it, truly a Seelie princess at last."
"I am heir to a throne, Mother. Why should I want to rejoin a court where I am fifth from the throne, when I can rule another?"
She waved it away. "You cannot compare being part of the Seelie Court to anything having to do with the Unseelie Court, Meredith."
I looked at her, so carefully beautiful, so stubbornly biased. "Are you saying it would be better to be the least of all the royals at the Seelie Court, instead of ruler of the Unseelie Court?"
"Are you implying that it is better to rule in hell than be in heaven?" she asked, almost laughing.
"I have spent time at both courts, Mother. There is not a great deal to choose between the two."
"How can you say that to me, Meredith? I have done my time at the dark court, and I know how hideous it is."
"I have spent my time in the shining court, and I know that my blood is just as red on shining gold-laced marble as it is on black."
She frowned, looked confused. "I don't know what you mean."
"If Gran had not interceded for me, would you really have let Taranis beat me to death? Beat your own daughter to death in front of your eyes?"
"That is a hateful thing to say, Meredith."
"Just answer the question, Mother."
"You had asked a very impertinent question of the king, and that is not a wise thing to do."
I had my answer, the answer I'd always known. I moved on. "Why is it so important to you that I attend this ball?"
"The king wishes it," she said. And she, like me, moved on from the earlier, more painful questions.
"I will not insult Queen Andais and all my people by snubbing their Yule celebration. If I come home, it will be for their Yule ball. Surely you see that that is the way it has to be."
"I see nothing but that you have not changed. You are still as willful and determined to be difficult as always."
"And you have not changed either, Mother. What did the king offer you to persuade me to come to his ball?"
"I don't know what you mean."
"Yes, you do. It's not enough for you to have the title of princess. You want what goes with the title, power. What did the king offer you?"
"That is between him and me, unless you come to the ball. Come, and I will tell you."
I shook my head. "Poor bait that, Mother, very poor bait."
"What is that supposed to mean?" She was very angry and made no attempt to hide it, which, from a social climber of her stature, was the supreme insult. I wasn't worth hiding her anger from. I was perhaps one of the very few sidhe whom she would have so insulted. Her own sister was someone she tiptoed around.
"It means, dear Mother, that I will not be attending the Seelie Yule ball." I motioned to Doyle, and he cut the transmission abruptly, leaving my mother in midword as she faded.
The mirror rang almost immediately with that bell sound, that clarion of trumpets, but we knew who it was now, and we weren't home to her.
Chapter 33-34
Chapter 33
Dame Rosmerta called early the next morning, early enough that we were still abed. The sound of tiny bells woke me, tinkling into the still shadowed room. The smell of roses was almost overwhelming, and that was Rosmerta's calling card. Apparently she'd been trying to wake us for some time and finally resorted to the tiny bells and the scent of roses.
I tried to sit up, but was so tangled in Nicca's long hair and Rhys's arms that I couldn't manage it. Rhys opened his good eye and blinked blearily at me. "What time is it?"
"Early," I said.
"How early?"
"If you'd move your arm, I'd be able to see the clock and tell you."
"Oh, sorry," he muttered into the deep purple sheets. He moved his arm.
I sat up and looked at the clock. "Eight."
"Sweet Consort, what could be so important?"
Nicca propped himself up on his elbow, trying to sweep his hair behind his back and failing because Rhys and I were still sitting on it. I loved the feel of all that hair draping over my body, but I was beginning to remember why I never let mine grow quite so long.
Rhys and I moved around enough for Nicca to retrieve his hair. He didn't so much sweep it behind his back as lay it down the side of