Meredith Gentry 6 - A Lick of Frost

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  "I am loyal to King Taranis and his court. It is not my fault that Queen Andais is a sexual sadist, and quite mad. She and her people are dangerous. I have said so, for years, and no one has listened to me. Now we have these charges, proving what I have been saying."

  "So you told your superiors that you feared the queen's guard would rape someone?" Veducci asked.

  "Well, I, no, not exactly."

  "What did you tell them?" Shelby asked.

  "I told them the truth, that I feared for my safety at the Unseelie Court, and that I would not be comfortable there without an armed escort." Stevens stood up, very tall, very certain of himself. He pointed at Frost and Doyle. "Look at them, they are frightening. The potential in them to do carnage, why, it just radiates off of them."

  "You keep touching your watch," I said.

  "What?" He blinked at me.

  "Your watch. King Taranis gave it to you, didn't he?" I asked.

  "You accepted a Rolex watch from the king?" Cortez made it a question. He sounded outraged, but not at us.

  Stevens swallowed, and shook his head. "Of course not. That would be totally inappropriate."

  "I saw him give it to you, Ambassador," I said.

  He ran his fingers over the metal. "That's simply not true. She's lying."

  "The sidhe don't lie, Ambassador, you know that. That's a human habit."

  Stevens's fingers were practically rubbing a hole through the watchband. "The Unseelie are capable of every evil. Their very faces show them for what they are."

  It was Nelson who said, "Their faces are beautiful."

  "You are fooled by their magic," Stevens said. "The king gave me the power to see through their deceptions." His voice was rising with each word.

  "The watch," I said.

  "So this," Shelby gestured at me, "beauty is illusion?"

  "Yes," Stevens said.

  "No," I said.

  "Liar," he screamed, shoving his chair back so that it rolled on its wheels. He started walking past Biggs and Farmer, toward me.

  Doyle and Frost moved like two halves of a whole. They simply stood in front of him, blocking his way. There was no magic to it, except the force of their physicality. Stevens stumbled back from them as if he'd been struck. His face contorted in terror, and he cried out, "No, no!"

  Some of the lawyers were standing now. Cortez said, "What are they doing to him?"

  Veducci managed to yell above Stevens's screams. "I can't see anything."

  "We are doing nothing to him," Doyle said, his deep voice cutting under the higher-pitched voices like water undercutting a cliff face.

  "The hell you aren't," Shelby yelled, adding to the noise of Stevens's screams and those of the others.

  I tried yelling above the noise, "Turn your jackets inside out!" No one seemed to hear me.

  Veducci bellowed, "Shut up!" in a voice that smashed through the noise like a bull through a fence. The room was stunned into silence. Even Stevens stopped screaming and stared at Veducci. Veducci continued in a calmer voice, "Turn your jackets inside out. It's a way to break glamour." He moves his head toward me, almost a bow. "I forgot that one."

  The others hesitated for a second. Veducci took off his own jacket and turned it inside out, then put it back on. It seemed to galvanize the rest. Most of them began taking off their jackets.

  Nelson said, as she folded her jacket so the seams showed, "I'm wearing a cross. I thought that protected me from glamour."

  I answered her, "Crosses and bible verses would only work if we were of the devil. We have no connection to the Christian religion, either for good or ill."

  She looked down, as if embarrassed to meet my eyes. "I didn't mean to imply anything."

  "Of course not," I said. My voice was empty as I said it. I'd heard the insult too often to take it to heart. "One of the things the early church did was to paint anything they could not control as evil. Faerie was something they could not control. As the Seelie Court became more and more human-friendly, the parts of faerie that could not, or would not, play human, became part of the Unseelie Court. Since the things that humans perceive as frightening are mostly at the Unseelie Court, we got painted as evil over the centuries."

  "You are evil!" Stevens screamed. His eyes bulged, his pulse was racing, and his face was pale and beaded with sweat.

  "Is he sick?" Nelson asked.

  "In a way," I said, softly enough that I wasn't sure any of the other humans in the room heard me. Whoever had done the spell on the watch had done too good a job, or a bad one. The spell was forcing Stevens to see nightmares when he looked at us. His mind wasn't coping well with what he was seeing and feeling.

