A Lick of Frost - Page 4/29

THE MIRROR FILLED WITH LIGHT. SHINING, GOLDEN SUNLIGHT, until we all had to turn our eyes away or be blinded by the brilliance, the brilliance of Taranis, King of Light and Illusion. A man's voice, I think it was Shelby's spoke from the dimness of my closed eyelids, "What the hell is this?"

"The king, boasting," I said. I shouldn't have said it, but I wasn't feeling well, and I was angry. Angry at having to be here at all. Angry and scared, because I knew Taranis well enough to be certain that the other shoe had not even begun to drop.

"Boasting," a joyous male voice said. "This is not boasting, Meredith, this is what I am." He'd used only my name, and none of my titles. It was an insult, and we were going to let him get away with it. But more surprising, he hadn't announced himself formally. He was being as informal as if we were talking privately. It was almost, as if to him, the human lawyers didn't really count.

Veducci's voice spoke out of the blinding light that had become the room. "King Taranis, I've spoken to you several times and never been so blinded by your light. If you could have pity on us mere humans and dim your glory, just a bit?"

"What think you of my glory, Meredith?" the joyous voice asked, and the sound alone made me smile even as I squinted to save my eyes.

Frost squeezed my hand, and that touch of skin on skin helped me think. Taranis was not a power of flesh and sex. To combat what he was so good at, you had to use the magic you were good at, just to be able to think in Taranis's presence. I reached for Rhys, until my hand found the bare skin of his neck and cheek. The touch of both of them helped me think. "I think your glory is wondrous, Uncle Taranis." He'd been familiar first, using only my first name, so I figured I'd try to remind him that I was his niece. That I wasn't just some Unseelie noblewoman to impress.

I wasn't too insulted; except by his use of my first name, he did the same kind of crap to Queen Andais. The two of them had been trying to outmagic each other for centuries. I had simply been dropped into the middle of a game that I had no hope of winning. If Andais herself could not shut down Taranis's magic in a mirror call, then my own much more humble abilities were outclassed. My men and I had known that coming into this call. I had hoped that with the lawyers present, Taranis might tone things down a bit. Apparently not.

"Uncle makes me sound old, Meredith. Taranis, you must call me Taranis." His voice made it sound like we were old friends, and he was so very happy to see me. The voice alone made me want to say yes to anything and everything. Any other sidhe being caught using his voice and magic on another sidhe like this would lead to a duel, or to being punished by their queen or king. But he was the king, and that meant that people didn't call him on it. But I'd been forced to call him on something similar the last time I'd spoken with him like this; could I afford to start out as rude as I'd ended the last time?

"Taranis, then, Uncle. Could you please tone down your wonder so that we may all look upon you?"

"Is the light hurting your eyes?"

"Yes," I said, and there were other affirmatives from behind me. The full-blooded humans must have been in real discomfort by now.

"Then I will dim my light for you, Meredith." He made my name sound like a piece of candy on his tongue. Something sweet, and thick, and suckable.

Frost drew my hand to his mouth, and kissed my knuckles. It helped me shake off the effect that Taranis was trying hard to get from me. He'd done this last time, a magical seduction so powerful it damn near hurt.

Rhys snuggled closer to my side, nuzzling along my neck. He whispered, "He's not just trying to impress us all, Merry, he's aiming straight at you."

I turned into his face, even with my eyes still closed against the light. "He did this last time."

Rhys's hand found the back of my hair, turning my face toward his. "Not exactly this, Merry. He's trying harder to win you over."

Rhys kissed me. It was a gentle kiss, I think more conscious of the red lipstick I was wearing than of any sense of decorum. Frost rubbed his thumb over my hand. Their touches kept me from sinking into Taranis's voice, and the pull of the light.

I felt Doyle standing in front of me before I actually opened my eyes. He kissed me on the forehead, adding his touch to the others as if he already knew what Taranis was doing. He moved to my left, and at first I didn't realize what he was doing, then Taranis's voice came, not nearly as happy as he'd sounded before. "Meredith, how dare you come before me with the monsters that attacked my lady, standing there as if they had done no wrong? Why are they not in shackles?" His voice was still a good, rich voice, but it was just a voice. Even Taranis couldn't make those words, that outrage, work with the warm, seductive tone.

The light had dimmed some. Doyle was blocking some of my view, and partially blocking Rhys from the king's view, but I'd seen this show before. Taranis was dimming the light so that it looked as if he were forming from the brilliance. Forming a face, a body, his clothes, out of light itself.

Biggs said, "My clients are innocent until proven guilty, King Taranis."

"Do you doubt the word of the nobles of the Seelie Court?" I didn't think the outrage was feigned this time.

"I'm a lawyer, your highness. I doubt everything."

I think Biggs meant it as humor, but if he had, he didn't know his audience. Taranis had no sense of humor that I was aware of. Oh, he thought he was funny, but no one else was allowed to be funnier than the king. The last rumor from the Seelie Court was that even Taranis's court jester had been imprisoned for impertinence.

I'd have complained more if Andais hadn't slain her last court jester some four or five hundred years before.

