Page 14 of Beauty

“They’re non-corporeal dead, Duffy. I doubt your axe isgoing to work on them,” Shim points out.

If Duffy can hoist his axe at all. I worry for the gnome.Not because I think Duffy will flee in a real battle, but rather because I knowhe won’t. “Let Father handle the sluagh.”

Three faces turn, shock alighting on them. The guests aroundme gasp.

“Please, Your Highness,” one of them begs. The other twoglance back at the door as though the very fact that I said the name mightconjure them up.

I give them a sigh. “I can’t bring them down on our heads bysaying their name. They’re already here, so why don’t we act like we’re notscared of the buggers?” I lean over to one of the men, a sidhe fromthe village outside the palace. Madden is the king’s liaison to the villagers.“Do you know if they came from the caves?”

There’s been a nest of sluagh living in the caves by thebeach for as long as anyone can remember. They, along with the Planeswalkerdemons, can slip on and off the planes as they please, though no one hasfigured out how. It’s a closely held secret. To discover it, one has to becomea sluagh, and no one comes back from that. I glance down at the box at my feet.It’s filled with crap. Trinkets from my travels. A cheap broach I picked up,several combs, a set of cards from the Vampire plane. It’s a load of junk Ibought and don’t need, but it will be enticing to the sluagh, who live for suchoddities. I meant to offer it to my father, but I was told to take my seat.

I suppose no one needs my negotiation skills.

“I hear they’re from the Seelie plane,” Madden explains. Hethreads his fingers together, glancing back at the door. “They have news.”

Shim leans in. “Why would they help? Sluagh don’t takesides.”

No. Sluagh take people. They take lives and slaves. Theytake rotted corpses when they want a meal. They do not take sides.

A sudden chill falls across the room like a wave slowlycrashing on the shore.

The Host is close. I feel it. A spark of power shimmersthrough me. Yes, the dead are coming. It’s an odd thing, but I feel morecomfortable, my body relaxing as though I finally found my place. I lean back,my eyes focused on the door.

Madden shivers. “I don’t like this. Perhaps the king shouldbar the door.”

I feel a smile slide across my face. Oh, but I’m suddenlyhungry. “It wouldn’t work. They have no need of doors.”

They enter from every wall, their forms gliding through rockand wood as though neither exists. They find the in between spaces and worktheir way through. A hundred sluagh, it seems, form from near nothingness. Paleand wraithlike, their bodies show the way each died. Wounds on a sluagh arelike jewels to a highborn lady, an expression of beauty. Even to the Unseelie,who understand the horrors of the planes, sluagh are monstrous.

And yet, I see an odd beauty to them.

“We seek the king.” They speak as one, their voices sendinga fresh wave of chilled air through the hall.

My father stands, along with Beck and Cian Finn. They eachnod to the group of sluagh, not an ounce of fear showing.

“The kings of the Seelie Fae welcome you.”

Father nods as well. “As does the king of the Unseelie.”

A single sluagh floats to the front of the crowd that moves,coalescing into a single mob. This sluagh was a sidhe at one time, thelong lines of his body a dead giveaway. The flesh at his throat is mottled andgnarled, signs of the rope that he hanged from.

“The sluagh are grateful that such highborn men would stoopto speak with us. King Beckett and King Cian, you might be the rightful ownersof the Seelie throne, but you do not sit upon it. King Fergus, you rule theUnseelie, but we have no use for you.” His head whips around, eyes lockingfirmly on…me. Every one of the sluagh turn in one motion, a great flock ofwicked birds of prey. “We seek the King of the Dead.”

Duffy tugs at my tunic. “Damn me, Lach. I think they’retalking about you. Should I get me axe?”

“Hush, Duffy.” For once Shim sounds serious.

“What are you talking about?” Father’s voice booms throughthe hall. “Leave my son alone. He isn’t well. Guards, take the princes out.”

I stand. I’m not about to be hauled out like an idiot childwho doesn’t know his place. I do know where I belong. I hate it, but the deadcall to me. I turn my eyes to the guard coming in. “Touch me and I’ll kill you.Once you’re dead, I’ll take control of your corpse and turn you on everyone youlove. Do you understand?”

The head of the guard stops, his eyes widening. “PrinceLachlan, we must do as your father requests. He is king.”

The sluagh leader is suddenly right in my space, a coldwhisper across my flesh. “He is not the king of us, Your Highness, and you knowthis to be true. Your power is not whole yet without your bondmate at your side.Take power from us. We give it willingly. Show them. Show them all.”

I look down at Shim, seeking sound counsel, but my brother’sface has turned cold and hard. “I feel it, too, brother, though it is not mypower to take. Take it. Show them. ’Tis the only way to prove it.”

Ice edges through me, the sluagh pushing death power my way.I can command this. This is no flare of uncontrolled talent. This is raw power,and I am the master. I reach out to call the dead to me.