The Black King (Book 7) (56 page)

The Wisp nodded crisply and then left.

Arianna watched her go. DiPalmet was swallowing hard, trying to force down the nervousness that was eating him alive.

“My brother insists on making things difficult,” Arianna said without turning around.

“So it would seem,” DiPalmet said.

“We’re going to have to contain him before he can bring on the Blood.”

DiPalmet waited.

Arianna turned. Her eyes were bright. Instead of being upset by this news, she seemed almost elated. “I doubt the Infantry will be able to stop him, not if he has an Enchanter on board. We’ll have to prepare for him here.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Send the remaining troops to the waterfront. Let them all know that he’s a renegade.”

DiPalmet nodded.

“Have those without magick use bow and arrow. Use only Bird Riders to attack the ship. Let our people know that Gift should not be killed. He must be captured alive.”

“If they use bow and arrow, there’s no guarantee that he won’t get hit before anyone storms the ship.”

Arianna shrugged. “My brother is a smart man. He’ll understand the dangers and protect himself accordingly.”

“What if you’re wrong?” DiPalmet asked.

“I am not ordering his death, DiPalmet,” she said coldly. “I want to know why he believes that he can attack us without consequences. I also want to know if he is working alone.”

“You know how dangerous this is?” DiPalmet asked.

That flash in her eyes was so full of fury that he almost took a step back. “It is my job to worry about such things. Not yours.”

He nodded.

“Trust this, DiPalmet,” she said. “I’m the one protecting the Empire. I won’t do anything to harm it.”

He wanted to trust it. But he was getting to the point where he wasn’t sure he could trust anything any more.

SIXTY

ARIANNA TOOK SHALLOW BREATHS, trying not to make a sound. Sebastian had once shown her that, in this body, she could survive without breathing at all, but she hadn’t been able to manage it. Seger said that Arianna expected to breathe, so she
had
to breathe. Now she wished she had learned the lesson.

The ship glided silently through the river. Fog enshrouded them so tightly that the air almost glowed. It was very cold. Only the people who needed to be were on deck: the Sailors, the Navigator, the Weather Sprites, Gift, Coulter and Arianna. Everyone else had opted to ride out this part of the journey below deck. Gift had allowed them to do so; if they were above and made too much noise, the Fey army would know that a ship was passing.

There was no actual fog on the deck. Since the fog was a Weather Sprite creation, they could dictate where it went. It surrounded the boat, but did not permeate it. If Arianna hadn’t known that the ship was moving, she wouldn’t have believed it. Everything was eerie, as if they had stepped out of time somehow and were existing in a world where there was nothing except the ship and the grayness surrounding it.

A couple of the less competent Bird Riders had flown ahead and were holding position, promising to let the ship know when they had passed the army.

Arianna had also asked the Sailors if there were any water creatures that could surface and tell them the same things. The Sailors weren’t sure, but they would ask. Their task was doubly difficult right now. They had to make sure the ship was following the correct river channel, and they had to make sure they did not make any sounds.

Instead of dampening sound, the fog seemed to make it worse. She had spent her entire time on deck listening to the laughter and camaraderie coming from the shore. The conversations held in Fey, the bawdiness, the smells of camp food were, in many ways, reassuring. It meant that the Infantry was not traveling night and day to get to Constant.

It meant that she still had some time.

The voices had faded a while back and so had some of the clanging. Still, she didn’t believe in letting herself go too soon. She needed confirmation that they were past the army before she so much as moved.

Then she saw a Bird Rider land on deck, followed by another. The second Rider landed on Gift’s shoulder, making him start. The Rider, another sparrow, leaned toward Gift and seemed to be speaking to him. He turned to the first Rider and said something so softly that Arianna couldn’t hear him.

Slowly she made her way across the deck toward her brother. He was already walking in her direction, coming not to her, but to the Weather Sprites.

“The Riders say we’ve passed them,” he said to the main Sprite as Arianna reached them. “Continue the fog for another hundred yards and then let us emerge from it. Can you keep the fog back there until dawn?”

“Of course,” the Sprite said, sounding a bit offended that Gift had even asked.

“Good,” Gift said.

