A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Book 4) (edition 2006)

This a book in a series by Laurell Hamilton. This fantasy novel relates to an interaction of the human world and the fairy world. This book revolves around a murder and finding the guilty party. The book includes a lot of sex encounters between the princess and her guards. She is trying to get pregnant, so that she can become queen. Whoever gets her pregnant becomes king. The descriptions of the sex are rather detailed. The plot seems weak but the sex scenes are interesting. ( )

There's been murder done. While the murder is being investigated, there are lots of conversations that reveal relationships and other things about the fey. There's sex. Merry gains yet another power. More sidhe and other fey gain in power, too. The sithin is regaining power. Things that haven't happened in centuries are happening again. I enjoyed the book, but I find the history and character interactions very interesting.
Remember that Seelie Court party that Merry doesn't want to attend? Something happens that makes the invitation even less inviting, but it's not dealt with in this book.

SPOILER ALERT: The following facts are to jog my memory. If they help you, that's great

CHAPTER 1:

This is the first time Queen Andais has allowed this much of the human media in the sithen.

Merry says her eyes are the only part of her that shows her mother had been of the Seelie Court. Well, at least half.

This is the biggest press conference Merry has ever been at.

Considering that Eamon lied for her outright in chapter 31 of Seduced by Moonlight, it's amusing that Merry tells us that sidhe won't actually lie.

'When fey are nervous, any fey, we take comfort from touching one another,' Merry says, but not all sidhe will admit it.

CHAPTER 2:

While it's illegal to use magic on the press (what the Supreme Court ruled), but small magic on themselves for cosmetic purposes is okay.

Merry says if a sidhe lies, s/he's foresworn and once upon a time you got kicked out of faerie of that.

The sidhe sleep in big puppy piles

Adair's full-plate mail looks as if it was formed of gold and copper. It is metal.

Hawthorne's full-plate mail looks like metal, but it's made from something magical.

Queen Andais is fond of her Polaroid camera.

This time Merry says that Galen is 75 years older than she is and she thought his face was the perfect face since she was 14, perhaps younger. Galen has loved her since she was 17.

This is the book where Merry says she and Barinthus haven't had sex even by Bill Clinton's standards.

Peaseblossom isn't named in this chapter, but she appears. She's a Demi-fey with pale blue-pink skin and iridescent blue wings

CHAPTER 3:

Crystall, whom Rhys had left in charge outside the sithen, calls through Rhys' short sword to explain what we recognize as a turf war among the officers outside.

Mug, one of the demi-fey, who has a voice like the twittering of birds made human speech, addresses Galen as 'Galen Green Knight'. Mug has sky-blue wings and a 'thing' for sidhe men.

Peaseblossom's voice, changed by glamour, is described.

Merry explains why she promised Peaseblossom only that Doyle and Frost wouldn't hurt her, not all her guards.

It's rare for a demi-fey to have skin like a human. Peaseblossom does. She also has antennae. Her feet aren't baby soft like Sage's.

Hawthorne punches Ivi in the chest because he whispers to Merry that he hopes they get to have sex before she gets him killed.

Merry figures things aren't too deadly because the guards are standing in front of her instead of having her on the floor with their bodies on top of her.

Merry says she could count on one hand how many fresh crime scenes the police had called them [the Grey Agency] in on and still have fingers left over.

The murder victim, Beatrice, changed her name to that of the Dante character because she was in hell.

World Literature was one of Merry's forced electives in college. She enjoyed only a handful of the books for her class.

This is the chapter where Merry makes her speech about the great deal of time she spent with the lesser fey at court before and how most of her friends then weren't sidhe.

This is also the chapter where Adair tells Merry she's their ameraudur.

Merry remembers sleeping with her father's sword for days after his death. 'The hilt was gold inlaid, carved with a tree on either side. Cranes danced around the tree. And sometimes there were tiny carved bodies hanging from the branches of that tree, bleeding across the gold. Literally the little sacrificed people could bleed onto the sword hilt.' It says that the hilt was leather set with gold, but that same paragraph suggests that Merry meant the sheath. She was 17 when he was murdered.

