the lawyers decided that doyle and frost could answer some general questions about what it was like being part of my personal guard to give some background to the atmosphere that rhys, galen, and abe had been living in. i wasn't sure it was going to be helpful, but i wasn't a lawyer, so who was i to argue?

doyle sat on my right, frost on my left. my lawyers farmer and biggs moved a few seats down to give them room.

shelby got the first question, "and there are now sixteen of you with access only to princess meredith for your, um, needs?"

"if you mean for sex, then yes," doyle said.

shelby coughed and nodded. "yes, i do mean sex."

"then say what you mean," doyle said.

"i will do that." shelby sat up a little straighter. "i imagine it must be difficult to share the princess."

"i'm not certain i understand the question."

"well, not to be indelicate, but waiting for your turn must be hard after so many years of denial."

"no, it is not hard to wait."

"but of course it is," shelby said.

"you're putting words in the witnesses' mouth," biggs said.

"sorry. what i mean, captain doyle, is that after so many years of needs unmet, it must be difficult to only have sex about every two weeks or so."

frost laughed, then caught himself and tried to turn it into a cough. doyle smiled. it was the first truly broad smile that he'd had since the questions had started. the white flash of his teeth in all that dark, dark face was startling if you weren't used to it. it was like having a statue suddenly smile at you.

"i fail to see the humor in being forced to wait weeks for sex, captain doyle, lieutenant frost."

"i would see no humor in that either," doyle said, "but when the number of men grew larger, princess meredith changed some of the parameters for us all."

"i'm not following," nelson said, "parameters?"

doyle looked at me. "perhaps you better explain, princess."

"when i had only five lovers, it seemed fair to make them wait for their turns, but as you point out, waiting two weeks, or more, after centuries of celibacy seems like another form of torture. so when the number of men went up to double digits, i upped the number of times i make love during a given day."

you don't get to see powerful, high-priced lawyers look that embarrassed often, but i got to see it then. they all looked at each other, nelson actually raised her hand. "i'll ask, if no one else will."

the men let her ask. "how many times a day do you make love?"

"it varies, but usually at least three times."

"three times a day," she repeated.

"yes," i said, and gave her blank, pleasant face. she blushed, to the roots of her red hair. i was sidhe enough that i didn't understand this american trait of being totally fascinated with sex and totally uncomfortable with it.

veducci recovered first, as i had figured he would. "even at three times a day, princess meredith, that leaves an average of five days between lovemaking sessions for the men. five days is a long time when you've been denied for centuries. couldn't your three guards have tried to find something to occupy their time in between waiting?"

"a five-day wait implies that i'm only sleeping with one man at a time, mr. veducci, and most of the time i'm not."

veducci smiled at me. it was a nice smile. it went all the way to his eyes, and folded the bags into smile lines that said, here was a man who knew how to enjoy life, or had once. it was like a glimpse into a younger, less tired version.

i smiled back at him, responding to that joy.

"you are totally comfortable with this line of questioning, aren't you, princess meredith?" he asked.

"i am not ashamed of anything i've done, mr. veducci. the fey, outside of some of the seelie court, see no shame in sex, as long as it is consensual."

"all right," he said. "i'll ask the next one. how many men at a time do you routinely sleep with?" he shook his head when he asked as if he couldn't believe he was asking it.

"i don't think that's appropriate," biggs said.

"i'll answer it," i said.

"are you sure... ?"

"it's sex. there's nothing wrong with sex." i held biggs's gaze until he looked away. i turned back to veducci. "average is probably two at a time. i think the max that i've ever done at once is four." i looked at doyle and frost. "four?" i made it a question.

"i believe so," doyle said.

frost nodded. "yes."

i turned back to the lawyers. "four, but two is average."

biggs recovered a little. "so, you see, gentlemen, ladies, a two-day wait between sex, or less. there are married men who have to wait longer than that for their needs to be met."

"princess meredith," cortez said.

"yes, mr. cortez." i looked into his dark brown eyes.

he cleared his throat and said, "are you telling us the truth? you have sex three times a day with an average of two men at a time, and sometimes up to four. is this what you want in the record?"

"it is sealed," farmer said.

"but if this does go to court, then it may not be. is this really what the princess wants the public to know about her."?

i frowned at him. "it's the truth, mr. cortez. why should the truth bother me?"

"do you honestly not understand what this information could do to your reputation in the media?"

"i don't understand the question."

he looked at biggs and farmer. "i don't say this often, but is your client aware of what this record, even sealed, can be used for?"

