Page 8 of Silver and Lead (October Daye #19)

“Whoever has these items has started either using them, selling them, or both. We don’t know if they’re all in the same hands.

But we do know that someone is using the scabbard to make weapons for criminals,” she said.

“The first would-be Robin Hood with iron-tipped arrows could have been a fluke. The seventh? Not so much.”

“Why haven’t I heard anything about this?” I asked. “I know I’ve been out of the loop, but there still should have been something.”

“We’ve been doing our best to keep it under wraps.

People are already unsettled enough about what happened.

Having the Queen of Faerie effectively declare war on your kingdom and way of life doesn’t leave a lot of confidence in the way things are.

” Arden sighed. “My guards have been constantly busy, and my vassals are getting overstretched. Duke Torquill wasn’t able to attend tonight because he needed to be home with his guards, protecting Shadowed Hills. ”

“And again, why haven’t I heard anything ? Not even from the Luidaeg.”

“It was all little things until this last week, when everything seemed to start collapsing at once. We’ve had over a dozen muggings, all purebloods, which makes it seem like changelings taking revenge for the way they were treated during the enchantment—understandable, just making things worse right now.

Which is probably why we had a Daoine Sidhe highwayman with an iron sword set up by a freeway onramp and start slashing tires on changeling cars.

Just two nights ago Dame Altair was attacked on her way home from the Library.

That was the first time one of my direct vassals was assaulted. ”

“Is she all right?”

“She is,” said Arden. “One of her footmen, however, is not. The man was cut down with a blade of purest iron, and has stopped his dancing. He’s the first so far, but if things continue as they have been, he’s not going to be the last. We have to find the stolen artifacts, October.

We have to find them soon. I would give you the time you need to birth the baby and recover if I had it to offer, but you’re the only Hero I have right now, and I need you to do your duty by the kingdom. ”

“Can’t you name another Hero?” I asked, half-desperately.

Arden sighed again, looking down at the plate in her hands.

It was much fuller than mine. Apparently, she didn’t have much of an appetite.

“I would if I could. I’ve already had my people searching for what’s been lost. Even Nolan’s been going out in the city trying to find traces of the artifacts.

I’ve amped up my guard, and set them patrolling as much as their numbers allow.

Golden Shore has sent additional guards to bolster their ranks, and I’ve offered protection to my vassals.

Nothing’s worked. I really hate to do this while you’re expecting, but I don’t have a wide variety of heroes to choose from, and you’re the best finder in the Kingdom. ”

“Not because I’m any good at it!” I protested. “I’m not a great detective. I’m just too stubborn to know when I’m past the point of giving up.”

“That’s good enough for me,” she said. “Look, it’s not that I want you to charge in knives out and defenses down. I just need you to ask a few questions, see if you can’t get me a better shape for the situation. That’s all. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you’ll never be in danger.”

“You just told me a man died .” No matter how much I wanted to help—and I wanted to help—I would never intentionally do anything to endanger my child.

“Yes, but the woman he was protecting survived. My guards and your household will make sure you do the same.”

I fixed her with an unhappy eye. “Leaving aside that the kind of people I’ll need to talk to are not going to cooperate if I show up with a bunch of royal guards, my ‘household’ is never going to allow me to do this.

Tybalt will disappear me into the Court of Cats until I go into labor if you try to push the issue. ”

“He’ll want to. But he does respect hierarchies, and his subjects are in as much danger as mine if someone’s running around out there making iron weapons at will. More, even. Iron pellets for a pellet gun? Iron wire for snares? He’ll hate it, but he’ll allow it. Believe me.”

“I would love to, but I know my husband, and I need you to believe me when I say that you’re incredibly mistaken.

” It didn’t matter how much she wanted to be right, or how much I wanted to do as my liege asked—a response born of my upbringing in both this world and Titania’s.

Faerie is very feudal, and has never encouraged saying no to a queen.

“Under normal circumstances, he’d let me do as my queen commanded, because he would expect nothing less from his own subjects. These aren’t normal circumstances.”

“And he’s a King of Cats, under no obligation to comply with my orders,” she said mildly.