CHAPTER 4:

Merry realizes, for the first time, that she could with glamour what Queen Andais needs makeup to do. She's never seen the queen do small personal glamour.

Merry had always been a favorite target for the queen's anger when she was younger -- but never when her father was at court, close enough to interfere.

Sidhe women have no curves, no thighs to speak of.

Barinthus is forced to answer Andais' question about why he never tried to put Cel on the throne.

CHAPTER 5:

The only landline phone in the Unseelie sithen is in Queen Andais' office.

Technically, the faerie lands are in Illinois, but Major Walters of the St. Louis police is the current police liaison officer for the lands of faerie and the human police. Merry tells us about the history of that liaison.

Although a male voice answered Madeline's call in chapter 20 (or that 'he' was a typo for 'she'), Andais' secretary is a human woman named Christene.

CHAPTER 6:

Merry admits to herself (and us) that 'Galen' is no longer the only name written on her heart.

Raymond Gillett of the F.B.I. was the most persistant human investigator of Prince Essus' murder. He's kept in touch with Merry (sent her cards on the anniversary of the murder, she sent him Yule cards) and she's memorized his phone number every time it changed.

In calling Gillett but not letting him come, Merry has let go of childish things. Doyle tells her he watches her grow more worthy of being queen every day, every minute. She holds him while she cries. Barinthus is crying as he hugs them both and tells her she's more her father's daughter in that moment than she's ever been. Merry tells us she's wept the last of her childhood away.

CHAPTER 7:

Mistral and Doyle are conferring in the hallway.

Usna calls Galen his little pixie and Galen calls Usna his little kitten in reply. (Merry feels as if Usna is scent marking her.)

Prince Essus had been the last amerauder among the royals of either court. Two of his guards committed suicide for the shame of letting him die. To lay down one's life for one's amerauder is the highest honor.
Merry feels she can't be an amerauder because she can't ever ride into battle with her men and survive.

Usna says Mistral wouldn't break his oath for all the joys of the Summerlands. Doyle says he trusts Mistral's honor as he does his own.

Mistral drops to one knee and bows his head to Merry. She tells us it's the first time any sidhe had voluntarily showed her such respect. Mistral tells her that if he'd dreamt that she'd take one look from him so seriously, he'd have been more careful of her -- his oath on that. (See chapter 28 of Seduced By Moonlight)

Merry touches Mistral with the ring and they share a vision. Merry is instructed to kiss Mistral so he can taste the chalice. She is the chalice.

Merry says that fear is not a good aphrodisiac for most people & Queen Andais' has never understood that.

Interesting that the fey's goddess uses a Christian phrase, 'Doubting Thomas,' when addressing Mistral.

They come back to the hallway and Mistral & Merry are mutually in lust.

CHAPTER 8:

Merry and Mistral have sex. Lightning comes from the glow of his body and goes down the hallway in both directions.

Merry briefly sees a tree white with blossoms on a hill in Hawthorne's eyes.

We're introduced to Biddy, one of Cel's guards, formerly one of Essus' guards. The old fertility magic of the ring works on her and finds her perfect match.

Mistral asks to keep Merry's ruined panties as a sign of his lady's favor. She assents.

CHAPTER 9:

Onilwyn has gone to Maggie May's kitchen. MM calls him 'bla'guard' (blaggard) and tree man. Maggie May is a brownie and uses her levitation powers against Onilwyn. Merry tells us how to tell if a Brownie has gone bogart and mentions an old story about a laird who raped and murdered a local girl whose family had been adopted by a brownie. What happened to the laird and his household was nasty.

True bogarts are part of the Sluagh, not true Unseelie Court anymore.

Merry address Maggie May as 'Aunt Maggie'. Maggie May rejects that form of address, Merry incorrectly claims that Maggie May is her great-aunt. Maggie May was sister to Merry's Gran's late mother, so she's Merry's great-great aunt.

When Maggie May calms down she has a cultured Midwestern accent. She talks on the phone with fairie terrier fanciers around the world. She's trying to get the breed recognized by the American Kennel Club.

Maggie May has three faerie terriers. Duclie is heavily pregnant. Onilwyn kicked Dulcie.

