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Chapter 30

The third repetition of her na silence came after as I awaited the response

When you trap soerous, there are certain fundaot to have good bait, soood trap, soet is in the trap, you&039;ve got to have a net or a cage strong enough to hold it

Get any of those three ele, and you probably won&039;t succeed Get two of the at a result far more disastrous thandamned well that all I had was bait Mab, for her own reasons, had wanted to subornher by her nah thecircle would have been a fine trap - if it still existed, I e of my will had always been the weakest point in any such endeavor

Bottoer to show up Once it was there, all I had was a really good chalk drawing of a pit on the sidewalk and "Nice kitty"

I wasn&039;t going into it blind and ignorant, though I was desperate, but not stupid I figured I had the advantage of position Mab couldn&039;t kill a mortal She could onlyher attentions I didn&039;t have a lot to lose She couldn&039;t hter than I was already

I waited, in perfect darkness, for the mistress of every wicked fairy in every dark tale huht to put in an appearance

Mab didn&039;t disappoint me

Surprise me, yes But she didn&039;t disappoint

Stars began to appear in front of ured that was probably a really bad thing, for a moment But they didn&039;t spin around in lazy, dizzy motion like the kind of stars thatThey instead burned steady and cold and pure above ht

Seconds later, a cold wind touched my face, and I became conscious of a hard smoothness beneath me I laid my hands carefully flat, but I didn&039;t feel the cot and the backboard under ers touched only cold, even stone, a planar surface that seeled my foot and confirmed that there was stone beneath it there, too

I stopped and realized that I could feel my foot I could move it

My whole body was there And it was naked I wavered between yelping at the cold suddenly being visited uponin joy that I could feel it at all I saw land to one side and scra down and hanging on to the edge of the slab for balance

This wasn&039;t reality, then This was a drea that was otherwise in between the mortal world and the spiritual realm That made sense My physical body was still back in St Mary&039;s, lying still and breathing deeply, but my mind and my spirit were here

Wherever "here" was

My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I saw gentleclouds let a flash of ht over the hilltop around me, and upon the ancient table of stone beside me The moon&039;s touch e dance with flickers of illue I did not know

Then I understood Mab had created this place for ourIt was known as the Valley of the Stone Table It was a broad, bowl-shaped valley, I knew, though the mist hid most of it from me In its exact center stood a h at its center Atop the mound stood the massive slab of stone, held up on four stumpy pillars Other stones stood in a circle around it, soe-like lintel The stones all shed faint illureen Cold colors

Winter colors

Yeah It was after the equinox So that tracked The Table was in Winter&039;s domain It was an ancient conduit of power, transferred in the most prirooves and whorls in the table&039;s surface, coated with ancient stains, and it squatted on the hill, patient and hungry and i for warm, vital creatures to wander too close

The blood spilled upon this table would carry the power of its life with it, and would flow into the well of power in the control of the Winter Queen

A movement across the table froeal fro itself into a slender, fereen candle flames flickered in what looked like two eyes within the cowl&039;s hood

My throat went dry It took me two tries to rasp, "Queen Mab?"

The forh the ht I turned to face it

A furious cat squall erupted from the air six inches behindthere, and the woh echoed around the top of the misty mound, this ti this, aren&039;t you," I said,in my throat "You toldvoices hissed aible I saw another flicker of reen eyes

"Th-this is a li to make my voice sound steady "It&039;s been forced by circuet off your royal ass and ju"

"I warned you," said a calodchild"

I carefully keptout a shriek It would have been unwizardly Instead, I took a deep breath and turned to find the Leanansidhe standing a few feet away, covered in a cloak the color of the last seconds of twilight, the deep blue-purple fabric hiding her coreen cat eyes ide and steady, her expression solemn

"But I&039;m here," I said quietly

She nodded

Another shadow appeared beside her, green eyes burning Queen Mab, I presumed, and noted that she was actually a couple of inches shorter than odmother Of course, especially in a place like this, Mab could be as gargantuan or Lilliputian as she chose

Probably-Mab stepped closer, still covered in shadows despite the fact that she was nearer to hter

"So ed subtly, growing cold and precise "Your scars are beautiful things Within and without" The shadowed figure stepped behind one of the fallen stones and eed from behind another on the opposite side of the circle "Yes," said the cold voice co from the Leanansidhe&039;s lips "I can ith this"

I shivered Because it was really cold and I was naked, I&039;od a translator?"

