"A nice bundle of hay," Ktistes said gravely.

It was an old joke between them. Laughing, Irrith went in search of bread.

Leicester Fields, Westminster: October 1, 1757 The morning was far enough progressed that when Galen disembarked from his sedan chair, the sun had risen above the rooftops, spilling its excessively bright light into the open square of Leicester Fields. He winced and covered his eyes with one hand while he fumbled out coins for the chair-men, then stood for a moment as they picked up their burden and trotted off, hoping that fort.i.tude might find him.

That proved to be an unwise choice. A disagreeable smell drifted from somewhere, and someone's housekeeper was haranguing a delivery boy with language more suitable to a Billingsgate fishwife. Swallowing back the sick feeling in his throat, Galen hurried down the narrow steps into the area of his family's townhouse, and through the door into the cellar.

Inside, someone made a startled noise, and there was a shadowy movement like a curtsy; when his vision cleared, he saw Jenny, with her arms full of linen. Galen tried to edge past her in the narrow corridor, but the maid curtsied again and said, "Beg pardon, sir-your father told us all to tell you. He wants to see you."

And knew his son's habits well enough to guess by what door Galen would come in. "Thank you, Jenny," he said, and abandoned his plan of creeping up the servants' staircase.

Edward was in his bedroom, laying aside newly polished pairs of shoes. When Galen entered, he rose, bowed, and said, "You look terrible."

"I feel terrible." Galen found his way to a chair by memory, and collapsed into it. "And that was before before I heard Father wanted to see me." I heard Father wanted to see me."

"Someone else broke that to you, I see." Edward didn't bother to hide his relief. The elder St. Clair deplored the casual manner of his son's valet, but not enough to sack him; it was miracle enough that Edward had been in their household for more than a year, without wandering off in the usual manner of servants.

At least it seemed a miracle, to the outside observer. Galen knew why the fellow had become a footman in the St. Clair household, and why he stayed: Lune had sent him, after the pa.s.sing of his previous master, the late Prince. Though not himself a faerie, Edward Thorne was the natural son of one of Lune's knights by a mortal woman, and as such was a perfect go-between for the two worlds.

It also meant Edward, unlike Galen's father, did not a.s.sume Galen had spent his night carousing in a Haymarket brothel. "Late night at court?" he asked, only a little too briskly, whisking the peruke from his master's head.

Galen leaned forward in the chair to let Edward slide the tightly fitted coat from his shoulders. "I only wish it were," he said. "No, for once Father's a.s.sumptions will be something like right: I spent my night drinking, and haven't slept."

His eyes were closed, but he heard the brief silence as Edward paused, before laying his coat aside and fetching a fresh shirt. "You don't sound as if you enjoyed yourself."

"I didn't." The strength he took from Lune's confidence had vanished like the morning dew after he left her presence. He'd sought inspiration in brandy, and not found it.

A cool gla.s.s pressed into his hand. Galen sniffed, eyes still closed. Water, carrying a dose of Dr. Taunton's Fortifying Drops. He drank the mixture down, sighed, and addressed himself to the washbasin, which Edward had just filled. It had the salutary effect of waking him, though the chill splash made his headache worse.

"He had his electrical treatment last night," Edward warned, helping Galen into another shirt. "But it doesn't seem to have taken well. It's been a devil of a morning already."

To that, there seemed no suitable response other than a groan.

But delaying would not help anything except the progress of his hangover, and so a short while later, with fresh clothes and wig alike to give him a semblance of dignity, Galen descended the stairs to his father's study, to beard the lion in his book-lined den.

Charles St. Clair had none of the appearance of a lion, being fat and gouty, with a somber black bagwig and a coat of brick red. He was in his most comfortable chair when Galen entered, with one shoeless foot propped up in front of him-a sure sign that his leg pained him. At the sound of the door, he did not look up from the ledger balanced on his other knee, but made Galen wait in silence for several long minutes, before finally clapping the ledger shut and fixing his son with a gimlet eye.

"When you are married," St. Clair said, biting off each word, "then you may keep the hours you please, and your wife will suffer the consequences-but while you still live under my roof, boy, you will behave like a civilized man. I won't have you creeping in the servants' entrance after c.o.c.kcrow, after wasting your night in G.o.d knows what debauchery."

