The Black Queen (Book 6) (54 page)

Arianna was shaking. She wanted to turn and fight, but there was no fighting this. Not here. To try would only make things worse. She knew that much. She had to out-think him somehow.

Or destroy herself.

Would that be Blood against Blood?

Coulter took her hand and led her away from the door. He seemed to be having the same thought, or maybe their thoughts were already leaking. When he reached the door into his own body, he pushed her through.

Coulter’s mind was warm and disciplined, filled with dark places and places of light. She felt at home here, even though she had never been here before, and yet it was so very different from her own mind.

His brain had small walled off areas, and Link doors that were still open. There were memories tossed in a corner as if they were left there after the last time they were used. She touched one. It was of a red and gold sunrise behind the Cliffs of Blood.

He shut the door to the Link between himself and her.

“Now’s the time to decide, Ari, what we do with this part of you.”

He meant that she had to choose where her soul would reside while Rugad had her body. She couldn’t live in the Link between two bodies forever. And now she was in Coulter’s mind. She had to find a place to survive, until she got her own place back.

She kept her hand in his. “If Seger makes me a golem, Rugad will know where I am. If I’m with you, I can go other places, do other things, and he’ll never know.”

“That’s right,” Coulter said.

“And if I’m in you, he can’t kill me.”

“He won’t even try,” Coulter said. “Not any more. He’s going to need Vision, and I don’t think a construct has any. I think he was going to try to take yours somehow, and now that you’re here, he can’t touch you.”

She sat down just inside the door. The idea of living inside someone else’s mind frightened her. But this was Coulter. She cared for him. This couldn’t be worse than having someone like Rugad inside her mind, sharing it against her will, trying to take it over.

Ariannabent her head. The best thing would be for this nightmare to end, for Rugad to leave, and for her to get her body back. But that wasn’t going to happen without work.

She sighed. “I’ll stay here.”

Coulter studied her for a moment. He was planning something, but she couldn’t tell what it was. “Are you sure about this decision?” he asked. “Because I need to know now.”

“Why now?” Ariannaasked.

“Because if you stay with me, I can prevent Rugad from ever touching you—this part of you—again.”

She thought for a moment. Coulter loved her. He would protect her until she figured out a better plan. And she would find one.

She had to. She couldn’t live like this.

“Yes,” she said. “I’ll stay.”

He smiled. “Good,” he said. Then he opened the door, and leaned out. His right hand became scissors. As she watched, he reached down and severed their Link.

It felt as if he had broken something inside her. The pain was swift and intense. It was all she could do not to double over. The Link itself floated in the air for a moment, then it fell against the door that Rugad had just closed—her door—empty and lifeless.

Coulter closed his door, his hand no longer scissors. He put his arm around her.

“What did you do?” she asked.

“We can’t have our bodies Linked. He could use that. Now he can’t.”

She turned her face toward his. “But we—”

“Right now, we don’t need the Link. We’re together here. We’ll be fine.”

But she had the awful feeling that they wouldn’t be fine, that he had done something irreparable, something even worse than what Rugad had done.

“Coulter—” she started, but he put a finger on her lips, then bent over and kissed her. It was a warm kiss, a good kiss, a kiss like nothing she could experience with her physical self.

Then he eased back. “We’ll be fine,” he said again.

She hoped, for both their sakes, that he was right.

THIRTY-THREE

COULTER WANTED TO STAY with Arianna and comfort her, but he had to move out of his own mind, become one with his body again, and he had to do it quickly. He could feel the time passing, the moments disappearing, and his advantage leaving.

He had to come back to himself before Rugad gained complete control of Arianna’s body.

“Make yourself at home,” he said to her. “Create a place of your own. I have to—”

“I know,” she said. Apparently his thoughts were leaking to her. He smiled and reconnected with his body.

His neck was cramped, his back ached, and Arianna’s birthmark no longer throbbed beneath his thumbs. He opened his eyes. Xet’n was staring at him.

“Get out of here,” Coulter whispered.

“But there’s no—”

“I know,” Coulter said. “I failed. Now get.”

He didn’t want to use Xet’n’s name in case Rugad could hear. The eyes on Arianna’s body were closed and she looked no different. But it wasn’t her any longer. He could sense that somehow. Something in the set of the face, the line of the shoulders, made it clear that Arianna wasn’t there any longer.

Xet’n picked up his lamp and snuck out of the room. Coulter sat up. He had been in that position a long time. His body was cramped.

He got up, heard his knees crack, and opened the window, creating what he hoped would be a diversion. Then he let himself out of the bedroom.

Luke was still standing by the door of the suite. “How’d it—?”

“No good,” Coulter said and ran past him. Coulter wasn’t worried about Luke. Luke could take care of himself. There was no way that Rugad would know that Luke had been involved.

But Rugad would know about Seger, and Sebastian.

Sebastian
?

The thought seemed to come from inside him, but it had a different feel to it, not a thought of his at all. Arianna, then.

He’ll be all right
, Coulter thought. It only took him a moment to get to Sebastian’s suite. He entered. Both rooms were empty. There were holes in the blanket on the bed, and blood drippings all over the floor. Several shoes had left prints.

I thought you said he’d be all right!

Coulter wasn’t going to answer her. Her panic was feeding his. Seger had said they would return to the Domicile if they were successful. He would look there, and then he would worry.

He left the suite at full run, and headed down the steps. Luke was behind him.

