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He was looking between the two of us now, why I didn’t know.The guy didn’t even like me.“It’s...not pretty,” I agreed, since he seemed to expect an answer.“But it will work.”

“And you know this how?”

“I also saw one once.At Convocation, a kind of get-together for the leaders of the vampire world.They used to hold it every few years—”

“You got in there?”Alphonse looked impressed.

“As Mircea’s guest, briefly.”I grimaced.It hadn’t been fun.“Anyway, I saw a vamp wearing a cloak made out of a Were he’d skinned when it was halfway through the change so that the skin was half Were and half human—”

“God,” someone said.

“The vamps like to show off their power at Convocation, to stave off anybody who might seek to challenge them,” I explained.“I asked Mircea later what it meant, and he said it was the man’s way of showing that he was strong enough to take down a battle-hardened Were and that he had a magic worker who knew how to make skin suits.So, challenge him, and who knew what he might look like when he infiltrated your house to take you down.”

“Nice one,” Alphonse approved.

“It is not nice!”Æsubrand said, now glaring at Bodil.As if to say, ‘And these are our allies?’

“Do you have a better idea?”was her only reply.

“Yes!We fight!”

She sighed and shared a glance with Pritkin, whose jaw tightened.“Prince Emrys tells us that the portal is deep inside the complex under a maze of tunnels that can change configuration on a whim.And it is guarded by the hordes of dark mages who currently populate the place and dozens of wards.”

“Even so,” Æsubrand straightened his shoulders.“Better to die in the attempt than to degrade one’s honor—”

“Degrade?”Enid said, her hazel eyes flashing.The witches had magicked up some spell light, basically moonlight from outside trapped in warded balls, and tucked them around here and there to allow us to see in the windowless cellar.And the light loved Enid, glimmering off her red curls, turning individual hairs prismatic, and gilding her pale skin.

Like Æsubrand, hardship made her beauty shine all the stronger, and her expression had helped with that.She’d been standing aside, soaking up everything with a rapt look since I guessed this was the first time she’d had a chance to observe her people outside of Faerie.She seemed to find the motley crew of magic users fascinating.

Until Æsubrand started talking, that was, and her face fell into a look of disdain that would have done the prince himself proud.“What honor do you think you have, Svarestri?”

Æsubrand flushed slightly.“More than a scullery maid!”

I winced but didn’t have time to do more before she was over the table and in his face.“Better a scullery made than a traitor’s son!”

“Do not dare speak to me in such a—”

He broke off when a wand tip dented his throat.“Tell me, princeling,” the beautiful redhead hissed, “do you know what your father has in the hallway leading to his throne room?Do you know what he keeps there so that he might gloat every time he passes it?Doyou?”

“What does he have?”Alphonse asked, looking curious.

“An entire Margygr village,” Enid rasped.“Suspended forever in the hardened stone that he caused to roll over them in battle, and then had chiseled out and taken back to his palace to make into a decorative frieze commemorating his victory!They were some who stood by their vows to Nimue, who defended her kingdom’s eastern flank even though it was beyond the reach of her great shield, and that was the reward they received.She let them down, but your father—there werechildrenamong them, do you understand?”The wand tip pressed in a little more.“Have you seen it?”

“I have seen it.”To his credit, Æsubrand looked sick.But not enough to avoid trying to excuse the old man.“My father’s mind has been overwhelmed.The gods did something to him—”

“Yes!Brought out what was already there!”

“And why would you care?”A little fire came back into those pewter eyes.“A half-breed rejected by those very people?What does it matter to you what happened to them?You should be—”

He cut off because the silver-haired, aristocratic-looking prince, yes even now with half of his armor gone and his cheek streaked with mud, had just been roundly slapped by a kitchen maid.

It was worse than using the wand; it was a gesture of contempt, and her expression backed it up.It said that he wasn’t worthy of combat in her eyes.And Grizzled Topknot approved.

“Girl has spirit,” the old witch grinned.“Perhaps we should adopt her.”

“Have a care,” Pritkin said to Æsubrand, who was just standing there, looking incredulous.

“She hit me.”His tone said that he couldn’t believe it.