“Your demi-fey is fine, though he is the only one who would not leave even to clean off the blood. He insisted that he stay and see you were well.”
I looked out into the darkened room. “Is he here?”
“Outside by the door with Adair and Hawthorne.”
Ivi wrapped his arm around the bedpost, showing a pale line of flesh. I realized that he must have been nude after he gave me his cloak, but I hadn’t truly noticed when the room was full of blood and bodies. “He called you his white and red goddess.” Ivi managed both to make a joke of it, and make it not funny at all. A smile with serious eyes.
“I am no one’s goddess,” I said.
“I don’t know,” Ivi said, wrapping more of himself around the bedpost, so that only the wood kept me from seeing all of him. “We sidhe have been worshipped for less.”
“Long ago,” Doyle said, “and far from here.”
Ivi shrugged. “We were in the land of faerie then, and we are in the land of faerie now. That is not so far, Darkness.”
“Where is everyone else?” I asked.
“Kitto and Frost and a few others have gone to fetch food for you all,” Doyle said.
“Galen’s comment about no one going anywhere alone.” Rhys shrugged. “It was smart, so the new rule is three of us together at all times.”
“We don’t have enough men for that,” I said.
“We do now,” Rhys said.
I frowned at him. “I don’t understand.”
“The queen agreed that we needed more than just the green men,” he said.
“So why is the room so empty?” I asked.
“We aren’t enough company?” Galen asked.
I smiled at him. “It’s not that, it’s just that if everyone’s here, I know they’re safe.”
“Why did we get winged insects and Nicca got a flower?” Galen asked.
“He already has wings,” Rhys said. He moved when he said it, and I got a glimpse of something under his cloak.
“Is that a sling?” I asked.
He let the cloak fall open, and his right arm was in a sling.
“What happened?”
“First, we discovered that time is only running odd for us. Outside of our faerie mound time is creeping so slowly that the police probably haven’t even gotten back to their lab yet.”
“Get to the part where you’ve got an injured arm,” I said.
“We were on our way back when three of the Seelie called for us to halt, and talk to them.”
“They didn’t say that, not like that,” Nicca said.
Galen agreed. “Way too polite for them.” He lay on his side, propped on one elbow, his right arm held carefully, so his butterfly wasn’t disturbed.
Rhys grinned at them. “Okay, they called for us to halt, and wanted specifically to speak to me.” The grin faded around the edges. “I was in charge. It was my fault that they caught us off guard.” He looked at Doyle. “I could have gotten the other men killed.”
“Killed?” I asked.
“They were using cold iron.”
“You’re joking,” Galen said.
Rhys leaned his back more comfortably against the footboard, and shook his head. He looked grim. “We didn’t expect that.”
“Do not blame yourself for that part, Rhys,” Doyle said. “Neither court hunts the other with cold iron. That is reserved for war, and we are not at war.”
“Not yet,” he said.
“Why do you mean, not yet?” Galen asked.
“Did cold iron do that to your arm?” I asked.
He answered my question first. “One of them attacked me. We were three for three, but we didn’t realize we weren’t just having a little fun until they got serious.” He shook his head. “If I hadn’t surprised him, it would have been worse.”
“Surprised how?” I asked.
“I used the death touch on him, but he did something to protect himself. My entire arm went numb. It’s good we had so many healers in the room though. They healed the wounds of sword and ax, but my arm . . . They bound it in a sling and told me to wait. I can finally feel something, pins and needles mostly, but I’m happy to feel anything in it.”
“What happened to the seelie you bespelled?” Nicca asked.
“They dragged him away insensible. He’ll be out of it for a day or two, at least.”
“Why didn’t it kill him?” I asked.
“Goblins have no magic of their own; the sidhe do,” he said, as if that explained everything.
“Did they give a reason for trying to kill you?” Galen asked.
He sighed again. “One of their royal ladies accused me and two others of raping her.”
