Swallowing Darkness (24 page)

My parents were dead now, both of them. The woman in the mirror was just the person whose body spit me out. It takes much more than that to be a mother. I prayed that I would be a good mother, and for help to keep all of us safe. There was a shower of white rose petals from nowhere, coming down like perfumed snow. I guess that was answer enough. The Goddess was with me. As help went, it didn’t get much better than that. As the Christians said, if God is with me, who can be against me? The answer, unfortunately, was almost everyone.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

WE BUCKLED ON OUR NEW WEAPONS. I WAS VERY SERIOUS
about putting the lock loops on my sword. As long as it was sheathed, someone could bump it without harm. If it was unsheathed, even a little, there was a chance that it would turn some poor soldier’s arm inside out.

Doyle had put the horn of madness across his body on its leather strap.

“Shouldn’t you put that in a sack or something?” Sholto asked.

“As long as I wear the horn across my body, it will not react to anyone bumping against it. It is only out of my hands that it becomes a danger.”

“How do I carry the spear so that the Seelie do not see what it is?” Mistral asked.

“I don’t think even Taranis will attack you for the spear today, in front of the humans,” I said.

“But there will be other days,” Mistral said. “He came to the Western Lands to find you, Meredith. I think for one of his items of power he might travel again.” He hefted the spear as he talked, as if judging the weight of it. It was a slender weapon, longer than Sholto’s spear of bone that I’d used to slay Cair. I realized that Mistral’s spear was almost too slender to stab or thrust with.

“Is it meant to be an actual spear, or is it like some huge lightning rod?”

Mistral gazed up at the shining spear, then smiled down at me. “You are correct. It is not meant to hack at men’s bodies. It is more a great magic wand, or staff. With this in my hand, and a little practice, I could call lightning from a clear sky miles away to strike down an enemy.”

“You mean you could use it as a tool of assassination?”

He seemed to think about it, then nodded.

“Let go of that thought,” Sholto said.

Mistral and I looked at him. “What thought?” I asked.

He smiled and shook his head. “Don’t be coy, Meredith. I see your faces. You’re thinking you could use the lightning to rid us of a few enemies and no one would know. But it is too late for secrecy.”

“Why?” I asked, then realized. “Oh, the entire sluagh saw.”

“And some of them are as old as the oldest of the sidhe. They will have seen the spear in the hand of a king before, and they will know what it can do. My people are loyal, and would not betray us on purpose, I don’t believe, but they will talk. The skeletal brides, the relics of power returning; it is all too good a story not to share it.”

I sighed. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

Doyle came to me. “We need to go outside and welcome our human rescuers, but Merry, are you truly thinking of assassination as a cure for our problems?” There was no judgment on his face, just that patient waiting. That look that said that he simply wanted to know.

“Let us just say that I am no longer ruling out any solution to our problems,” I said.

He cupped my chin in his fingers, and looked deeply into my eyes. “You mean that. What is it that has made you suddenly so much harder?” Then his fingers dropped away, and his face looked uncertain. “I am a fool. You watched your grandmother die.”

I grabbed his arm, made him look at me. “I also had to watch you carried out by doctors, and thought you might die again. Taranis and the rest seemed very determined that you had to die first.”

“They fear him the most,” Sholto said.

“They tried to kill you too,” Doyle said, looking at the other man.

Sholto nodded. “But it is not me personally they fear, it is the sluagh, and my command of them.”

“Why did I get singled out then?” Mistral asked. “I have no army to command. I have never been the queen’s right or left hand. Why did they go to such lengths to kill me as well?”

“There are those who are old enough to remember you in battle, my friend,” Doyle said.

Mistral looked down, his hair falling around his face like gray clouds covering the sky. “That was very long ago.”

“But much of the old power is returning. Perhaps the oldest among both courts feared what you would do if you were your old self again,” Doyle said.

I had a thought. “Mistral is also the only storm deity we have in the Unseelie Court. The others either stayed in Europe or are Seelie.”

“That is true,” Doyle said, “but that is not your point.”

“My point is,” I said, “what if Taranis feared exactly what has happened? He knew that if his spear came back to a Seelie Storm Lord, he could command and they would give it over. But he cannot command Mistral. He cannot demand anything from the Unseelie.”

“Do you truly think that he believed this would return?” Mistral asked, holding the spear ceilingward.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but it was a thought.”

“I think it is simpler than that,” Doyle said.

“What then?” I asked.

“Magic powers, hands of power, follow bloodlines. You are proof of that with your father’s hand of flesh, and a hand of blood that is similar to your cousin Cel’s.”

“His is the hand of old blood, so he can open old wounds but not make fresh ones,” I said.

“No, yours is a more complete power, but dealing with blood and body magic runs in your father’s bloodline. The children you carry may inherit the ability to deal with storms and weather. If they do, and Mistral is alive, then it is clear who gave them that blood trait. But if Mistral were dead long before the babes were born, by the time they were old enough to exhibit such power, Taranis could make another plea that they were indeed his.”

