The healer whispered, “Hush.”
The dog whined, but quietly. It came to the guard’s side, so that its fur brushed my bare feet. The touch of it sent a thrill through my body. I waited for my head to hurt, but it didn’t. I actually felt a tiny bit better.
We stood in a long marble corridor lined with gilt-edged mirrors. There were two lines of Seelie nobles in front of those mirrors. Each man and woman had at least one faerie dog at their side. Some were the elegant greyhounds like my own poor dogs. I prayed that Minnie would be all right. She had been so still.
Some of the dogs were the huge Irish wolfhounds, as they’d been before the breed had almost died out. These were nothing that had ever mixed with other breeds. They were giants, huge fierce things, some slick of fur, some rough. The looks in their eyes had nothing to do with sight and everything to do with battle. They were war dogs fierce enough that the Romans had feared them and collected them for the arena.
Two of the ladies, and one of the men, held small white-andred dogs in their arms. All nobles love a good lapdog.
I didn’t understand why they were there, but there was again something about the presence of the dogs that calmed me. It was as if a soft voice said, “It will be all right. Do not fear, we are with you.”
I recognized Hugh of the fiery hair. “How badly hurt is she?” He had a brace of the huge Irish hounds. They were tall enough to look me in the eye with room to spare as I lay in the guard’s arms.
“A concussion, and she is with child. A month gone with twins.”
He looked startled. “We must get her away.”
The healer nodded. “Yes, we must.”
The nobles with their dogs closed behind us, so that if Taranis had opened his door he would have seen a solid wall of sidhe nobles, and I would have been hidden from sight.
Did they truly mean to defy their king for me? We continued to hurry down the corridor as they spoke of treason.
A woman with hair that flowed in shades of blue and gray like sky or water spoke. It took me a moment to recognize her as Lady Elasaid. “The press secretary has already spoken to the human media.”
“What did he say in answer to Queen Andais’s accusations?”
“He said that we have offered the princess sanctuary after she was viciously attacked by her own guards.”
“So they are telling the lies that Taranis told them,” Hugh said.
Lady Elasaid nodded.
“Does the media know that he attacked us in the lawyer’s office?” I asked.
They looked startled, as if they hadn’t expected me to speak. I think that for them I was an object, and not quite real yet. They weren’t joining my cause because they liked me or believed in me, they just believed in the magic and power I was helping bring back to faerie. I was simply the vessel for that power.
“Yes,” Hugh said. “We made certain that it was leaked. They have pictures of your injured guards coming and going from the hospital.”
We had come to a pair of huge white double doors. I had never seen this hallway. I had never before been honored with a trip to the king’s bedroom. I hoped to never be so “honored” again.
Lady Elasaid came to my side. “Princess Meredith, I would give you my shawl to cover yourself, if you would like it.” She held out a silken cloth in a brilliant green with gold designs. It matched my eyes. I looked at her, moving my eyes carefully so that nothing hurt. They had a plan. I didn’t know what it was, but the shawl matching my eyes said that they had one. If even my clothes were being coordinated then they had a plan.
“It would be most welcome,” I said, and again my voice was soft, because I feared what my head would feel like if I spoke too loudly.
I had been healed of worse injuries in vision, but this time the Goddess seemed content to make me feel better in inches rather than all at once.
Hugh spoke as Lady Elasaid and another noble lady helped me slip on the robe. For robe it was, not shawl. “With a little persuasion from some of us, the king demanded a press conference so that he could tell his side of the story. He wanted to override the monstrous lies that the Unseelie were telling. The conference was scheduled to speak about the earlier attack in Los Angeles. But they are still here, Princess. They are now waiting for the king to speak to them about the accusation that he has kidnapped you.”
“He let press into the Seelie mound,” I said.
“How could he allow the Unseelie to be more progressive than we? Andais had called a conference to demand your return. He would appear guilty if he did less.”
I thought I understood now why Deity had healed me only in small bits, enough to function, but not enough to be well. I needed to look hurt for the press. “Does he honestly believe what he said earlier, that he rescued me?”
“I fear so.”
Lady Elasaid fastened a gold pin at the neck of the robe. “I would do your hair if there was time.”
“We want her to look disheveled and injured,” Hugh said.
I managed a smile at Lady Elasaid. “Thank you for the robe. I will be fine. Just get me to the press. I assume it’s a live feed?”
Lady Elasaid frowned. “I do not understand.”
“Yes,” Hugh said. “It is live.”
“Let us not linger here,” the blond guard said.
“Only the king can see us here, and he no longer cares enough to use his mirrors for such things. We are safer here than in the next corridor,” Hugh said.
“No one would dare spy on the king,” a woman said.
So we stood in Taranis’s own place of power, safe. Safe to plot behind his back. Safe from prying eyes, because they feared that he would see them, but his madness had made him blind.
I wondered who had first been bold enough to figure out that the king’s own inner sanctum was the place to plot treason. Whoever it was would be someone to be careful of. If you plot the overthrow of one ruler, it makes the idea easier next time. Or so it seems.