Merry's earliest memory is from when she was 18 months old. Her father and Barinthus had been called away, so her father had brought her to Maggie May's kitchen. That kitchen remained a refuge for Merry even when the queen's steward entered because Merry was in the cupboard with the then-current litter of pups and their mother. Maggie May had closed the drapes. The steward had tried to snoop had gotten bitten.
Merry still finds the smell and feel of terriers a comforting thing.

What Merry does when Onilwyn tries to use his magic against Maggie May causes the brownie to claim kin with her. Merry reminds us of the time she punched through a car door to discourage a mugger.

Onilwyn had been one of her main tormenters when she was a child.

CHAPTER 10:

Harry Hob, kitchen helper when he's not drunk, is introduced. He's so hairy that it takes Merry a minute to realize he's naked.

Doyle remembers when Harry was a baby and when he had a human family and farm to tend. Doyle threatens to tell how Harry lost his place if he doesn't talk.

Huh -- Onilwyn thanks Merry -- is it because she's under 300 years old?

Peaseblossom knew that Beatrice had a sidhe lover, but not who he was. She also confirms that Beatrice and Harry had gotten back together after their breakup.

CHAPTER 11:

Rhys cut himself to make blood to drip from Doyle's short sword, forming letters, because Doyle wasn't carrying a non-magical blade. The local police and feds outside don't trust him now.

Gillett hasn't seen Merry in person since she was 18 or 19.

CHAPTER 12:

Merry is not happy about being lent a fur cloak made of Troll.

She describes the new decor her aunt had for her room as 'It looked like a set for a gothic porn movie or a funeral where the corpse was going to get a little too much attention.' It has a huge black chair.

Doyle, his eyes holding bits of color like psychedelic fireflies, wills Merry into feeling vertigo when her eyes are looking into his.

Doyle sobs because he thinks the ring has chosen Mistral to be Merry's king.

The ring has no power over someone who is already in love, so Doyle and Frost weren't affected by it during the Mistral & Merry hall sex. Galen was affected, so he's not in love. Merry doesn't mind.

The queen's guards are the Ravens, Cel's guards are the Cranes. The crane was Essus' bird and guards. Merry learns here that many of her father's guards were given to Cel after his death.

Some of the Cranes have told Doyle about their life under Cel because Merry sent for her other men last night -- shows she cares for all her guards, not just those whom she likes.

Cel treats the Cranes worse than his mother treats the Ravens.

Merry learns that Cel is now fixated on fathering her child.

A lesser fey died when Cel raped her. Check this chapter for how long he kept raping her corpse.

The sithen creates a mirror in Merry's room because she wonders how she looks in the Troll cloak.

Merry's room should have been 3 levels down and nowhere near the main corridor just inside the outside doors, but when she & her two main men leave the room, that's where they are.

Biddy, Cathbodua, and Dogmaela have been taken from Cel's guards and made ladies in waiting to Merry thanks to Doyle.

CHAPTER 13:

Biddy and Merry are affected by a spell that attacks only human blood.

Doyle, accompanied by Usna and Cathbodua, goes to trace the spell to its source.

Dogmaela was nicknamed 'Cel's Dog' because he gave her every awful task he could because she wouldn't have sex with him. Neither would Cathbodua (who kept her original name), but Cel didn't punish her much.

Cathbodua is 'the dissatisfaction that drives men to quarrel,' she starts a fight and feeds on it.

Dogmaela is a literalist with almost no sense of humor.

CHAPTER 14:

Merry is disappointed to know for certain that Gillett referred her call to the FNI's local office.

Dr. Polaski did her internship with the FBI. She left because her husband got a better job here and she was offered the run of the place.

(Special Agent Marquez is a real jerk to Dr. Polanski & Merry.)

The President of the USA on Merry's Earth is Billings. Merry calls the First Lady, Joanne Billings. She met the Billings (the President was then a senator) at her father's funeral. Of the political attendees, their regrets seemed the most sincere.

Joanne Billings is a faeriephile. There's more about their previous interactions in this chapter. Joanne tells her she's sorry Griffin turned out to be such a bastard.