“Are you sure the Riders are accurate?” Arianna asked.

Gift nodded. “These two may not have the abilities that Beak and Lesley do, but they are reliable.”

She wished she had made the decision for herself, but she said nothing. It was impossible to have two leaders give orders and this was Gift’s ship. She would let him take care of most of the decisions.

The ship emerged from the fog into a clear cold night. The sky was filled with stars and a pale sliver of a moon. The water looked black, and the mountains were mere shadows in the distance.

Arianna looked toward the shore, but saw nothing. She didn’t expect to see much—it was too dark for that. But she heard nothing either. And if Rugad’s army had been there, she would have heard someone—a sentry, a startled Infantryman up to take a pee—call out that he’d seen a ship.

One more hurdle passed.

Then a Gull Rider burst out of the fog, and sprawled across the deck. Coulter stood over it as if he were afraid it came from the army, but Gift held his arm.

The Rider shifted into her Fey form, and suddenly Beak was standing before them. Gift removed his cloak and wrapped it around her. She smiled gratefully. Her face was pinched, her skin mottled red and gray. She seemed to have a chill or some kind of windburn. Feathers littered the deck.

Arianna had never seen a Gull Rider look so exhausted.

“Well?” Gift asked.

“Somehow Grantley sent warning that we were coming.” Beak’s voice was hoarse. Arianna had to step closer to hear the words. “What’s left of the Infantry is being deployed at the shores of the Cardidas. The word is that this is a renegade ship. Some don’t even believe you are on it, Gift.”

Arianna glanced at him. He was frowning.

“The idea being circulated is that some rebels, half of them Islander and half of them Fey, are trying to destroy the peace. The attack on the palace was the first volley. The attack on the ships in the Cardidas was the second. The Black Queen—” and then Beak bobbed her head toward Arianna “—beg pardon, ma’am, but that’s how they’re referring to Rugad—the Black Queen wants to stop this rebellion before it becomes a full-fledged war.”

“So destroying Constant and sinking this ship will accomplish that?” Gift asked.

“The soldiers think so. I think it sounds like a tremendous excuse to get rid of you.” Beak shivered. Her eyes had sunken into her face. “All of you.”

“Rugad can’t give orders to destroy this ship knowing who is on it,” Arianna said. “No matter what the armies think.”

“Rugad has ordered that the ship is to be captured, not sunk, and that prisoners should be taken. But the folks that were gathering on the shoreline when I left did not look like the kind who were organized enough to take prisoners.”

“One of those famous accidents that Rugad is so good at,” Gift said. “How are we going to get through this one? If Rugad is prepared for a ship, there’ll be arrows.”

Coulter shrugged. “I’ll do what I can.”

“We’ll be in the middle of a city,” Gift said. “You can’t use some of your spells there.”

“I wasn’t thinking of those spells,” Coulter said. “I made up a protection spell when I was a boy. It’s like a shield around the entire body. I think I can put that around the ship.”

Con came above deck, Lyndred beside him. They were staring at the sky as if they hadn’t seen it in a long time. Then some Nyeians came above. Out of the corner of her eye, Arianna saw her brother look for Skya, but of course, she wasn’t there.

“It’s going to be a large force,” Beak said.

“That presents more of a problem than I had anticipated.”

Lyndred joined the group. “We’re past the army, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” Gift said.

“Are we safe then?” she asked.

“That’s what we were just discussing,” Coulter said.

Then, to Arianna’s surprise, he briefed Lyndred. Lyndred nodded. She did look older than she had when she came on board. Her eyes used to twinkle. They hadn’t twinkled since Ace died.

“Why can’t we use the same fog to get past them?” she asked.

Gift looked at Arianna as if he expected her to have an answer.

“We can,” she said, “until it comes time to dock. I had thought we’d be able to walk unencumbered through the streets. The warning Grantley sent prevents that now. I have no idea how we’re going to get near the palace.”

“Well, if Matt was right,” Gift said, “we won’t need to get near the palace to use the Lights of Midday as long as the jewels do focus the power of that magick.”

“It’s a city full of people,” Arianna said. “I don’t want to damage hundreds to destroy one.”

