A Lick Of Frost

CHAPTER 13

THE MIRROR RANG AGAIN, A STRIDENT CLASH OF SWORDS, AS IF blades had screamed down the sides of each other. It made me jump.

Rhys looked at Doyle and me. Doyle said, "Let Abe and me get out of sight. The fewer people in faerie who have this rumor the better I think." He gave my hand a last squeeze. Then he tried to rise with his usual effortless movement, but paused in mid-motion. It wasn't a flinch so much as that he simply stopped trying to stand.

I put a hand on his back to steady him. Frost grabbed one of his arms, and it was probably more him than me that helped Doyle stand upright. Doyle tried to move away from Frost's arm but stumbled. Frost got a firmer grip on his friend. Doyle actually leaned a little on the other man, which meant he was in a lot of pain.

"You didn't take the pain medication that the hospital gave you, did you?" I asked.

The mirror clanged again, an even angrier sound than before, as if the next sound of swords would break one of the blades.

"The goblins are not known for their patience, Meredith," Doyle said in a tight voice. "You must answer the call," He started off, and didn't fight Frost from helping him, which meant he was very hurt indeed. More hurt than he'd let on. The thought of my Darkness being this injured made my stomach and chest tight, not just because I loved him, but because he was the greatest warrior I had. Frost might be as good in battle, but for strategy it was Doyle. I needed him, in so many ways.

It must have shown on my face because he said, "I have failed you."

"Taranis tried to burn your face off," Rhys said. "You failed no one."

The evil sound of swords filled the room again.

"Go," Rhys said. "I'll stay with her."

"You don't like goblins," Frost said.

Rhys shrugged. "I killed the one that took my eye. That's got to be good enough revenge. Besides, I won't let you and Merry down by being a big baby. Go, rest, take your meds."

"I'll take Doyle," Galen said.

We all looked at him. "If Merry can't have Doyle by her side for this call, then she needs Frost," he said.

Abe had managed to get off the bed on the other side. "I see that no one cares that I might need help."

"Do you need help?" Galen asked, as he moved to take Doyle from Frost. He actually held his other hand out to Abe.

Abe looked into his face for a breath, then shook his head, but stopped the movement as if it hurt. "I can walk, boy. The king's men jumped him before he could do his worst on my back." He moved toward the door slowly but surely.

Doyle let Galen help him out of sight of the mirror and toward the door. Frost came to stand with me and Rhys. Rhys reached toward the mirror, then hesitated. "I hate that you are going to be with these two tonight."

"We've had this discussion, Rhys. For every half-sidhe goblin whom we bring into his full power, our alliance with the goblins is lengthened by a month. We need their threat to keep us safe," I said.

The mirror made its ugly sound again. "The goblins do not wait with patience," Frost said.

"We need them, Rhys," I said.

"I know. I hate it, but I know," Rhys said. A look passed over his face too quickly for me to read. "One of these days I'd like you to be able to do things just because you want to do them, not because you're forced to do them."

I wasn't sure what to say to that.

Rhys reached out toward the mirror. The metallic shriek rose to a crescendo. I fought the urge to cover my ears. I couldn't afford to show weakness in dealing with the goblins. The two high courts of faerie would use weakness to their advantage. Goblin culture simply saw weakness as a reason to abuse you. You were either prey or predator to the goblins. I was working very hard not to be prey.

The mirror was suddenly a perfect window onto the goblin throne room. Their king was not there, though. Ash and Holly stood alone before the empty stone throne. It was Ash's hand on the glass when we saw them, his magic making the mirror sound like a battle.

He blinked solid green eyes into the mirror. There was no pupil, only a blind expanse of perfect grass green surrounded by a little white. His hair was yellow, cut short, because only the sidhe are allowed long hair on their men, but his skin was gold kissed. Not sparkling with golden bits like Aisling's, but it was close. Both the twins had Seelie skin, sunlight skin. Moonlight skin like mine, and Frost's, was plentiful at both courts. That golden color, almost like a tan, was exclusively Seelie. The eyes were goblin except for the color. Holly strode to the mirror to stand by his brother. He was identical except that his eyes were the color of red holly berries, like his namesake. The red color with no pupil was not just goblin but Red Cap goblin.

Rhys moved back from the mirror to stand on the other side of me so that I was sandwiched between him and Frost.

"The bargain is over," Holly said, his handsome face contorted with rage. He was usually the one to lose his temper first.

"To keep us waiting like this is to make us lose respect in front of all," Ash said. He didn't sound much more reasonable than his brother, which was bad, since Ash was the voice of reason for the two of them.