There was nothing Galen could say to this. He could hardly tell his father it was a faerie court, not a brothel, that occupied his hours, and no other response had done much good. Galen had tried them all. So he simply waited, head bowed, for his father to move past the opening pleasantries and into the reason for this summons.

St. Clair snorted in disgust. "Can't even speak up for yourself, just stand there like a spineless worm. I pity the woman saddled with you: she'll find herself with a wife, not a husband."

Marriage. Unease churned the medicine and lingering spirits in Galen's stomach. He should have guessed this might be his father's purpose. They scarcely talked, save on a small number of unwelcome topics. "I should not want to make myself a burden on any woman," he ventured to say, "until I was sure I could be worthy of her."

"Too bad for her, whoever she is." St. Clair creaked his way to his feet, grunting as his stockinged toes touched the floor, and went to his desk, where he dropped the ledger with a thud. "You will find yourself a wife, boy, and you will do it soon."

Galen flinched. That was even blunter than usual. "Sir-I cannot simply go through London, weighing women for their dowries, and make my offer when I find a purse heavy enough."

"Why not? The St. Clair name is a good one, even if its finances are somewhat more tattered. London throngs with rich men eager to marry their daughters into a better family. Your youth will hardly signify-some might consider it a selling point." St. Clair snorted again. "I dare say you can even find a pretty one, if you look hard enough."

The words came out before he could stop them. "And affection?"

His father didn't say anything; the silence was enough. Less than it could have been, in fact; the last time Galen had said anything of the sort, he'd been clouted over the ear for it. But he was not foolish enough to mistake the silence for any kind of softening on his father's part.

"I know," Galen whispered, staring at his shoes. "Affection doesn't enter into it; what matters is money." Cynthia was nearly twenty, and needed a dowry to attract a worthwhile husband; and behind her waited Daphne and Irene, with the same need. The burden fell to Galen, the eldest, and their only brother, to repair the family's finances.

Bitterness stung him. Yes, it's my responsibility to repair them-as it was Father's to destroy them. Yes, it's my responsibility to repair them-as it was Father's to destroy them.

That, at least, he managed to keep behind his teeth. The thought of Lune saved him from speaking: if he angered his father badly enough, he might be confined to Leicester Fields, and then he would be no use to the fae at all. But that was the source of his pain: how could he shackle himself to a wife-how could he shackle a young woman to him him-when his heart was already given elsewhere?

Few men would see a problem with it. Men kept mistresses all the time, sometimes under the same roof as their wives; their name and their affection need not go to the same recipient. But Galen could not stomach the dishonesty, especially when his wife could never know of the second world he inhabited. And Lune... she would despise him for it.

It was hopeless, and Galen knew it. He could worship the faerie Queen until the sun grew cold, but he would never have her, neither as mistress nor wife. His mind could not even conceive of such an outcome. In which case, he must fill that void with thoughts of Cynthia, and Daphne, and Irene. However much he detested his father, he loved his sisters. If their futures depended on this sacrifice from him, then he must harden his resolve and do as his father bade.

St. Clair was awaiting his answer, with increasing disgust and impatience. Galen gritted his teeth, and prepared to embrace the black satisfaction of martyrdom.

But inspiration touched him as he opened his mouth. He'd come here with a purpose, one he almost forgot under his father's a.s.sault-and now he had a means of addressing it. "If I am to do this, sir, for you and for my sisters-then I must ask a favor in return."

A flush leapt up toward the edge of St. Clair's wig. "You are in no position to make demands, boy."

But he was; Galen could hardly be wed against his will. And he held a bargaining position now, that he hadn't foreseen when he came home this morning. "I don't ask much. Simply this: give me letters of introduction to your acquaintances in the Royal Society."

Now it was the eyebrows leaping upward. "What possible business could you have with them?"

His surprise was understandable. Galen enjoyed learning rather more than the next young gentleman, but he'd never shown any interest in his father's connection with the Royal Society. The truth was that the connection embarra.s.sed him; Galen knew quite well that Charles St. Clair had bought himself a fellowship because he wanted the prestige and they wanted the money. This, of course, had been when the St. Clairs had had money. But his father had never done much with the privilege, and neither had Galen. He said, "I cannot be certain of my business-not until I speak with men better able to advise me. But marriage, sir, is hardly the only way I can be of use to our family." money. But his father had never done much with the privilege, and neither had Galen. He said, "I cannot be certain of my business-not until I speak with men better able to advise me. But marriage, sir, is hardly the only way I can be of use to our family."

