A Lick Of Frost

"Come, Galen Greenknight, green man, why?"

I had a thought. "He knows the prophesy that Cel got from the human psychic," I said.

"Yes, Meredith, because you and the green man will bring life back to the courts. Taranis has made the same mistake my son did. He thinks that Galen is the green man of the prophesy. Neither of them remember our history."

"The green man means the god, the consort," I said.

Andais nodded. She turned those eyes to Rhys. "And you, why you? Have you figured it out yet?"

"He heard the rumor that I'm Cromm Cruach again. If I were truly back to my original strength then he would fear me."

"Rumor has it that you can bring death to a goblin with a touch again. Is that rumor true?"

"I have done it once," he said, "but whether it will work again, I do not know."

"The rumor might be enough for Taranis," she said. She seemed calmer. Which was good. She looked at Doyle. "I understand why he attacked you. If I were to try and kill the princess, I would kill you first, but he was wrong in not targeting our Killing Frost." She turned those calm eyes to the big man standing so silent beside the bed. "To kill Meredith and survive would require both your deaths, wouldn't it, Killing Frost?"

Frost licked his lips. He was right to be nervous. This was not a conversation that we wanted to be having with our queen. "That is true, my queen," he said.

"Did the Seelie Court make the same condition on you that I do? Do you need to be with child before you can sit their throne?"

"No, they offered the throne with no conditions except that the nobles of the Seelie Court vote Taranis out and me in."

"What do you think of that, Meredith?"

"I am flattered, but not stupid. I am wondering if the nobles are playing some game of their own choosing, and the offer to me is simply to buy them time to consolidate their own bid for the throne. A vote to put me on the throne would slow the process of choosing a new king, or queen, for the Seelie Court to a crawl."

Andais smiled. "Did Doyle reason it out for you?"

"No, my queen," Doyle said. "The princess is well aware of the Seelie Court's potential for treachery."

"Is it true that Taranis almost beat you to death as a child?"

"Yes," I said. In my head I added, as you tried to drown me. Out loud I kept my mouth shut.

Andais smiled as if she'd hit on the same memory and it was a happy one for her. "Meredith, Meredith, you must learn to control your entire face. Your eyes betray how much you hate me."

I lowered my gaze, not sure what to say that wouldn't be a lie.

She laughed, and it was both a lovely sound and a sound that made me shiver, as if it were my own body lying on her bed unable to protect itself from what would come next. I wanted to save Crystall from her, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it. Me trying and failing would just make her hurt him worse. She'd think it meant he was special to me, and it would amuse her all the more to slice him up.

"Now that I know that you have not been meeting with Hugh and the Seelie nobles in secret, I agree that they mean you treachery. Perhaps you will be their stalking horse to lure out all the would-be assassins. Or perhaps it is what you say, that they simply throw your name into the ring to slow the process while someone else consolidates their own power. I think the latter the more likely, but the offer is so completely unexpected that I have not had time to think clearly on it."

What she meant was that she'd been convinced that I'd betrayed her with the Seelie Court, so she'd been too angry to think clearly. I kept my reasoning to myself. I had my face enough under control that I could look back up at her. Or I hoped I did. How do you tell if your own face is neutral?

"The fact that Taranis knows of the prophesy that Cel got from the human prophet means that one of Cel's trusted people is spying for the king of the Seelie Court." She tapped her chin with one bloody fingernail. "But who?"

There was a sound from the mirror, almost the clanging of swords. I glanced at the clock. "We are expecting a call from Kurag, Goblin King," I said.

"You have call waiting on your mirror," she said.

I nodded.

"I've never heard of such a thing. Who did the spell?"

"I did," Rhys said. His face was still softly amused, but there was a wariness around his eyes.

"You will have to bespell my mirror as well."

"Gladly, my queen," he said, voice pleasantly neutral.

The clang of swords sounded again. "Perhaps you should come back to court and do that today."

"With apologies, Aunt Andais, Rhys is to bed me if we can get time between calls and emergencies."

"Would it upset you to see his pale flesh bleeding on my bed like Crystall's?"

There was no safe answer to that question. "I do not know what you want me to say, Aunt Andais."

"The truth would be nice."