"Was that meant to be humor?" The king's voice reverberated through the room, like a roll of quiet thunder. It was one of his names, Taranis Thunderer. Once he'd been a sky and storm god. The Romans had equated him with their own Jupiter, though his powers had never been as far reaching as Jupiter.

"Apparently not," Biggs said, trying to put a pleasant face on it.

Taranis was finally revealed in the mirror. He was edged with glow, as if the colors of everything about him wavered. His hair and beard were at least his true color, the reds and orange of a spectacular sunset. The locks of his curling hair were painted with the glory of the sky when the sun sinks to the west. His eyes were truly multi-petals of green: jade, grass, shades of leaves. It was as if a green flower had been substituted for the iris of his eyes. As a small child, before I knew that he disdained me, I'd truly thought him handsome.

"Oh, my God," Nelson said in a breathy voice.

I looked behind myself at her, the wide eyes, the almost slack face. "You've only seen the pictures of him pretending to be human, haven't you?"

"He had red hair and green eyes, not this, not this," she said. Cortez, her boss, took her elbow and got her to a chair. Cortez was angry and was having trouble hiding it. Interesting reaction on his part.

Taranis turned those green-petaled eyes toward the woman. "Few human women have seen me in all my glory in many years. What do you think of me in my true form, pretty girl?"

I was pretty sure that you didn't get to be assistant district attorney in Los Angeles by letting men call you pretty girl. But if Nelson had a problem with it, she didn't say so. She looked besotted with him, drunk with his attention.

Abe came to join us in our huddled group. Galen trailed behind him, looking puzzled. It was Abe who leaned in and whispered, "There is some magic here that is not merely light and illusion. If it were almost anyone else, I would say that he has added love magic to his bag of tricks."

Doyle drew Abe closer to us all, and whispered, "A spell powerful enough that it is affecting Ms. Nelson."

They all agreed.

We hadn't meant to ignore Taranis, but he was so terribly busy flirting with Nelson that it was easy to forget that just because a king is ignoring you doesn't mean that you are allowed to ignore the king.

"I did not come here to be insulted," he said in that thundery voice. Once it would have impressed me, but I'd been intimate with Mistral. He was a storm god, too, but one who could make lightning pour down a hallway inside the faerie mound. Taranis's rumbly voice just couldn't compare to Mistral. In fact, as the men parted so that I could see my uncle more clearly, he looked a little overdone, like a man who's overdressed for a date.

I looked at the men clustered around me, and realized that all of them had touched me, Rhys wrapped around my waist and side; Frost on the other side, arm a little higher; Doyle with his strong dark hands on my face; Abe with his hand on my shoulder so he could lean in and not fall (even sober his balance seemed shaky sometimes). Galen had touched me because he always touched me when he could. It was as if I'd reached a critical mass of touch. I could think. I was no longer besotted like the good Miss Nelson. Once I'd thought that Andais appearing on the mirror calls draped in men had a been a way to taunt and shock Taranis and his court. In only two mirror calls of my very own, I'd learned that there was a method to her madness. For me, either five was the magic number or the mix of these five men's powers was what works. Either way, it was going to be a different phone call than it would have been if Taranis's spell had worked on me. Interesting.

"Meredith," Taranis called. "Meredith, look upon me."

I knew that there was power to that voice. I felt it as one would sense the ocean. Whispering and close. But I was no longer standing in the water. I was no longer in danger of drowning in that voice.

"I see you, Uncle Taranis. I see you very well," I said, and my voice was strong and firm, and caused the arch of a perfect sunset-colored eyebrow to raise.

"I can barely see you through the crowd of your men," he said. There was a tone to his voice that I couldn't discern. Anxiety, anger; something unpleasant.

Doyle, Galen, and Abe began to move away from me. Even Frost started to pull away. Only Rhys stayed wedded to my side. The moment their hands fell away, Taranis was edged with light.

"Stay where you are, my men," I said. "I am your princess. He is not your king."

The men hesitated. Doyle moved back to me first, and the rest followed his lead. I put his hand to my face, and tried to tell him with my eyes what was happening. The spell was aimed so surely at me, like an arrow for my mind alone. How could I explain to them without words, what was happening?

Rhys settled himself more firmly around my waist, tucking me close, leaving just enough room for Frost's arm to slide back across my shoulders. Abe went to stand behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder closest to Rhys. Galen joined him, and though clearly puzzled, added his hand to my other shoulder closer to Frost. I gave the hand that wasn't wrapped around Rhys's waist to Doyle. The moment they were all touching me, even through clothing, the light around the king was gone. Taranis was handsome, but that was all.

"Meredith," Taranis said, "how can you insult me like this? These men attacked a lady of my court, savaged her. Yet you stand there with them... touching you, as if they are your court favorites."

"But, uncle, they are some of my favorites."

"Meredith," he said, and he sounded shocked, like an elderly relative who just heard you say "fuck" for the first time.

