A Caress of Twilight (Merry Gentry #2)(38)

"I'm not the least bit hysterical, Hedwick. I cannot accept the invitation as it stands."
He bristled, his fingers going to his fluffy white cravat. He was dressed as if the 1700s had never passed. At least he wasn't wearing a wig. For that I was grateful.
"The high king himself commands your presence, Princess." He sounded like he always did, as if it was the utmost honor to toady for the king.
"I am Unseelie and I have no high king," I said.
Doyle knelt at my feet with a small basket of medical supplies. We'd started keeping them near at hand, though the bites from the other guards were usually nowhere near this bad.
Hedwick's gaze flicked down to Doyle, then up to me with a frown. "You are a Seelie princess."
Doyle moved around me so that he was on the side with the wound. He took the towel, applying direct pressure with it.
I took a slightly sharper breath as he pressed the cloth very firmly into the bite, but other than that my voice was normal. I sounded all business as Doyle tended my wound and Kitto writhed against me. 
"It was agreed that my title in the Unseelie Court supercedes my Seelie title. Now that I am heir to the Unseelie throne I can no longer acknowledge my uncle as high king. For me to acknowledge the title might imply that he was also high king of the Unseelie, and that is not true.
Hedwick was clearly perplexed. He was good at following orders, flattering those above him, and playing errand boy. I was forcing him to think. He wasn't used to having to do anything that complex.
He smoothed his cravat again, and finally, looking a great deal less sure of himself, he said, "As you like. Then King Taranis commands your presence at the ball three days hence."
Doyle's gaze flicked up to my face at that. I smiled and gave a small shake of my head. I'd caught it.
"Hedwick, the only royal who can command my presence is the Queen of Air and Darkness."
He shook his head stubbornly. "The king can command the presence of anyone of lesser title than he, and you are not a queen yet -- " He stressed the yet. " -- Princess Meredith."
Doyle opened the towel to see if my wound had stopped bleeding. Apparently it had, because he got some antiseptic to clean the wound.
"If I was King Taranis's royal heir, then he could command me, but I am not his heir. I am Queen Andais's heir. Only she can command me, because only she outranks me."
Hedwick flinched at the mention of the queen's true name. All the Seelie were like that, never invoking her true name, as if afraid it would call her to them.
"Are you saying that you outrank the king?" He sounded truly outraged.
Doyle began to clean the wound with soft gauze; even so, the little touches sent tiny shock waves of pain through my arm. I gritted my teeth a little and fought not to show it. "I am saying that order of rank in the Seelie Court has no meaning for me anymore, Hedwick. When I was merely a princess of the Unseelie Court, I could also have had the same rank at the Seelie Court. But I am to be queen. I cannot have a lesser rank in any other court if I am to rule."
"There are queens aplenty in the court who acknowledge Taranis as their high king."
"I am aware of that, Hedwick, but they are part of the Seelie Court, and they are not sidhe. I am part of the Unseelie Court and I am sidhe."
"You are niece to the King," he said, still trying to think his way through the political maze I'd thrown up around him.
"So nice of someone to remember that, but it would be as if Andais had called Eluned and asked her for acknowledgment as her high queen."
"Princess Eluned has no ties to the Unseelie Court." Hedwick sounded terribly offended.
I sighed, and it went sharp as Doyle finished cleaning the wound. "Hedwick, try to understand this. I will be Queen of the Unseelie Court. I am royal heir. King Taranis cannot command me to do anything or to appear anywhere, because I am not his royal heir."
"Are you refusing to appear at the king's command?" He still looked like he didn't trust his own ears. He had to have misheard something.
"The king has no right to command me, Hedwick. It would be like him having you call the president of the United States with a command to appear."
"You grow above your station, Meredith."
I let the anger show on my face. "And you no longer seem to know what yours is, Hedwick."
"You truly are refusing the king's command?" Astonishment showed through his voice, his face, his posture.
"Yes, because he is not my king, and cannot command anyone outside his own kingdom."
"Are you saying you renounce all titles that you hold in the Seelie Court?"Doyle touched my arm, made me look at him. His gaze said, careful here.
"No, Hedwick, and for you to say such a thing is deliberately insulting. You are a minor functionary, a message carrier, nothing more."
