A Stroke Of Midnight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“The bath is ready,” Kitto said, his voice as neutral and empty as a servant’s.

I touched his shoulder, and he gave me a small smile. Something occurred to me. “Did the goblin mound know Kurag when you came to this country?”

“I am not important enough to know such things. I do not know.”

“The goblins are less faded than the sidhe. They are still what we left them.”

“But wait,” Galen said, “the Seelie sidhe are less faded in power than we are. Why is that? Shouldn’t both courts be fading at about the same rate?”

“They should be,” Doyle said.

“But they aren’t,” I said.

“They don’t seem to be,” Rhys said.

“You’ve thought of something,” Doyle said.

“What made Taranis desperate enough to help release the Nameless, one of our most dangerous magicks, into the human world to kill Maeve Reed? She’d been exiled from faerie for more than a century. It couldn’t have just been Merry’s visit to her. That could have gotten him to send someone to assassinate Maeve, but not to release the Nameless.” Rhys shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I can’t make it make sense.”

“Like his inviting Merry to his ball,” Galen said. “That makes no sense either. He’s hated her all her life.”

“Not hated, Galen, you have to think more of a person to hate them, and my uncle doesn’t think anything of me. I was more a nonentity at the Seelie Court than here at the Unseelie Court.”

“So why is he so hot to see you? Why now?”

“None of us have liked this sudden invitation,” Doyle said, “but we have had our discussions, and we are going to accept.”

“I still think it’s too dangerous for Merry,” Galen said.

“We will be there to protect her,” Doyle said.

“You know, it would be really interesting to take Aisling as one of my honor guard.”

“I do not believe that Taranis would allow him to pass into his court,” Doyle said.

“If he refuses any of my guard it is within my rights to take insult and refuse the invitation,” I said.

They all looked at one another. “It has possibilities,” Rhys said.

Galen nodded. “I like anything that keeps Merry from having to attend this ball.”

“How can you say that?” Frost asked. “You saw what just the touch of Aisling’s power did to Melangell. Taranis has negotiated that only the guards who have visited Meredith’s bed may accompany her to the ball.