"i did discuss it with her, but... mr. cortez, the unseelie court does not view sex in the same way as most of the world. they certainly don't view it as mainstream america views it. my colleague and i learned that when we prepped the princess and her guard for these talks. if you are hinting that the princess might be more careful what she admits to having done with her men, then save your breath. she is absolutely not bothered by anything she has done with any of her men."

"not to bring up a painful subject, but the princess didn't seem very happy in the media when her ex-fiance, griffin, sold those polaroids to the tabloids a few months back," cortez said.

i nodded. "that did hurt me," i said, "but because griffin broke my trust, not because i was ashamed of what we'd done. i thought we were in love when those pictures were taken. there is no shame in love, mr. cortez."

"you are either very brave, princess, or very naive. if you can use the word naive to a woman who is having sex with nearly twenty men on a regular basis."

"i am not naive, mr. cortez. i simply don't think like a human woman."

farmer said, "king taranis's allegation that the three guards he accused of this crime did so out of unmet sexual needs is a false assumption. it is based on the king's own lack of understanding of his sister court."

"is the unseelie court so different from the seelie court when it comes to matters of sex?" nelson asked.

"may i take this one, mr. farmer?" i asked.

"you may."

"the seelie try to ape human behavior. they're stuck somewhere between the centuries of fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred, but they try to play human more than the unseelie. many of those exiled to our court have been exiled because of simply wanting to remain true to their original natures, and not let themselves be civilized in a human manner."

"you sound like you're lecturing," nelson said.

i smiled. "i did a paper in college on the differences between the two courts. i thought it might help the teacher and the other students understand that the unseelie court wasn't the bad guy."

"you were the first of the fey to attend human college in this country," cortez said. he shifted through some papers in front of him. "but not the last. some of the so-called lesser fey have actually gotten degrees since then."

"my father, prince essus, thought if one of the royals went, then our people might follow. he thought that learning, and understanding the country we lived in, was a necessary part of the fey adapting to modern life here."

"your father never saw you attend college, though, did he?" cortez asked.

"no." i said. the one word was clipped.

doyle and frost reached for me at the same time. their hands found each other at the back of my shoulders. doyle's arm stayed there. frost's hand moved to cover one of my hands where i kept them still upon the tabletop. they were reacting to the tension in me, but it let everyone in the room know how concerned they were with me dealing with this topic. they hadn't reacted to talk of my ex-fiance, griffin. i think all my men thought they had washed his memory clean from me with their own bodies. i felt the same, so they'd read me right. doyle was usually a good judge of my moods. frost, who had his own moods, was learning mine.

"i think this topic is closed," biggs said.

"i am sorry if i caused the princess distress," cortez said, but he didn't sound sorry. i wondered why he'd brought up my father's assassination. cortez, like shelby and veducci, struck me as men who didn't do things without a reason. i wasn't sure about nelson and the rest. i was counting on biggs and farmer being calculating men. but what did cortez hope to gain from mentioning my father's death?

"i am sorry to cause distress, but i do have a reason for bringing the topic up," cortez said.

"i don't see what relevance it could possibly have on these proceedings," biggs said.

"the murderer of prince essus was never apprehended," cortez said. "in fact no one was even seriously suspected, is that correct?"

"we failed the prince and the princess in every way," doyle said.

"but you weren't a guard for either of them, were you?"

"not at that time."

"lieutenant frost, you were also part of the queen's ravens when prince essus died. none of the current bodyguards of the princess were members of prince essus's crane guards, is that correct?"

"that is not true," frost said.

cortez looked at him. "excuse me?"

frost looked at doyle, who gave a small nod. frost's hand tightened over mine. he didn't like to speak in public; it was a phobia. "we have half a dozen guards with us here in los angeles who were once part of prince essuss's cranes."

"the king seems very certain that none of the prince's guards are guarding the princess," cortez said.

"it is a recent change," frost said. his hand tightened on mine until i used my free hand to play my fingers across the back of his. one, it would comfort him; two, it would keep him from forgetting how strong he was and hurting my hand, i played my fingers on the smooth white skin of his hand, and realized it didn't comfort just him.

doyle moved closer to me so that he was more obviously hugging me. i leaned into the curve of his arm, letting my body settle into the line of his, while i continued to stroke the back of frost's hand.

"i still see no reason for this line of questioning," biggs said.

"i agree," farmer said. "if you have any more questions that are relevant to the actual charges, we might entertain them."

cortez looked at me. he gave me every ounce of those dark brown eyes. "the king thinks that the reason your father's murderer was never caught is that the men investigating it were the murderers."

doyle, frost, and i went very still. he had our attention now, indeed he did. "speak plainly, mr. cortez," i said.

"king taranis accuses the raven guard of prince essus's murder."

"you saw what the king did to the ambassador. i think that level of fear and manipulation speaks for my uncle's state of mind right now."

