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Talathain turned his crossbow toward Roiben. "Do not presume to command her.”
Roiben laughed and drew out his sword, slowly, as if daring Talathain to fire. His eyes were full of rage, but he seemed relieved, as though the clarity of his hate pushed back his shame. "Come," he said. "Let us make another corpse between us two.”
Talathain dropped the crossbow and reached for his own blade. "Long have I waited for this moment.”
They circled each other as the folk moved back, giving them room.
"Let me fight him," said Dulcamara, dressed all in red, her hair in looping ropes stitched together with black thread.>"Nonsense. I find it charming." Smiling, she swept her hand toward where Kaye stood among Silarial's attendants. "You must be parched for a taste of the changeless lands of your youth.”
A willowy human in a simple blue shift stepped out of the line as if by some signal Kaye could not discern. The servant leaned into a copper bowl on the table as if she were bobbing for apples. Then, kneeling in front of Roiben, she bent backward and opened her mouth. The surface of the wine shimmered between her teeth.
Kaye was reminded suddenly and terribly of Janet drowning, of how her lips had been parted just like that, of how her mouth had looked filled with seawater. Kaye pressed her fingernails into her palms.
"Drink," said the Bright Lady, and her eyes were full of laughter.
Roiben knelt down and kissed the girl's mouth, cupping her head and tilting her so that he might swallow. "Decadent," he said, settling back onto the cushions. He looked amused and far too relaxed, his long limbs spread out as though he were in his own parlor. "Do you know what I really miss, though? Roasted dandelion tea.”
Silarial petted the girl's hair before she sent her back to fetch a mouthful from another bowl. Kaye reminded herself not to stare, to look up only through her lashes, to keep her face carefully neutral. She dug her fingernails deeper into her skin.
"So tell me," said Silarial. "What conditions do you propose?”
"You must risk something if you wish me to risk everything.”
"The Unseelie Court has no hope of winning a battle. You ought to take whatever I offer and be grateful for it.”
"Nonetheless," Roiben said. "If I lose the duel against your champion, you will become sovereign of the Unseelie Court, and I will be dead. Quite a lot for me to wager against your offer of transient peace, but I do not ask for equal stakes. If I win, I only ask that you agree to make Ethine Queen in your place.”
For a moment Kaye thought she saw Silarial's eyes shine with triumph. "Only? And if I don't agree?”
Roiben leaned back on the cushions. "Then war, winnable or no.”
Silarial narrowed her eyes, but there was a smile at the corners of her mouth. "You have changed from the knight that I knew. “
He shook his head. "Do you recall my eagerness to prove myself to you? Pathetically grateful for even the smallest regard. How tedious you must have found me.”
"I admit I find you more interesting now, bargaining for the salvation of those whom you despise.”
Roiben laughed, and the sound of it—thick with self-loathing—chilled Kaye.
"But perhaps you despise me even more?" Silarial asked.
He looked down at the fingers of his left hand, watching them pluck at the onyx clasps of his other cuff. "I think of the way I longed for you, and it makes me sick." He looked up at her. "But that doesn't mean I've stopped longing. I yearn for home.”
Silarial shook her head. "You told Ethine you would never step down from being Lord of the Night Court. You would never reconsider your position. You would never serve me. Is that still true?”
"I won't be as I once was." Roiben gestured to Kaye and to the other girls standing against the wall. "No matter what I long for.”
"You have said that nothing about me tempts you," Silarial said. "What of it?”
He smiled. "I told Ethine to tell you that. I never said it.”
"And is it so?”
He stood, walked the short distance to where Silarial reclined, and knelt before her. He lifted his hand to her cheek, and Kaye could see his hand tremble. "I am tempted," he said.
The Bright Queen leaned closer and pressed her mouth to his. The first kiss was short and careful and chaste, but the second was not. Roiben's hands cupped her skull and bent her back, kissing her like he wanted to break her in half. When he drew back from Silarial, her lip bled and her eyes were dark with desire.
Kaye's face flamed hot and she could feel her heartbeat even in her cheeks. It seemed to her that Roiben's hand's shaking as he reached for Silarial was worse than the kisses, worse than anything he had said or could say. She knew what it felt like to tremble like that before touching someone—desire so acute that it became despair.