"For your sake," said the cold voice, as a shadowed figure stepped behind the nextdeosil, clockwise

Mab was closing the circle around me

"Wh-why for h the Leanansidhe&039;s lips "This conversation would quickly grow tedious if you kept falling to your knees, screa ears, my wizard"

"Yeah But why?" I asked "Why would your voice hurt ry," answered the Leanansidhe in her natural voice "Because her voice is a part of her power, and her rage is too great to be contained"

I sed Mab had spoken a feords to me a couple of years back, and I&039;d reacted exactly as she described I&039;d lost a fewthe episode her words had provoked as well "Rage?" I asked "About what?"

The shadowed figure let out a spitting hiss, another feline sound that e away froodhtened only slowly, and as she did I saw that a long, fine cut had been drawn across one of her cheeks Blood welled up and dripped down slowly

My godmother bowed her head to Mab, and the cold voice cae or question me, nor to speak for me upon her own account"

Lea bowed her head to Mab again, and not a flicker of either anger or chagrin showed in her features Again, Mabthe space in between It should have been getting easier to deal with due to repetition It wasn&039;t Each time she did it I realized that she could just as easily have reappeared behindI could do about it

"There are ancient proprieties to be honored," Mab&039;s voice said, her tone measured and somehow formal "There are words which must be said Rites which must be observed Speak your desire,with the cold I folded my arms and hunched in on myself It didn&039;t help "Power," I said

The shadowed figure froze in place and turned to stare at htly, as if Mab had cocked her head to one side "Tell ht to keep"My body is badly injured, but I must do battle with the Red Court"

"This you have doneall of the and his inner circle"

The fire of her eyes intensified "Tell me why"

I sed and said, "They&039;ve taken ure shuddered, and her diseh of pleasure "Ahhh Yes Not for your own life But for your child&039;s For love"

I nodded jerkily

"So s are done for love," Mab&039;s voice said "For love will men mutilate theo to war For love, an walking in a physical circle now, though her race that it al else beneath the shrouding cloak "You know my price, mortal Speak it"

"You want ht," I whispered

A laugh, both merry and cold, bubbled beneath her response "Yes"

"I will," I said "With a condition"

"Speak it"

"That before rant hter and take her to safety, and strength and knowledge enough to succeed And you give ainst those I love"

The figure kept its eerie pace as she circled rees "You ask ain for my land and people Why should I do this?"

I looked at her steadily for a ed "If you don&039;t want to do business, I&039;ll go elsewhere I could still call Lasciel&039;s coin to me in a heartbeat - and Nicodemus and the Denarians would be more than happy to help me I am also one of the only people alive who kno to pull off Kemmler&039;s Darkhallow So if Nicky and the Nickelheads don&039;t want to play, I can daet the power for myself - and the next time I call your name, I won&039;t need to be nearly so polite"

Mab let out a odmother&039;s lips "You are spoiled for choices, my wizard What reason have you to select rimaced "Please don&039;t take this as an insult But you&039;re the least evil ofabout her reaction "Explain"

"The Denarians would havemalevolently within a few years, if I didn&039;t break and turn into some kind of murderous tardbeast first And I&039;d have to kill a lot of people outright, if I wanted to use the Darkhallow" I sed "But I&039;ll do it If I have no other way to get my child out of their hands, I&039;ll do it"

Silence reigned for an unbroken minute on the mound

"Yes," mused Mab&039;s voice "You will, won&039;t you? And yes, you know that I do not kill indiscriht to do so" She paused andto destroy yourself in the past You won your last confrontation withof the death angel What prevents you fro a similar action to cheat me of my prize?"

