A Caress of Twilight

We all stared down at the still form. He was warmer, though he still hadn't moved at all. "I don't think so," I said.

"Blood then, can he take blood?" Kurag asked.

"Maybe," I said.

"If we wiped it upon his mouth, we might get some of it into him," Doyle said. "If it did not choke him."

"He's a goblin, Darkness. He can't choke to death on blood."

"Does it have to be Merry's blood?" This from Rhys.

"I know you of old ... Rhys," and that silence held a name that no one used anymore. "You should come visit us again, sidhe. The womenfolk still talk of you. That's high praise from a goblin female."

Rhys had gone very pale and very quiet. He made no answer.

Kurag gave an unpleasant laugh. "Yes, it must be Merry's blood. Later, if some of the rest of you want to share blood and flesh with Kitto, feel free. The sidhe are always good eatin'." He glared at me with those orange eyes. "If the blood revives him, then give him flesh, Merry, real flesh this time." His eyes suddenly grew huge in the blade. He must have nearly pressed his nose to the blade. "You thought you'd get the goblins as allies for six months and not have to bed one of us. You shared flesh, so I can't say you lied about the alliance. But you pixied on the spirit of it. You know it and I know it."

I placed my still-bleeding finger against Kitto's lips, painting them crimson while I talked to his king. "If I take him to my bed, then he has a chance to be king, king of all the Unseelie. That is worth more than a six-month alliance."

Kitto's eyes flickered; his mouth made a small movement. I slid my finger over his lips, between his teeth, and his body jerked, once.

"Oh, no, you won't get me that easy, Merry girl, not that easy. You give him flesh like you should have done all along, and you get only three more months out of us. After that, your battles are your own."

Kitto began to suck on my finger like a baby, gently at first, then harder, harder, teeth begi

"I'd take the finger out before you lose it. He's not in his right mind yet, and goblins can bite through iron."

Kitto fought me, his mouth trying to hold on to my finger. By the time I pulled it free, his eyes were trying to open.

"Kitto," I said.

He didn't react to his name, or anything else, but he was warmer, and he was moving.

"He's moving, and he's warmer," I said.

"Good, very good. I've done my good deed, Merry. The rest is up to you."

I looked directly into the blade again, instead of down at Kitto. "You're just going to sit back and watch who wins, aren't you?"

"What matters to us who sits on the Unseelie throne? It matters to us only who sits on the goblin throne."

Doyle's deep voice cut in. "And what if Cel's followers were pla

"What are you babbling about, Darkness?"

"I am privy to much among the sidhe that the goblins do not know."

"You are not at court now."

"I am not without ears."

"Spies, you mean."

"I did not use such a word."

"Fine, fine, play the word games that you are all so fond of, but speak plainly to me."

"There are those at the Unseelie Court who believe Andais is desperate to have Meredith named her heir. They believe having a mortal on the throne is the end of them. They are talking about going to war on the Seelie before they all become powerless mortals. Our strength comes from our kings and queens, as you know."

"What you tell me is enough to make me throw in my lot with Cel's people."

"If the goblins were Merry's allies, then no one at the Unseelie Court would risk fighting against her. They dare to challenge the Seelie only because they assume they will have the goblins' support."

"What is it to us if the sidhe kill each other off?"

"You are bound by word, blood, earth, fire, water, and air to support the rightful heir to the Unseelie throne in all matters of strife. If Merry sits on the throne and Unseelie rebels fight against her while you sit back and do nothing, then your oath will come back upon you."

"You can't frighten me, sidhe."

"The Nameless walks the land again, and you think it is I whom you should be frightened of? There are terrible things far beyond me that will rise from the depths, descend from the sky, and take rightful payment from those who are forsworn by such oaths as you have taken."

It was difficult to tell in the blurred image, but Kurag looked worried. "I hear your words, Darkness, but Merry has fallen silent. Are you her new puppet master?"

"I tend your goblin, Kurag, and I have a better use for my tongue than telling you what you already know."

"I remember my oaths, girl."

"No, Kurag, that is not what I mean. The sidhe may not bear tales to the goblin mound, but you and I both know you have other means." I did not say out loud that the lesser fey at court, some servants, some not, talked to the goblins, sometimes for a price, sometimes for the feeling of power it gave them. My father had given his word never to tell of Kurag's system of spies. I had given no such oath. I was free to reveal the goblins' secret, but did not.

"Speak freely, Princess, and do not toy with this old goblin."

"I have spoken as freely as I intend to, Kurag, Goblin King."

He blew out a loud breath. "Merry girl, you are too much your father's daughter. Essus was my favorite of all the sidhe. His loss was great to all the courts of the Unseelie, for he was true friend to many."

"That means a great deal coming from you, Kurag." I didn't thank him, because you never thank an older fey. Some of the younger ones are cool with it now, but it's an old prohibition among us, almost a taboo.

"Do you honor all the oaths your father gave?"

"No, some I did not agree with, and some I know nothing of."

"I thought he told you everything," Kurag said.

"I am not a baby anymore, Kurag. I know that even my father kept his secrets. I was young when he died. Some things I wasn't ready to know."

"You are wise as well as luscious; how sad. Sometimes I'd have liked you better if you'd been just a little more stupid. I like my women less bright than I am."

"Kurag, you old charmer."'

He laughed then, a true laugh, and it was contagious. I laughed with him, and as the eyes began to fade out of the blade, he spoke. "I will think on what your Darkness has said, and what you have said, and even what your father said. But you must give true sustenance to my goblin or in three months I will be free of you."

"You'll never be free of me, Kurag, not until you've fucked me. Or that's what you told me when I was sixteen."

He laughed; but at the end, he said, "I used to think things would have been safer if you'd agreed to be my queen, but I'm begi