Bedlam Boyz(53)

"I'll wake up in another few minutes, I'll be back in bed, and I probably won't even remember that I dreamed about you!" Kayla said hotly.

"I want this one's blood," a chill voice said from behind her. She turned quickly, to see the broad-shouldered elven man dressed in leather, with the red cap perched on his head. "I want this one's blood to dye my cap!" he repeated, staring at Kayla with hungry eyes.

She felt a chill run down her back. "Okay, I admit it," she said. "This isn't a dream, this is a nightmare. It's an awful nightmare, a real, genuine, honest-to-God nightmare, but I'm going to wake up from it, any minute now."

There was another titter of laughter from the crowd, and the Unseelie Queen smiled. "What you believe and what will happen are two different things, child," she said. "But, for the moment, you amuse me. So I will let you live, I think, at least for now."

"Look, lady," Kayla said, starting forward. The sound of a dozen swords being drawn stopped her in her tracks. She glanced around nervously and then stepped back from the Queen's throne.

"You amuse me, child, but don't push your luck," the Queen said dryly.

Kayla nodded, her mouth dry.

"Now, tell me, how did you come here?" the Queen asked. "Did you conjure a doorway with your own magics between the human lands and our own? You look too young and unskilled to accomplish such a feat."

How do I explain what happened? And why in the hell should I explain anything to someone who's only part of a dream?

"You may think this is only a dream," the Queen said, idly viewing the jeweled rings on her long, tapered fingers. "But I assure you that it is quite real, and if you defy me, you'll discover the reality of it in a most painful and immediate way. So, answer my question: how did you come here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about with doors and all of that," Kayla began. "All I know is one minute I was in Los Angeles—well, Santa Monica, I think, but I'm not certain about that—and then all of the sudden I'm out here. I bet Shari and Nataniel think this is some kind of a great joke. . . ."

As she said Nataniel's name, she felt a sudden chill run through the crowd, a tension as the smiles froze on the faces of those graceful figures.

"Let me kill it now!" the man with the red cap hissed.

"In a moment," the Queen murmured. "First, I would hear all of this one's story. So, you admit that you are in league with Nataniel, who was banished many centuries ago to the human lands? I would have killed him for attempting to murder me," she added in an undertone, "but he had too many loyal followers, and a war would have destroyed the Unseelie Court. Instead, I sent him and his followers to the human lands, where now, apparently, he is recruiting young humans to do his work for him."

"I'm not working with him at all!" Kayla protested. "Look, he kidnaped me, asked me if I wanted to work with him, I said no, and so he sent me here!"

"I see." The Queen was silent for a long moment, then spoke. "Despite your words of innocence, I cannot believe that Nataniel would have brought you here if you were not allied with him and somehow part of a plot to overthrow my rule. Therefore, my Lord Skullcleaver . . ." She gestured at an Unseelie in dark armor, who stepped forward with a sword raised, firelight glinting off the blade.

Kayla swallowed. Even if this is a dream, this is getting way too real for me. She glanced at the Queen, who was sipping dark red wine from a crystal goblet, and felt a shock run through her. Something was wrong about the Queen, she could feel something was very wrong, and as the Queen brought the glass again to her lips, she knew what it was.

"You've been poisoned," Kayla said.

The swordsman stopped in mid-step.

The Queen stared at her. "What did you say?"

"You've been poisoned," Kayla repeated. "And there's more of the poison in that glass. At least, I think it's poison. I don't know what it is, but I can see what it's doing to you, eating away at your mind and body. . . ."

The glass slipped from the Queen's hand and shattered on the stone floor.

"And how did you know this?" the Queen asked, all traces of amusement gone from her voice. A sudden silence had fallen over the crowd.

"She's a healer," Catt whispered from behind her. "We saw her heal herself only a short while ago."

"Is that true?" the Queen asked Kayla.

She nodded. "It's what I do. I guess it's what you'd call my magic. There's something wrong with that goblet, I can't tell exactly what, but when you drank from it, I could see the poison affecting you."

The Queen rose unsteadily from her throne, and the crowd parted instantly before her. She strode across the hall, toward an arched doorway on the far wall. "Bring the girl, Lady Catt," she said without looking back.