"
"As my lady asks," he said, "no magic from his hand or the others can touch us in here. He may not know that, but we are safe inside the trucks."
"I hear a 'but' in your voice."
He smiled a little more. "But there are things that can pierce the metal."
"Remember, Merry, our people didn't use armor once, for obvious reasons, but we ran into enemies who did. Our metalsmiths came up with a few things that would go through metal."
"Such as?" I asked.
"There were spears forged long ago," Doyle said. "They are locked away with the few other magical weapons left us."
"The queen would have to give him permission to open the vault of weapons," I said.
"She would, which makes it unlikely that he would have such a thing, but I do not like the fact that he and his followers are in the middle of the road, demanding things from us."
Rhys said, "The queen would never permit him to appear weak or evil in front of the humans. She's worked too long and hard to make the Unseelie Court's reputation better to let Cel ruin it now. It's the one thing she's never allowed him to do, to abuse the humans, or be seen abusing anyone else in front of them."
"And now he's in the middle of the road, behaving badly," I said. "Exactly," he said.
"Where is Queen Andais?" I asked.
"Where indeed," Doyle said, and he moved again, as if the seat wasn't quite comfortable. It wasn't, but it wasn't the seat that was bothering him. Doyle could sleep on a marble floor and not flinch.
"You're afraid for her," I said.
"One thing she accused you of, my sweet Merry, is very true. You have stripped her of all the best and most feared of her personal guard. She retained her position, in part, because of... "
"You," I finished for him.
"Not only me."
I nodded. "You can say his name, Doyle. The Queen's Darkness, and her Killing Frost."
"It upsets you to hear his name."
"It does, but that doesn't mean we don't say it."
"It would if you were Queen Andais," Rhys said.
"I am not her."
"But Doyle is being too modest," Rhys said. "Yes, Frost was feared by the queen's enemies, but it was fear of the Queen's Darkness that kept a lot of courtiers in line."
"You exaggerate," Doyle said.
I shook my head. "I'm not sure he does. I've heard people talk about you, Doyle. I know that the queen would say, 'Bring me my Darkness. Where is my Darkness?' and then someone would die. You were her greatest threat, next to the sluagh."
"Are you saying that Captain Doyle here is as feared as the host of the sluagh?" Gregorio asked.
We all looked at her. I said, "Yes."
"One man, against a host of nightmares," she said, and didn't try to keep her disbelief out of her voice.
"He can be pretty scary all on his own," Rhys said.
Gregorio stared at Doyle, as if trying to see more of him in the dim light.
"Shouldn't you tell Sergeant Dawson that the magic will be stopped by the trucks?" I asked.
"I'll tell him it will probably be stopped." She got on the radio.
Rhys said, "Some of them might be able to make illusions real enough to lure the soldiers outside the trucks."
"What kind of illusions?" I asked.
Voices came over the radio, frantic. "Sierra four to all Sierra, we have wounded soldiers in line of travel. Stopping to render aid."
"Those kind," Doyle said.
"Tell them it's not real," I said.
"Tell them not to get out of the trucks no matter what," Doyle said.
Gregorio tried, she really did, but one thing our soldiers are not trained to do is leave their wounded behind. It was a brilliant trap. The soldiers went to check the wounded, and once they left the trucks, the sidhe attacked, and no human magic could stop them.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Voices came in snatches over the radio. "It's Morales, but he died in Iraq! It's Smitty... died in Afghanistan... "
"It's Siobhan," Rhys said. "She can bring back the shadows of the dead whom you know. Shit, I thought she'd lost that power."
"The princess returns power to all of faerie, Rhys, not just us," Doyle said.
The real trick to the ambush was that the soldiers didn't realize yet that they were under attack. Gregorio twisted in the seat and turned to us. "It doesn't sound like they're doing anything to our people."
"The dead are not the only mind games the sidhe can play," Rhys said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
Shots sounded.
"They're shooting at us!" Gregorio said, and went back to the radio, trying to get someone to talk to her.
We heard Dawson's voice. "Mercer just shot Jones. He's shooting at us!"
"He's shooting at nightmares," Doyle said.
"What?" Gregorio asked.
"They're using illusion to make your solider see monsters. He doesn't know he's shooting at you," I said.
"But we're all wearing anti-faerie stuff," she said.
"Are you sure that this Mercer is wearing his?" Doyle asked.
"They could persuade him to take it off," I said.
She cursed and got back on the radio with Dawson. There was more gunfire, and it sounded different this time. Gregorio got off the radio, her face grim.
"We had to kill Mercer, our own man. He thought he was back in an ambush in Iraq."
"Get the men back in the trucks," Doyle said. "Tell them to believe nothing that they see outside of them."
"It's too late, Doyle," Rhys said. They exchanged looks that were far too serious.
"We might be able to prevent the illusions," Doyle said.
"You're our protectees," Gregorio said. "My orders clearly state that you aren't getting out of the safety of these vehicles until I hand you off at the flight line."
I gripped Doyle's hand and Rhys's arm. This was a trap for us, for my men and me. I agreed with Gregorio, but... The yelling continued, then it became screams.
"Sergeant Dawson, talk to me!" Gregorio yelled into the radio.
"We've got men bleeding. Bleeding from old wounds, but they're fresh now. What the hell is going on?"
"Cel is the Prince of Old Blood. That does not mean he's from an old lineage," Doyle said.
"You mean the prince is doing this?" she asked.
"Yes."
I sat there in the Humvee with my death grip on them both, and couldn't think. Maybe the last several days, or months, were finally catching up with me. I was frozen with indecision. The human soldiers had no chance against this, but it was a trap for us, which meant that Cel and his allies had plans to stop anything we could do. I'd dueled enough of the people with him when Cel was trying to kill me legally. I knew their powers, and some were fierce.
"Shoot them," I said. "The sidhe are not proof against bullets."
"We can't shoot at a royal prince and his guard unless they attack us with something we can see and testify to in court," Gregorio said.