A Lick of Frost (Merry Gentry #6)(17)

“I would be interested to see whose hand the Cu Sith would call master, or mistress,” I said.
“If we invoke this law,” Rhys said, “it will be civil war in your own court, Hugh.”
“Perhaps it is time for a little civil disobedience,” Hugh said.
“What law?” I asked.
Rhys turned to me. “If the monarch is unfit to rule, the nobles of the court can vote him, or her, incompetent. They can force him or her to step down. Andais abolished the rule in her court, but Taranis never bothered. He was too confident that his court loved him.”
“So, you’re saying, what?” I asked. “That Hugh force a vote among the nobles and they choose a new king?” It had possibilities, depending on whom they chose.
“Not exactly, Merry,” Rhys said
“Is she always this humble?” Hugh asked.
“Often,” Rhys said.
“What?” I asked.
Frost said, “The Seelie nobles will never accept her.”
“You don’t know what has been happening here since she unlocked the magic. I think the vote may go in her favor.”
“The vote go in my favor.” I finally caught on. “Oh, no, you aren’t serious.”
“Yes, Princess Meredith, if you will agree to accept it, I will endeavor to make you our queen.”
I just stared at him. I tried to gather my wits, my training at court, and all I could manage to say was, “How sure are you that this will work?”
“Sure enough to speak of it.”
“That means very sure,” Rhys said. 
“I don’t believe the Seelie will accept me as their queen, Hugh. But I know that before such a thing goes forward we must speak to our queen.”
“Speak to Andais if you must, but whatever you are to the Unseelie, you have brought back the old magic to the outside of the hill. Inside we are still dead and dying, but our spies tell us that your faerie mound grows, lives. Even the mound of the sluagh is alive once more. King Sholto brags of your magic, Princess.”
“King Sholto of the sluagh is a kind man.”
Hugh laughed, an abrupt, surprised sound. “Kind. The king of the sluagh? The nightmares of all faerie, and you call him kind.”
“I find him so,” I said.
Hugh nodded. “Kindness. It is not an emotion we have had in this court in years. I, for one, would like more of it.”
“I understand that,” Rhys said.
Hugh looked off to one side of the mirror, where we could not see. “I must go. Talk to your queen, but when the rest of the nobles know what Taranis did to Lady Caitrin, and that other nobles helped him, the vote will go against him.”
“Did he get the lady to lie, or did he bespell her, too?” Rhys asked.
“He used his illusions to make three of our nobles appear as the three of you. But he made them monstrous, with projections and spines and…” Hugh shivered. “Her body was quite broken. She is even now still confined to her bed, even with our healers.” He looked at me. “If you have need of healers for your men, but ask and it will be yours.”
“We will ask if we need them,” I said, and I fought the urge to say thank you because Hugh was old enough to be offended by it.
“What did the king hope to gain by such evil?” Frost asked.
“We aren’t certain,” Hugh said, “but we can prove that he did it, and lied about it, and that the nobles involved lied as well. It is an abuse of magic that has almost no precedent among us.”
“And you can prove it?” Rhys asked.
“We can.” He looked off to the side again. He turned back to us, but there was a look of concern on his face. “I must go. Talk to your queen. Be ready.” He gestured, and we were looking at our own reflections.
“This smacks of court intrigue,” Frost said.
I watched Rhys and myself both nod solemnly in the mirror. Neither of us looked very happy.
Veducci came up behind us. “You have been given amazing news, Princess Meredith. Why don’t you look happier?”
I answered his reflection rather than turning around. “It has been my experience that court intrigue usually ends badly. The Seelie Court has treated me worse than the Unseelie Court all of my life. I do not believe that a few new magics will make me queen of a people who despise me. If by some miracle it happens as Sir Hugh has stated, then I will have two sets of assassins to deal with instead of one.” As soon as I said it, I knew I shouldn’t have. My only excuse was the total shock of what had just happened.
Rhys spoke quickly. “I assume the charges against me and my friends are dropped.”
Veducci turned to him. “If what Sir Hugh has just said is true, then yes, but until the lady herself drops the charges, they don’t go away.”
