Sahir stepped on my foot.
I jumped back, glaring at him, but he was right. I needed to be looking at the Queen, not imagining her knights swinging their giant poles around like the spinning-plates act at a circus.
So I looked back at her.
She straightened and stared across the flames at the five of us. The room was so small I could feel the heat of the fire from where I stood.
“You come to relinquish your prisoners as tribute, Kamare,” she said. It wasn’t a question. “And you, Miriam Geld, come to beg for your life.” I found myself watching her mouth for a flash of shark teeth. She tapped a finger on her full lower lip. She had ruby red nails.
“I know enough, you see,” she said, her eyes glazing past me with studied disinterest. “And so long as I am ruler of this Court, any faerie may bring me petition, and I will hear them fairly.”
Something passed across the leftmost guard’s face when she said that.
I debated being interested and then decided I had enough of my own problems.
“The humans must not be allowed into our realm,” Kamare said. “I submit these prisoners to you as fair barter for the closing of the borders to Faerie.”
At this, the Queen stood.
And I panicked.Prisoners, Kamare had said. AndPlead for your life, the Queen had said, as though living was an option. Was I about to be traded to a different royal faerie? Would she have different quirks than the Princeling, which I’d have to learn, and work around? Oh god,work. I didn’t even have my work laptop with me.
My mind jerked to a halt. I was trapped in Faerie, a political prisoner to a proven poisoner, being traded to a Queen. I’d been embroiled in a battle I didn’t understand and that would probably kill me, and I was worrying about my emails.
More than that—I looked right, at Sahir, Gaheris, and Lene, lined up in a row facing the Queen. I’d brought my friends into this, intentionally or otherwise. If they were harmed, it was my fault.And I was worrying about my emails.
“Four prisoners, three of them residents of another Court, and the fourth a human whose blood is forfeit on my soil,” the Queen mused. She stared at Kamare. “Do you think the Princeling will not come looking?”
“I took them according to the laws of prisoner exchange, and they will acknowledge this themselves, if asked.” Kamare looked a bit flustered.
I shot Sahir a look that saidIt is insane that you live in a world where prisoners can be traded for favors from the Queen. And he returned it with a look that saidI’ve been to New York; don’t get too self-righteous.
“As the humans often say, there is the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law.”
What aweirdthing for the human-killing ruler to say. The Princeling had never quoted humans to me.
The Queen took three side steps around the fire, and my heart stuttered. I’d never seen anyone move with such grace. She moved at a human speed, so my eyes could track her, and every muscle bent and stretched until at the third step, I found myself crying.
The Queen looked at me, still several feet away. She seemed unsurprised by my tears. “There is also something in the way that humans watch magic,” she said musingly, and gestured at my face. Even the sweep of her arm mesmerized me.
Kamare turned to me, too, and her forked tongue flicked out between her lips—tasting the air for my tears?
“They can kill us,” she said, “without intending to. They bring destruction in their wake. You know that.”
The Queen shrugged. “The humans have always salted the earth,” she said, her tone indifferent.
I didn’t expect the rage with which Kamare responded—she screamed and flung herself at the Queen, her fingertips extended into claws. I gasped and started forward, but before I’d taken half a step, the Queen’s guard were in front of her, spears leveled.
As I stared at the sharp, pointed tips, the spears didn’t seem so funny to me.
“You will fall,” Kamare said, but she backed up, until she was next to me in our row.
“We all fall.” The Queen still seemed disinterested. “You may leave, Kamare. I am your Queen, and my strength is my people, and I will not allow harm to befall you.”
Kamare slunk backward until she was out of the room. I watched her go with a strong feeling of relief.
The Queen’s eyes flicked to me. “Did you intend to assist the soldier, or protect me?”
I stared at her long black eyelashes, the regal sweep of her nose. “Defend you, I think,” I said.
