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Chapter Eleven

I saw the white glow of the hunt behind me like a secondBut I kept my eyes on the fallen sidhe lord Onilwyn looked unconscious, maybe even dead, but until it was certain, I would not turn and give him a second chance to kill s land on the frozen ground I heard running feet, and Sholto was beside me He put himself between me and the sluer naked in his hand

I leaned against his back, feeling the strength of hih the remnants of his t-shirt He, like et practicalities, until the ic recedes and you realize that you are uess that was just me Some of the sidhe never felt the cold

"Are you hurt?" he asked

"No, just feeling the cold" Saying it out loud seehtly against the warmth of his back, and reached around to encircle his waist I found more in the front of his body than just waist The tentacles petted and caressedme, just as he would have with his hands if they weren&039;t full of weapons But Sholto had enough "hands" to hold ht There had been a time when the extra bits had disturbed et past theo The tentacles arm, as if they had blood close to the surface They reached around his body to hold ht it wasn&039;t disturbing, it arm

Yolland moved past us in his court finery, his iron sword bare in his hand I couldn&039;t see what he did, but he said, "The green-haired guard has only the faintest pulse"

"What about Mistral?" Sholto asked

"The same"

"We have to get Mistral to a healer," I said, still wrapped in the wars

"What of Onilwyn?" Sholto asked I was pressed so close to his back that his words vibrated against ht of the look on Onilwyn&039;s face, the hatred He e that determination in his eyes He would see it as weakness "He must die"

I felt Sholto startle; even the tentacles reacted like a hand that almost draws back from yours "We should ask the queen first, Meredith"

"Are there healers at the sluagh?" I asked

"Yes," he said

"Then take Mistral andmetal out of his body"

"Let us take you to the Seelie Court," Yolland said

I laughed, and it wasn&039;t a pleasant sound "Without the power of the wild hunt, I would not enter there like this"

"Then the Unseelie Court," Sholto said

"The men you killed were lords of that court, weren&039;t they?"

"Yes," he said

"Then it is not safe Take ile than the people of the sluagh I am not certain our healers are the best for the Storm Lord"

"He needs the metal out of him, and warmth; beyond that, ill see But time is not his friend, or ours Kill Onilwyn When we have survived this night, ill seek an audience with the queen"

"You cannot mean to end the life of one of the sidhe," Turloch said "My enemies are many, ainst h to rule here" Then I hugged Sholto and told the truth "I saw my death and the deaths of my unborn children in Onilwyn&039;s face If I spare him, he will see it as weakness, not mercy I do not want him at nant with twins Would you risk the first royal babies since I was born to squeamishness?"

"It is not squeamishness, my lady," Turloch said

"Princess," Sholto said "She is Princess Meredith"

"Fine Princess Meredith, it is not squea another lord of the sidhe We are so fe, Princess Even those who are twisted and Unseelie are precious to soolden corridors of our court before they fell from favor"

"I am aware that many of our lords and ladies were once yours, Lord Turloch But that does not change Onilwyn&039;s fate"

"You are not my queen yet, and this I will not do," he said

Sholto started to speak, but I squeezed hihtly, and he took the hint He let , Lord Turloch, on the fact that I brought a sidhe lord down single-handedly with no weapon"

"Is that a threat?" he asked

"It is truth," I said, and let him take it any way he wished

"Do as she commands," Sholto said "You are still part of the hunt, and I am still the huntsman"

"Only until dawn breaks," he said

"We will be free at dawn, but whether you are free or condemned to ride forever with the hunt reht," Lord Dacey said, "for we attacked the hunt Punishment can be to ride forever"

"Only the huntsood solider, Turloch, if I were you" His voice was cold, and he was very certain of hih to feel his heartbeat speed up Was he not certain of his words, or not certain what the sidhe would do? Or did he agree with the othertrapped in the hunt was a fate thatto fade; I could feel it It wouldn&039;t be dawn that broke it We could end up with a second fight on our hands

We needed more allies ere ours by choice, not by threat Mistral&039;s life was dripping away I would not lose him because we hesitated

I started to step back from Sholto He held me close for a second, then let me move away froertips trailing down round was colder as I walked away fro round, the three sidhe lords watchedto be cautious of, almost as if they were afraid ofon the faces of the noble sidhe I wasn&039;t sure I liked it, but I knew I needed it People only follow you for two reasons, love and fear Money didn&039;t ht my enemies had proven that there were more of them than I had known and that there were too many plots to reason with them all When love and sweet reason will not work, you are left with fear and ruthlessness

