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Gift, and she had told Bridge to hurry to Blue Isle. He had thought then that she was implying Arianna was going to die, and when he saw Arianna healthy, he thought no more about it. But he had sent one of his best Riders in her place to find Gift. And if the message was for Gift to return, he would be getting to Blue Isle in the next few months.
    “That complicates things,” Bridge said. He thought for a moment while Lyndred watched him. Usually she snapped at him when he did that, because her mind worked so much quicker than his. It was a sign of how much she needed his advice that she let him go at his own pace.
    What would his father have done? Better yet, what would his grandfather have done?
    They would have looked for the thing that wasn’t obvious. The piece of the puzzle everyone else overlooked.
    His daughter was worrying about talking to Arianna, about telling her the wrong thing as Gift returned to Blue Isle. But that wasn’t the central problem. The central problem was that the Fey’s great Visionary was asking an eighteen-year-old girl what her Visions were. Daily. Which meant either that Arianna was having constant Visions herself or she was having none.
    If she was having constant Visions someone would have noticed. The Visionary fell forward, eyes rolled in the back of the socket, hands twitching. It could happen anywhere. He had heard from some of the other Fey that Arianna had tried to keep her Visions private for the sake of the Islanders who weren’t used to such things, but even a minor Visionary like Bridge knew that sometimes Visions couldn’t be held back, and couldn’t be had in private.
    “Have you ever seen Arianna have a Vision?” he asked.
    Lyndred shook her head. “But she saw me once.”
    He didn’t doubt that. He’d seen Lyndred have one after they’d arrived. It seemed as if Lyndred’s Visions had increased tenfold since they set foot on Blue Isle.
    “You know, Daddy, she didn’t want us here until she saw me. Until she discovered that I had come into my Vision.”
    He had forgotten that. The look in Arianna’s eyes when she saw Lyndred for the first time. What had she said? I don’t believe in courtesy. I believe in expediency. And it’s obvious you might have information that’s useful to me.
    Bridge had always thought Arianna had meant his trip and the Gull Riders. But her cold blue eyes had become speculative when they saw Lyndred, and Lyndred had bragged that she was a Visionary.
    Perhaps we could compare Visions sometime, Arianna had said. But they never had compared Visions. Lyndred had been supplying them all.
    He shook himself, then clenched his fists. Acting without knowledge was as dangerous as trying to interpret a Vision, maybe more so when discussing Blindness in a Black Ruler.
    “We need more information, Lyndred,” he said. “Before I can help you with these Visions, we need to know if Arianna is having any. We need to know for certain.”
    “How can we learn that?”
    Bridge squared his shoulders. He hated sending his daughter into a battle, even a verbal one, with someone like Arianna, but he had no other choice. “You’ll have to ask her for some so that you can compare. Say you feel odd, not having heard anyone else’s Visions since you’ve arrived.”
    Lyndred was biting her lower lip so hard the skin around it was turning gray. He leaned forward and rubbed his finger against her chin, like he used to do when she was little. She stopped biting and licked her lip as if it hurt her.
    “I don’t want to sound like I’m quizzing her.”
    “Then don’t,” Bridge said. “Make it casual.”
    Lyndred nodded, looking vaguely ill. She was afraid of Arianna; that was becoming clear. Bridge was too. Arianna could do nothing to them. They were members of the Black Family, related by blood.
    Still, Rugad had found ways to get rid of family members he didn’t like. Accidental ways. Oversights. Allowing someone to make a mistake that Rugad knew would