Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [100]
Doyle nodded.
Sholto said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Cannot you sense our hidden audience?” Doyle asked.
“Obviously not,” he said.
“Neither can I, though I knew they would be there,” I said softly.
A voice called out, “Just give yourselves a few more hundred years of practice.” Rhys walked out of the mass of soldiers and police. He was grinning at me. Someone had loaned him a uniform, so he was all in camouflage. His white waist-length curls looked out of place against the military look. Someone had even loaned him an eye patch, in basic black.
I let go of the men on either side of me and held my arms out to him. He wrapped me in a hug, and laid a kiss on my forehead. Then he moved our faces back, just enough so he could study me.
“You look good,” he said.
I gave him a look. “Was I supposed to look bad?”
He grinned again. “No, but….” He shook his head. “Later.”
“Where is Galen?” Doyle asked.
“He is talking to their wizard. I made her nervous.”
I frowned up at him, still with my arms around his solid, muscled realness. I wanted all my men out of faerie and safe in Los Angeles tonight. “What did you do to make her nervous?”
“Answered too many questions truthfully. Some humans—even wizards, or in this case witch, though the military term is wizard—some humans are freaked at the idea that I lost my eye hundreds of years before they were born.”
“Oh,” I said, and hugged him again.
Major Walters came forward with the man in camouflage who seemed to be in charge. There was almost no rank to see on his uniform to my uninformed eyes, but the way the other soliders treated him made any gaudy ribbons unnecessary. He was simply in charge.
“Princess Meredith, this is Captain Page. Captain, may I introduce Princess Meredith NicEssus, daughter of Prince Essus, heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court, and from what I hear, maybe the Seelie Court, as well.”
Walters gave me a look. “You’ve been a busy princess,” he said.
I wasn’t sure if he really knew about the Seelie offer, or if he was pretending to know to fish for information. Police can be tricky, sometimes because it’s their job, and sometimes because it’s become habit.
The Captain held out his hand, and I took it. He had a good handshake, especially for a man with a hand as big as his shaking a hand as small as mine. Some big men never get the hang of it. I was close enough now to see his name on his uniform, and to notice the two district bars on the front and neck of it.
“The Illinois National Guard is honored to escort you to safety, Princess Meredith.”
“I am honored that I have such brave men and women to call for help.”
Page studied my face as if wondering if I was being sarcastic. He finally frowned at me. “You don’t know my people well enough to say that they’re brave.”
“They came to the faerie mounds thinking they might have to go up against the Seelie Court itself. There have been human armies that refused to do that, Captain Page.”
“Not this one,” he said.
I smiled at him, putting some effort into it. “My point exactly.”
He smiled, then looked flustered.
Rhys leaned in and whispered, “Tone it down.”
“What?”
“The glamour, tone it down,” he said without moving his smiling lips.
“I didn’t….”
“Trust me,” he said.
I took a deep breath and concentrated. I did my best to swallow back the glamour that Rhys said was getting away from me. I’d never had enough of this kind of glamour to worry about it before.
Captain Page shook his head, frowning hard.
“You okay?” Walters asked him.
He nodded. “I think I need more…preventive.”
Rhys said, “They’ve actually got essence of four-leaf clover smeared on them.”
“Did you give it to them?” I asked.
“Nope, they came up with it all on their own. Apparently, they have contingencies in place in case the fey get nasty.”
“We would never presume,” Page began.
Doyle interrupted. “It’s all right, Captain. We are pleased that you have protection. We will not purposefully bespell any of you, but there are others among the fey who are not so scrupulous.”
The humans