A Shiver of Light

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

TRANCER’S HANDCUFFS WERE fastened through the metal ring on the metal table in the interrogation room. His feet were chained to a ring in the floor. His long brown hair was disheveled, but since he couldn’t raise his hands to smooth it into place, there was nothing he could do about it. I knew how vain the men of the courts were about their appearance, so it bothered him more than it would have most men, but there were probably things about his physical appearance that bothered him more right now. One tricolored eye was swelling shut, the cheek underneath it was swollen, and his mouth had blood drying at the corner of the opposite side from the other damage, as if someone had hit him on one side, then backhanded him and hit him again. For all I knew that was exactly what happened, but honestly, I didn’t care. I hoped it hurt, hoped he was hurting. If he had pulled the trigger and killed Sholto, I planned on him hurting, a lot.

I was strangely calm as I sat across the table from him. I felt icy calm, as if something in me had gone cold and would never be warm again. It was still a type of shock, emotional shock, and I knew that, but thanks to being in shock, I didn’t care about that either. It would help me think; it would help me question the man sitting chained across from me without losing my temper. The police hadn’t wanted me in here, and as Merry Gentry, private detective, I wouldn’t have been, but I was sitting here as Queen Meredith of the Sluagh, and Trancer was still invoking his rights as a citizen of faerie, so being a queen trumped my PI license all to hell.

No matter what you see on television, interrogation rooms are small, so with Rhys and Doyle standing behind me, and Detective Lucy Tate standing in the far corner along with one local detective it was … cozy. Lucy was here as a courtesy since she was L. A. homicide, not Malibu, which was where the beach house was located, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department was like most police departments, they both fiercely protected their turf and wanted desperately to avoid blame in high-profile cases. There was always that mix of wanting to be the hero and not wanting to be the scapegoat for a mediaworthy case like this one. It was a thin line to walk, and they were willing to let me help them walk it, for now.

“You told me you and your wife wanted me to help give you a baby; was that a lie?”

I had a moment to see him surprised by the question, before he schooled his face to polite blankness. It didn’t work as well with the bruises and blood, but he did his best. He was a noble of the Seelie Court; he knew how to hide his feelings.

“Answer her,” Doyle said in a growling deep voice.

“I don’t have to answer her,” Trancer said.

Detective Ivan stepped away from the wall, running a hand through his short, dark hair. He looked exotic, almost Asian, but not quite. “You don’t have to talk to us, local cops, or even Detective Tate here, because your diplomatic immunity means we have no authority over you.”

“See, I don’t have to answer any of your questions.” He sounded far too satisfied when he said it.

“You don’t have to answer our questions,” Lucy said, “but you do have to answer to your own people.”

“The princess is not one of my people.”

“Technically, I am a princess of both courts, but I’m not here as a princess.”

He actually sneered at me. “What then, as a private detective?”

I smiled, not pleasantly. I clenched my hands together in front of me, because if I lost control of my temper I didn’t want to hurt him by accident. No, if I hurt him, I wanted it to be on purpose.

“No, as Queen Meredith.”

“Queen of what?” And again he made it disdainful.

“Queen of the Sluagh, married and crowned by faerie itself to King Sholto.”

A flicker of uncertainty crossed through the one eye I could read well, but his arrogance climbed back into place almost instantly. “The sluagh are already electing a new king, and then you will be nothing to them. They are not a hereditary monarchy, so even if your babies are Sholto’s they gain no hold on the crown of the dark host.”

“The sluagh have voted to elect no new ruler until King Sholto’s murderer is punished. Until then, I am Queen Meredith the First, of the Sluagh.”

I saw the first hint of fear, but he conquered it quickly and was back to arrogance. “I don’t believe you.”

“It is unprecedented in all their long history, so I can understand you not believing it, but you don’t have to take my word for it.” I looked back over my shoulder and said, “Doyle, could you ask Barra to come inside, please?”

He went to the door without a word, spoke low, and held the door open. Barra didn’t walk in; he crawled sideways around the wall of the door frame and flowed up to hang on the ceiling above me, which put him above the table, and our prisoner—who stared up at the nightflyer with undisguised fear on his face. Good.

But Trancer was made of stern stuff, and though he couldn’t quite control his face, his voice was unconcerned. “Almost every type of fey has been exiled at one time or another. One nightflyer in the Western Lands proves nothing.”

“Oh, is that all,” I said. “Doyle, if you please.”

He opened the door again and the nightflyers flowed inside like writhing, fleshy water, until they covered the ceiling and most of the walls.

I spared a glance for Lucy and Detective Ivan; they had both been introduced to the nightflyers and knew the plan. One of the reasons Detective Ivan was the local policeman in the room was that he was the one who had had the least amount of discomfort interacting with them. Lucy had visited with us at the main house, so she knew that fey came in many shapes and sizes.

Trancer wasn’t pale, he was gray from fear. He had to lick his lips twice before he said in a strained voice, “They could not have traveled here this quickly.”

“You thought that once Sholto was dead no one else could open the way for his sluagh, didn’t you, Trancer?”

He just stared at them; the skin near his one good eye had started to twitch. “This is not possible.”

