me, Barinthus. Surely you see that?"
His face fell back into that handsome unreadable mask.
"You don't understand that, do you?" I asked, and the first trickle of real fear wormed its way up my spine.
"We could form your court into a force to be feared, Meredith."
"Why would we need it to be feared?"
"People only follow out of love or fear, Meredith."
"Don't go all Machiavellian on me, Barinthus."
"I don't know what you mean by that."
I shook my head. "I don't know what you mean by any of the things you've done in the last hour, but I do know that if you ever harm any of my people and condemn them to such a terrible fate, I will cast you out. If one of my people vanishes and we can't find them, I will have to assume that you've done what you threatened, and if that happens, if you do that to any of them, then you will have to free them, and then ..."
"And then what?" he asked.
"Death, Barinthus. You would have to die or we would never be safe, especially not here on the shores of the Western sea. You're too powerful."
"So, Doyle is the Queen's Darkness, still to be sent out to kill on command like the well-trained dog he is."
"No, Barinthus, I will do it myself."
"You cannot stand against me and win, Meredith," he said, but his voice was softer now.
"I have the full hands of flesh and blood, Barinthus. Even my father didn't have the full hand of flesh, and Cel didn't have the full hand of blood, but I have both. It's how I killed Cel."
"You would not do such a thing to me, Meredith."
"And moments ago I would have said that you, Barinthus, would never have threatened people I loved. I was wrong about you; do not make the same mistake."
We stared at each other across the room, and the world narrowed down to just the two of us. I met his gaze, and I let him see in my face that I meant what I'd said, every word of it.
He finally nodded. "I see my death in your eyes, Meredith."
"I feel your death in my heart," I replied. It was a way of saying that my heart would be happy to have his death, or at least not sad.
"Am I not allowed to challenge those who insult me? Would you make a different kind of eunuch out of me than Andais did?"
"You can protect your honor, but no duel is to the death, or to anything that will destroy a man's usefulness to me."
"That leaves little that I can do to protect my honor, Meredith."
"Maybe, but it's not your honor I'm worried about, it's mine."
"What does that mean? I have done nothing to besmirch your honor, only the pixie brat."
"First, never call him that again. Second, I am the royal here. I am the leader here. I have been crowned by faerie and Goddess to rule. Not you, me." My voice was low and careful. I didn't want it to break with emotion. I needed control in this moment. "By attacking the father of my child, my consort, in front of me, you proved that you have no respect for me as a ruler. You do not honor me as your ruler."
"If you had taken the crown as it was offered, I would have honored what Goddess chose."
"She gave me a choice, Barinthus, and I have faith that she wouldn't have done that if the choice offered was a bad one."
"The Goddess has always allowed us to choose our own ruin, Meredith. Surely you know that."
"If by saving Frost I chose ruin, then it was my choice, and you will either abide by that choice or you can get out of my sight, and stay out of it."
"You would exile me?"
"I would send you back to Andais. I hear she has been in a blood-lust since we left faerie. She mourns her only child's death in the flesh and blood of her people."
"You know what she is doing to them?" He sounded shocked.
"We still have our sources at court," Doyle said.
"Then how can you stand there, Darkness, and not want us all brought back into our power so we can stop the slaughter of our people?"
"She has killed no one," Doyle said.
"It is worse than death what she does to them," Barinthus said.
"They are all free to join us here," I said.
"If you bring us all into our power then we can go back