[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
he thought he had. I enjoyed his embarrassment.
But he rallied. "My challenge stands. If I cannot share your bed, then I don't
want Galen to have you either."
My hand tightened on Galen's arm. "Why fight if you know you don't get the
prize?" I asked.
Conri smiled, and it wasn't pleasant. "Because his death will cause you pain,
and that will be almost as sweet as your body next to mine."
Galen rose, sliding away from my grip on his arm. He started down the steps,
and I was afraid for him.
Conri was a cruel, brown-nosing bastard, but he was also one of the best
swordsmen in the court.
I stood, hopping because I couldn't bear weight on my left foot. Rhys caught
me or I might have fallen. "I
am still the reason for this duel, Conri."
Conri nodded, watching Galen walk toward him. "Indeed, you are, Princess. Know
that when I kill him, I did it all for spite of you."
Then I had one of those moments of desperate inspiration, a brilliant idea
born of panic.
"You cannot challenge a royal consort to a death duel, Conri," I said.
"He is not a royal consort until you are pregnant," Conri said.
"But if I am actively trying to have a child with him, then he is my royal
consort, because we have no way of knowing if I am with child at this second."
Conri turned to me, shocked. "You have not-I mean -"
The queen laughed again. "Oh, Meredith, you have been a busy, busy little
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bee." She stood. "If there is even a remote chance that Galen could have
fathered a child upon my niece, then he is indeed a royal consort until proven
otherwise. If you slew him and she was with child, and you had deprived this
court of a fertile royal pair, I would see your head rotting in a jar on a
shelf in my room."
"I don't believe it," Cel said. "They have not had sex tonight."
Andais turned to him. "And was there not a lust spell in the car when they
were alone in the back of it?"
The blood drained from Conri's face in a wash, leaving him pasty and sickly
looking. The look on his face was enough. The lust spell had been his doing.
Though few sidhe in this room would doubt who had told him to do it.
"Meredith is not the only one who has been a very busy bee tonight." Her voice
was warm with the beginnings of a really fine rage.
Cel sat up very straight and still managed to sink back into his chair.
Siobhan moved from behind his chair to his side, not quite putting herself
between the prince and the queen. But the gesture looked like what it was.
Siobhan had stated her loyalties before the entire court. Andais would not
forget it or forgive it.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Rozenwyn hesitated, not quite following her captain's lead. She eventually
drifted up beside Siobhan, but her reluctance at having to choose between
queen and prince showed. Rozenwyn's loyalty was mainly to
Rozenwyn.
Eamon moved up beside the queen, and Doyle moved a step closer to the queen as
if he wasn't sure where he should be standing. I'd never before seen him
unsure where his duty lay. I saw the queen search his face, and I think his
hesitation hurt her. He'd been her bodyguard for a thousand years, her right
hand, her Darkness. Now he stood unsure if he should leave my side to go to
hers.
"Enough of this," Andais said. The rage burned through those simple words. "I
see you have made yet another conquest, Meredith. My Darkness has not
hesitated in over a thousand years of service, but there he stands practically
dancing from foot to foot wondering whom he should protect if all goes badly."
The look she gave me made me grip Rhys's hand tight.
"Be glad that you are blood of my blood, Meredith. For anyone else to have
divided the loyalties of my most trusted would be death."
It was almost as if she were jealous, but in all the years that I'd been old
enough to notice, she'd never treated Doyle as anything but a servant, a
guard. She'd never treated him as a man. He'd never in over a thousand years
been one of her chosen lovers. But now, she was jealous.
The look on Doyle's face was soft, puzzled, full of wonderment. I realized in
that moment that he'd loved her once, but no longer, and it hadn't been my
doing. Andais had thrown him away by simply not paying any attention to him at
all. It was too intimate a moment for such a public display.
Among humans some of us would have looked away, given them an illusion of
privacy, but that wasn't the sidhe way. We stared, we watched every nuance
cross their faces, and in the end, mere minutes, Doyle stepped back to stand
with me, his hand on my shoulder. It was not a particularly intimate gesture,
especially after the show Galen had put on, but from Doyle, in such a moment,
it was intimate. He, like
Siobhan, had shown his loyalty, burned his bridges.
I'd known that Doyle would keep me alive at the expense of his own life
because the queen ordered it.
Now I knew he'd keep me alive because if I died now, the queen would never
trust him again. He would never again be her Darkness. He was mine, for better
or worse. It gave a whole new meaning to "till death do us part." My death
would almost surely mean his now.
