The Black Queen (Book 6) Read Free

the Place they guarded. Ever since the second Place of Power had been discovered, the Shaman had been worried. Fey legend said this: There are three Points of Power. Link through them, and the Triangle of Might will reform the world.
    For centuries, the Fey had debated what that prophecy meant. Did “reform the world” mean that everything would be destroyed? Or did it mean that the world would become strictly a Fey place, a place where all diversity was destroyed? Most agreed, though, that discovering the Triangle would benefit the Fey, as discovering the cave had benefitted the goat herder and his family by giving them powers undreamed of before. Controlling the Triangle, most believed, would make the Fey gods.
    Shaman believed that once the second Place of Power had been discovered, the third would be easy to find. A Shaman would stand within the first Place of Power, another Shaman would stand in the second, and together they would triangulate the power, and learn where the third was located.
    But discovery of the Triangle frightened everyone. Gift had set up, at his sister’s request, guards for the second Place of Power. Those guards did not allow a Shaman into it. The Black Family, at least Gift and Arianna’s branch of it, did not want anyone to have access to the Triangle. Gift and Arianna could have attempted to triangulate the power and learn where the third Place of Power was. So far, they had chosen not to. Arianna believed, and Gift agreed, that there was no need unleash more magick upon the world.
    The Shaman, on the other hand, had requested an opportunity to triangulate the Places of Power, and Arianna had refused them. Then the Shaman had made it clear that they guarded the first Place of Power and they did not want a member of the Black Family to enter it. The Shaman feared such power in the hands of the Black Family, and would have done whatever they could, short of fighting the family themselves, to prevent the Black Family from controlling the Triangle.
    The Shaman believed that warrior magick, as represented by the Black Family, would use the Triangle for harm. They believed that only domestic magick should control such power, and they guarded this Place of Power to prove their point.
    That they were taking him there now—and the fact that he was one of the few who had ever seen the second Place of Power—made this event even stranger.
    He wondered what the Protectors had said. They were the main guardians of this Place of Power, and they had fought his entry into the village. They hadn’t relaxed their vigilance in five years.
    Halfway up, he and Madot stopped. A platform with benches carved from stone indicated that this was the designated resting point. Madot sat in the left bench and indicated that Gift sit in the right.
    He didn’t want to. He wanted to keep climbing. But that was the impatience she was trying to train out of him. He sat.
    The bench was cold beneath him, but then it had no veins of red running through it. It faced westward, providing a spectacular view.
    The Eccrasian mountains extended as far as the eye could see. In Vion, distances were vast, and the countries were sparsely populated. These mountains bisected Vion; another shorter range provided its western border. The Fey originated in the mountains, and were like no other race in Vion. Gift could see why. It took a hardy and combative people to survive in this place.
    It was early spring, and there was still snow all the way to the treeline on most of the mountain peaks. This one, known as Protector’s Mount, never had snow, no matter what time of year. Some said it was because of the Place of Power. Others believed it was because this mountain was alive. Whatever the cause, it made life in Protectors Village just a little easier than it would have been otherwise.
    The wind was bracing here. It whipped at Gift’s cheeks. He threaded his fingers together. His bare feet were warm on the stone platform. He knew if he