The Black King (Book 7) (37 page)

“She must have wondered why you wanted to serve her then.” Gift was feeling betrayed and he wasn’t sure why. This had been his idea from the beginning. Even this morning, when she had been summoned, he had told her to go and asked her to serve his family. He had thought it best that someone keep an eye on Arianna.

“She asked me questions,” Xihu said. “I answered them. And then she asked me if I wanted to serve her.”

“Questions?” Gift asked.

“Hypothetical situations,” Xihu said.

He bit his lower lip. He wasn’t going to ask her what those situations were. He didn’t have the right to know. Information between a Shaman and another Visionary was confidential.

“She knew I was coming back here,” Xihu said. “I think she wanted you to know what I asked.”

Gift shook his head. “It’s none of my business.”

“It might be,” Xihu said. “It might have been a veiled threat.”

Her fingers curled around his. The gesture was no longer soothing. It was designed to keep him at her side. How well she knew him. He would have walked away so that he didn’t hear what he wasn’t supposed to.

Here he was following the rules of his people and Arianna was flaunting them. Everything had turned upside down.

“She wanted to know if she destroyed a golem and its soul if that was considered Blood against Blood.”

He stiffened. “She wants to kill Sebastian?”

“She used him as the example.”

A coldness deeper than any he had felt in his life filled him. “Arianna loves Sebastian.”

“She could barely call him by name. She mostly called him the golem.”

Gift pulled his hand from Xihu’s. “She can’t be my sister. She can’t. Arianna loved Sebastian more than anyone, even our father. She always wanted Sebastian beside her.”

“If she’s not your sister, who is she then?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out. Another Shifter, maybe.”

“I suppose that could be possible,” Xihu said. “But sometimes, Gift, the Black Throne corrupts those who sit in it. Your sister has been Black Queen for fifteen years.”

“She’s never touched the Throne.”

“But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t touched her.”

He was silent. The wind blew his hair in his face again. “Why would she want to kill Sebastian?”

“She feels he betrayed her. At least that’s what she said.”

“What do you believe?”

“She asked about Links. She said she knew that yours and Sebastian’s were closed, so she knew that harming Sebastian wouldn’t harm you. But it felt like a sideways question, like there was an undercurrent I wasn’t getting. You’re not bound to Sebastian are you?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure how the magick works in creating a golem. All I know is that he has been a part of me my whole life and if I could figure out how to re-establish our Link, I would.”

“You didn’t close it?”

“No.” Gift would have told her the story, but he wasn’t sure how much he could trust her any more. “Did you tell her it was all right to kill Sebastian?”

“I told her that I believed destroying a golem did not cause Blood against Blood. I also told her I wasn’t sure of this, that I am not an expert on Golems and I know no one who is.”

“You think that will stop her?”

“I think I might be able to stop her. I hope that she’ll seek my counsel enough to listen to it, to stop her craziest schemes.”

That sounded like the Xihu he knew. He walked back to the rail and took her hand, holding it lightly in his. “I know we planned to do this, but you don’t have to serve her if you don’t want to.”

“There hasn’t been a Shaman to the Black ruler in nearly a hundred years,” Xihu said. “Some of the changes in the Empire were caused by the lack of a Shaman. I hope to remedy that.”

“Nice answer. But you still don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“My wants don’t figure into this, Gift. I have to serve where I am most needed.”

“She needs you more than I do.” He worked to make sure that didn’t sound like a question.

“She needs more than I can provide,” Xihu said, “but I am what she has at the moment.”

“And me? I’m sane and going to Leut, so I’ll be all right?”

“No,” Xihu said. “You are a sensible man, but you have to be careful as well. I just can’t be in two places at once.”

She took his other hand in her own. They were standing at the bow like lovers, holding each other’s hands in the moonlight. She hated this as much as he did. After all, she was going to a palace she had never seen before, to serve a woman she didn’t like. The bitterness he felt left him.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “You surprised me. I thought you’d stay here.”

“I would,” she said. “But I sense a real need there.”

He nodded.

