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Chapter Twenty-Five

Besaba was tall, slender, and very sidhe in her body build But her hair was only a thick, wavy brown, bound on her head in a complicated hairdo that left her thin face too bare for my taste She had her mother&039;s hair, and brown eyes, very human eyes It had only been in the last few months that I&039;d realized one of the reasons she had always hated ht be short, and too curvy, but I couldn&039;t have passed for human witha dress of deep orange, decorated with gold embroidery It was a dress to please Taranis, as very fond of fire colors

She was in a tent that they had set up on the ground outside She looked to be alone, but I knew better Taranis&039;s allies would never have trusted her toin Sholto&039;s official calling room, which meant it was richly appointed, and had a throne for a chair It wasn&039;t "the" throne of the sluagh court That was old and purple throne, probably found in soo But it served its purpose It looked ih not as ihtflyers who clung to the wall behind us like a living tapestry froet

Sholto sat on the throne, as befitted the king I sat on his lap, which lacked a certain dignity, but we thought it ood time Of course, when so you can do will make the only what she wished to see

Doyle was on one side of the throne, Mistral on the other If we hadn&039;t had the nightflyers behind us, we&039;d have looked very sidhe But anted whoever ith ht of theonly the four of us, if they pressed They needed to understand that above all else

I had settled myself comfortably on Sholto&039;s lap His arh in a very faesture Of the three men withon a show, and one point of that shoas to prove that I was their lover When trying to prove soh can say volu, Mother, as you well know"

"How can you say that? You are Seelie sidhe, and they have taken you fro that the Seelie valued If you speak of the chalice, then all who can hear oes where the Goddess wills it, and she has willed it tothe Seelie, Meredith Youthe chalice, and you will be queen"

"Taranis&039;s queen, you mean?" I asked

She smiled happily "Of course"

"He raped h he was quite close to begin with I reached out to hi so that he held my hand, even while I sat in Sholto&039;s lap

"How can you say such things? You bear his twins"

"They are not his children I am with the fathers of my twins"

Mistral moved nearer the chair He did not reach out for me, because I was out of hands, one in Doyle&039;s hand, and one on Sholto&039;s arm He simply moved closer, to help me emphasize my point, I think

"Lies Unseelie lies"

"I am not queen of the Unseelie yet, Mother I ah"

She settled the stiff, rich sleeves of her gown, and harruain, falsehoods," she said

I had a moment when I wished I could conjure the crowns of faerie to h, frankly, seeing Sholto and ht just make her more convinced that ere Seelie It was all flowers and herbs, after all

"Call it what you will, but I am content in the company I keep Can you say as ," she said, and I knew she meant it

"Even after sorando?"

Her face clouded for a ain and faced me "It was not Cair who slew uards who struck the blow"

"To save my life, yes"

She looked shocked then, and I think it was real "Our mother would never have harmed you She loved you"

"She did, and I her, but Cair&039;s ainst me, and my people It was an evil spell, Mother, and the fact that she used her own grandmother to carry it orse"

"You lie"

"I led the wild hunt to get e If it had not been the absolute truth, the hunt would either have not answered my call, or when it arrived the hounds of the hunt would have torn me limb from limb They did not They helped me hunt Cair down They helped me kill her, and save the fathers ofattacked"

She shook her head, but looked a little less sure of herself A bit, but I knew her Her certainty would return It always did She would get a gli she was, or how evil her allies were, then she&039;d shake off that flitting insight and enorance like a orn cloak

I leaned forward in Sholto&039;s lap,his hand so that I held both his and Doyle&039;s hands I leaned toward the h this snorance

"Mother, the wild hunt does not do the bidding of liars or traitors Taranis did rape me, but he was too late I am to have twins, and the Goddess has shown me who the fathers are"

"You have two babies, but threefros Not a question about the rape, or the traitors whom the wild hunt had helped us destroy, but the math of fathers and babies

"The history of the sidhe is full of goddesses who had children by more than just one man, Mother Clothra is the one most oft named, but there have been others Apparently, I will need s, not just one"

"You have been bespelled, Meredith All know that the King of the sluagh is a great one for glamour" She was back to her certainties Sometimes I wondered why I tried with her Oh, she was ive up on parents Maybe they feel the same way about us

"Faerie itself hascuff, and rolled it back as much as the coat would allohich was not much Sholto&039;s sleeve was looser, so that h showed to prove that the tattoos were a pair

She shook her head "You can get a tattoo at any huhed then I couldn&039;t help it

She looked startled "There is nothing funny here, Meredith"

"No, Mother, there is not" But h or start screa at you, and I don&039;t think that would be helpful"

I pushed my sleeve back down and closed the bone button once ht of thefrom the table near the far wall

Mistral said, "Do you think that wise?"

