The Black King (Book 7) Read Free

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,” he 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