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Chapter 25

USNA AND CATHBODUA CAME BEHIND DOYLE, DRAGGING SOMEONE between the a white fur cloak that was decorated with bright spots of criood of you to join us Who are you bringing so unceremoniously before us?" Her voice still purred with a satisfied tone, proiven her another choice of victims

"Gwennin, the white lord, a little worse for wear"

Gwennin, I kneas no friend of Cel&039;s He was no friend of anyone he considered pure Unseelie He had been one of the last cast out of the Seelie Court, and he still acted as if he ht welco the humans, but once you becaivable

I watched Doyle stalk toward htened e to tell him to come to me I wanted his ar here in open court I didn&039;t feel safe What had driven ain There was too h people want you dead, they will succeed It&039;s simple mathematics We had to survive every assassination attempt They had to succeed just once

Gwennin was not an ally to any of the lords we had "arrested" I couldn&039;t iine a plot that could hold all those before ainst me? And what did any of it have to do with thepuzzled, "you are no friend to those here" She said aloud what I&039;d been thinking I wondered if that was a good sign or a bad one Was I getting better at the politics, or was she getting worse?

"He says he acted alone That he resented the princess inviting in the human police That it was beneath our court to take their help So he set a spell that would have rendered them useless, or even killed them, if we had carried it to them"

"Carried it?"

"He put it on Biddy, for she is half-human, and everyone of human blood she touched was contaminated"

Gwennin found his voice, even flat on the floor between Usna and Cathbodua "That the spell was able to work on the princess proves she is huave him a back-handed slap "Speak when you are spoken to, traitor"

"Yes," Andais said, "they are all traitors So many traitors But none of them tried to take Meredith&039;s life They tried to take Galen&039;s, they tried to stop the hu our sithen, but they have not tried to kill Meredith Interesting, that"

I thought about it, and realized she was right I looked at Doyle, and he , and puzzling

"Why would Cel&039;s guard beyou?" Andais said conversationally

I tried to keep my voice as casual, and almost succeeded "If any of his people try to killmy allies is not an automatic death sentence for their prince"

"But why Galen, Meredith? If I were going to strip you of your allies it would be Darkness or the Killing Frost"

"Or Barinthus," I said

She nodded "Yes, that ell done" She looked at Kieran and his wife, who still had Hawthorne&039;s knife at her throat "If I kill Barinthus, then one of uards is dead If he kills est that he needs to die for his actions" Sheher skirts ood plan You made only one mistake"

He looked up at her "And as that?"

"You underestimated the princess, and her ain," he said, and gave me an unfriendly look

"Kieran, that sounded like a threat to the princess" Andais looked at me "Did that not sound like a threat to you, Meredith?"

"Yes, Aunt Andais, it did"

"Frost, did Kieran just threaten the princess?"

"Yes," Frost said

"Darkness," she said

"Yes, he threatened the princess, or threatened to plan better the next time he plots to kill you, Your Majesty"

"Yes, that is what I heard, as well" She looked out at the nobles "Blodewedd, did you hear hi breath, then gave a small nod

"I need to hear it aloud for all the court," Andais said

"Kieran has been foolish this day More foolish than I or htened for the first tie lord, you cannot mean"

"Do not involve me in your stupidity, Kieran Madenn is your wife and has always been your shadow But if you could have persuaded more of your own house to take your part, I do not believe you would have enlisted Innis&039;s help"

"An interesting point" Andais gazed down at the unconscious form of Innis "Dormath, I offer you a choice One of your people must die Innis or Siobhan, choose"

"My queen," Doyle said, "I would ask that Innis be spared, and Siobhan"

"I knoho you would kill, Darkness" She looked at me "I even knoho you would have e I want Dormath to choose, so that the rest of his house will understand that he will not protect the my lords and ladies"

"Would you take their place, Dormath? Would you offer yourself to save Innis and Siobhan both? I a to offer it"

Dor I didn&039;t think possible He blinked his large, dark eyes slowly Were we about to see Dormath, the door of death, faint?

"Come, Dormath, it is a si to pay for the criive her life for her house"

Dor to keep it even "Her entire house had joined her in her treachery My house is innocent of wrongdoing, save for these two"

"Then choose, Dormath I cannot deny the princess her call for a death She is within her rights"

"A death, yes," Dorhts to challenge theht be true, Lord Dormath," I said, "if Siobhan had attacked me one-on-one, but she did not She attacked with the aid of two others She ambushed me This was no one-on-one combat This was an assassination attempt, pure and siued, "he attacked the green knight Surely it should be he who demands the life debt"

"Do you think he will show more mercy than the princess?" Andais asked

"I think Galen has always been a fair ht in his and sighed It was not a happy sound "I tried to be fair, and just, and good, whatever thatin the Seelie Court, where they try to pretend they are so they&039;re not I asked her what they try to pretend to be Human, she said, and row solemn, and very unlike my Galen "Do you really expect me to help you save the lives of the people who tried to kill me?"

