Лорел Гамильтон - A Stroke Of Midnight

Frost drew away from the kiss, and my breath rushed back in a huge, chest-hurting gasp. I took several deep, painful breaths in a row, while he held my face, and stared into my eyes, as if searching for me. His grey eyes held that tiny snowscape in them again, and I felt as if I were falling forward, falling forward into Frost’s eyes. He blinked, and the sensation stopped, but some night I was going to have to see what would happen if I kept looking into those snowy eyes. But not tonight. Not tonight.

“Princess Meredith,” a woman’s voice said, “I’m sorry to intrude.”

I wiped at the tearstains on my face, which didn’t help, since all I succeeded in doing was putting more of Galen’s blood on my face. I must have looked a horror when I turned around to face Dr. Polaski.

Her breath came out in a gasp, which let me know just how bad I looked. You don’t get people who work in forensics gasping much. “Major Walters filled me in on some of what’s been happening here today.” She shook her head and took her glasses off, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.

“We do not want the general public to know what is happening inside faerie,” Frost said.

“I can keep my mouth shut.” She looked at me, and I saw something in her face that was almost pity. “Are you able to talk to me, Princess Meredith?”

I took a deep breath, and it shook a little. My voice sounded hoarse, and I had to clear it, but I finally managed, “Talk to me, Dr. Polaski, I’ll listen.”

The guards parted for her to come closer to us. I was still sitting in Galen’s lap, my legs wrapped around his waist. If the intimate position made her uncomfortable, she didn’t show it. I stayed where I was because I still wanted to hold Galen as close as I could. It was a way of clinging to him without looking like I was clinging to him. Galen’s hands rested at the small of my back.

Polaski knelt down beside us so we were eye level. “I need to know a few things, and you are the only one I can ask, but by asking, I will give away the suspect I’m most interested in.”

“Understood,” I said.

She put her glasses back on and shook her head. “I don’t think you do. Walters told me that you won’t put whoever I find on trial. You’ll torture them or just kill them. Is this true?”

“Yes,” I said.

She waited, as if she expected me to say more. Then she smiled, and said, “No human I know would have just said yes to that. They would have felt they had to justify taking another life. They would have felt so many things.” She looked at me with those long-lashed eyes. “But you don’t feel what we would feel.”

“It isn’t fey versus human, Doctor, it’s cultural. I was raised in a world where torture is the norm for crimes, and execution is used when necessary, though it’s rare. We do not keep someone on death row for twenty years while they search for legal loopholes.”

“I’ve seen some awful things in my job, Princess Meredith, and there are a handful of people who I would sleep easier knowing they were dead.” She sighed. “I need your word that you will not execute the person I’m about to reveal.”

“I can’t promise that, not without lying.”

“Your word that they won’t be executed until I have processed the evidence we’ve collected.”

I looked at Frost, and Mistral beside him. “Do you think I can promise that and not be forsworn?”

“I think the queen would put weight to your word of honor, and not offend the human police,” Frost said.

“That wasn’t a yes,” I said.

“A simple yes might not be true,” he said; his face was its arrogant best, empty, careful. I thought it was more for the doctor’s benefit than mine.

“Mistral?” I asked.

“She is very interested of late in courting good public relations. The reporter’s death is bad enough. She won’t want it bandied about that we executed someone without proof.”

“So that’s a yes,” I said.

He looked at Frost, they both looked back at me. Mistral said, “She’s Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness.” He shrugged.

“Your word that you won’t let them execute anyone until I have processed the evidence,” Polaski said.

I thought about what I could promise Polaski, and finally said, “My word that I will do everything in my power to see that no one is harmed irretrievably before you have contacted us again.”

“Harmed irretrievably.” She almost smiled. “I’ve never heard anyone say it like that before.”

I just looked at her, willing my face to show nothing.

“All right, I’ll take your word. Don’t disappoint me.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said.

“Can the little faeries change shape?”

“Many of the fey have more than one form.”

“Can the little ones be big, like human size?”

“When you say ‘little,’ do you mean the small, winged fey, the demi-fey?”

She nodded.

“Some of them can change form to be almost human in size. But it’s rare among them.”

Galen started to massage my back. I wasn’t sure who he was trying to comfort, himself or me.

“How rare?”

“Rare enough that until recently we thought they’d lost the ability.”

“We know of only one demi-fey who can do it now,” Frost said.

Polaski glanced up at him. “Here’s the other question. Could some spell or bit of faerie magic interfere with what I’m seeing?”

Frost, Galen, and I exchanged glances. Frost said, “I trust Rhys to have done everything possible to protect you from overt spells.”

“But could someone have magically imposed one handprint on another?” she asked.

“They would have to understand how prints work,” I said, “so that leaves out anyone who hasn’t watched television, which is most of the guard. But if they understood how prints worked, they might be able to make one print appear to look like another.”

“Would they be able to switch prints?”

“I don’t believe so, but I cannot be certain,” Frost said.

Mistral said, “I do not know how these prints work, exactly, but they seem to be like tracks of an animal.”

“Not a bad analogy,” Polaski said.

“Then I agree with Frost, it would be hard to change them in reality.”

“So they’re more likely to mess with what I think I’m seeing than with what I’m actually seeing?”

We all agreed on that.

“Then I need to get out of here and check my findings with a working computer outside faerie.”

“Your early questions point at one of the demi-fey on the kitchen staff,” I said.

She nodded. “But only if they can change shape so that they are as big as you. The handprint is about the size of my own hands, but matches one of the demi-fey.”

“Which one?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I won’t tell you that.”

“If you don’t tell us, we’ll simply imprison all of them.”

“All of them?” she asked.

I nodded. “Careful for you is not falsely imprisoning someone. Careful for us is imprisoning too many to make sure we get the guilty one behind bars.”

She sighed, then nodded again. “All right, Peasblossom.”

The surprise showed on my face before I could stop it.

“Why the surprise?”

“Because she and Beatrice were very close. I’ve known her a long time by human standards. I can’t imagine Peasblossom hurting Beatrice.”

“Then someone’s messing with me because I got a handprint on Beatrice’s back.” She looked up at the men. “Can I use someone as an example?”

Aisling started to step forward but I said, “Ivi.” He stepped forward with a teasing look in his eyes that I didn’t like.

Aisling stepped back with a smile.

“If you could turn around, please?” Polaski said to Ivi. The man turned without a word, giving her his back. “Could you remove the cloak, please?”