Page 14 of Silver and Lead (October Daye #19)
FIVE
P LEASE STATE YOUR NAME and title for the official record.”
“Sir October Christine Daye, Knight of Lost Words, sworn in service to Duke Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills, wed to King Tybalt of the Court of Dreaming Cats.” Technically that last part wasn’t in my title, and could have been left out.
With what felt like half the population of the Mists staring at me, it seemed like a good idea to remind anyone who might not have my best interests in mind that I had people who not only cared about me, but would have diplomatic immunity if they chose to break the Law.
Oberon’s one and only Law: no one is allowed to kill purebloods, not even other purebloods, although changelings are fair game.
Due to their somewhat animalistic nature and separate political structure, the Law has never fully applied to the Cait Sidhe.
They can, and do, kill each other. Could they get away with killing other fae?
I was pretty sure no one here wanted to give Tybalt a reason to find out.
Madden nodded, as did the short woman standing just behind him.
She was no taller than an eight-year-old child, with straight brown hair that hung around her face like a curtain and yellow eyes that lacked whites, pupils, or irises: they were just yellow from side to side, nothing like a human’s, but also nothing like a cat’s.
She was new to Arden’s court, and we had yet to be formally introduced—or introduced at all, with the way my family had been conspiring to keep me at home.
Still, I’d heard rumors about how Arden had managed to entice an Adhene to join her service, and now here she was, a living lie detector at the formal court that would determine the false queen’s sentence.
Not that we didn’t all know the false queen was guilty. This was a performance as much as anything else, a way for people to understand just how much she had victimized our Kingdom and its citizens, and I couldn’t blame Arden for putting it on. Even if I did need to pee.
Adhene always know when someone is lying. It makes them angry. And while they’re small people, they have incredible physical strength. Pissing them off is a bad move.
Madden caught my eye. “And do you have a complaint against the unnamed woman who fraudulently occupied the throne in the Mists following the death of King Gilad Windermere?”
“If I say no, do I get to leave?”
He shook his head. “No. If you say no, I look really disappointed and ask again.”
A titter ran through the crowd. It wasn’t that funny, but they’d been here for a while, and they were looking for anything to break the boredom. I sighed. “Then yes, I have a complaint against her. Several.”
“Please detail your complaints. If you state anything untrue, Bahey will interrupt, and I will ask you to reconsider.”
Bahey must have been the Adhene. I swallowed the urge to sigh again, and nodded instead. “Understood.”
“You may begin.”
Madden stepped back, gesturing for me to face Arden.
I turned toward the throne, trying not to look at the crowd to either side.
It was filled with familiar faces, many of them more than a little bit distracting.
The Luidaeg wasn’t there. Too bad. If anyone could have demanded I get dismissed on the grounds of “nothing new to say, don’t torture the pregnant lady,” it was her.
“The false queen’s dislike of me began to manifest after I was knighted,” I said.
“She granted permission for my training, but I guess she thought I’d give up, because she seemed to hold it against me when I went through with it.
Any time I had to interact with her she was unpleasant, verging on hostile.
She never outright banned me from her court, but she made it quite clear that I was unwelcome among my betters, and that she would prefer it if I kept my distance. After my time in the pond—”
Despite my attempts to tune out the crowd, I saw Simon wince out of the corner of my eye.
I understood and shared his discomfort. The past was the past, but we both hated to be reminded of what he’d done to me, even knowing that it had been done to save my life.
I would never have survived Evening’s wrath if he’d refused to follow her orders.
Neither would he. So instead he’d done his best to seem like her obedient little minion while also letting his daughter live.
It had been a narrow road to walk, and it wasn’t one I envied him.
“—when I came back, she started tormenting me more actively,” I continued, trying to keep my eyes fixed on Arden. It was better than watching Bahey, who would lose her temper if I dared to say anything that wasn’t completely true. No pressure or anything.
Not that I wanted to lie to Arden. I may not be a major fan of the feudal system the way it works in Faerie, but even though I wasn’t thrilled about her forcing me back to work, she’s not bad as monarchs go.
She doesn’t go around treating her subjects like trash just because she can, she doesn’t belittle changelings or allow goblin fruit to proliferate inside her territory.