I put my hand over my stomach, still barely different, but I&039;d heard their heartbeats, saw theical, almost unreal shapes on the ultrasound They were inside me, and I had to protect them I&039;d honestly believed that once I ith child the sidhe would value that life, notnow, and I could not afford to be soft Flinching was no longer an option They say that being pregnant entler, but in that oddesses who are both creators and destroyers I was barely pregnant, and I was already willing to do things that once would have made me hesitate The time for hesitation was past

Yolland had moved Onilwyn off Mistral, so that the Ash Lord lay on his back in the frosted grass I picked up Onilwyn&039;s dropped sword "It is cold iron, sidhe lords He ive him back his blade"

I raised it two-handed, and I prayed for strength, the strength to protect th to protect the fathers of my children, and the people I loved I prayed, and drove the blade down into his body The blade pierced his chest just under the sternuh the softer tissue under the ribs I drove it up into his heart, and left it there, as he&039;d meant to do toown "Tell the other lords and ladies that I am with child I as will be met with the utmost severity"

I looked at theh the blood The power came over me, and I aran to fall froolden cup appeared in the air in front of me The chalice that had been lost from the Seelie Court centuries before hovered before er were to Sholto It appeared and disappeared at whiht and shining a ic as it had ever been Blood and death were not evil, but just another part of life

The petals filled the chalice, and the Goddess moved in my mind I knelt beside Mistral&039;s still forers came out they dripped with liquid, and I sroaned

"Take the arrows out of him," I said

It was the dark-haired lord, Yolland, who knelt and began to obey Turloch said, "It cannot be the chalice"

"Do not trust your eyes; trust your skin, your bones," Lord Dacey said "Can you not feel the thruic?"

Dacey joined Yolland Mistral moaned as they jerked the arrows free His hands convulsed with the pain, but at least he was still mostly unconscious As the arrows came out, I touched the liquid from the chalice to each wound They did not heal completely, for they were made by cold iron, but they did close partially, as if they had had days of healing The two sidhe lords knelt in the cold, and watched the chalice work its ic When I had touched every wound on Mistral&039;s body, I turned to the kneeling lords Sholto had stood and watched, because the chalice was not his ic but mine

I offered the cup with its flower petals to the lords, and they drank from it Their lips came away touched with a different color of liquid each time One smelled of ale, another of beer Turloch knelt at last, tears shining on his face

"Goddess save us"

"She&039;s trying to," I said, and let hi sweet and unknown to un to sprout s in the winter cold We knelt surrounded by the beginnings of a thicket, as green and real as any suan to fall from the cold sky

"Go back to the sidhe and tell them the wild rose has returned"

Lord Yolland said, "I would bear your oddess"

"So be it," I said

A thin vine wrapped around one of his wrists He flinched, and I knew the thorns cut hi vine was a tattoo around his wrist, as perfect and delicate as the tendril it had been but aaway the blood that was still on his white skin

"The king will not be pleased," Turloch said

"I have a mark of power from one of our royals," Yolland said "Turloch, don&039;t you understand what thatwill see her dead"

"He thinks I bear his children," I said "He ant me alive"

"How can that be?"

I held the chalice above o It hovered for a ic," I said

"Is the chalice gone?" Dacey asked, fear in his voice

"No," I said, and Lord Yolland echoed ed to its chosen bearer It has chosen Meredith, and that is good enough for me, Dacey" He touched his new tattoo "I am yours when you need me Only call and I will answer"

"You will have no choice but to answer now," Turloch said

"That you did not ask for a mark is to your shame," Yolland said "I want to live," Turloch said

"I want to serve," Yolland said

"Go, tell what you have seen It is ti The Goddess has returned to us, and her power is abroad once more," Yolland said

"They will not believe us," Dacey said

"They will believe this" Yolland held up his tattoo

"The king will kill you," Dacey said

"If he tries, then I will knock upon the sluaghs&039; gates and join King Sholto and his queen," Yolland said

"You would ride with the sluagh?" Dacey asked

"Oh, yes," Yolland said

Sholto picked Mistral up in his arms "Dawn approaches Go back to your courts, and tell them what the Goddess bids We will tend the Storm Lord"

I laid one hand on Sholto&039;s bare ar The chalice had helped heal his wounds, but cold iron could be like poison to us Just because you closed the wounds didn&039;tits deadly work

Sholto echoed , "You have done a miracle with the chalice and stopped his blood loss, but cold iron is a tricky thing, Meredith"

