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had sent me guardians, I understood that now. I thanked her for it.
Cel s guards who did not take oath to him you promised they could go with
me, I said.
I will not strip him of all signs of my favor, she answered, and her anger
seemed to crackle on the cold air.
You gave your word, I insisted.
The dogs gave another low chorus of growls. The terriers began to bark, as
terriers will. I realized in that moment that the wild hunt was not gone, only
changed. These were the hounds of the wild hunt. These were the hounds of
legend that hunted oathbreakers through the winter wood.
Do not dare to threaten! said Andais. Eamon touched her arm. She jerked away
from him, but seemed chastened. The wild hunt had been a great leveler of the
mighty. Once you became their prey, the hunt did not end until the quarry was
dead.
I do not believe I am the huntsman, I said.
It would be a bad night, Queen Andais, to be an oathbreaker. Doyle s deep
molasses voice seemed to hang on the night, as if his words had more weight on
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the still, winter air than they should have.
Are you the huntsman, Darkness? Would you punish me for breaking faith?
It is wild magic, Your Majesty; there is sometimes little choice when it
fills you. You become an
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instrument of the magic, and it uses you for its own ends.
Magic is a tool to be wielded, not some force one allows oneself to be
overcome by.
As you will, Queen Andais, but I ask that you do not test these hounds
tonight. Somehow it seemed
Doyle wasn t talking about just the dogs.
I will honor my word, she said in a voice that made it clear that she did so
only because she had no choice. She had never been a gracious loser, not in
anything, large or small. But you must leave now, Meredith, this moment.
We need time to send for the other guards, I said.
I will bring all those who wish to come to you, Meredith, Sholto said.
I turned, and there was an assurance in him, a strength that had not been
there before. He stood there with his deformity plain to see. He now made it
seem just another part of him, though, a part that would have been as surely
missed as anarm, or a leg if it were gone. Had being stripped of his extra
bits made him realize he valued them?Maybe. It was his revelation, not mine.
You would side with her, Andais said.
I am King of the Sluagh; I will see that an oath given and accepted is
honored. Remember, Queen
Andais, that the sluagh was the only wild hunt left in faerie until tonight.
And I am the huntsman of the sluagh.
She took a step toward him, as if in threat, but Eamon pulled her back. He
whispered urgently against her cheek. I could not hear what he said, but the
tension left her body, until she allowed herself to lean back against him. She
let him hold her; in the face of those who were not her friends, she let
Eamon s arms hold her.
Go, Meredith, take all that is yours, and go. Her voice was almost neutral,
almost free of that rage that always seemed to bubble just underneath her
skin.
Your Majesty, Rhys said, we cannot go to the human airport like this. His
gesture seemed to note how many of the guards were naked, and bloody. The
terriers at his feet gave happy barks, as if it looked all right to them.
Sholto spoke again. I will take you to the edge of theWesternSea , just as I
took the sluagh when we hunted Meredith inLos Angeles .
I looked at him and shook my head. I thought you came by plane.
He laughed, and it was a joyous sound. Did you picture the dark host of the
sluagh on some human airplane sipping wine and ogling the flight attendants?
I laughed with him. I hadn t thought about it that clearly. You are the
sluagh I didn t question how you got to me.
I will walk the edge of the field where it touches the woods. It is an
in-between place, neither field nor forest. I will walk, you will all follow,
and we will be at the edge of theWesternSea , where it touches the
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shore. I am the lord of the between places, Meredith.
I didn t think any royals could still travel so far, Rhys said.
I am the King of the Sluagh, Cromm Cruach, master of the last wild hunt of
faerie. I have certain gifts.
Indeed, the queen said, drily, use those gifts, Shadowspawn, and takethese
rabble from my sight.
She d used the nickname that the sidhe called him behind his back, but that
even she had never used to his face before.
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Your disdain cannot touch me tonight, for I have seen wonders. He held up
the weapons of bone, as if she had missed them before. I hold the bones of my
people. I know my worth.
If I d been closer to him I would have embraced him. Probably just as well
that I wasn t, as it might have ruined the power of the moment, but I promised
myself to give him a hug the moment we had some privacy. I loved seeing that
he valued himself at last.
I heard a sound like the breaking of ice. Frost, I said. We can t leave him
behind.
Didn t the FBI take him to the hospital? Doyle asked.
I shook my head. I don t think so. I looked out across the snow. I couldn t
see anything, but& I
started moving, and the hounds followed at my side. I started to run across
the snow, and felt the first sharp pain in my cut feet. I ignored it, and ran
faster. Time and distance shortened as they never before had outside the
sithen. One minute I was with the others, the next I was miles away, in the
fields beside the road. My twin hounds had stayed with me, and half a dozen of
the black mastiffs were there, too.
Frost lay in the snow, unmoving, as if he couldn t feel the dogs snuffling at
him or my hands turning him over. The drifts underneath him were soaked with
blood, and his eyes were closed. His face was so cold. I lowered my lips to
his and whispered his name: Frost, please, please,don t leave me.
His body convulsed, and his breath rattled back into his chest. Death seemed
to be reversed. His eyes fluttered open, and he tried to reach for me, but his
hand fell back into the snow, too weak. I lifted his hand to my face and held
it there. I held his hand there while it grew warm against my skin.
I cried, and he found his voice, hoarse. He whispered, The cold cannot kill
me.
Oh, Frost.
He raised his other hand and touched the tears on my face. Do not weep for
me, Merry. You love me, I heard it. I was leaving, but I heard your voice, and
I couldn t leave, not if you loved me.
I cradled his head in my lap and wept. His other hand, the one that I wasn t
clutching, brushed the fur of one of the huge black dogs. The dog stretched
and grew tall and white. A shining white stag stood over us. It had a collar
of holly, and looked like some Yule card brought to life. It pranced in the
snow,then ran in a white blur across the snow until it was lost to sight.
What magic is abroad this night? Frost whispered.
The magic that will take you home. Doyle spoke from behind us. He fell to his
knees in the snow beside Frost, and took his hand. The next time I send you
to a hospital, you are to go.
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