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THE PEOPLE WERE A LARGE MURMUROUS NOISE THAT SWELLED TOWARDsed in a sea of noise as I walked down the concourse The croalked back and forth at the opening like bits of multicolored debris, a wall of people Doyle walked just ahead of uard, which was exactly what he was

Our gate was in line with the broad hallway that led deeper into the airport Doyle was at the opening of the concourse, standing to one side, waiting fortoward us Galen was dressed in layers of green and white: pale green sweater, paler green pants, and an ankle-length white duster coat floating out behind him like a cape The sweater matched his hair, which fell in short curls to just below his ear, except for one long thin braid His father had been a pixie, who one of her handmaidens

I don’t believe the queen would have killed the pixie if she’d known he’d begotten a child Children are precious, and anything that breeds, that passes the blood along, is worth keeping around

I was happy to see hirapher wasn’t far behind Frankly, I’d been surprised we hadn’t stepped out into a barrage offor three years, and now she was co home, alive, well My face had been plastered across the supers of the Elven As I didn’t knohat had been done to save rateful

I droppedbeside Doyle and ran to Galen He swept ood to see you, girl" His arround with ease

I’ve never liked s around his waist, and he transferred his hands fro into Galen’s arms since I could remember Afterthe Unseeliea half-breed like myself, he didn’t have much more clout than I did What he did have was six feet of muscle and trained warrior to

back up his threat

Of course, when he swept e seven, it was s At just a little over a hundred, Galen was one of the youngest of Andais’s royal guard Athe sidhe it was like growing up together

The V neck of his sweater cut low over the swell of his chest, showing a curl of chest hair that was a darker green than his hair, al to his body His skin hite, but the sweater brought out the undercast of pale, pale green so that his skin was either pearl white or a dreaht hit it

His eyes were a green the color of new spring grass, more human than the liquid emerald of my own But the rest of hiht that since I was about fourteen, except he wasn’t who uy He didn’t play politics well enough for rown No, Galen spoke when silence would be wiser It was one of the things I’d loved about hirew older

He danced me around the hallway to some music that only he could hear, but I could almost hear it as I looked into his eyes, traced the curve of his lips with lad to see you, Merry"

"I can tell," I said

He laughed, and it was a very hu but Galen’s mirth to h for ainst entle kiss on his cheek "It’ll grow back"

There were only a few reporters, because they hadn’t had enough notice to plan a large-scale assault But most of them had a ca anything unusual, could always find a market We let the ement on freedom of the press So the Supreme Court had decreed Reporters who routinely covered the sidhe were often psychics in their own right, or witches They knehen you were using ic on them All it took was one report and you could be in civil court Let’s hear it for the First Amendment

The fey took two different tacks about the reporters So of interest to the paparazzi Galen and I were of the school that you give the uni forpositive, upbeat, and interesting This was encouraged by Queen Andais She’d been on a kick to give her court better, more upbeat publicity for the last thirty years or so My lifetis There’d been a public engagement ceremony between myself and Griffin There was no private life if the queen decreed it public

Someone cleared their throat and I looked past Galen to find Barinthus If Galen looked unique, Barinthus looked alien His hair was the color of the sea, the oceans The turquoise of the Mediterranean; the deeper reyish-blue like the ocean before a stor into a blue that was nearly black, where the water runs deep and thick like the blood of sleeping giants The colorsinto each other as if it wasn’t hair at all His skin was the alabaster white of my own His eyes were blue, but the pupils were slits of black I knew for a fact that he had a clear membrane like a second eyelid that came up over his eyes when he was underwater When I was five he taught me to swim, and I’d loved the fact that he could blink tith one eye

He was taller than Galen, nearly seven feet tall, as befit a god He earing a royal blue trench coat open over a black designer suit, but the shirt was blue silk with one of those high round collars that the designers are trying to sell so men don’t have to wear ties anymore Barinthus looked splendid in it all He’d left his hair loose and flowing free around him like a second cloak And I knew that someone else, probably my aunt, had picked his clothes for him Left to his own devices Barinthus was a jeans-and-T-shirt- or less-man

Galen and Barinthus had been two of thethe hu the sidhe; he was pure Old Court The sidhe still whispered about the last duel he’d fought, long before I was born, in which a sidhe had drowned in a summer meadow reed to fight a duel unlessless was not worth his tiround I went to Barinthus, holding out bothHe drew his hands out of his coat pockets carefully, keeping them in loose fists untilbetween his fingers, and he had been sensitive about it ever since a reporter in the fifties had called him "the fish od could be embarrassed by a twentieth-century hack, but there it was Barinthus had never forgotten that little bit of publicity

