I grunted. “If so, the man I’m going to be will have to walk up a lot more stairs.”
Michael laughed. “I thought you needed more exercise lately.”
“Hmph,” I said. I turned slowly around, looking at the sitting room, imagining a comfy chair or couch in front of the fireplace. Surrounded by books, reading. My cat on my lap.
Mister, my old grey tomcat, came prowling into the room, took one look at the fire, went over to the floor beside it, and stretched out luxuriously. His purr rumbled through the room.
“Huh,” I said. “I guess that’s settled, then.”
Chapter
Forty-Four
I waited until the spring equinox to summon Mab.
It wasn’t an insult to do it like that. The equinox marked the beginning of the transfer of the majority of power from the Winter Court of the Fae to Summer, a point of balance. That said, it was still a symbolic handoff—a time for Mab to be focused on consolidating her power through the duration of Winter’s nadir, over the summer season. A time for her to be thinking about such things as keeping secure the loyalty and service of her vassals.
I knew there was a major Fae shindig at the equinoxes, where members of Summer, Winter, and Wyld would gather for revels and celebrations. The Fair Folk were big on their seasonal parties, if they weren’t fighting at the time, hosted by the youngest queens. Molly was somewhere in the Black Forest for this one. I don’t know where the Summer Lady, Sarissa, was hosting. It probably would have been good form for the Winter Knight to have been there, but I wasn’t really a party person, and I hadn’t ever been to one without my life being threatened, and this year that just didn’t sound fun.
Instead, I was up on the roof of the castle at midnight. I’d brought up a table and two chairs, a couple of glasses, a bottle of ice wine, some decent cheese, homemade bread, and some thinly sliced cold steak. I wore one of the suits Molly’s staff had provided last year, and I’d spiffed up a bit, trimming my hair and short beard.
The Queen of Air and Darkness probably wasn’t going to be happywith me. No reason to show up in sweatpants with crackers and Cheez Whiz on top of it.
I broke a small piece of bread off the round loaf, pinked a fingertip with a pin, put a drop of blood on the bread, and set it on the plate across the table from me. I took a slow breath, closed my eyes for a moment, focused my will into my breath, and murmured, “Mab, Mab, Mab. At your convenience, I would speak with thee.”
I felt the rush of power spread out from the words into the night air, faint echoes and distortions bouncing back to me from the enchanted stone of the castle in response.
After that, I waited. Mab’s global empire was only a part of the realm she ruled. She had more than a little territory in the Nevernever, too. She could get around it really fast, and she wasn’t exactly known as a Chatty Cathy, but there would be a lot of her vassals and clients who would want to speak to her this evening.
Time passed. I waited. The night was cold, flirting with the freezing point, with occasional gusts of wind, rich with chill moisture from Lake Michigan, making it bitter. I’d noticed that my body could sense the freezing point as a subtle thrill of pleasant sensation, now accompanied by a simple sense of relaxation. The night grew deeper and more frigid, and I waited in my seat at the table, just soaking in the cold and the quiet.
I was getting better at that. Waiting.
There’s a big difference between being still and doing nothing.
A cold wind blew across my face, making me blink my eyes closed against it for a second, and then Mab stood across the table from me, slim and pale, wearing a white gown, her white hair spilling down her back, a crown of icicles glittering on her head. Her bare arms gleamed in the moonlight, silver sparkling around her wrists and biceps. Her eyes wavered through dark shades of glacial blue and green.
I rose at once.
“My Knight,” Mab murmured.
“My Queen,” I replied, inclining my head slightly.
She looked me up and down and then regarded the table between us.
“Thou hast gained some measure of discretion,” she noted. She tilted her head, staring at me intently. Ah hah. This was a formal and intimateoccasion in Mab’s view. She tended to use the archaic grammar at such times. “And of self-mastery. Thou dost exert control over thy pain.”
“I’ve been healing,” I said.
“As have I,” Mab murmured. “Last summer was a difficult time for us all. I greet thee this eve.”
I blinked a little at that.
I mean, sure, I’d seen Mab take on an army virtually single-handed, at the absolute lowest point of her seasonal power. I’d seen her impaled upon cold steel. I’d seen her struck down by a Titan.
But…it honestly had never occurred to me that she might actually have been affected by her wounds. That the Queen of Air and Darkness might have been hurt. Might have needed time to restore herself.
That she might have needed to hide her pain.
