The Black King (Book 7) Read Free Page A

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.”

 
     
     
     
    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 non-responsive 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