Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [74]
His voice came a little broken around the edges. “Why did she not tell me? Why did she hurt me when I had done what she said she wanted most in all the world? To have an heir of her own bloodline to sit on her throne was her wish, and she tortured me for it. Why?”
I knew who “she” was. I’d noticed that many of the guards spoke of Queen Andais as “she.” She was their queen, and the absolute ruler of their fates. The only woman they had had hope of touching for so very long.
I said the only truth I had to offer. “I don’t know.”
Doyle came and gripped the other man’s shoulder. “Logic has not ruled the queen for many years.”
It was a polite way of saying that Andais was mad. She was, but to say it out loud was not always wise.
I touched Mistral’s other arm. He jerked as if the touch had hurt. “If she finds out that faerie has handfasted you to Sholto, she could use it as an excuse to take the rest of us back into her guard.”
“She cannot take the fathers of my children,” I said, but I sounded more sure than I felt.
Mistral voiced my fears. “She is the queen, and she can do as she likes.”
“She swore to give you all to me if you would come to my bed. She would be forsworn. The wild hunt is real again, and oathbreakers, even royal ones, can be hunted again.”
Mistral grabbed my arm hard enough that it hurt immediately. “Do not threaten her, Meredith. For the love of the Goddess herself, do not give her reason to see you as a danger.”
“You’re hurting me, Mistral,” I said softly.
He eased his grip, but did not let me go. “Do not think that being with her brother’s grandchildren will keep you safe from her.”
“I am not safe inside faerie. I know that. That is why we must leave as soon as possible for Los Angeles. We must bring charges against the king and drag him before the human media. We must get away from faerie. The very magic that allows us to do great things is also a weapon to be used against us all.” I turned to Doyle, and laid my other hand on his arm. “The Goddess has warned me that the sidhe have not come round to her way of thinking. There are too many enemies here. We must go back to the city and surround ourselves with metal and technology. It will limit the other’s power.”
“It will limit ours,” Mistral said.
“Yes, but without the magic of faerie, I trust my guards to keep me safe with gun and blade.”
“Faerie has come to us in Los Angeles, Merry,” Doyle said.
I nodded. “Yes, but the closer we are to the faerie mounds, the more our enemies can gather round us. I’m not even certain that the Seelie are my enemies, but they are not my friends. They seek to control me and the magic I represent.”
“Then we must go to Los Angeles,” Doyle said.
“Sholto cannot leave his people besieged by the Seelie,” Mistral said.
“Nor can we,” I said.
“What do you mean to do, Meredith?” Doyle asked.
I shook my head. “I’m not certain, but I know that I need to convince them that the sluagh did not steal me away. I need to convince them that they cannot steal the chalice from me.”
“They are asking for you and the chalice,” Mistral said. “I think they understand that it is your hand it comes to.”
“True,” I said. I thought, “What do I do?” Goddess, what do I do to fix this? Then I had an idea, a very human idea. “There’s a room in the sluagh mound just like in the Unseelie mound. There’s a phone and computer, an office.”
“How do you know that?” Mistral asked.
“My father had to make a phone call from here once when I was with him.”
“Why did he not use the phone at the Unseelie mound?” Mistral asked.
I looked at Doyle. “He didn’t trust the Unseelie,” Doyle said.
“Not in that moment. It was only weeks before he died.”
“What was the phone call about?” Mistral asked.
“He made me go with Sholto to see another part of the mound.”
“I thought you were afraid of the King of the sluagh,” Doyle said. “I was,