She could be a lot worse, and that’s a relief, since it’s largely my fault that she ended up in charge.
“Can you cite examples?” she asked.
“Any time I had to appear before her, she would transform my clothing into something she liked better, even if I’d made an effort to dress appropriately for court.
Not illusions, either. Full-on transformations, that I didn’t have the capacity to undo.
I lost some of my favorite pairs of jeans that way. ”
Another titter swept through the crowd, and the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of Arden’s mouth. “Can you cite a less petty example?”
“I can.” I took a deep breath. “She granted me the title of Countess of Goldengreen for my part in the death of Blind Michael, as a part of an intentional bid to strip me from the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill. As a countess of her territories, my fealty shifted to her.”
“Most people would disagree with the idea that being ennobled is a torment.”
“It is when it’s intended to make you vulnerable to attack.
She shifted my fealty from Duke Torquill to herself to remove the protections he could offer me, and proceeded to charge me with a violation of Oberon’s Law.
With no liege to speak for me, I was sentenced to death.
She commanded I be taken to the Iron Tree, where I would be bound, blinded, and burned.
Prior to my execution, I was locked in an iron-lined cell, and nearly succumbed to the poison before I was rescued by allies who shall go unnamed. ”
“You were pardoned for the slaying of Blind Michael by High King Sollys, were you not?”
“Yes, but I was imprisoned before the pardon was received. It barely arrived in time to prevent my execution.”
Arden hesitated. When she spoke again, she looked as if her own words pained her. “I cannot view a queen, even a pretender, wishing to avoid her subjects murdering one another as an unnecessary cruelty.”
“We’re allowed to kill in times of declared war,” I said. “Blind Michael declared war on the Court of Cats by stealing their children.”
“More than just the Court of Cats,” drawled the Luidaeg from behind me.
I managed, barely, not to turn and look for her in the crowd.
“Dozens of people had declared war on my brother over the years. If she’d been looking to keep order in her kingdom, she should either have acknowledged that and left October alone, or accused me of the same thing.
After all, I’m the one who gave my niece the tools she needed to kill him.
Who’s on trial here, anyway? October has been pardoned. The matter is sealed and sorted.”
“My apologies, lady sea witch,” said Arden. “I am not attempting to accuse Sir Daye of anything, only to understand the ways in which the pretender’s overreach harmed a hero of our realm.”
“Attempt harder,” said the Luidaeg, voice taking on a slight lisp that I knew meant her teeth were no longer strictly human in shape or number.
Arden, looking flustered, returned her attention to me. “Can you cite any other clear incidents?”
“She ordered me exiled from the kingdom for objecting to the presence of goblin fruit in the streets, which led to the deaths of uncounted changelings. She claimed we were her subjects. We deserved better from someone who would call herself our monarch, and she left us to waste away and die. That was when I had to go looking for you. I’d have been thrown out of my home if we hadn’t been able to restore the true queen to her throne. ”
“I do remember that part,” said Arden, with a flicker of humor.
“And even stripping her throne from her wasn’t enough to make her stop,” I continued.
“She moved up the coast to the Kingdom of Silences, and when I was sent there on a diplomatic mission, manipulated the puppet king she had helped to install into violating the terms of hospitality and taking me captive. She was intending to see me broken and butchered, and said as much in my hearing. I was rescued by my allies, and she was elf-shot, only to be awakened by one of her few remaining allies. Where is Dugan, anyway?” The last time I’d seen him, he had been injured and permanently silenced by his attempt to take his own life: the iron knife he’d used to open his throat might not have killed him, but it had damaged his vocal cords so badly that the healers believed he was never going to speak again.
Good. It wasn’t like he’d ever had anything useful to say. Still, as far as I knew, he’d been in Arden’s custody alongside his mistress when the enchantment had come down and trapped us all.
Arden frowned, a small line appearing between her brows. “Master Harrow was missing from his cell when the real world returned. He has yet to be apprehended.”
I managed, barely, to resist the urge to clutch my stomach defensively. “You could have mentioned that sooner.”
“It didn’t seem relevant.”