“You must listen to me now,” she said. “I will tell you two things and you have to hear the first before I tell you the second.”

She sounded serious. She hadn’t spoken to him like a Shaman much during their trip. Mostly, she had spoken to him as a friend.

“You must trust your own heart,” Xihu said. “You must believe in yourself. You are the only one who has ever rejected the Black Throne. That was prophesied. You are the center of what’s to come, and that’s usually a good thing. You must use the rules as guidelines only. If you stray outside of them, make sure it is for the right reason.”

“How will I know what that is, Xihu?”

“If you do it for malice or greed or anger, you are wrong. Listen to yourself, Gift. You have an innate sense of right and wrong, the most developed sense of justice I have ever felt among our people. I think it comes from your Islander heritage. It is certainly not Fey.”

He smiled and then, knowing that she couldn’t see the smile, squeezed her hands. She squeezed back.

“This next is the hardest.” She had lowered her voice. “I was hoping that Skya would tell you this, but she is not going to. I think she is afraid of it.”

“Of what?” Gift asked.

“She wants nothing to do with the Black Family. She has told you of her father, right?”

“The Visionary who got himself killed and nearly destroyed a country.” Gift didn’t even try to keep the disgust out of his voice. “Yes, she told me.”

“You must realize this is a powerful heritage. It sowed terrible doubt inside her, and made her the outsider that she has become.” Obviously the two of them had spoken of this. Gift wondered why Skya had waited so long to tell him.

“When she finally told me, I understood.”

“Then did she tell you her father’s last Vision?”

“No,” Gift said.

“The day her father sent her to Nye, he told her of the Vision he’d had concerning her. He said she would one day carry the heart of the Empire within her.”

Gift gripped Xihu’s hands harder. He might have been hurting her, but he couldn’t make himself let go. “You know what that means, don’t you?”

“I do now, yes.” Xihu sounded calm, but she didn’t want to tell him. He could feel it. It was as if she were betraying confidences tonight—Arianna’s to whom Xihu felt no loyalty, and now Skya to whom, it seemed, Xihu felt much loyalty. Or was she simply afraid of Gift’s reaction?

Gift waited. He knew Skya wouldn’t tell him whatever this was. She had had a chance when she told him about her parents, and she hadn’t said anything.

“She’s pregnant, Gift,” Xihu said. “She’s carrying your child.”

He let go of Xihu’s hands. He turned away from her so that she wouldn’t have a chance of seeing the expression on his face, even in this darkness. His first thought wasn’t of Skya or the child, but of himself, standing in a Vision, holding a newborn and crying.

“Gift?” Xihu said. “You must listen to me, Gift.”

His mother had wanted this. She had said the child was the most important thing. His mother had known. She had given up her freedom for children, children that would unite the Islanders and the Fey. She had given up her life to have Arianna.

Look where that had gotten them.

“Gift.” Xihu put a hand on his shoulder. “You know what this means?”

“We have an heir.” Gift felt numb. Why hadn’t Skya told him? She knew he loved her. Maybe that was what she was afraid of.

“Yes,” Xihu said. “You have an heir. And you must take care of this child. It has to be the most important thing to you. Your child will inherit the Throne even if you do not.”

“No.” Gift shook his head. He didn’t want a child of his—any child—to be mixed up in these crazy political life. “Arianna will have children.”

“Arianna will never let anyone close enough to her. Gift, this is the Empire’s only chance. You must have this child.”

“I’m not in charge of the child. I didn’t even know it existed until a moment ago.” If he had, would he have done anything differently? Maybe he would have heeded his mother’s warnings. Maybe he wouldn’t have seen Arianna.

But that wasn’t true. The child was conceived on this trip. He would have come to Blue Isle, and he would have seen his sister. He would just have been more protective of Skya.

“I’m sorry to tell you this way,” Xihu said. “But I had to. I won’t say anything to Arianna or to the rest of your family, but you must take care of Skya. Because if she dies and it’s at the hand of a family member, that’s Blood against Blood.”

“I just invited Lyndred and Bridge to stay aboard this ship.”

