A Lick of Frost(7)

"This is the first we've heard that the king is accusing the Raven Guard of being celibate," Biggs said. He had glanced at Doyle, but now put his attention back on Shelby and Veducci.

"The king felt that the long-enforced celibacy was the reason for the attack."

Biggs leaned in to me, and whispered, "Is this true? Were they forced to be celibate?"

I whispered against his white collar, "Yes."

"Why?" he asked.

"My queen willed it so." That was true, as far as it went, but it kept me from sharing secrets that Queen Andais wouldn't want shared. Taranis might survive her wrath; I wouldn't.

Biggs turned back to the opposing side. "We are not conceding that this alleged celibacy took place, but if it did, the men in question are no longer celibate. They are with the princess now, and not the queen. The princess has stated that the three of them are her lovers. There would be no alleged celibacy-induced"—Biggs seemed to search for the right word—"madness." He made light of it with his voice, his face, and a hand gesture. It was a glimpse of what he'd be like in court. He just might be worth all the money my aunt was paying.

Shelby said, "The king's statement, the charges filed, are enough to allow the United States government to confine all of the princess' guard to the lands of faerie."

"I know the law you're referring to," Briggs said. "Many in Jefferson's government didn't agree with him allowing the fey to settle here after they were exiled from Europe. They insisted on a law that would allow them to permanently confine to faerie any citizen of faerie deemed too dangerous to be allowed among the human citizenry. It is a very broad law, and has never been invoked."

"It's never been needed before," Cortez said.

Doyle had stayed at my back, his hand resting on my shoulder. Either he knew I needed comforting, or he needed it. I laid my hand on top of his, so we could touch bare skin to bare skin. He was so warm, so solid. Just the touch made me feel more certain that it would be all right. We would be all right.

"It's not needed now, and you all know it," Biggs said. He tsked at them. "Trying to scare the princess by threatening to send all her guards back to faerie. Shame on you."

"The princess doesn't look scared," Nelson said.

I gave her the full weight of my tricolored eyes, and she couldn't hold my gaze. "You are threatening to take the men I love away from me," I said. "Shouldn't that frighten me?"

"It should," she said, "but it doesn't seem to."

Farmer touched my arm, a clear let-me-talk gesture. I leaned back into the weight of Doyle at my back and let the lawyers talk. "Which brings us to the law in question," Farmer said. "The royals of any court are exempt from the law Mr. Shelby has mentioned."

"We are not proposing to exile Princess Meredith to faerie," Shelby said.

"You know that the threat to put all her guards under some sort of legal confinement to faerie is outrageous," Farmer said.

Shelby nodded. "Fine, then just the three who are charged with rape. Mr. Cortez and I are both duly appointed officers of the United States attorneys' office. We are within our duty and rights to simply put the three guards back into the land of faerie until these charges are settled."

"I repeat, the law, as written, cannot be applied to the royals of any court of faerie," Farmer said.

"And I repeat that we aren't threatening to do anything to Princess Meredith," Shelby said.

"But we aren't referring to that royal," Farmer said.

Shelby looked down the line of lawyers on his side. "I'm not sure we're following your argument."

"Princess Meredith's guard are royal, for now."

"What does that mean, for now?" Cortez asked.

"It means that when inside the Seelie Court, they have a throne on the royal dais in which they take turns sitting beside the princess," Farmer said. "They are her royal consorts."

"Being her lover doesn't make them royal," Cortez said.

"Prince Phillip is technically still Queen Elizabeth's royal consort," Farmer said.

"But they're married," Cortez said.

"But in faerie, at any court, you aren't allowed to marry until you are with child," Farmer said.

"Mr. Farmer," I said, touching his arm, "since this is informal, perhaps it would go more quickly if I explained."

Farmer and Biggs whispered back and forth, but finally I got the nod. I was going to be allowed to talk. Oh, goody. I smiled at the other side of the table, leaning a little forward, hands nicely folded on the table. "My guards are my lovers. Which makes them royal consorts until one of them makes me pregnant. Then that one will be king to my queen. Until the choice is made, they are all royalty in the Unseelie Court."