Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [103]
“At the very least make certain he does not come near the princess,” Doyle said.
“Damnit,” Walters said. “Who else who’s supposed to be on your side is actually a danger to the princess?”
I laughed. “You don’t have time to hear the list, Major. Which is why I need to get away from here. Faerie is no longer safe for me or mine.”
The two men looked even more serious. Page began yelling orders, and people in uniforms started moving like they had a purpose. Actually, it looked like they were simply running about, but things started getting done, and we were taken to our very own Humvee, what the Hummer was before the idle rich all wanted one. Which meant that it was painted for camouflage, and was just scarier looking, like the difference between guns for Olympic shooting and guns for killing things. They both shoot, but just by looking at them you know that they can’t do each other’s jobs.
Galen was standing beside the Humvee, talking to a woman with short dark hair. Her face was raised to his, and she was studying his face as if trying to memorize it. He was simply being his usual charming self, but her body language was much more intimate than that. They both looked at us as we came up. Galen with a glad smile, but the woman…I swear it wasn’t a friendly look.
He was in uniform too. The new digital camo was mostly browns and grays and eye-tricking shapes, though oddly, I hadn’t had any trouble seeing anyone in the new camo. Weren’t the uniforms supposed to be invisible in the wilderness? Maybe it didn’t work on the fey. Interesting. The dull colors seemed to bring out the green under tone of his pale skin. His father had been a pixie, and it showed in his skin color and his green hair. He hugged me so thoroughly that my feet came off the ground and I was left a little breathless. He finally put me down, then studied my face. His usual smile faded to something far more serious.
“Merry,” he said, “I thought I’d lost you.”
“What has been happening while we slept?”
“We found Onilwyn’s body, and the marks of your magic on him.”
I nodded. “He tried to help the Seelie assassins kill Mistral, then he tried to kill me.”
Galen hugged me tightly again, burying my face in his chest. “When we didn’t find any marks from any of the other guards on him, we thought you were alone. Alone and without me or Rhys to protect you.”
I pushed back so I could breathe better. “Sholto got there.”
“Before?” he asked.
I shook my head.
Sholto said, “We were killing the archers at the time, but I will never forgive myself for leaving her alone in the snow.”
Galen looked at him. “She is our priority. Her safety. Nothing else really matters.”
“I know that,” Sholto said.
“You left her alone in the snow. You said it yourself.”
Sholto opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. He nodded. “You are right. I was derelict in my duty. It will not happen again.”
“See that it doesn’t,” Galen said.
Doyle and Rhys were looking from one man to the other. “Is that our little Galen talking, or have you learned to throw your voice?” Rhys asked.
“I think our little Galen is growing up,” Doyle said.
Galen scowled at them both.
Mistral said, “It must have been very dangerous where you have been for Galen Greenhair to be talking like the Darkness.”
The rest of us exchanged looks, then I said, “The Western Lands are safer, Mistral, but they are not safe.”
“Nowhere will be safe for Merry, while our enemies live,” Galen said.
I hugged him. He was saying the truth, but to hear him be so harsh hurt something inside me.
“We can’t kill them all,” Rhys said.
“The problem is not killing them all,” Doyle said. “The problem is that we do not know who they all are.”
And that was indeed the problem.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
THE WOMAN TALKING WITH GALEN WAS ONE OF THEIR WIZARDS. Specialist Paula Gregorio was only inches taller than me, with sleek black hair, a thin dark face, and huge brown eyes. Her eyes dominated her face so that she looked younger than she was, and much more delicate than the personality that burned