The Rival (26 page)

"What do you mean?"

"Two weeks, he has had those Visions," Solanda said.  "Two weeks."  She looked at them.  Niche appeared confused, but Wind didn't.  He knew exactly what  —  and who  —  she was talking about.

"We would have known," he said.

"We would be the last to know," she said.  "We failed."

Silence filled the room.  Niche's breathing, labored suddenly with fear, was the only sound.  "What do we do now?" she asked.

"Go to the Shaman," Solanda said.

"But Gift already went."

"And asked the wrong questions."  She stood.  "it's not how to stop the Visions.  He needed to know what triggered them."

Wind stood beside her.  He understood.  "And what if the Black King has finally arrived?"

"We evacuate Shadowlands," Solanda said, "and hope we are as good at hiding as we are at hunting."

"Better," Niche whispered.  "We need to be better."

TWENTY-SIX

Nicholas clutched the back of his chair still staring at the door that the spark had disappeared beneath.  Arianna watched him, her blue eyes narrowed.  She looked so odd, wearing Sebastian's face.  She used it her way, quickly, and with animation, but it was still Sebastian's face.   The only thing that marked it as hers was the slight ridge of her birthmark, its outline faint against her chin.

Her idea, to Shift and be the child Annointed in the Coming of Age.  It had seemed like it would work.

Until now.

She was staring at him.

They all were staring at him, waiting for him to do something.

Then Arianna grabbed his arm and pulled him close.  "I can follow him," she whispered.

Nicholas shook his head once.  He knew where the Black King was.  He didn't want his daughter risking her life to go to that encampment. 

Conversation was rising below him.  A man's voice was carrying over the din, something about the demon Fey.

Nicholas whirled.  "Lord Stowe, get the Rocaan.  Have him meet me in the war room."

"Yes, sir."  Stowe left without a backwards glance.  His departure silenced the room again.

Most of the major landowners, all of the major lords were below him.  They all knew.  Nicholas had to use them somehow without causing a panic.

"Daddy  — " Arianna said.

"Wait, child."  He faced the group.  They were wearing their finery, and it was at odds with the panic on their faces.  Many of them were old enough to remember the first Fey invasion.  Most of them had feared this one ever since.

"You've all heard it," Nicholas said.  "I will do my best to negotiate with the Black King, but it sounds as if he is not a diplomat but a warrior.  If that's the case, we have a battle facing us.  The worst thing we can do is panic."

"They're no match for us!" someone yelled.

"They might be," Nicholas said.  "It depends on how large their force is, how well we work together, and whether or not the Fey already on the Isle will join him or us."

"What about your son?"

Nicholas glanced at Arianna.  He never thought that they would question his children's loyalty.  "My son was raised here.  He will fight for us."

"I belong on Blue Isle," Arianna said.  "It is my home."

"And you'll go over to the Black King the moment it looks like he could take the Isle."

"And betray my father?" Arianna seemed to have forgotten that she was supposed to mimic Sebastian's voice. She was speaking with her own.  "I would never do that.  I may look Fey to you, but I have Islander blood.  I will remain here, in the palace, with my family and friends."

"This is not a time to question the heir to the throne," Nicholas said.

"It is precisely the time," Lord Miller said.  "We need to have faith in our leaders."

"You have faith in me.  I'm still in charge," Nicholas said.

"You married one of them," a woman shouted.  Nicholas couldn't see who had spoken in the dim light.

"For peace," Nicholas said. "And we've had peace.  We may still have peace if I talk to the Black King.  That Fey was just an underling.  He's in no position to negotiate, nor is he in any position to know his King's mind.  Well, you all know mine.  Blue Isle is ours.  It shall remain ours.  I will do everything I can to see that it remains so."

"Even denying your Fey children?"

"My children were born on this Isle. They grew up in the palace, and they shall take my place when I die.  But I have no plans to die, now or in the immediate future.  You all shall listen to me, and I will do the best I can to keep us safe from this new assault."

"Talking doesn't work against killers," Lord Enford said.

