Doyle gripped his arm. "We are all worried about that."

They had a moment when their eyes met, and then it was okay between them again. Had Galen been challenging Doyle in small ways for a while, and I just hadn't noticed, or had this been the first? As challenges went, it was mild, but even a mild challenge from Galen was something I'd never seen. He just wasn't a leader. He didn't want to be. But for fear of my safety he'd stood up to Doyle.

I went to Galen and hugged him from behind. He rubbed his hands over my arms, sliding the silk of my robe up so he could touch my skin. He was wearing only the dress slacks he'd started the day in, so that I had the warm skin of his stomach against my hands. "I can't tell you it will be all right, Galen, but we're going to do our best to have enough muscle and political allies on our side to make even Taranis hesitate."

"I don't like that part of the plan, either," Galen said. "You cannot agree to sleep with all the half-goblins."

I started to pull away from him, and he caught my hands, held me pressed against his stomach. "Please, Merry, please, don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, Galen, but I am not going to argue about this with anyone else. I mean it. We have our plan, it's the best we can do, and that is that." I pulled my hands out of his grip, and he didn't fight me. I turned to Doyle. "The chalice complicates things, but it doesn't really change anything."

He gave a small nod. "As you say."

"What if Merry keeps the chalice on the grounds that the Goddess gave it to her?" Nicca said. He'd gone to kneel by the table so he could look at the goblet more closely.

"I don't think divine intervention is a good enough reason," Rhys said.

"But it is our tradition," Nicca said. "They may have messed the story up and confused it with other stories, but Whosoever pulls this sword out of the stone is rightful king is still true. The Ard-Ris of Ireland had a stone that would cry out at the touch of the rightful king."

"There are those who believe that when the Ard-Ri was no longer chosen by the stone, that is when the Irish lost to the English," Doyle said. "They forsook their heritage, their great magic, and the line of true kings was broken."

I looked at him. "I didn't know you had Fenian leanings."

"You do not have to be a Fenian to understand that the English have tried to destroy the Irish through any means—political, cultural, even agricultural. The Scots were treated badly, but the Irish have always been the special whipping boys of the English."

"The Irish fight among themselves, that's why they keep coming up short," Rhys said.

Doyle gave him an unfriendly look.

"It's the truth, Doyle, they're still killing each other over who crosses themselves when they bend a knee to the Christian God. You don't see the Scots, or the Welsh, slaughtering each other over a matter not of which god they pray to, but of how they pray to the very same God. I mean, that's a crazy reason to kill each other."

Doyle let out a breath, then said, "The Irish have always been a hard people."

"Hard, and melancholy," Rhys said. "They make the Welsh look cheerful."

Doyle actually smiled. "Aye."

"Can Merry actually claim the right to keep the chalice on the grounds that it chose her?" Galen asked. "I'm not old enough to remember anybody getting to be king because some stone cried out, so will this actually work?"

"It should work," Doyle said, "but I can't say that the Seelie Court will bow to tradition. It has been so long since the great relics have been among us that many have forgotten how we acquired them in the first place."

"Forgotten because they wish to forget," Nicca said.

"Perhaps, but just saying Meredith owns the vessel because it came to her from the hand of the Goddess Herself will take some convincing."

"How do I prove that the Goddess gave me the goblet?" I asked.

Doyle waved a hand at the table. "The fact that we have the goblet is the proof."

"We prove that the Goddess gave me the chalice by simply having the chalice in my possession?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Isn't that a circular argument?"

"Yes," he said.

"I don't think they're going to buy that."

"I am open to suggestions," Doyle said. Doyle was the master strategist, so whenever he asked for suggestions on a plan, it made me nervous. When he didn't know what we were doing for certain, it didn't usually bode well.

"Whatever we decide, Merry must keep the chalice," Nicca said, "and that means that our queen can't have it, either."

"Oh, shit," Rhys said. "I hadn't thought of that."

I looked at Doyle. "You talked about spies, but that's really why you don't want her to know, isn't it?"

He sighed. "Let us just say that I do not know what she will do when she finds out. The reappearance of the chalice was most unexpected, and the method by which you gained it is also unexpected." He shrugged. "I do not know what she will do, and I do not like not knowing. It is dangerous not to know."

"I'm only her heir if I get pregnant before Cel gets someone else pregnant. She's still my queen, and if she demands the cup of me, I'm duty-bound to give it to her, aren't I?"

Doyle seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "I believe so, yes."

"Merry must keep the chalice," Nicca said.

"You keep saying that," Rhys said. "Why are you so sure of it?"

"It vanished once because we weren't worthy to keep it. What if Merry hands it over to someone else who isn't worthy, and it goes away again?"

"I think our queen would allow Merry to keep the chalice on that logic alone," Doyle said. "She would not risk the loss of it again."

"If Taranis forces us to give him the chalice and it vanishes again," Galen said, "then it would be the ultimate proof that he isn't worthy to lead."

"And we might prevent him from taking the goblet by that logic," Doyle said, "but only in a private audience. We cannot by hint or faintest action allow anyone to guess that we do not think he is worthy to be king."

"Not my court, not my problem," I said.

"We will try very hard to keep it from being our problem," Doyle said. "Now, I think a little sleep is in order for all of us. We are leaving for the courts in less than a day, and there is much to do."

"What do we do with the chalice? We can't just leave it here on the table," I said.

"Wrap it in the silk and take it to the spare bedroom. Put it in a drawer beside you."

"We're not going to lock it up in the safe? The guest house does have one."

"I think that anyone who might want to steal it would have little trouble tearing the safe out of the wall."

"Oh," I said. "Maybe I've been too long out among the humans. I keep forgetting how very strong some of us can be."

"I think, Princess, you had best not be forgetting things like that. Once we return to the high courts of faerie, you will need to remember just how dangerous everything and everyone can be."

"Is the discussion finished?" Sage asked from midair.

Doyle looked around the room, meeting everyone's solemn face. "Yes, I believe it is."

"Good," Sage said. "I'm due some blood, and I want it now."

I heard Frost take a breath to argue, and I knew the sound so well that I said, "No, Frost, he's right. We bargained, and sidhe who don't keep their bargains are worthless."

"I will not go back on our bargain, but I do not like it."

I sighed. I'd been feeding Sage once a week for a month, but Frost had to open his own lily-white vein once, just once, and it was a major problem. I loved Frost when I was in his arms. I even loved Frost when I was looking at his beauty, but I was beginning to not love Frost when he pouted; to not love him when he made simple things so much harder than they had to be. It made me question whether I had ever been in love with Frost, or had it just been lust? Or maybe I was just tired. Tired of it always being my blood and my body on the line. It was Frost's turn to take one for the team, and I really didn't want to hear any whining about it, no matter how delightful he looked while he did it.