I kept my eyes on my aunt but raised my voice for the entire room. "They are
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all my royal consorts."
Protests spread throughout the room, male voices raised: "You couldn't have
slept with all of them!"
And: "Whore!" I think that was a woman.
I raised my hand in a gesture that I'd seen my aunt use time and again. The
room didn't grow totally quiet, but it was close enough for me to continue.
"My aunt in her wisdom foresaw the duels that might be fought. That dangling
any woman before the Guard could lead to great bloodshed. We could lose the
best and brightest of us all."
A female voice cried out, "As if you are such a prize!"
I laughed, hand digging into Rhys's shoulder for support as if he were a cane.
Kitto moved up and offered his hand to my free hand. I took the extra support
gratefully. The ankle was beginning to ache
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
hanging down at my side.
"I know that was you, Dilys. No, I am not such a prize, but I am female, and I
am available to them, and no one else is. That makes me the prize whether any
of us likes it or not. But my aunt foresaw the problem."
"Yes," Andais said. "I have ordered Meredith to choose not one among you, or
four, or five, but many.
She is to treat you all as her own personal... harem."
"Are we allowed to refuse if she chooses us?" I looked out into the crowd but
couldn't see who had asked.
"You are free to refuse," Andais said. "But which of you would refuse the
chance to be the next king? If she is with your child, then it will not be
royal consort but monarch."
Galen and Conri were still standing about three yards apart, staring at each
other.
"We all know who she wants to be her king. She has made that abundantly clear
tonight," Conri said.
"All I've made clear," I said, "is that I won't be sleeping with you, Conri.
The rest, as they say, is up for grabs."
"You won't be making Galen your royal consort," Cel said, and his voice held
satisfaction. "If you are with child, it will be his last."
I looked at him, trying to understand this level of animosity, and failing. "I
bargained with Queen Niceven before the damage was too great."
"What did you have to offer Niceven?"
The tiny queen rose above the crowd where her miniature throne sat on a shelf,
like a doll house, with her court surrounding her. "Blood, Prince Cel. Not the
blood of a lowly lord, but the blood of a princess."
"We all carry the coin of the Unseelie Court in our veins, Cousin," I said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
he thought he had. I enjoyed his embarrassment.
But he rallied. "My challenge stands. If I cannot share your bed, then I don't
want Galen to have you either."
My hand tightened on Galen's arm. "Why fight if you know you don't get the
prize?" I asked.
Conri smiled, and it wasn't pleasant. "Because his death will cause you pain,
and that will be almost as sweet as your body next to mine."
Galen rose, sliding away from my grip on his arm. He started down the steps,
and I was afraid for him.
Conri was a cruel, brown-nosing bastard, but he was also one of the best
swordsmen in the court.
I stood, hopping because I couldn't bear weight on my left foot. Rhys caught
me or I might have fallen. "I
am still the reason for this duel, Conri."
Conri nodded, watching Galen walk toward him. "Indeed, you are, Princess. Know
that when I kill him, I did it all for spite of you."
Then I had one of those moments of desperate inspiration, a brilliant idea
born of panic.
"You cannot challenge a royal consort to a death duel, Conri," I said.
"He is not a royal consort until you are pregnant," Conri said.
"But if I am actively trying to have a child with him, then he is my royal
consort, because we have no way of knowing if I am with child at this second."
Conri turned to me, shocked. "You have not-I mean -"
The queen laughed again. "Oh, Meredith, you have been a busy, busy little
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bee." She stood. "If there is even a remote chance that Galen could have
fathered a child upon my niece, then he is indeed a royal consort until proven
otherwise. If you slew him and she was with child, and you had deprived this
court of a fertile royal pair, I would see your head rotting in a jar on a
shelf in my room."
"I don't believe it," Cel said. "They have not had sex tonight."
Andais turned to him. "And was there not a lust spell in the car when they
were alone in the back of it?"
The blood drained from Conri's face in a wash, leaving him pasty and sickly
looking. The look on his face was enough. The lust spell had been his doing.
Though few sidhe in this room would doubt who had told him to do it.
"Meredith is not the only one who has been a very busy bee tonight." Her voice
was warm with the beginnings of a really fine rage.
Cel sat up very straight and still managed to sink back into his chair.
Siobhan moved from behind his chair to his side, not quite putting herself
between the prince and the queen. But the gesture looked like what it was.
