do anything or to appear anywhere, because I am not his royal heir."
"Are you refusing to appear at the king's command?" He still looked like he didn't trust his own ears. He had to have misheard something.
"The king has no right to command me, Hedwick. It would be like him having you call the president of the United States with a command to appear."
"You grow above your station, Meredith."
I let the anger show on my face. "And you no longer seem to know what yours is, Hedwick."
"You truly are refusing the king's command?" Astonishment showed through his voice, his face, his posture.
"Yes, because he is not my king, and cannot command anyone outside his own kingdom."
"Are you saying you renounce all titles that you hold in the Seelie Court?"
Doyle touched my arm, made me look at him. His gaze said, careful here.
"No, Hedwick, and for you to say such a thing is deliberately insulting. You are a minor functionary, a message carrier, nothing more."
"I am the king's social secretary," he said, trying to pull himself up to every inch of his small height, even though he was sitting down.
"You carry messages to lesser fey and to humans of no great account. All the important invitations go through Rosmerta, and you know it. Sending his invitation through you and not her was an insult."
"You do not merit the attentions of the Duchess Rosmerta."
I shook my head. "Your message is incomplete, Hedwick. You'd best go back to your master and learn a new one. One that has a chance of being well received."
I nodded at Doyle. He stood and blanked the mirror in the middle of Hedwick's sputtering. Doyle smiled, almost grinned at me. "Well done."
"You just insulted the King of Light and Illusion," Rhys said. He looked pale.
"No, Rhys, he insulted me, and more than that. If I had accepted such a command from Taranis, it could have been interpreted that when I gain the Unseelie throne, I would acknowledge him as high king over the Unseelie as well as the Seelie."
"Could it have been the secretary's error?" Frost asked. "Could he simply have used the same words with you as everyone on his list?"
"Perhaps, but if so, it was still an insult."
"Insult, maybe. But, Merry, we can swallow a few insults to stay out of the king's bad graces," Rhys said. He sat down on the far end of the bed as if his knees were weak.
"No, we cannot," Doyle said.
We all looked at him. "Don't you see, Rhys? Merry will rule Taranis's rival kingdom. She must set the rules now, or he will forever treat her as less. For the sake of all of us, she must not appear weak."
"What will the king do?" Frost asked.
Doyle looked at him, and they had one of those long looks. "In absolute truth, I do not know."
"Has anyone ever defied him like this?" Frost asked.
"I don't know," Doyle said.
"No," I said.
They looked at me.
"Just as you walk around Andais like she's a snake about to strike, you tiptoe around Taranis the same way."
"He does not seem as frightening as the queen," Frost said.
I shrugged, and it hurt, so I stopped. "He's like a big spoiled child who's had his own way for far too long. If he doesn't get what he wants, he throws tantrums. The servants and lackeys live in fear of those tantrums. He's been known to accidentally kill in one of his rages. Sometimes he's sorry, sometimes he's not."
"And you just threw a steel gauntlet into his face," Rhys said, staring at me from the end of the bed.
"One thing I always noticed about Taranis's temper was that it never struck out at anyone powerful. If he was in this uncontrollable rage, then why was it always directed at people who were powerless to fight back? Always, his victims were either magically inferior, or politically inferior, or people with no strong allies among the sidhe." I shook my head. "No, Rhys, he always knows who he's lashing out at. It's not mindless. He won't hurt me, because I stood my ground. He'll respect me, and maybe begin to worry about me."
"Worry about you?" Rhys asked.
"He fears Andais -- and even Cel, because Cel's crazy and Taranis isn't sure what he'll do once he's got the throne. Taranis was probably thinking he could control me. Now he'll begin to wonder."
"It is interesting that this invitation comes after we have spoken to Maeve Reed," Doyle said.
I nodded. "Yes, isn't it."
The three