A Shiver of Light

I wanted to say, Stop this, don’t make her look at herself that closely, but hadn’t I done just that the last time we spoke to her? Had my boldness made him bolder, too?

“I do not need to be loved, Galen. I need to be obeyed. I need my people to follow me unquestionably.”

“Everyone needs to be loved, my queen,” he said.

“Now you remember I’m your queen; how convenient and how too late.”

“Too late for what, Aunt Andais?” I asked. My heart was thudding in my throat, and I had to swallow past it to speak clearly. Galen had been one of her lesser guards; he had no special place in her esteem, which meant he had no cards to play here. What was he trying to accomplish?

“If Merry disfigured members of the Seelie Court, they could go to the human media. They would think her a monster, and they’d be right.”

She frowned and gave him a very unfriendly look. “Perhaps being thought a monster is the price a queen must pay to keep her people and those she loves safe.”

“Perhaps,” he said, “but Meredith must win the media’s love, or the Golden Court will win their sympathy and all the good work you’ve done over the years in America will be undone. Haven’t you wished for Taranis and his people to be as reviled and feared as we once were?”

She still didn’t look happy, but there was a considering look on her face. He had her thinking, which in this case was good. “Go on,” she said, voice still unhappy, but under that was another tone. I couldn’t quite interpret it, but it wasn’t anger.

“What if we make Taranis the monster in the press? What if we use the modern media to win the hearts and minds of viewers to our side?”

“Viewers? I don’t understand.”

“We’ve been offered a television show.”

“We had decided not to take it,” Doyle said.

Galen turned to Doyle. “But don’t you see? Taranis will never be able to control himself forever. If we give him enough on-camera rope, I think he’ll hang himself.”

“You want him to attack us on camera,” I said, staring at him.

“I think I do, yes, I do.”

“He could hurt or even kill one of us, not to mention endangering the human camera crew,” Rhys said.

“True, it’s a risk, but maybe we don’t have to make him fear Merry, but fear looking bad on TV. He’s the King of Light and Illusion; he prides himself on being desirable, right?”

“He does,” Doyle said.

“What would he do if he saw himself on film being monstrous and terrifying?”

“The cameras could capture your deaths on film very nicely,” Andais said in a voice thick with disdain.

“Or capture us fighting for our lives and defending ourselves.”

“You’re planning to kill him on camera,” Andais said, and she sounded astonished and almost happy.

Galen nodded. “If he attacks us, yes, why not?”

She laughed, head back, her hand in Eamon’s swinging, almost like a child skipping beside you.

“We’d be up on murder charges, for one thing,” Rhys said.

“Maybe, but the camera crew would be our witnesses, don’t you see?”

“It is possible, but Taranis would have to lose complete control on camera,” Doyle said.

“And we would have to have the camera crew in the house with us for weeks, months before the chance might come,” Mistral said. His hand was tense in mine.

I turned and looked up at him. His long gray hair had more glittering strands of gold, copper, and silver, as if the “light” were getting stronger with his anxiety.

“The thought of them filming us truly bothers you,” I said.

“Yes, do you honestly want them filming everything here?”

“There are things that we do, or that happen around us, that we might not want on camera,” Doyle said.

I turned and looked at him. He was right, but … “No, Mistral, I don’t, and Doyle is right.”

“If we just want to kill the king, then let’s do it. Why do the television show? Why give the courts proof we did it? We could go back home and simply execute him for what he did to Merry.”

“I like this plan,” Doyle said, and his deep voice was a little deeper with emotion. I knew he’d wanted to slay Taranis for raping me. It had been tempting to let him do it.

“No,” I said, “no, the risk is too great.” I squeezed his hand in mine and looked up at him. “I will not lose you to vengeance.”

“He’s tried to kill me twice, Meredith; if he attacks us on camera my life may still be forfeit.”

“Then no,” I said, “no. We will not lure him here to help us kill him on camera, and we will not go home and slay him there. We will leave the mad king alone.”

“He won’t leave us alone, Merry,” Galen said.

“The boy is right,” Mistral said.

“He’s going to hunt us in our dreams, Merry; we can’t protect ourselves there, so bring him out here where our power is greater.”

“What power do we have that is greater?” I asked.

“You are Princess Meredith NicEssus, the first faerie princess born on American soil, and now you have triplets. You are a media darling, or have you forgotten that the police had to help us drive out through the press and people?”

“I haven’t forgotten.”