Page 11 of Silver and Lead (October Daye #19)
FOUR
P EOPLE WANTED TO SPEAK against the false Queen.
More people than I would have dreamed possible wanted to speak against her.
I spotted Magdaleana, the Librarian from the Library of Stars, among the throng waiting to make their points, and a few courtiers in the livery of the Kingdom of Silences stood not far behind her.
Of course the Kingdom of Silences had sent an envoy, after what she’d done to them—and to their ruling family.
The testimonies to her cruelty went on and on. People were treating this as an airing of their grievances, and boy did they have a lot of grievances to air. Tybalt’s arms tightened around me.
“I will have to say my piece, after her transgressions against my Court and against you,” he said. “But I think your presence speaks as much as any words you might offer.”
“Why, Tybalt, are you saying that I can go sit down if I want to?”
He grimaced but nodded. “If your accounting of anything before her creation is needed, May can speak in your stead,” he said. “I would much prefer you rest your feet and perhaps eat something, rather than standing here for what seems to be an unending recitation of wrongs.”
“Sadly, Arden’s a little busy right now,” I said. “And I don’t know how to get back to the parlor where we stopped off between the bathroom and here.”
Tybalt looked around, arms still tight around me, and I heard his small, pleased exhale. “I adore you,” he murmured, letting go of my waist and taking my hand, walking around to face me directly. “You are all my trials and all my treasure, wrapped into a single complicated mess.”
I eyed him. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I have spotted someone to whom I can trust your safety, if only for a short time,” he said. He let go of my hand, and I turned to follow the angle of his gaze. I nearly laughed when I saw who he was looking at.
Simon Torquill was making his way toward us.
Like his brother, my liege, he was redhaired and golden-eyed, with surprisingly freckle-free skin, given his fair complexion.
His ears were sharply pointed, and his features were classically strong, as if he were a work of art that had decided to come to life and walk around for a while.
Daoine Sidhe are like that. They specialize in the sort of beauty that can stop a heart, or lift it up, depending on how it’s worn.
Simon wore his beauty like an apology, like he wasn’t entirely sure where he’d found it, but would be more than happy to return it if given the opportunity.
Clothing-wise, he was in breeches and a doublet over a white shirt, with the arms of Saltmist stitched above his heart. He smiled hesitantly when he saw me.
There was nothing hesitant about my answering smile. “Fa—Simon!” I exclaimed, starting toward him.
He startled but only slightly, catching himself before he could commit fully to the gesture. “October,” he said, voice warm and reserved at the same time, like he was holding himself back.
Screw that . Simon and I had been building a relationship before Titania’s enchantment, but he had still been the monster under my bed, even as I’d tried hard to forgive what he’d done.
During the enchantment, he’d been my father, beloved and trusted above all others, even my mother.
I had four months of earnest, unquestioning love between me and the pains of our past, and I wasn’t in any hurry to let those go.
It wasn’t betraying my human father to let myself love Simon. It wasn’t letting Titania win.
It was just letting us both be happy, and we deserved it.
I reached Simon and grabbed his hands in my own, holding them tightly so that he couldn’t easily pull away. “Are you here to testify?”
“I am,” he replied. “But as there’s quite a queue in front of me, it may be some time before I can step forward. It’s… very nice to see you, my dear.” His eyes flicked to the undeniable swell of my midsection, tracing the shape of my stomach with a look.
I smiled indulgently when he looked up again. “You knew I was pregnant when you left for the Undersea,” I said. “Is it really a surprise that I’ve gotten more pregnant while you were busy?”
“No,” he admitted. “But you weren’t showing before, and now, it seems as if you could give birth at any moment.”
Tybalt shot us both an alarmed look.
I shook my head, still smiling. “Nope. Baby’s still baking, and I’m not having any pains that might progress into labor. I can’t be absolutely certain, but I think we’re good for now.”
“Do you have a birth plan?”
For a moment I paused, savoring the strangeness of being asked that question by Simon Torquill—a man I would have once sworn wanted to see me dead—in front of my husband, the King of Cats.
Life has a way of doing whatever the hell it wants, and the rest of us just need to do our best to keep up.
