if it itched, then finished the last of her bread and cheese. She hadn’t said much to him all lunch and he knew that she was wondering where his daughter was.

Lyndred hadn’t come to lunch or breakfast either. She had become more withdrawn the longer they spent at the palace. Bridge got the sense that his daughter was frightened of something, but she wouldn’t tell him what.

One of the Islander servants bowed and refilled his water glass. Bridge had stopped drinking spirits here. He felt that he needed to keep his wits about him. As the weather had gotten worse, he started drinking more root tea, even though Arianna called it the beverage of peasants, just as his grandfather Rugad used to. Sometimes Bridge got the sense that Arianna was his grandfather come back to life.

The very idea made him shudder. Rugad may have conquered more land than any other ruler, but he was an arrogant man who seemed to respect no one but himself.

You will tell me where Lyndred is before the day is out, Arianna said. It wasn’t a request. It was a command.

I haven’t seen her, Bridge said. Perhaps the servants know.

You haven’t even bothered to look for her? Perhaps she’s ill. Arianna’s concern for Lyndred wasn’t unusual. Arianna seemed to have taken to the girl.

I don’t think she’s ill, he said. I think she probably wanted some privacy. Lyndred’s not used to life here on Blue Isle.

Or in the palace, Arianna said. I suppose you raised her in that awful Bank of Nye.

He started. Arianna had never been off Blue Isle. There was no way she could have known that the Black Family’s palace on Nye had once been its central bank.

She startled him like that daily. There were things Arianna should not know and yet did. Things about the family, phrases that Rugad used, histories that no one should have been able to impart to her. Her mother, Jewel, had died when Arianna was born and her father was an Islander. Arianna was raised by Islanders, not Fey, and yet she seemed to be the purest Fey Bridge had met.

I raised her in Nye, which was my mistake, Bridge said. Nye is a weak country with little to recommend it—

I know. It always surprised me that you stayed there as long as you did.

You told me to. I offered to come here when you became Queen, but you told me to stay in my position.

She raised her eyebrows slightly which he had grown to recognize as a sign of surprise. And you listened to me?

But he