The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13) - Seanan McGuire Page 0,65
small boats, but something like this? A fully armed guard trying to take a Merrow Duchess away to stand trial? That’s a production. Pete will never approve it. She won’t forbid it, because she doesn’t interfere in the Undersea like that—she hasn’t done so for centuries—but she won’t let them leave until she absolutely has to.”
“So you can stop this.” Patrick uncovered his face and took an unsteady step toward her. “You can make him let her go.”
“I didn’t say that, Baron Twycross,” said the Luidaeg. Patrick visibly flinched as she rested the full weight of her attention on him, even though she looked sympathetic; even though, for her, this was being kind. “You had a hundred years. That’s more than most people can ever hope for. I’m sorry.”
“She’s my mother,” said Dean. He glared at the Luidaeg. Her majesty seemed to have faded where he was concerned. Good kid. “A hundred years isn’t enough.”
“It never is,” said the Luidaeg.
Patrick took another step. “I’ll—I’ll make a bargain with you. I’ll give you whatever you want if you’ll just save her. If you’ll bring her home. I’ll—”
“No.” He turned to stare at me, seeming surprised by my presence, like he’d forgotten I was even there. I shook my head and said it again: “No.” That didn’t seem like enough. “You can’t do that to her.”
“Dianda is your friend,” he said.
“So’s the Luidaeg,” I said. “And she’s here to finish burying her children. I won’t let you force her into a bargain right now. Before you say you wouldn’t be forcing anything, remember, if you ask, she has to answer. She doesn’t have a choice.”
“Impressive,” said the Luidaeg wearily. I turned to face her. She shook her head and said, without a trace of sarcasm, “With as much time as we’ve spent together, you still can’t get over thinking of me as a person, and not a salvation dispenser. Most people, when the chips are down, jump straight to telling me what they need and what I should do. It’s a nice change.”
“I’m a hero,” I said. “I can deal with this myself.”
“October.” She folded her arms across her chest in an almost defensive gesture. “Dianda Lorden is a Merrow. She belongs to the Undersea. You can’t just go yell at Queen Palatyne the way you would at Arden. You’d drown before all her guards decided to stab you.”
“I’ll figure something out,” I said. “There has to be a way. I’ll find someone with a SCUBA kit, or . . . or something.”
“The sea witch is right there,” said Patrick desperately. “Please. She has to help us. You have to make her help us.”
“I know you’re new around here, but unless you enter into a bargain with me, I don’t have to do anything, and October’s not going to let you enter into a bargain,” said the Luidaeg. “I can close this door and ignore you all until it’s time to bind the Selkies into their skins and bring back the Roane.”
Patrick clenched his hands into fists by his sides. “He took her.”
“I’m sure he did.” She looked at him levelly. Her eyes had bled back to driftglass green, clear and pale and exhausted. “I’m sure he put her in chains of rowan and silver, and called her all sorts of names, and led her away. But the Merrow are the descendants of Amphitrite, and Amphitrite is the daughter of Titania, and I am bound not to harm or raise my hand against the children of Titania.”
“Wait,” I said. “You were able to send Quentin into Blind Michael’s lands to find his girlfriend, and the Daoine Sidhe are children of Titania, too.”
“Quentin came to me of his own free will. I did him no harm, only offered him the knife and told him how to cut himself. It’s not the same thing. It might look like the same thing from the outside, but it’s not.” She shook her head. “I have no power here, October. The Merrow keep the Law in their own way, and I am not invited to intervene.”
“Okay, fine. You said Pete wouldn’t let Torin leave with his sister. I’ll just go to her and tell her what happened, and—”
“You won’t find her.”
I stopped, blinking. “What?”
“I said, you won’t find her.”
“But you just said—”
“I know what I said. She leaves instructions when she sails, and they usually include keeping people where she wants them. There’s no way Torin leaves before she gets back.” Somehow, the Luidaeg seemed to be