A Stroke of Midnight (Merry Gentry #4)(58)

It was Galen who had said it out loud. “Goddess save us, that’s what’s been happening to our court. We had no true ruler, so the sithen was dying. Our slice of faerie has been dying.”
“Not just ours,” Doyle said.
“Who else?” I asked.
“Our bright cousins follow a king whose sithen did not know him.”
“Their sithen didn’t know any of their nobles either?” I asked.
“Rumor has it, and it’s only rumor, that instead of welcoming sidhe who the sithen recognized, he exiled them,” Rhys said.
“It’s not rumor,” Doyle said.
We all looked at him. “Who?” I asked.
“Aisling,” he said.
Something on Frost’s face told me that he had known. The rest looked as shocked as I felt. “They had a true king and Taranis exiled him?”
Doyle and Frost nodded.
“But that is monstrous,” Nicca said. “Even Andais was willing to give up her throne if a true queen could have been found.”
“Does his court know?” I asked Doyle.
“Most, no.”
“But some?” I asked.
“Some,” he said.
“How can they support him? The Unseelie had no choice but to fade, but he had a new king to sit on the Seelie throne. They didn’t have to fade.”
“Did our sithen recognize Aisling when he came here?” Galen asked.
“No,” Doyle said.
“Why not?” he asked.
Doyle shrugged, and I guess that was answer enough, or the only answer he had.
“The bath is ready,” Kitto said, his voice as neutral and empty as a servant’s.
I touched his shoulder, and he gave me a small smile. Something occurred to me. “Did the goblin mound know Kurag when you came to this country?”
“I am not important enough to know such things. I do not know.”
“The goblins are less faded than the sidhe. They are still what we left them.”
“But wait,” Galen said, “the Seelie sidhe are less faded in power than we are. Why is that? Shouldn’t both courts be fading at about the same rate?”
“They should be,” Doyle said.
“But they aren’t,” I said.
“They don’t seem to be,” Rhys said.
“You’ve thought of something,” Doyle said.
“What made Taranis desperate enough to help release the Nameless, one of our most dangerous magicks, into the human world to kill Maeve Reed? She’d been exiled from faerie for more than a century. It couldn’t have just been Merry’s visit to her. That could have gotten him to send someone to assassinate Maeve, but not to release the Nameless.” Rhys shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I can’t make it make sense.”“Like his inviting Merry to his ball,” Galen said. “That makes no sense either. He’s hated her all her life.”
“Not hated, Galen, you have to think more of a person to hate them, and my uncle doesn’t think anything of me. I was more a nonentity at the Seelie Court than here at the Unseelie Court.”
“So why is he so hot to see you? Why now?”
“None of us have liked this sudden invitation,” Doyle said, “but we have had our discussions, and we are going to accept.”
“I still think it’s too dangerous for Merry,” Galen said.
“We will be there to protect her,” Doyle said.
“You know, it would be really interesting to take Aisling as one of my honor guard.”
“I do not believe that Taranis would allow him to pass into his court,” Doyle said.
“If he refuses any of my guard it is within my rights to take insult and refuse the invitation,” I said.
They all looked at one another. “It has possibilities,” Rhys said.
Galen nodded. “I like anything that keeps Merry from having to attend this ball.”
“How can you say that?” Frost asked. “You saw what just the touch of Aisling’s power did to Melangell. Taranis has negotiated that only the guards who have visited Meredith’s bed may accompany her to the ball.”
It wasn’t the horror of Melangell’s sightless eyes that I was remembering, it was the moment when Aisling held me and I’d noticed that his eyes were empty, as if pieces were missing. Aisling had been trying to gain a kiss through his veil. The Goddess had come to me, and there had been no warning in my mind. No caution about touching Aisling. Was I sidhe enough to bed Aisling, veiled or unveiled? Or was it more simple than that? True love was supposed to be proof against Aisling’s magic. Was I in love enough to resist? And was the risk of Aisling’s body worth the chance to avoid whatever scheme Taranis had in store for me?
“If you do not get into the bath soon it will begin to grow cool,” Kitto said.
I hugged him, and he hugged me back. “Kitto is right. Galen and I need to get clean.”