"Queen Andais kept us overlong," Frost said.

Rhys just moved closer to me, as if the twins' anger alone could hurt me.

Their eyes flicked to him then back to me. "Is this true, Princess?" Ash asked.

"The queen had much to show us," I said, and let my voice hold some of the upset I felt about Crystall and his fate in her bed.

"She's been entertaining the sidhe you left behind," Ash said.

Holly actually looked uneasy, his anger fading, which was unusual for him.

"Has the queen spoken to the two of you?" I asked.

They exchanged a look. Ash answered. "Apparently, the queen enjoyed watching us lick her blood off of your skin. We didn't think that any sidhe, even Unseelie sidhe, would be so goblin in their tastes."

Andais's blood had gotten on me in her most recent attempt to kill me. She'd been unhappy with me that day. Lately she'd been happier with me, so her murder attempts had stopped, and she was paying my legal bills.

"She offered you her bed?" Frost asked.

"We are not talking to you, Killing Frost," Holly said.

I put a hand on Frost's arm, letting him know that it was all right. "I must weigh the pride of all the men in my life," I said. "Frost is one of those men, and if tonight comes to pass as we have all pla

"We do not," Holly said.

"You turned her down?" I made it a question.

"We began the bargaining with what would be done and by whom," Ash said, "but she will not allow harm to come to her body. She only wishes to do harm to others."

"She actually tried to bargain that she would torture the two of you during sex?" I asked.

"Yes." Holly almost shouted it.

"She did not know that it was the gravest of insults to offer that to you," I said.

"But you knew," Ash said.

I nodded. "I visited the goblin court many times over my childhood. It was one of the few courts in faerie where my father felt that it was safe to bring me as a child."

"He would not have allowed you inside the Seelie Court," Ash said.

"No," I said.

"The goblins are not tamer than the sidhe," Holly said, his anger flaring again.

"No, but the goblins are honorable and do not break their rules," I said.

"Is it true that the queen tried to kill you when you were a child?" Ash asked.

I nodded again. "It is."

"So you were truly safer here with us than with your own kind," Ash said.

"With the goblins and with the sluagh."

Holly laughed, a harsh, unpleasant sound. "You were safer with us, and with the nightmares of faerie than with the pretty sidhe. I find that hard to believe."

"The sluagh, like the goblins, have laws and rules and they abide by them. My father knew your ways and taught those ways to me. It is why we are here speaking today."

"You have bargained most carefully, Princess," Ash said, and there was no lust when he said it, though it was sex we'd been bargaining over. No, there was respect in his face, in his eyes. I'd earned that respect.

"I am not surprised to see Frost, for lately he is half of your constant companions, but it is not usually Rhys who holds your other hand," Ash said.

"Where is the Darkness?" Holly asked.

"Yes, Princess, he has become like your shadow," Ash said. "But today you have only Frost and Rhys by your side. And it is well known that Rhys does not like goblin flesh," Ash said. He made that last comment sound suggestive.

Rhys tensed beside me, one hand going to my shoulder, but otherwise he held his temper.

Did they know that we had been attacked? If they did know, would they see it as an insult if we didn't tell them? The goblins were our allies, but not our friends.

"If the goblins are your allies," Ash said, "then should you have secrets from them?"

They knew. I made my decision. "Is the rumor mill traveling so fast in faerie?"

"There are those among the goblins who watch the human news. They saw the Darkness in a wheelchair coming out of a human hospital. We did not see it, so gave it no credit, but now he is missing from your side. My brother and I ask again, where is your Darkness?"

"He is healing."

"But injured," Ash said. He seemed a little eager at the news.

I fought not to lick my lips or show some other nervous habit. I spoke smoothly. "He is injured, yes."

"It must be grave for him to leave your side," Ash said.

"Darkness in a wheelchair like an invalid," Holly said. "I never thought I would see such a shameful thing."

"There is no shame in taking care of an injury among the sidhe," I said.

"A goblin so badly injured would either take his own life or others would take it for him," Holly said.

"Then glad I am that I am not goblin," I said, "for I injure all too easily." I'd mentioned my frailty on purpose. I hoped to turn their attention from Doyle and toward the sex we might be having tonight. Ash and Holly had never been with a human. They had never been with anyone who could be injured so easily, and death, true death, by accident, with no cold metal involved, was a novelty. Yes, Ash hoped to be king. Ash and Holly both hoped that I could bring them into their sidhe-sided magic as I had others. But it wasn't hunger for power that filled Holly's face with eagerness. It was hunger of a very different kind.