Andais smiled down at me, and she looked younger, though I knew that wasn't exactly it. Her eyes were bright, and her dark red lips smiled down at me, because kneeling she was still taller.
"Are you healed?" she asked.
The moment she asked, I realized that I'd forgotten I was hurt, but I took a deep breath and felt... fine. No, better than fine. "Yes," I said.
Her smiled brightened into something close to a grin. Andais did not grin. "Look at what our magic has wrought." She gestured out at the room. Onilwyn knelt, eyes a little dazed, but his throat was white and perfect once more. Eamon was sitting up, and there were no more holes in his chest. Doyle turned a perfect face to me, and gave a nod, almost a bow.
"They're all healed."
Tyler, the human whom she had nearly killed, was laughing and crying beside Mistral. I think he spoke for us all when he giggled and said, "That was absolutely the most amazing feeling. It was like being light."
I looked back at Andais. There was a look in her eyes that was disquieting, calculating, and something else, something new. I realized she was still holding me very close. I tried to move back, and her arms tightened, kept our bodies pressed together. I was no longer God-ridden. I was no longer a match for her in strength, or anything else.
The smile she gave me was one I'd only had from lovers, and it prickled down my skin to see it on her face.
"If you were a man I would take you to my bed for this night's work."
I wasn't sure what to say, but knew I had to say something. "Thank you for such a compliment, Aunt Andais."
She cocked her head to one side like a hawk that's spied a mouse. "Reminding me that you are my niece will not keep you out of my bed, Meredith. We are like most deities, we often intermarry, or interfuck." She laughed then, and it was a better, more purely amused sound than any I'd ever heard from her. "The look on your face." She laughed again, and let me go.
She stood, and stretched, and even that small movement prickled power along my skin. "I feel so very much better." She looked down at me and offered me her hand.
I took it and let her help me to my feet. She kept my hand in hers, giving me very serious eyes. "Come, Meredith, let us go kill the traitor who tried to bespell her queen. Doyle tells me we have an assassin to find as well."
I wondered then how long I'd been insensible. All I said out loud was, "As my queen wills it."
She pulled me suddenly and roughly against her, putting my arm behind my back with her hand still holding it. "I am grateful, Meredith, very grateful for this gift of magic, but do not misunderstand. If I think that by bringing you into my bed I can recall that magic, I will. If I think that by sending you to anyone's arms, that level of magic can be reborn, I will send you. Is that clear?"
I swallowed and took a deep breath before I answered, "Yes, Aunt Andais, it is clear."
"Then give your auntie a kiss."
What else could I do? I put a light kiss upon those lips, and she slipped her arm through mine, patting my hand as if we were the best of friends. "Come, Meredith, let us go slay our enemies."
I'd have been a lot happier to accompany her to the throne room if she hadn't kept touching me. It wasn't so much a lover's touch, but almost like you'd pet a dog. Something you stroke for comfort, and because it can't say no.
Chapter 31
We got only as far as the spring. It bubbled and sang among the stones. The queen dropped to her knees before it. "I have not seen this water flowing in nearly three hundred years." She gazed up from her knees. "How did it come to be here?"
The men turned and looked at me. The look was more eloquent than any words.
"This is your doing, is it?" she asked, and her voice held an unfriendly purr, as if we were no longer best friends.
Eamon, who had stayed close to her side since his miraculous healing, laid a hand on her shoulder. I expected her to toss his gesture away, but she didn't. Her shoulders rounded under his touch, her head almost bowing. When she raised her head, there was a smile on her face more tender than any I'd ever seen before.
She asked her question again, in a voice that matched that smile, but all the attention of her face was for Eamon. "Did you bring the spring to life, niece?"
It was a trickier question than she meant it to be. If I said yes, then I was claiming more credit than was my due. "I and Adair."
The gentle look left her face as she turned to me. "You must truly be a wondrous piece of ass. One quick f**k and he risks his life for yours."
I was puzzled by most of what she'd said, but concentrated on the latter part. "If he f**ked me, it was on your orders. The punishment of death for breaking his celibacy no longer applies. The guards were always allowed to f**k if the queen wills it."
Some of her anger faded to a look I couldn't decipher, as if she was thinking. I remembered Barinthus's words that her mind was harder to keep distracted than her groin had been. "You did not see Adair's heroics, then?"
I looked at her, fighting to keep my face neutral. "I don't know what you mean, Aunt."
"When you bled me, after Galen had taken some of my sting, Adair threw himself in my path as well." She didn't look pleased. "As I said, you must f**k like a courtesan. Bloody fertility goddesses, always think they're so wonderful."
I wasn't sure if admitting Adair and I hadn't had sex would please her or enrage her. So I said nothing. Apparently, Adair and all the others who had witnessed thought the same thing, because no one spoke up.
Eamon's hand squeezed gently on her shoulder. She patted his hand, but said, "Adair, come to me."