"You think to make your fortune with some kind of speculative venture?"

Why not? After all, that's how you destroyed yours. Galen again flung the thought of Lune between those words and his mouth, and lifted his hands with a faint smile, letting his father draw what conclusions he would. Galen again flung the thought of Lune between those words and his mouth, and lifted his hands with a faint smile, letting his father draw what conclusions he would.

St. Clair growled under his breath, then said, "I'll consider it. They're adjourned until November regardless. In the meantime, you can prove to me you're serious about your duty to this family. Start hunting a wife."

It was a miserable time to go looking; with the aristocracy and landed gentry departed to their country estates for the summer and autumn, London's social calendar offered few prospects for success. The St. Clairs only stayed because Aldgrange, their Ess.e.x estate, was too expensive to maintain for residence. "I can offer you a promise," Galen said, seeing a way to postpone his fate. "I'll make an offer to a suitable young lady before the end of the next Season. Will that suffice?"

His father regarded him with a cynical eye. "If you fail to make good on it, you'll suffer the consequences." The presentation of his back dismissed Galen. Suppressing a sigh, the young man headed for the door.

That gave him until early summer. If London's safety was achieved by then, did he dare defy the old man, and break his promise? But there was Cynthia to consider, and his younger sisters; he could not pay their dowries in faerie gold.

No, there was no escape to be had. In this, his father was right: he had a duty. Come what may, I must find myself a wife. Come what may, I must find myself a wife.

Central London: October 7, 1757 The clamor and stench of the city struck Irrith full in the face as she slipped out of a nonexistent gap between two buildings on Cloak Lane. She wrinkled her nose, but grinned despite her distaste. That was the smell of humanity, true enough, right down to their coal smoke and s.h.i.t.

The street to either side of her teemed with a solid ma.s.s of people-none of whom noticed her sudden appearance, thanks to the enchantments that protected the Onyx Hall. A giant wagon sat at rest just to her right, its driver standing on the seat and swearing at whatever blocked his way. Things might change, but obscenity wasn't one of them: he insulted the offender's parentage, cleanliness, and s.e.xual habits as his father and grandfather had done for ages before him.

Yet something seemed wrong. The street was full, but it didn't seem like day. The sprite glanced upward, trying to determine what time it was. Though Onyx Hall didn't stand outside of time as some faerie realms did, its unchanging gloom made it seem as if it did.

The sky above glowered with unnatural darkness. Heavy, smoke-stained clouds sat low in the air, but it wasn't merely an impending storm; the light had a strange quality, ominous and weird, like nothing she had ever seen before. Irrith couldn't even tell whether it was morning or afternoon.

Unease rippled down her spine. Around her, the city went about its business-but now she noticed that others shared her discomfort. They cast nervous glances skyward, or fixed their eyes upon their shoes, trying to ignore this upset to the natural order.

Frowning, she began to make her way along the street, ducking under a low-hanging shop sign and slipping into the stream of pa.s.sersby where they eddied around the halted wagon. Despite pavements on either side of the street, and the ragged boys with their brooms at the crossings, her stockings and coat were spattered with mud before she went twenty paces; she had forgotten to think of pattens, when she put together the glamour that disguised her.

Up ahead, a knot of people stood talking, tin cups in their hands. These they seemed to have purchased from a shop crammed into a narrow alcove on the ground floor of a larger building. Upon drawing close, Irrith caught a surprising evergreen scent.

"Drunk for a penny!" the man behind the counter called out, when he saw her looking. "A small price, to lose your cares."

Irrith generally found it simpler to look like a man, when she went above, but she hadn't bothered to make it a gentleman. Most of the fellows standing about were rough sorts, who probably had little more than a penny to spend. Irrith fished a leaf out of her pocket, charming it as she went, and handed the resulting silver two-penny piece over to the seller. "Only one," she said hastily, wrinkling her nose at the spiritous evergreen reek. He gave her a tin cup and her change, and Irrith, seeing the barrel, finally realized where she was: a gin shop.

She'd heard of the drink in Berkshire, but never tasted any. One sip later, she decided a single taste was enough. The gin seemed determined to eat away at her mouth, throat, and nose. Coughing, she nodded her thanks and stepped aside.

