"I am captain here, Adair, not you."
"It is good to have you back, Captain" - Adair made that last word an insult - "but whatever your rank, it is not greater than the queen's. She is our master, not you. She made this very clear to me, Darkness, very clear."
They were almost touching, so terribly close, almost too close to fight. "You refuse my direct order?"
"I refuse to disobey the queen's direct order, yes."
"I ask you one last time, Adair, will you step aside?"
"No, Darkness, I will not."
Magic breathed through the hallway. That first hot breath that it draws sometimes, like the tensing of a muscle before a blow. It wasn't that I didn't think Doyle would win. He was the Queen's Darkness. It was that it seemed a waste to fight among ourselves when we had enemies to fight. I didn't know who those enemies were, not yet, but they'd tried to kill me earlier today. We needed to save our energy for them, not spend it in senseless bickering.
"Stand down, Doyle," I said, soft but clear.
The magic grew in the hallway, as if the very air were drawing a breath.
"I said, stand down, Darkness," and this time my voice was not soft.
The power that was growing all around us hesitated, flickered. Doyle did not turn from the man he faced, he merely growled, "He stands in our way, and we must needs see the queen."
"We will see the queen," I said, and began to work my way up through the men. I looked at both Abloec and Usna. "Do you both stand by what you said, that you will tell the queen what needs telling?"
"I forgot how wretched it is to be sober, so let this wretchedness end. I will tell the queen of what I saw; you have what word is left me." He even began a bow, but it seemed to hurt his head, so he stopped in midmotion.
"Usna," I said.
He gave me that cat-that-ate-the-canary smile and said, "Of course, Princess, I am always a man of my word."
"I will allow no one past me until we have obeyed everything the queen instructed," Adair said.
"Do you really think that you can withstand the might of this many of your fellow Ravens?" Barinthus asked, though he did not move up closer to the door. I think he was afraid of what might happen if he used his power to fight. I know I was.
I stepped past Frost's back and got a glimpse of Adair's determined face before Frost moved in front of me. "You are too close, Meredith," he said.
I shook my head. "Not close enough, Frost."
He frowned down at me. "I did not save you from a human assassin to have you hurt by your own guards."
"I will not be hurt, not in that way, at least."
Puzzlement filled his grey eyes, and he frowned harder. "I do not understand."
There was no time to explain it. Power was building on the very air again. A glance showed that Adair's skin was beginning to glow.
"It wasn't a human who tried to assassinate me today, Frost." I made sure my voice carried. "It was sidhe magic that bespelled that human. Sidhe magic that put a spell on Doyle that made him slow to defend me. Only a sidhe could have put such a spell on the Darkness himself."
Brii spoke up as I'd hoped he would, "Who could bespell Darkness, except for the queen herself."
"There are those who can, but none that stood with us today," Doyle growled, his eyes still on the softly glowing Adair. "But someone powerful enough to send a spell from a distance and for none of us to notice it until too late."
"I don't believe you," Adair said.
"May the sluagh eat my bones if I lie," Doyle said, his voice still a threatening growl. It was like listening to a dog speak, too low for a human throat.
Adair's glow faded around the edges so that the center of his face glowed like a candle in the middle of him. "Even if I believe you, even if I agree that the princess should see the queen immediately, if I allow you to pass without a fight, I will be at the queen's mercy." He raised a hand as if to touch his hair, then stopped, as if he could not stand to touch the near-bare scalp. "I have been at her mercy, and I do not care for it."
"Let me pass, Frost."
He moved. Reluctantly, but he moved.
I touched Doyle's arm. "I will tell you this for a third and a last time, Doyle, stand down."
His dark eyes flicked to me, then he took a breath so deep that it ended with his body shuddering like a dog ruffling its fur after a nap. He took one small step back from Adair. "As my princess commands, so shall it be." His voice was still deeper than normal, and perhaps only I could hear the question in that growl. But he trusted me enough to do as I said. Trusted me enough to let me take his place in front of Adair.
I looked up at Adair, and I could not keep a moment of sorrow out of my eyes when I beheld his short hair up close.
Adair turned his face from me, mistaking my sorrow for pity, I think.
"I will let you taste the ring, Adair, as the queen wishes."
His gold-and-yellow eyes slid back to look at me, though his head was still turned away. "Has the ring not known Hawthorne and Ivi?"
I ignored the question, which was not a lie. I stared into his eyes, concentrated on their beauty. Their inner circles were gold, like metal melted down; the next circles were yellow, the yellow of pale sunlight; and the last and widest circles were almost an orange-yellow like the petals of a marigold. I gave to my eyes the wonder that I saw before me, so that Adair turned his face full to me, and his coldness thawed a moment before anger returned. "Do you think to win with seduction what Doyle could not win with magic?"