“Tell me what happened,” Luke said.

“Nothing,” Coulter said. “It didn’t work, and now he knows I’m here. I’ve got to leave. Can you get my driver?”

“Driver?” Luke asked.

“I have a carriage and an Islander named Dash got me here. Can you find him?”

“Yes.”

They had reached the bottom of the stairs. Luke put a hand on Coulter’s shoulder, stopping him.

“I’ve got to hurry,” Coulter said.

“I know,” Luke said. “Look, I’m sorry about what I said. About failing.”

Bitterness twisted Coulter’s stomach. He didn’t want Arianna to hear this. “Looks like you were right.”

“No,” Luke said. “It takes courage to try.”

Coulter didn’t want to hear it. “Was Seger successful?’

Luke nodded. “They’re in the Domicile.”

Coulter could feel Arianna’s relief layering his own. “I need my driver and carriage as fast as you can get them.”

“Consider it done,” Luke said. “They’ll be waiting for you the moment you get out of the Domicile.”

Coulter nodded, and ran down the hall. He thought he had forgotten the way, and then he realized that it was Arianna who was guiding him, Arianna who was showing him the shortest routes. She was pushing him harder than he would push himself.

He burst through a side door, ran across a part of the courtyard littered with dogs eating kitchen scraps, and then up the stairs in the Domicile.

A Domestic was holding newly spun yarn, its magick spilling like water around her hand.

“Where’s Seger?”

The Domestic pointed down a long hallway. Coulter ran its length, excusing himself every time he nearly bumped into someone. There were Domestics everywhere, carrying medical supplies and clothing and food. He finally realized they were going where he was.

A door was open at the end of the hall. Inside, Con sat on a bed, his face tilted upwards, his eyes closed. A Healer was bent over him, removing tiny bits of stone from his severely cut face. Seger was on the next bed, lying on her back while another Healer worked on her chest and arms.

Sebastian stood at the window. He turned when he saw Coulter, and Coulter gasped.

“Gift?” he asked.

“No,” Sebastian said.

His cracks,
Ari said.
They’re gone.

“What happened to you?” Coulter asked.

“Se-ger…fixed…me.”

There was an noxious odor in the room. Coulter turned toward it, saw a melting jar in the fireplace, and several magickal screens in place before it, so that nothing leaked out.

“We destroyed the voice,” Seger said, “and we are getting rid of the container. It should be gone soon.”

“We don’t have soon,” Coulter said. “I didn’t get Rugad out of her. We have to go and we have to go now.”

You’re not telling them about me,
Arianna said.

Not yet,
Coulter said.
There are too many ears here
.

“If we could finish the treatments,” Seger started, “then—”

“No,” Coulter said. “If he finds you, he’ll know what happened. He’ll kill you, Seger. And you, Sebastian. You’ve defeated him twice before, not to mention this time. He’ll destroy you, like you’ve destroyed that voice.”

“And you,” Seger said.

Coulter shook his head. “He’ll probably torture me for a while, so that he can keep Arianna in line.”

It was true enough as far as it went. He wasn’t going to say any more about that.

“Come on!” he said.

“What about me?” Con asked.

“He doesn’t know about you,” Coulter said. “It’s your choice.”

“He may know,” Seger said. “It depends on how powerful that voice was.”

Con stood, and picked up his sword. His eyes were sad. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“Out of here.” Coulter wasn’t going to give the other Domestics any more information. They served the Black Throne and would answer to the person they thought to be its Queen.

Seger stood as well. Con put an arm around Sebastian and hurried him forward.

It took longer than Coulter wanted to get the group out of the Domicile and to the stables. The carriage waited, with fresh horses. Dash sat in front, reins in hand.

He peered over his shoulder at them. “This thing wasn’t built for an army,” he said to Coulter.

“Well,” Coulter said, “it’ll have to do.”

Con was helping Sebastian into the carriage. His weight tilted it slightly. Seger got in, and then Con.

“Get up front to help balance this thing,” Dash said. Coulter climbed beside Dash. The driver’s bench was barely big enough for both of them.

“I hope these horses are quick,” Coulter said.

“They’d be quicker if we dump one passenger.”

He wants to get rid of Sebastian,
Ari said.

He won’t,
Coulter thought, and then said aloud: “Just drive.”

Dash clucked at the horses and they started across the courtyard. Coulter glanced behind him. So far, no sign of Rugad. That was good. It meant he didn’t yet have as much control as he needed, and perhaps the loss of the voice had hurt him as well.

As they passed through the gates, Dash asked, “Where are we going?”

To the only place they could get any strength, Coulter thought. The only place with power enough and magick enough to fight Rugad.

Coulter said, “We’re going home.”

THE BLACK QUEEN

(Two Weeks Later)

THIRTY-FOUR

BRIDGE STOOD in the small room off the audience chamber, his hands clasped behind his back. Lyndred sat in an overstuffed chair. No fire burned in the fireplace—it was a warm spring day, and even warmer in the palace—but the window was open, revealing a charming garden whose early flowers were just beginning to bloom.

A man could get used to this place. It had a simple charm that seemed to have been bred out of most parts of Galinas.

Bridge paced from the window to the door. He and Lyndred had been here for much of the afternoon. Somehow he hadn’t expected rudeness from his niece. He had heard that she was warm and courteous, but so far he had seen none of it. She had even put him off when he got here yesterday, telling him he needed to request a formal audience.