  I turned to Veducci. "The ambassador seems ill. Perhaps he should be taken to see a doctor?"

  "No," Stevens yelled. "No. Without me here they will take over your minds!" He grabbed Biggs, who was closer. "Without the king's gift you will all believe their lies."

  "I think the princess is right, Ambassador Stevens," Biggs said. "I think you are ill."

  Stevens's hands dug into the inside-out designer jacket that Biggs was now wearing. "Surely you see them for what they are now?"

  "They look like all the sidhe to me. Except for the color of Captain Doyle's skin, and the princess being petite, they look like nobles of the sidhe court."

  Stevens shook the bigger man. "The Darkness has fangs. The Killing Frost has skulls hanging from his neck. And she, she is withered, dying. Her mortal blood contaminates her."

  "Ambassador…" Biggs began.

  "No, you must see it, as I do!"

  "They didn't change at all when we turned our jackets inside out," Nelson said. She sounded a little disappointed.

  "I told you, we are not doing active glamour on any of you," I said.

  "Lies! I see the horror of you." Stevens hid his face against Biggs's broad shoulders, as if he could not bear the sight of us, and perhaps he could not.

  "It is easier not to look at them, though," Shelby said.

  Cortez nodded. "I can focus better now, but they look the same."

  "Beautiful," Cortez's assistant said.

  Cortez gave him a sharp look, and the assistant apologized, as if that one word was totally out of line.

  Stevens had begun to sob into Biggs's designer suit. "You must get him away from us," Doyle said.

  "Why?" one of the others asked.

  "The spell on the watch makes him see monsters when he looks at us. I fear his mind will break under the strain of it without King Taranis nearby to ease the effects."

  "Can't you just undo the spell?" Veducci asked.

  "It is not our spell," Doyle said simply.

  "Can't you help him?" Nelson asked.

  "I think the less contact with us, the better for the ambassador."

  Stevens had seemed to be trying to bury his face into Biggs's shoulder. The ambassador's hands twisted in the seams and lining of the coat.

  "Being near us is hurting him," Frost said, speaking for the first time since the introductions. His voice did not have the depth of Doyle's, but the width of his chest gave it weight.

  "Get some security up here," Biggs said to Farmer. And though Farmer was a very powerful man in his own right, and a full partner, he moved for the door. I guess when your daddy is one of the founders of a firm and you are the leading active partner, you still have clout, even over other partners.

  We stood in silence, the humans' awkward body language and facial expressions saying that they were terribly uncomfortable with the display of mad emotion. It was a type of madness, but the three of us sidhe had seen worse. We'd seen madness that had magic to it. The kind of magic that could steal the breath from your body, on a laughing whim.

  Uniformed security came. I recognized one of the guards from the entrance desk. They had a doctor with them. I remembered reading several doctors' names on the board beside the elevator. Apparently, Farmer had exceeded his orders, but Biggs seemed very pleased to hand the sobbing man over to the
doctor. No wonder Farmer had made partner. He followed orders to the letter, but built on them, made them better.

  No one said anything else until they led the ambassador from the room, and the door closed quietly behind him. Biggs straightened his tie, and tugged at the wrinkled suit jacket. Inside out, or right side out, the suit was ruined until a dry cleaner got hold of it. He started to take the jacket off, then glanced at us and stopped.

  I caught his eye, and he looked away embarrassed. "It's all right, Mr. Biggs, if you're afraid to take your jacket off."

  "Ambassador Stevens's mind seems quite broken."

  "I would advise the doctor to have a licensed practitioner of the arts look at the watch before you simply remove it."

  "Why?"

  "He's worn that watch for years. It may have become a part of his psyche, his mind. To simply remove it could do more harm."

  Biggs reached for a phone.

  "Why didn't you say something before he was led away?" Shelby asked.

  "I only now thought of it," I said.

  "I thought of it before they left," Doyle said.

  "Why didn't you speak up?" Cortez asked.

  "It is not my job to protect the ambassador."

