A Stroke Of Midnight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“That we willknow as soon as the three of you have eaten.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The queen has requested your presence at her side when she contacts Taranis about this latest outrage.”

“Taranis’s men seemed to think we’d just let them arrest us,” Rhys said. “That we’d just give ourselves over to Seelie justice.” He laughed, and it was a bitter sound. “Justice? For the Unseelie at the Seelie Court? Please.”

“They still believe that to join this court is to be deformed and made monstrous,” Doyle said.

“I’ve never understood that one,” Galen said. “They can look at us and know that we look just as they do.”

“They believe we hide our deformities with our clothes,” Doyle said.

Galen raised an eyebrow. “The queen answers the mirrors covered in nude guards most of the time. Anyone with eyes can see that every inch of the guards is fine.”

“Ah, but that is evil Unseelie illusion,” Rhys said. “Understand, my young green friend, that one of the things that makes the Seelie sidhe prefer exile among the humans to joining our court is the belief, the absolute belief, that being in the dark corrupts us. Makes us twisted and perverse. Most of them believe we have tails, and hooves, and monstrous penises.”

“Well, big,” I said, but the look on Rhys’s face made me swallow my joke.

“They don’t mean big, Merry, they mean ugly and awful. They paint us as monsters, because if the Seelie ever truly believed that we were just like them”—he shrugged—“I think some of them would put up with less shit from him. They would then have someplace to go besides mortal land.”

“They fear Andais, as well,” Doyle said, “and she has fostered that fear with her bloody mirror calls and her orgies.”

“I have spoken with the king in the mirror, Doyle,” I said. “I know now that touching the flesh of the guard helps ground us and keep his power at bay. I think that torture may do the same for the queen that sex does.”

Doyle nodded. “Yes, it is a way to keep his power from overwhelming one.”

“I’ve never actually sat in on a call between the two monarchs,” I said. “Is it as scary as it sounds?”

“Disturbing,” Rhys said, “more than scary.”

“Disturbing how?” I asked.

“The king will try and use his magic to bespell and persuade us, including our queen. She will use her beauty to make him lust after her. She will also use those around her to distract both herself from his power, and the king in general.