Merry tells Joanne that 'you' will get an invitation to her engagement party and wedding.

MAJ Walters waits until a circle of her guards hide him from the feds before he starts laughing at Marquez's defeat. Merry tells the reader he's a man of iron self-control.

CHAPTER 15:

The main hallways haven't affected humans (befuddled by magic) in over 50 years, but the police and forensic scientists are being affected.

Arzhel is introduced and described.

Rhys puts the oil that protects humans from that magical befuddlement on Dr. Polaski.

CSU Jeanine Carmichael wore a cross. Merry explains why it didn't work and why turning one's jacket inside out helps -- and when it won't. Charmichael is very taken with Frost, Ivi, and Crystall, but not Rhys, Galen, or Arzhel. She has to leave because she's elf-struck.

Galen, Adair, and Crystall go to find Doyle. The other two go after Galen when Merry feels very afraid for the Green Knight.

The chalice drops into Merry's hand that's hidden under the fur cloak.

The chalice can help out magically without appearing.

Amatheon says it's been centuries since he's seen any human so overwhelmed by merely entering their land.

Ivi was once so beautiful that men wept as he walked down a summer lane and then they didn't seem to see him at all. He says a person is never truly beautiful unless someone else's eyes show him that he's beautiful.

Merry realizes that Jeanine has never been in love but wants to be.

Ivi tries to make sure that Jeanine will not try to seek the sidhe again.

CHAPTER 16:

We meet Aisling. He has spirals of color with the pupils at the center for eyes. Merry asked him how he could see out of them when she was a child. He said he didn't know.

Amatheon the bigot falls on his knees not long after finding out that the chalice has returned -- to Merry. When the chalice touches the back of his head, it's vision time.

Their goddess thinks Merry is wasting her gifts by trying to solve the murders.

Cromm Cruach is not Rhys' real name, only the last true name he owned. Few remember the older name.

Merry and Amatheon can make the land live by either his blood being shed or they both have sex. Merry chooses sex. She has a conversation with her goddess about the feys' relationship with her. Their goddess never stopped speaking to her people, they stopped listening to her. There's more.

Amatheon no longer feels that he has lost his honor.

CHAPTER 17:

It's foreplay time.

Merry will never tell if sex with one of her men is not amazing.

CHAPTER 18:

Amatheon disappears during the sex. The dry earth has become rich and black. Merry finds herself back in the hallway. Fighting is going on.

CHAPTER 19:

Merry almost shoots Nicca by mistake.

Merry wonders when she'd begun to put her faith in Doyle and Frost and lose it in the others.

CHAPTER 20:

Kieren, Lord of Knives, thinks that a sidhe who can die of blood loss is no sidhe at all.

Kieren's only magic now is his hand of power, which he can stab deep into a body, even from a distance.

Hafwyn, one of Cel's guards, is described. She's a healer, but Cel wouldn't let her use her power. See this chapter for why.

Melangell thinks Halfwyn would be a traitor to her oath to Cel if she helps Galen.

Galen's gift is to make people like him.

Healers with power as great as Hafwyn's are not allowed to be front line warriors.

Hafwyn was Essus' healer for centuries, but she didn't follow him into exile when Merry was six. Andais gave her to Cel. (When was she given?)

CHAPTER 21:

Lord Innis has always been among the most neutral of nobles. Some of his clan used to be able to raise true armies of the dead. Lord Innis can raise phantam armies that can bleed one or kill, but not be killed, even when cut.

Prisoner Kanna speaks up for Lord Innis, but Merry isn't interested in saving a free lord who tried to kill one she loves. Kieren doesn't consider Innis important enough to bargain for.

Melangell is Dogmaela's captain of the guard.

Kieren had to find a seam in Adair's armor to wound him because he couldn't pierce it.

Innis can hide in plain sight and can hide one or two with him, if they don't move.

Kieren thinks he can get away with attacking a royal guard because Siobhan nearly killed a royal heir and is merely imprisoned in a cage. Ezekiel hasn't tortured her because he fears the touch of her skin.