Biggs and Shelby both tried to move in and smooth things over. I think the reason the lawyers hadn't interfered more before was that even the men were getting a side swipe of the spell that Taranis had brought to this meeting. Either he had brought this magic for some specific purpose or he always held this magic when dealing with Queen Andais, and now me. I had not been able to sense it when we last spoke to Taranis. But then, neither had Doyle, or any of the other men. It wasn't just me who had grown in power from our few days in faerie. The Goddess had been a very busy deity. We had all been changed by her touch, and by the touch of her consort, the God.

"I will not speak of this matter in front of the monsters that savaged a woman of my court." Taranis's voice rolled through the room like the whisper of a storm. The humans all reacted as if it were more than a whisper. I was safe behind the hands of my men from whatever Taranis was trying to do.

Shelby turned to us. "I think it's a reasonable request to have the three accused wait outside while we talk to the king."

"No," I said.

"Princess Meredith," Shelby said, "you're being unreasonable."

"Mr. Shelby, you're being magically manipulated," I said, smiling at him.

He frowned at me. "I don't understand what you mean by that."

"I know you don't," I said. I turned to Taranis. "What you are doing to them is illegal by human law. The very law you have appealed to for aid."

"I have not asked for human aid," he said.

"You accused my men under human law."

"I petitioned Queen Andais for justice, but she refused to acknowledge my right to judge her Unseelie sidhe."

"You rule the Seelie Court," I said, "not the Unseelie."

"So your queen made clear to me."

"So when Queen Andais denied your request at her court, you turned to the humans."

"I appealed to you, Meredith, but you would not even answer my calls."

"Queen Andais advised me against it, and she is my queen and my father's sister. I heeded her advice." It had actually been more of an order. She'd said that whatever evil Taranis had planned I should avoid him. When someone as powerful as Andais says to avoid someone for fear of what they will do, I listen. I had not been so arrogant as to believe that Taranis's entire purpose was to simply have me talk to him on a mirror call. Andais had not believed that it was his purpose either, but now, today, I was beginning to wonder. I could think of nothing I could offer him that would make this much effort worthwhile.

"But now, because of human law, you must speak to me," he said.

Biggs said, "The princess agreed to this meeting out of courtesy. She was not compelled to be here."

Taranis's eyes never even moved to look at the lawyer. "But you are here, now, and you are more beautiful than I remember. I was very lax in my attentions to you, Meredith."

I laughed, and it was a harsh sound. "Oh, no, Uncle Taranis, I think you were quite thorough in your attentions to me. Almost more thorough than my mortal body could endure."

Doyle, Rhys, and Frost all tensed against me. I knew what they meant by it: have a care, don't give away court secrets in front of the humans. But Taranis had begun it, dragging us out before the humans. I was only following his lead.

"Will you never forget that one moment in your childhood?"

"You nearly beat me to death, Uncle. I am not likely to forget it."

"I did not understand how fragile your body was, Meredith, or I would never have touched you so."

Veducci recovered first, saying, "Is King Taranis admitting that he beat you as a child, Princess?"

I looked at my uncle, so large, so imposing, so regal in his gold and white court clothes. "He is not denying it, are you Uncle Taranis?"

"Please, Meredith, uncle seems so formal." His voice was wheedling. From the way Nelson began to walk closer to the mirror, I think the tone was meant to be seductive.

"He is not denying it," Doyle said.

"I am not speaking to you, Darkness," Taranis said, and his voice tried to thunder again. But as the seduction had not worked, so now the threat fell flat as well.

"King Taranis," Biggs said, "are you admitting that you beat my client as a child?"

Taranis finally turned to him, frowning. Biggs reacted as if the sun itself had smiled at him. He actually stumbled in his speech and looked uncertain.

Taranis said, "What I did years ago has no bearing on the crime that these monsters committed."

Veducci turned to me. "How badly did he beat you, Princess Meredith?"

"I remember how red my blood was on the white marble," I said. I looked at Veducci as I spoke, though I could feel Taranis's magic pushing at me, calling me to look at him. I looked at Veducci because I could, and because I knew that it would unnerve the king. "If my Gran, my grandmother, had not interfered I believe he would have beaten me to death."

"You hold a grudge, Meredith. I have apologized for my actions that day."

"Yes," I said, turning back to the mirror. "You have recently apologized for that beating."

"Why did he beat you?" Veducci asked.

Taranis roared, "That is not the business of humans."

He'd beat me when I'd asked why Maeve Reed, once the goddess Conchenn, had been exiled from his court. She was the golden goddess of Hollywood now, and had been for fifty years. We were all still living on her estate in Holmby Hills, though the recent addition of so many men was beginning to tax even her space. Maeve had given us some new room by going to Europe. It was far enough away to stay out of Taranis's way - or that was the hope.

Maeve had told us Taranis's deep dark secret. He had wanted to marry her after putting away a third wife for barrenness. Maeve had refused, pointing out that the last wife he'd put away had gone on to have children with someone else. She dared to tell the king that it was he who was barren, not the women. A hundred years ago Maeve had told him this, but he had exiled her and forbidden anyone to speak to her. Because if his court found out that a century ago he had known that he might be barren, and said nothing, did nothing... If the king is barren, the people and land are barren. He had condemned them to a slow death as a people. They lived almost forever, but no children meant that when they died, there would be no more Seelie sidhe. If his court found out what he had done, they were within our laws to demand a living sacrifice, with Taranis in the starring role.

