A Shiver of Light (Merry Gentry #9)(30)

“I thought Holly and Ash were so feared even among the goblins that no one would challenge them.”
“They are, but there are some insults that no goblin could allow to stand if he or she wanted to keep their reputation, and to lose your reputation is to sign your death sentence among us.”
“You mean they’re starting the fights,” I whispered.
“I mean, they are goading others into challenging them to duels, for they are not only fierce and ruthless warriors, but much craftier than most give them credit for.”
I held him in my arms, feeling the warmth and solidness of him, and was afraid for him. He felt so small, delicate as my own more mortal form, and I knew that I would have died quickly among the goblins if I’d had to defend myself from insults.
“They may be nearly as smart as they are strong,” I said.
Kitto’s breath was hot against my skin as he whispered, “Ash is; I’m not certain about Holly, but he follows where his brother leads and that is enough to save him from mistakes he would make otherwise.”
“Do you think they will challenge Kurag, Goblin King, and win the throne from him?”
“They could,” Kitto said.
“I have a treaty with Kurag, but not with the twins,” I said.
“Yes,” he whispered.
I moved back enough to look into his face. “You think they won’t honor the treaty agreement,” I said.“I fear they might not.”
“Sex with me awakened their hands of power, gave them the blessing of the Goddess,” I said.
“Yes, and they are grateful, but I do not believe that Ash is ever so grateful that he would allow it to interfere with his own ambitions.”
I nodded. “I know they mean to seat one of them on the goblin throne.”
“Kurag knows it, too,” Kitto said.
“Why does he not challenge them and be done with it, then?” I asked.
Kitto studied my face. “You know the answer to that as well as I do.”
“He fears he will lose,” I said.
Kitto nodded.
I let that thought roll around in my head for a minute, and then said, “He’s right to be afraid.”
“I believe he will lose if he fights them fairly and openly,” Kitto said, voice still low so that we didn’t wake the sleeping babes.
“Goblin society allows only fair and open fighting. A king who lets someone else do his killing is soon a dead king,” I said.
“We must all fight our own battles, that is true; so a king could not hire an assassin, for to be found out would be a death sentence, and likely a long and painful death.”
“So what are you saying, Kitto?”
“I am saying that not all assassinations are paid killings.”
I frowned at him. “You’re being too obtuse for me, Kitto.”
He sighed and said, “Kurag is much smarter than he lets most see, and has used it to his advantage politically for years. I believe he might manipulate others into trying to kill the twins for him, and his hands would look clean of their blood.”
“But you say the twins are manipulating people into dueling them already; doesn’t that feed into what Kurag wishes?”
“No, for the twins are only finding fights with goblins they believe they can beat. They avoid the handful of warriors that they are unsure of on the battlefield.”
“You think Kurag might try to arrange a fight between the twins and someone who might be able to kill them,” I said.
Kitto nodded.
“Kurag is my ally only for another few weeks, and then the treaty with him ends,” I said.
“Unless you bring over more of the half-sidhe among the goblins, yes,” Kitto said.
“I am not allowed sex for six more weeks, according to my doctors,” I said.
“And by that time the treaty will be over and Kurag will not have to help you against your uncle, or your aunt, if they decide to attack you and yours.”
“Are you saying that I should support Kurag in his effort to get the twins killed, or the twins in killing him?” 
“I am saying that Kurag fears your enemies and will escape the treaty as soon as he can, and that the twins may not honor a treaty with you. Two of those that insulted them so they had to stand challenge were also sidhe-sided goblins and had made it known that they wished to bed you and gain their own magic.”
“You’re saying that now that Ash and Holly have their hands of power, they may not want me to give such power to any other goblins,” I said.
He nodded. “They do not fear me, for my hand of power only allows me to bring someone through a mirror call against their will, and close the window at will. It is powerful, so I’m told, but it is mostly useless in a duel. Other sidhe-sided may gain other things that are more battle useful.”
I wrapped him closer in the circle of my arms, folding my silk robe over both of us. I think the robe would have tied around both of us, we were both so small.
“It is always a gamble which magic will come to a person,” I said.
