Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [72]
Doyle gazed up and around. Did he see something too? What was I not sensing? “What is it?”
“Magic, sluagh magic, but not…mine,” Sholto said. He started for the door.
“My King,” Henry said, and we all looked at him. It wasn’t that I had forgotten he was there, but I guess in a way I had. “You were locked in the magical sleep for several days. There are those among the sluagh who feared you might be enchanted for centuries.”
“Like Sleeping Beauty, you mean,” I said.
Henry nodded. His handsome face was very worried, and I didn’t know him long enough to read him that well. “They came and saw the garden, and it was very Seelie, my lord. More than that, none of us could pass its gate or walls. It held us back, and protected you from all who would come close.”
“What has happened while we slept, Henry?” Sholto asked. He went to the man, gripping his shoulder.
“My King, the Seelie are encamped outside our sithen. They asked for parlay, and we had no king to speak for us. You know the rules—without a ruler, we cease to be sluagh, cease to be free people. We would be absorbed into the Unseelie Court, but before that happens, we would have to deal with the Seelie on our own without a king.”
“They’ve chosen another king,” Sholto said.
“A proxy ruler only.”
“But it has divided the power of kingship, and whoever has part of the power did not want us—me—to escape the wall.”
“Why are the Seelie outside?” Doyle asked.
Henry looked to Sholto, who nodded. “They say that the sluagh have stolen Princess Meredith away, and are holding her against her will.”
“I am not their princess. Why should they be at the gates to rescue me?”
“They want both you and the chalice. They say both have been stolen,” Henry said.
Ah, I thought. “They want my magic, not me. But under what right do they make siege upon the sluagh?”
“By right of kinship, your mother came to demand the return of her sweet daughter, and the grandchildren that she carries.” Henry looked even more uncomfortable.
“One of the children I carry is Sholto’s own. The right of the father supersedes that of a grandmother.”
“The Seelie claim that the children belong to King Taranis.”
Sholto went for the door. “Wait here. I must talk to my people before we confront the insanity of the Seelie.”
“Might I suggest that you wear something else, Sholto?” I called.
He hesitated, then frowned at me. “Why?”
“You look too Seelie in the robe, and one of the things that seems to panic your people is the idea that you and I together will change them from the dark and terrible sluagh to a light and airy beauty.”
He looked as if he would argue, then he went back to the wardrobe. He drew out black pants and boots, but he didn’t bother with a shirt. And with a wavering of air in front of him, the tentacles came to life again.
“I will remind them that I am part nightflyer and not just sidhe.”
“Would me by your side hurt you or help you?” I asked.
“Hurt, I think. I will talk to my people, then return for you all. Taranis has gone mad to besiege us.”
“Why has not the Unseelie Court aided the sluagh?” Doyle asked. “I will find out,” Sholto said, and had his hand on the door when Mistral called out.
“My congratulations to you, King Sholto, on being king to Meredith’s queen.” His voice was almost neutral when he said it—almost.
“Congratulations to you, too, Storm Lord, though with so many kings around, I am not certain what kingdom you will share.” With that Sholto was gone, with Henry at his side.
“What did he mean, wishing me congratulations?” Mistral asked. “I know that the princess carries Sholto’s child and yours, Doyle. I heard that from the conversation in the bed when we woke.”
“Mistral, didn’t the queen tell you?” I asked.
“I was told that you had finally gotten with child by some of the others. I have had little news of anything but pain.” He would not look at me as he said the next. “She was so angry when you left, Princess. Your green knight destroyed her hall of torture, so she took me as a guest to her room to be chained against her wall. There I have