He had twice tried to kill Maeve with magic, horrible spells that no Seelie would admit to doing. He had tried to kill her, and not us, even though he had to wonder if we knew his secret. He feared our queen, or perhaps he didn't think his court would believe anyone who was part of the Unseelie Court. Perhaps that was why Maeve was the threat and not us.

"If you abused the princess when she was a child that may affect this case," Veducci said.

"I now regret my temper in that moment with this woman," Taranis said. "But my one thoughtless moment decades ago does not change the fact that the three Unseelie sidhe before me did worse to the Lady Caitrin."

"If there is a pattern of abuse between the princess and the king," Biggs said, "then his accusations against her lovers may have a motive behind them."

"Are you implying a romantic motive for the king?" Cortez put a great deal of disdain in his voice, as if it were laughable.

"He wouldn't be the first man to beat a girl as a child, then turn to sexual abuse as she grew older," Biggs said.

"What did he accuse me of?" Taranis asked.

"Mr. Biggs is trying to prove that you have romantic intentions toward the princess," Cortez said, "and I am telling him that this is not so."

"Romantic intentions," Taranis repeated slowly. "What does he mean by that?"

"Do you have sexual or marital intentions toward Princess Meredith?" Biggs asked.

"I do not see what such a question has to do with the savage attack by those Unseelie monsters on the beautiful Lady Caitrin."

All the men touching me tensed again or went very still, even Galen. They had all realized that the king had not answered the question. The sidhe only avoided answering a question for two reasons. One, sheer perversity and a love of word games. Taranis had no love of word games, and was one of the least perverse of the sidhe. Two, that the answer was something that they didn't want to admit to. But the only answer Taranis could possibly want to avoid was "yes." It couldn't be "yes." He couldn't have romantic designs on me. He couldn't.

I looked up at Doyle and Frost. I looked for a clue as to what to do. Did I ignore it, or pursue it? Which was better? Which was worse?

Cortez said, "Though we have sympathy with the princess' childhood tragedies, we are here to investigate a new tragedy, the attack by these three men on Lady Caitrin."

I looked at Cortez, He actually looked away from my gaze, as if his statement sounded harsh even to his own ears.

"You do understand that you are all being magically influenced by him?" I asked.

"I think I would know if I were being influenced, Princess Meredith," Cortez said.

"The nature of magical manipulation," Veducci said, coming forward, "is that you don't know it's happening. It's why it's so very illegal."

Biggs faced the mirror. "Are you using magic to manipulate the people in this room, King Taranis?"

"I am not trying to manipulate the entire room, Mr. Biggs," Taranis said.

"May we ask a question?" Doyle asked.

"I will not speak to the monsters of the Unseelie Court," Taranis said.

"Captain Doyle is not accused of any crime," Biggs said. I realized that the lawyers on our side were having less trouble with Taranis's magical presence than those on the other side, except for Veducci, who seemed to be doing just fine. The lawyers had entered into a agreement with Taranis, just a verbal one, but that would be enough for someone of his power to have more of a hold over all of them. It was the subtle magic of kingship. If you agreed to be a true king's man, there was power to that agreement. Taranis had once been chosen by faerie to be king, and even now there was power to that old bargain.

"They are all monsters," Taranis said. He looked at me, gave me all the longing those green-petaled eyes could hold. "Meredith, Meredith, come to us before the power of the Unseelie makes of you something horrible."

If I hadn't broken his spell on me earlier, that appeal might have drawn me to him. But I stood safe among my men, and our power.

"I have seen both courts, Uncle. I found them both equally beautiful and horrible in their own ways."

"How can you compare the light and joy of the Golden Court to the darkness and terror of the Darkling Throne?"

"I am probably the only sidhe noble in recent history who can compare them, Uncle."

"Taranis, Meredith. Please, Taranis."

I didn't like his insistence that I call him by name and not title. In front of the Unseelie, he was always very aware of his title. In fact, he hadn't asked for all his appellations to be read. It wasn't like him to forgo anything that built him up in the eyes of others.

"Very well, Uncle... Taranis." The moment I said it, there was more weight in the air. It was harder to breathe. He'd joined his name to the spell of attraction so that every time I said his name, it would bind me more tightly. That was against the rules. Duels had been fought over less between the sidhe in any court. But you did not challenge the king to a duel. One, he was king, and two, he'd once been among the greatest warriors the sidhe could boast. He might be diminished, but I was mortal, and I'd swallow any insult he tossed our way. Maybe he'd counted on that?

Doyle said, "We need a chair for our princess."

The lawyers brought a chair, apologizing for not thinking of it sooner. Magic can do that, make you forget what you're about. Make you forget the mundane things like chairs and that your legs get tired, until you realize that your body hurts and that you've been ignoring it. I sat down gratefully. I'd have worn lower heels if I'd known I'd be standing this much.