"That's right," Nicholas said.  "Which is why I need you all to do exactly as I say.  First, we shall prepare for war."

Arianna put her hand on his arm.  He glanced at her.  She nodded, as if in approval.

"I want the Council to meet me in the war room when this ends.  The rest of you should go home, and prepare your lands for war."

"It sounds like some of our lands have already faced it."

Nicholas took a deep breath.  "The Black King is in the south. None of the southern representatives are here. That was not unusual in and of itself; they rarely attend state functions.  But their absence lends credence to what that Fey said."

The lords below him were silent now.  None of them, apparently, had put all that information together.

"Secondly, I shall meet with the Rocaan and make certain there is enough holy water for the Isle.  He was supposed to keep a supply of it, in case.  Contact your Danites and Auds, make certain that they give you enough water to survive for a time."

"The Fey said that they can beat our holy water," said Lord Fesler.  He sounded concerned, not contradictory.

"Let's hope he's wrong," Nicholas said.  "In case he isn't, make certain that you are well armed.  The Fey may have magickal powers, but they die like the rest of us.  The secret is to remember that, no matter what they throw at us.  A sword kills them as easily as it kills us."

Everyone was staring at him.  His heart was pounding, his fingers clutching the chair back.  He hadn't felt this alive in years.

"Finally, there are some Fey who have lived among us for over a decade now.  Some have helped us.  Some have not.  React to them as individuals, not as part of an army.  Some of them have knowledge  —  and enough fear of their own Black King  —  to be on our side.  Remember that.  And use it."  He finally held the room.  He finally felt in control.  "Now," he said, "you have your orders.  The quicker we move to safeguard our Isle, the better off we'll be.  You don't have to wait for me to leave the room.  You are all dismissed."

Talking began almost immediately, followed by the sound of a hundred chairs scraping against stone.  Lords helped their ladies up, conversing with the people beside them.  The members of the council kissed their wives, then threaded their way out the side door.  The rest of the gathering grouped at the main doors, filing out in an orderly fashion.

"You should have let me go after him," Arianna said softly.

Nicholas shook his head.  "Where the Black King is right now is less of a concern than what we're going to do about him."

"We've got to fight," Arianna said.

Nicholas turned.  "You can't," he said quietly.  "Remember what the Shaman said."

"I wasn't talking of me," she said.  "I meant we, Blue Isle, us."

Nicholas knew that she couldn't lead a fight against her great-grandfather.  He wasn't even sure if she could participate in one.  But he knew better than to say anything in this room.  "I have to get to the war room.  Go take care of your sibling."

"I need to come with you," Arianna said.

"No.  I need you in Sebastian's rooms."  Nicholas was still choosing his words with caution.  He had allowed Arianna to Shift into her brother's form, he even approved of her receiving the designation as the heir in that form, but he wasn't going to risk her.  Not now, not ever.

He wasn't going to risk Sebastian either.

"You need me in the war room."

"After what happened today, I'm not going to leave either of my children alone too long.  And right now, I'm worried about my other child."

Arianna sighed, but she apparently saw his point.  "We'll come to the war room together, then," she said.

Nicholas's stomach lurched.  This masquerade would be tougher than he thought.  "You can't — "

"Don't worry," she said, smiling.  "I'll dress as myself."

He felt an odd sort of relief.  She did understand.  She would be somewhat cautious.  That was all he could hope for.

He picked up the skirts of his robe, and pushed in Lord Stowe's chair.  Arianna grabbed his hand.  "Daddy," she said, "what about Solanda?  She's not in the palace any more."

He knew.  He'd already thought of that.  Solanda and the Shaman were the reasons that he mentioned handling the Isle's Fey on a case by case basis.

"I'm afraid she's going to have to take care of herself," he said.  "She's done that for years.  She'll be fine."

"I hope so," Arianna said.  She remembered to turn slowly and to imitate Sebastian's gait as she stepped down from the podium.  None of the guests spoke to her.  A few backed away from her as she approached.

If only the Black King had waited a year.  If only Nicholas had discovered earlier Arianna's uncanny abilities to Shift into many forms.  Then maybe his people would have had time to accept her, and Sebastian, as the future rulers of this place.