  "It's everyone's job to help another human in such a state," Shelby said, then he looked surprised, as if he'd just heard what he'd said.

  Doyle gave the smallest curl of lips. "But I am not human, and I think the ambassador is weak and without honor. Queen Andais has lodged several complaints with your government about the ambassador. She has been ignored. But even she could not have foreseen such treachery as this."

  "Treachery of our government against yours?" Veducci asked.

  "No, King Taranis's treachery against someone who trusted him. The ambassador saw that watch as a mark of high favor, when in fact it was a trap and a lie."

  "You disapprove," Nelson said.

  "Do you not also disapprove?" Doyle asked.

  She started to nod and then looked away, blushing. Apparently, even with her jacket turned, she couldn't help reacting to him. He was worth reacting to, but I didn't like that she was having this much trouble. The charges would be hard enough without us making the prosecutors blush.

  "What would the king have gained from poisoning the ambassador against your court?" Cortez asked.

  "What have the Seelie always gained from blackening the name of the Unseelie?" I asked.

  "I'll bite," Shelby said. "What have they gained?"

  "Fear," I said. "They have made their people fear us."

  "What did that gain them?" Shelby asked.

  Frost spoke. "The greatest punishment of all is to be cast out of the Seelie Court, the golden court. But it is punishment because Taranis and his nobles have convinced themselves that once you join the Unseelie Court you become a monster. Not just in actions, but in body. They tell their people that they will become deformed if they join with the Unseelie."

  "You talk like you know," Nelson said.

  "I was once part of the golden throng, long, long ago," Frost said.

  "What did you do to earn exile?" Shelby asked.

  "Lieutenant Frost doesn't have to answer that," Biggs said. He had stopped fussing with his suit and was back to being one of the best lawyers on the West Coast.

  "Is the answer prejudicial to the charges brought against the other guards?" Shelby asked.

  "No," Biggs said, "but since the Lieutenant is not included in the charges filed, the question is outside the scope of this investigation."

  Biggs had lied, smoothly, effortlessly; lied as if it were the truth. He actually didn't know if Frost's answer would have been prejudicial, because he had no idea why anyone but the three guards in question had been exiled from the Seelie Court. (Though in Galen's case he hadn't been exiled because he'd been born and raised in the Unseelie Court; you can't be exiled from what you've never been a part of.) Biggs had carefully not allowed any questions that might interfere with a linear defense of his clients.

  "This is a very informal proceeding," Veducci said with a smile. He radiated harmless good-ol'-boy charm. It was a trick, bordering on a lie. He'd researched us. He'd dealt with the courts more than any of the other lawyers. He was either going to be our greatest ally or our most difficult opponent.

  He continued, still smiling, and letting us see those tired eyes. "We are all here today to see if the charges that King Taranis filed on behalf of the Lady Caitrin should be followed up with more formal proceedings. Cooperation would give strength to the princess' guards' denials."

  "Since all of the guards have diplomatic immunity. We are here out of courtesy," Biggs said.

  "We do appreciate that," Veducci said.

  "Do bear in mind," Shelby said, "that King Taranis has stated that all of the Queen's guard, and now the princess' guard, are a danger to everyone around them, most especially women. He stated that this rape did not surprise him. He seemed to think it was the inevitable outcome of allowing the Queen's Raven Guard unlimited access even inside faerie. One of the reasons he brought these charges to the human authorities, an unprecedented action in all the history of the Seelie Court, is that he feared for us. If a sidhe noble of Lady Caitrin's magical powers could be so easily taken, then what hope did mere humans have against their… lusts?"

  "Unnatural lusts," I said.

  Shelby shifted his gray eyes to me. "I did not say that."

  "No, you didn't, but I'm betting my uncle Taranis did."

  Shelby gave a little shrug. "He doesn't seem to like your men much, that is true."

  "Or me," I said.

  Shelby's face showed surprise, and I wished I could have told if it was genuine, or if he were lying with his face. "The king had only good things to say about you, Princess. He seems to feel that you have been"—he seemed to change what he was about to say at the last moment—"led astray by your aunt, the queen, and her guards."