“Even with what Hugh just said?” Frost asked.
“As you pointed out, court intrigue can get ugly. People lie.”
“The sidhe do not lie,” I said.
Veducci stared hard at me. “Have there been assassination attempts on your life other than the one that happened at the airport, where you were shot at?”
“She can’t answer that without talking to Queen Andais,” Rhys said. He put his arm across my shoulders. Frost did not give up my hand, so I stood pressed to both of them. I couldn’t tell if Rhys’s gesture was to reassure me or himself. It had been one of those days when we all needed a hug.“You do realize that that is an answer?” Veducci asked.
“What kind of lawyer knows to carry just the right herbs in his pocket to disrupt such a spell?” I said.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said with a smile.
“Liar.” I whispered it, because I heard steps behind us.
Biggs and Shelby were there. Biggs’s suit jacket was gone. His shirtsleeve was rolled back, and there was a bandage on his arm. “I think King Taranis’s actions today put his accusations against my clients in serious doubt.”
“We can’t say yes to that without talking to some…” Shelby stopped, cleared his throat, and tried again, “We’ll get back to you.” He gathered his assistant and went for the door.
“The nice young woman who fixed up my arm says I have to ride with them to the hospital,” Biggs said. “My assistant will take you to a room where you can rest and gather yourselves before you have to leave.”
“Thank you, Mr. Biggs,” I said. “I am sorry that the hospitality of faerie was not up to its usual standards.”
He laughed. “That is the most polite way I have ever heard anyone apologize for such a fucking mess.” He raised his injured arm a little. “It was hard on me, and on your men, but if your uncle, the king, had to choose a moment to have his meltdown, this wasn’t a bad time for it. It certainly hurt his case and helped ours.”
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” I said.
Rhys hugged me, bumping his cheek against my hair. “Cheer up, sweets, we won.”
“No, the Seelie came to the rescue and saved our asses,” I said.
The female EMT came to touch Biggs’s shoulder. “We’re ready to go.”
Nelson was strapped to a gurney and looked unconscious. Cortez was beside her, looking more annoyed than worried.
“Did Ms. Nelson get burned, too?” I asked.
Biggs opened his mouth to answer, but the med techs made him go with them. Veducci answered me. “She seems to be having an adverse reaction to the spell that the king put on you.”
The look he gave me was entirely too knowledgeable. He knew magic. He wasn’t a registered practitioner, but that didn’t mean anything. A lot of humans who had psychic ability chose not to use it as a job.
“A look like that used to get a question,” Rhys said.
“What question would that be?” Veducci asked.
“Which eye can you see me with?” Rhys said.
I tensed beside him, because I knew how this story always ended.
Veducci grinned. “The answer you’re supposed to give is neither.”
“The truth is both eyes,” Frost said, and his voice was way too solemn for comfort. 
Veducci’s grin faded around the edges. “None of you are trying to hide what you are. Everyone can see you.”
“Cheer up, Veducci,” Rhys said. “The days when we used to put your eye out for seeing the wee folk are long past. The sidhe never held with that. If you could see us, the biggest danger from the sidhe was abduction. We were always intrigued with the humans who could see faerie.” Rhys’s voice was light and teasing, but there was an edge of seriousness to it that made Veducci look wary.
Was I missing part of this conversation? Maybe. Did I care? A little. But I’d care more after I got to the hospital and checked on Doyle and Abe.
“You can all be mysterious later,” I said. “I want to go check on Doyle and Abe now.”
Veducci reached into his jacket pocket and held something out to me. “I thought you might want these.”
It was Doyle’s sunglasses. One side of them was melted, as if some hot giant hand had crushed them into melted wax. My stomach fell into my shoes, then back up to my throat. I thought for a second that I’d throw up, then my head thought I just might faint. I hadn’t seen Doyle’s face underneath the bandages. How bad was it?
“Do you need to sit down, Princess?” Veducci asked, and he was all solicitous. He actually moved to take my arm as if I wasn’t already standing between two strong arms.