The Black King (Book 7) (43 page)

Gift tapped his arm and they started forward again. They were running side by side now, Dash following like a puppy. The sky was getting darker.

Coulter didn’t like the look of this.

Thunder sounded one more time, and the lightning forked. In the strange greenish light, he could see Islanders huddling against buildings, stretched flat against the ground. Some of them were staring at Gift with open hatred, as if this were his fault.

And then the lightning stopped. The greenish color left, and the air lost its charge.

“Ahead!” Gift shouted.

A blood-covered boy staggered out of the palace gate and fell to his knees. Fires burned behind him, and smoke rose from the North Tower.

Matt had done a lot of damage.

Coulter sprinted ahead of Gift. Matt sprawled on the cobblestone. His entire right side was stripped bare of skin. He had no skin on his left forearm and he was bleeding from a dozen places. His face was so pale that it looked ghostly. If it weren’t for the rise and fall of his chest, Coulter would have thought Matt dead.

Coulter chanted a spell to place a protection over the wounds, and then another to stop the blood from leaking out. Then he eased Matt into a sitting position and cradled him, putting his hand over Matt’s heart.

Matt’s skin was cold, but his eyelids flickered. He was alive, but barely.

Coulter would have to give him some of his own strength. He closed his eyes, and willed the strength to travel from his own body, through his hand, and into Matt’s.

“What the—?”

Coulter opened his eyes. Gift was crouching beside him, looking shocked.

“Is this Matthias?” Gift asked.

Coulter could have answered honestly and scared Gift even more, but he didn’t. He no longer had the strength for it.

“Dash,” Coulter said, his voice a harsh rasp. “Is anyone coming out of the palace?”

“Not yet,” Dash said. He was breathing hard.

“Coulter,” Gift said. “Is this Matthias?”

“It’s his son,” Coulter said, his voice breaking. “He’s a good boy, Gift. He’s not like his father.”

Gift crouched and put a hand on Matt’s forehead. “We have to get him help.”

“I’m trying,” Coulter said.

“You try too much and you’ll kill yourself.” Gift slipped his arms under Matt’s body. “I have Healers on the ship. They can do something.”

He hoisted Matt up. Coulter kept his hand on Matt’s heart. They started back toward the ship, not running, but hurrying as best they could. Dash guarded their back. Above them, a phalanx of Gull Riders appeared, apparently deciding to venture out now that the sky was clear.

Islanders emerged from their hiding places, watching the procession go by. How strange it must look to them: the Black Heir and three Islanders, one seriously injured, hurrying down Jahn’s busiest thoroughfare.

Then Gift stopped and raised his head. He turned toward the palace. “Look,” he whispered.

Coulter turned. Smoke still rose from the North Tower. But from windows in South Tower, he saw a movement. For a moment, he thought it was Arianna, but the fear that coursed through him told him it was not.

“He’s watching us,” Coulter said. “I told you not to come.”

“He knew I’d be involved,” Gift said. “He’s been planning for this.”

Then he started forward again, loping, cradling Matt’s head as they ran. Coulter could barely keep up with them. The skin on his back crawled as if he could actually feel Rugad’s gaze.

And Matt’s skin grew colder each step of the way.

THIRTY-SIX

THE DIZZINESS WAS GONE, but he didn’t feel quite like himself. He felt frail, and his body echoed with pain.

“He’s waking up,” a woman said in Fey.

Matt opened his eyes or tried to. His vision was bleary and his lashes stuck together. He raised his right arm to wipe the sleep from his eyes, and nearly yelped in agony.

A cool hand touched his shoulder. “It’s easier if you stay still.”

That was Coulter’s voice. Matt blinked several times and managed to open his eyes properly. A Fey woman he didn’t recognize took a cloth and wiped his face, cleaning his eyes for him.

“Thank you,” he said, but it came out as a whisper.

He was in a bed, blankets tucked around him. The room was small. It was filled with people: Coulter, Dash, Con, Arianna, and a blue-eyed Fey man he’d never seen before. The Fey woman was older and unfamiliar, but she had a softness to her that Matt had seen in Coulter’s Domestics.

“Where am I?” he whispered.

