Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton [98]
“I don’t know. I’m repeating what Cair said.”
“Did she lie?” Doyle asked.
That hadn’t occurred to me. “I think she was too afraid to lie, but….” I stared at them. “Have I been a fool? Have we all been? No, the Goddess did not warn me of danger to Rhys or Galen. She warned me the last time Galen was nearly assassinated.”
“I think they are safe enough, for now,” Doyle said.
“But Doyle, don’t you see? There are too many different plots, too many factions in faerie right now. Some want you dead, but there are those Unseelie who want Galen dead. They are convinced he is the Greenman who will put me on the throne. I believe the Greenman in the prophecy is simply the God, the Consort.”
“I agree,” Doyle said.
“Taranis may have believed his rape allegations against Rhys and the others. He’s crazy enough to be manipulated by his courtiers. Maybe someone else wanted those three out of the way for some other reason, and used the king to do it,” Sholto said.
“We are at the center of a spiderweb of plots. Some threads we may touch and travel on, but others are sticky and will alert the spider,” Doyle said.
“And then it will come and eat us,” I said. “We get out of faerie tonight, and we go back to L.A., and we try to make a life. There is no way to guarantee our safety here.”
The three men exchanged looks. Sholto said, “I would trust that I am safe inside the sluagh, but outside of it….” He shrugged. He was wearing his own white sword; the carved bone shield was leaning against his big chair. He picked up the shield, and settled it on his arm. It covered his body from neck to mid-thigh.
“Why don’t these things of power come and go like the chalice and the spear of bone and the white knife?” I asked.
“Things that come from the hands of the gods themselves, that are given in vision or dream, will come to the hand like magic, but things that are given by the guardians of the earth, or water, or air, or fire are more like mortal weapons. They can be lost, and if you do not carry them, they are not with you,” Doyle said.
“Good to know the difference,” I said.
The phone rang in the office. Sholto picked it up, murmured something, then handed it to me. “It’s for you—Major Walters.”
I took the receiver and said, “Hello, Major Walters.”
“We’re outside, and the siege is breaking up. Your uncle’s people are packing up and going home.”
“Thank you for that, Major.”
“My duty,” he said. “Now, if you’ll just come outside. We’d like to get home.”
“We’ll be right out. Oh, and Major, I have two more men I need to find who will be going back to the Western Lands, I mean Los Angeles.”
“Would that be Galen Greenhair and Rhys Knight?”
I hadn’t heard their names from their driver’s licenses in a while. “Yes, that would be them. Are they with you?”
“They are.”
“I’m impressed. Even in faerie people don’t anticipate my wishes quite that well.”
“They found us. Mr. Knight said that when he saw all of us he figured he’d better tag along to see what trouble you and Captain Doyle had gotten into.”
“Tell him the trouble just went back to the Seelie Court.”
“I’ll pass it along. Now, if you could just join us, and tell us how many seats we need to find in the vehicles.”
“Myself and three others.”
“We’ll find room.”
“Thank you again, Major, and we’ll see you all in moments.” I put the phone back in its cradle and turned to the men.
“Rhys and Galen are already with them,” I said.
“Rhys would have known that there was only one person that the National Guard would come to faerie to rescue,” Doyle said.
“I’d be flattered, if my life wasn’t in danger so constantly.”
Doyle came to me, smiling. “I will give my life to keep you safe.”
I shook my head and didn’t smile back. I took his hand in mine. “Silly man. I want you alive and at my side, not dead and heroic. Bear that in mind when you’re making choices, all right?”
His smile had faded, and he was studying my face, as if he could