A Lick Of Frost   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"But have you considered why Jefferson made those two rules, especially the one about war?"

"Because it would be damaging to our country," Shelby said.

Veducci shook his head. "There is still a crater on the European continent almost as wide as the widest part of the Grand Canyon. That hole is what is left of where the last battle of the war was fought. Think about if that happened in the center of this country, in the middle of our most productive farming country."

They looked at each other. They hadn't thought about it. To Shelby and Cortez it had been a high-profile case. A chance to make new law involving the fey. Everyone had taken the short view, except Veducci, and maybe Grover.

"What do you propose we do?" Shelby asked. "Just let them get away with it?"

"No, not if they are guilty, but I want everyone in this room to understand what might be at stake, that's all," Veducci said.

"You sound like you're on the side of the princess," Cortez said.

"The princess didn't give a United States ambassador a bespelled watch so he would favor her."

"How do we know the princess didn't do it, to trick us?" Shelby said. He sounded like he even believed it.

Veducci turned to me. "Princess Meredith, did you give Ambassador Stevens any object magical or mundane that would sway his opinion of you and your court in your favor?"

I smiled. "No, I did not."

"They really can't lie, if you ask the questions right," Veducci said.

"Then how did Lady Caitrin accuse these men by name and description? She seemed genuinely traumatized."

"That is a problem," Veducci admitted. "The lady in question would have to be lying, an outright lie, because I asked the questions right, and she was unshakable." He looked at us, at me. "Do you understand what that means, Princess?"

I took a deep breath and let it out, slowly. "I think so. It means that Lady Caitrin has everything to lose here. If she is caught in an actual lie, she could be cast out of faerie. Exile is considered worse than death to the Seelie nobility."

"Not just the nobility," Rhys said.

The other guards nodded. "He is right," Doyle said. "Even the lesser fey would do much to avoid exile."

"So how is the lady lying?" Veducci asked us.

Galen spoke, voice low, a little uncertain. "Could it be an illusion? Could someone have used glamour so strong that it fooled her?"

"You mean made her think she was being attacked when she wasn't?" Nelson asked.

"I'm not sure that would be possible on a member of the sidhe," Veducci said. He looked at us.

"What if it wasn't completely an illusion," Rhys said.