“Who is the Queen of the Sluagh?” I asked.

They answered in a hissing chorus, “You are, Queen Meredith.” The last syllable of my name hissed nicely in echoes around the room.

“Are you expecting Taranis to rescue you, Lord Trancer?” I asked.

There was the barest flicker of confirmation in his face, quickly hidden between a mixture of ongoing fear and the last bit of arrogance he could muster. “He is the only king I acknowledge.”

“But there, you see, Trancer, we have a problem.”

“I have no problem, for I am a noble of the Seelie Court and neither the humans nor you have authority over me.”

“Actually, we contacted the Seelie Court and they don’t give a damn what we do with you. In fact, the various factions seem to be very busy disavowing all knowledge of your actions.”

He frowned. “What are you babbling about? The factions all bow to our one true king.”

“If you mean Taranis, he is no longer King of the Seelie, or of anyone anywhere for that matter,” I said.

“Your lies will not trick me,” he said.

“It is true that Taranis was the absolute ruler of his court, and once given the throne it’s for life, which means in his case forever.”

“Your own words prove that you are lying,” Trancer said.

“There are only two things that could dethrone a King of the Seelie,” I said.

He blinked at me, and I could see him thinking. “The king is father of at least one of your brats, proving that he is not infertile.”

“Ironic, isn’t it,” I said.

He was recovering himself, burying his fear under centuries of court manners. “King Taranis knows who is loyal to him.”

I smiled a little wider. “Perhaps, but since he is no longer king, his loyalty is of absolutely no help to you.”

“What are you babbling about, girl?”

The nightflyers moved restlessly and it was as if the ceiling and walls breathed and flexed. It was unsettling even to me, and they were on my side.

“Neither my subjects nor I like you very much, Trancer. I’d try to play nicer with us, if I were you.”

He swallowed hard enough that I could hear it, and then said in a much milder tone, “What do you mean that Taranis is no longer king?”

“I told you, there are two reasons that a Seelie ruler will lose their right to rule. One is infertility, but there is one other. It hasn’t been invoked in a very long time, but it’s still irrevocably tied to rulership of the Seelie Court. Do you remember what it is? Because I do. I remembered it when Taranis invaded my dreams at the hospital.”

“He is still physically perfect; his arm was not deformed in reality, only in the dream. He said that he saw it twisted from the corner of his eye, but none of the rest of the court could see it, because it was not real.”

“Not the first time, no,” I said.

“You are lying now; no one can cause true harm in dream. That power was lost to us long ago.”

“Taranis was able to make this dream much more real. I couldn’t break free of it. Maybe it was the drugs the hospital gave me to help with the shock I went into after my king died in my arms, or maybe Taranis recovered more of his own power over dreams. I suppose we’ll never know, but as he made the dream much more real, and much more frightening, I was able to make my magic much more real, too.”

“You didn’t … you couldn’t have.”

“I could, and I did. Whatever power, or favor, Taranis offered you to assassinate Sholto, he can’t pay it now, because as an ex-king he has no access to the treasury, and no ability to make political appointments or give out noble titles. All he can offer now is his friendship. Is that enough, Lord Trancer? Is the friendship of a fallen king payment enough for you to have assassinated a king?”

“You are just trying to manipulate me into a confession of some sort.”

“I do want to know who else is involved in the plot to assassinate King Sholto, Prince Doyle, and Prince Mistral, that is true.”

His arrogance slipped away and what color he’d regained went with it, so that he wasn’t just gray, but pasty gray, as if he were suddenly ill.

“You’re wondering who told me exactly which of my men was being targeted? I could pretend that someone else involved has talked, but the truth is so much better. Taranis himself told me. He confessed everything like a villain in a superhero movie, because he thought he would use a love spell and I would forget everything he told me, or be so besotted with him that I wouldn’t care.”

My anger rose, and with it my magic, so that my skin began to shine, just a little. It was hard to see in the fluorescent light, but Trancer saw it, because the fear made his one good eye flash white, like a horse about to bolt. I took long, even breaths to control my anger and the power. I glanced at the two police in the corner. Lucy gave the smallest shake of her head, telling me to calm down. Detective Ivan was wide-eyed, his hand going to a gun that wasn’t at his hip, because you weren’t allowed to bring guns into an interrogation room. Their reaction let me know that my eyes had started to glow, and maybe even my hair was starting to do that ruby luminescence. I worked until I could swallow most of that magic down, and then did my best to speak calmly.

“Taranis would have had me like some drug addict with him as my addiction. He meant to control me and gain control of my children, and for that evil plan he has paid with two of the things he values most in the world: his beauty, and his kingship.”

I stood up and leaned a little across the table. “Be careful, Lord Trancer, that you do not pay with the things you hold most dear.”

“What do you … mean?”

“If you will not name a conspirator, then I have to assume that your wife, Lady Fenella, was an active participant in the murder of my husband.”

“She knows nothing, I swear it.”

“Make me believe that, Lord Trancer.”

He made me believe it, because he really did love his wife. He bargained for her safety, and never tried to bargain for his own, because he knew there was no point. I’d looked into his eyes and seen that he loved his wife, and he’d looked into mine and seen his own death. We were both right.