Mistral's Kiss

"You are gravely wounded, Sholto," said the hag. "You ca

"It is not about wi

"Do not do this, Sholto," she whispered.

"You raised me to be king, Agnes. You told me that if the sluagh do not respect my threat, then I will not be king for long."

"I did not mean—"

"Go with Ivar, now, or it ends between us."

She reached out to him, as if to touch his hair.

He jerked back and yelled, "Now, Agnes, go now, or it will end badly between us."

Fyfe threw back his cloak, revealing his weapons, and each of his hands touched a sword hilt, ready for a cross-draw.

Agnes gave Sholto one last look that was more despair than anger. Then she followed Ivar down the steep slope of the lake, using her claws to dig into the soil, so she wouldn't slide into the bones that spiked the earth.

Ivar was already wading through the still water. It came above his waist, which meant the water was deeper than it had looked. He had to strain to lay a hand over Segna's heart between the hanging weight of her breasts. He turned that lipless, unfinished face to look at Sholto, and the look did not communicate good news.

Agnes was taller than Ivar, and had an easier time in the water—it came only to her thighs. She waded to the other hag, and when she reached her let out a wail of despair.

Sholto collapsed to his knees on the side of the lake. "Segna," he said, and there was real grief in his voice.

I knelt beside him, touched his arm. He jerked away. "Every time I am with you, someone I care about dies, Meredith."

Ivar called up, "I am not certain she is dying. Gravely injured. She may yet live."

Agnes was petting her sister's face. But I could see the gaping mouth, the labored breathing. Blood bubbled from the chest wound when she breathed, poured down her mouth. It would have been death to most.

"Can she survive it?" I asked, softly.

"I do not know," Sholto said. "Once it would not have been a killing blow, but we have lost much of what we were."

"Abeloec's wound from the bones is still bleeding," Doyle said.

Sholto's head drooped, hiding his face in a curtain of that white hair. I was close enough to hear him crying, though so softly that I doubted anyone else would hear it. I pretended not to notice, as was only respectful for a king.

Segna reached out to him. She spoke in a voice thick and bubbling with her own blood, "My lord, mercy."

He raised his face, but kept his hair like a shield on either side, so only I, kneeling beside him, could see the tracks of tears on his face. His voice came clear and unemotional; you would never have known the pain in his eyes from that voice. "Do you ask for healing, or for death, Segna?"

"Healing," she managed to say.

He shook his head. "Get her off the bones." He looked at Fyfe. "Go help them."

Fyfe hesitated for a moment then slid, carefully, down the slope to join his brother in the still, thick water. The three of them managed to slide Segna free of most of the bones. One of them seemed caught on Segna's own ribs, and Agnes snapped that spine so that they could lower her into their arms. She was writhing in pain, and coughing blood.

Agnes raised a tearstained face. "We are not the people we once were, King Sholto. She dies."

Segna reached a shaking hand out to him. "Mercy."

"We ca

"Mercy," she said again.

Agnes said, "There is more than one kind of mercy, Sholto. Would you leave her to a slow death?" Her voice managed to be both tear-choked and hot with hatred. Such words should burn coming out.

Sholto shook his head.

Ivar's high-pitched voice came. "It is your kill, Sholto."

"Their kill—the king's and the princess's," Agnes said, giving me a look of such venom that I fought not to flinch. If a look could still kill among us, I would have died from that look in her eyes. She spat into the water.

"She did not strike the blow, I did," Sholto said as he came to his feet. He actually stumbled, and I caught him, helped him stand. He didn't jerk away, which let me know he was badly hurt. I could see the bleeding wound that Segna had made, but I didn't think it was that wound that made me him stumble. Nor was it the amputation that weakened him now. There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.

"My apologies, Sholto, but the hag is right," Ivar's high voice said reluctantly, "Segna bled you both. If the princess was not a warrior, then she would be free of this, but she is a sidhe of the Unseelie Court, and all who claim that are warriors."

"The princess has killed more than once in challenge," Fyfe said.

"If she will not help finish Segna, then she will never be acknowledged as queen of the sluagh," Agnes said. She stroked Segna's face, a surprisingly gentle gesture given her dagger-like talons.

I heard Doyle sigh. He moved close enough to whisper to me, "If you do not help make this kill, Agnes will spread the rumor that you are not a warrior."

"And that would mean what?" I whispered back.

"It could mean that when you sit on the throne of the Unseelie Court, the sluagh will not come to your call, for they are a warrior people. They will not be led by someone who is unbloodied in battle."

"I've been bloodied," I said. The numbness was sliding away, and now the pain was sharp and tearing. The wound was bleeding freely. What I needed was to get medical attention, not to wade around in slimy water. "I'll need a dose of antibiotics after this."

"What?" Doyle and Sholto both asked.

"I'm mortal. Unlike the rest of you, I can get an infection, blood poisoning. So after we crawl around in that water, I'll need antibiotics."

"You can truly catch all that?" Sholto asked.

"I've had the flu, and my father made sure I had all my childhood immunizations—he wasn't sure how much I could withstand or heal."

Sholto gazed at me, studying my face. "You are fragile."

I nodded. "Yes, I am, by the standards of faerie." I looked up at Doyle. "You know, there are times when I'm not sure I want to be in charge here."

"Do you mean that?"

"If there was a better alternative than my cousin, yes, I mean it. I'm tired, Doyle, tired. As much as I wanted to come back home to faerie, I'm begi

"I told you once, Meredith, that if I could bear to give the court to Cel, I would leave with you."

"Darkness," Mistral said, "you ca

"You have not been outside faerie except for small trips. You have not seen that there are wonders outside our hills." He touched my face. "There are some wonders that will not fade when we leave here."

He had told me that he would give up everything and follow me into exile. Frost and he, both. When they first thought that the queen's ring, a relic of power, had chosen Mistral as my king Doyle had broken down and said he could not bear it, to watch me with another. He had pulled himself together and remembered his duty, as I'd remembered mine. Would-be queens and kings did not run away and hide, and give their countries over to insane tyrants like my cousin Cel. He was crazier than his mother, Andais.

I stared up into Doyle's face and I wanted him. Wanted to run away with him. Frost came up beside us. I gazed at my two men. I wanted to wrap them around me like a blanket. I did not want to climb down into that stinking hole and wade through razor-sharp bones and dirty water to kill someone I hadn't meant to even hurt.

"I don't want this kill."