"My word," I said quietly "I know I can&039;t bluff you I won&039;t suicide I&039; eyes stared at ain,of the circle around ht, once this last quest of yours is complete, you are mine You will destroy what I wish you to destroy Kill whatsoever I wish you to kill You will be mine, blood, bone, and breath Do you understand this?"

I sed "Yes"

She nodded slowly Then she turned to stare at the Leanansidhe

Lea bowed her head again, and snapped her fingers

Six cloaked figures appeared out of the ht have been kobolds or gnomes or any of a half dozen other servitor races of the Sidhe I couldn&039;t tell because the cloaks had rendered them faceless, without identity

But I knew thestrapped to a plank

Like me, he was naked He had been shorter than me, but o Noas a wasted shell of a hued by an uncaring hand His eyes were ically There were tattoos covering his entire face, particularly his sunken eyelids, all of the: traitor His mouth was partly open, and his teeth had been inscribed horls and Celtic design, then stained with so scrimshaw

His entire body, in fact, was adorned with either tattoos or artistic, ritually applied scars He was held to the plank with seven lengths of slender silken cord, but his eth to overco, sobbing softly, the sound of ithuman

"Jesus," I said, and looked away from him

"I am somewhat proud of this," Mab&039;s cold voice said "To be sure, the White Christ never suffered so long or so terribly as did this traitor Three days on a tree Hardly enough tiony, the Romans were hobbyists"

The servitors slid the plank up onto the stone table, positioning Slate in its center Then they bowed toward Mab and retreated in measured silence For a entle wind and Slate&039;s sobs

"For a tie of sanity Then I set out to see how far over the edge a littered merrily in the shadows "A pity that so little was left And yet, he is the Winter Knight, young wizard The vessel of my power amidst mortals, and consort to the Queens of Winter He betrayedthat used to be Lloyd Slate made quiet, hopeless sounds

I trembled, afraid

The dark shape caed froe light and landed in the thick grass at my feet I bent to take it up and found an ancient, ancient knife with a sin, set into a wooden handle and wrapped with cord and leather It was, I thought, e had a wickedly sharp shine to it, and its needle point looked hungry, soh the little blade, power that was unfettered and wild, that mocked liry and filled with the desire to partake in its portion of the cycle of life and death It thirsted for bloodshed

"While Lloyd Slate lives and breathes, he is ht," said Mab&039;s voice "Take Medea&039;s bodkin, wizard Take his life&039;s blood"

I stood there holding the knife and looking at Lloyd Slate The last tied me to kill him I didn&039;t think he&039;d be capable of even that ht, then this is the first death I desire of you," Mab said, her voice alentle She faced me across the Stone Table "Send his power back to me And I will render it unto thee"

I stood in the cold wind, not

What I did with the next moments would determine the course of the rest of my life

"You know this entle "You saw his victims He was a murderer A rapist A thief A monster in mortal flesh He has more than earned his death"

"That isn&039;t for e," I whispered quietly Indeed not I was tempted to hide behind that rationale, just for a moment - just until it was done Lie to htful executioner

But I wasn&039;t

I could have toldhim out of his hideous misery in an act of compassion Necessarily an act of bloodshed, but it would be quick and clean Nothing should suffer as much as Lloyd Slate had I could have sold myself that story

But I didn&039;t

I was a ood reasons,to lie to myself or anyone else abouta life, so deliberate, calculated murder

It was the least evil path, I told ht have done would have turned me into a monster in truth Because of Lloyd Slate, I knew that whatever Mab ht completely Slate had defied her power and influence

And look where it got him, a little voice whispered inside ed from behind the clouds and bathed the whole Valley of the Stone Table in clear, cold light The runes upon the table and the ht