A Lick of Frost (3 page)

“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,” Biggs 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.”

“I repeat, the law, as written, cannot be applied to the royals of any court of faerie,” Farmer said.

“And I repeat that we aren’t threatening to do anything to Princess Meredith,” Shelby said.

“But we aren’t referring to that royal,” Farmer said.

Shelby looked down the line of lawyers on his side. “I’m not sure we’re following your argument.”

“Princess Meredith’s guard are royal, for now.”

“What does that mean, for now?” Cortez asked.

“It means that when inside the Unseelie Court, they have a throne on the royal dais in which they take turns sitting beside the princess,” Farmer said. “They are her royal consorts.”

“Being her lover doesn’t make them royal,” Cortez said.

“Prince Phillip is technically still Queen Elizabeth’s royal consort,” Farmer said.

“But they’re married,” Cortez said.

“But in faerie, at any court, you aren’t allowed to marry until you are with child,” Farmer said.

“Mr. Farmer,” I said, touching his arm, “since this is informal, perhaps it would go more quickly if I explained.”

Farmer and Biggs whispered back and forth, but finally I got the nod. I was going to be allowed to talk. Oh, goody. I smiled at the other side of the table, leaning a little forward, hands nicely folded on the table. “My guards are my lovers. Which makes them royal consorts until one of them makes me pregnant. Then that one will be king to my queen. Until the choice is made, they are all royalty in the Unseelie Court.”

“The three guards who have been charged by the king should be sent back to faerie,” Shelby said.

“King Taranis was so afraid that Ambassador Stevens would see that the Unseelie Court was beautiful that he put a spell on the man. A spell that forced him to see us as monstrous. A man who would do such a desperate thing would do many other desperate things.”

“What do you mean, Princess?”

“To lie is to be cast out of faerie, but to be king is sometimes to be above the law.”

“Are you saying these charges are falsified?” Cortez asked.

“Of course they are false.”

“You would say anything to save your lovers,” Shelby said.

“I am sidhe, and I am not above the law. I cannot lie.”

“Is that true?” Shelby leaned down and asked Veducci.

He nodded. “It’s supposed to be true, but either the princess is lying, or Lady Caitrin is lying.”

Shelby looked back at me. “You cannot lie.”

“I have the ability, but to do so is to run the risk of being cast out from faerie.” I squeezed Doyle’s hand tightly. “I just got back. I don’t want to lose it all again.”

“Why did you leave faerie the first time, Princess?” Shelby asked.

Biggs answered that. “That question is off limits, and outside the charges in question.” The queen had probably given him a list of questions I couldn’t answer.

Shelby smiled. “Very well. Is it true that the Raven Guard were forced into centuries of celibacy?”

“May I ask a question before I answer that?”

“You can ask anything you like, Princess, but I may not answer.”

I smiled at him, and he smiled back. Doyle’s hand tightened on my shoulder. He was right—mustn’t flirt, until we knew exactly how it would be perceived. I toned the smile down, and asked my question. “Did King Taranis himself say that the Ravens were forced into centuries of celibacy?”

“I’ve so stated,” Shelby said.

“No, I mean as truth, Mr. Shelby. Please bear in mind that even a princess may be tortured for going against her queen’s orders.”

“You admit that they torture people at the Unseelie Court,” Cortez said.

“They torture people at both courts, Mr. Cortez. Queen Andais just doesn’t hide what she does, because she’s not ashamed of it.”

“Are you stating for the record…?” Cortez said.

“This will be a sealed record,” Biggs said, “unless it goes to court.”

“Yes, yes,” Cortez said, “but are you stating for the record that King Taranis allows torture to be used as a punishment in the Seelie Court?”

“Answer my question truthfully, and I will answer yours.”

Cortez looked at Shelby. They exchanged a longer-than-normal look, then both of them turned back to me. “Yes,” they said at the same time. The two men looked at each other, and finally Cortez nodded at Shelby, who said, “Yes, King Taranis stated that the fact that the Raven Guard had been forced into centuries of celibacy was the reason they were a danger to women. He further stated that to then have the forced celibacy lifted for only one little girl, referring to you, Princess, was monstrous. For no one woman could satisfy the lusts of centuries.”

“So the celibacy was the motive for the rape,” I said.

“That seems to be the king’s reasoning,” Shelby said. “We haven’t looked for a motive beyond the usual for rape.”

The usual, I thought.

“I’ve answered your question, Princess. Now, are you stating for the record that the Seelie Court tortures its prisoners?”