There was some confusion as I sat so that for a moment not all my men were touching me. Taranis was edged with golden light. Then the men settled into their places and he was ordinary again. All right, Taranis was as ordinary as he would ever be.

Frost stayed standing at my back with his hand on my shoulder. I'd expected Doyle to take his place at my back as well, but it was Rhys who stood at my other shoulder. Doyle knelt on the floor beside me, with one hand on my arm. Galen moved in front of me so that he sat tailor-fashion at my feet, leaning his back against my hose-covered legs. One of his hands moved up and down my calf, an idle gesture that would have been possessive in a human but might have simply been nerves in one of the fey. Abe knelt at my other side, mirroring Doyle. Well, not exactly mirroring. Doyle had one hand on the pommel of his short sword, his other hand quietly on mine. Abe's hand gripped my other hand, squeezing. If he'd been human I'd have said he was afraid. Then I realized that this might have been the first time since Taranis cast him out that he had seen his ex-king. Abe had never been one of Queen Andais's favorites, so he wouldn't have been included on the mirror calls between courts.

I leaned over enough so I could lay my cheek against his hair. Abe looked up, startled, as if he hadn't expected me to return his gestures. The queen was more for receiving than giving, in everything but pain. I gave his surprise a smile, and tried to tell him with my eyes that I was sorry I hadn't thought what seeing the king might mean for him this day.

"I must take part of the blame that you sit among them so happily, Meredith," Taranis said. "If you had only known the pleasure of a Seelie sidhe, you would never let them touch you again."

"Most of the sidhe around me now were once part of the Seelie Court," I said, simply leaving off his name. I wanted to know whether if I ceased to say "Uncle" he would try to get his name to pass my lips for some other made-up reason. I'd felt the pull of magic when I said his name.

"They have been nobles of the Unseelie Court for centuries, Meredith," Taranis said. "They have become twisted things, but you have nothing to compare them to, and that was a grave oversight on the part of the Seelie. I am most heartily sorry that we neglected you so. I would make it up to you."

"What do you mean, they are twisted things?" I asked. I thought I knew, but I'd learned not to jump to conclusions when I dealt with either court.

"Lady Caitrin has told of the horrors of their bodies. None of the three of them are powerful enough in glamour to hide their true selves during intimacies."

Biggs came to my side as if I'd asked. "The lady's statement is quite graphic, and reads more like a horror movie than anything else."

I looked at Doyle. "You read it?"

"I did," he said. He looked up at me, his eyes still lost behind the dark glasses.

"Did the lady in question accuse them of being deformed?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

I had a thought. "The same way the ambassador saw you all."

Doyle gave the smallest movement of the corner of his mouth, hidden from the mirror. I knew what that almost smile meant. I was right, and he thought I was on the right track. Okay, if I was on the right track, where was this little train going?

"How deformed did the lady say they were in her statement?" I asked.

"So much so that no human woman would survive an attack," Biggs said.

I frowned at him. "I don't understand."

"It is the old wives' tale," Doyle said, "that the Unseelie have bone and spikes on their lower members."

"Oh," I said, but strangely, that rumor had a basis. The sluagh, Sholto's kingdom within our court, had had nightflyers. They looked like manta rays with tentacles that dangled, but they could fly like bats. They were the flying hounds of the sluagh's wild hunt. A royal nightflyer carried a bony spine inside his member that stimulated ovulation in female nightflyers. It also proved that you were of royal nightflyer heritage, because only they could make the females give up their eggs so that they could be fertilized. Rape by a royal nightflyer might have given rise to the old faerie horror story. Sholto's father had been one of the nonroyals, because his sidhe mother hadn't needed the spine to make her ovulate. He'd been a surprise baby in many ways. He was gorgeously, wonderfully sidhe, except for some extra bits here and there. Mostly there.

"King Taranis," I said, and again his name pulled at me, like a hand tugging for attention. I took a deep breath and relaxed into the weight of Rhys and Frost at my back, my hands on Doyle and Abe. Galen seemed to sense what was needed because he slid his arm between my calves, so that he wrapped himself around one of my legs, and forced both my legs apart a little wider so he could cuddle more tightly. There were very few of my guards who would have been willing to look so submissive in front of Taranis. I valued the few who were more willing to be close to me than to keep up appearances.

I tried again. "King of Light and Illusion, are you saying that my three guards are so monstrous that to lay with them is painful and horrible?"

"Lady Caitrin says that it is so," he said. He had settled back into his throne. It was huge and golden, and was the only thing that had not changed when his illusions were stripped away. He sat on what would cost, even today, a king's ransom.

"You said that my men could not maintain their illusion of beauty during intimacies, is that correct?"

"The Unseelie have not the power of illusion that the Seelie possess." He sat more comfortably on his throne, legs spread as some men do, as if to draw attention to their masculinity.

"So when I make love to them, I see them as they truly are?"

"You are part human, Meredith. You do not have the power of a true sidhe. I am sorry to say that, but it is well known that your magic is weak. They have fooled you, Meredith."

