Read Online Destiny: A Story of the Fey by Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Free Book Online Page A

his goal. The Fey were a great warrior people, but they only owned half the world right now. The Black King — and the Black Throne — wanted all of it.
    Solanda entered the merchant sector of Nir, and silently cursed to herself. The merchants often shooed cats out of this area. Her presence here was suddenly noticeable, and she didn’t dare Shift. She’d shock an entire community of Nyeians — which would probably be good for them.
    Scents from the nearby vendor stalls caught her nose. Fried beef, more fish, some sort of vegetable something which turned her feline stomach. The fish was enticing. It almost made her forget that she was here because she had been summoned by the Black King’s son.
    Rugar had been her commander for part of the Nye campaign. He was an able warrior, frustrated under his father’s tight leash. The problem with Rugar was that he believed himself to be the equal of his father, and he was not.
    Solanda would rather work with the Black King, ruthless as he was, than with his less-talented son.
    The tall stone buildings prevented the sun from getting to the cobblestone. The stone was wet beneath her paws from the morning rain. The air was thick and muggy, making the six layers of clothes the Nyeians wore look even more uncomfortable.
    The handful of Fey who were on the street wore their traditional uniform — a leather jerkin and pants. The Fey were so much taller than the Nyeians that even if they didn’t dress differently, they would be noticeable.
    She ducked under some clothing stalls, past the buildings that housed the year-round indoor merchants, and turned on the street that led to the Bank of Nye. The Black King had taken over the building. It was four stories of gray stone, towering over the buildings around it — as close to a palace as there was in Nye.
    She sighed heavily and crossed the street, climbing up the stone steps and staring at the large stone door. She’d have to Shift just to get into the place.
    Then she saw a nearby window ledge. The window was open. She leaped onto the ledge and jumped to the stone floor inside. She thought this building unusually cold for a Nyeian structure. The house where she was pampered was made of wood, and had thick rugs on its floors. Every surface was soft, and the air perfumed.
    Here the air smelled like chalk and the stone was chilly despite the heat. There were no guards in this room, although there should have been. It looked like it was someone’s office — a desk in the center, chairs on the side for supplicants.
    The door was open and led into a cavernous hallway. She heard voices and followed them. Several Fey guards huddled in an alcove. They were Infantry and young, tall even though they hadn’t come into their magic yet. Their dark skin and black hair was a welcome sight. She’d gotten tired of looking at the pasty-faced Nyeians, and hadn’t realized how much she missed her own kind.
    “…fool’s errand, don’t you think?” One of the young men said.
    “If it’s so important, why doesn’t the Black King go?” another asked.
    “Blue Isle is important,” said a young woman. “It’s the only stop between here and Leut.”
    Leut was the continent on the other side of the Infrin Sea. The Black King wanted to go there more than anything. He wanted to conquer as much of the world as he could before he died.
    “If we are going to conquer the world,” the girl was saying, “we have to go through Blue Isle first.”
    “Then it doesn’t make sense,” the first man said. “Why send Rugar? He’s not as good a commander as his father.”
    “Maybe,” Solanda said in her most authoritative voice, “the best commander in the world has a plan that’s too sophisticated for you to understand.”
    They all turned. They had similar upswept features, narrow faces, and pointed ears. Solanda had often thought that her people looked like foxes — most of them, anyway. Shifters, like her, often took some of the characteristics