Frost came to stand beside Doyle. “Meredith, think upon this before you answer.”

I looked behind me, met his worried eyes, the soft gray of winter skies. I held my other hand out to him, and he took it. “Taranis let our cat out of the bag, Frost. It’s only fair we let one of his out.”

Frost frowned at me. “I do not understand this talk of cats, but I fear his anger.”

I had to smile at him even as I agreed with him. “He began this, Frost. I will only finish it.”

He squeezed my hand, and Doyle squeezed the other, so that my hands were crisscrossed over my chest, holding them. I held their hands while I said, “Mr. Shelby, Mr. Cortez, you asked me, am I stating for the record that King Taranis’s golden court tortures as a punishment? I am so stating.”

The record was supposed to be sealed, but if either of these secrets got into the press…. This little family feud was going to get very ugly, very fast.

CHAPTER 2

THE LAWYERS DECIDED THAT DOYLE AND FROST COULD ANSWER
some general questions about what it was like being part of my personal guard to give some background to the atmosphere that Rhys, Galen, and Abe had been living in. I wasn’t sure it was going to be helpful, but I wasn’t a lawyer, so who was I to argue?

Doyle sat on my right, Frost on my left. My lawyers Farmer and Biggs moved a few seats down to give them room.

Shelby got the first question. “And there are now sixteen of you with access only to Princess Meredith for your, um, needs?”

“If you mean for sex, then yes,” Doyle said.

Shelby coughed and nodded. “Yes, I do mean sex.”

“Then say what you mean,” Doyle said.

“I will do that.” Shelby sat up a little straighter. “I imagine it must be difficult to share the princess.”

“I’m not certain I understand the question.”

“Well, not to be indelicate, but waiting for your turn must be hard after so many years of denial.”

“No, it is not hard to wait.”

“But of course it is,” Shelby said.

“You’re putting words in the witnesses’ mouths,” Biggs said.

“Sorry. What I mean, Captain Doyle, is that after so many years of needs unmet, it must be difficult to only have sex about every two weeks or so.”

Frost laughed, then caught himself and tried to turn it into a cough. Doyle smiled. It was the first truly broad smile that he’d had since the questions had started. The white flash of his teeth in all that dark, dark face was startling if you weren’t used to it. It was like having a statue suddenly smile at you.

“I fail to see the humor in being forced to wait weeks for sex, Captain Doyle, Lieutenant Frost.”

“I would see no humor in that either,” Doyle said, “but when the number of men grew larger, Princess Meredith changed some of the parameters for us all.”

“I’m not following,” Nelson said, “Parameters?”

Doyle looked at me. “Perhaps you better explain, Princess.”

“When I had only five lovers, it seemed fair to make them wait for their turns, but as you point out, waiting two weeks, or more, after centuries of celibacy seems like another form of torture. So when the number of men went up to double digits, I upped the number of times I make love during a given day.”

You don’t get to see powerful, high-priced lawyers look that embarrassed often, but I got to see it then. They all looked at each other; Nelson actually raised her hand. “I’ll ask, if no one else will.”

The men let her ask. “How many times a day do you make love?” “It varies, but usually at least three times.”

“Three times a day,” she repeated.

“Yes,” I said, and gave her a blank, pleasant face. She blushed to the roots of her red hair. I was sidhe enough that I didn’t understand this American trait of being totally fascinated with sex and totally uncomfortable with it.

Veducci recovered first, as I had figured he would. “Even at three times a day, Princess Meredith, that leaves an average of five days between lovemaking sessions for the men. Five days is a long time when you’ve been denied for centuries. Couldn’t your three guards have tried to find something to occupy their time in between waiting?”

“A five-day wait implies that I’m only sleeping with one man at a time, Mr. Veducci, and most of the time I’m not.”

Veducci smiled at me. It was a nice smile. It went all the way to his eyes, and folded the bags into smile lines that said, here was a man who knew how to enjoy life, or had once. It was like a glimpse into a younger, less tired version.

I smiled back at him, responding to that joy.

“You are totally comfortable with this line of questioning, aren’t you, Princess Meredith?” he asked.

“I am not ashamed of anything I’ve done, Mr. Veducci. The fey, outside of some of the Seelie Court, see no shame in sex, as long as it is consensual.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ll ask the next one. How many men at a time do you routinely sleep with?” He shook his head when he asked as if he couldn’t believe he was asking it.

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Biggs said.

“I’ll answer it,” I said.