I shook my head. “But he is my uncle already. His brother is my grandfather, so I could carry the gene for storm magic in me already.”

Doyle nodded. “True, but I think the king grows desperate. He has convinced half his court that the twins could be his, including your mother. Her belief in it, and her lack of belief that he…took you, will go far to convince doubters. They will think ‘her mother would not believe lies.’”

“Do they not know her by now?” I asked.

“The Seelie, like most humans, do not want to believe such evil of a mother to her daughter.”

“But the Unseelie know better,” Mistral said.

Doyle and Sholto both nodded.

I sighed again. “My cousin actually thought that they could convince Rhys to join the Seelie Court again, and that Galen would be no threat. It’s why they didn’t attack the two of them.”

“Then why did Taranis include Rhys and Galen in the false rape charges?”

“And Abeloec too,” I said. That made me wonder. “Is Abe in danger too?”

“If Rhys comes back into his full power, he will be incredibly dangerous,” Mistral said. “Why didn’t they try to kill him? Why think they could persuade him to join them?”

“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 read things in the back of my mind that even I didn’t know. Once that look would have made me squirm, or be afraid, but not now. Now I didn’t want secrets from Doyle. He could have them all, even the ones I kept from myself.

“I will do my best never to disappoint you, Merry.”

It was the best I was going to get from him. He would never promise not to lay his life down to protect me, because that was exactly what he would do, if it came to it. I’d made the choice for him, in a way. I’d decided to give up all of faerie, any throne offered, to keep us all safe. I wanted the fathers of my children alive by the time they were born.

He touched my face. “You look sad. I do not want to make you sad.”

I leaned my cheek against his hand, feeling the warmth and reality of him. “It makes me nervous that all our enemies seem so determined to kill you first, my Darkness.”

“He’s hard to kill,” Mistral said.

“I am,” he said.

I patted his hand and stepped away, looking at all three of them. “You better
all
be hard to kill, because leaving faerie won’t stop all of it. It will give us some breathing room, and charging Taranis with rape will make the media our friends, and cut down on the attacks, unless they want pictures of it on the news.”

“Are you saying the paparazzi will be our safety?” Doyle sounded incredulous.

“The Seelie pride themselves on being the good guys. They won’t want pictures of them being bad.”

Doyle looked thoughtful. “An evil turned to a good.”

“What are paparazzi?” Mistral asked.

All of us, including Sholto, looked at Mistral. Then I swear that an almost evil grin crossed Doyle and Sholto’s faces. “If we have to make another bargain with the devil for posed pictures, Mistral, you can be with Merry,” Sholto said.

“What are you talking about?” Mistral asked.

Sholto said, “I saw those pictures, Darkness. You, Rhys, and Meredith, nude by the pool doing the nasty.”

“We were not having sex,” I said.

“Some of the tabloids in Europe used pictures that left that to doubt,” Sholto said.

“When were you in Europe?” I asked.

“I have a clip service that cuts out anything worldwide about the fey.”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Doyle said. “I would suggest it to the queen, except….” He turned to me. “I no longer serve that queen.”

I had a moment to wonder if I should apologize for that. Then the look on his face made an apology unnecessary. He loved me. It was there in his face, his eyes. Doyle loved me, and you should never apologize for that.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

MY BREATH FOGGED IN THE WINTER NIGHT AS WE WALKED
across the frosted grass. Mirabella had found me a cloak made of cream-colored fur. It was a hooded cloak out of some fairy tale, all white and gold and cream, over the black leather of the coat. Sholto had had enough winter cloaks and coats to fit the men. My hands were on the arms of King Sholto and Captain Doyle, which would be the titles they would use with the soldiers. Mistral came behind us, with his spear wrapped in soft cloth to hide it from prying eyes. There would be spies watching. It was faerie; there was always someone watching. Not necessarily spies for either court, but the fey are a curious lot. Anything unusual will bring them out to hide, and cling to the leaves and trees, and watch.

The sight that met our eyes was unusual enough to bring out an audience. If the fey had been human, we’d have had a crowd of gawkers that the soldiers would have had to hold back, but our people could watch and never be seen. We weren’t called the Hidden Folk for nothing.

Major Walters was there at the front of the group of men, but at his side was a man who had his own air of authority. And to either side of them were more police and more soldiers. But mostly soldiers.

Sholto leaned over and whispered, “More soldiers than we’ve ever seen since we came to America.”

Doyle must have heard, because he whispered, “I think the Major was preparing for trouble.”

“A good leader always does,” I said.

“We do,” he said. I felt a push of magic from him.

Mistral spoke low from behind us. “There are too many curiosity seekers to discern any ill intent.”

Doyle nodded.

Sholto said, “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Cannot you sense our hidden audience?” Doyle asked.

“Obviously not,” he said.

“Neither can I, though I knew they would be there,” I said softly.

A voice called out, “Just give yourselves a few more hundred years of practice.” Rhys walked out of the mass of soldiers and police. He was grinning at me. Someone had loaned him a uniform, so he was all in camouflage. His white waist-length curls looked out of place against the military look. Someone had even loaned him an eye patch, in basic black.

