“We’ve committed no crime against Faery, only aided an enemy to remove a threat,” Tatiana hissed with an ugly smile.
“And which threat would that be exactly, Tatiana?” I asked as I felt myself floating, and as I looked down to the floor, I was. Not by much, but I was! Now was not the time to discover new powers. “Danu!”
“Yes?” she asked as she moved out from behind Elijah and stepped forward.
“I’m floating; make it stop before someone notices it!”
My feet touched the ground as Tatiana started her speech.
“The people of Faery are tired of you and your strumpet, King, and most have openly acknowledged that you, Ryder, are the spitting image of your father, in looks and in deeds! You demanded this tart at her birth and you have her fully under your influence, and she’s my own niece! My heart bleeds to think of the things you’ve done to her—”
“Call Synthia a strumpet again, and I’ll forget my purpose and feed the Sluagh your entrails,” Ryder warned with venom dripping from his lips.
“See! He is no better than his sire! He threatens my husband with eternal death, and more. Will you allow him to continue to threaten us with those vile creatures of the Sluagh? Or will you stand with us, the Light Fae, and take arms against him? I say it ends here! The Mages have promised to leave us in peace if they can have the Horde! No longer would we have to live in fear, or take orders from their kind!” Tatiana shouted as her husband nodded his head vigorously beside her.
“We have given this world no reason to fear us. I stand here as the King of the Horde, asking you to admit the charges against you, not by myself, but with the other Heirs of this world, who accuse you of these crimes. I have not raised arms against anyone here, Tatiana, so you’d call them to arms on false pretenses?” Ryder said calmly.
“Do not take your anger out on my wife!” Dresden growled, and narrowed his eyes smugly. He watched Ryder closely, planning the best way to bring out the beast, of this I was sure. He wanted him to be the creature, because this assembly would fear it.
“Seriously, Dresden?” I asked, and shook my head. “Enough with your overly dramatic games; facts are what will be used here. Isn’t it a fact that you idiots have been allowing the Mages to use your lands, and to travel through them with a guarantee of safe passage? Answer the charges, because that is why you are here. Not to plan some half-assed coup,” I asked and watched as Dresden turned all but purple with rage.
“Yes, and I did so for everyone here, to depose the Horde King! It is my lands, and my right to allow any who ask my permission to pass through them!”
“So you willingly allowed them into Faery via the path through the Light Lands?” Ryder continued for me as he took over. I’d given him enough time to calm the beast that had to be rattling his cage.
“Yes, again! You daft monster, it is my right to allow who I shall to pass upon my lands. I am the King! You are nothing! You and your people feed from the fear of these gentle Fae folk, and I say it ends here! Who is with me? Stand with me, and the Mages will rid this world of him and his brethren!” Dresden continued.
“You poor, misguided being, you allowed the Mages into Faery. They came here via your lands. Can you guess what they did after you’d allowed them passage to kill the Horde King?” Ryder asked as his eyes challenged Dresden.
“They made an attempt on your concubine’s life, which sits fine with me,” he grinned coldly.