  "Led astray?" I made it a question.

  He nodded.

  "That's not what he said, is it?"

  "Not in so many words, no."

  "It must have been truly insulting for you to pretty it up like this," I said.

  Shelby actually looked uncomfortable. "Before I saw Ambassador Stevens and his reaction to you, and the possible spell on his watch, I might have simply stated what the king said." Shelby gave me a very straightforward look. "Let's say that Stevens has made me wonder at the vehemence of King Taranis's dislike of all your guard."

  "All my guard?" Again I made it a question with the upward lilt of my voice.

  "Yes."

  I looked at Veducci. "He charges all my men with crimes?"

  "No, only the three mentioned, but Mr. Shelby is correct. King Taranis stated that your Raven Guard is a danger to all women. He thinks that having been made celibate for so long has driven them insane." Veducci's face never changed as he let out one of the biggest secrets of the faerie courts.

  I opened my mouth to say, "Taranis wouldn't have told you that," but Doyle's hand on my shoulder stopped me. I looked up at his dark figure. Even through his black glasses, I knew the look. That look said "Careful." He was right. Veducci had stated earlier that he had sources at the Unseelie Court. Taranis might not have said it, at all.

  "This is the first we've heard that the king is accusing the Raven Guard of being celibate," Biggs said. He had glanced at Doyle, but now put his attention back on Shelby and Veducci.

  "The king felt that the long-enforced celibacy was the reason for the attack."

  Biggs leaned in to me, and whispered, "Is this true? Were they forced to be celibate?"

  I whispered against his white collar, "Yes."

  "Why?" he asked.

  "My queen willed it so." That was true, as far as it went, but it kept me from sharing secrets that Queen Andais wouldn't want shared. Taranis might survive her wrath; I wouldn't.

  Biggs turned back to the opposing side. "We are not conceding that this alleged celibacy took place, but if it did, the men
in question are no longer celibate. They are with the princess now, and not the queen. The princess has stated that the three of them are her lovers. There would be no alleged celibacy-induced"—Biggs seemed to search for the right word—"madness." He made light of it with his voice, his face, and a hand gesture. It was a glimpse of what he'd be like in court. He just might be worth all the money my aunt was paying.

  Shelby said, "The king's statement, the charges filed, are enough to allow the United States government to confine all of the princess' guard to the lands of faerie."

  "I know the law you're referring to," Briggs said. "Many in Jefferson's government didn't agree with him allowing the fey to settle here after they were exiled from Europe. They insisted on a law that would allow them to permanently confine to faerie any citizen of faerie deemed too dangerous to be allowed among the human citizenry. It is a very broad law, and has never been invoked."

  "It's never been needed before," Cortez said.

  Doyle had stayed at my back, his hand resting on my shoulder. Either he knew I needed comforting, or he needed it. I laid my hand on top of his, so we could touch bare skin to bare skin. He was so warm, so solid. Just the touch made me feel more certain that it would be all right. We would be all right.

  "It's not needed now, and you all know it," Biggs said. He tsked at them. "Trying to scare the princess by threatening to send all her guards back to faerie. Shame on you."

  "The princess doesn't look scared," Nelson said.

  I gave her the full weight of my tricolored eyes, and she couldn't hold my gaze. "You are threatening to take the men I love away from me," I said. "Shouldn't that frighten me?"

  "It should," she said, "but it doesn't seem to."

  Farmer touched my arm, a clear let-me-talk gesture. I leaned back into the weight of Doyle at my back and let the lawyers talk. "Which brings us to the law in question," Farmer said. "The royals of any court are exempt from the law Mr. Shelby has mentioned."

  "We are not proposing to exile Princess Meredith to faerie," Shelby said.

  "You know that the threat to put all her guards under some sort of legal confinement to faerie is outrageous," Farmer said.

  Shelby nodded. "Fine, then just the three who are charged with rape. Mr. Cortez and I are both duly appointed officers of the United States attorneys' office. We are within our duty and rights to simply put the three guards back into the land of faerie until these charges are settled."