I let go of the men on either side of me and held my arms out to him. He wrapped me in a hug, and laid a kiss on my forehead. Then he moved our faces back, just enough so he could study me.

“You look good,” he said.

I gave him a look. “Was I supposed to look bad?”

He grinned again. “No, but….” He shook his head. “Later.”

“Where is Galen?” Doyle asked.

“He is talking to their wizard. I made her nervous.”

I frowned up at him, still with my arms around his solid, muscled realness. I wanted all my men out of faerie and safe in Los Angeles tonight. “What did you do to make her nervous?”

“Answered too many questions truthfully. Some humans—even wizards, or in this case witch, though the military term is wizard—some humans are freaked at the idea that I lost my eye hundreds of years before they were born.”

“Oh,” I said, and hugged him again.

Major Walters came forward with the man in camouflage who seemed to be in charge. There was almost no rank to see on his uniform to my uninformed eyes, but the way the other soliders treated him made any gaudy ribbons unnecessary. He was simply in charge.

“Princess Meredith, this is Captain Page. Captain, may I introduce Princess Meredith NicEssus, daughter of Prince Essus, heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court, and from what I hear, maybe the Seelie Court, as well.”

Walters gave me a look. “You’ve been a busy princess,” he said.

I wasn’t sure if he really knew about the Seelie offer, or if he was pretending to know to fish for information. Police can be tricky, sometimes because it’s their job, and sometimes because it’s become habit.

The Captain held out his hand, and I took it. He had a good handshake, especially for a man with a hand as big as his shaking a hand as small as mine. Some big men never get the hang of it. I was close enough now to see his name on his uniform, and to notice the two district bars on the front and neck of it.

“The Illinois National Guard is honored to escort you to safety, Princess Meredith.”

“I am honored that I have such brave men and women to call for help.”

Page studied my face as if wondering if I was being sarcastic. He finally frowned at me. “You don’t know my people well enough to say that they’re brave.”

“They came to the faerie mounds thinking they might have to go up against the Seelie Court itself. There have been human armies that refused to do that, Captain Page.”

“Not this one,” he said.

I smiled at him, putting some effort into it. “My point exactly.”

He smiled, then looked flustered.

Rhys leaned in and whispered, “Tone it down.”

“What?”

“The glamour, tone it down,” he said without moving his smiling lips.

“I didn’t….”

“Trust me,” he said.

I took a deep breath and concentrated. I did my best to swallow back the glamour that Rhys said was getting away from me. I’d never had enough of this kind of glamour to worry about it before.

Captain Page shook his head, frowning hard.

“You okay?” Walters asked him.

He nodded. “I think I need more…preventive.”

Rhys said, “They’ve actually got essence of four-leaf clover smeared on them.”

“Did you give it to them?” I asked.

“Nope, they came up with it all on their own. Apparently, they have contingencies in place in case the fey get nasty.”

“We would never presume,” Page began.

Doyle interrupted. “It’s all right, Captain. We are pleased that you have protection. We will not purposefully bespell any of you, but there are others among the fey who are not so scrupulous.”

The humans looked around them nervously, though Page and Walters kept looking at us.

“I do not mean an overt attack,” Doyle said. “I just mean our people’s sense of…humor.”

“Humor,” Walters said. “What does that mean?”

“It means that the fey enjoy poking at anything new. This many of our good men and women of the military would be almost irresistible to a certain number of our populace.”

“What he means,” Rhys said, “is that we have a lot of gawkers, but they’re fey so you won’t see them. But we know they’re there. They might have a hard time resisting luring some of your soldiers off the beaten track, just to see if they could do it.”

“Your people came as close to war on American soil as they’ve ever come tonight. I would think you all risking getting kicked out might make them more serious.”

I shook my head. “The sidhe, perhaps, but there are a lot more people here than the sidhe. Besides, Captain, it was the Seelie who were threatening to make war, not the sluagh, not the Unseelie. The only court that was in danger of breaking the treaty was the Seelie.”

“Yeah, and the last time we all had a little battle, it wasn’t a war because they were monsters of faerie, and not any of the other courts,” Walters said, but his voice was a little dry.

I shivered. Strangely, I wasn’t really chilled from the cold. Apparently, my growing power, or perhaps my men’s, was keeping me warm. But Walters didn’t know that, and if I acted cold, we might speed things up, and get us to a plane and the hell out of here.

Captain Page said, “Let’s get the princess inside where it’s warmer.”

Walters nodded and said, “Fine.” But he looked at me, suspicion plain on his face. What had I done to earn that look? Oh, wait, kept more secrets from him than I’d shared, and endangered his men the last time. I hadn’t meant the endangering part, but I
had
kept secrets from him. I was hiding a lot, and still asking them all to risk themselves for me and my men. Was that fair? No, not in the least. But if it would get us out safely, I’d endanger them all.

I admitted that to myself, but I didn’t like myself very much for it.