Лорел Гамильтон - A Lick Of Frost

What she meant was that she'd been convinced that I'd betrayed her with the Seelie Court, so she'd been too angry to think clearly. I kept my reasoning to myself. I had my face enough under control that I could look back up at her. Or I hoped I did. How do you tell if your own face is neutral?

"The fact that Taranis knows of the prophesy that Cel got from the human prophet means that one of Cel's trusted people is spying for the king of the Seelie Court." She tapped her chin with one bloody fingernail. "But who?"

There was a sound from the mirror, almost the clanging of swords. I glanced at the clock. "We are expecting a call from Kurag, Goblin King," I said.

"You have call waiting on your mirror," she said.

I nodded.

"I've never heard of such a thing. Who did the spell?"

"I did," Rhys said. His face was still softly amused, but there was a wariness around his eyes.

"You will have to bespell my mirror as well."

"Gladly, my queen," he said, voice pleasantly neutral.

The clang of swords sounded again. "Perhaps you should come back to court and do that today."

"With apologies, Aunt Andais, Rhys is to bed me if we can get time between calls and emergencies."

"Would it upset you to see his pale flesh bleeding on my bed like Crystall's?"

There was no safe answer to that question. "I do not know what you want me to say, Aunt Andais."

"The truth would be nice."

I sighed. Doyle squeezed my hand. Rhys tensed beside me. It was then that Galen lost it. "What does it matter? Taranis attacked us today. He went so crazy that his own nobles jumped him and dragged him away. He's about to be voted out as king of the Seelie Court, and you want to spend time tormenting Merry about us!" He actually stepped close to the mirror and continued to yell at her. "Doyle almost died today. Merry could have died today, and then you'd never have a child of your blood on any throne. The Seelie nobles are up to something dangerous that involves our court, and you want to play these stupid, painful games. We need you to be our queen, not our tormentor. We need help here. Goddess save us, but we do."

We might have jumped him to keep him quiet, but I think we were all too stunned to do anything. The silence was heavy, broken only by Galen's too-fast breathing.

Andais stared at him as if he'd just appeared. It wasn't a friendly look, but it wasn't an unfriendly look either. "What help would you have of me, Greenknight?"

"Try to find out why Hugh offered the throne to Merry, really why."

"What reason did he give?" she asked in an amazingly calm voice.

"That there are swans with gold chains, and that a Cu Sith stopped the king from beating a servant. The Seelie think Merry is to blame or gets credit for the return of the magic."

"And does she?" Andais asked with that edge of cruelty beginning to creep back in.

"You know she does," Galen said, and there was no anger, just a sort of righteousness, as if it was just truth.

"Perhaps," Andais said. She turned her gaze to me. "I will try and find out if Hugh is being honest, or as treacherous as we think. You must have some magic over men that I do not see, Meredith. You have not even fucked Crystall, yet he seems strangely loyal to you. I will break him to my ways again, then I will choose another of the men who would have deserted me for you. Sidhe who would have rather followed you into exile than stay with me in faerie." She said the last almost in a thoughtful voice, as if she truly didn't understand it.

The truth was that it wasn't faerie they wanted to leave but her sadistic care, but that was a truth better kept to myself.

"If the Seelie offer is a genuine one, Meredith, you might consider taking it."

A thrill of fear ran through me. "Aunt Andais, I don't understand."

"Every man who prefers you to me makes me hate you a little more. Soon, my hatred for you may outweigh my desire for you to sit my throne. On the golden throne of the Seelie Court you would be safe from my anger."

I licked my suddenly dry lips. "I do nothing to anger you on purpose, my queen."

"And that is what is so maddening about you, Meredith. I know you do not do it on purpose. You simply are, and somehow by being yourself you part my nobles and my lovers from me. Your Seelie magic wins them away."

"I carry the hands of flesh and blood, those are not Seelie hands of power, Aunt."

"Yes, and Cel's prophet said that if someone of flesh and blood sat the Unseelie throne he would die. He thought it meant your mortality, but it didn't." She looked at me, and there was something other than cruelty, though I wasn't sure what exactly. "Cel screams your name in the night, Meredith."

"He means my death if he can manage it."

She shook her head. "He has convinced himself that if he lay with you, you and he would have a child, and he would be king to your queen."

My mouth couldn't get any drier, but my heart rate could get faster. "I do not think that would work, Aunt Andais."

"Work, work — it is fucking, Meredith. The mechanics of it would work just grand."

I tried again, while Doyle and Rhys gripped me harder. Even Abe moved in at my back to put his face against my hair. Touching to comfort me.

"I suppose what I meant was that I do not think Cel and I would make a good ruling couple."

"Do not look so frightened, Meredith. I know that Cel would not make you pregnant, but he has convinced himself of it. I suppose I am warning you. He no longer wants you assassinated, but he would kill every lover you have, if he could."

"Is he… — " I tried to think of a way to say it, " — free to…"

"He is not imprisoned, but he is under guard at all times. I do not want my own guards to kill my only son to protect my heir." She shook her head. "Go, call the goblin king back. I will try to find out if Hugh's offer of the golden throne is true or false." She was walking back to the bed as she spoke the last few sentences. "But first I will take out my anger and frustration at you on your Crystall. Know that every cut is a cut I would make on your lily-white skin if I didn't need your body whole." She crawled onto the bed and reached for Crystall. A knife had appeared in her hand, either by magic or it had been tucked into the sheets.

Frost got to the mirror first and cleared it with a touch. We were left staring at our own images. My eyes were a little too wide, my skin pale.

"Crap," Rhys said.

That about summed it up.

THE MIRROR RANG AGAIN, A STRIDENT CLASH OF SWORDS, AS IF blades had screamed down the sides of each other. It made me jump.

Rhys looked at Doyle and me. Doyle said, "Let Abe and me get out of sight. The fewer people in faerie who have this rumor the better I think." He gave my hand a last squeeze. Then he tried to rise with his usual effortless movement, but paused in mid-motion. It wasn't a flinch so much as that he simply stopped trying to stand.

I put a hand on his back to steady him. Frost grabbed one of his arms, and it was probably more him than me that helped Doyle stand upright. Doyle tried to move away from Frost's arm but stumbled. Frost got a firmer grip on his friend. Doyle actually leaned a little on the other man, which meant he was in a lot of pain.

"You didn't take the pain medication that the hospital gave you, did you?" I asked.

The mirror clanged again, an even angrier sound than before, as if the next sound of swords would break one of the blades.

"The goblins are not known for their patience, Meredith," Doyle said in a tight voice. "You must answer the call," He started off, and didn't fight Frost from helping him, which meant he was very hurt indeed. More hurt than he'd let on. The thought of my Darkness being this injured made my stomach and chest tight, not just because I loved him, but because he was the greatest warrior I had. Frost might be as good in battle, but for strategy it was Doyle. I needed him, in so many ways.