“The only way we’re going to find that out,” Coulter said, “is when we use the globes. We can’t test this beforehand.”

“And we have another problem,” Arianna said. “Coulter severed his Link to my body. The moment the Lights of Midday have gotten rid of Rugad, I need to be back in my own body, and I’m not sure how to do that.”

“Coulter,” Gift said, “you could open my Links. Ari could travel through them.”

“Not good,” Coulter said. “What if we don’t get rid of Rugad? Then he has access to both of you. I can’t permit that.”

“Arianna still has a Link to herself,” Gift said.

“Not in the way that we’re thinking of,” Arianna said. “I’m pretty sure Rugad has closed off that route.”

“Ari lived for a short time in my mind,” Coulter said to Gift. “I could walk her into the palace and then when Rugad is gone, I could touch her body and see if she transfers.”

Beak was swaying on her feet. Arianna put a hand on her shoulder, partly to support her and partly to get her attention. “Go below. Thank you for all you’ve done.”

“I could help—”

“After you’ve rested,” Arianna said.

The others were watching them silently, as if chagrined that they hadn’t noticed how tired Beak was. Con put an arm around Beak’s back and helped her to the deck house.

“That plan,” Arianna said to Coulter, “is too risky. We need to figure out a way to get me back there, a way that will work.”

“Well,” Coulter said, “we’re going to have trouble just docking and walking into the palace.”

“Maybe not.” Lyndred had been watching Con. When she turned to the group, she looked sad. “If we do this right, I should be able to get into the palace.”

“Rugad knew you got on this ship,” Gift said.

Lyndred nodded. “And he knows that I wanted to become Black Queen someday.”

Arianna let out a small snort. “You told him?”

“Yes.”

Arianna repressed a smile. That was something she might have done, before she and her father were forced to leave the palace, before she learned so much fighting Rugad the first time.

“But he would know that I wouldn’t fit in here, at least not well. We could let me off, cover me with blood, and I could tell him that my father is—” Lyndred voice broke a little. “—is dead, and that I just managed to escape when we came near shore, and that I’ve been walking. That I know things which would help him defeat you. He might let me in for that. I’ll wager no one will stop me at the palace. I lived there for six months.”

“So we get you there.” Gift said. “The problem is getting Arianna there.”

Lyndred didn’t look at him. Instead, she turned to Arianna. “I’ll take you inside my head, if you’re willing.”

“And if that works,” Gift said as if Arianna couldn’t speak for herself, “then how do you propose to get Ari back to her body?”

Lyndred raised her head defiantly. “I may have forged a small Link with the person I thought as the Black Queen.”

“May isn’t good enough,” Gift said.

“I am a Visionary,” she said. “I can probably help Ari find the right Link that will bring her back to herself.”

“I don’t like probably either.”

“Do you have a better suggestion?” Lyndred snapped.

Arianna let out a small breath. It wasn’t about their suggestions. It was about what she felt she could do. She had Skya make the cloaks, but a Golem’s gait would be obvious. She could travel inside Coulter, but then who would operate the Lights of Midday? She didn’t want any Fey to touch them.

What it came down to was whether or not she could trust Lyndred. “Why would you do this?”

Lyndred’s dark eyes met hers for a moment and then looked away. “Because I need to be useful.”

“Not good enough,” Gift said. “You just reminded us you wanted to be Black Queen. What better way to do it than to get rid of Ari inside your own mind, let Rugad’s forces get rid of me, then take the Throne for yourself?”

Lyndred gasped. “I wouldn’t do that!”

“I don’t know that.”

“My father is on this ship. Even if I wanted to harm you, I wouldn’t want to lose him.”

Her words echoed across the river. Arianna had seen the two of them together. She believed Lyndred. “First, tell me, honestly, why you want to do this.”

To Arianna’s surprise, Lyndred’s eyes filled with tears. She blinked several times. When she started to speak, her voice was husky. “Ace. He told Gift not to trust me. And he was probably right. I watched him die, and I couldn’t do anything. He believed in you all, enough to die for you. I’ve never done anything like that. I didn’t even know people did, until Ace.”