A Shiver of Light (Merry Gentry #9)(13)

“That is true; I am to be ambassador to all the courts of faerie, not just your lovely part of it, Princess Meredith.”
“Have you spoken to all the courts of faerie, then?” I asked.
He nodded, flashing that brilliant smile that would probably look amazing on camera.
“How did you like King Kurag?” I asked.
He looked puzzled, the smile slipping. “King Kurag, you mean the goblin king?”
“Yes, Kurag, the goblin king.”
“I haven’t actually spoken to him.”
“What about Queen Niceven of the demi-fey?”
“Um, no, I have spoken with King … the king of the Seelie Court, and your aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness.”
Leaving off Taranis’s name because we’d just said something about it was good, but leaving off both their names, just in case, meant he’d made the logical leap. If one sidhe ruler of faerie could hear when his name was spoken, then maybe the other one could, too. I liked him better for being a quick study. Quick and smart was good.“You have spoken with King Sholto, because we were here for that talk,” I said.
He looked uncertain, but only for a second, and then his face was back to smiling and pleasant. “I spoke to him as your royal consort and father of your children, but not specifically as king in his own right.”
“Then you plan to be ambassador to the Unseelie and Seelie courts of the sidhe, and not really ambassador to all the courts of faerie,” I said.
He fought that puzzled look away and said, “My duties, as described by Washington, are to the sidhe, both Unseelie and Seelie.”
“So the other courts are to be ignored?”
“They are smaller courts within the two larger ones, or that’s what I was told; was I misinformed?”
I debated, and finally because we aren’t allowed to lie, I said, “Yes, and no.”
“Please enlighten me; what do you mean by that, Princess?”
“The goblins, sluagh, and Queen Niceven’s demi-fey are part of the Unseelie Court. The ruler of the Seelie Court’s demi-fey is no longer an official royal, but a duchess.”
His smile flashed back to full brightness. “Then I deal with the high king and high queen of faerie as I was told.”
I nodded. “It’s the way most people in and out of faerie do it.”
He cocked his head to one side and studied me for a moment. “And how else might a person deal with the rulers of faerie?”
“I deal with the kings and queens of faerie as leaders with rights and merits of their own.”
“Do you encourage me to deal directly with the goblins and the sluagh?”
I laughed a surprised burst of sound.
“Isn’t that what you’re hinting at, that you want me to treat them as equal to the sidhe courts?”
“Not equal to, but important, but Goddess, please do not try dealing with the goblins by yourself. I would not want to be responsible for the diplomatic disaster that might follow.”
He frowned, just a little, as if he were fighting not to frown harder. “I am very good at my job, Princess Meredith; I think I could avoid offending anyone.”
“It’s not your offending the goblins I’m concerned with, Mr. Benz. I’m more afraid that they might injure you if there was a cultural misunderstanding.”
“What kind of cultural misunderstanding?” he asked.
“The goblins revere only strength and power, Mr. Benz. A human without magic or the martial arts training of a Chuck Norris would find himself treated badly.”
“Maybe that’s why the humans stopped dealing with the goblins directly,” Rhys said.
I glanced at him. “You may be right.” 
“I don’t understand,” Benz said.
“I would like you to appreciate more of faerie than just our two courts, but culturally we are the closest to human, and the safest for you, so perhaps you should just ignore me for now. If I ever feel safe to return to faerie, perhaps you can accompany me on a visit to some of the lesser courts.”
Rhys patted him on the shoulder. “We’d keep you safe.”
“Surely they wouldn’t harm a representative of the United States government.”
We all laughed then, even Galen, and the demi-fey’s laughter was like the sweet ringing of chimes, or tiny bells. The sound alone made Benz smile. The demi-fey have some of the most powerful glamour and illusion ability left in all of faerie. It made them so much more dangerous than they looked.
