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By Root 598 0

people who had backed Cel for centuries. But the crowd wasn’t as large as I’d thought. Important names were missing, which didn’t mean that the missing Unseelie were on my side. It simply meant that they’d abandoned Cel. One important oversight was that Siobhan was almost the only guard he had left. We’d discovered that the guards, most of whom had begun their careers as my father’s personal guard, had not been asked if they wished to serve Cel. They had been forced, and no oath of allegiance had been given by most of them. Which meant that their service, and their torment by Cel, were illegal by our laws.

To join the guard of our royalty, you had to choose, and bind yourself with oaths. That Cel had stolen their freedom without that was a grave abuse of authority.

Gregorio watched our faces as she relayed the names. If she’d thought she’d learn something from Doyle or Rhys, she’d been mistaken. I think I just looked tired.

“The Queen must have given his guard a choice,” Doyle said.

“The choice they should have had from the beginning,” Rhys said. “Yes,” he said.

“What do you mean ‘a choice’?” Gregorio asked.

“Prince Cel took over the personal guard of Prince Essus, Princess Meredith’s father, after his death. By our laws, the guard should have had a choice to either follow the new prince or leave the royal service, but Prince Cel gave them no choice. The princess found this out recently, and petitioned the queen to give the prince’s guard that choice.”

“So they all bailed on him?” Gregorio asked.

“So it would seem.”

“Or maybe they’re out in the woods waiting to ambush us,” Rhys said.

“That too is very possible.”

“Couldn’t you sense if there were that many sidhe hiding in the woods?” I asked.

“Not inside this much metal and human-made technology.”

“We’re almost head-blind, Merry. It doesn’t kill us to be inside this much metal, like some of the lesser fey, but it curtails our magic, a lot,” Rhys said.

“If there are other guards hiding in the woods, would it explain why Cel isn’t attacking?” I asked. I huddled in more tightly against Doyle. Rhys was gazing out the windows, trying to see what lay ahead.

“It might,” Doyle said.

Gregorio took it upon herself to hit the radio again. “The prince has a lot more personal guards than those in the road. We might want to check the woods and see what’s there.”

A man’s voice said, “Roger that.”

“So it’s either a trap,” Rhys said, “or he’s waiting for the truck with us in it. We’re his targets, after all.”

“He is most likely saving his attack for us,” Doyle said, “but as we cannot work magic inside the trucks, neither can he work magic upon us while we are surrounded by this much metal.”

Gregorio asked, “Are you saying that we should let them throw magic at us, and the trucks will take care of it?”

Doyle and Rhys exchanged a look, then Rhys nodded and shrugged. Doyle answered. “The magic should fall apart around the trucks, and as long as your people stay inside them, they should be untouchable.”

I turned in Doyle’s arms so I could see his face, though dark on dark, I could see little of his expression. Of course, when he didn’t wish me to, bright light wouldn’t have clued me in to his thoughts.

“Are you saying that we are completely safe inside here from their magic?” Gregoria asked.

Doyle stirred beside me, pulling me even more tightly against him. Rhys took my hand in his, playing with my knuckles again in that worry-stone way, over and over.

“Either they can work magic inside here or they cannot,” I said. “It is not that simple,” Doyle said at last.

“Well, since the Humvee with Galen and the others in it is going to be close to them very soon, I suggest you make it simple.”

He smiled. “Spoken in the tone of a queen.”

“I’m with her,” Gregorio said. “I’ve got people depending on Dawson and me to keep them safe.”

I shook my head. “Take the tone any way you like, Doyle, but you’re both hiding something from me. Tell me.”

“As my lady asks,” he said, “no magic from his hand or the others can touch us in here. He may not know that, but we are safe inside the