"We et inside doh for the way I would choose"

I felt the strength in Mistral&039;s body under th "Save hi of That Which Passes Between Part of the wild hunt has not chosen its forhs&039; er part of the ic of the hunt, Meredith"

I looked back at as left of the hunt in the otten their horses and ridden away toward their faerie ed steed were nowhere to be seen What re tail of the co, as if the full moon could be turned into tentacles, li that the eye could see, or rather nothing that the mind could make sense of I&039;d been told that it would blast my mind to see the unformed hunt, and once it had been true I reo Now I stared into it, and knew, si It was the raw stuff of chaos, and that is the beginning of all things I could bring order to it, and fors of faerie The power of the Goddess still rode withto fear Bring it, but know that the Goddess still ridesas you are protected, I am content hatever happens," he said Then he called, not ords, but I heard the call, not with my ears, but with lowing re surrounded by flesh that ran like water, and even that was not exactly true I had no words, no experience to ic, raw form My father had ions of the hu about creation in the Bible It seeiraffe appeared fully for in the midst of the raw chaos, I knew that creation was like any birth, messy and never quite what you expected

A tentacle touched htly, then, with a cry, a white horse fell away fro that was almost a hand reached for me, and I took that almost hand I stared into eyes, and I felt this formless shape ask, "What shall I be?"

What would you do, if so asked you what should it be? What form would come into your mind? If only I had had time to think, but there was no tiods do not doubt I was Goddess&039;s vessel, but there was enough of oddess I had too many doubts

The almost hand in ed to so like the head of a hawk, but it was all white and shining, and too reptilian to be a bird, and yet The claw cut my hand as it pulled away, and ht The drops of blood spun through the chaos, and where they touched, they forics come down to blood, or earth I had no earth to offer as we spun inside the ind of flesh, bone, and on for re me what blood was for Fantastic shapes formed; some of them had existed in faerie before, but some were new Some had only ever existed in books, in fairy tales, not truth, but I was part human, and I had been educated in huend, so I could not wish the mined for shapes Some of the forretted more some of the horror-e, because they were there too But soave me eyes filled with coht Soave er that you&039;d hand-reared until the day you realize that it was never tahs&039; ic, and the sluagh theht us

Sholto yelled, "We need a healer!"

Most of thehtflyers peeled the and flen one of the dark tunnels I hoped they had gone to do as their king bid, but the rest of the surprised sluagh still see circle around us knelt if they had legs to kneel with, and I knehat they wanted They wanted guidance Guidance to pick what they would be

I realized that ere in the great central hall There was the throne of bones and silk at the center of the main table This here the court ate, and when there was an audience or i tables werearea in castles, in or outside faerie

I spoke to the asseiven form Come and touch them, and they will becoure said, "The wild ic was for all of faerie So to the ho spoke, in their slightly hissing h to remember what you speak of"

Sholto said, "The Goddess moves in her, Dervil" And the nalance could not have toldto fade "Would you lose this chance to show the sidhe that the oldest h?" I asked "Come, touch it before it fades Call back what you have lost I was the dark Goddess this night" I raised ic tasted ht, but so does the ht skies?"

Someone stepped forward It was Gethin, in a loud Hawaiian shirt and shorts, though he&039;d left his hat behind so, donkeylike ears draped bare to his shoulders He s that his humanlike face was full of sharp, pointy teeth He had been one of the ones who had coeles when Sholto first approached h, but he was bold, and we needed bold tonight

He put his s forms, and it was as if his touch were black ink poured into shining water As the dark color hit the shining light, the forled, and for a ical veil had come down to hide part of the process When it was clear to the eye again, it was a sh He threw his arms around the shaky neck, and the pony nickered happily at him The happy noise showed that the pony had teeth as sharp as Gethin&039;s, but bigger The pony rolled its eyes up at me, and there was a flash of red

"Kelpie," I whispered

Gethin heard , he said, "Nay, Princess, &039;tis an Each Uisge It&039;s the water horse of the Highlands, and nothin&039; is hland folk, unless ain, and it nickered at hi-lost pet

Others caer hands There were hairy brown creatures that were not quite horses, but not quite anything else They looked unfinished, but the sluagh cried gladly at the sight of thee black boar with tentacles on either side of its snout There were black hounds, huge and fierce, with eyes that were too large for their faces, like the hounds in the old Hans Christian Andersen story about dogs with eyes as big as plates Their huge round eyes were red and glowing, and their mouths were too wide, and seeues lolled out around pointed teeth