“We wanted to see how sensible you were before we told you our plan,” Lady Elasaid said.
Hugh said, “Head wounds can make a person unreliable, and this is too dangerous a game to have you privy to our secrets if you will blurt them out.”
“May I speak freely here?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Get me in front of the cameras and I’ll play damsel in distress for you.”
Hugh and several others smiled. “You do understand.”
“I’ve been in front of the press my whole life. I understand their power.”
“We made him swear a most solemn oath that he would not reveal himself to you until we were certain you would not spoil the plan if you knew him near.”
I frowned at Hugh but it hurt, so I stopped. I said, “I don’t understand.”
There was movement near the far door, hidden by the crowd of people and dogs. The crowd moved to either side, revealing a huge black dog. Not as huge as some of the Irish hounds, but…. Theblack dog trotted toward me, his nails clicking on the marble.
I almost whispered his name but stopped in time. I held a hand out toward him. He laid his great furred head in my hand, then there was an instant of warm mist and prickling magic. Doyle stood before me, nude and perfect. He wore the only metal that seemed to have survived the transformation, the silver earrings that peeked from the fall of his ankle-length hair. Even the tie for his hair was gone.
He was unarmed and alone inside the Seelie mound. The danger he had exposed himself to made my stomach clench tightly. In that moment I feared for him more than for myself.
He took me in his arms, and I clung to him. Clung to the feel of his skin, the strength of him. I moved my head too quickly, and a wave of nausea blurred my vision. He seemed to sense it because he moved me to lay more prone in his arms. He knelt in the white-and-gold corridor, his darkness repeated in the mirrors as he held me.
There was a glitter on his cheeks, and I saw the Darkness cry for only the second time ever.
CHAPTER 27
I KNELT ON THE MARBLE IN DOYLE’S ARMS, MY HEAD RESTING ON
his chest. Just his touch seemed to ease some of my pain.
“How?” I asked.
He seemed to understand exactly what I wanted to know, as he often did. “This is not the first time I have come here in this guise. Many of the fey hounds began as black dogs. I am just one who has not chosen a master. I am quite the favorite among those who have not been blessed with a dog. They offer me choice tidbits and call me sweet names.”
“He is skittish, and will not let them lay hands on him,” Lady Elasaid said.
“He plays the dog to perfection,” Hugh said.
Doyle looked up at them. “It is not play. It is a true form for me.”
There was silence for a second, then Hugh asked, “Is the Darkness truly the father of one of your children?”
“Yes,” I said. I held him as tightly as I could without moving my head too much. “It is too dangerous for you to be here. If you are discovered….”
He kissed my forehead as gently as a feather’s touch. “I would brave much more than this for you, my princess.”
My fingers dug into his arm and back. “I could not bear to lose you
and
Frost. I could not bear it.”
“We have heard rumor of the Killing Frost, but we thought it only rumor,” Hugh said.
“Is he truly dead?” Lady Elasaid asked.
“He is the white stag in truth,” Doyle said.
Hugh knelt beside us, smiling. “He is not dead then, Princess. In three years, or seven, or a hundred and seven he will return to his true self.”
“What good is a hundred years to a mortal lover, Sir Hugh? His child will never know him while I still live.”
Hugh’s eyes flared as if someone had struck the embers of his power. There was a moment of fire in his eyes, like looking into two small fireplaces. He blinked and his eyes were only the colors of fire. “I have no words of comfort then, but the black dog’s presence is one of the things we nobles have done to keep your aunt from starting true war with us. He will remain close to your side.”
I grabbed Hugh’s sleeve. “He is weaponless in this form. If discovered, can you protect him?”
“I am the captain of your guard, Merry. I protect you,” Doyle said.
I leaned harder against the solidness of him, my hand on the other man’s sleeve. “You are one half of a breeding royal pair. You are king to my queen. If you die, the chance of other children dies with you.”
“She is right, Darkness,” Hugh said. “It has been too long since there was life in the royal bloodline.”
“I am not of the bloodline,” Doyle said. His deep voice seemed to echo off the mirrors.
“We know the princess has made Maeve Reed, once the goddess Conchenn, with child by her human husband. We also hear rumors that one of your male guards has made a female guard pregnant,” Hugh said.
“Truth,” I said.
“If you could make one of us who is of the pure Seelie line pregnant, then all the king’s support would fall away from him. I am sure of that,” Hugh said.
Lady Elasaid knelt on the other side of us. “Most of his supporters are convinced that only the mongrels are breedable. They have decided that they would rather die as a race than pollute their blood. If you could prove them wrong on this, they would follow you.”
“Some,” Hugh said, “but not all. Some hate too deeply.”
She nodded. “As you say, Hugh.” There was something intriguing about the way she said it, the way she lowered her eyes.
“You want you and Hugh to be the experiment,” I said.
She blinked at me. “Experiment?”
Hugh took her hand in his. “Yes, we would like very much to have a child of our own.”
“When I am healed and safe, and my people are safe, then I would be happy to try a spell for you,” I said.
