A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online

that time runs differently in faerie than it does in the real world,” Shelby said.
    I knew that Taranis hadn’t said “the real world,” because to him the Seelie Court
was
the real world.
    “May I ask your clients a question?” Veducci asked. He’d stayed out of the squabbling. In fact, this was one of the first times he’d spoken since we had changed rooms. It made me nervous.
    “You can ask it,” Biggs said, “but I’ll decide if they answer it.”
    Veducci gave a nod, and pushed away from the wall where he’d been leaning. He smiled at us all. Only a hardness to his eyes let me know that the smile was a lie. “Sergeant Rhys, were you in the lands of faerie on the date that Lady Caitrin accuses you of attacking her?”
    “Of allegedly attacking her,” Biggs said.
    Veducci nodded at him. “Were you in the lands of faerie on the date that Lady Caitrin alleges this attack took place?”
    It was nicely worded. Worded so that it was hard to dance around the truth without actually lying.
    Rhys smiled at him, and I got a glimpse of that less serious side he’d shown me most of my life. “I was in the lands of faerie when the alleged attack took place.”
    Veducci asked the same question of Galen. Galen looked more uncomfortable than Rhys had, but he answered, “Yes, I was.”
    Abeloec’s answer was simply “Yes.”
    Farmer whispered to Biggs, and asked the next round of questions. “Sergeant Rhys, were you here in Los Angeles on the date of the alleged attack?”
    The question proved that our lawyers still didn’t quite understand the quandary of time in faerie.
    “No, I was not.”
    Biggs frowned. “But you were, all day. We have many witnesses.”
    Rhys smiled at him. “But the day in Los Angeles was not the identical day as the day that Lady Caitrin accused us of this alleged attack.”
    “It is the same date,” Biggs insisted.
    “Yes,” Rhys said patiently, “but just because it’s the same date doesn’t mean it’s the same day.”
    Veducci was the only one smiling. Everyone else looked like they were thinking too hard, or were wondering if Rhys was crazy.
    “Can you clarify that?” Veducci asked, still looking pleased.
    “This isn’t like a science-fiction story, where we have traveled back in time to redo the same day,” Rhys said. “We aren’t truly in two places at once. For us, Mr. Veducci, this day is truly a new day. Our dopplegangers are not in faerie reliving this day. That day in faerie is past. This day here in Los Angeles is a new day. It happens to have the same date, so outside of faerie it appears to be the same day, repeated.”
    “So you could have been in faerie on the day she was attacked?” Veducci asked.
    Rhys smiled at him, almost
tsking
. “On the day she was allegedly attacked, yes.”
    “This will be a nightmare for a jury,” Nelson said.
    “Wait until we get done demanding a jury of their peers,” Farmer said, smiling almost happily.
    Nelson paled under her tasteful makeup. “A jury of their peers?” she repeated softly.
    “Could a human juror truly understand being in two places on the same date?” Farmer asked.
    The lawyers looked at each other. Only Veducci didn’t share in the confusion. I think he’d already thought of all of this. Technically, his job description made him less powerful than Shelby or Cortez, but he could help them hurt us. Of everyone on the opposing side, Veducci was the one I wanted to win over the most.
    “We’re here today to try to avoid this going to a jury,” Biggs said.
    “If they attacked this woman, then at the very least,” Shelby said, “they must be confined to faerie.”
    “You would have to prove their guilt before you could get a judge to mete out a punishment,” Farmer said.
    “Which leads us back to the fact that none of us really want this to go to court.” Veducci’s quiet voice fell into the room like a stone thrown into a flock of birds. The other lawyers’ thoughts seemed to scatter like