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"She had icicles in her hair," he continued "It got so cold that frost would forether into crystalline jewels that would clatter together when she ht It lit up that ice like it wasshe couldn’t stand in the sunlight--she would have lit up the sky"

"Why couldn’t she stand in the sunlight?"

"None of my people can We turn to stone in the sun--and stay that way until nightfall"

"Does it hurt?"

He shook his head, but didn’t answer "Despite all that beauty, my mother never showed her true self to my father He was lalamoured, too, but it was a muted beauty My brothers and sisters--we had to wear it, too"

"He was h That’s what my mother used to say"

"So you’re… ?"

"A troll Faerie blood breeds true"

"Did he knohat she was?"

"He pretended not to knohat any of us were, but he uessed At the very least, he must have suspected eren’t human He had a mill that sawed and dried wood from the several hundred acres of trees that he owned Ash, aspen, birch, oak,Juniper, pine, yew

"My father had another fa about that There was a great deal of pretending She made sure all my father’s timber was fine and flat It was beautifully planed and would neither warp nor rot

"Faeries--we do nothing in moderation When we love, we are all love So wasa bell at the top of the hill to let her knoas co the bell" The troll got up and walked over to the boiling milk and poured it into a Chinese cup The smell of cinnamon and chocolate wafted toward her

"He saw us all as we really were" Ravus sat beside her, long black coat pooling on the floor "And fled, never to return"

She took the cup from hiue "What happened then?"

"Most people would be content for the story to end there What happened then is that all my mother’s love turned to hate Even her children were nothing to her after that, just reht about her own mom and how she’d never questioned that she loved her Of course she loved her ht that one could so easily becoeance was terrible" Ravus looked at his hands and Val re a sword by its blade She wondered if his rage was so great that he hadn’t noticed the pain She wondered if he loved the way his mother did

"My mother was very beautiful, too," said Val She wanted to speak again, but the single sip of the hot chocolate had filled her with such a delicious languor that she found herself slipping down into sleep once oat-hooved woht understand," she said "But this? You are too softhearted"

"No, Mabry," Ravus said "I am not" He looked in Val’s direction "I think she wants to die"

"Maybe you can help her after all," Mabry said "You’re good at helping people die"

"Have you come here for any purpose other than to smear me with h, but there’s been another death," Mabry said "One of the h of it had been eaten by crabs that I doubt there will be much scandal"

"I know that," Ravus said

"You know too le one that has died," Mabry said "Are you the murderer?"

"No," he said "All the dead are exiles from the Seelie Court Surely someone has noticed that"

"All poisoned," Mabry said "That’s what’s being noticed"

Ravus nodded "The scent of rat poison was on theher face with the blankets

"Folk hold you responsible," Mabry said "It is too like coincidence for all the dead to be your custo a delivery from one of your human couriers"

"After the tithe failed in the Dark Court, dozens of Unseelie Solitary fey must have left Nicnevin’s lands I don’t see why anyone would think it more likely that I turned poisoner"

"Lord Roiben’s lands now" Mabry’s voice was full of so as Silarial lets hiht she could see so in him that she hadn’t before He was dressed in a frockcoat, but one that was too new to be from the period it depicted It was a costume, she realized, and was suddenly sure that Ravus was er than she’d assuht that he was trying too hard to be sophisticated in front of Mabry "I don’t care who the Lord or Lady of the Dark Court is at the moment," he said "May they all murder each other so we don’t have to contend with them"

Mabry looked at hioing to send a nores the Folk so near the cities, but even she could not be indifferent to the ht Court exiles We are still within her lands"

"No," Mabry said quickly, her tone different "I think that would be unwise To invoke the gentry hed and looked over at where Val was lying "I find that difficult to iine"

"Wait another little while before you send any ive ? I just caloat," she said and swept out of the roo down the steps