But he knew that hope was false.  His son, or the boy he thought of as his son, was eighteen years old.  His daughter, fifteen.  Blue Isle had had ample time to get used to part-Fey rulers.  It hadn't.

He could do nothing to change that.

But he had to admit to himself that Arianna's decision to step into her brother's shoes, literally, relieved him.  Ever since Sebastian's birth  —  or perhaps appearance was the right word  —  ever since, Nicholas had worried that his son wouldn't be capable of ruling.  Now his son would act as a literal figurehead.  Arianna would make all the decisions.  His people, and his council, would simply have to believe that at times Sebastian was slow, and at others he wasn't.  It would make for some discomfort, but nothing that Arianna couldn't handle.

She was like her mother.  Strong, brilliant, confident.

But not invincible.  He had believed that of Jewel once.  Matthias had proved that wrong. 

Nicholas knew what he spoke of.  The Fey were as vulnerable as Islanders.  The key was simply to discover the vulnerable spots.

He knew where his was.  It was that beautiful daughter of his, climbing the stairs in search of her brother.  Both children mattered more to him than his own life.  But he had to let them free.  Jewel would have told him that.  She probably never would have raised them as protected as he had.  She had argued from the beginning to let Sebastian go out in public.  Nicholas had fought it, partly out of shame, and partly out of fear.

He had been wrong.

And now, at the time Nicholas needed the Islanders to believe in him, they worried he would give the country to the Fey.

He wouldn't.  He would fight the Black King if he had to.

But he was hoping he wouldn't have to.

They were family, of a sort. 

But he wasn't certain what he could offer the Black King that the man would want.  Nicholas wanted Blue Isle to remain the same, a small self-contained Kingdom.  If it were ruled by a person with Black Blood, then the Fey could claim it as part of their empire.  But he didn't want the place overrun with the Fey any more than his people did.  He wanted the Fey to leave them alone.

Yet he wasn't sure he could make the offer he knew he had to make. 

The Black King wasn't interested in Blue Isle as a country.  He was interested in Blue Isle as a launch point toward the Leut continent.  He would have his troops stop here on their journey from Galinas as a rest, a refueling, a place to organize.  Then they would continue east to Leut. 

Invading it as they had invaded Blue Isle.

Nicholas had lived through that.  He had seen friends die, he had lost family to it, he had watched his entire world change.  He wasn't certain he could stand by and let such a crisis flow to another country in order to save his own.

But he wasn't sure he could fight the Fey back a second time.

Even though he had told his people to disregard Flurry's warning about holy water, he couldn't afford to.  And without holy water, the Isle was as vulnerable as a naked baby before a wolf.

He didn't like his choices.  But then, he didn't have to like them.

He just had to make the best of them.

TWENTY-SEVEN

She took the steps quickly, uncertain about the feeling in the pit of her stomach.  Her robes were long and uncomfortable.  She had worn Sebastian's body before, had done so since she was a little girl, but she had never worn it inside of a robe.

It felt odd.

It also felt odd to do so with the approval of her father.  He kept looking at her as if he could see her.  In the past, he never noticed.  But then she had sat very still and never said anything to him.  She used it as proof, mental proof, at how dumb all the others were.

Including Solanda.  Arianna wore Sebastian's form the most around Solanda to see if Solanda acted differently toward Sebastian in private.

She really didn't.  She ignored him, most of the time.  And somehow that hurt worse.

But Arianna couldn't shake the worry she now felt for Solanda.  For the last few years, all she had felt for her substitute mother was contempt.  Now, with Solanda gone, and the Black King hovering, Arianna wanted to find Solanda and hold her, like she used to do as a little girl, clinging to Solanda like a lifeboat in the middle of a choppy sea.

Of all the days for her to disappear.

Of all the days for the Black King to announce his arrival.

Of all the days for her real brother to show up.

Arianna went cold.  Maybe this Gift's appearance had something to do with the Black King.  But that made no sense.  How would Gift know  — ?