"But not among the goblins," Kurag said. "So my marital status makes no difference here, only hers."
I pushed away from Doyle. The movement was too sudden. I swayed, and Fflur's hand on my elbow saved me from falling. "I am going to bind your wrists now," she said.
I couldn't really argue. "Thank you," I said to her. As she began to dress my wrists I turned back to the men. "Someone, please, explain what he is talking about."
"Glad to," Kurag said. "If your enemy is mine and I must help you defend yourself against powerful forces, then my beloved must truly be your beloved. We will share flesh as we shared blood."
"You mean sex?" Galen asked.
Kurag nodded. "Yes, sex."
I said, "No."
Galen said, "Oh, no."
"No flesh sharing, no alliance," Kurag said.
"Among the sidhe," Doyle said, "your marriage vows are still sacred. Meredith can no more help you cheat on your wife than she could cheat on her own husband. The rule of flesh only works if both parties are unjoined."
Kurag scowled. "You would not lie outright. Damn." He looked at me. "You always escape me, Merry."
"Only because you always resort to trickery to try and get in my pants."
A servant had come with a bowl of clean water, holding it for Fflur as she washed my wrists. She popped open a bottle of antiseptic and drenched both of my wrists with it. The reddish liquid fell into the water, floating on the surface like drops of new blood.
"I made you a valid offer of marriage once," Kurag said.
"I was sixteen," I said. "You scared the shit out of me." Fflur patted my wrists dry.
"Just too much man for you, aren't I?"
"The two of you together are too much man for me, Kurag, you're right," I said.
His hand went to his side where the extra genitalia lay. One heavy stroke and there was a bulge under the pants in a place where most men didn't have to worry about it.
"Flesh has been invoked," Kurag said, still stroking his side. "It cannot be undone, until it is answered."
I looked to Doyle. "What does he mean?"
Doyle shook his head. "I'm not sure."
A second servant brought up a tray of medical supplies and held it while Fflur started binding clean white gauze around my wrists. The servant acted as a sort of nurse, giving her scissors and tape as she needed it.
"I know what Kurag is doing," Frost said. "He is still trying to run from your enemies."
Kurag turned on Frost like a large, broad storm. "Merry needs every strong arm she can muster at her back. That is lucky for you, Killing Frost."
"Will you honor your alliance then and be one of the strong arms at her back?" Frost said.
"Truth," Kurag said. "If I cannot have sex with our Merry, then I would rather not honor the alliance." His lopsided multi-eyed face suddenly seemed serious, even intelligent. I realized for the first time that Kurag was neither as stupid as he acted, nor as ruled by his glands as he pretended to be. There was a moment of absolute shrewdness in those three yellow eyes. A look so intent, so different than a moment ago, that it made me step back, as if he'd tried to strike me. Because underneath that so serious look was something else-fear.
What was happening in the courts that Kurag, the goblin king, was afraid?
"If you do not honor your alliance," Frost said, "then all the court will know you for an honorless coward. Your word will never be trusted again."
Kurag looked around at the crowd. Some had gone with the queen like a brightly colored train of toadies, but many had remained behind. To watch. To listen. To spy?
The goblin king did a slow circle of the waiting faces, then came back to me. "I have invoked flesh. Share flesh with one of my goblins, one of my unwed goblins, and I will honor this alliance of blood."
Galen stepped up next to me. "Merry is a princess of the sidhe, second in line to this throne. Sidhe princesses do not sleep with goblins." There was a force in his voice, a heat. Anger.
I touched his shoulder. "It's all right, Galen."
He turned to me. "No, it's not. How dare he make such a demand."
There was a low angry murmur that swept through the sidhe in the room. The small knot of goblins that he'd been allowed to bring into our hill closed at his back.
Doyle moved up at my back. He whispered, "This could go badly."
I glanced at him. "What do you expect me do?"
"Be a princess and a future queen," he said.
Galen caught part of that. He turned on Doyle. "What are you asking her to do?"
"The same thing she is doing with us at Queen Andais's request," Doyle said. He stared at me. "I would not ask if the sacrifice were not worth the goal."
"No!" Galen said.
Doyle stared at Galen then. "Which do you value more, her virtue, or her life?"
Galen glared at him, tension running through his body like a near-visible current of anger. Finally, he said, "Her life," but it was spat out as if it were something bitter.
If I had the goblins as allies, then if Cel did manage to kill me, he'd have a blood feud with Kurag and his court. It would make Cel, or anyone else, hesitate. I needed this alliance. "One of your goblins' flesh in my body, I take it," I said.
Kurag smiled. "His flesh in your sweet body. Let your flesh and his be one, and all the goblin nation will be your allies."
"Who's flesh will I be sharing?" I asked.
Kurag looked thoughtful. The eye on his shoulder went wide, and the two thin arms on his side gestured wildly, pointing.