The sallow-skinned fellow next to her was staring at the blackened sky with a grim expression. "What's causing it?" Irrith asked him.

He had the cadaverous face of a potter, which went all too well with his reply. "Why, the comet, of course."

Irrith dropped her gin cup. "The comet?"

Her informant waved a hand skyward. "The one that smart cove said would be coming back. Halley. It's here."

"And now," someone else slurred, "the world'll burn right up."

The disguised sprite retrieved her cup from the dirt. Most of the gin had spilled, and now she wished she had it back. "But-I thought it wasn't supposed to come for another year." Her heart beat double-time. It can't be true. It can't be true.

A woman dressed like a maidservant nodded agreement. "My mistress was reading the Gentleman's Magazine, Gentleman's Magazine, and she told me not to be afeared, as this was a different comet. Though how they can tell, G.o.d only knows. Them stars look all the same to me." and she told me not to be afeared, as this was a different comet. Though how they can tell, G.o.d only knows. Them stars look all the same to me."

"Then how d'you explain the sky?" the potter demanded.

No one could. But Irrith discovered, to her startlement, that the mortals of London had not forgotten Halley's prediction, any more than the fae had. They even seemed to have a presentiment of its danger. "Mark my words," the potter said, "this comet or the next, one of them'll crash right into us, and then it'll be Noah's Flood all over again."

"Fire, not flood," the maidservant insisted. "We'll pa.s.s through the comet's tail and burn, just like this fellow said."

Irrith listened with wide eyes. Not everyone shared that fear; someone started an argument with the maidservant, quoting some other magazine to prove they were in no danger. No one mentioned a Dragon. Still, she wondered whether the black sky was in truth a sign. Even if this wasn't the same comet-which it didn't appear to be, as London wasn't on fire-it seemed a terrible omen.

When the argument faded out, she abandoned the gin shop and wandered onward. Her intent had been to enjoy herself today, swindling shopkeepers and picking up new curiosities for her cabinet, but in the grim light she just didn't have the heart. Irrith stopped in the middle of Cheapside, surrounded by fine shops, and made a face of equal parts frustration and worry.

She'd left for Berkshire fifty years ago because there were things she hated about London. Mostly the faerie courtiers: vipers, all of them, saying one thing and meaning another, then biting you when your back was turned. The longer she stayed, the greater her risk of getting caught in their political coils.

But she also loved the City. She loved it for the smart stone and brick buildings that stood where plaster and timber had once been. For the gin shops, with the poor and working folk standing around drinking poison and talking of what their mistress read in the newspaper today. For the little boxes people rode in, carried along on long poles, and the bewildering variety of their wig styles, and the Chinese wallpaper being sold in the shop in front of her.

A few days here would not be enough to scratch that itch. Not after fifty years of absence, and not if this might all come to an end in a year and a half.

She could always run for Berkshire at the first scent of politics.

Irrith jumped sideways to avoid a carriage forcing a path through the crowd, and found herself against a wall plastered with advertis.e.m.e.nts. One of them caught her eye, with a word that did not belong on a sheet of paper stuck to the wall of a Cheapside shop.

DR. RUFUS ANDREWS.

presents His MARVELOUS MENAGERIE featuring many Strange and Rare Half-Breeds and Homunculi including the ORONUTO SAVAGE,.

two.

RED INDIAN MAIDENS,.

born joined at the Hip, and most wondrous strange, the half-Man, half-Goat OLYMPIAN SATYR.

She stared at that last word, then scrubbed her eyes. It did not oblige her by vanishing.

There was more, in smaller print, crammed in toward the bottom of the sheet; it seemed these wonders could be viewed for a fee at some place in Red Lion Square. Ladies were coyly advised that the satyr might be shocking to their delicate const.i.tutions.

Irrith was prepared to be more than shocked, if this Dr. Andrews had an actual faerie in his menagerie. Could he? The Greek fae were not like English ones; iron didn't bother them. Maybe a satyr could survive in mortal captivity, without wasting away to nothingness.

Her fingers scrabbled at the edges of the sheet. Half stayed behind when she tore it free, but the satyr stayed, as did the address.

Irrith had no idea where Red Lion Square was, and she wouldn't go there on her own even if she did. Should it be true this man had a captive satyr, she would need help to get the prisoner free.

