She smiled. “Begging is not done on your feet, Meredith.” She walked back up to her throne, the long black skirts trailing behind her like a cloak of darkness. She settled the skirts with a practiced gesture, fanning them out around her. The color framed all that pale skin and black hair, the tri-grey eyes with the dramatic eye makeup. Diamonds and midnight-dark sapphires graced her throat and gloved wrist.
I dropped to one knee. Galen helped make it graceful, and knelt with me. Everyone with me knelt when I did. “I beg a private audience with you, Aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness.”
“Why are you and Galen covered in blood?”
“I have much to share with you, my queen, but some of it might better be served to your ears alone.”
“Has there been another attempt on your life?”
“Not on mine, no.”
She shook her head, as if she had a fly buzzing around her, and she was ridding herself of it. “You speak in riddles.”
“I would speak clearly with you in private.”
“Let us handle our public business first,” she said, and pointed to Barinthus, who was still standing between the throne and our group. “The ring acknowledges him, and you have helped him break his vow to me.”
“The ring knows Lord Barinthus. You said that I was to fuck as many of the guards as often as possible. Wasn’t that your order to me?”
Her face narrowed down to angry lines. “Perhaps my words were hasty, or perhaps you do not know that Barinthus made a vow to me before I allowed him to join this court. One that only he made, and now he has broken it.”
“He has done nothing that will set him as king to my queen.”
“Have a care, Meredith, I know that he had sex with you.”
“Sex that was more magical than real, nothing that would get me with child.”
“He had release in your body.”
“No, he had release, but our clothes were in place, and he has never entered my body with so much as a fingertip.”
“You swear this?” she asked.
“I do.”
“I was told that Barinthus had moved from kingmaker to would-be king.”
“I tell you that he has not broken the vow he made to this court. The ring recognizes who it will, and bestows its gifts where it will, but he has broken no vow.”
“Why did you not say this, Barinthus?” she asked.
“You would not believe me, Queen Andais.”
She seemed to think about that for a second or two, then gave a very small nod. “Perhaps not.” She looked at me. It was the kind of look that a hawk gives to grass when it’s almost certain there’s a tasty morsel down there.
“I have heard many stories about your activities. Now I wonder how much is true, and how much is exaggeration designed to set me against my allies and you.”
“Until I know what you have been told, I cannot say, Aunt Andais.”
“We are in the throne room, Meredith, use my title.”
“My queen.” I bowed my head, so she would not see my face. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all.
CHAPTER 24
“DID THE RING CHOOSE A COUPLE AMONG THE GUARDS?” her voice was very neutral when she asked.
I was glad I was staring at the floor because so much had happened that I’d almost forgotten about Nicca and Biddy. Murders, metaphysics, the Goddess, the chalice, Amatheon vanishing, the attack on Galen, Cel’s prophecy about the green men, the lords who waited just outside, so much, and this was what she began with. Why?
“Yes, Queen Andais, the ring did choose a couple.”
There were murmurings from the nobles in their seats on either side of the floor. “Describe what happened.”
I did as she ordered. I talked of the phantom child, and what I had seen and felt.
Someone said, “The ring lives again.”
Andais looked at the man who had spoken. “Do you have something to add to this discussion, Lord Leri?”
“Only that this is surely good news, my queen.”
“I will decide what is good news, Leri.”
He bowed. “As my queen wills.”
She turned her attention back to me. “The ring lives again after centuries. It chooses a possibly fertile pair, and you don’t think this is important enough to tell me.”
“Much has happened since the ring chose them, Queen Andais. I thought finding the murderer, or murderers, took precedence.”
“I decide what takes precedence here, not you.” She stood. “I am still queen.”
I lowered myself to both knees, and Galen moved with me. “I have never questioned that.”
“Liar,” she hissed, and the room echoed with that one word.
Okay, this was bad, really bad. “What have I done to anger you, Queen Andais? Tell me and I will do my best to remedy it.” I kept my face down so that I was staring at the well-worn stone floor. I did not trust my expression. Fear might excite her, and puzzlement might anger her. I had no expression that I could give her.
“Mistral. Come to me, captain of my guard.” He got up off his knees and answered her command.
I watched him as he mounted the steps to her. He made a sound of startlement more than pain, as she grabbed a handful of his rich, deep grey hair and used it to jerk him to his knees before her. “Did you fuck him?”
I tried to see the trap in the question but failed. I answered truthfully, “Yes, my queen.”
She let him go so abruptly that he nearly fell down the steps, catching himself with one hand. He stayed kneeling awkwardly, most of his face hidden by the glory of his hair. He lowered his eyes, but not before a rumble of thunder echoed through the throne room.
The nobles moved restlessly, looking up and around. Andais’s voice purred as she knelt beside Mistral, stroking his hair. He shivered like a skittish horse when she touched him. “Was that you, Mistral?”
“Forgive me, my queen, I have not had such power in years. My control is not what it was, my apologies, my queen.”
“Two ‘my queens’ in one sentence—you must feel guilty indeed.”
“I have done nothing to feel guilty over, my queen.”
She kept stroking his hair, but she looked out at me. “Have you not?”
He kept his face carefully down. Mistral had never been that good at hiding his emotions. “What have I done to anger you, my queen?” His voice was almost neutral, the distant rumble of thunder was not. His powers were newly reborn, and he was struggling.
“Did the princess bring you back into your power?” She kept petting him idly like a dog. I’d seen her do that with a guard now and then. She’d stroke and pet them all night in front of everyone, then leave them with only those caresses, and nothing more. I’d seen her reduce some of our greatest warriors to silent tears. She petted Mistral, but the anger in her face was all for me. Why was she angry that I’d had sex with Mistral? What had we done wrong?
She walked down the steps, her black dress slithering behind her. “Could you bring any of us, all of us, back to our power? Is one good fuck from you all it takes?” Anger was making her skin pale, starting that first hint of moonlight glow. Her triple-grey eyes were beginning to shine, as if darkness had light in it.
I put my hands on the floor and lowered my face on top of them. I abased myself before her, because I had no idea why she was this angry with me. I had no idea what someone had been whispering in her ear.
She stood so close that the trailing edge of her skirt brushed along my body as she moved past me. “Answer me, Meredith.”
I thought of several answers, discarded them all, and finally said, “I move as the Goddess wills it.”
She came fast, her heels clicking on the stones. She knelt, put her gloved hand under my chin, and raised me up to meet her eyes. “That is not an answer.”
My voice was breathy around my pulse. “I have no other answer.” If I even hinted that I might be able to bring others back with sex, she might order one of her sex shows, and I wasn’t sure that I would survive it. And there were nobles here with whom I could barely have a casual conversation, let alone share my body. There were those who were my enemies, and I wasn’t certain having them come back into their full powers was a good idea.