“On my ship.” The unknown man spoke. He looked familiar. “My name is Gift. I understand you’re Matthias’s son.”

Gift. Arianna’s brother. He looked like her, only his skin was a light brown instead of gray and his eyes the color of a clear sky.

“You didn’t like my father,” Matt whispered.

“I don’t know many people who did,” he said.

“Gift.” Arianna had caution in her voice.

He ignored her. “But your father helped mine save us from Rugad once upon a time. We owe him a lot for that.”

“It didn’t work,” Matt whispered.

“It worked for a while.” Gift had a warm, reassuring voice. His eyes were warm too. “I understand you fought Rugad alone today.”

“I wasn’t alone.” Matt glanced at Coulter. He wondered how angry Coulter was. “Wisdom was there.”

“I know,” Coulter said. “We found out he was following you. I didn’t think he would do any harm.”

“Did he?” Arianna asked. She had never liked Wisdom.

“He’s dead.” Matt closed his eyes. He could see Wisdom arching his back, mouth gushing blood.

Coulter’s cool hand moved from his shoulder to his forehead. “What happened?”

“He may not be able to tell you yet,” the Fey woman said. “You should let him rest.”

“We may not have time for rest,” Gift said. Funny how Matt could already recognize his voice. “Rugad knows he’s here. And he probably knows where he’s from. So we need to know the next step.”

Matt willed himself to open his eyes. It took more effort than it normally did.

Everyone was still looking at him. Arianna’s eyes held concern. Gift had a crease in the middle of his forehead. Coulter looked the most worried. He hadn’t moved from Matt’s side.

Matt tried to move up so that he was sitting, but the pain shuddered through him again. His left arm felt heavy.

“Don’t move,” the Fey woman said. “You’re covered with healing stone.”

He looked down at himself. A solid gray material had been painted over him where the Foot Soldier had touched him. His arm was hidden by the same material.

“You nearly died,” Coulter said. “Chandra saved you.”

“I repaired you,” the Fey woman who was apparently Chandra said. “Gift and Coulter saved you.”

“Just Coulter actually,” Gift said. “When I caught up to him, he’d already found you. He was keeping you alive by letting you share the beat of his own heart.”

Matt looked up at him. Coulter’s cheeks were flushed. Coulter had taught him that too—another emergency spell. It only worked if there was affection between the people involved.

Matt felt his heart surge—no one had really ever cared for him, not even his own family—and then it sank. “I failed.”

“You damaged the palace,” Gift said. “I wouldn’t consider that a failure.”

“Wisdom’s dead, and all those Fey—” Matt’s voice broke.

“You did what you had to do.” Arianna put a hand on Coulter’s shoulder, as if she were speaking to him as well as Matt. Her skin was the same color as the stone wrapped around Matt.

“Tell us what happened,” Gift said again.

So Matt did. He told them about the first attempt and how Rugad had said that he could come back in a year. Then he told them how Wisdom had saved him from the Spies and taken him to the tunnels under the city.

After that, Matt found himself short of breath. Chandra gave him some water and something else, something that tasted good and made him feel refreshed.

“I don’t think he should talk anymore,” she said.

“I want to,” he whispered.

Coulter brushed the hair off his forehead. “You don’t have to tell us in such detail.”

“I want to,” Matt repeated and then, before anyone could object, he continued.

He told them about restoring Wisdom’s tongue and how Wisdom refused to talk and why. Then he told them Wisdom’s plan, and how they went through the listening booths.

“You had the Soul Repositories from the Place of Power?” Gift asked.

“Yes,” Matt said, and then he told them how Wisdom approached Rugad, and how wrong everything went from there. Tears streamed down his face as he talked about the fires and getting trapped and using the varin sword.

“I heard your voice,” he said to Coulter. “You saved me.”

“I did nothing like that. You saved yourself.”

Chandra took Matt’s good hand in her own. “Now can we let the boy rest?”

“I have just a few questions.” Gift sat on the edge of the bed, on the wooden frame so that he didn’t disturb the mattress. “Is that all right, Matt?”

“I don’t know how I can help you. I failed so badly.”

“Actually, you tried and the method didn’t work. That’s not a personal failure.” Gift wasn’t saying that to make him feel better.