The two sidhe looked at each other, and it was Dormath who looked away first He spoke with his eyes lowered, so that he aze "One tries to know their opposition and use their strengths and weaknesses against them"

"Why am I your opposition?" Galen asked

Dormath spoke to the queen as if he hadn&039;t heard Galen "My queen, I would ask that you do not make me choose between my people One has done, perhaps, the lesser crime, but I have more affection for the other"

"Answer Galen&039;s question," Andais said

Dor eyes and looked at her His thin face showed nothing "And what question would that be, aest you bear that in mind I will tell you once more Answer Galen&039;s question"

Dorave the illusion of feathers settling around his body "I do not think your son would want this question answered in open court"

I looked at Andais then,to, but she ht She had helped hide her son&039;s secrets for centuries Her face was cold beauty, arrogant and perfect, every line of her like some statue carved to be the beauty that drives men not to love but to despair

"Answer as much or as little of the question as you will, Dorht you will forfeit all of Prince Cel&039;s allies For they will feel you betrayed the us noill conde with his plan"

Dorainst the table "My queen"

"Dormath, if you do not answer the question I will consider it a direct challenge towhat he has done," Dormath said

"Is that what I said? I don&039;t believe that is what I said" She looked at me then "Is that what I said, Meredith?"

I wasn&039;t entirely certain how to answer that question "I do not believe that you threatened Dormath with death if he revealed what Prince Cel, ed him to reveal all that he knows"

"Go on," she said, and she seeh I wasn&039;t sure why

"But you have stated clearly that if he does not answer Galen&039;s question, you will challenge hile combat, and kill hi "Exactly"

I looked from her to Dormath, and I had a ht not have an answer, not one that would keep hi himself up on the tabletop His face showed clearly that he did not see a way out of the maze of words she had thrown up around hireen knight&039;s question without revealing much that I do not believe you want known"

"I do not believe that you knohat I want, Dormath But if you reuainst me"

He sed, and his throat looked al of his Ada what?" she asked

"Do you want the court to know? Is that what you want?"

"I want a child who values his people and their welfare before his own"

The silence in the room was profound It was as if all of us took a breath and held it It was as if the very blood in our veins ceased to move for just that instant Andais had ad I had known for years She had raised him to believe that faerie and the sidhe and the lesser fey owed hi in her heart, the er than this country had existed, and now she wanted a child that valued others above themselves What had Cel done to so disillusion his mother?

Dormath spoke into that silence "My queen, I do not kno to give you what you desire"

"I can give you what you want" Maelgwn&039;s voice had lost its usual aentle at the same time, a tone I&039;d never heard from him

Andais looked at him, and with only her profile I could tell it wasn&039;t a friendly look

"Can you, wolf lord, can you truly?" Her voice held that edge of warning, like the pressure in the air before you even know the stor

"Yes," he said softly, but the word carried through the hall

She settled herself against the back of her throne, her hands very still on the carved arms "Illuminate me, wolf"

"There are two children of your line who have coe, , and now offers alic A child who says bringing children to all the sidhe isher own life, or filling her own belly with life These are all things that most of the nobles in this roo to have Is that not a child who puts her people&039;s welfare above her own?"

I sat very still I did not want to draw her attention to wn said was true, but the queen didn&039;t always like or reward the truth Soot you further Andais&039;s most beloved lie was that Cel was fit to rule here She herself had opened the door to the nobles finally speaking the truth That Cel would have been almost no one&039;s choice, if they&039;d had any other choice that didn&039;t include a half-breed e to tell Andais that there was so spoiled or privileged

Andais spoke as if she&039;d heard nant so quickly, there were those who urged me to step down I refused" She turned and looked at me "Do you want to knohy I called you hoaped at her for a ed, "Yes"

"I&039;m infertile, Meredith All those hu they can for me That is why you must prove yourself fertile Whoever rules after wn accusedall of you to be childless because ive you o back" She sighed and sluht bodice would allow "I wonder ould be noe Unseelie, if I had allowed Essus to take this throne these thirty years and more" Her eyes held a pain that she&039;d never let me see before That one look answered a question that I had wondered about I knew that my father loved his sister, but until that moment I had not been sure that she loved him back It was there in her eyes, in the lines of her face, even underneath the makeup She looked tired

"Aunt Andais - " I started but she shushed me

"I have heard whispers in the dark, niece oftruly lives for you, if it has begun to choose fertile couples for you, then perhaps the ru the Seelie, with child?"

