Midwinter

"I do." Hy Pezho withdrew the scroll from his cloak and unfolded it on the clerk's desk.

The clerk glanced at it and snorted. "This petition is over thirty years old!"

Hy Pezho leaned in close and hissed, with just a touch of the black art, "I do not see an expiration date."

The clerk stiffened. "Wait there," he said, indicating a low wooden bench.

Hy Pezho waited for an hour, then another, then another. The clerk studiously ignored him. It would be unseemly to do anything but wait, as though waiting were the sole purpose of his existence.

Finally, as the daylight began to fade through the open windows in the gallery above, the clerk called him forward. "You will have five minutes. At the end of your five minutes, a bell will ring and you will leave." The clerk eyed Bacamar, coiled lightly around Hy Pezho's arm, nearly invisible. "Your pet must remain outside."

"Sorry, Bacamar," said Hy Pezho. The familiar undulated upward into the gallery above and wrapped herself around a balustrade, sulking.

A pair of burly guards ushered Hy Pezho into a dim parlor and searched him for weapons, poisons and hexes. The search was embarrassingly thorough. Finally the guards sat him in a chair and placed a loose binding charm on him that made his arms heavy and his legs numb. He waited there for another hour, feeling his nose itch, unable to raise his arm to scratch.

Finally, the curtain on the room's far wall drew back and Her Royal Majesty, Queen Mab, entered the room, her entrance preceded by a stream of butterflies and a gentle drift of incense and rose petals. She was taller than Hy Pezho expected, an ancient woman of impressively regal bearing, dressed in a tightly bodiced gown of pure scarlet, the Unseelie Crown woven perfectly into her silver hair. She seated herself on a cushion, drawing the curtain closed behind her.

"Royal Highness. It is a great honor indeed," said Hy Pezho, bowing his head toward her.

"Your petition is an old one, granted to your father. It is in his memory that I allow it for a son."

"You are most kind, Majesty."

"No, I am curious. I want to know what the son of the Black Artist has done with his life. Have you followed in your father's footsteps?" Her voice was high and nasal, clipped, precise.

"Aye, Majesty. That is why I have come."

"When your Queen asks a yes or no question, son of Pezho, only a `yes' or a `no' is required."

"My apologies, Majesty."

"The black arts are most dangerous. They consumed your father. Do they not consume you as well? Elaborate."

"The art may be controlled, Majesty, by one with sufficient will."

"Ah," said Mab. "And I suppose you possess such a will."

"I do, Majesty."

"Have you not heard the expression that love may not be ridden, only grasped by the reins? The same is true for hatred."

"That is the saying, Majesty." Hy Pezho attempted a smile.

"State your business, son of Pezho. Then begone and do not trouble me again."

"Majesty, I bear news of great import to the Unseelie." With a supreme effort, Hy Pezho reached for the locket at his breast and forced it open, spilling the desiccated body of the message sprite onto the divan before him.

"What is that?" said the Queen, nudging it with her finger.

"Right now, there is Midwinter in the Seelie land," said Hy Pezho, "and Titania has sent out her emissary."

The Queen frowned. "How do you know of such things?"

"My father had a loose tongue, especially near the time of his death." Hy Pezho smiled.

"What of it?" Mab frowned.

"I have tracked the party of the emissary," he said. "And what's more, I have placed an operative among them."

Now the Queen smiled. "Hy Pezho, perhaps you are your father's son after all."

"No," said Hy Pezho. "I am better."

A moment later, a tiny bell rang overhead. The Queen reached up her hand and silenced it.

the city emerald

It is called the jewel of Faerie and the Dragon's Heart. It is the oldest place in the known world, the beginning of history and the source of all power in the Seelie Kingdom. It is thousands of centuries old, its cobbled stones worn from the treads of millions, its buildings moaning with the sighs of countless generations. It is the setting of legend and myth. It is the City Emerald, the eternal city, the capital of the Faerie Kingdom and the self-proclaimed center of the world.

At its heart is the Seelie Grove, Her Majesty Regina Titania's ancient pleasure garden, the perfectly landscaped, verdantly green center that gives the city its name. It is accessible only to the Queen and to her groundskeepers, handpicked eunuchs from across the Channel Sea. Each morning the Queen can be seen there, her head bowed in meditation.