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Adaain his voice was carefully dispassionate "When the Sidhe-seer," he rephrased, "agreed to act as my intermediary and help e She has risked herself to aid us, ho hunted her people for so long Her assistance has helped preserve your reign and the safety of all the realifts upon mortals who aid us I promised her ould leave her in her oorld when all was done, alive and well, free of any Tuatha Dé persecution, assuring her safety and that of those she loves"

"Grand promises from such a powerless Fae"

"Would you h yourself"

Adam bristled There’d been no need to say that in front of Gabrielle

Silence stretched Then the queen exhaled softly, a silvery sound "Reveal this traitor for me and I will uphold your promise to the huree she should remain here On Keltar land"

"I said that I will uphold your proht wonder at her absence and not show his hand If he has betrayed ainst me and makes those in my court think it possible" The queenLure him out for me and I will come Show me Hunters at my Elder’s side and I will restore you to your full power And let you decide his fate You’d like that, wouldn’t you?"

Adaht nod

A rush of sound spilled froue Beside him, Gabrielle shivered intensely

"You ear the féth fiada until this is done, A invisible"

"And, Keltar," Aoibheal said in a voice like sudden thunder, with a glance up at the balustrade "Henceforth I would advise against tahnassadh ritual now or face eus and Drustan replied together, stepping out fro the stairs

Adahlander would flee, only retreat to a higher vantage--take to the hills, in ain silent readiness should battle be necessary

Gabby went lione

22

Early the next , Gabby and Adaht back to the States

As Ada cloaked, and Gabby was surprised to realize she was rather looking forward to it There was a certain intriguing impunity one felt, concealed by the féth fiada There was also the fact that it et enough of touching hieus and Drustan had perforain secured, they’d sat down and rehashed the afternoon’s events, with Gabby serving as Adam’s intermediary

She’d been surprised by hoired with excitement Chloe and Gwen had been to see--sort of, out of the corners of their eyes as well--the queen of the Tuatha Dé It seeeus had encountered her once before and had failed to take a co of her

Their reaction--one not of fear but of interest and curiosity--had served to solidify her new slant on things Yes, the Tuatha Dé Danaan (as Gabby was now calling them) were otherworldly, different, but not the heartless, emotionless creatures she’d been raised to believe they were

As Gwen had said, they were another race, a highly advanced race And though the inexplicable could be frightening, learning about it went a long way toward allaying one’s fears

Further toward that end, the MacKeltars had taken her, with the once-more-invisible Adaht, where Christopher and Maggie MacKeltar lived, and shown her the underground cha all the way back to when The Cootten to see the actual treaty between the races, etched on a sheet of pure gold, scribed in a language no scholar alive could identify Ada the part about Sidhe-seers: that "those who see the Fae belong to the Fae," yet they were not to be killed or enslaved but permitted to live in peace and comfort in any Fae realm they chose, their every desire met, except, of course, for their freedom I told you we didn’t harm them, he’d said