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Talathain fell in the snow.
Roiben stood over him, pointing the blade at the knight's throat. Talathain went still. "Come and get the crown if you want it. Come and take it from me.”
Kaye wasn't sure if she heard a threat or a plea in those words.
Talathain didn't move.
A faery with skin like pinecones, rough and cracked, took Talathain's golden sword from his hands. Another spat into the grimy snow.
"You'll never hold both courts," Talathain said, struggling to his knees.
Roiben teetered a little, and Kaye put her arm under his. He hesitated a moment before leaning his weight against her. She nearly staggered.
"We'll hold the Bright Court just as your mistress would have held us," Dulcamara purred, squatting down beside him, a shining knife touching his cheek, the point pressing against the skin. "Pinned down in the dirt. Now tell your new Lord what a fine little puppy his cleverness has bought him. Tell him you'll bark at his command.”
Ethine stood stiff and still. She closed her eyes.
"I will not serve the Unseelie Court," Talathain said to Roiben. "I will not become like you.”
"I envy you that choice," said Roiben.
"I'll make him bark," Dulcamara said.
"No," Roiben said. "Let him go.”
She looked up, surprised, but Talathain was already on his feet, pushing his way though the crowd as Ruddles called out, "Behold our undoubted Lord Roiben, King of both the Unseelie and the Seelie courts. Make your obeisances to him.”
Roiben swayed slightly, and Kaye tightened her grip. Somehow he remained standing, although his blood slicked her hand. "I'll be better than she was," she heard him say. His voice was all breath.
Chapter 14
"In a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.”
—Plutarch, Moralia
When Kaye and Corny walked into the small apartment, Kate was lying on an air mattress in the middle of the floor. She was drawing in a magazine. Kaye could see that the little girl had blacked out Angelina Jolie's eyes and was in the process of drawing bat wings over Paris Hilton's shoulder blades.
"Cute kid," said Corny. "Reminds me of you."
"We got lo mein and veggie dumplings." Kaye shifted the bag in her arms. "Grab a plate; it's leaking on my hand.”
Kate scrambled to her feet and pushed back a tangle of dirty blond hair. "I don't want it.”
"Okay." Kaye set the cartons on the kitchen counter. "What do you want?”
"When's Ellen coming home?" Kate looked up, and Kaye could see her brown eyes were rimmed with red, as though she'd recently been crying.
"When her rehearsal's over." The first time Kaye had met Kate, the girl had hidden under the table. Kaye wasn't sure if this was better. "She said she wouldn't be that late, so don't freak out.”
"We don't bite," Corny put in.
Kate picked up her magazine and climbed up on Ellen's bed, skooching over to the far corner. She tore off tiny pieces and rolled them between her fingers.
Kaye sucked in a breath. The air in the apartment tasted like cigarettes and human girl, at once familiar and strange.
Kate scowled ferociously and threw the balled-up paper at Corny. He dodged.
Opening the refrigerator, Kaye took out a slightly withered orange. There was a block of cheddar with mold covering one end. Kaye chopped off the greenish fur and put the remaining lump on a piece of bread. "I'll grill you some cheese. Eat the orange while you wait.”