I openedus ere spies for the Seelie Court It would endanger Maeve to say yes, but Taranis had already tried to kill her She was in another country now, as safe as we could erous not to answer, because we had told no one that Maeve Reed had been exiled frorounds that he was sterile Which meant that, unlike Andais, Taranis had known a hundred years ago that he was infertile He had kept his throne and condemned his people to diminish and die rather than step down The Seelie ithin their rights to demand his death as a true sacrifice to the land for that oversight

I&039;d thought too long, and Andais said, "Meredith, what is wrong?"

Frost squeezed my shoulder, Galen was very still beside ave a small nod Truth was the lesser evil I whispered it "Yes, she is with child"

Andais was looking froed to ask why I had hesitated so long, but she was a better politician than to ask You did not ask a question in public to which you did not know the answer "Answer so that everyone can hear you, niece"

I had to clear h the hall "Yes, she is with child"

A sigh of h the assembled nobles

Andais smiled, as if she was satisfied with the reaction "Did you work a spell for her, a fertility spell?"

"Yes," I said

Thelike the sea as it sweeps toward the shore

"I heard her husband was dying even then, is that true?"

I nodded "Yes"

"Treatments for cancer can leave a man sterile or unable to perforot a dying man to perform one last time for her?"

"Yes"

"Who played the part of the consort to your goddess? Who was god to your goddess for this spell?"

"Galen" I pressed his hand against my chest, as I said it

The ocean of murmurs burst upon us in a confused babble Cries, almost shouts Some did not believe it I heard at least one male voice that I could not quite place say, "That explains it" I would ask Doyle or Frost if they recognized the voice later

Andais looked at Kieran still standing bound at the foot of the steps "I slew Galen&039;s father before I, or the noble lady who brought conant You alic to create life in the wo hu very hard "I would say I do not believe it, but you have spoken too much truth today, my queen, for h to lie to save him"

"We never lie, Kieran"

He bowed "I ainst her chair, al in "What did Cel&039;s people tell you that ?"

I expected Kieran to argue, or fight her, but he si life to her" He nodded at me, since he could not point

Andais looked at Dorreen man would return life to the land of faerie"

Kieran&039;s face showed his panic He tried to fall to his knees, I think to boer, but hands caught him, kept him on his feet "That is not what I was told, my queen, I swear it I would never destroy a chance for our court to be brought back to ere, never"

"Dor of the prophecy that Prince Cel paid the hureenlife back to the land of faerie The ruler is the land, and the land is the ruler Their health, their fertility, their happiness, is the health, the fertility, and the joy of the land itself"

"Well put, Dorht, and he was destined to be the king who brought back children to the sidhe, then ould you have done to us, Kieran, Madenn?" She didn&039;t wait for the him you would have destroyed all our hopes and dreaun to awaken the dead gardens, and thechose Nicca and Biddy," Kieran said "It is Mistral who sits in the consort&039;s throne, not the green knight"

"True enough, and perhaps the ring has chosen the storreen ods, but perhaps I have been too literal Green od, or consort" She shook her head "I do not know for certain I do not know if it is irritating or reassuring that prophets still speak in riddles even in this very modern America" She turned to me "Go help Nicca and Biddy make the child you saw But abide by iven him first to Biddy, I will be cross But take Galen and one other green ht, as well"

"What of the traitors, Aunt Andais?" I asked

"You go try and ive you a united court, Meredith It will be ift to you" She put a hand in front of her face and said, "Leave reen men with you, but leave me the ones who are not"

Frost&039;s hand tensed on my shoulder, and I must have made solanced at Frost and Doyle, and anger filled her eyes "Take your Darkness and the Killing Frost They are yours, but I will need souards to help me punish the traitors"

"And Biddy and Nicca," I said quietly

She waved her hand io"

Frost&039;s hand eased up on ot up, bowed to the queen, and weher to punish the traitors She probably wouldn&039;t kill theretted their actions Of that, I had no doubt I shouldn&039;t have looked back, but I did I saw Crystall, Hafwyn, Dogmaela, and others try to control their faces Mistral and Barinthus were arabbed et ain, but I balked I couldn&039;t save everyone, I knew that, but

