A Lick Of Frost   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"No, not quite, but you have perhaps a day and a night before Hugh's faction either loses or gains controlof enough nobles to bring our princess to their throne. Hugh told me that I still had Cel to bring to my throne. That it wasn't as if Meredith were my first choice."

Did Hugh have any idea how much he had endangered me? Andais was not much more stable than Taranis. I had no idea how she would react to such talk from the Seelie Court.

"You look frightened, Meredith," she said.

"Shouldn't I be?"

"Why are you not thrilled at the possibility of being queen of the Seelie?"

"Because my heart lies with the Unseelie Court," I said finally.

She smiled then. "Does it, does it truly? Half my sithen is covered in white and pink and gold marble. There are flowers and vines everywhere. The Hallway of Immortality, which has stood as a place of torment for millennia is covered in flowers. Galen's magic dissolved the cells, and I cannot make the sithen rebuild them. I have people tear up the flowers in the hallway, but they simply regrow overnight."

"I do not know what you want me to say, Aunt Andais."

"I thought the only revolution I had to worry about was one of arms and politics. You have shown me that there are other ways to lose power, Meredith. Your magic is possessing my sithen even with you in Los Angeles. The changes creep farther every day, like some kind of cancer." She laughed, but it held an edge of pain. "A cancer formed of flowers and pastel walls. If I let the Seelie have you, will my kingdom go back to what it was, or is it too late? Is that what the Seelies see, Meredith, that you will remake all of faerie in their image? You are destroying your heritage, Meredith. If I do not stop it, there will soon be no dark court left to save."

"It was not deliberate on my part, Aunt."

"If I give you to the Seelie, will it stop?"

I looked into those eyes. Eyes that held less sanity than they should have. "I don't know."

"What does the Goddess say?"

"I don't know."

"She speaks to you, Meredith. I know she does. But have a care. She is not some Christian deity to take care of you. She is the same power that made me."

"I know the Goddess has many faces," I said.

"Do you, Meredith, do you really?"

I just nodded.

"Enjoy Rhys while you can, because once you sit the Seelie throne, my guard revert to me. They guard only our noble line."

"I have not agreed…"

She waved me to silence. "I no longer know how to save my people and our culture. I thought you were the solution, but though you may save faerie, you seem to be destroying the Unseelie way of life.