I sighed. Doyle squeezed my hand. Rhys tensed beside me. It was then that Galen lost it. "What does it matter? Taranis attacked us today. He went so crazy that his own nobles jumped him and dragged him away. He's about to be voted out as king of the Seelie Court, and you want to spend time tormenting Merry about us!" He actually stepped close to the mirror and continued to yell at her. "Doyle almost died today. Merry could have died today, and then you'd never have a child of your blood on any throne. The Seelie nobles are up to something dangerous that involves our court, and you want to play these stupid, painful games. We need you to be our queen, not our tormentor. We need help here. Goddess save us, but we do."

We might have jumped him to keep him quiet, but I think we were all too stu

Andais stared at him as if he'd just appeared. It wasn't a friendly look, but it wasn't an unfriendly look either. "What help would you have of me, Greenknight?"

"Try to find out why Hugh offered the throne to Merry, really why."

"What reason did he give?" she asked in an amazingly calm voice.

"That there are swans with gold chains, and that a Cu Sith stopped the king from beating a servant. The Seelie think Merry is to blame or gets credit for the return of the magic."

"And does she?" Andais asked with that edge of cruelty begi

"You know she does," Galen said, and there was no anger, just a sort of righteousness, as if it was just truth.

"Perhaps," Andais said. She turned her gaze to me. "I will try and find out if Hugh is being honest, or as treacherous as we think. You must have some magic over men that I do not see, Meredith. You have not even fucked Crystall, yet he seems strangely loyal to you. I will break him to my ways again, then I will choose another of the men who would have deserted me for you. Sidhe who would have rather followed you into exile than stay with me in faerie." She said the last almost in a thoughtful voice, as if she truly didn't understand it.

The truth was that it wasn't faerie they wanted to leave but her sadistic care, but that was a truth better kept to myself.

"If the Seelie offer is a genuine one, Meredith, you might consider taking it."

A thrill of fear ran through me. "Aunt Andais, I don't understand."

"Every man who prefers you to me makes me hate you a little more. Soon, my hatred for you may outweigh my desire for you to sit my throne. On the golden throne of the Seelie Court you would be safe from my anger."

I licked my suddenly dry lips. "I do nothing to anger you on purpose, my queen."

"And that is what is so maddening about you, Meredith. I know you do not do it on purpose. You simply are, and somehow by being yourself you part my nobles and my lovers from me. Your Seelie magic wins them away."

"I carry the hands of flesh and blood, those are not Seelie hands of power, Aunt."

"Yes, and Cel's prophet said that if someone of flesh and blood sat the Unseelie throne he would die. He thought it meant your mortality, but it didn't." She looked at me, and there was something other than cruelty, though I wasn't sure what exactly. "Cel screams your name in the night, Meredith."

"He means my death if he can manage it."

She shook her head. "He has convinced himself that if he lay with you, you and he would have a child, and he would be king to your queen."

My mouth couldn't get any drier, but my heart rate could get faster. "I do not think that would work, Aunt Andais."

"Work, work — it is fucking, Meredith. The mechanics of it would work just grand."

I tried again, while Doyle and Rhys gripped me harder. Even Abe moved in at my back to put his face against my hair. Touching to comfort me.

"I suppose what I meant was that I do not think Cel and I would make a good ruling couple."

"Do not look so frightened, Meredith. I know that Cel would not make you pregnant, but he has convinced himself of it. I suppose I am warning you. He no longer wants you assassinated, but he would kill every lover you have, if he could."

"Is he…  — " I tried to think of a way to say it, " — free to…"

"He is not imprisoned, but he is under guard at all times. I do not want my own guards to kill my only son to protect my heir." She shook her head. "Go, call the goblin king back. I will try to find out if Hugh's offer of the golden throne is true or false." She was walking back to the bed as she spoke the last few sentences. "But first I will take out my anger and frustration at you on your Crystall. Know that every cut is a cut I would make on your lily-white skin if I didn't need your body whole." She crawled onto the bed and reached for Crystall. A knife had appeared in her hand, either by magic or it had been tucked into the sheets.

Frost got to the mirror first and cleared it with a touch. We were left staring at our own images. My eyes were a little too wide, my skin pale.

"Crap," Rhys said.

That about summed it up.