“Are you sure…?”

“It’s sex. There’s nothing wrong with sex.” I held Biggs’s gaze until he looked away. I turned back to Veducci. “Average is probably two at a time. I think the max that I’ve ever done at once is four.” I looked at Doyle and Frost. “Four?” I made it a question.

“I believe so,” Doyle said.

Frost nodded. “Yes.”

I turned back to the lawyers. “Four, but two is average.”

Biggs recovered a little. “So, you see, gentlemen, ladies, a two-day wait between sex, or less. There are married men who have to wait longer than that for their needs to be met.”

“Princess Meredith,” Cortez said.

“Yes, Mr. Cortez.” I looked into his dark brown eyes.

He cleared his throat and said, “Are you telling us the truth? You have sex three times a day with an average of two men at a time, and sometimes up to four. Is this what you want in the record?”

“It is sealed,” Farmer said.

“But if this does go to court, then it may not be. Is this really what the princess wants the public to know about her?”

I frowned at him. “It’s the truth, Mr. Cortez. Why should the truth bother me?”

“Do you honestly not understand what this information could do to your reputation in the media?”

“I don’t understand the question.”

He looked at Biggs and Farmer. “I don’t say this often, but is your client aware of what this record, even sealed, can be used for?”

“I did discuss it with her, but…Mr. Cortez, the Unseelie Court does not view sex in the same way as most of the world. They certainly don’t view it as mainstream America views it. My collogue and I learned that when we prepped the princess and her guard for these talks. If you are hinting that the princess might be more careful about what she admits to having done with her men, then save your breath. She is absolutely not bothered by anything she has done with any of her men.”

“Not to bring up a painful subject, but the princess didn’t seem very happy in the media when her ex-fiancé, Griffin, sold those Polaroids to the tabloids a few months back,” Cortez said.

I nodded. “That did hurt me,” I said, “but because Griffin broke my trust, not because I was ashamed of what we’d done. I thought we were in love when those pictures were taken. There is no shame in love, Mr. Cortez.”

“You are either very brave, Princess, or very naive. If you can use the word naive to a woman who is having sex with nearly twenty men on a regular basis.”

“I am not naive, Mr. Cortez. I simply don’t think like a human woman.”

Farmer said, “King Taranis’s allegation that the three guards he accused of this crime did so out of unmet sexual needs is a false assumption. It is based on the king’s own lack of understanding of his sister court.”

“Is the Unseelie Court so different from the Seelie Court when it comes to matters of sex?” Nelson asked.

“May I take this one, Mr. Farmer?” I asked.

“You may.”

“The Seelie try to ape human behavior. They’re stuck somewhere between the centuries of fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred, but they try to play human more than the Unseelie. Many of those exiled to our court have been exiled because of simply wanting to remain true to their original natures, and not let themselves be civilized in a human manner.”

“You sound like you’re lecturing,” Nelson said.

I smiled. “I did a paper in college on the differences between the two courts. I thought it might help the teacher and the other students understand that the Unseelie Court wasn’t the bad guy.”

“You were the first of the fey to attend human college in this country,” Cortez said. He shifted through some papers in front of him. “But not the last. Some of the so-called lesser fey have actually gotten degrees since then.”

“My father, Prince Essus, thought if one of the royals went, then our people might follow. He thought that learning, and understanding the country we lived in, was a necessary part of the fey adapting to modern life here.”

“Your father never saw you attend college, though, did he?” Cortez asked.

“No,” I said. The one word was clipped.

Doyle and Frost reached for me at the same time. Their hands found each other at the back of my shoulders. Doyle’s arm stayed there. Frost’s hand moved to cover one of my hands where I kept them still upon the tabletop. They were reacting to the tension in me, but it let everyone in the room know how concerned they were with me dealing with this topic. They hadn’t reacted to talk of my ex-fiancé, Griffin. I think all my men thought they had washed his memory clean from me with their own bodies. I felt the same, so they’d read me right. Doyle was usually a good judge of my moods. Frost, who had his own moods, was learning mine.

“I think this topic is closed,” Biggs said.

“I am sorry if I caused the princess distress,” Cortez said, but he didn’t sound sorry. I wondered why he’d brought up my father’s assassination. Cortez, like Shelby and Veducci, struck me as men who didn’t do things without a reason. I wasn’t sure about Nelson and the rest. I was counting on Biggs and Farmer being calculating men. But what did Cortez hope to gain from mentioning my father’s death?