“You came after me,” Matt said. “Why?”

Coulter started to answer, but Gift held up his hand. He seemed to know the question was for him.

“You were Linked to Coulter. You needed help, and you were at the palace, trying to do something for Arianna. That’s why.”

So even though Gift hated Matt’s father, Gift could help Matt. Matt’s father wouldn’t have done that.

Gift said, “Tell me why the Repository wouldn’t work.”

“I thought he was a loose soul,” Matt said. “From everything I heard, he’d invaded Arianna.”

“He did,” Arianna said.

“He said he was born in that body, like he grew up there.”

“I should have known that,” Coulter said.

“He said the body was his.”

Gift frowned. “But the body is Arianna’s.”

“He’s right, though,” Arianna said. “He did grow up in there. The baby, remember.”

“And the person who invaded Arianna,” Coulter said, “is the man who died fifteen years ago, not the child with all the memories that she carried in her mind.”

“But that child is magick, right?” Gift was looking at Chandra.

“I don’t know what else you would call it,” Chandra said. “but I am no expert on these things. You need Xihu.”

“Xihu is with Rugad.” Gift sounded annoyed.

Matt was trying to focus on this, but he was beginning to get tired. He willed himself to stay awake.

“Is the magick part of her brain?” Gift said.

“I was in that part of Ari’s brain,” Coulter said. “He had an actual room in her mind.”

“And he was threaded through everything,” Arianna said, “like he belonged there.”

“That’s why the Repository didn’t work,” Gift said. “You had the wrong tool.”

“There’s another one we can use?” Coulter asked.

Arianna’s eyes lit up. Matt had never seen her look so alive. “Of course there is. Oh, Gift, I wish I had seen that sooner.”

“Would someone tell me?” Coulter asked.

Matt eased out a small breath. He saw the section of the Words as if it were written before him. He understood too. “The Lights of Midday.”

Gift grinned at him. “That’s right.”

“Those globes?” Coulter asked.

“Yes. Remember when Dad and Adrian picked them up in the Roca’s Cave and Ari and I screamed?”

“That was why we had to hide you away from everything during the battles, because you were afraid that light would...burn away your magick.” Coulter said those last four words very slowly, as if he suddenly understood as well.

“You absorbed the Words,” Coulter said to Matt. “Can you make some globes?”

Matt nodded. His head felt very heavy.

“What would it take?” Coulter asked.

“Sand.” Matt’s voice was a rasp. “From the beaches beneath the Slides of Death. Someone to make glass with it. And inside a lining of water from the fountain in the Roca’s Cave. Just before you close the globe you put it in, and let it sit for a month before—”

“We don’t have a month,” Gift said.

“I’m sorry,” Matt whispered. It all felt like his fault again.

“No need to be sorry.” Gift sounded oddly elated. “I think we need to make a detour. We have to go to the Place of Power. There are still some globes in there, right, Coulter?”

“No,” he said. “They’ve all been used.”

“There are some more in the Vault,” Matt whispered.

“Rugad may want me to leave Blue Isle, but I’m going to do the opposite.” Gift grinned. “I’m going to the heart of Blue Isle’s power.”

“Won’t he try to stop you?” Con asked.

“He might,” Gift said. “We’ll have to be prepared.”

“And the Assassin?” Arianna said.

Matt raised his head. No one had told him about an Assassin.

Coulter eased him back down. “By now, the Assassin’s probably learned that I was headed for Jahn. We didn’t exactly make it a secret. We’ll just go back and keep an eye open.”

“Assassins are impossible to see,” Chandra said.

“I don’t believe that anything’s impossible,” Coulter said.

“Neither does Rugad,” Matt whispered and fainted.

THE ASSASSIN

(Two Days Later)

THIRTY-SEVEN

DAWN. The sun had risen over the Cardidas, turning the water its familiar rust-red. The sky was red too, and orange and pink. Sunrises were tremendous on Blue Isle. Xihu hadn’t seen the like anywhere, and she had always thought them beautiful in the Eccrasian Mountains.

But she wasn’t enjoying this one. Her eyes stung from the acrid smell of smoke that still lingered in the air. She hadn’t slept in two days, and she had used most of her reserves.