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Only one guard, Whisper, remained at the queen’s back. When she’d offered the guards a chance to help me, I had not expected her to empty her stables, as it were. Perhaps she hadn’t either. She had given them the choice of working for someone else, and they had leaped at the chance. Offer a man a chance to break a thousand years of celibacy, and he’ll do a lot for you.
Of course, being mine meant they would be leaving faerie behind in a few days. Exile from faerie, if they followed me. Did they understand that? Did they care? And if they didn’t, then how puzzled Andais must be to find that her greatest threat, exile from faerie, was not so great a threat after all.
Mistral took his seat on the consort’s throne. He swept his grey hair to one side so that it caressed the edge of the chair like a cloak. I’d have given a great deal to see his face in that moment. To see him survey the court from the royal dais for the first time. If the queen’s words were true and not just her anger talking, she pla
Frost stood on one side of me, and Galen the other. I missed Doyle. Where was he? Where were Usna and Cathbodua? I clung to Galen’s hand, because I couldn’t seem to get enough of touching him. I’d held his death in my hands, now I wanted to wrap myself in the life of him. But I did not trust him to fight here among the lords of the sidhe and survive.
I think Andais thought we were giving Kieran and Made
“Kieran, you have tried to slay one of our royal guards. Not in fair challenge, but in an ambush.”
“If you think to trick me into challenging the young one, it will not work. If I challenge, then he chooses the method of the duel. He would choose weapons, and I ca
“You admit that one of the lesser among my guard is a better warrior than you, Kieran?”
“Of course. The Queen’s Ravens are the best warriors the sidhe have ever had. I would not be so bold as to think I could best him with metal.” Kieran looked at me. His pale beard framed the smile that had not left his face. “Of course, if the young lordling thinks I have insulted him and wishes to challenge me…” He left it open.
I squeezed Galen’s hand, and he laughed. Kieran’s smile faltered.
“Was I ever that stupid,” Galen said. “Goddess, I hope not.” He raised my hand and laid a kiss against my fingers. I saw a hardness in his face then that had never been there before. “I am at Merry’s side and in her bed, and I won’t give that up because you hurt my ego.” His usual grin flashed bright and clear, as if the shadow I’d seen on his face hadn’t been there at all. “Besides, I’m flattered. You ambushed me with two magicians and three warriors. I didn’t know you were that scared of me.”
“I am not frightened of some jumped-up pixie.” Kieran’s face had begun to flush in anger.
Galen laughed, and pressed his lips to my hand again. “If you’re not afraid of me, then why did you need so much help to kill me?”
“Oh, I agree,” Andais said. “Only fear would make Kieran take so much help to slay one guard. If it were Frost or my Darkness, I might understand. Even Mistral, our lord of storms, but I did not know you feared Galen.”
“I do not fear him,” Kieran said again, but there was something in his voice that made me want to quote Shakespeare. The lady doth protest too much. What was it about Galen, even if he were the green man who would bring life back to the court, that would make Kieran pack so much firepower, as it were, to kill him? It was a very good question. I’d been too caught up in nearly losing Galen to really think about it.
“If you don’t fear Galen, then what do you fear, Kieran?” I asked.
“Lord Kieran,” he said.
“No, Kieran,” Andais said. “She is heir to my throne, and will one day be your queen if you live that long. I think she can address you as I do, Kieran.” There was that purring edge to her voice that either meant sex, or that you were about to be hurt, really badly. Sometimes it meant both.
“What do I fear?” Kieran said. “I fear the death of the sidhe, as a race.”
“Do you fear that my niece’s mixed blood will condemn us all to mortality?”
“Yes, as do many of us. They are afraid to speak of it, but they would act as I do, if they had the courage.”
Andais looked past him. “I do not know, Kieran. I think your wife’s courage is fast fading.”
He looked at her, and there was something in his face, some question, or pleading. “If she would but speak with courage, this might end well.”
Made
“You have said many times that you would cleanse this court of the half-breeds.” Her voice was breathy, and thick with tears. “We mean only to help you do what you always wished to do before she returned from the Western Lands and turned you from us.”
Andais was leaning forward, and the anger was falling away from her. Kieran’s face was begi
“Crystall, search her for a spell, some trinket aimed at the queen.”
Andais frowned at me. “What are you talking about, Meredith?”
“Please, Your Majesty, please,” Made
I watched Andais’s face soften.
“Hawthorne,” I said, “if she speaks again before I give her leave, slit her throat. She’ll heal.”
He didn’t argue with me, he simply unsheathed a knife, and put it against her throat, even as she tried to protest.
Andais looked away from her, shielding her eyes. “What is it?”
Crystall searched Made
“If she is a widow then there will be no marriage vows to break,” Andais said.
Kieran’s mouth hung open for a moment, then he closed it, and I saw the first hint of fear in his eyes.
Made
Crystall had to get very up close and personal with Made
I lowered my shields enough to see the little pillow glow, and there was a thin red line from it to the queen.
Crystall cut the threads that bound it, and spilled out a few dried herbs and seven strands of black hair. He held up the hair between his fingers, and the rest in his opposite hand. “A charm for you, and only you, Your Majesty,” he said. “A charm of eloquence, so that her words be sweet to your ears.”
Andais looked to Barinthus on the far side of the dais. “I may give you what I seldom give anyone, Lord Barinthus.”
He bowed. “And what would that be, Queen Andais?”
“An apology.” She looked at Made
“He doesn’t think he risks death,” I said.
She looked at me. “He has used magic to try and work wiles upon me. That is cause for me to challenge one or both of them personally.”
“He told me that Siobhan tried to kill a royal princess and she lives still, and is not being tortured because Ezekiel fears her too much. He said if you would not punish someone for that, then there would be no punishment for trying to kill a half-pixie guard.”