Merry Gentry 03 - Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

and taste the white knight, and I'll agree to a month for every goblin you make sidhe."
    Rhys let me go, slowly, almost reluctantly. If he'd had trouble touching Kitto so closely, it didn't show. Kitto had cleaned the last of the tears from my face and stood pressed against the front of my body.
    "I can't help you break your marriage vows, no matter how loosely you hold them. Our laws forbid it. As for my guards, all my guards, they are not meat." I kissed the top of Kitto's head.
    "Then we can have no bargain." For a second I saw the relief of that decision on his face.
    Doyle's voice fell into the silence like some deep, heavy bell, the purring beat of his voice playing along my skin. "I was there when the goblins were stripped of their magic, Kurag. I remember your wizards. I remember that there was a time when the goblins' magic was as feared as their physical power."
    "And who slaughtered every wizard and witch among us?" There were the beginnings of anger again.
    "I did," Doyle said. I'd never heard two words so empty of emotion, so carefully nothing.
    "And it was sidhe magic that sucked the magic from our veins."
    "That was not an Unseelie spell, Kurag. We meant to win the war, not to destroy you."
    "That bastard Taranis did not destroy us. Him and his shining folk who did the spell. They sucked our magic, and they kept it. Don't believe otherwise, Darkness. That shining bunch of hypocrites kept what they stole."
    "I put nothing past the King of Light and Illusion," Doyle said.
    Kurag stared at Doyle for a second or two, then spoke slowly, even though I could still see the anger on his face. "You helped take our magic. Why would you help give it back?"
    "I did not agree that it should be taken the first time. I had no problem with killing your people. They were slaughtering us. If their spells had stayed in place, it might have gone badly for the sidhe."
    "We'd have won, and owned all your shining asses."
    Doyle shrugged. "Who can say what will happen in a war? But I say this now: We can offer you back some of the magic that was stolen away."
    I whispered against the curve of Kitto's ear, "Shine for him, Kitto."
    Kitto raised his head to meet my eyes with his own. His face was so solemn, as if he didn't want to do it. I wanted to ask why not, but I couldn't ask in front of Kurag because I didn't know what answer Kitto would give. I'd learned long ago that in the middle of negotiations, you never ask a question you don't know the answer to. The answer is so likely to hurt you.
    Kitto said, in a small voice, "I'm afraid."
    I understood then. Anger, lust, all sorts of emotions could make the magic flare, but fear, strangely, could kill it. It depended on the kind of fear. If it was that mind-numbing, panic-inducing kind of terror, you just couldn't concentrate around it. But a little fear could help you bring it on, and sometimes your greatest fears could manifest your greatest powers. Still, especially at the beginning, when the magic was new, you never knew which way fear would work for you.
    Kitto couldn't draw his magic because he was scared to death of Kurag and Creeda. He was too terrified to think clearly, let alone do magic.
    I cupped his face in my hands. "I understand." I glanced behind me at Rhys, and sighed. Rhys had played a good game up to now, but that one forceful hug was the most physical interaction he'd had with Kitto. Asking Rhys to help me do what amounted to foreplay with Kitto was asking too much. My white knight, as Kurag put it, had done his duty for the day.
    With his face still cupped in my hands, I laid a gentle kiss on Kitto's mouth.
    "What's this?" Kurag asked.
    I raised my face enough to see his face. "I want Kitto to call his magic, but he fears you too much."
    "What use to the goblins is such frail magic?"
    "In the beginning of your powers, you sometimes need help drawing them."
    Doyle added, "It is like any other weapon, Kurag. Someone new to the sword may hesitate in battle, or be unsure