Benz frowned again, looking puzzled, and smoothed his hands down the front of his suit. It was almost as if he knew that something had just affected him in a more than normal way, but he wasn’t sure what it had been. I was betting the ambassador was carrying some kind of charm against our magic. He’d need it.
“It is the last country on the planet that would allow your people to immigrate,” Benz said.
“That is true, but the goblins would not see it as harming you, but as your proving unworthy to deal with them as a representative of the government.”
“Are you saying that an ambassador to the goblin court would have to be a soldier?”
“Unless you’re willing to shoot someone when you step through the door, no, not a soldier,” I said.
“What then?” he asked.
“A human witch or wizard, though it’s a more patriarchal society, so a wizard would be better.”
“A wizard with military training would be your best bet,” Rhys said. He came closer to the ambassador and raised the eye patch that was covering the smooth scars of his empty eye socket. “The goblins took my eye, Ambassador Benz, and I’m a lot harder to injure than a human.”
Benz did a long blink but didn’t flinch, which earned him another point. I wondered what he’d think if he saw the goblins. They prided themselves on extra limbs and eyes, so that females that looked like humanoid spiders were the height of beauty among the goblins. For that matter, he hadn’t seen Sholto with his extra tentacles visible. Benz was going to have a lot more chances to practice not flinching.
“Are you saying the goblins would attack me?”
I stepped in. “No, it is perfectly possible to visit and negotiate with the goblins in safety, but it requires an understanding of their culture that is rare even among the sidhe. I know of no human who has ever been that successfully intimate with the goblin court.”
Rhys snugged his eye patch back into place. “I’ve learned that my injury came through a lack of cultural understanding.” His voice was only a little bitter. He lost his eye hundreds of years ago, but I’d explained the misunderstanding to him only about a year ago. He’d hated the goblins and blamed them for it for a very long time, and had only a short time to get used to the idea that his injury was as much his fault as that of the goblin who took his eye.
“My goal is to be a true ambassador to both of the high courts of faerie, both Unseelie and Seelie, but no one in our government has spoken to me of the goblins, or even of Lord Sholto in his role as king.”
“Perhaps if your post as ambassador goes very well, we could escort you through the other courts at some point,” I said.
“I would be most grateful for the education in your wider culture,” he said, with a very nice smile. Even his brown eyes were shining with pleasure. I still felt we’d presented him with something he wasn’t prepared for, but he covered it better than most envoys, human or faerie.I smiled, and turned carefully away in my designer sundress, not sure I could equal his pleasant falseness. He really was very good.
“Now, Princess Meredith, I had my own security wait outside the room with yours, since those inside the room are fathers and royal consorts, and security stays out. I’ve acted in accordance with your wishes this time.”
“Thank you, Ambassador,” I said with a smile.
“But I also have additional diplomatic security for you.”
“We discussed this, Ambassador; they are not needed.”
“Not meaning any insult to your bodyguards, but you were allegedly kidnapped by the king while under their care.”
“We’ve explained that I told them all to leave me alone, and they had to obey my orders.”
“But don’t they still have to obey your orders, Princess?”
“We’ve all agreed that Merry is never to be left alone without guards, and the same is true of the children,” Rhys said.
“Even if she orders you to do so?” Benz asked.
Rhys and Galen both nodded. “She will never be left alone again,” Galen said, and his voice held that new seriousness. I knew he meant it, and he was well trained as a fighter, but he didn’t have the skill level of Rhys, or Doyle, or Frost. I wasn’t sure if it was just the difference in years of practice, or if it had been a willingness to do deadly harm. The other men had been in real wars and had learned what it meant to kill and be killed. Galen had never had that; he’d had very few “real” fights. Honestly, I’d always thought that it wasn’t just lack of battle hardness, but that his personality, the very gentleness that I loved him for, prevented him from being the warrior he could have been. Now I was no longer sure of Galen, or of many things.
He came to me then, took my hand in his, and smiled down at me, his green eyes filling with that warmth they’d always held. “You look sad, my Merry. I would do anything to chase that look from your eyes.”