Doyle didn&039;t try to stop ive ht against ht

"May I take a healer with encies? We sent for a healer when Galen was injured but the healer never arrived"

She nodded, but her attention was already fixed on her victi the blond hair that he had so carefully braided back behind his head "Yes, take any but my own healer"

"Hafwyn," I said

She couldn&039;t keep the relief off her face as she started across the floor

The queen called after her "Meredith, if you wish a healer you must take one who still has their powers" She actually put her hands on her hips as if she was impatient withatattention "Healed theed to look both irritated and relieved "She is one you brought back into her powers tonight"

"No,on of hands"

"I was told that she had lost her ability to heal," the queen said

"Hafwyn," I said, "did you ever lose your ability to heal?"

She shook her head without turning around to face the queen, as if she was afraid to look away frouard?" the queen asked She came down the steps, and I felt everyone aroundus all at risk But for the first ti to hear awful truths about Cel I wasn&039;t sure how long this new s that would happen only when she illing to believe Cel was a monster

"She healed someone Prince Cel had forbidden her to heal He told her that froer be allowed to heal"

Andais glided across the floor toward us, her dresssound Hafwyn paled "Is this true, Hafwyn?"

The guard sed hard and turned around to face the queen She dropped to one knee without being asked or told "Yes, Queen Andais, it is true"

"You had the ability to heal grievous wounds by touch and he forbade you to use your gift?"

Hafwyn kept her face down, but answered, "Yes"

Andais looked at me "She is yours, but I cannot allow you to strip Cel of all his guards Even a queen cannot help another sidhe break their vows of loyalty and service"

"Hafwyn breaks no vow co to me, for she made no vow to Prince Cel I auard h Doyle&039;s eyes that let me know he at least understood why this orth the risk

Andais frowned at uards a chance to join his service after Essus&039;s death They made vows to serve Cel"

Hafwyn abased herself lower on the floor, but said, "My queen, Cel told us you gave us to him He did not ask our permission or if ished to serve him He told all of us that our vows had been made to a prince, and he was a prince"

"He said you all chose to serve hione holloith surprise

Hafwyn kept her face pressed to her hands on the floor, but she answered "No, ive your vow to Cel?"

Biddy shook her head "No, and he never asked for it"

Andais turned back toward the throne "Dogive oath to Prince Cel?"

"No, htened

Andais screamed, a loud, sharp, inarticulate scream that seeiven uard to anyone, not even my own son All those who did not make oath to Cel are free to choose to leave his service"

"Are we free to offer our service where ish?" Hafwyn asked, her head raised just enough to look up at the queen

"Yes, but if you wish to go to the princess&039;s service my order stands To serve her, you uard has always served my blood and my house"

It was Biddy who said, "Prince Essus did not force us to serve him and only him"

Andais looked at her, and shook her head, then looked at uards if I allowed it?"

"I would free the woet nant After I am with child and knoho the father of my child would be, I would free the et with child?"

"Then I would keep those I preferred in ive or take a few, is enough for me, I think"

"And what if I said that any you did not keep must come back to me?"

"You told me once that you made the celibacy rule because you wanted their seed for yourself, but if you cannot be pregnant, then why not let theet with child?"

"So fair, so evenhanded, so like Essus" She gave us her back and began to walk toward her throne "Take the guards you have around you and go And know this, your ill truths will make our traitors&039; punisher will need flesh and blood to be stilled"

To that there was only one thing to say "I will go and do as you have bid, Aunt Andais" I bowed to her back, and we got Hafwyn to her feet and left I did not need anyone&039;s urging to know that I had pushed her about as far as she&039;d be pushed this night We left her caressing Kieran The last sound we heard before the doors closed behind us was Madenn&039;s screarip on ht

Chapter 26

THERE WAS A STORM OF BUTTERFLIES OUTSIDE THE DOOR TO MY room, as if someone had broken a kaleidoscope and thrown the colors into the air, and those colors had stayed, floating, whirling For a auzy dresses and loincloths I saw only what their gla like beauty itself into the air I had to blink hard and concentrate to see theainstall of us just short of that rainbow cloud

Galen&039;s reaction made me remember another time when I&039;d seen such a cloud of the demi-fey Galen had been chained to the rock outside the throne roo wings of the dee of a puddle, sipping liquid, wingsBut they weren&039;t sipping water, they were drinking his blood Galen had shrieked long and loud, his body arching against the chains The liroin was a bloodyflesh as well as blood