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"No, we ca
We all looked at him. "Don't you see, Rhys? Merry will rule Taranis's rival kingdom. She must set the rules now, or he will forever treat her as less. For the sake of all of us, she must not appear weak."
"What will the king do?" Frost asked.
Doyle looked at him, and they had one of those long looks. "In absolute truth, I do not know."
"Has anyone ever defied him like this?" Frost asked.
"I don't know," Doyle said.
"No," I said.
They looked at me.
"Just as you walk around Andais like she's a snake about to strike, you tiptoe around Taranis the same way."
"He does not seem as frightening as the queen," Frost said.
I shrugged, and it hurt, so I stopped. "He's like a big spoiled child who's had his own way for far too long. If he doesn't get what he wants, he throws tantrums. The servants and lackeys live in fear of those tantrums. He's been known to accidentally kill in one of his rages. Sometimes he's sorry, sometimes he's not."
"And you just threw a steel gauntlet into his face," Rhys said, staring at me from the end of the bed.
"One thing I always noticed about Taranis's temper was that it never struck out at anyone powerful. If he was in this uncontrollable rage, then why was it always directed at people who were powerless to fight back? Always, his victims were either magically inferior, or politically inferior, or people with no strong allies among the sidhe." I shook my head. "No, Rhys, he always knows who he's lashing out at. It's not mindless. He won't hurt me, because I stood my ground. He'll respect me, and maybe begin to worry about me."
"Worry about you?" Rhys asked.
"He fears Andais -- and even Cel, because Cel's crazy and Taranis isn't sure what he'll do once he's got the throne. Taranis was probably thinking he could control me. Now he'll begin to wonder."
"It is interesting that this invitation comes after we have spoken to Maeve Reed," Doyle said.
I nodded. "Yes, isn't it."
The three of them exchanged glances. Kitto just stayed wound around me, quieter now. "I do not think it would be wise for Meredith to attend this ball," Frost said.
"I agree," Doyle said.
"Unanimous," Rhys said.
I looked at them. "I don't intend to go. But why are you all looking so serious?"
Doyle sat down on the far side of me, forcing Kitto to scoot back a little. "Is Taranis as good a political thinker as you are?"
I frowned. "I don't know. Why?"
"Will he think you refused for the true reasons, or will he wonder if you refused because of something Maeve said to you?"
I still hadn't told them Maeve's secret, and they had not asked. They probably assumed that she had made me give my word not to tell them, which she hadn't. The reason I hadn't shared it was because it was the kind of knowledge that could get you killed. And now, suddenly, out of the blue, was the invitation to court. Shit.
I looked at Doyle and the others. Frost had moved over to lean against the dresser, arms crossed. Rhys was still on the bed. Kitto curled against me. I looked at each in turn.
"I wasn't going to tell you what Maeve told me, because it's dangerous information. I thought we'd just avoid the Seelie Court altogether, and it wouldn't matter. Taranis hasn't sent me an invitation to anything for years. But if we are going to have to deal with him, then you need to know."
I told them why Maeve had been exiled. Rhys just put his head in his hands and said nothing. Frost stared. Even Doyle was speechless. It was Kitto who said it. "Taranis has condemned his people."
"If he is truly infertile, then, yes, he has doomed them all to death as a people," Doyle said.
"Their magic dies because their king is sterile, dead soil," Frost said.
"It is what I believe Andais fears for the Unseelie. But she has borne one child, and Taranis has always been childless."
"So that's why she's so interested in Cel or me breeding," I said.
Doyle nodded. "I believe so, though she has kept her own counsel on her exact motives in pitting you and Cel against each other."
"Taranis will kill us all." Rhys's voice was quiet, but very certain.
We all looked at him. It was begi
He raised his face from his hands. "He has to kill everyone who knows he's sterile. If the other Seelie find out that he's condemned them, they will demand he make the great sacrifice and his blood will be spread to recover their fertility."
Looking into Rhys's bleak face, it was hard to argue, especially since I'd thought the same thing.
"Then why is Maeve Reed alive and well?" Frost asked. "Julian has told us there have been no attempts on her life, none whatsoever."
"I can't explain it," Rhys said. "Maybe it's because she has no way to tell anyone else in faerie. We've met with her, but she can't talk to anyone else who isn't already in exile. Meredith is not in exile, and she can talk to people who would matter. People who would believe her and act on it."
We all sort of sat there, thinking. Doyle broke the silence. "Frost, call Julian and tell him that there may be trouble."
"I ca
"No," Doyle said.
Frost nodded and went out into the other room to call on the phone.
I looked at Doyle. "Have you talked to anyone else about this?"
"Only Barinthus," he said.
"The bowl of water on the altar," I said.
Doyle nodded. "He was once the ruler of all the seas around our islands, so contacting him by water is nearly undetectable."
I nodded. "My father used to talk to Barinthus that way. How is he doing?"
"As your strongest ally among the Unseelie, he's making some progress in forming alliances for you."
I stared into Doyle's dark eyes. "What did you just leave out?"
He closed his eyes, looked down. "Once you could not have seen that in my face."
"I've been practicing. What did you leave out?"
"There have been two assassination attempts on him."
"Lord and Lady protect us, how serious?"
"Serious enough that he mentioned them, not so serious that he was truly threatened. Barinthus is one of the oldest of us all. He is a thing of the element of water. Water is not easy to kill."
"As you said, Barinthus is my strongest ally. If they kill him, then the rest will fall away."
"I would fear that, yes, Princess, but many fear what Cel will be like when he is released from his torment. They fear he will be completely mad, and they do not wish someone like that on the throne. Barinthus believes that is why Cel's followers are passing around the fear that you will contaminate them all with mortality."
"They sound desperate," I said.
"No, the desperate part is the talk about declaring war on the Seelie Court. What I did not tell Kurag is that there is talk of war no matter which of you takes the throne. They see Cel's madness, your mortality, the queen's weakness as signs that the Unseelie are slipping away, that we are fading as people. There are some who talk of going to war one last time while we still stand a chance of defeating the Seelie."
"If we have a full-scale war on American soil, the human military will be called in. It would break part of the treaty that allowed us into this country in the first place," Rhys said.
"I know," Doyle said.
"And they think Cel is mad," Rhys said.
"Did Barinthus say who's the main voice behind the idea of war with Seelie?"
"Siobhan."
"The head of Cel's guard."
"There is only one Siobhan," Doyle said.
"Thank the Lord and Lady for that," Rhys said.
Siobhan was the equivalent of Doyle. She was leprously pale with spiderweb hair and not very tall. Physically she was nothing like Doyle. But just as whenever the queen had said, "Where is my Darkness, send me my Darkness," and someone had bled or died, so Cel with Siobhan. But she had no nickname; she was simply Siobhan.