“What?” I sat up too abruptly, then stopped in mid-motion, afraid I’d crush the moth.
“Had she gone mad?” Galen asked.
“Don’t know,” Rhys said, “but they were serious about it.”
“Who else did she accuse?” I asked.
“Me, Galen, Abloec.”
“Why?” I asked.
“That we do not know,” Doyle said, “but I doubt that the lady came up with such a desperate accusation on her own.”
“Taranis?” I asked.
“Keep his name to a minimum,” Rhys said, “just in case. I’d rather not be overheard.”
“I do not believe he can hear just because his name is invoked,” Doyle said.
“Humor me,” Rhys said.
Doyle nodded. “Very well. Yes, I believe he is somehow behind this new problem.”
“But why? What does he hope to gain?” I asked.
“That we will know as soon as the three of you have eaten.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The queen has requested your presence at her side when she contacts Taranis about this latest outrage.”
“Taranis’s men seemed to think we’d just let them arrest us,” Rhys said. “That we’d just give ourselves over to Seelie justice.” He laughed, and it was a bitter sound. “Justice? For the Unseelie at the Seelie Court? Please.”“They still believe that to join this court is to be deformed and made monstrous,” Doyle said.
“I’ve never understood that one,” Galen said. “They can look at us and know that we look just as they do.”
“They believe we hide our deformities with our clothes,” Doyle said.
Galen raised an eyebrow. “The queen answers the mirrors covered in nude guards most of the time. Anyone with eyes can see that every inch of the guards is fine.”
“Ah, but that is evil Unseelie illusion,” Rhys said. “Understand, my young green friend, that one of the things that makes the Seelie sidhe prefer exile among the humans to joining our court is the belief, the absolute belief, that being in the dark corrupts us. Makes us twisted and perverse. Most of them believe we have tails, and hooves, and monstrous penises.”
“Well, big,” I said, but the look on Rhys’s face made me swallow my joke.
“They don’t mean big, Merry, they mean ugly and awful. They paint us as monsters, because if the Seelie ever truly believed that we were just like them”—he shrugged—“I think some of them would put up with less shit from him. They would then have someplace to go besides mortal land.”
“They fear Andais, as well,” Doyle said, “and she has fostered that fear with her bloody mirror calls and her orgies.”
“I have spoken with the king in the mirror, Doyle,” I said. “I know now that touching the flesh of the guard helps ground us and keep his power at bay. I think that torture may do the same for the queen that sex does.”
Doyle nodded. “Yes, it is a way to keep his power from overwhelming one.”
“I’ve never actually sat in on a call between the two monarchs,” I said. “Is it as scary as it sounds?”
“Disturbing,” Rhys said, “more than scary.”
“Disturbing how?” I asked.
“The king will try and use his magic to bespell and persuade us, including our queen. She will use her beauty to make him lust after her. She will also use those around her to distract both herself from his power, and the king in general.”
“We’ll have to warn her not to expose your new friends,” Rhys said.
“You mean the . . .” and I motioned at the moth.
He nodded. “He won’t like that we have them and his people don’t.”
“Did the queen see them?”
“She has been here, and seen what there is to see,” Doyle said.
“Why does that sound ominous?”
“She was thrilled,” Rhys said, and his voice was very dry.
“What did we miss?”
“Be glad you missed it,” he said.
Doyle nodded. “Do not be surprised if your aunt suggests that you come to her bed some night.” He frowned. “Though strangely she has lifted her ban about Nicca and Biddy. They are free to have sex when he feels well enough. She was very pleased at all of it. The wall and door exploding. The bewinged demi-fey. The dry pool. All of it seemed to . . .”
“Excite her,” Rhys said.
I shivered, and the moth fanned its wings, as if it felt my nervousness. Which made its body pull on my skin again. It was as if I could feel its legs inside my body. I had to swallow hard, to keep my stomach from being very unhappy with me.
“Did it move again?” Galen asked.
I nodded.
“I do not like feeling its legs move inside my body.”