“Then have sex,” Galen said.
I smiled back at him. “Yes, then have sex.”
“And Nicca, as well,” Doyle said, “so he will be free to go to Biddy.”
I nodded. “I’ll give them the bed. The first time you have sex with someone shouldn’t be in a bathtub, it’s too awkward.”
“You’re going to have sex in a bathtub with a six-foot-tall man with wings.” Rhys grinned and shook his head. “I think I want to watch this.”
“You must include Royal,” Nicca said. 
“I haven’t forgotten him,” I said. “We just didn’t need him taking all our news back to his queen.”
“He will spy for Niceven,” Frost said.
“I’m aware that Royal’s first duty will be to his own queen and court.”
“Your bedroom is crawling with wingless demi-fey,” Rhys said. “It’s like an infestation.”
“Queen Niceven doesn’t want Meredith to feed any one demi-fey too many times in a row,” Doyle said.
“I do not want to share her bed with the demi-fey,” Frost said.
“Oh, Frost,” I said.
He held up a hand. “I’m not saying I won’t, but I don’t think any of us want a demi-fey with us every time we make love.”
“Your bath is going to get cold,” Kitto said again.
I stood up, and started peeling off the bloody clothes. “Everybody who isn’t getting in the tub, leave. The night isn’t getting any younger.”
Frost winced. “Will that make time speed, or slow?”
“I forgot,” I said, with my shirt in my hands, and the bra still to go. “I just forgot, it’s an expression.”
“You cannot afford expressions,” Doyle said.
“I’ll do my best, but it’s almost impossible to watch every word you say.”
“You must try, Meredith, you must try.”
“Let’s find out first if the goblins and the sluagh are moving at human time or our time before we panic Merry,” Rhys said.
Doyle nodded. “Take some men of your choosing and go.”
“Why am I the one who keeps having to go back and forth in the snow?”
“Death does not feel the cold,” Doyle said.
“No, but neither does the dark, and you get to stay nice and warm.” He went for the door. “I’ll leave more men than I take. This is more spying than fighting.”
“But you might need to fight,” Doyle said.
“Take at least two others with you,” I told him.
“Aye, aye, Cap’n.” He did a mock salute, then walked out.
I looked at Frost and Doyle, still standing on either side of the door. “Unless you’re staying to watch, it’s time to thin the number of people in here,” I said.
“Do you wish an audience?” Doyle asked.
The question caught me off-guard. I actually thought about it, then shook my head. “No, not really.” I looked at him, studied that dark face. “I didn’t know you enjoyed watching.”
“I don’t. Very few among the guards enjoy voyeurism.”
“The queen beat it out of us,” Galen said.
Doyle nodded. “Almost literally.”
“I, for one,” Frost said, “do not wish to watch whether you will it, or no.”
“I would never ask anything of you, Frost, that I thought would hurt you, not if I had a choice.”
He started to get offended, or to pretend he didn’t understand me, but then his face softened, and he even gave a little smile. “I know you would not. It is not Galen and Nicca with you tonight that bites at me. It is the demi-fey. I do not like him. I do not like a princess of the sidhe having to use her body as a bargaining chip.”
“Frost,” I said, going to him, “a royal woman’s body has been a bargaining chip for thousands of years. At least I’m not bargaining myself away in marriage. That might be my fate if I were human.”
“Married to that . . . thing.” The look on his face was so shocked it was funny. I laughed, I could not help myself. He jerked as if I’d struck him.I touched his arm, but he pulled away. I’d had enough. “First, the demi-fey are a part of this court. The way the sidhe treat them, the way everyone treats them, is a disgrace. They are either part of us or they are not.” I watched his face close down, watched that sullen arrogance close around him, but I didn’t stop just because his feelings were hurt. I couldn’t afford to keep stopping every time he got his feelings hurt, it happened too often. “Second, I’m tired of your acting as if your blood and body are too precious to be bargained with. I put my flesh and blood up for grabs a lot for you, all of you. You won’t feed anyone. You won’t even let a single demi-fey watch. Rhys won’t let goblins touch him, or the demi-fey either now.”