Each time he said my name, the air was a little thicker. Galen's hand slid up my leg until he found the top of my thigh-high hose, and could finally touch bare skin. The touch made me close my eyes for a moment, but it cleared my head. Once, what Taranis had said might have been true, but my magic had grown. I was no longer what I had been. Had no one told Taranis? It was not always wise to tell a king something he would not like, Taranis had treated me as lesser, or worse, all my life. To discover that I might be the heir to his rival court would mean that his treatment of me had been worse than politically incorrect. He had made me his enemy, or so he might think. He was far from the only noble in both courts to find themselves scrambling to make amends for a lifetime of ill treatment.

"I know what I hold in my hand, and in my body, Uncle."

"You do not know the pleasures of the Seelie Court, Meredith. Much awaits you, if only you could know it." His voice was like the ringing of bells. It was almost music on the very air.

Nelson started walking toward the mirror again. Her face was full of wonder. Whatever she saw was not real. I knew that now.

"I have told the lawyers twice that you are bespelling them, Uncle, but whatever you are doing to them makes them forget that. You make them forget the truth, Uncle."

The men in the room seemed to take a deep collective breath. "I have missed something," Biggs said.

"We all have," Veducci said. He went to Nelson, who was standing in front of the mirror, staring up as if the wonders of the universe were in that glass. He touched her shoulder, but she didn't react. She just kept gazing up at the king.

Veducci called back, "Cortez, help me with her."

Cortez looked like he'd been asleep, and had woken up somewhere else. "What the hell is going on?" he asked.

"King Taranis is using magic against us all."

"I thought the metal would protect us," Shelby said.

"He is the king of the Seelie Court," Veducci said. "Even the things I'm carrying aren't enough protection. I don't think a few office supplies are going to cut it today." He put a hand on each of the woman's shoulders and started pulling her back from the mirror. He called back over his shoulder, "Cortez, concentrate, help me with your assistant." He yelled it, and the shouting seemed to startle Cortez. He started forward, still looking startled, but he moved. He did what Veducci asked.

The two of them drew Nelson back from the mirror. She didn't fight them, but her face stayed upturned to Taranis's form as he sat above us all. That was interesting. I hadn't realized before that something about the mirror's perspective put him slightly higher than us. Of course, he was on his throne in the actual throne room. He was on a dais. He was, literally, looking down on us. The fact that I had only now realized that told me clearly that whatever spell he was throwing at me was having some effect. I was at the very least not noticing the obvious.

"You are breaking human law," Doyle said, "by using magic against them."

"I will not speak to the monsters of the queen's guard."

"Then speak to me, Uncle," I said. "You are breaking the law by the magic you are casting. You must stop it, or this interview is over."

"I swear by any oath you choose," Taranis said, "that I am not deliberately using magic on any full-blooded human in this room."

It was a pretty bit of lying, so close to the truth that it wasn't a lie at all. I laughed. Frost and Abe started, as if the sound hadn't been what they had expected. "Oh, Uncle, will you also take any oath of my choosing that you are not trying to bespell me?"

He gave me every ounce of that handsome, manly face, but the beard sort of ruined it for me. I wasn't a fan of facial hair, but that could be because I grew up at Andais's court. For whatever reason, the queen's wish that her men not have beards and such had become a reality. Most of them couldn't have grown a good beard if they'd wanted to. Sometimes the queen's wish becomes reality in faerie, I'd seen the truth of that old saying in faerie for myself. I could police my words aloud, but when my very thoughts could become real, that had been terrifying. I was glad to be out of faerie and back to a more solid reality, where I could think what I liked and not have to worry about it becoming real.

I thought my own thoughts while Taranis pushed at me with his face, his eyes, the fantastic color of his hair. He pushed the spell he'd conjured at me. It was like a weight on the air, a thickness on my tongue, as if the very air was trying to become what he willed it. He was in faerie, and perhaps there, at his court, it would have worked exactly like that. Whatever he wanted from me, I might have been forced to give him. But I was in Los Angeles, not in faerie, and I was very glad to be here. Glad, to be surrounded by man-made steel, concrete, and glass. There were fey who would have suffered illness simply by stepping into such a building. My human blood let me be unaffected. My men were sidhe, and that was also sterner stuff.

"Meredith, Meredith, come to me." He actually held his hand out to me, as if he would reach through the mirror and fetch me. Some of the sidhe could do just that. I didn't think Taranis was one of them.

Doyle stood, wrapping one hand around mine, but standing feet apart, free hand loose at his side. I knew that stance. He was giving himself room to draw a weapon. It would almost have to be a gun because I had the hand he would have needed for the sword at his side.

Frost moved a little farther from the back of my chair, his hand still loosely on my shoulder. I didn't have to look at him to know that he was doing his own version of Doyle's preparations.

Galen stood up, which broke his contact with me. Taranis was suddenly edged with golden light. His eyes glowed with all the heat of green growing things. I started to rise from my chair. Rhys's hand pressed me down so that I couldn't move.

Doyle said, "Galen."

Galen went back to one knee, so he could touch my leg. The touch was enough. The glow faded, and the compulsion to stand faded. "This is a problem," I said.

