A Lick Of Frost

She gave me a frightened look as she cleaned. When I did not look away, she held my gaze. There was a moment of great fear in her face. Fear for herself, and maybe, fear for me. Fear of Taranis. Someone had said that the Cu Sith had stopped him from striking a servant. Where was the Cu Sith now?

Something scratched at the door, I did not need to see the door to know that it was something large wanting inside.

Taranis's voice. "Chase that beast away from my door."

"King Taranis," the healer said, "Princess Meredith is beyond my ability to heal."

"Heal her!"

"Many of the herbs I would use would harm the children she carries."

"Did you say children?" he asked, and he sounded almost normal, almost sane.

"She carries twins." She had simply taken my word for it. I appreciated that.

"My twins," he said, and his voice was back to that arrogant crowing. He came back to the bed, sat on it, made me bounce. The headache and nausea roared back to life. I cried out as he scooped me up in his arms. The movement was agony.

I screamed, and the sound hurt me, too.

Taranis seemed frozen by my scream, He stared down at me, almost childlike in his lack of comprehension.

"Do you want your children to die?" the healer said from beside him.

"No," he said, still frowning and confused.

"She is mortal, my king. She is fragile. You must let us take her somewhere where they can heal her, or your children will die unborn."

"But they are my children," he said, and it was more question than fact.

She looked at me, then said, "Whatever the king says is truth."

"She bears my children," he said, and he still sounded a little unsure of himself.

"Whatever the king says is truth," she repeated.

He nodded, hugging me a little more gently. "Yes, my children. Lies, all lies. I was right. I just needed the right queen." He leaned down and laid the softest of kisses on my forehead.

The scratching at the door was louder. Taranis screamed, and stood with me in his arms, "Go away, foul dog!"

The movement was too abrupt and I threw up on him. He dropped me to the bed while I was still vomiting. The brown-eyed servant girl caught me, steadied me, so I did not fall from the bed to the floor. She held me while I threw up until there was nothing but bile and bitterness. Blackness tried to swallow the world again, but the pain was too great.

I lay in the maid's arms and moaned with the pain of it. Goddess and consort, help me!

The scent of roses came like a soothing wave. The nausea eased. The pain became a duller ache instead of a blinding thing.

The brown-eyed maid and the healer began to clean me again. Most of it had gone onto the king, but not all.

"Let us help you clean up, my lord," the other maid said.

"Yes, yes, I must clean myself."

The brown-eyed maid looked up at the healer and the guard. The healer said, "Go with your fellow servant, help the king to bath. Make certain he has a long, relaxing bath."

The maid's body tensed a little, then she said, "As the healer wishes, so shall it be."

The healer directed the blond guard to take me from the woman. He hesitated.

"You are a battle-hardened warrior. Does a little sickness make you flinch?"

He scowled at her. His eyes flared with a hint of blue fire before he said, "I will do what is needed." He took me from the maid. He took me gently enough, while the healer said, "Support her head most carefully."

"I have seen head wounds before," the guard said. He did his best to keep me still. When the far door to the bathroom closed behind the king and the maids, the guard stood just as carefully with me in his arms.

The healer went for the door, and he followed without a word. The scratching at the door held whining now, and when they opened the door the Cu Sith stood there like a green pony. It gave a soft woof when it saw us.

The healer whispered, "Hush."

The dog whined, but quietly. It came to the guard's side, so that its fur brushed my bare feet. The touch of it sent a thrill through my body. I waited for my head to hurt, but it didn't. I actually felt a tiny bit better.

We stood in a long marble corridor lined with gilt-edged mirrors. There were two lines of Seelie nobles in front of those mirrors. Each man and woman had at least one faerie dog at their side. Some were the elegant greyhounds like my own poor dogs. I prayed that Mi

Some of the dogs were the huge Irish wolfhounds, as they'd been before the breed had almost died out. These were nothing that had ever mixed with other breeds. They were giants, huge fierce things, some slick of fur, some rough. The looks in their eyes had nothing to do with sight and everything to do with battle. They were war dogs fierce enough that the Romans had feared them and collected them for the arena.

Two of the ladies, and one of the men, held small white-and-red dogs in their arms. All nobles love a good lapdog.

