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"Oh, I doubt he meant to injure you, Meredith, even in his madness. I suspect he was trying for Galen."
I blinked at her. The way she said it meant that she knew something that we did not. "Why would he target Galen?"
"Ask yourself first, niece, why he accused Galen, Abeloec and Rhys of raping the Lady Caitrin." Her hand dug deeper into Crystall's flesh, causing tiny red lines to begin to trickle over his skin.
"I do not know, Aunt Andais," I said, and fought to keep my own voice even and empty. I was trying not to show either fear or anger, though right now, fear was by far the strongest emotion. She was pissed, and I didn't know why. If she knew about the offer of the Seelie throne to me, then she might be pissed at that, but if I blurted it out, she'd think I felt guilty and I didn't. She was always so difficult to deal with, like being in the middle of a minefield. You know you have to get to the edge, but how to do that without getting blown up, that was always the question.
"Oh, come, Meredith, think. Or are you so little Unseelie and so much Seelie that all you can think about is fertility?"
"I thought my fertility was supposed to be the thing I thought about most if I am to be your heir, Aunt Andais?"
She drew her fingers together, forcing a sound from Crystall. She'd made bloody scratches in his back like some evil flower carved into his flesh. She raised her pale hand so I could watch his blood drip down her fingers.
"Are you going to be my heir, Meredith, or is there another throne that calls to you more?"
There, she'd said enough that I could address it. "It is true that when Taranis was subdued by his nobles they offered me a chance at his throne."
"You told them yes." She hissed it at me, standing and striding toward the mirror.
"I did not. I told them we would have to discuss such news with our queen, with you, Aunt Andais, before I could say yes or no."
She was at the mirror now, blocking our view of the bed and Crystall. Her anger had awakened her power. Her skin was begi
"I heard you jumped at the chance, you ungrateful little bitch."
"You have been lied to then, Aunt Andais." I fought to keep my voice neutral.
"Yes, remind me that you are my bloodline, my last chance to have someone of my line to rule after me. If you would but get with child, Meredith. Goddess knows you're fucking everything in sight. Why are you not with child?"
"I do not know, Aunt, but I do know that we came directly here from the hospital. We came into the house and to this mirror. We came to call you and tell you all that has happened. I swear to you by the Darkness that Eats all Things that I did not tell the Seelie I would sit upon their throne. I told them we would have to speak to our queen before we could answer them."
Her eyes had begun to dim. Her power was begi
"You truly did not agree to sit on the golden throne and forsake our court?"
"I did not."
"I must believe you, niece of mine, but the Seelie Court is thick with knowledge that you will be the next Queen of their court."
Doyle reached across his body and touched me with his good arm at the same time that Rhys touched my shoulder. I touched Doyle's thigh lightly and laid my hand on Rhys's hand. "What they say, or think, I ca
"Why not?" she asked.
"I have friends and allies among the Unseelie Court. To my knowledge I have no such thing at the Seelie Court."
"You must have powerful allies there, Meredith. They are voting Taranis unfit to rule even as we speak. They will then vote you queen. They would not do that unless you had been approached by the nobles of that court. You must have been courted by them before now. There must have been many secret meetings that I did not know of, and that none of our guards reported to me."
I was begi
"I know Hugh. He is a political animal. He would not have offered it to you unless he had a reason to do so. You swear to me that he has never before approached you about this?"
"I swear," I said.
"Darkness, tell me exactly what happened?"
"I fear, my queen, that I will be useless for this. To my deep shame, I was unconscious through most of it."
"You don't seem that injured."
"Halfwen healed me at the hospital or I would still be there."
"Abeloec," she said.
Abe stirred behind us on the bed. He'd tried very hard to go u
"Do you know why Taranis would target you?"
He sat up slowly, careful of his back, and ended by half kneeling almost on all fours behind us. "Once my power was necessary for the choosing of a queen, as Meabh's power was to the choosing of a king. I think Taranis heard rumors that my power was returned to me, in part. I think he feared that I would help turn Meredith into a true queen of faerie. If we had known that any noble was dreaming of offering her the throne, then the accusations against me would have made some sense. He wanted me away from the princess."
"Galen," she said, "why did he target you?"
Galen looked flustered for a moment. He shook his head. "I don't know."
"Come, Galen Greenknight, green man, why?"
I had a thought. "He knows the prophesy that Cel got from the human psychic," I said.
"Yes, Meredith, because you and the green man will bring life back to the courts. Taranis has made the same mistake my son did. He thinks that Galen is the green man of the prophesy. Neither of them remember our history."
"The green man means the god, the consort," I said.
Andais nodded. She turned those eyes to Rhys. "And you, why you? Have you figured it out yet?"
"He heard the rumor that I'm Cromm Cruach again. If I were truly back to my original strength then he would fear me."
"Rumor has it that you can bring death to a goblin with a touch again. Is that rumor true?"
"I have done it once," he said, "but whether it will work again, I do not know."
"The rumor might be enough for Taranis," she said. She seemed calmer. Which was good. She looked at Doyle. "I understand why he attacked you. If I were to try and kill the princess, I would kill you first, but he was wrong in not targeting our Killing Frost." She turned those calm eyes to the big man standing so silent beside the bed. "To kill Meredith and survive would require both your deaths, wouldn't it, Killing Frost?"
Frost licked his lips. He was right to be nervous. This was not a conversation that we wanted to be having with our queen. "That is true, my queen," he said.
"Did the Seelie Court make the same condition on you that I do? Do you need to be with child before you can sit their throne?"
"No, they offered the throne with no conditions except that the nobles of the Seelie Court vote Taranis out and me in."