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praise for a goblin warrior and something of a warning for us, I think.
The one with the red eyes glared at us. The one with the green had a much more neutral look to him, as
if he was still deciding whether to hate us. His brother seemed to have already made up his mind.
"Greetings, Holly and Ash, one of the first among Kurag's warriors," I said.
The green-eyed one answered, "Greetings, Meredith, Princess of the Sidhe, wielder of the hand of flesh.
I am Ash." His voice was pleasantly neutral. He gave a small bow as he spoke.
His brother turned to him and looked as if he'd strike him. "Do not bow to her. She is nothing to us. Not
queen, not princess, nothing."
Kurag was out of his chair and nearly on top of Holly before he could react. Holly actually put his hand
on the knife at his belt, then hesitated. If he drew the blade, then Kurag could take it as mortal insult, and
the fight would be to the death. Once he drew the blade, it was Kurag's choice. I had a second to see the
confusion on his face, then Kurag's hand was a blur, and the younger goblin was on the floor near the
chair. Blood flashed in the light like an odd crimson jewel on his golden skin. The blood was almost the
same color as his eyes.
"I am king here, Holly, and until you are goblin enough to say different, my word is law."
Holly smeared the blood from his chin onto his sleeve and spoke, still sitting on the ground. "We are not
trullups. We have done nothing by our laws that enables you to send us to her bed, to anyone's bed. We
need no protectors for our flesh." He coughed and spat blood on the floor. It was an insult among the
goblins, wasting blood. He should have drunk it. "We have proven ourselves goblins first, and sidhe not
at all, yet you would trade us away to this pale sidhe. We have done nothing to deserve this."
Kurag moved forward in a slow-motion stalk, as if every muscle fought against every other muscle. He
wanted to tear Holly apart; it was plain on his face. We watched him try to master his rage.
Ash made a small movement. I wasn't sure what he'd done, but it attracted the eye. The knife at his belt
was still sheathed, but he'd done something.
It was Doyle who called, "Kurag, this will be difficult enough without reluctant bed partners."
Kurag looked up at us. "They are too young, Darkness, they do not remember what we were. If Holly
understood what we once were, what we could be again, he would go eagerly."
"Are most of your half-sidhes from the last great war?"
Kurag nodded. "Most of the old ones are dead. Sidhe-sides didn't last long among us until we made
them trullups."
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"We have never been trulls," Holly said.
Ash stood almost smiling at Kurag's back, but one of his hands was hidden against the side of his body.
Creeda was behind the throne, and I caught the flash of a blade held in her many hands, but not the
hands on the side facing Ash. Had he drawn a blade? Whatever he'd done, Creeda didn't like it.
Truthfully, neither did I.
"Enough of this, Kurag," I said. "I will not force myself on anyone. If Holly does not want to be sidhe,
then so be it."
"But I want to be sidhe," Ash said in that easy voice that matched the slight smile, and left his green eyes
empty and pleasant. He was a born politician, was Ash. His smile widened, but was somehow sad. "My
brother and I have never disagreed on anything until this. But I will be sidhe, and Holly will, too."
Creeda was almost close enough to be sure of what he held out of sight. He moved his hand into view. I
saw Creeda tense. I felt Doyle and Rhys tense around me. Ash's hand was empty. But I would have bet
almost anything that it hadn't been a second ago.
My voice was a little breathy as I asked, "Come and be sidhe then, Ash. Why drag your brother if he is
unwilling?"
"Because I will it so," Ash said, and the pleasantness was replaced by an arrogance that you saw only on
the face of a sidhe. Oh, yes, Ash was one of ours. He survived among the goblins, but he was ours.
Holly was on his feet now, keeping the big wooden chair halfway between Kurag and himself. He had
his back to us, so I couldn't see his face, but I heard his voice, something close to fear or some other
harsh emotion I couldn't name. "Brother, do not do this to us. We do not need the shining ones. We are
goblin, and that is better."
Ash shook his head. "We have survived together, Holly, and we will continue to survive together. I have
heard the tales of our storytellers. I have glimpsed what once we were, and you and I will bring those
glory days back to the goblins." He walked toward his brother, walking around Creeda as if she weren't
there. She hissed at him as he strode past. The blade in her hand flashed silver but she put it away, in a
sheath that was lost to sight among her nest of arms.
He got to Holly and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I will stand by you in all things, even your anger at our
king, but do not get us killed when we are about to go on to such glory as the goblins have not seen in
more than two thousand years." Somewhere in that speech was his acknowledgment that he wouldn't
have let Kurag kill Holly; that he would have backstabbed the king before he'd have allowed that.
Holly made a violent motion to point toward us, his arm flailing. He shot a glance our way that was
venomous in its hatred. "They left us to die. How can you go to their beds?"
Ash grabbed his brother's arms, fingers digging in deeply enough that you could see it from a distance.
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