The webbing was completely retractable, just a thin extra line of skin between his fingers unless he chose to use it Then he could expand the skin and swih this was not a compliment to be paid out loud, ever

He took ht to plant a civilized but well-meant kiss on my cheek I returned the favor Barinthus liked to be civilized in public His personal side was not for Public consumption, and he had the power to e his mind Gods, even fallen ones, should be treated with a certain respect That reporter in the fifties, the one who had plastered the fishthe ide news service, had died in a freak boating accident on the Mississippi that summer The water just rose up and slapped the boat, eyewitnesses said Strangest thing they’d ever seen

The caood to have you back aood to see you, too, Barinthus I hope the court is safe enough for me to make this more than an extended visit"

The clear second eyelid blinked over his eyes When he wasn’t swin of nervousness "That you will have to discuss with your aunt"

I didn’t like the sound of that The reporter shoved a tiny tape recorder in my face "Who are you?" That he had to ask meant he was on the job since I left ho He opened hishush

" Princess Meredith NicEssus, Child of Peace"

The man who’d spoken pushed away fro

"Jenkins, how unpleasant to see you," I said

He was a tall thin h next to Barinthus he wasn’t that tall Jenkins had a permanent five-o’-clock shadow, so heavy that I’d asked hirow a beard He’d replied that his wife didn’t like facial hair I’d replied that I couldn’t believe anyone would marry him Jenkins had sold pictures of my father’s hacked body Not in the United States, of course, we’re too civilized for that, but there are other countries, other newspapers, other ht the pictures and published them He was also the one who’d surprised me at the funeral and snapped pictures of ry they had a glow to them That one had been nominated for a prize of some kind It lost, but my face and my father’s dead body ide news thanks to Jenkins I still hated hi back for a visit Are you staying the whole month until Halloween?" he asked

"I can’t believe that anyone would riskhis question I’d had lots of practice ignoring reporter’s questions

He smiled "You’d be surprised who talks toon that It sounded vaguely threatening, vaguely personal No, I didn’t like it one little bit

"Welcoely stylish bow

What I wanted to say to him wasn’t fit for public consumption, but there were too many tape recorders If Jenkins was here, then the television people couldn’t be far behind If he couldn’t have an exclusive, he’d o He’d been baiting me since I was a child He was only about ten years older than I was, but he looked twenty years older, because I still looked like I was into live forever, but I was going out well preserved I think that really bothered Jenkins, covering people who either didn’t age or aged er that it had been a comfort that he would probably die first

"You still s will shorten your life expectancy?"

His face went hard and thin with anger He lowered his voice and whispered, "Still the little bitch of the west, heh, Merry"

"I’ve got a restraining order against you, Jenkins Stay back fifty feet or I’ll call the cops"

Barinthus came up to us and offered me his aret into an insult match with a reporter in front of other reporters The restraining order had been put in place after Jenkins plastered my picture all over the world The court’s attorneys had found several judges who thought that Jenkins had indeed exploited a minor and invaded my privacy After that he was forbidden to speak with me and had to stay back fifty feet

I think the only reason that Barinthus hadn’t killed Jenkins for me was that the sidhe would have seen that as a weakness, too I wasn’t just sidhe royalty, I o deaths away from the Unseelie throne If I couldn’t protect myself from overzealous reporters, I didn’t deserve to be in line for the throne So he’d beco the press after Barinthus’s little boating accident Unfortunately, the only thing that would have ridshort of that, and he’d just heal and crawl back after me

I blew Jenkins a kiss and walked past hi questions froht parts of the story Fa holidays, yadda-yadda-yadda Barinthus and I outdistanced the reporters because they were hanging back with Galen So I asked soivenaway froal child?" he returned

"No riddles, Barinthus, just tell me"

"She has told no one what she plans, but she was uest She wants soive her, or do for her, or for the court"

"What could I possibly do that the rest of you can’t?" ,

"If I kneould tell you"

I leaned into Barinthus, running a hand down his ar a piece of air around us so that noise bounced off I didn’t want to be overheard, and if ere being spied on by the sidhe no one would wonder atit with the reporters around

"What of Cel? Does he mean to kill me?"

"The queen has been most insistent, to everyone"-he emphasized the "everyone"-"that you are to be un us, Meredith, and seeainst her son?" I asked