“Perhaps you want to rethink that.”

Gift shook his head. “I don’t know what to think any longer. The child changes everything.”

“Does it? I think, in some ways, it gives us hope.”

“Hope?” He turned to her. She looked old and sad.

“Before, it was you or your sister who held the future of the Fey. Now it is your child. Perhaps that was why everyone saw you as the center. Because of this child.”

“And what if it isn’t Visionary? What if it doesn’t have the qualities a member of the Black Family needs?”

“You’re a Visionary. Skya’s a Warder with Visionary parents. If this child is not a Visionary, then the magick has gone wrong.”

That didn’t reassure him. Part of him wanted the child to be simple, ordinary. An Islander without magick. A person who had no responsibilities to the Empire or the world.

“All right then.” He needed to talk with Skya. He needed time to think about way everything had changed. “Thank you for telling me.”

Xihu touched his face, her fingertips brushing the line of his jaw. “I’m going to be continuing my work for the Black Family,” she said. “It is your family that holds my loyalty, Gift. Remember that.”

He nodded, and then pulled her into a hug. She held him tightly. He buried his face in her shoulder. She smelled faintly of cinnamon. He would miss her. Now more than ever.

It would be the first time in years that he had lived without a Shaman nearby. It felt as if he were losing a lifeline.

It felt as if he were losing a friend.

VISIONS

(Two Days Later)

TWENTY-EIGHT

THE CARRIAGE BOUNCED down the last of the mountain road, hit a rut, and toppled Arianna into Coulter. He grunted and helped her right herself. She had tried not to fall into anyone, knowing that this body weighed so much more than most, but Dash was probably as excited as she was. They were on the outskirts of Jahn.

They were coming home.

She glanced at Con, sitting in the seat opposite. He was staring out the window, his face tight. He loved it here, too. Together they had planned to restore the Tabernacle, make it safe for Islanders and Fey to worship together. Then this had happened, and that dream had disappeared.

The road abruptly switched from dirt to cobblestone and the horses slowed down. Coulter took Arianna’s hand. “I’ll make sure no one sees you, but be careful.”

He had already told her that a dozen times. He didn’t want her looking out the windows, and when they stopped the carriage, he didn’t want her to get out until he told her to.

Dash was going to buy some supplies before they crossed the bridge and went into the Tabernacle. They also had to find a place to keep the carriage and horses. Coulter didn’t want the horses too far from them, but Arianna felt they had no choice. Rugad was smart and anything out of the ordinary, particularly around the Tabernacle, would catch his attention.

Arianna squeezed Coulter’s hand and peered out the window. She recognized the buildings, their whitewash indicating the very outskirts of the city. These were the dwellings of old Islanders, those who had been adults before the Fey onslaught. She had thought them strange and unyielding, uncomfortable with change. Now she was relieved to see them.

“This would probably be a good place to get supplies,” she said.

“I was thinking we’d wait until we got further in,” Coulter said.

“No. There will be Fey farther in. They could be working for Rugad. I suspect attitudes have changed in the few short months I’ve been gone. It would be better for you three Islanders to stop here than farther into the city.”

“Good point,” Con said. “I never really thought this community had its uses before.”

Arianna smiled at him. He smiled back then leaned out the window, and shouted the plan to Dash.

Coulter frowned at her. “We’ll be drawing attention to ourselves too early.”

“We won’t draw any attention here,” she said. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

He stared at her, then he sighed and shook his head.

Con leaned back into the carriage.

“Did he hear you?” Arianna asked.

“He’ll stop at the first place that looks promising,” Con said.

“At least tell me,” Coulter said, “that you’ll stay in the carriage when we stop.”

“I will,” she said. “And so will Con. He’s well known in Jahn.”

The road rose and turned, the carriage swaying from side to side. Outside, Arianna heard the clip of other horses, some conversation in properly accented Islander. The neighborhood looked wonderful. The smell of the Cardidas mixed with horse manure and too many bodies too tightly packed wafted through the open window and she inhaled deeply.