The Onyx Hall, London: October 7, 1757 The pure ring of silver echoed off the polished stone of the walls as Irrith approached the set of chambers collectively known as the Temple of Arms. Hidden in the heart of London, where outsiders could not easily attack them, the fae of the Onyx Court rarely saw battle. Still, those among them with a martial bent yet practiced their art, no more able to abandon it than rain could stop falling downward.

They had all the accoutrements of war at their disposal, short of seige equipment: axes, maces, swords both large and small, centuries of armor. One long gallery had been converted into an archery range; another was dedicated to pistol practice. But the room Irrith sought was the central one, a large, octagonal chamber, its sleek floor covered with a hard-packed acc.u.mulation of dirt and straw the masters of the training ground refused to let anyone clean away. Here she found what looked like the entire fighting contingent of the Onyx Hall, watching two of their number at work.

For the second time that day, Irrith's heart leapt into her mouth. They were fighting the Dragon.

Her common sense caught up a moment later. When she blinked, she recognized the terrible beast as nothing more than a glamour, roaring silently in the center of the room. But there were plenty at court who remembered their foe; the illusion was uncomfortably lifelike. The serpentine creature, if it reared upward, would nearly strike the chamber's high ceiling, and its flesh was black char over molten flame. There were salamanders in the Onyx Hall, lizardlike spirits of elemental fire, but they were to the Dragon as a brook was to the mighty sea.

The two facing the beast, a blocky gnome and an elf-knight, were wrestling with a strange weapon. It was nearly invisible, except where the light struck a gleam off one smooth facet or another; Irrith didn't appreciate its full length until the knight swore and lost his grip, letting the enormous spear collapse to the dirt. He tucked his hands under his arms, shivering and ignoring the gnome's harangue, and Irrith realized what the weapon must be.

"Elemental ice," Segraine said, startling her. Irrith hadn't heard the lady approach. "From Jotunheim, or so the Swedes who sent it to us claim. Whether that's true or not, it makes a terrible weapon-terrible for us us, not our enemy."

Now Irrith understood the gathering. "You're preparing to fight it."

Her friend shrugged. "What else can we do?"

Something new, Irrith thought. She would never say it, though. Under the command of Sir Peregrin Thorne, Captain of the Onyx Guard, Segraine and her fellows had faced the Dragon once already, battling it amidst the flames of the Great Fire. Their willingness to do so a second time showed just how brave they were-or how foolhardy. Irrith herself, though brave on occasion, had no intention of going anywhere near the creature a second time. Love for the city aside, if the appointed day came and they had no better plan than facing down the Dragon in battle, she was going back to Berkshire. London could burn just as well without her as with. Irrith thought. She would never say it, though. Under the command of Sir Peregrin Thorne, Captain of the Onyx Guard, Segraine and her fellows had faced the Dragon once already, battling it amidst the flames of the Great Fire. Their willingness to do so a second time showed just how brave they were-or how foolhardy. Irrith herself, though brave on occasion, had no intention of going anywhere near the creature a second time. Love for the city aside, if the appointed day came and they had no better plan than facing down the Dragon in battle, she was going back to Berkshire. London could burn just as well without her as with.

Segraine didn't seem much more enthusiastic. The lady knight cut an impressive figure, even in a plain silk shirt and old slops; the severity of her tightly queued hair drew attention to her strong profile, and the breadth of her shoulders. She had been Lieutenant of the Onyx Guard, before she gave her place to Sir Cerenel. Irrith wondered if it was because her friend had looked ahead just as she had, and had seen the specter of defeat.

Then Segraine noticed her scrutiny, and the mere touch of her gaze made Irrith feel ashamed of that thought. "Mind you," the knight added, "this all a.s.sumes there's a Dragon to fight fight."

Irrith blinked in confusion. "What? You think the Queen's lying, that Feidelm made the vision up?"

Her friend's lip curled in something not quite a laugh. "We should be so lucky. No, we have an enemy; the question is whether it will have a body we can attack. Remember, what they imprisoned was its spirit. And that's a hard thing to stab."

The shard lay on the floor, steaming a little in the cool air. The practice was breaking up, and the audience with it; a small group went with Sir Peregrin out the far door, the gnome and another collected the ice, and the rest drifted away, grumbling. "That's it for today," Segraine said, "but I doubt you came here to watch us wave a piece of ice around anyway."