The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire

Author:Seanan McGuire [McGuire, Seanan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: no data
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
Published: 2023-10-24T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

SIMON WAS THE FIRST to break the awkward silence. “They’ll be resistant to the iron blocking access to the Queen’s dungeons for at least an hour. As long as they’re reasonably quick about things, it should be more than enough to get them in and out without issue.”

“The Windermeres are immature in self-defense, as exiles with no hope of ever returning to their family holdings, but they conduct their duties responsibly and with remarkable skill,” said Chrysanthe. “I have never known them to fail once they set their minds to something, unless there’s outside intervention.”

“Outside intervention is exactly what I’m concerned about,” said Simon darkly.

“Will this potion you’ve brewed work for me, and the Shadow Roads?” I asked. I should have asked before, should have provided an alternate plan, but he had seemed so sure, and I hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in so long—

“I have no way of knowing,” said Simon. “Not without a sample of your blood, which would grant me a sample of your memory. That might be a swift way to verify whether your wild stories are true. No one can rewrite the secrets stored in blood.”

I flinched at the thought of bleeding for the man, but . . .“If I bleed for you, if you see the truth of what I’ve told you, will you help me?”

“I thought I was already helping you.” He gestured to the room around us, golden walls and watching monarchs, people who were still more strangers than allies—all save Ginevra, who watched him with the wary unease of a feral cat trapped in a room full of humans. I had come to know Garm and Grianne reasonably well in the past few months, but without the ability to read my blood and know I was telling them the truth, there was only so far they could believe me, after all. I was a stranger walking into their lives and announcing that everything they knew had been a lie. That wasn’t an easy rock to swallow, no matter how I turned it.

“You’re helping October,” I said.

“You say she’s your wife. Doesn’t that make it the same thing?”

“You know better than that,” I said, voice low.

Simon looked at me, refusing to flinch away. “If you bleed for me,” he said, after a long and dreadful silence, “then yes. I will believe you believe the things you’re saying.”

“Not good enough. You can tell the difference between memory and delusion when it’s witnessed in the blood.”

Cait Sidhe don’t share that particular gift, but I’ve known enough Daoine Sidhe in my day to understand more about their magic than most. Simon frowned.

“Blood can’t lie. But blood can reflect lies.”

“You’re a smart man. I’m sure you can tell the difference between truth and fiction.”

“You’re both very impressive and awesome and smart and cool,” said Ginevra, stepping between us. “Stop flexing at each other and do something useful. Simon, if you’re willing to ride Tybalt’s blood, and he’s willing to let you, you should be able to say whether you’re going to at least try to believe whatever you see there.

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