“But if I directly commanded you to do something and he chose to go against it, it could cause a diplomatic incident, which would either make me look weak or make him look unfit to rule. I’d really prefer to avoid that outcome. ”

A chill swept across my entire body at the thought of how bad things could actually get if my husband and my monarch went to war over whether or not I was allowed to do my job.

Carefully, I set my plate aside and sat up straighter, folding my hands together in front of my belly.

“I think we would all very much prefer to avoid that outcome, so please don’t give me any direct orders. ”

“Why do you think I’ve been trying so hard to explain my side of things in a way that isn’t going to enrage your husband?”

“Okay. So we’re on the same page here. Please just let me go home and talk to him alone, in a place where he’s not going to feel cornered, and I can call you tomorrow.

If you push this the way you are, things are going to get more fucked up than you can possibly imagine, and no one is going to get what they want here.

Like, I understand that you’re in a difficult position, but it’s important that you trust me on this. Please?”

Arden was silent for an uncomfortably long time. “Very well,” she said at last. “I can do that. The rest of tonight will be taken up with court anyway, and it will go long—we have the false Queen in custody, and her punishment is one of the things we’re going to be discussing.”

“Can’t you just decide what it’s going to be? You’re the Queen.”

“I could, and technically, if I dug far enough back, I’m sure I could find a violation of the Law that would support my doing whatever I wanted to the woman.

But I don’t want to be like her. I don’t want to be a despot.

We don’t exactly have a judicial system.

Everyone here is either my direct vassal or someone who’s been actively harmed by the false Queen.

They all have the right to claim offense against her.

The least I can do is hear them out before I decide on her sentence. ”

“That sounds… like opening the can of worms with a sledgehammer and using a spatula to get them all off the floor,” I said, dubiously.

“That isn’t the only reason,” said Arden.

“And I know Faerie isn’t a democracy. But none of us can claim offense against Titania for what she did to us, or have any recourse against her.

The false Queen is a different story. I can not only punish her, I can show people I actually care about what she did by listening to them.

Sometimes people just need you to listen to them. ”

Much as I didn’t appreciate any of this, she wasn’t wrong. It was almost ironic—I would have been a lot less tempted by her offer of heroism and something to do if the people who loved me had been listening when I told them I needed them to loosen their grip, just a little.

Arden rose. “Are you ready to return to court?”

I stood, more awkwardly than she had, and nodded. “I am.”

She offered me her arm, and I took it as she sketched a circle in the air with her free hand, opening a portal that looked into the receiving hall.

One of the many advantages of Tuatha teleportation: they can see where they’re stepping.

It helps them avoid collisions, and means they never appear inside things, which would be uncomfortable at best, fatal at worst.

She looked through, then stepped into the portal.

I followed, feeling awkward and immense but doing my game best to match her steps.

The quiet of the parlor was replaced by the cacophony of a court gearing up to enter session: while no one was shouting, that many bodies will generate their own symphony of rustles and mutterings, all independent of their intentions.

Arden released my hand and opened another portal, making the shorter hop to the dais where the thrones were.

That was sensible. It put her into a position to start court, while leaving me no opportunity to argue further about what she wanted me to do.

I remained where I was, waiting for the inevitable.

I didn’t have to wait for very long. A hand caught my shoulder, turning me half around as Tybalt pulled me toward him. His cat-slit pupils were blown, turned so wide and dark that they consumed the bulk of his green-banded irises. He looked me up and down with a fierce intensity.

“Where have you been?” he asked, voice pitched low and words spat hastily. He sounded less angry than alarmed. “What happened?”

“I was with the queen,” I said, barely resisting the urge to roll my shoulder to break his grasp. “Didn’t Nolan tell you?”

He let go of me. “He did, but you were gone for so long that I was starting to get worried.”

Meaning he’d been maybe five minutes from coming looking for me. “Arden needed to talk, so she took me to a private lounge to sit down for a minute and eat something. I guess we both lost track of time.”

He gave me an anxious look. “But you’re all right?”

“I am all right,” I assured him.