Лорел Гамильтон - Seduced by Moonlight

Frost was holding Kitto, rocking him as you'd comfort a child. I turned to look where Rhys was staring.

Siun had stopped sliding through the mirror. Half her long black legs were on this side of the glass, and the other half were still back with Kurag. One of her hands reached into this room; the other was beating on the glass on the other side, as if trying to break it. She was cursing low and steady. She tried to struggle free, flashing her breasts in the sunlight, but she was trapped. If she'd been mortal, she'd have died, but she wasn't mortal, and she wasn't dying. She was just stuck.

Doyle went close to the glass, but stayed out of the reach of Siun's struggling legs. «It seems solid now.»

Kurag spoke on his end of the glass. «Now isn't this a bitch of a predicament?»

«Yes,» Doyle said.

«Can you fix it?» Kurag asked.

Doyle glanced at Kitto, who seemed nearly catatonic in Frost's arms. «It was Kitto's magic. He could reverse it, if he understood how. But no one else in this room can do this.»

«What by the Consort's horns did Kitto do?» Kurag was close to the mirror on his side, looking at it, but carefully not touching the glass.

«Some sidhe can travel through mirrors, as most can speak through them. Though I've never heard of any who could travel over this many miles.» Doyle was studying the mirror and the trapped goblin as if it were a purely academic problem and he was trying to figure out how it worked.

«Can Kitto undo it?»

«Frost,» Doyle said, «ask Kitto if he will free her from the mirror, send her back.»

Frost spoke low to the smaller man in his lap. Kitto shook his head violently, huddling in against Frost. «He's afraid that if he opens the mirror again, she'll fall through into this room.»

«Just push her back this way,» Kurag said.

Frost answered, «He says she can stay in the mirror until she rots.»

«She won't rot.» Kurag turned back to Doyle. «She's not mortal, Darkness, she won't die.» He tapped the glass lightly. «This will not destroy her.»

«Well, she can't just stay in the mirror like this,» I said. I wasn't sure what we were going to do, but I knew just leaving her there wasn't an option.

«Actually, Meredith, she could,» Doyle said.

I shook my head. «I don't mean that it's not possible, Doyle, I mean it's not acceptable. I don't want her in my bedroom mirror like some living trophy mounted on a wall.»

«I understand.» He looked at the trapped goblin. «I will entertain suggestions, but in honesty, I do not see an easy solution.»

«Could we break the mirror?» Kurag asked.

«That would likely cut her into pieces.»

«It won't kill her,» Kurag said.

«No, no breaking,» Siun said.

Everyone ignored her.

«But it might leave one piece on your side of the mirror and one on our side of the mirror,» Doyle said. «Can your goblins heal such a terrible wound?»

Kurag frowned. «They won't die of it.»

«But once we cut her in two, can she be put back together, or will she live bisected?»

Siun started to push and pull harder. «No breaking the mirror, damn it!»

I couldn't really blame her for that, but it was one of those problems that even among the fey was so peculiar you couldn't really be horrified by it, not yet. Seeing her stuck in the mirror didn't even seem quite real.

«Well, if we can't break the mirror, I'm damned if I know what to do,» Kurag said.

Holly came up close to the glass. He touched Siun's body where it went into the glass. He didn't hurt her, but she complained as if he had. Holly's voice came out awed: «Kitto did this. I saw him. I felt the magic race across my body like crawling wind.» He traced his hands around Siun where she entered the mirror.

«Ssstop touching me,» she said.

Holly looked out at us. «I will agree to what my brother wants. I will come to the princess, if there is a chance to gain such power.» He gazed at the mirror, and Siun's body. Then his crimson eyes found mine. «We will come to you, Princess.» He looked at me, and there was something close to lust in his gaze, but it wasn't the lust of flesh. It was the lust for power. It's a colder wanting, but it can lead to warmer things, hotter things, dangerous things.

«We will see you all at the banquet, Holly,» I said. Saying I look forward to seeing you would have been a lie.

«We will see you there,» Ash said.

«Let us be clear, Kurag,» I said. «A month for every goblin we make sidhe.»

«Agreed,» he said.

«And let us also be clear on this,» Doyle said. «There are other ceremonies that can bring sidhe into their power. Not all of them are sexual.»

«Blood combat, you mean?» Kurag said.

«That, and the great hunts, the great quests.»

«There is no more great hunt, Darkness, and the quests are over. We have not the magic for either.»

«Perhaps, Kurag, but I want the options open to us.»

«If it does not cost them their lives, then you may bring my goblins over as you see fit. In truth, Holly is not the only one who would rather not bed a sidhe.» He grinned then, a pale imitation of his usual leer. «None of you has enough extra body parts to be handsome.»

«Oh, Kurag,» I said, «you ol' flatterer.»

«I want one thing very clear,» Ash said. «For my brother and I it will be sex with Princess Meredith, or nothing.»

«Brother, we do not have to do this,» Holly said.

Ash shook his head, his blond hair sliding around his shoulders. «I want it.» He looked at his brother, and something passed between them, some message that I couldn't read. «I will lie with her, Holly, and where I go, you go.»

«I don't like it.»

«Don't like it, just do it,» Ash said.

Holly gave a small nod.

Ash smiled at us. «We will see you at the banquet, Princess.»

«Agreed,» I said.

«What about me?» Siun half screamed, half whined.

I shrugged. «I have no idea how to fix this.»

«Nor I,» Kurag said.

«I know how to fix it.» Rhys rose from his knees to stand over Siun. She slashed at him with her spined legs. He jerked out of reach, and laughed. It was a strange laugh, pleasant and unpleasant at the same time.

«How?» Doyle asked.

«I claim blood price on Siun here and now.»

«Killing her will not rid her from the mirror,» Doyle said.

Rhys nodded. «Yes, it will.» He stood over the goblin, just out of reach of her one arm and frantic legs. «I saw this done once on purpose to trap an enemy. Once he was dead, the mirror closed and each side of the glass got the parts on its side, but the mirror was whole.»

Siun struggled, beating against the glass, her spined legs making great white scratches in the varnished wood of the vanity. «No,» she said.

«The last time we were together it was me who was trapped and helpless. I don't think you like it any better than I did.»

She lashed out at him, the black spike on the side of one leg striking the wood so hard it stuck, and Siun had to struggle to free the leg.

«Temper, temper, Siun,» Rhys said.

«Damn you, Rhysss.»

«If she curses any of us,» Doyle said, «then we will trade curses with the goblins. The sidhe are much stripped of their power, but you still do not want to trade curses with us, Kurag.»

«If she curses again, you can cut off her ungrateful head,» Kurag said.

Siun's scream sounded more from anger and frustration than fear. I don't think she feared death here and now. I couldn't blame her. There were very few things that could cause death to the immortal of the fey. It took a great deal of magic invoking mortal blood, or a special weapon. We were fresh out of both.

Rhys stepped out of reach of Siun's struggles and turned to Kitto. «Frost, give Kitto your short sword.»