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"If not, then kick their asses out of Aet rid of your ene I can think of that ht, avoid any ht I&039; to e I&039;o be ht now Get nant with twins, and I have some of the fathers offatal happens Please, Major Walters, please help me"

The tendril curled back away froainst his body Sholto still had his a his arht in that instant, it wasn&039;t co his eyes

"I aive me"

"We punished the person who killed Gran You knoe all know, that it wasn&039;t your hand that did it"

He gazed up at uished "But it was my hand that struck the blow"

"If you had not done it, and I could have," Doyle said, "it would have been my hand"

Mistral spoke fro while I was being tortured?"

"There is much to tell," Doyle said, "but let it wait for a later time"

Mistral came to stand near us, but there wasn&039;t much of me left to touch I offered him a hand, and after a moment&039;s hesitation, he took it "I will follow you into exile, Princess"

"I cannot leave my people," Sholto said, still on his knees

"You will be in danger if you stay in faerie," I said "They&039;ve already proven that the three of you are marked for assassination"

"You must cohhis cheek alongand queen"

"A dead king is not worth anything to the will this exile last?" Sholto asked

"Until the babies are born, at least," I said

"I can travel froh e inside the et to the sidhe"

"You say sidhe, not Seelie," I said "Why?"

"Onilwyn is not Seelie, but he helped your cousin and her Seelie allies try to kill Mistral We have enemies on all sides, Meredith Isn&039;t that why you are leaving faerie?"

I thought about what he&039;d said, then could only nod "Yes, Sholto, that is exactly e must leave faerie There are more enemies than even the Goddess herself could have foreseen"

"Then we go into exile," Doyle said at h o into exile," Mistral said

"Exile," Sholto said

We were agreed Noe just had to find Rhys and Galen and tell the

Chapter Twenty-Two

Doyle borrowed a noner from Sholto, who had several weapons stashed around the office I wondered if his bedrooured that it probably was It showed a lack of arrogance and a caution that I found coeously attractive in a king Tonight, ere trying to survive and flee, and extra weapons that weren&039;t ood idea

Doyle used the dagger to contact Rhys Most of faerie used ic had been with one of the few reflected surfaces that all of us had carried Even nonwarriors had carried a blade to cut food or do chores A knife was useful forYou just needed a body fluid to paint across the blade For whatever reason, mirrors didn&039;t need that extra personal touch, which was probably e&039;d gone to er and painted his blood across the side of the dagger Then he leaned close and called for Rhys

I sat in Sholto&039;s big office chair,crown had unraveled and gone to wherever it went Sholto&039;s hair was also bare once more Apparently, the power had made its point

I wasn&039;t certain if it was the retreat of suchup with me, but I was cold It was a cold that had little to do with the constant te to do with skin and blankets, but are a cold of heart and soul

The sword Aben-dul lay on the clean surface of Sholto&039;s big desk The ies that had appeared on its hilt were still there, frozen in whatever the hilt was made of It felt like bone, but not quite There was a woman&039;s nude body frozen in ainto the leg of the man above her

The hand of flesh was one of the ics that the sidhe possessed I&039;d used it only twice, and each tiht have been less awful, for they would have died if you turned them inside out The sidhe did not die You had to find another way to bring thelistened in the lights Their heart beat in the open air, still attached by blood vessels and other bits and pieces

The last person to wield the hand of flesh had been my father But the sword on the desk had not reappeared to him It had come tothe chair back with his hands on its arms The chair rolled smoothly back, and I looked up at him where he bent over me

"Princess Meredith, you look haunted"

I opened my mouth, closed it, then finally said, "I&039;m cold"

He smiled, but his eyes were serious as he turned to Sholto "The princess is cold"

Sholto siuards waiting outside He was a king, and siuards would be there, and that one of them would be all too happy to fetch a servant, ould in turn fetch a blanket or a coat It was the arrogance of the nobility I&039;d never had enough servants who listened to h maybe my father had planned it that way He&039;d been a ht far ahead Maybe he&039;d understood that without that arrogance I would be more fair Faerie was overdue for a little fairness

Mistral knelt in front of h that he still blockedon the desk His spear lay there too It was no longer a shining, silver-white thing, but looked like soe so old that I could not read it all I wondered if Mistral could, but I did not wonder enough to ask There were other things that I needed to know more

"Why did the sword not come to my father&039;s hand? He held the hand of flesh"

Doyle answered from behind us "He also held the hand of fire"

I did not look behind, but answered "And I have the hand of blood What does one thing have to do with another? Aben-dul is made for anyone who holds the hand of flesh Why un to return when Prince Essus was alive," Doyle said

Mistral asked, "Did you reach Rhys?"

"Yes" Doyle caht side He took my hand in his, the hand that had allowed ic would have turned me inside out, and I would have died, just like that

He kissed the palm of my hand, and I tried to pull away froreat power, Meredith There is nothing wrong or evil in it"

I pulled harder on ht about it "I know that a ic is not evil in and of itself, but because of what it does, Doyle You&039;ve seen what it does It is the ic I have ever seen"

"Did the prince never demonstrate the power for you?" Mistral asked

"I saw the enemy who the queen keeps in a trunk in her bedroom I know my father made him into the ball of flesh that he is"

"Prince Essus did not agree hat the queen chose to do with it," Doyle said

"Not it," Sholto said "Him If it hadn&039;t been a hiotten him out of his trunk?"

We all looked at hi to make her feel better, not worse"

"The queen took pride in letting Meredith see just how terrible she could be"

I nodded "He&039;s right I saw the as left of the prisoner I saw him in her bed, and was told to put him back in his trunk"

"I did not know," Doyle said

"Nor I," Mistral said

"Did you really think the queen spared the princess anything?"

"Andais spared her the worst of our humiliations," Mistral said, "because Meredith had never seen her torture us as she did the night the princess saved us" He took one of ave me the look that I had earned at last It was a look of respect, gratitude, and hope It had been Mistral&039;s eyes that night, his glance at e to risk death to save theht had said clearly that I was just another useless royal I had done

I wondered if he knew that, and soht, Mistral, that made me risk death at the queen&039;s hands"

He frowned "You barely knew me then"

"True, but you looked at me while she bled some of you and ht of me, that I was just another useless royal"

He studied ht because I looked at you?"

"I had to prove you wrong, Mistral I had to risk everything to save you all, because it was the right thing to do It was the dutiful thing to do"

He held , andht of my words

"She does not lie," Doyle said from the other side of me

"It&039;s not that It&039;s that I have not had a woer than I can relance " He frowned at ether? Is that why one glance froht about it that way "I do not know I only know that it is what happened You , Storht have given a woman A smile that said how pleased he was, and how ic of being with all the men is about the otherworldliness of them and me, but some of the most precious moments are the most ordinary Moments that any man and woman could share, if they loved, and spoke the truth

Did I love Mistral? In that azed up at me, I had only one answer: Not yet