"Do as I bid, Doyle."

Doyle gave me the lowest and most courtly bow he'd ever given me. Then he went for the bedroom door and the mirror beyond.

Galen watched him go, then turned back to me. "Merry, please don't put yourself in that creature's power because of me."

I shook my head. "Galen, I love you, but not everyone is as inept politically as you are."

He frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, my sweet, that I'll negotiate with Niceven. If what she asks is too great a price, I won't pay it. But trust me to take care of things. I won't do anything stupid, Galen."

He shook his head. "I don't like this. You don't know what Niceven's become since Queen Andais has been losing some of her hold on the court."

"If Andais lets her power slip, then others will hurry to grab it up. I know that, Galen."

"How? How do you know that, when you've been away while it's all been happening?"

I sighed again. "If Andais's power has slipped so that her own son, Cel, would plot around her, if her power has deteriorated to the point where the sluagh are being used to police her court instead of being the ultimate threat that they should be, then everyone must be scrambling to pick up the pieces. And they will do their best to keep the pieces they grab."

Galen looked at me, uncomprehending. "That's exactly what's been happening for three years, but you haven't been there. How did you. ." A look of astonishment showed, and then, "You had a spy."

"No, Galen, I had no spy. I don't have to be there to know what the court will do if the queen is weak. Nature abhors a vacuum, Galen-He frowned at me. He had no desire for power, no political ambitions. It was as if that part of him was missing; and because it was totally lacking in him, he did not understand it in others. I'd always known this about him, but I'd never realized just how profound his lack of understanding was. He couldn't conceive of me seeing all the puzzle without having seen all the pieces first. Because he couldn't have done it, he couldn't understand someone else doing it.

I smiled, and it felt sad. I went to him, touched his face with my fingertips. I needed to touch him to see if he was real. It was as if I'd finally realized just how profound his problem was, and knowing it, it seemed as if I'd never really known him at all.

His cheek was just as warm, as real, as ever. "Galen, I will negotiate with Niceven. I will do it because to leave one of my guards so crippled is an insult to me and all of us. The demi-fey should not be able to unman a sidhe warrior."

He flinched at that, gaze sliding away from me. I touched his chin, moved him back to look at me. "And I want you, Galen. I want you as a woman wants a man. I won't mortgage my kingdom to cure you, but I will do my best to see you whole."

A faint flush climbed up his face, darkening the green cast to his skin so that it was almost orange, instead of red. "Merry, I don't — "

I touched my fingertips to his lips. "No, Galen, I will do this, and you will not stop me, because I am the princess. I am the heir to the throne, not you. You are my guard, not the other way around. I think I forgot that for a while, but I won't forget again."

His eyes looked so worried. He took my hand from his lips and moved it palm up. He laid a slow, gentle kiss upon my palm, and that one touch made me shiver.

He was so hopeless at the politics that to make him king would be almost a death sentence. It would be disastrous not just for Galen personally, but for the court, and for me. No, I could not have Galen as my king, but I could have Galen. For a brief time before I found my true king, I could have Galen in my bed. I could quench the fire that had been burning between us, quench it with the flesh of our bodies. As he lowered my hand from his mouth, the look in those pale green eyes was enough to make me want for a moment to mortgage my kingdom. I wouldn't do that; but I would do much to have those eyes looking down at me while I lay underneath him.

I gave his knuckles a quick kiss, because I didn't trust myself to do anything more. "Go, finish setting the table. I think the bread should be cool enough by now."

He smiled suddenly, a flash of his old grin. "I don't know … it feels pretty hot from here."

I shook my head and pushed him half-laughing toward the kitchen. Maybe I could just keep Galen as the royal mistress, or whatever the male equivalent was. The sidhe had been around for several millennia, and surely there was court precedent for a royal lover somewhere in all that history.