Лорел Гамильтон - A Caress Of Twilight

I felt the men behind me tense. The atmosphere of the room was suddenly thicker. I was careful not to look at them. I was princess, and I didn't need the permission of my guards to do anything. I either ruled, or I did not.

Niceven's eyes narrowed into pale little flames. "What's that supposed to mean, a feeding once a week?"

"It means exactly what I said."

"Why would you offer to make a weekly blood offering to me?"

"For an alliance between us."

Frost pushed toward me over the bed. "Meredith, no. ."

He was going to say something unfortunate and ruin everything. I had the beginnings of an idea and it was a good one. "No, Frost," I said, "you do not tell me no. I tell you no or yes. Don't forget that." I gave him a look that I hoped he understood, which was shut the fuck up, and don't ruin this.

He closed his mouth into a tight, thin line, so obviously unhappy, but he sat there, sulking. At least he was quiet about it.

I heard Doyle take in a breath, and I just looked at him. The look was enough. He gave a small nod of his head and let Rhys begin to brush out his long hair. There was a Wave to all that blackness, because of the braid, I think; I remembered Doyle's hair as straight. I was distracted for a moment watching Rhys kneeling so pale and perfect against all that darkness. It was Doyle clearing his throat who made me jump and turn back to the mirror.

Niceven laughed, the sound of just slightly off-key bells, as if it were something lovely that had been just a bit malformed.

"My apologies for my inattention, Queen Niceven."

"If I had such a bounty awaiting me, I would make this a short conversation."

"And what if you had the bounty of my blood awaiting you? What then?"

Her face sobered. "You are persistent. It is most unfeylike."

"I am part brownie, and we are a more persistent people than the sidhe."

"You are part human, as well."

I smiled. "Humans are like the sidhe; some are more persistent than others."

She didn't smile back at me. "For another drink of your blood, I will cure your green knight, but that is all. One drink, one cure, and we are done."

"For one drink of my blood, King Kurag of the goblins became my ally for six months."

Her delicate eyebrows raised. "That is goblin and sidhe business, and none of ours. We are the demi-fey. No one cares who we ally ourselves with. We fight no battles. We challenge no duels. We mind our business and everyone else minds theirs."

"So you refuse an alliance?"

"I think caution is the better part of valor here, Princess, no matter how tasty you may be."

In negotiations, always try to be nice first, but if nice doesn't work, there are other options. "Everyone leaves you alone, Queen Niceven. Because they consider you too small to worry about."

"Prince Cel thought us big enough to spoil your plans with the green knight." Her voice held the first hint of anger.

"Yes, and what did he offer you for that bit of work?"

"The taste of sidhe flesh, knight's flesh, and blood. We feasted that night, Princess."

"He paid you in someone else's blood, when his body was full of blood only one step down from the queen herself. Have you ever tasted the queen?"

Niceven looked nervous, almost frightened. "The queen shares only with her lovers, or her prisoners."

"How that must irk you, to see such a precious gift wasted."

Niceven pouted tiny ghost silver lips. "If only she would take some of my people to her bed, but we are. ."

"Too small," I finished for her.

"Yes," she hissed, "yesss, always too small. Too small a power for an alliance. Too small a power to be used except as her sneak spies." Tiny, pale hands balled into fists. The white mouse cowered away from her as if he knew what was coming. Even the trio of ladies behind her throne shuddered as if from the brush of an icy wind.

"And now you do dirty work for her son," I said. My voice was carefully neutral, almost pleasant.

"At least he sought us to do his work." The anger in that small, delicate figure was frightening. Her rage made her take up more space than mere physicality could explain. She was truly regal in her rage.

"I offer you what the queen will not. I offer what the prince will not."

"And what is that?"

"Royal blood, blood of the very throne of the Unseelie Court. Ally with me, Queen Niceven, and you will have such blood. Not only once, but many times more."

Her eyes became narrow little slits again, glittering with a fire colder than the diamonds on her crown. "What would either of us gain from such an alliance?"

"You would gain the ear and the aid of my allies."

"The goblins have little to do with us."

"And what of the sidhe?"

"What of them?"

"As ally to one of the heirs, you would gain status. They would no longer be able to dismiss you, for fear that you might bear a grudge and whisper it back to me."

She kept those glowing eyes on me."and what would you gain from this alliance?"

"You would spy for me, as well as for the queen."

"And Cel?"

,"You would cease to spy for him."

"He won't like that."

"He doesn't have to like it. If you are my ally, then to injure you is to insult me. The queen has decreed that I am under her protection. To harm me now is a death sentence."

"So he insults me, then you step in. Then what?"

"Threaten to bring your entire court out here to Los Angeles, out here to me."

She shivered. "I would not wish to take my people out into the city of men." She spoke as if there were only one city of men, the city.

"You could live in the botanical gardens, acres of open land. There's room for you here, Niceven, I swear it."

"But I do not want to leave the court."

"Wherever the demi-fey travel, faerie follows."

"Most sidhe do not remember that."

"My father made sure I knew the history of all the fey. The demi-fey are the most closely allied with the rawness that is faerie, the very stuff that makes us different from the humans. You are not leprechaun, or pixie, to pine and die away from faerie. You are faerie. Is it not said that when the last demi-fey fades, there will be no more faerie upon the earth?"

"A superstition," she said.

"Maybe, but if you leave the Unseelie Court and the Seelie Court retains its own demi-fey, the Unseelie will be weakened. Cel may not remember that bit of our lore, but the queen will. If Cel insults you enough for you to pack your belongings, the Queen will intercede."

"She will order us to stay."

"She cannot order another monarch to do anything. That is our law."

Niceven looked nervous. She feared Andais. Everyone did. "I do not wish to anger the queen."

"Neither do I."

"Do you really believe that the queen would punish her own son if he drove us away, rather than take out her anger on us?" She had crossed her legs again, arms folded over her chest, forgetting to flirt, forgetting to be regal in her fear.

"Where is Cel now?" I asked.

Niceven giggled, a most unpleasant little giggle. "Being punished for six months. There are bets going round that his sanity will not survive six months of isolation and torment."

I shrugged. "He should have thought of that before he was such a bad, bad boy."

"You are flippant, but if Cel comes out insane, it will be your name that he screams. Your face that he wants to smash."

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

"What?"

"It's a human saying. It means that I'll deal with the problem when and if it comes to pass."

She seemed to be thinking very hard, then said, "How would you offer this blood to me? I do not think either of us would relish a weekly trip between faerie and the Western Sea."

"I could put it upon a piece of bread, and the essence could be sent to you via magic."