Abe leaned against my other arm, causing his long striped hair to pool around the chair. He laughed, that warm masculine sound. "Merry, Merry, you need more men. It seems to be a theme with you."

I smiled, because he was too right.

"They would never arrive in time," Frost said.

I called out, "Biggs, Veducci, Shelby, Cortez, all of you."

Cortez had to stay with Nelson to keep her in her chair so she didn't go to the mirror, but the rest came to me.

"Meredith," Taranis said, "what are you doing?"

"Getting help," I said.

Doyle motioned the men to stand between us and the mirror. They formed a wall of suits and bodies. It helped. What in Danu's name was the spell? I knew better than to invoke the name of the Goddess, I really did. But I had had a lifetime of saying it, like a human who says, "What in the name of God." You don't really expect God to answer, do you?

The room smelled of wild roses. A wind eased through the room as if someone had opened a window, though I knew no one had.

"Merry, cool it," Rhys said, softly.

I knew what he meant. We had managed to keep some secrets from Taranis about just how active the Goddess was being for me. In faerie this was the beginning of full manifestation. If the Goddess - even a shadow of her - appeared in this room, Taranis would know. He would know that he needed to fear me. We weren't ready for that, not yet.

I prayed silently, "Goddess, please, save your power for later. Do you not give our secret away to this man."

The smell of flowers grew stronger for a moment, but the wind began to die down. Then the smell began to fade like expensive perfume when the wearer leaves the room. I felt a tension go out of the men around me. The humans simply looked puzzled. "Your perfume is amazing, Princess," Biggs said. "What is it?"

"We'll talk about cosmetics later, Mr. Biggs," I said.

He looked embarrassed. "Of course. I am sorry. There is something about you people that just makes a poor lawyer forget himself." His words could be terribly true. I was hoping that no one in this room discovered just how true they could be.

"King of the Seelie Court, you insult me, and my court, and through me, my queen," I said.

"Meredith." his voice breathed through the room and caressed my skin, as if it had fingers.

Nelson whimpered.

"Stop it!" I yelled, and there was an echo of power to my voice. "If you do not cease trying to bespell me, I will have this mirror blanked, and there will be no more talks."

"They attacked a woman of my court. They must be given over to us for punishment."

"Give us proof of the crimes, Uncle."

"The word of a Seelie noble is proof enough," he said, and now his voice didn't sound seductive. It sounded angry.

"But the word of an Unseelie noble is worth nothing, is that it?" I asked.

"Our histories speak for themselves," he said.

I wished I could have afforded to have the lawyers to move so that I could see Taranis, but I did not dare. With him blocked from my sight I could think. I could be angry.

"Then you call me a liar. Is that it, Uncle?"

"Not you, Meredith, never you."

"One of the men you accuse was with me when the Lady Caitrin claims he was raping. He could not have been with her, and with me, at the same time. She lies, or she believes someone else's lie."

Doyle's hand tensed in mine. He was right. I'd said too much. Dammit, but these word games were hard. So many secrets to keep track of, and so hard to decide who knew what, and when to tell anyone anything.

"Meredith," he said, his voice pushing against me again, almost like a touch, "Meredith, come to me, to us."

Nelson made a sound like a soft scream. Cortez said, "I can't hold her!"

Shelby went to help him and I could suddenly see the mirror.

I could see the tall, imposing figure. The sight was enough to add weight to his words, so it was like a push. "Meredith, come to me."

He held his hand out to me, and I knew I should take his hand, knew it.

The hands and bodies of my men pressed on my shoulders, arms, and legs, keeping me in my chair. I hadn't meant to, but I must have tried to rise. I don't think I would have gone to Taranis, but... but... It was good that I had hands to hold me down.

Nelson was screaming, "He's so beautiful, so beautiful! I have to go to him! I have to go to him!"

The woman's struggles sent Cortez and Shelby crashing to the floor with her.

"Security." Doyle's deep voice seemed to cut through the hysteria.

"What?" Biggs said, blinking too rapidly.

"Call security," Doyle said. "Send for help."

Biggs nodded, again too rapidly, but he walked to the telephone on his desk.

Taranis's voice came like something shining and hard, as if words could be stones thrown against your skin. "Mr. Biggs, look upon me."

Biggs hesitated, his hand hovering over the phone.

"Keep her in her seat," Doyle said, then he let me go to walk toward Biggs.

"He is a monster, Biggs," Taranis said. "Do not let him touch you."

Biggs turned wide-eyed and stared at Doyle. He backed away, hands up as if to ward off a blow. "Oh, my God," he whispered. Whatever he saw when he looked at my handsome captain was not what was there.

Veducci turned around from where he still stood in front of me. He took something from his pants pocket and threw it at the mirror. Dust and bits of herbs hit the surface, but they stuck to the glass as if it were water. The dry bits floated there, making small ripples on the supposedly solid surface. In that moment I knew two things. One, that Taranis could make the mirror a mode of travel between one place and another, an ability most had lost. Two, that he had truly meant "come to me." If I had gone to the mirror he could have pulled me through. Goddess help us.

