Лорел Гамильтон - A Caress Of Twilight

He closed his eyes, looked down. "Once you could not have seen that in my face."

"I've been practicing. What did you leave out?"

"There have been two assassination attempts on him."

"Lord and Lady protect us, how serious?"

"Serious enough that he mentioned them, not so serious that he was truly threatened. Barinthus is one of the oldest of us all. He is a thing of the element of water. Water is not easy to kill."

"As you said, Barinthus is my strongest ally. If they kill him, then the rest will fall away."

"I would fear that, yes, Princess, but many fear what Cel will be like when he is released from his torment. They fear he will be completely mad, and they do not wish someone like that on the throne. Barinthus believes that is why Cel's followers are passing around the fear that you will contaminate them all with mortality."

"They sound desperate," I said.

"No, the desperate part is the talk about declaring war on the Seelie Court. What I did not tell Kurag is that there is talk of war no matter which of you takes the throne. They see Cel's madness, your mortality, the queen's weakness as signs that the Unseelie are slipping away, that we are fading as people. There are some who talk of going to war one last time while we still stand a chance of defeating the Seelie."

"If we have a full-scale war on American soil, the human military will be called in. It would break part of the treaty that allowed us into this country in the first place," Rhys said.

"I know," Doyle said.

"And they think Cel is mad," Rhys said.

"Did Barinthus say who's the main voice behind the idea of war with Seelie?"

"Siobhan."

"The head of Cel's guard."

"There is only one Siobhan," Doyle said.

"Thank the Lord and Lady for that," Rhys said.

Siobhan was the equivalent of Doyle. She was leprously pale with spiderweb hair and not very tall. Physically she was nothing like Doyle. But just as whenever the queen had said, "Where is my Darkness, send me my Darkness," and someone had bled or died, so Cel with Siobhan. But she had no nickname; she was simply Siobhan.

"I hate to be picky," I said, "but did she receive any punishment for following Cel's orders and trying to assassinate me?"

"Yes," Doyle said, "but it has been months, Meredith, and the punishment is over."

"How long was the punishment?" I asked.

"A month."

I shook my head. "A month, for nearly killing a royal heir. What kind of message does that send to everyone else who wants me dead?"

"Cel gave the order, Meredith, and he is experiencing one of our worst punishments for half a year. No one expects his mind to survive. They see that as the punishment."

"And have you ever been in Ezekiel's tender care for an entire month?" Rhys asked.

Ezekiel was the court torturer, and had been for many mortal lifetimes. But he was mortal. The queen had found him plying his trade for a human city and so admired his handiwork that she'd offered him a job.

"I've never been in the Hallway of Mortality for a month, no, but I spent my share of time there. Ezekiel always said he had to be so careful of me. He'd spent so many centuries with the immortals that he was afraid he'd kill me by accident. 'I 'ave to be so careful of ya, Princess, so delicate, so fragile, so human."

Rhys shivered. "You imitate his voice well."

"He liked to talk while he worked."

"I apologize, Merry, you've done your time, but that means you understand what it meant for Siobhan to be in his care for a month's time."

"I understand, Rhys, but I'd have felt better if she'd been executed."

"The queen is loath to lose any noble-born sidhe," Doyle said.

"I know, there aren't enough to spare." But I wasn't happy about it. If you tried to kill a royal heir, the punishment should have been death. Anything less and someone might try again. Come to that, Siobhan might try again.

"Why does she want war?" I asked.

"She likes death," Rhys said.

Hooked at him.

"I wasn't the only one who used to be a death deity, and I'm not the only one who lost a great deal of their weirding when the Nameless was cast. Siobhan was not always her name either."

That reminded me. "Tell Doyle what you discovered at the murder scene today."

He told Doyle about the elder gods and their ghosts. Doyle looked less and less happy. "I did not see Esras do this, but I know the queen gave the command for it. One of the agreements between us and the Seelie was that some spells were never to be performed again. That was one of them."

"Theoretically, if we could prove that a sidhe from either court did the spell, would that negate the peace treaty between us?"

Doyle seemed to think on that. "I don't know. In the actual agreement, yes, but neither side wishes all-out war."

"Siobhan does," I said, "and she wants me dead. Could she have done it?"

They both paused to think for a few silent minutes. Kitto just lay quietly beside me.

"She wants war, so she would have no qualms about doing it," Doyle said eventually. "But whether she is such a power, I do not know." He looked at Rhys.

Rhys sighed. "Once she was. Hell, so was I, once. She might have been able to do it, but that would mean she was here in California. You don't send them out of sight and expect to be able to control them. Out of sight of their magical keeper, they'll just wander around slaughtering people. They won't hunt Merry, not specifically."

"Are you sure of that?" Doyle asked.

"Yes, of that much I am sure."

"Wouldn't Barinthus have mentioned if Siobhan was missing from court?" I asked.

"He specifically said she's being a pain in his … ass."

"So she's there," I said.

"But that doesn't mean that she didn't leave for a time."

"But it still wouldn't get Merry killed," Rhys said.

"Good to know," I said, then I added, "But what if my death is only a sideline? What if the real purpose behind it all is war between the courts?"

"Then why not have the elder ones doing their horror in Illinois near the courts?" Doyle asked.

"Because whoever did it wants war, not an execution for themselves," I said.

Doyle nodded. "That is true. If the queen discovered anyone had performed one of the forbidden spells, she would execute them in hopes that Taranis would be appeased."

"And he would be," Rhys said, "because neither ruler wants all-out war."

"So in order to get their little war started, they have to get away with it," I said. "Think about it; if it's proven to the courts that it's sidhe magic at work, but can't be proven which side did it, then suspicion mounts on both sides."

"And the Nameless," Doyle said, "only a sidhe could have freed it. Only a sidhe could have hidden it from both courts."

"Siobhan isn't capable of freeing the Nameless," Rhys said. "That I am sure of."

"Wait," I said, "didn't the queen say that Taranis is refusing to help search for it? Refuses to admit that anything so terrible could be part of his court?"

Doyle nodded. "Yes, she did."

"What if it's somebody from the Seelie Court?" I said. "Would we have more trouble tracking it?"

"Perhaps."

"Are you saying that the traitor is Seelie?" Rhys asked.

"Maybe, or maybe we've got two traitors. Siobhan could have raised the elder gods, and someone from the other court could have freed the Nameless."

"Why free the Nameless?" Rhys asked.

"If you could control it," Doyle said, almost as if he was talking to himself, "it would give someone access to all the most elder and frightening powers of faerie. If you could control it, you might become unstoppable."

"Someone's preparing for war," I said.

Doyle took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I must inform the queen about the elder ghosts. I will share some of our speculation about the Nameless, as well." He looked at me. "And until we are certain that the elder gods cannot be directed at you, you will stay inside the wards."