"I am the king's social secretary," he said, trying to pull himself up to every inch of his small height, even though he was sitting down.
"You carry messages to lesser fey and to humans of no great account. All the important invitations go through Rosmerta, and you know it. Sending his invitation through you and not her was an insult."
"You do not merit the attentions of the Duchess Rosmerta."
I shook my head. "Your message is incomplete, Hedwick. You'd best go back to your master and learn a new one. One that has a chance of being well received."
I nodded at Doyle. He stood and blanked the mirror in the middle of Hedwick's sputtering. Doyle smiled, almost grinned at me. "Well done."
"You just insulted the King of Light and Illusion," Rhys said. He looked pale.
"No, Rhys, he insulted me, and more than that. If I had accepted such a command from Taranis, it could have been interpreted that when I gain the Unseelie throne, I would acknowledge him as high king over the Unseelie as well as the Seelie."
"Could it have been the secretary's error?" Frost asked. "Could he simply have used the same words with you as everyone on his list?"
"Perhaps, but if so, it was still an insult."
"Insult, maybe. But, Merry, we can swallow a few insults to stay out of the king's bad graces," Rhys said. He sat down on the far end of the bed as if his knees were weak.
"No, we cannot," Doyle said.
We all looked at him. "Don't you see, Rhys? Merry will rule Taranis's rival kingdom. She must set the rules now, or he will forever treat her as less. For the sake of all of us, she must not appear weak."
"What will the king do?" Frost asked.
Doyle looked at him, and they had one of those long looks. "In absolute truth, I do not know."
"Has anyone ever defied him like this?" Frost asked.
"I don't know," Doyle said.
"No," I said.
They looked at me.
"Just as you walk around Andais like she's a snake about to strike, you tiptoe around Taranis the same way."
"He does not seem as frightening as the queen," Frost said.
I shrugged, and it hurt, so I stopped. "He's like a big spoiled child who's had his own way for far too long. If he doesn't get what he wants, he throws tantrums. The servants and lackeys live in fear of those tantrums. He's been known to accidentally kill in one of his rages. Sometimes he's sorry, sometimes he's not." 
"And you just threw a steel gauntlet into his face," Rhys said, staring at me from the end of the bed.
"One thing I always noticed about Taranis's temper was that it never struck out at anyone powerful. If he was in this uncontrollable rage, then why was it always directed at people who were powerless to fight back? Always, his victims were either magically inferior, or politically inferior, or people with no strong allies among the sidhe." I shook my head. "No, Rhys, he always knows who he's lashing out at. It's not mindless. He won't hurt me, because I stood my ground. He'll respect me, and maybe begin to worry about me."
"Worry about you?" Rhys asked.
"He fears Andais -- and even Cel, because Cel's crazy and Taranis isn't sure what he'll do once he's got the throne. Taranis was probably thinking he could control me. Now he'll begin to wonder."
"It is interesting that this invitation comes after we have spoken to Maeve Reed," Doyle said.
I nodded. "Yes, isn't it."
The three of them exchanged glances. Kitto just stayed wound around me, quieter now. "I do not think it would be wise for Meredith to attend this ball," Frost said.
"I agree," Doyle said.
"Unanimous," Rhys said.
I looked at them. "I don't intend to go. But why are you all looking so serious?"
Doyle sat down on the far side of me, forcing Kitto to scoot back a little. "Is Taranis as good a political thinker as you are?"
I frowned. "I don't know. Why?"
"Will he think you refused for the true reasons, or will he wonder if you refused because of something Maeve said to you?"
I still hadn't told them Maeve's secret, and they had not asked. They probably assumed that she had made me give my word not to tell them, which she hadn't. The reason I hadn't shared it was because it was the kind of knowledge that could get you killed. And now, suddenly, out of the blue, was the invitation to court. Shit.
I looked at Doyle and the others. Frost had moved over to lean against the dresser, arms crossed. Rhys was still on the bed. Kitto curled against me. I looked at each in turn.
"I wasn't going to tell you what Maeve told me, because it's dangerous information. I thought we'd just avoid the Seelie Court altogether, and it wouldn't matter. Taranis hasn't sent me an invitation to anything for years. But if we are going to have to deal with him, then you need to know."