I didn't understand why they were there, but there was again something about the presence of the dogs that calmed me. It was as if a soft voice said, "It will be all right. Do not fear, we are with you."

I recognized Hugh of the fiery hair. "How badly hurt is she?" He had a brace of the huge Irish hounds. They were tall enough to look me in the eye with room to spare as I lay in the guard's arms.

"A concussion, and she is with child. A month gone with twins."

He looked startled. "We must get her away."

The healer nodded. "Yes, we must."

The nobles with their dogs closed behind us, so that if Taranis had opened his door he would have seen a solid wall of sidhe nobles, and I would have been hidden from sight.

Did they truly mean to defy their king for me? We continued to hurry down the corridor as they spoke of treason.

A woman with hair that flowed in shades of blue and gray like sky or water spoke. It took me a moment to recognize her as Lady Elasaid. "The press secretary has already spoken to the human media."

"What did they say in answer to Queen Andais's accusations?"

"He said that we have offered the princess sanctuary after she was viciously attacked by her own guards."

"So they are telling the lies that Taranis told them," Hugh said.

Lady Elasaid nodded.

"Does the media know that he attacked us in the lawyer's office?" I asked.

They looked startled, as if they hadn't expected me to speak. I think that for them I was an object, and not quite real yet. They weren't joining my cause because they liked me or believed in me, they just believed in the magic and power I was helping bring back to faerie. I was simply the vessel for that power.

"Yes," Hugh said. "We made certain that it was leaked. They have pictures of your injured guards coming and going from the hospital."

We had come to a pair of huge white double doors. I had never seen this hallway. I had never before been honored with a trip to the king's bedroom. I hoped to never be so «honored» again.

Lady Elasaid came to my side. "Princess Meredith, I would give you my shawl to cover yourself, if you would like it." She held out a silken cloth in a brilliant green with gold designs. It matched my eyes. I looked at her, moving my eyes careful so that nothing hurt. They had a plan. I didn't know what it was, but the shawl matching my eyes said that they had one. If even my clothes were being coordinated then they had a plan.

"It would be most welcome," I said, and again my voice was soft, because I feared what my head would feel like if I spoke too loudly.

I had been healed of worse injuries in vision, but this time the Goddess seemed content to make me feel better in inches rather than all at once.

Hugh spoke as Lady Elasaid and another noble lady helped me slip on the robe. For robe it was, not shawl. "With a little persuasion from some of us, the king demanded a press conference so that he could tell his side of the story. He wanted to override the monstrous lies that the Unseelie were telling. The conference was scheduled to speak about the earlier attack in Los Angeles. But they are still here, Princess. They are now waiting for the king to speak to them about the accusation that he has kidnapped you."

"He let press into the Seelie mound," I said.

"How could he allow the Unseelie to be more progressive than we? Andais had called a conference to demand your return. He would appear guilty if he did less."

I thought I understood now why Deity had healed me only in small bits, enough to function, but not enough to be well. I needed to look hurt for the press. "Does he honestly believe what he said earlier, that he rescued me?"

"I fear so."

Lady Elasaid fastened a gold pin at the neck of the robe. "I would do your hair if there was time."

"We want her to look disheveled and injured," Hugh said.

I managed a smile at Lady Elasaid. "Thank you for the robe. I will be fine. Just get me to the press. I assume it's a live feed?"

Lady Elasaid frowned. "I do not understand."

"Yes," Hugh said. "It is live."

"Let us not linger here," the blond guard said.

"Only the king can see us here, and he no longer cares enough to use his mirrors for such things. We are safer here than in the next corridor," Hugh said.

"No one would dare spy on the king," a woman said.

So we stood in Taranis's own place of power, safe. Safe to plot behind his back. Safe from prying eyes, because they feared that he would see them, but his madness had made him blind.

I wondered who had first been bold enough figure out that the king's own i

"We wanted to see how sensible you were before we told you our plan," Lady Elasaid said.

Hugh said, "Head wounds can make a person unreliable, and this is too dangerous a game to have you privy to our secrets if you will blurt them out."

"May I speak freely here?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Get me in front of the cameras and I'll play damsel in distress for you."