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GRAN HAD TAKEN THE ROOMS AT THE VERY TOP OF THE HOUSE FOR HERself In olden times when this Victorian monstrosity was new, the rooid in the winter and broiling in the su are s She’d knocked down some of the walls so that there was a cozy parlor area with a small full bathroom to one side, a se bedroom that was all hers on the other side of the parlor

The parlor was done in shades of white, cream, pink, and rose We sat on a stiff-backed love seat done in a cabbage-rose print with ed pillows than I knehat to do with I’d made a little mound of them to one side like an i tea from a flowered tea set My second cup of tea co fro so levitated to you is to sirab at it, or you’ll spill it Wait, and if the person doing the levitating is good, the cup or whatever will touch your hand, then you grab it So for a cup to float tovery hard on the et a sugar cube out of a floating sugar bowl Concentrating on sirandmother after three years But the back of my mind was croith questions Who had tried to kill us in the car? Was it Cel? Why did the queen want me ho the sport of kings, but that’s not the true sport of kings The true sport is survival and aht me back to the present with a jolt thattea cup"Sorry, Gran, I didn’t hear you"

"Dearie, your nerves are wound so tight, they’re like to snap"

"I can’t help it"

"I do na think that the queen would drag you back just to watch your eneree, but we both know her too well for that"

Gran sighed She was even tinier than I was, inches under five feet I ree, and I’d believed that nothing could har wavy brown hair spilled around her delicate body like a silken curtain-but it didn’t hide her face Her skin was brown like a nut and soe, and brown like her hair, with lovely lashes But she had no nose and very little mouth It was almost as if her face were a brown skull You could see the dual holes where the nose should be, as if the nose were cut away, but this was the face she was born with Her ht she was beautiful Her huirl that of course she was beautiful She looked just like her mother, the worandfather, but he was pure human and lived in the 1600s It was a few centuries before randreat wars between human and fey in Europe Killed for a war that, as a brownie, she had no reason to fight But if you refuse a call to battle, then it’s treason Treason is an executable offense

The sidhe leaders get you co

The china saucer touched ers and took it out of the air It would have been easier to put my entire hand under the saucer to cradle it, but that was not ladylike I’d learned to drink tea to rules of etiquette that were a hundred years or e being levitated is that when the person takes the levitation away, the cup gets heavier Almost everyone sloshes a little tea over the side the first few times No shame in it

I didn’t slosh any tea Gran and I had had our first tea party when I was five

"I wish I knehat to tell you about the queen, child, but I don’t The best I can do is feed you Have some pasties, dear I know they’re a little heavy for tea ti?" I asked

"With turnips and potatoes, just the way you like it"

I sht at the banquet"

"But will you want to eat it?" she asked

She had a point I picked up one of the meat-filled pastries A small plate floated underneath the little handheld pie "What do you think about the ring?"

"Nothing"

"What do you h inforuess"

"Was it Cel that tried to kill ry about the fact that whoever put the spell in the car illing to sacrifice Galen to get to me, as if Galen had no importance" The pastie sry The tea I’d drunk was sloshing around in ood at eating when I was nervous I laid the pie on the floating plate, and the plate floated back to the table

Gran gripped undy that was alic, Merry; ic is more innate ability But if the assassin reen cord? The color of faithfulness, of a fruitful fa I can come up with is that they had the spell for some other purpose and used it for this at the last moment Because what other reason could the spell have been there for?"

"I do na know, dearie; I wish I did," Gran said

I held listened in the thick autu to fuel thewould be there Who would the queen trust with such information?"

"The list is s for those she knows are too afraid of her to go against her wishes She could have given the ring and the note to anyone, and trusted that they would do as she asked with it It would ne’r occur to her that her guard would disobey her" She squeezed ood pasties I’uests will certainly appreciate them"

"I’m sorry, Gran I just can’t eat when I’m nervous"

"I’estured, and the door opened to the san trooping out the door

"What purpose would it serve to have Galen andtheir uneven dance out the door, but she turned to ht rather ask what purpose would it serve if the queen’s ring were found wrapped around a love spell designed for you"

"But it wasn’t designed for me It could have been anyone in the backseat of the car"

"I don’t think so," Gran said She took my hand and traced the silver band It didn’t respond to her touch as it had to Galen’s "This is the queen’s ring, and you are the queen’s blood But for an accident of birth order, EssusYou would already be queen, and not Andais It would be your cousin Cel as second in line to the throne, and not you"

"Father never approved of how Andais ran the court"

"I know there were those who urged him to kill his sister and take the throne," Gran said

I didn’t try and hide the surprise "I didn’t think that was commonly known"