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I sat on the edge of the bed with Kitto inirl His shorts were stretched tight across the firm roundness of his buttocks, and h the cloth I held him in my lap while ently at his shoulder, and he shuddered against row fir, but the other I trailed up his back I played on the rainbow scales on his back and found the line of naked skin that traced up his spine I caressed a fingertip up that long, s back his head, put his face up to mine with his eyes closed and his lips half parted But still he did not shine

He was beautiful as he sat in hted flesh He did not gloith power

"Make hilow!" Creeda cried, as if she had waited as long as she could to exclaim

At the sound of her voice, Kitto wilted, both with the slu of his head, and the press of hiainst my stomach lessened It was as if just the sound of her voice oblins do not see e vows the e do, and both partners are allowed certain freedoms Whatever child results from whatever liaison is raised by the married couple as their own There&039;s no sha cuckold Maybe that&039;s why there&039;s no hereditary monarchy But whatever the custom, I hadn&039;t known that Kitto had ever been Creeda&039;s pet

Kurag said, "Hush, Creeda" But the das around ed hiainst"I didn&039;t know your queen knew Kitto that well"

"She didn&039;t"

I patted Kitto&039;s back and wasn&039;t sure I believed hiood reason for him to lie "Then I don&039;t understand his level of fear around her"

"Creeda, like oblin who is also sidhe He will have his choice of fe didn&039;t look particularly happy about it, and I wasn&039;t exactly sure why, but it didn&039;t matter, not really

"Goblins will rape an enemy, or a prisoner, but they do not rape each other," I said

Kurag looked past me to Rhys "Your pale prince knows just e do to prisoners" He gave an ill-teround he enjoyed He liked teasing Rhys

Rhysthe scene with Kitto "I knoas a fool, Kurag The princess has told reat deal of pain, if I&039;d knohat to ask for"

Kurag&039;s leer faded into a frown "A sidhe adlanced back just enough to catch Rhys&039;s nod "We are an arrogant race, but some of us can learn from our mistakes"

"And what have you learned, pale prince?"

"That before we arrive for any banquet at your court we&039;ll be very clear on what can happen to us, and what can&039;t To all of us, including Kitto"

"Now, that&039;s arrogant," Kurag said "No sidhe can deny the goblins access to another goblin"

I added, "If Kitto doesn&039;t want to be with the women, then he can say no"

"I will have a taste of him," Creeda said

"Not if he says no," I said

"I will have hilass

Kitto cringed in against ," I said

"Why, she&039;s one of hundreds who feel the saht not survive the attentions of hundreds of goblinesses"

Kurag shrugged "We&039;re immortal We heal"

I shook ive Kitto over to that"

"He isinto his voice "I have given hi, and I say ill and on&039;t happen to hie eyes were upon me, I continued "I know your laws You do not rape your own people, not unless they have broken some law and you have deemed it fit punishment for the crime"

"There is one exception to the rule, Merry"

I must have looked as puzzled as I felt "I know of no exception to this rule" Silently, I thought, Except that to refuse your ruler is a dangerous thing

"I thought your father made sure you were versed in our ways"

"So did I," I said, "but you do not force yourself on each other; there&039;s no need There is always so partner close at hand"

"But if one of us sells his body for safety and shelter, then he gives up the right to refuse his body to anyone Only his protector can dictate who can touch hi

Kurag sighed "Merry, did you not wonder hoas so sure Kitto would go with you, and do what you wanted?"

I thought about that, then answered, "No, if our queen had bid one of her guard go with me and do what I wanted, he&039;d have done it It&039;s not our law, but it&039;s unhealthy to refuse the queen I assuave you Kitto because I knew his protector had grown tired of him We are a hard people, Merry, but I had no desire to watch Kitto be torn apart if he could not find so watches over all his people"

I nodded Kurag was crude, lecherous, ruled by his te his people, all his people It was one of the reasons that he&039;d never faced a serious challenge to his kingship He was hard, but fair Half his people feared him, and the other half loved him, because he kept theoblin needed that kind of protection," I said Kitto went very still against me, and I could almost smell his fear Fear of what I&039;d think of hi us is not pretty, Merry Most die young before they co us who long to have a sidhe in our bed A lot of your half-breeds end up trading their flesh for safety"

He was talking about prostitution, a concept unheard of a the fey, at least in faerie itself Outside faerie, well, an exile has to , and there were a feho made it that way But even then, it was more a way to make the fey&039;s usual joys pay off We are a traditionally lusty lot, and sex is sex to sooblins did not even have a word for prostitute A more alien concept for their society would have been hard to cooblins Don&039;t oblins think that one sexual partner is oblins are voracious lovers, Merry, but it is the addition of iven rise to trullups Those who cannot protect themselves, and have no other skills to offer They are not crafts They have only one skill, so we allow them to trade that skill for what they need" He didn&039;t look happy about it, as if it somehow offended him, offended his idea of how the world should run

"We would have killed such weaklings, but once they found shelter with soh to keep them safe, we had to let it bide"

"There can&039;t beyou like this," I said

"No, but allanced off to the side of the h not all sidhe-sided are weak" He made a motion, and two lance I would have taken them for sidhe, Seelie sidhe They were both tall, slender, with long yellow hair, and handsoenerous mouths and a line from brow to cheek to chin that reold the Seelie Court calls sun-kissed It&039;s rare alance and you saw the eyes, too large for the face, oblong like Kitto&039;s, and a solid color that gave no white to the eye, only a dark round of pupil lost in a sea of green for one, and red for the other The green was the color of surass The red was the color of holly berries in deep winter They were bulkier than sidhe, too, as if they&039;d done enetics allowed them to simply carry a little more muscle mass

"This is Holly and this is Ash Twins left at our doorstep by soreat war They are feared a of the Goblins to say this in an introduction was the highest of praise for a goblin warrior - and so for us, I think

The one with the red eyes glared at us The one with the green had awhether to hate us His brother sees, Holly and Ash, one of the first areen-eyed one answered, "Greetings, Meredith, Princess of the Sidhe, wielder of the hand of flesh I aave a small bow as he spoke

His brother turned to him and looked as if he&039;d strike hi to us Not queen, not princess, nothing"

Kurag was out of his chair and nearly on top of Holly before he could react Holly actually put his hand on the knife at his belt, then hesitated If he drew the blade, then Kurag could take it as ht would be to the death Once he drew the blade, it was Kurag&039;s choice I had a second to see the confusion on his face, then Kurag&039;s hand was a blur, and the younger goblin was on the floor near the chair Blood flashed in the light like an odd criolden skin The blood was al here, Holly, and until you are goblin enough to say different, my word is law"

Holly smeared the blood froround "We are not trullups We have done nothing by our laws that enables you to send us to her bed, to anyone&039;s bed We need no protectors for our flesh" He coughed and spat blood on the floor It was an insult a blood He should have drunk it "We have proven ourselves goblins first, and sidhe not at all, yet you would trade us away to this pale sidhe We have done nothing to deserve this"

Kurag ht against every other muscle He wanted to tear Holly apart; it was plain on his face We watched hie

Ash made a small movement I wasn&039;t sure what he&039;d done, but it attracted the eye The knife at his belt was still sheathed, but he&039;d done so, this will be difficult enough without reluctant bed partners"

Kurag looked up at us "They are too young, Darkness, they do not remember ere If Holly understood e once were, e could be again, he would go eagerly"

"Are reat war?"

Kurag nodded "Most of the old ones are dead Sidhe-sides didn&039;t last long a us until we made them trullups"