Page 14 (2/2)

It was al, that he looked cute standing there so defiant, so tiny I had been treating hie, you are correct You are fey and you are "

He frowned at ht that true royalty lies in knohen one is wrong or right, and ad the difference; not in false perfection"

He turned his head to one side, an almost birdlike movement "I have heard from others that you deal fairly with all, like your father before you" His thin voice sounded thoughtful

"It is good to hear my father spoken of still"

"We all remember Prince Essus"

"I aood h it wasn’t the saer person His idea of eye contact seeht eye, though he’d apparently seen ed it correctly, which meant he could see allwith the demi-fey My father had always been respectful of them, but I had not been taken to Niceven’s court as I had been to Kurag’s and others

"Prince Essus had our respect, Princess, but time moves on and soarrogant again, and I fought not to s so full of himself It wasn’t funny or cute; he was just as much a person as anyone else in the room But it was hard to truly believe that

"Let us have privacy to fulfill reen knight"

I looked at Doyle and Galen inside the roo his head "My guards do not allow me to be alone with any member of the courts"

"Do you think I should be flattered that they see me as a potential threat?" He turned on er at Doyle "Darkness knows me of old and knohat I ae turned back to face ainst my skin "But I would still have privacy for this"

"No," Doyle said

Sage turned back to hi inches froexactly what she says is all that I have What I will do tonight in this roohts in a very long time I do not think privacy is too uards weren’t happy about it, but they finally agreed Only Kitto stayed wound around e said, pointing at the goblin

"He faded today, Sage," I said

"He looks well enough"

"His king, Kurag, has inforic is what sustains Kitto out here a the huer"

"You would kick him out of your bed for one of your sidhe warriors"

"No" Kitto spoke softly "I have been privileged to stay while they ht cast shadows on the walls, so bright they glowed"

Sage fluttered down to hover over Kitto’s upturned face "Goblin, your kind eatseat the weak It is the way of the world," Kitto said

"The goblin world," Sage said

"It is all I know"

"You are far from that world now"

Kitto cuddled under the sheet so that only his eyes showed "Merry is oblin?"

"I aood world"

Sage hovered for a few oblin gives his word ofhe sees, hears, feels, or senses in any ill he repeat to anyone, then he may stay"

Kitto repeated the proazed down h he was no taller than my forearm, I shivered and had the ue like a drop of blood licked across his pale lips "First the bloodletting, then the cure" The way he said cure uards leaving me alone He was smaller than a Barbie doll, but in that instant, I was afraid of him

Chapter 28

He fluttered down off my hand toward my breasts I put my other arm between him and my body He ended up on my other wrist, which I moved out from my body in order to see him more easily I raised the sheet over usted "Will you deny ht I would be foolish to let you near such tender flesh before I see exactly how gently you feed"

He sat down on my wrist, ankles crossed, hands on either side to steady hi down; not entle, fair lady" His voice was the sound of chimes in a warm summer breeze Had his lips been like a tiny crio? He touched that flower-softmy arm as I would have reclined upon a couch He ran his tiny er lover would have se played with the my skin -- soundless music that only he could hear, but I could feel it It played along er,hiry bee "Why did you do that? We were having soup at hi will not be nearly so pleasant for you" He shrugged his thin shoulders, thehim dip in midair "For me it is much the same, for Niceven’s purposes it is much the same, but for you, fair princess, it is not the same Let me save you so"

If he’d caught me on another day when Kitto’s bite didn’t still ache, I ht have told him no, just to take his queen’s blood and be done with it Goblins could not do glamour of any kind, so Kitto had had no choice; without the natural gla he could dome a choice

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then nodded "Just enough glae If you try for uards and you won’t like what they’ll do to you"

He made a sound that would have been rude, except that it came out like a tiny trumpet, as if a butterfly couldcenturies for me to put a foot out of line, Princess I knoell, perhaps better than you, what he owes me"

"I noticed it seemed personal between you, more than with the others"

"Personal? You could say that" He sed to be pleasant and evil at the sas that would be a great deal of fun to do

I could have asked Sage as so personal, but I didn’t Either Doyle would explain or I would never know I didn’t think Doyle would take kindly toto gain information from one friend about another friend, but you didn’t talk to people’s enemies about your friends, and you didn’t let those enemies talk to you behind your friends’ backs It just wasn’t kosher

"You la so unpleasant But mind your manners"

"Do you need to look so far for protection? You have your goblin there beside you Will he not reach up and snatch rind my bones if I play you false?"

"Goblins have little chance against strong glamour, and well you know it"

He put his hands on his chest, widened his eyes "But I alaoblin fear the likes of lamour and well you know that They have led travelers and the unwary astray for centuries"

"A little sater never hurt anyone," Sage said, hovering closer towardmud under that water You are Unseelie fey, which h the murk to his death, so much more the fun"

He crossed his arms, which were thinner than a pencil was round, over his chest "And what happens when a Seelie will-o’-the-wisp guides travelers into marshy land, and they fall to quicksand? Do not tell rab a rope They may weep pretty tears for a poor mortal, but as soon as his last breath bubbles up fro for another traveler to lead astray They may avoid that particular patch of swaame simply because it led to some unfortunate’s death"

He landed on my sheet-covered knee "And is it so unfair to lead so butterfly collector to his death, when if he caughtjar and lah to keep away froentler brethren, the butterflies and insects that we demi-fey mimic, what of them? One fool with a net can devastate a summer meadow"

Put that way, he had a point, or seelamour now?"

"A sidhe princess should knohen she’s being tricksied about with," he said, arlahts to lead an ento butterflies"

"Ah," Sage said, gazing up at ree a little at least, or you wouldn’t have asked about the glaain I had e I hadn’t understood that you had to kill insects to pass the course I re jar It was one of the ical; dead they were like tissue paper and sticks I’d finally asked how many insects I had to collect for a D, and I’d collected thatthe insects when the college had a co It was the last biology class I took where you had to collect anything

I stared at the little butterfly-winged ument that didn’t make me feel like a hypocrite I wouldn’t kill sos onfrom flower to flower, maybe I’d see the death of one butterfly on a different scale Maybe, if you were the size of a Barbie doll, killing the s people Maybe Maybe not But I didn’t feel sure enough of ue