“I’ve learned that some powers run in bloodlines, as you have the hand of flesh like your father before you.”
“True,” I said.
“If you had been able to keep fucking them, I think they would still be tied to you more, but when the doctor told you not to risk it with the babies …” I could feel him shrug in the circle of my arms.
“You think they want to be free of me?”
“Holly does,” Kitto said. “Ash will do whatever will give them the most power.”
“It will be six weeks before I can have sex with anyone, according to the doctors.”
“And longer before you would risk such roughness in bed as they or Mistral prefer,” Kitto said.
I petted Kitto and tried not to betray with even the stillness of my body the secret I’d been keeping. Holly and Ash were perverted by goblin standards. They actually liked gentle sex, and Ash enjoyed giving oral sex, which was a sign among the goblins that he considered himself subservient to me, or anyone he would go down on. It had taken me weeks to convince Kitto to allow me to go down on him, for he feared that it would hurt my reputation among the goblins, and we still needed their threat to keep our enemies in check, or at least to give them pause about attacking me. If the goblins learned the kind of sex that the brothers enjoyed, their reputations would be ruined. It could cost them their lives, because if you were perceived as weak, the challenges to combat could come so fast and often that eventually you would fail, and there was only one cure for failure in a duel among the goblins—death. I was lucky that the sidhe gave other options, or I would have died long before I escaped to Los Angeles.
Kurag, Goblin King, and Niceven, Queen of the Unseelie Demi-fey, had both agreed to forgo their price of treaty until after the babies were born. The goblins would have to wait until I was cleared for sex and had had it successfully with some of the fathers of my children, but Niceven could ask for her blood price to continue sooner. It was but a bit of blood offered to their tiny mouths, but the wild magic that had returned with my own late-blooming hands of power had given wings to the wingless among them, and given extra powers to some among them who had shared my blood and then my bed. Legend had said that some among the demi-fey could change to human size, but we had thought that lost with so much other magic among the fey, until we’d met demi-fey who could do it. I still thought they would be the perfect assassins, though Niceven said that they had never acted as such. I wasn’t sure I believed her.
“You’ve thought of something that makes you sad, or worried,” Kitto said softly.
“The demi-fey can demand their bit of blood again sooner than the goblins can demand their bit of flesh,” I said.
He snuggled his face against my shoulder and stroked a hand down my back. “You fear the demi-fey, don’t you?”“Remember the case we helped the police solve? That proved to me that the demi-fey can be just as insane and dangerous as any of us.” I shivered at the thought of what had almost happened, when our tiny murderer had tried to cut the babies from my body and destroy what she could not have, a regular life with the human she was in love with. They say lovers want the world to love with them, but love thwarted can turn as ugly and dangerous as any hatred I’d ever seen.
He kissed my shoulder. “I am sorry, our Merry, it was careless of me not to remember.”
I shook my head, my longer hair sliding over the silk, which meant I was moving more than I thought, as if I could shake the memory of that evil from my mind, but it was too recent a memory to fade. I had been in my first trimester with the babes then, and it had been the case that made the men veto any other cases for the Grey and Hart Detective Agency until after the babies were born. So many things had been waiting for the babies, and now we stood surrounded by all of them. Triplets, the first ones born to the sidhe in more centuries than anyone could remember.
Now, everything and everyone that had been waiting for the births would be wondering when to approach me, and how, and if they wanted to continue with treaties, alliances, or … There were those among Taranis’s court who had been waiting to see if my children were born deformed monsters, which was what the Golden Court had believed happened to all sidhe who joined the Unseelie Court. It wasn’t true, but like all truly ugly rumors it was strongly believed by many.
Now that the babies and their first pictures were disproving the rumor, we would see how serious the Seelie nobles had been about doing anything to have children of their own. If I could truly give them babies they would do much, including perhaps killing Taranis for me. I much preferred his death by his own nobles to risking the men I loved in battle against him, and me battling him … it was too ludicrous to think about. He’d kill me. He would just kill me. Of course, what he wanted to do to me was to force me to be his queen, because he thought his rape had gotten me with his child. That he thought that was reasonable was just one more example of his insanity.