Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [19]
“What would she be willing to risk her own grandmother for?” Galen asked, sounding shocked.
“I think I know,” Doyle said. “I was inside the Golden Court as a dog. Even the black hounds are still treated as mere dogs. People are incautious in front of dogs.”
“You heard something about this spell?” Rhys asked.
“No, but about Merry’s family.” Doyle came to hold my hand, and I was glad for the touch. “There are still those in the court who use Cair’s physical appearance as a reason not to accept Merry as their queen.” He bowed to Gran. “I do not feel this way, but the Golden Court sees your other granddaughter as a monster and Merry not much better because of how human she appears. They seem to view her height and curves almost as badly as they do Cair’s face.”
“They are a vain lot, the Seelie,” Gran said. “I lived among them for many years, married to one of their princes, but they could ne’r forgive me for looking so brownie. I think if I looked more human, like me dad, they could have accepted me more, but brownie blood beating out the human, nay, that they could not see past.”
“Your twin daughters are both lovely, and except for hair and eye color look very sidhe. They can pass,” Doyle said.
“But neither of the grandchildren can,” Gran said.
“True,” Doyle said.
“Does anyone else find it interesting that all the fathers except me are mixed blood?” Rhys asked. He was still holding the glowing thread carefully away from his body. What were we going to do with it?
“Like calls to like,” Gran said.
“Some of the Seelie nobles said that if I could help a pureblood sidhe couple get with child more of both courts would follow me,” I said. “Some of them are saying that only the mixed breeds can breed with my help, because my blood isn’t pure enough.”
Doyle rubbed his thumb along my knuckles. It was a nervous gesture, and it meant that he wondered the same thing. Was it what Gran said, like calls to like? Was I simply not sidhe enough to help the pure-bloods?
“Doyle,” Galen said, “are you bleeding?” He moved up to the other man, and touched his back. His fingers came away with dots of crimson on them.
CHAPTER FOUR
DOYLE DIDN’T FLINCH OR OTHERWISE REACT. “IT IS A VERY small wound.”
“But how did it happen?” Galen asked.
“I believe the glass is coated with some sort of man-made material,” Doyle said.
“So because it’s man-made and not natural,” I said, “it was able to cut you?”
“Normal glass would have still cut me.”
“But it would have healed by now,” I said, “without the man-made coating?”
“It is a small cut, so yes.”
“But you were covering Merry’s body when you were cut,” Gran said, and her voice was flat, almost without accent. She could do that when she wished, though it didn’t happen often.
“Yes,” he said, and looked at her.
She swallowed hard. “I do nae have the magic resistance to be near my Merry right now, do I?”
“It is sidhe magic we will be fighting,” he said.
She nodded, and a look of deep sorrow came over her face. “I cannae be with ya, Merry. I cannae resist what they will make me do. It’s one of the reasons I left their court. A brownie is a servant there, and when we are invisible to them we are safe, but brownies were ne’r meant to dabble in court politics.”
I reached out to her. “Gran, please.”
Rhys stepped between us as she moved forward. “Not a good idea yet. We need to look at the spell first.”
“I would say I would n’er hurt my girl, but if the Darkness…if Captain Doyle had not protected her, I would have cut her ’stead of his back.”
“What could they have offered to Merry’s cousin?” Galen asked. “Mayhap the thing they offered me centuries ago,” Gran said.
“What was that?” Galen asked.
“A chance to bed, and if with child, marry one of their Seelie nobles. No one will touch Cair for fear that her…deformity will breed true. I was only half human, and I worked in the court as a brownie, but I saw the Seelie and I wished to be a part of it. I was a fool, but