The Black King (Book 7) Read Free Page B

as if she were an invalid. She wasn’t. She simply didn’t have the mobility she’d had in her natural body. Or the power. Right now, all of Blue Isle—all of the Fey Empire—thought that she was still ruling the country. Her body was, but it was being guided and powered by Rugad, the most ruthless Black King of all.
    She put her hands on the edge of the bench and leaned forward. It seemed to take forever to make the movement. She had to concentrate on speeding up these commands. She didn’t want to move like Sebastian for the rest of her life.
    Sebastian was a Golem too, but he had been formed as an infant. He had his own personality that was originally composed of bits of her brother Gift. Sebastian was a special type of Golem, one that Seger said was maintained by the Mysteries and Powers, a creature that had a life of its own. Whereas if Arianna left her Golem’s body, it would remain immobile until she entered it again. Eventually it would revert to the stone it had once been.
    Sebastian was the only one who seemed to understand how she felt. Sometimes he would sit with her and hold her while she wished she could cry.
    Most of the time, though, she found herself on this bench, staring at the Cardidas. It was hard for her to believe that this river bisected all of Blue Isle. Yet right now the river seemed to be the only constant in her life.
    And somehow, every time she sat here, she felt threatened. She knew that the capitol city of Jahn lay only a few days from here by ship. She and Coulter, in making their escape from the palace, had left an easy-to-follow trail. Sometimes she thought Coulter did it on purpose. She thought Coulter wanted to lure Rugad to the Place of Power in the Cliffs of Blood and either kill him or trap him there.
    Arianna wasn’t so sure it would be that easy, but she was surprised that Rugad hadn’t come. For all his power madness, Rugad believed in the Fey way. And the most important tenet of Fey Leadership was Vision. Arianna had it, and so did her brother Gift. That was how they were able to create and sustain Golems, how they were able to move their consciousness across Links between people, and how they were able to survive outside of their own bodies as long as their consciousness had a place to reside.
    Rugad had had Vision when he was alive, but the bit he had left inside Arianna had none. He had told her, while they were sharing her brain, that he would force her to use her Vision to help him lead. Only she wasn’t there any more, and he was leading Blind. She couldn’t believe that was something he would do for long. He had to find another Visionary or else come after her.
    Maybe he had been sitting in Jahn for six months planning his attack. After all, he had waited twenty years after his son’s defeat on Blue Isle before trying to take over the Isle himself. Rugad was known for his strategy, his cunning, and his patience.
    She shuddered—or at least, she thought a shudder. All of Rugad’s schemes looked at the long term. He had back-up plan after back-up plan. Rugad acted and schemed and took his time until he got things right.
    Arianna had not planned anything in her life. Her decision to become Black Queen had been impulsive. She had even governed with short term goals. First she had gotten the Fey Empire to accept a half Fey half Islander queen. Then she had gotten them accustomed to peace. Then she had gotten them to develop the resources they already owned instead of conquering new ones.
    She hadn’t foreseen the problems that policy would bring, but she would wager that Rugad would have analyzed every aspect of it, from the results of success to the reactions of his own people. And he would have known the price of failure.
    It was ironic that in many ways she had been reduced to little more than a brain. She was the one who was always active, physically as well as emotionally. She always made the final decision—weighing options, examining cost—but she left the