I looked at the table that held all the ancient weapons that had coood idea? I wasn&039;t entirely certain, but I was tired I was tired of people trying to kill us I was tired of people assu that if they could strip me of my men I would be a pawn to be used as they saw fit I&039;d had enough

I hesitated with my hand over the sword Aben-dul I prayed "Goddess, do I show them what I an, and thought at first that she would not answer me, then a faint perfume of roses came I felt the tattoo on my arht of the rose and mistletoe croove itself to life on my head

I wrapped my hand around the hilt of the sword I was afraid of it Afraid of what it could do in my hands The hand of flesh was a terrible power With this sword I could use that power from a distance, and no one could take it fro the very horror that they were trying to avoid

I walked back to the mirror with the sword held in one hand like you would hold a flag I stood in front of Sholto, and held the sword before ht of thisto bet that she wouldn&039;t know it Mother never cared for Unseelie power But someone in the tent would know it, of that I was alh alked into view He actually gave a little bow before he peered h; he knew it

He spoke, hoarsely "Aben-dul So the sluagh stole that away as well" But he didn&039;t believe it

I reached my free hand back to Sholto He took my hand and came to stand beside ic flexed, as if the air itself took a breath The herb croove itself to life while the Seelie watched The herb ring on his finger bloomed white, and his crown bloomed into a haze of pastel flowers We stood crowned by faerie itself before theh, crowned by faerie itself to rule I ah, and I bear his child, his heir"

I let the hand holding Aben-dul drop totous once more You can either move with her power, or be left out of it It is your choice But it is truth that is needed, no more lies, no more illusions Think well upon that before you decide to try to takeme?" she asked, and it was so like her to concentrate on the sht have been the large issue

"I a that it would be unwise to force iven by the Goddess to defend myself And I will use every ounce of power I have to keep froain I will not be raped again, not even by the King of the Seelie"

Lord Hugh had stepped back a little from the mirror "We hear your words, Princess Meredith"

"Queen Meredith," I said

He gave a little bow of his head "Queen Meredith"

"Then disband this ill-conceived and unneeded rescue atte, and leave us in peace"

"His orders were very specific, Queen Meredith We are to come back with you and the chalice, or not return at all"

"He has exiled you, unless you succeed?" I asked

"Not in those words, but we are left few choices"

"You h spread his hands wide "Blunter than I would have put it, but not inaccurate, unfortunately, for all concerned"

There was ive ain and leftat my mother

She said, "You look lovely in a crown, Meredith, just as I always knew you would" She even looked pleased, as if what she said were true

I could have said a lot of things in that ht I would ever rule, why did you let Taranis nearly beat ht I would ever be queen, why did you give me away, and never wish to see me?" What I said out loud was "I knew you would like the crown, Mother"

Lord Hugh caht He bowed lower "I a You called the humans for help"

"I did"

"Noe attack, the Seelie Court could be banished froh in place, and in control of the last remnants of faerie"

I smiled sweetly at hiht to win for centuries without the Unseelie, or the sluagh, striking a blow"

"The point is to not strike the blow," I said

He gave the lowest bow yet, a real one, causing him to partially vanish from the view of the mirror When he stood up, he had a look of naked admiration on his face "It seems as if the Goddess and faerie have not chosen ill in their new queen You have won We will retreat, and you have given us a reason that even King Taranis will understand He would never risk our entire court being cast fro will take you back, and understand that to do anything but retreat would be extreain "I thank you for finding a way out of our dilemma, Queen Meredith I had not heard that you played politics well"

"I have my moments," I said

He smiled, bowed once more, and said, "We will leave you to be rescued by the hu to leave her with the sluagh," hter&039;s fate

"Give it a rest, Mother," I said, and blanked the h, as if she believed what Taranis had told her It was clear that Lord Hugh did not But then if I went back as Taranis&039;s queen, Besaba wouldn&039;t be the ain politically, if Taranis was telling the truth

Sholto kissed rinned at him "It helps when faerie itself crowns you, andup"

"No, Meredith," Doyle said, "that ell played Your father would have been very proud"

"Indeed," Mistral said

And in thata weapon that only myself and my father could have safely wielded, covered in faerie&039;s blessing, and knowing that my father would have been proud of uess in the end you never outgroanting to please your parents Since I&039;d never please my mother, my father was all I had left He always had been He and Gran

My parents were dead now, both of them The woman in the mirror was just the person whose body spit me out It takes much ood mother, and for help to keep all of us safe There was a shower of white rose petals frouess that was answer enough The Goddess ith et much better than that As the Christians said, if God is with ainst me? The answer, unfortunately, was almost everyone

Chapter Twenty-Six

We buckled on our neeapons I was very serious about putting the lock loops onas it was sheathed, someone could bump it without harm If it was unsheathed, even a little, there was a chance that it would turn some poor soldier&039;s arm inside out

Doyle had put the horn of madness across his body on its leather strap

"Shouldn&039;t you put that in a sack or so as I wear the horn across ainst it It is only out of er"

"How do I carry the spear so that the Seelie do not see what it is?" Mistral asked

"I don&039;t think even Taranis will attack you for the spear today, in front of the humans," I said

"But there will be other days," Mistral said "He came to the Western Lands to find you, Meredith I think for one of his iteain" He hefted the spear as he talked, as if judging the weight of it It was a slender weapon, longer than Sholto&039;s spear of bone that I&039;d used to slay Cair I realized that Mistral&039;s spear was almost too slender to stab or thrust with

"Is itrod?"