A Caress of Twilight

I was confused, to put it lightly, but, like is so often the case in fey society, the very questions I needed to ask were considered rudely direct.

The man in the bed turned his oddly heavy head to look at Kitto. "The last time we met, I thought you tiny." Those strangely compelling eyes looked up at the goblin. "You have changed, goblin."

"He is sidhe," Nicca said.

Bucca looked surprised, then laughed. "You see, I fought so hard for so many centuries to keep our blood pure, to mix with no one. I considered you an unclean thing once, Nicca."

Nicca kept patting the other man's hand. "That was long ago, Bucca."

"I would not let any of our pure Bucca-Dhu line go out among the other sidhe. Now all that is left of my line is those like you who were not pure." He turned his head and it looked like it took effort. "And all that is left of all the Bucca-Gwidden is you, goblin."

"There are others among the goblins, Bucca-Dhu. And you see the moonlight skin on these sidhe? The Bucca-Gwidden are remembered."

"They may share the skin, but not the hair or eyes. No, goblin, they are lost, and it is my doing. I would not let any of our people join with the others. We would stay the hidden people and keep to the old ways. There are no old ways left, goblin."

"He is sidhe," Doyle said, "acknowledged by the Unseelie Court as such."

Bucca smiled, but not like he was happy. "And even now all I can think is that I did not know the Unseelie sidhe had sunk so low as to accept goblins into their ranks. Even dying as I am, having seen the last of my people die before me, and I ca

Detective Lucy had been very patient through all of this. "Could someone explain to me what's going on?"

Doyle exchanged glances with Frost and Rhys, but none of them spoke. I shrugged. "Don't look at me. I'm almost as confused as you are."

"Me, too," Galen said. "I recognized either Cornish or Breton, but the accent was too archaic for me."

"Cornish," Doyle said, "They were speaking Cornish."

"I thought there weren't any goblins in Cornwall," Galen said.

Kitto turned from the bed and looked at the tall knight. "Goblins were not all one people any more than the sidhe were merely two separate courts. We were all more than this once. I was a Cornish goblin, because my sidhe mother was a Bucca-Gwidden, a Cornish sidhe, before she joined the Seelie Court. When she saw the form her babe had taken, she knew where to lay her burden down and left me among the snakes of Cornwall."

"There are nests of snakes everywhere in the Isles," Bucca said in a thick voice. "Even in Ireland, no matter what the followers of Padrig want you to believe."

"Most of the goblins are in America now," Kitto said.

"Aye," Bucca said, "because no other country would have them."

"Aye," Kitto said.

"Okay," Lucy said, "Whatever's happening, old home week, family feud, I don't care. I want to know how this Bucca, who lists his name as Nick Bottom, which I looked up -- a character from A Midsummer Night's Dream, very cute -- ended up here nearly sucked dry of life."

"Bucca," Nicca said softly.

The small figure opened his eyes. They were full of such aching tiredness that I had to look away. It was like looking down a tu

His accent thickened with his emotions. "I ca

"Bucca, please, tell us how you came to be attacked by the hungry ghosts," Nicca said in his soft voice.

"When this flesh I am still clingin' to fades, I'll be one of 'em. I'll be one of the Starvin' Ones."

"No, Bucca."

He held out that thin, thin arm. "No, Nicca, that is what happened to most of the others who were strong. We ca

"Not good enough for heaven," Doyle said, "nor bad enough for hell."

Bucca looked at him. "Yes."

"I always love getting insight into fey culture, but let's get back to the attacks," Lucy said. "Tell me about the attack on you, Mr. Bottom, or Mr. Bucca, or whatever."

He blinked up at her almost owlishly. "They attacked me at the first sign of weakness."

"Could you expand on that a little?" Lucy said. She had her notebook open, pen poised.

"You raised them," Rhys said. It was the first time he'd turned around, the first time he'd really looked at Bucca since we'd entered the room.

"Aye," Bucca said.

"Why?" I asked.

"It was part of the price I had to pay to rejoin the faerie courts."

That stopped us all. For a second, it seemed to make sense. Andais had done it, or had it done. That was why no one could track it back to her. It explained why none of her people had known about it. She hadn't used any of her people.

"Pay to whom?" Doyle asked.

I looked at him, almost saying aloud, we all know.

Then Bucca spoke. "Taranis, o' course."

Chapter 40

We all turned to the bed like a slow-motion scene from a movie.

"Did you say Taranis?" I asked.

"Are ya deaf, girl?"

"No," I said, "just surprised."

Bucca frowned up at me. "Why?"

I blinked down at him, thought about it. "I didn't think Taranis was this crazy."

"Then ya ha' not been payin' attention."

"She hasn't seen Taranis since she was a child, Bucca," Doyle said.

"I apologize then." He looked at me critically. "She looks like Seelie sidhe."

I wasn't sure what to do with the compliment. I wasn't even sure if, under the circumstances, it was a compliment.

Lucy walked around to the far side of the bed. "Are you saying the King of the Seelie Court had you raise these hungry ghosts?"

"Aye."

"Why?" she asked. We seemed to all be asking that question a lot today.

"He wanted them to kill Maeve Reed."

Lucy just stared at him. "Okay, I'm lost. Why should the king want the golden goddess of Hollywood dead?"

"I don't know why," Bucca said, "and I didna care. Taranis promised to give me enough power to recover some of what I'd lost. I was finally willing to join the Seelie Court. But he promised it to me on condition of Maeve's death, and that I could control the Starving Ones. Many o' them were friends of old. I thought they were like me and would welcome a chance to return, but they are no longer Bucca, or sidhe, or even fey. They are dead things, dead monsters." He closed his eyes and took a deep shaking breath.

"The first time I faltered, they attacked me, and now they feed, not to return to the old ways, but because they are hungry. They feed for the same reason that a wolf feeds. Because it hungers. If they gain enough lives to return to something close to sidhe, it will be so awful that not even the Unseelie Court will be able to match the horror of them."

"Not to complain," Lucy said, "but why didn't you tell all this to the social worker or the ambassador?"

"It was when I saw Nicca, and even the goblin, that I knew I'd been a fool. My time is past, but my people live on. As long as me blood is walkin' around, then the Bucca are not dead." Tears glittered in his eyes. "I tried to save meself, even if it meant destroying what was left of me people. I was wrong, terrible wrong."

He reached out for Nicca's hand this time, and Nicca took his with a smile.

"How do we stop them?" Doyle asked.

"I raised them, but I ca