“I am sorry to cause distress, but I do have a reason for bringing the topic up,” Cortez said.

“I don’t see what relevance it could possibly have on these proceedings,” Biggs said.

“The murderer of Prince Essus was never apprehended,” Cortez said. “In fact, no one was even seriously suspected, is that correct?”

“We failed the prince and the princess in every way,” Doyle said. “But you weren’t a guard for either of them, were you?”

“Not at that time.”

“Lieutenant Frost, you were also part of the queen’s Ravens when Prince Essus died. None of the current bodyguards of the princess were members of Prince Essus’s Crane Guards, is that correct?”

“That is not true,” Frost said.

Cortez looked at him. “Excuse me?”

Frost looked at Doyle, who gave a small nod. Frost’s hand tightened over mine. He didn’t like to speak in public; it was a phobia. “We have half a dozen guards with us here in Los Angeles who were once part of Prince Essus’s Cranes.”

“The king seems very certain that none of the prince’s guards are guarding the princess,” Cortez said.

“It is a recent change,” Frost said. His hand tightened on mine until I used my free hand to play my fingers across the back of his. One, it would comfort him; two, it would keep him from forgetting how strong he was and hurting my hand. I played my fingers on the smooth white skin of his hand, and realized it didn’t comfort just him.

Doyle moved closer to me so that he was more obviously hugging me. I leaned into the curve of his arm, letting my body settle into the line of his, while I continued to stroke the back of Frost’s hand.

“I still see no reason for this line of questioning,” Biggs said.

“I agree,” Farmer said. “If you have any more questions that are relevant to the actual charges, we might entertain them.”

Cortez looked at me. He gave me every ounce of those dark brown eyes. “The king thinks that the reason your father’s murderer was never caught is that the men investigating it were the murderers.”

Doyle, Frost, and I went very still. He had our attention now, indeed he did. “Speak plainly, Mr. Cortez,” I said.

“King Taranis accuses the Raven Guard of Prince Essus’s murder.” “You saw what the king did to the ambassador. I think that level of fear and manipulation speaks for my uncle’s state of mind right now.”

“We will follow up on Ambassador Stevens’s…condition,” Shelby said, “but doesn’t it make sense that the reason no clues were found is that the men looking for the clues were hiding them?”

“Our oath to the queen would forbid us to do harm to her family,” Doyle said.

“Your oath is to protect the queen, correct?” Cortez asked.

“We now belong to the princess, but the oath remains the same, yes.”

“King Taranis alleges that you killed Prince Essus to keep him from killing Queen Andais and putting himself on the throne of the Unseelie Court.”

The three of us stared at Cortez and Shelby. This was laundry so dirty that the queen had tortured people who had merely hinted at such things. I didn’t ask if Taranis had actually said it, because I knew no one else at his court would have dared Queen Andais’s anger. Anyone less than the king himself, and she would have called them out to a personal duel for such rumors.

Andais had a lot of faults, I knew that, but she had loved her brother. He had loved her, too. It’s why he hadn’t killed her and taken the throne, even though he felt that he would have been a better ruler. If he had lived, and my cousin, Prince Cel, had tried to take the throne, my father might have killed Cel to keep him off the throne.

Cel was insane, I think literally, and a sexual sadist who made Andais look mild. My father had feared the Unseelie Court at the hands of Cel. I feared it now. To save my life and the lives of those I loved, and to keep Cel off the throne, were the reasons I was still trying to be queen.

But I wasn’t pregnant, and whoever got me pregnant would be king to my queen. I had realized only a day or so ago that I’d have given up everything to be with Frost and Doyle—including being queen—but for one thing: To keep these two men with me might require me to give up my birthright. And I was too much my father’s daughter to let Cel have our people. But the regret in me was growing.

“Do you have a reply to the accusation, Princess Meredith?”

“My aunt is not perfect, but she loved her brother. I believe that with all my heart. If she discovered who killed him, her wrath would be the stuff of nightmares. None of her guard would have dared such a thing.”

“Are you sure of that, Princess?”

“I think you might want to ask yourself, Mr. Cortez, Mr. Shelby, what King Taranis hopes to gain by this accusation. In fact, you might wonder what he might have gained from my father’s death.”

“Are you accusing the king of your father’s murder?” Shelby asked.

“No, I am simply saying that the Seelie Court has never been a friend of my father’s family. Whereas one of the queen’s guard killing my father would have earned them a death by torture. I think if King Taranis could have plausible deniability of the deed, he would reward his own guard for it.”