Swallowing Darkness   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"I heard the rumor that the sluagh's king would be a father, but I didnae credit it."

I nodded. "It's true."

"He cannae be king of the sluagh and king of the Unseelie. He cannae sit two thrones." She sounded hostile.

Normally, I would have been more diplomatic, but the time for diplomacy was past, at least among my inner circle. I was pregnant with Gran's great-grandchildren; I might be seeing a lot of her. I did not want her and Sholto bickering for nine months, or longer.

"Why are you angry about Sholto being one of the fathers?"

It was a very blunt question, rude by any standard among the sidhe. The rules were a little less subtle among the lesser fey.

"One day of being the next queen and you would be rude to your ol' granny?"

"I'm hoping to see a lot of you while I'm pregnant, but I'm not going to mess with bad will between you and my lovers. Tell me why you don't like Sholto."

The look in her lovely brown eyes was not friendly, not at all. "Did you nae wonder who struck the blow that killed your great-grandmother, my mother?"

"She died in one of the last great wars between the courts."

"Aye, but who killed her?"

I looked at Sholto. His face was its arrogant mask, but his eyes were thinking too hard. I didn't know his face as well as Rhys's or Galen's, but I was almost certain that he was thinking furiously.

"Did you kill my great-grandmother?"

"I slew many in the wars. The brownies were on the side of the Seelie Court, and I was not. I, and my people, did kill brownies and other lesser fey of the Seelie Court in the wars, but whether one of them was your blood, I do not know."

"Worse then," Gran said. "You killed her and it meant nothin' to ya."

"I killed many. It becomes difficult after a time to separate the dead one from another."

"I saw her die at his hand, Merry. He slew her and moved on, as if she were nothing." There was such pain in her voice, a raw hurt that I had never heard from my grandmother.

"Which war was this?" Doyle asked, his deep voice falling into the sudden tension like a stone thrown down a well.

"It was the third call to arms," Gran said.

"The one that started because Andais boasted that her hounds could out-hunt Taranis's," Doyle said.

"So that's why it's called the War of Dogs," I said.

He nodded.

"I do nae know why it began. The king ne'r told us why we were to fight, only that to refuse was treason and death."

"Think about why the first one is called the Marriage War," Rhys said.

"That one I know," I said. "Andais offered to marry Taranis and combine the two courts, after her king died in a duel."

"I can't remember anymore which of them took insult first," Doyle said.

"That war was more than three thousand years ago," Rhys said. "The details tend to get fuzzy after that much time."

"So all the great fey wars have been over stupid reasons?" I asked.

"Most of them," Doyle said.

"The sin of pride," Gran said.

No one argued with her. I wasn't certain that pride was a sin — we weren't Christian — but pride could be a terrible thing in a society where the rulers had absolute sway over their people. There was no way to say no, no way to say "isn't this a stupid reason to get our people killed?" Not without being imprisoned, or worse. That went for both courts, by the by, though the Seelie Court was more circumspect over the centuries, so that its reputation among the media had always been better. Andais liked her tortures and executions more public.

I looked from Gran to Sholto. His handsome face was uncertain. He tried for arrogance, but there was a flinching in his tri-yellow eyes. Was it fear? Perhaps. I think he believed in that moment that I might cast him away, because three thousand years ago he had slain my ancestor.

"He waded through our people as if they were so much meat, something to be cut down, so that he could get to the main fightin'," Gran said, with rage in her voice that I'd never heard even for the abusive bastard who had been her husband at the Seelie Court.

"Sholto is the father of one of your great-grandchildren. Sex with him awakened the wild magic. Sex with him is what has given back the dogs and faerie animals that are appearing in the courts and among the lesser fey."

She gave me a look — such bitterness in that one look. It frightened me a little. My gentle Gran, so full of hate. "Rumor said that, too, but I didnae believe it."

"I swear by the Darkness that Eats all Things that it is true."

She looked startled. "Ya did nae ha' to make that oath to me, Merry-girl. I would believe ya."

"I want this clear between us, Gran. I love you, and I am sorry that Sholto slew your mother, my great-grandmother, in front of you, but he is not only the father of one of my children, he is also the consort who helped me bring back much of the magic that has returned. He is too valuable to me and to faerie to be accidentally poisoned."

"The sidhe cannae be poisoned," she said.

"Not with anything occurring in nature, no, but you've lived in the human world for decades. You know very well that there are man-made poisons now. The sidhe are not proof against artificial creations. My father taught me that."

"Prince Essus was a very wise man, and for a sidhe royal, he was a great, great man." There was a ferociousness to her words. She meant them, for she had loved my father as a son, for he, more than my mother, had loved me, and had allowed Gran to help him raise me. But the rage in those words didn't match what she was saying, as if there were other words in her mind than those on her tongue.

"He was, but his greatness is not what is in your mind, grandmother. I see a rage in you that frightens me. The kind of rage that all the fey seem capable of, so that they will trade their lives and the lives of those who depend on them for vengeance and pride."

"Do nae compare me to the lords and ladies of the court, Merry. I have a right to my anger, and my thoughts on it."

"Until I can trust that you are more my ally and grandmother than a revenge-seeking daughter, I cannot have you around me."

She looked startled. "I will be with you and the babes as I helped raise you."

I shook my head. "Sholto is my lover and the father of one of the children. More than that, Gran, sex with him brought back the most magic to faerie. I will not risk him to your vengeance, unless you make our most sacred oath that you will not harm him in any way."

She searched my face as if thinking that I must be joking. "Merry-girl, you cannae mean this. You cannae think that this monster is more to you than me."

"Monster," I said softly.