Siobhan had stated her loyalties before the entire court. Andais would not
forget it or forgive it.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Rozenwyn hesitated, not quite following her captain's lead. She eventually
drifted up beside Siobhan, but her reluctance at having to choose between
queen and prince showed. Rozenwyn's loyalty was mainly to
Rozenwyn.
Eamon moved up beside the queen, and Doyle moved a step closer to the queen as
if he wasn't sure where he should be standing. I'd never before seen him
unsure where his duty lay. I saw the queen search his face, and I think his
hesitation hurt her. He'd been her bodyguard for a thousand years, her right
hand, her Darkness. Now he stood unsure if he should leave my side to go to
hers.
"Enough of this," Andais said. The rage burned through those simple words. "I
see you have made yet another conquest, Meredith. My Darkness has not
hesitated in over a thousand years of service, but there he stands practically
dancing from foot to foot wondering whom he should protect if all goes badly."
The look she gave me made me grip Rhys's hand tight.
"Be glad that you are blood of my blood, Meredith. For anyone else to have
divided the loyalties of my most trusted would be death."
It was almost as if she were jealous, but in all the years that I'd been old
enough to notice, she'd never treated Doyle as anything but a servant, a
guard. She'd never treated him as a man. He'd never in over a thousand years
been one of her chosen lovers. But now, she was jealous.
The look on Doyle's face was soft, puzzled, full of wonderment. I realized in
that moment that he'd loved her once, but no longer, and it hadn't been my
doing. Andais had thrown him away by simply not paying any attention to him at
all. It was too intimate a moment for such a public display.
Among humans some of us would have looked away, given them an illusion of
privacy, but that wasn't the sidhe way. We stared, we watched every nuance
cross their faces, and in the end, mere minutes, Doyle stepped back to stand
with me, his hand on my shoulder. It was not a particularly intimate gesture,
especially after the show Galen had put on, but from Doyle, in such a moment,
it was intimate. He, like
Siobhan, had shown his loyalty, burned his bridges.
I'd known that Doyle would keep me alive at the expense of his own life
because the queen ordered it.
Now I knew he'd keep me alive because if I died now, the queen would never
trust him again. He would never again be her Darkness. He was mine, for better
or worse. It gave a whole new meaning to "till death do us part." My death
would almost surely mean his now.
I kept my eyes on my aunt but raised my voice for the entire room. "They are
Page 216
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
all my royal consorts."
Protests spread throughout the room, male voices raised: "You couldn't have
slept with all of them!"
And: "Whore!" I think that was a woman.
I raised my hand in a gesture that I'd seen my aunt use time and again. The
room didn't grow totally quiet, but it was close enough for me to continue.
"My aunt in her wisdom foresaw the duels that might be fought. That dangling
any woman before the Guard could lead to great bloodshed. We could lose the
best and brightest of us all."
A female voice cried out, "As if you are such a prize!"
I laughed, hand digging into Rhys's shoulder for support as if he were a cane.
Kitto moved up and offered his hand to my free hand. I took the extra support
gratefully. The ankle was beginning to ache
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
hanging down at my side.
"I know that was you, Dilys. No, I am not such a prize, but I am female, and I
am available to them, and no one else is. That makes me the prize whether any
of us likes it or not. But my aunt foresaw the problem."
"Yes," Andais said. "I have ordered Meredith to choose not one among you, or
four, or five, but many.
She is to treat you all as her own personal... harem."
"Are we allowed to refuse if she chooses us?" I looked out into the crowd but
couldn't see who had asked.
"You are free to refuse," Andais said. "But which of you would refuse the
chance to be the next king? If she is with your child, then it will not be
royal consort but monarch."
Galen and Conri were still standing about three yards apart, staring at each
other.
"We all know who she wants to be her king. She has made that abundantly clear
tonight," Conri said.
"All I've made clear," I said, "is that I won't be sleeping with you, Conri.
The rest, as they say, is up for grabs."
"You won't be making Galen your royal consort," Cel said, and his voice held
satisfaction. "If you are with child, it will be his last."
I looked at him, trying to understand this level of animosity, and failing. "I
bargained with Queen Niceven before the damage was too great."
"What did you have to offer Niceven?"
The tiny queen rose above the crowd where her miniature throne sat on a shelf,
like a doll house, with her court surrounding her. "Blood, Prince Cel. Not the
blood of a lowly lord, but the blood of a princess."
"We all carry the coin of the Unseelie Court in our veins, Cousin," I said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]