Page 6 of Beauty

It has to be.

Shim smiles, his whole face lighting up. “We’re going tofind her. I know it deep down. I have all the clues we need. Surely the kingswill know the place I keep seeing.”

Shim slaps Duffy on the back and hands him his axe.

“I bet the queen is going to be crying by now,” Duffy says,his chest puffing out. “I can’t imagine a sweet Seelie queen having to dealwith us rough Unseelie. If she lasts the night, I’ll be shocked.”

“We have to be on our best behavior, Duff,” Shim saysseriously. “And we might want to clear the goblins out. They could scare thequeen. And the trolls. You know, we might want to clear the whole palace.”

Duffy and Shim start up the road, talking about all thethings that might frighten the gentle Seelie queen.

I stop. The dog is dead again. His body lies across therocks, a symbol of all that’s wrong with my life.

I should be as thrilled as my brother, but what will our ownsweet Seelie wife think of me? What will happen when she sees my decimatedface? What will she think when she learns of my power, the power she’ll makestronger by bonding the two parts of my soul together? Will she be able to livewith herself knowing she’ll be responsible for unleashing a powerfulnecromancer?

I stare down at the dog who briefly flared back toexistence. Shim can offer her life and fire and a perfect face. All I can offeris death.

And still I turn and follow my brother. It will bedisastrous, but I can’t resist. After a lifetime of longing, I will see her.

Perhaps then and only then I can be free.

Chapter Two

Shim

I stare at the sweet Seelie queen and have to admitthat I’m slightly afraid of her.

“Look, you little shit, I know you have coffee. I can smellit.” She’s small but she shows no fear of the goblin she’s currently railingat. I heard the rumor that she’s from some backwater plane called the Earthplane, but she looks sidhe to me. Short, though she’s curved in allthe right places.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Your Highness. Ihave no idea what this thing called coffee is.” The goblin flashes a mouthfulof sharp teeth before trying to hide a silvery flask behind his back.

A young woman dressed in simple but expensive clothes walksup behind the queen. She is pretty, a slender, innocent-looking thing. Then shestarts sniffing the air. There’s something almost feral about her when shescents the world around her. “He is lying. He has the coffee.”

Queen Meg throws her an affectionate look. “Yes, I believeso, Kaja, since he’s drinking it right in front of me.”

She drinks goblin whiskey? Most sidhe avoid it, butI rather like the stuff. I prefer it the way the goblins prepare it. Hot andsweet. Someone—a gnome if I remember correctly—had cooled the liquor, but Ithink it vile in that form.

A Seelie queen who drinks goblin liquor? And whosehandmaiden appears to be a bit feral? The slender woman is again scenting theair.

“The food here smells good. And the small ones look easy tocatch.”

The queen sends her a pointed look. “Dante told you not toeat the brownies.”

Kaja wrinkles her nose. “Dante tells me not to eat anything.It’s sad. Don’t eat the brownies. Don’t eat the pixies. Don’t eat thetrolls. He would not even allow me to eat our enemies.”

Queen Meg shrugs. “Well, he was definitely right about thetroll. It smelled bad. You would have had a tummy ache for days.” Her eyesnarrow, and she leans forward. “What did Dante say about eating selfish goblinswho won’t even share a drop of their coffee?”

The goblin takes another drink. “I ain’t scared of no Seeliewomen. Seelie women are trophies, nothing more.”

Kaja growls, a low, menacing sound that seems to come fromthe back of her throat, and I could have sworn she suddenly has a mouth full ofsharp teeth. “I am not Seelie.”

Damn, I’m going to lose a few goblins if I don’t start tofix this.

“Is that the queen?” Lach asks, walking up behind me.

At least I have an answer for this particular question. Sooften I don’t. So often I drift away, my mind seeking Bronwyn’s and melding inan odd way. I’m the plane’s worst peeper. I shake it off. It’s always there,that slight invisible tie that binds me to my wife. Well, the woman who doesn’teven know she’s my wife. Years passed since the single act that bound ustogether, and as far as I can tell, Bronwyn hasn’t gotten the message thatshe’s a married woman. Not that she’s playing around. I always manage to fixthose problems. A nice fire bolt tends to make would-be suitors think twiceabout fucking around with my bride.

“Are you still with me?” Lach asks.