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 long-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.