“I do,” I said. “I’d rather not go into it while the Queen is trying to conduct the sentencing of her predecessor, but I have one. ”
“I was hoping you might be able to escort October to a lounge where she can rest her feet and have something small to eat,” said Tybalt. “I’ll come to join you as soon as I’ve given my testimony.”
“I would be honored,” said Simon, true gratitude shining in his eyes as he turned and offered me his arm.
I took it, and he led me toward another of those open hallways, moving slow and careful in deference to my condition.
Tybalt stayed behind, and it was jarring how strange that felt, to have him allow me to walk away without trying to follow.
“We haven’t seen you in a while,” I said, as we walked.
“No,” he agreed. “I’ve been… otherwise occupied.”
“Is something going on in the Undersea? August’s been awfully quiet about how things are in Saltmist when she’s come to visit, and we haven’t seen you, Patrick, or Dianda on the surface since Titania’s enchantment broke.”
“Things are complicated at the moment,” said Simon, as we passed from the noise of the main room to the quiet of the hall.
“My lady wife dislikes allowing me to leave her sight, and I can’t honestly blame her for that.
If not for the importance of these proceedings, she would have asked that I remain at home with her and Patrick. ”
I blinked. “Simon, is Dianda holding you captive in the Undersea?”
He blinked back, then barked laughter, moving smoothly to open a door to another small parlor, near identical to the one where I’d met with Arden. The only difference: the table in this parlor was empty, which was to be expected, but still disappointing.
“No,” he said, reassuringly. “Not in the slightest. There are simply matters which require my attention at home in Saltmist, and after a routine trip to land resulted in both my near death and a four-month entrapment at Titania’s hands, well. She’s a little anxious about my safety.”
Put like that, I couldn’t blame her, any more than I could blame Tybalt. Still, I had to make one more attempt. “She and Tybalt should form a club. And she lets August leave.”
“August is her stepdaughter, not her husband,” he said, shutting the door behind me.
“August also has a stronger aversion to being kept than I do. She yearns for freedom. I want only for security and a place where I can be truly needed.” He turned to re-take my arm and guide me to a chair.
“Saltmist affords me both these things.”
I looked into his face and saw no deception there, only the honest weariness of a man who’d gone too long looking for a place where he could feel safe and like his welcome wasn’t somehow conditional. “Well, we’ve missed you,” I said.
His smile was surprised and clearly involuntary. “Why, October, I have missed you too.”
He picked up a small bell resting on the edge of the table and rang it, only once.
The sound was sweet and clean, silver against glass.
A bare second later the door opened, and several servers entered the room, setting plates and platters on the empty table before leaving again, none of them saying a word.
I looked at Simon. I looked at the food. “I think I love you,” I informed him.
His smile turned wavery around the edges, like he was barely managing to hold it in place.
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to hear from you,” he said.
And then he was crying, and I was crying, and while there are many things about pregnancy that were not my favorite, the hormonal crying was definitely right up there at the top of the list.
Fortunately, I got myself under control before Tybalt could come to join us and this could turn from a sweet family moment into the sort of terrible misunderstanding that got people hurt. I assembled myself a plate while Simon wiped his eyes, then sat back down and looked at him.
“Simon,” I said. “When you worked for… who you used to work for, did she ever have you dealing in artifacts?”
“Oh, quite regularly,” he replied. “She believed items of power crafted by fae hands belonged in her hands and hers alone, unless one of her favored pets needed them for one purpose or another. She gave a few to Oleander, a few to her puppet queen, but the bulk of what she sent me to retrieve she kept for herself, adding it to her hoard like a storybook dragon. I have little doubt that her riches exceeded those of the High Kingdoms.”
I nodded slowly. “Did she keep those artifacts here in the Mists?”
“She did.” He looked at me with grave eyes. “Most of what she’d swindled, stolen, and sought for was recovered after she fell and Arden rose, finding its way into the kingdom’s coffers. Why do you ask me these things?”
“Because the royal vaults were looted during the enchantment, and now Queen Windermere needs me to find what’s been lost. How dangerous are we talking here?”
Simon blinked, apparently taken aback. “I can’t believe she would order you to endanger yourself or your child when you’re so close to your time.”