Some tension went out of them, and they smiled at me, as if I’d told them that tomorrow was Yule and their most longed-for present was under the tree. I wanted to warn them that until the ring and the Goddess had told me they were breedable, I could guarantee nothing.
Doyle’s arms tightened around me. He was right; now was not the time to undermine our allies’ confidence in us. We needed them to get us out of here. I needed a hospital or a healer who could lay hands. And I never, ever wanted to go back to Taranis’s bed.
I shivered, and fought to not move my head when I did it.
“Are you cold?” Doyle asked.
“Nothing that a blanket can help.”
“I will slay him for you.”
“No, no, you will live for me. Vengeance is cold comfort on a winter’s night. I want you warm and alive beside me more than I want my honor avenged.” I moved as carefully as I could until I could see his face. “As your princess, and future queen, I order you to forget vengeance for this. I am the injured party, not you. If I say it’s not as important to me as the feel of you in my arms, you must honor that.”
He stared down at me with those black eyes. His hair was a wild mass of thick blackness with the hint of silver rings peeking like stars from the blackness of his hair. He looked like the Doyle who came to my bedroom, not the braided and buttoned-up Doyle who guarded me. But the expression on his face was all about the guard, and something else. Something I hadn’t expected to see, though I should have. There was a man’s feelings for his love, who had been violated by another man. It was, dare I say, a very human emotion.
“Please, Doyle, please, let us tell the media what he has done. Let us bring him down using the human law he sought to use against us.”
“It has a certain poetic justice,” Hugh said.
Doyle stared down at me for a breath, then gave one small nod. “As my queen wishes, so shall it be.”
It felt as if the world took a breath, as if it had been waiting for him to say those words to me. I had no idea why those words now were so important, but I knew the sensation of reality changing. Those words, spoken here, had changed something large. Some event had stopped, or begun, because of this moment. I felt it, knew it, but not what it meant, or what the end would be.
“So mote it be,” the healer said.
The other nobles echoed her. “So mote it be, so mote it be.” Down the corridor, and just like that I understood. They had acknowledged me queen. Once you only needed so many nobles and the blessing of the gods to rule in faerie. Once, even longer ago, you had only needed the blessing. Now I had both.
“I would carry you to the ends of the earth and beyond,” Doyle said, “but I must trust my most precious burden to others.” He reached out as if he would touch the spreading bruise where Taranis had struck me, then he bent over and laid his mouth against mine. His hair slid over me like a warm cloak to help hide me.
He whispered, “More than life, more than honor, I love thee.”
What do you say when a man whose entire existence had been his honor offers to give it up for you? You say the only thing you can. “More than any crown or throne or title, I love thee,” I said. “More than any power in faerie, I love thee.”
The scent of roses and deep forest was suddenly present, as if we’d stepped into a forest glade where wild roses had managed to grow.
“I smell flowers again,” the blond guard said.
“The Goddess moves around this one,” a woman said.
“Let us take her to the humans and see if they can do what we cannot,” Lady Elasaid said. “Get her far away from here.” She turned tricolored eyes shiny with unshed tears away as Hugh helped her stand.
Doyle stood up, carefully, holding me close, and trying not to move my head. He succeeded. I clung to him, not wanting him to let me go, even as I knew we had to separate.
Doyle and Hugh looked at each other. “Know that you carry the future of all of faerie in your arms, Sir Hugh.”
“If I did not believe that, I would not be here now, Darkness.”
Doyle lifted me away from his body, and Hugh’s arms slid under me. My hands trailed over Doyle’s bare flesh, so warm, so real, so…mine.
Hugh settled me as gently as he could in the curve of his arms, and the strength of his body. It wasn’t his power as a warrior that I doubted, not really. It was simply that his arms were not the ones I wanted.
“I will be close by, my Merry,” Doyle said.
“I know,” I said.
Then he was the black dog again. He came to nudge my foot with the fur of his head. I touched him with my fingers, and the eyes were still Doyle’s eyes.
“Let us go,” Hugh said.
The rest formed a group around us. They closed in front as they opened the door, so that if there was an attack waiting, it would hit them first and not me. They were risking their lives, their honor, their future. They were immortal, which meant they had a lot of future to risk.
I prayed, “Mother, help them, keep them safe. Do not let them pay a hard price for what we are about to do.”
The scent of roses was fresh, and so real that I thought I felt a petal brush my cheek. Then I felt another. I opened my eyes to find that it was raining rose petals.
There were gasps of joy and wonder from the nobles of the Seelie Court. The dogs capered and danced in the fall of petals. The petals looked very pink against the blackness of Doyle’s fur.
Lady Elasaid said, “Once the queen of our court walked everywhere in a shower of flowers.” Her voice was soft with wonder.
“Thank you, Goddess,” Hugh said. Tears glittered on his face as he looked at me, tears that sparkled like water reflecting fire. He whispered, “Thank you, my queen.”
He walked forward with me in his arms, tears of fire glittering on his face. We walked into the next room with pink rose petals floating down from nowhere like sweet rain.