"we will follow up on ambassador stevens's... condition," shelby said, "but doesn't it make sense that the reason no clues were found is that the men looking for the clues were hiding them."

"our oath to the queen would forbid us to do harm to her family," doyle said.

"your oath is to protect the queen, correct?" cortez asked.

"we now belong to the princess, but the oath remains the same, yes."

"king taranis alleges that you killed prince essus to keep him from killing queen andais and putting himself on the throne of the unseelie court."

the three of us stared at cortez and shelby. this was laundry so dirty that the queen had tortured people who had merely hinted at such things. i didn't ask if taranis had actually said it, because i knew no one else at his court would have dared queen andais's anger. anyone less than the king himself, and she would have called them out to a personal duel for such rumors.

andais had a lot of faults, i knew that, but she had loved her brother. he had loved her, too. it's why he hadn't killed her and taken the throne, even though he felt that he would have been a better ruler. if he had lived, and my cousin, prince cel, had tried to take the throne, my father might have killed cel to keep him off the throne.

cel was insane, i think literally, and a sexual sadist who made andais look mild. my father had feared the unseelie court at the hands of cel. i feared it now. to save my life and the lives of those i loved, and to keep cel off the throne were the reasons i was still trying to be queen.

but i wasn't pregnant, and whoever got me pregnant would be king to my queen. i had realized only a day or so ago that i'd have given up everything to be with frost and doyle - including being queen - but for one thing: to keep these two men with me might require me to give up my birthright. and i was too much my father's daughter to let cel have our people. but the regret in me was growing.

"do you have a reply to the accusation, princess meredith?"

"my aunt is not perfect, but she loved her brother. i believe that with all my heart. if she discovered who killed him, her wrath would be the stuff of nightmares. none of her guard would have dared such a thing."

"are you sure of that, princess?"

"i think you might want to ask yourself, mr. cortez, mr. shelby, what king taranis hopes to gain by this accusation. in fact, you might wonder what he might have gained from my father's death."

"are you accusing the king of your father's murder?" shelby asked.

"no, i am simply saying that the seelie court has never been a friend of my father's family. whereas one of the queen's guard killing my father would have earned them a death by torture. i think if king taranis could have plausible deniability of the deed, he would reward his own guard for it."

"why would he kill prince essus?"

"i don't know."

"do you believe he was behind the assassination?" veducci asked. that fine mind was all there in those eyes.

"i didn't until now."

"what do you mean by that, princess?" he asked.

"i mean i can't see what the king hopes to gain by the accusation against my guard. it makes no sense, and it makes me wonder what his true motives are here."

"he seeks to divide you from us," frost said.

i looked at him, studying that handsome, arrogant face. i knew now that the cold arrogance was his mask when he was nervous. "divide me from you how?"

"if he could plant such an ugly doubt in your mind, would you ever trust us again?"

i looked down at the table, at his pale hand on mine, my fingers against his skin. "no, i wouldn't."

"if you think about it," frost continued, "the rape accusation is also meant to make you doubt us."

i nodded. "maybe, but to what purpose?"

"i don't know."

"unless he has taken leave of his senses at last," doyle said, "he has a purpose to all of this. but i confess that i do not see what it could gain him. i do not like that we seem to be deep in a game and i do not know what we are playing."

doyle stopped talking, and looked across the table at the lawyers. "forgive us, please. we forgot where we were for a moment."

"do you believe that this is all some sort of inter court politics?" veducci asked.

"yes," doyle said.

veducci looked at frost. "lieutenant frost?"

"i agree with my captain."

last he looked at me. "princess meredith?"

"oh, yes, mr. veducci, whatever else we are doing, it is most certainly inter court politics."

"his treatment of ambassador stevens makes me begin to wonder if we are being used here," veducci said.

"are you saying, mr. veducci," biggs said, "that you are beginning to doubt the validity of the charges made against my clients?"

"if i find out that your clients did what they are accused of, i will do my best to punish them to the greatest extent that the law allows, but if these charges turn out to be false, and the king has tried to use the law to harm the innocent, i'll do my best to remind the king that in this country no one is supposed to be above the law." veducci smiled again, but this time it wasn't a happy smile. it was more predatory. that smile was enough; i knew who i feared the most on the other side of the table. veducci wasn't as ambitious as shelby and cortez, but he was better. he actually still believed in the law. he actually still believed that the innocent should be spared, and the guilty punished. you didn't often see such pure faith in lawyers who had spent more than twenty years on the bar. they had to give up their belief in the law to survive as a lawyer. but somehow, veducci had held on. he believed, and maybe, just maybe, he was beginning to believe us.