Biggs seemed to wake from the spell, and grabbed the phone like he had a purpose.

"They are monsters, Meredith," Taranis said. "They cannot bear the touch of sunlight. How can anything that hides in the dark be ought but evil?"

I shook my head. "Your voice is only words now, Uncle. My men stand in sunlight, straight and proud."

The men in question looked at the king, except for Galen, who looked at me. It was a questioning look; was I better now? I nodded for him, shared with him a smile I'd been giving him since I was fourteen.

Taranis bellowed, "No, you will not bed the green man, and bring life to the darkness. The Goddess has touched you, and we are the people of the Goddess."

I fought to keep my face blank, because that last comment could mean so many things. Did he already know that the chalice of the Goddess had come to me? Or had rumor planted something else in his head?

The scent of roses was back. Galen whispered, "I smell apple blossoms." Each of the men smelled the scent they had smelled when the Goddess had manifested for them. She was not just one goddess, but many. She was the face of all that was female. Not merely a rose, but all that grew upon the earth was in her scent.

Doyle came back toward us. "Is this wise, Meredith?"

"I don't know." But I stood, and they let their hands fall away from me. I stood in front of my uncle alone, with the men lined around me. The lawyers had moved back, frowning, puzzled, except for Veducci, who seemed to understand a great deal more than he should have.

"We are all people of the Goddess, Uncle," I said.

"The Unseelie are the dark god's children."

"There is no dark god among us," I said. "We are not Christians to people our underworld with terrors. We are children of the earth and sky. We are nature itself. There is no evil in us, only differences."

"They have filled your head with lies," he said.

"Truth is truth, whether in sunlight or darkest night. You cannot hide from the truth forever, Uncle."

"Where is the ambassador? He will search their bodies and find the horrors that the lady said were there."

There was a wind in the room now, a gentle breeze that held that first warmth of spring. The scent of plants was mingling so that I could smell Galen's apple blossoms, Doyle's scent of autumn oak leaves and deep forest, and Rhys's sweet, cloying lily of the valley. Frost's was a taste like flavored ice, and Abe's was honeyed mead. The scents and tastes combined with the scent of wild roses.

"I smell flowers," Nelson said, her voice uncertain.

"What do you smell, Uncle?" I asked.

"I smell nothing but the corruption that stands behind you. Where is Ambassador Stevens?"

"He is being tended by a human wizard by now. They will cleanse him of the spell you placed upon him."

"More lies," he said, but there was something in his face that belied the strength of his protests.

"I have bedded these men. I know that their bodies hold no horrors."

"You are part human, Meredith. They have bewitched you."

The wind grew, and pushed at the surface of the mirror, with its bits of floating herbs, like wind on water. I watched the glass ripple. "What do you smell, Uncle?"

"I smell nothing but the stench of Unseelie magic." His voice was ugly with anger, and something else. I realized in that moment that Taranis was mad. I'd thought all his crimes had been arrogance, but looking into his face, my skin ran cold, even with the Goddess's touch. Taranis, King of the Seelie Court, was mad. It was there in his eyes, as if a curtain of sanity had lifted and you couldn't miss it. There was something broken in his mind. Consort help us.

"You are not yourself, Your Majesty," Doyle said softly in his deep voice.

"You are the Dark, and I am the Light." Taranis raised his right hand, palm outward. I felt my guards move forward, toward me. They piled on top of me, pressed me to the floor, protecting me with their bodies. I felt heat, even through the flesh that protected me. I heard a noises, then Nelson was screaming, and the lawyers were yelling. I spoke from the bottom of the pile with Galen pressed tightly against me. "What is it? What's happened?"

More male voices from the far door. Security had arrived, but what good were guns when someone could turn light itself into a weapon? Could you shoot through the mirror and hit anything on the other side? You could shoot out the mirror, but the bullet should stop at the glass. Taranis could hurt us. Could we hurt him?

Other voices seemed to be coming from in front of us, from the mirror. I tried to peer around Galen's arm, and the spill of Abe's long hair, but I was trapped in the dimness of their bodies, with the feel of more weight atop me, so that I was trapped and useless until the fight was over. I knew better than to order them off of me. If they thought it was safe, they'd move, and get me out of the room. Until that moment they were offering their lives to shield mine. Once I'd been relieved to know that. Now some of them were as precious to me as my own life. I had to know what was happening.

"Galen, what is happening?"

"I've got two layers of hair in front of me. I'm as blind as you are," he said.

Abe answered me. "Taranis's guard is trying to calm him."

"Why did Nelson scream?" I asked. My voice was squeezed a little from the weight of everyone atop me.

I heard Frost's voice yelling, "Get her out!"

I felt the movement before Galen grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. Abe had my other arm, and they were running for the far door. Running so fast they simply carried me between them.

Taranis screamed behind me, "Meredith, Meredith, no, they won't steal you from me!"

Light, golden-bright burning light, haloed behind us. The heat hit our backs first. I recognized Rhys's voice, yelling. I heard running behind us, but I knew that they would be too late. Unlike the movies, you can't outrun light. Not even the sidhe are that fast.