The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13) - Seanan McGuire Page 0,157

so this will be fun for both of us,” I said stiffly.

Ginevra laughed.

It was hard to stay unhappy with her; she had a joyful heart, and it showed. Still, I kept my face schooled to neutrality as I said, “The ship has gone. Uncle Tybalt and October are bound for the Undersea, and won’t return until they’ve fulfilled their duty to the Luidaeg.”

Uncle Tybalt, and October, and Quentin, and even Dean were bound for the Undersea, Dean, who loved my best friend in a way that could never have been open to me, and would now share an adventure with him that I would never truly understand. It wasn’t the betrayal it seemed, but oh, it burned.

So many things burn, these days. I’ve always known I’d be King, have even reveled in waiting for it. But I never wanted to be King so soon.

“All right,” said Ginevra. “I’ll double the patrols, tell everyone to watch for signs that someone’s sniffing around our borders, trying to take a measure of what’s happening here.”

“There’s no need to fear a challenge,” I said. “As a regent, you have seven years of peace before anyone would consider that right or proper.”

“I don’t quite understand that,” said Ginevra. “Everyone likes to tell me the Court of Cats is violent and complicated, but as soon as I said I’d hold the throne for you, the Court of Dreaming Cats gets seven years of no one bothering them? How does that work?”

“It’s rare for a regent to be called for any reason other than an orphaning,” I said. It was a struggle to keep the frustration from my tone. We’d had this conversation several times, and it seemed likely we’d have it several more before Ginevra accepted it as the way things were done. “Cait Sidhe can be brutal, yes, and our methods of succession are more direct than they are in the Divided Courts—in part because our heirs are so rarely a matter of blood. Your father is lucky to have you. You’ll be able to take his throne without killing him, when the time comes.”

Ginevra blanched. “You say that so casually.”

“Because to me, this is casual,” I said. “This is how the world works. We’re animals, but we’re not beasts. If Uncle Tybalt had died and you’d been called to stand regent, I’d be half-trained and grieving. There’s no honor in taking a throne from a child. So I’m to be allowed my grief, while you protect me and give me time to recover from my loss. In a customary regency, I’d be expected to fight you to show I was ready to claim what had always been mine.”

Unlike a normal succession fight, I wouldn’t be expected to do more than cursory damage. As long as she was defeated, I could claim my place, and she’d be allowed to return home in honor, having done her duty to a child of her own kind.

Our politics are as complicated and tedious as the politics of the Divided Courts. It’s just that they follow other rules, and have no interest in compromising themselves for the expectations of anyone else.

“You should know I hit like a freight train,” said Ginevra. “Dad says I don’t understand my own strength, so it’s sort of like trying to wrestle a bus. Yeah, you may have technique and training on your side, but it’s still a bus.”

“That’s why I’m supposed to teach you how to control your power.” Being my regent’s teacher was weird. It would leave us both better prepared for our futures. She’d be a better Princess when she went back to Silences, and I . . .

I’d be a better Prince. That was the only thing I needed to be. Better Princes make better Kings. That’s just logic.

“If milady does not need me, I would like to be excused,” I said, with a quick, shallow bow. “I have business to attend to.”

“Does the business involve wandering around the city unsupervised? Because I’m not comfortable with the way you keep doing that.”

I raised an eyebrow—a gesture I learned from watching my uncle, and refined over the course of many long hours with my mirror—and looked at her silently, waiting for her to explain.

“You’re still a teenager, and San Francisco isn’t the safest city in the world,” said Ginevra. “I’m not sure what the safest city is, but I know this isn’t it.”

“I realize your kittenhood was spent as a changeling, that your experiences will have been accordingly different from my