Mistrals Kiss   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“I’m trying not toshare her fate,” I said.

“I hope you do,” Agnes said.

Sholto, tears plain on his face, looked at her. “If you ever raise a hand to Meredith again, I will be done with you.”

Agnes stared at him, searched his face, as she held Segna’s body. She stared into the face of the man she loved. Whatever she saw there made her bow her head. “I will do as my king bids.” The words were bitter; it seemed to tighten my own throat just to hear them. They must have burned in Agnes’s throat.

“Swear it,” Sholto said.

“What oath would you have of me?” she asked, head still bowed.

“The oath that Meredith gave, that will do.”

She shivered, and it wasn’t from cold. “I swear by the darkness that eats all things that I will not harm the princess here and now.”

“No,” Sholto said, “swear that you will never harm her.”

She bowed lower, dry black hair trailing into the water. “I cannot make that oath, my king.”

“Why can you not?”

“Because I mean her harm.”

“You will not swear to never hurt her?” He sounded surprised.

“I will not; cannot.”

Ivar of the bird voice said, “May I suggest, Your Highness, that she swear the oath to not harm the princess now, so we can all move about freely. We can deal with her treachery later, once we’ve dealt with the urgencies of the present moment.”

Sholto clutched Segna to him, and her yellowed hands with their broken claws grasped at him. “You are right,” he said. He looked at Agnes, who was still bent over the water and Segna’s body. “Make what oath you will, Agnes.”

She straightened up, the water streaming from her hair. “I swear by the darkness that eats all things that I will not harm the princess in this moment.”

“May I suggest something, King Sholto?” Doyle asked.

“Yes,” Sholto answered, though his eyes were on the dying woman in his arms.

“Black Agnes should add to her oath that she will not harm the princess while we are here in your garden.”

Sholto just nodded and whispered, “Do as he says, Agnes.”

“Do the sidhe guards give orders to our king now?” she said.

“Do it, Agnes!” he screamed at her, and the scream ended in a sob. He folded his body over Segna and wept openly.

She glared at me, not Doyle, while she spoke, and each word seemed dragged out of her. “I swear by the darkness that eats all things that I will not harm the princess while we stand in the dead gardens.