Rhys reports that the dead photographer was able to pass their magical boundaries because he had small iron nails in the soles of his shoes.

Aisling's magic can overcome true love if he wishes it and tries hard enough. Once he could make anyone fall hopelessly in lust with him.

Andais has been known to offer sex to her guards when they were too injured to enjoy it or perform.

Merry tells Kieran that the sidhe are deities of nature, in a way, nature personified.

Aisling's skin looks as if it's been sprinkled with gold dust. Merry has seen his nude back before (see chapter 28 of Seduced by Moonlight).

Melangell has taken oath to Cel. She never served Essus, whom she calls weak-willed.

Merry gets Aisling to use his power on Melangell to find out why Cel has targeted Galen. Afterward, Melangell tears out her eyes.

If someone of flesh and blood sits on the throne, Cel will die, according to the same prophecy that said Merry would bring life back to the court with the help of the green man and the chalice.

Melangell was once almost as powerful as Aisling. She was Sweet Poison.

Aisling was called Terrible Beauty.

CHAPTER 22:

Frost assures Merry that if Melangell stays in faerie, not the Hallway of Mortality, her eyes will grow back.

Frost appeared with Merry in the other hallway because he grabbed her when she started to fade.

MAJ Walters tells Merry that Dr. Polaski wants to know what would happen if she found evidence that points to someone.

The uncomfortable conversation with Walters winds down because Mistral comes to say that Queen Andais wants to speak with her. We do learn why Walters told Merry as much as he did even though Dr. Polaski would be pissed if she knew.

Dr. Polaski comes to Merry. Merry has to promise to do her best to see no one harmed irretrievably before the doctor contacts her again to get the info.

The handprint on Beatrice's back is Peaseblossom's, but it's too big.

Ivi has regained some of his old power, as demonstrated on Dr. Polaski. Ivi's hair is compelling. Once, to be compared to his hair meant one was compelling whether the person being compelled willed it or not. To be caught in ivy was to be entrapped. To be ivy climbed meant one's lover was destroying one in some way. It's been centuries since Ivy was spoken of that way.

The murder weapon is in their bottomless pit.

Find out how Merry wound up in Aisling's arms even though she fears him.

CHAPTER 23:

No, not another sex scene, despite the smell of roses. Merry is warned that sex with Aisling will have to wait or she'll lose again.

Rhys tries to question Merry about putting Peaseblossom in a cage, she orders him, his face takes on a rare show of arrogance, she tells him she hasn't time for ego-stroking.

The sithin changes for Merry again, allowing her to get to the room in front of the throne room in a hurry.

The fountain in that room, which Merry says had always been standing in a bare hallway now has formal gardens spread on either side.

Crystall and the guards with the prisoner lords are standing in the middle of the garden. He looks frightened.

The rose vines don't try to hinder Merry & company

The court is dressed for a party or an expensive funeral.

Andais was going to challenge Barinthus because someone told her he'd moved from kingmaker to would-be king.

CHAPTER 24:

Lord Leri remarks that the ring lives after Merry describes how Biddy and Nicca were chosen as a couple.

Mistral inadvertently makes thunder rumble through the throne room.

Andais is petting Mistral like a dog. Merry tells us she's seen her aunt do that to the guards before, etc.

Merry's men and women stand up when Andais wants to know how many she's had sex with or given release. (Merry tells us that some of them have spent centuries like well-armed mice.)

Lord Afagdu speaks up about the returning magic. He stays seated.

Dylis, head of one of the 16 houses, stands to speak. She's never liked Merry, but if the ring lives on her hand and can bring children back to the sidhe, she'll follow Merry.

Elen speaks up for Biddy and Nicca being a couple. Reminded by Andais of what her house's late head tried to do last night, Elen says If the ring truly lives on Merry's hand, Nerys & they were all wrong.

Maelgwn asks his queen if she would have them all childless because her bloodline is. He points out that she has her brother's blood standing in front of her.

Afagdu seems to be helping Merry, but she doesn't trust him. He and his clan help no one but themselves.

It took only one night for Andais to teach Nicca to answer her questions with yes or no and to always include 'Queen Andais' in his answers.

Afagdu reminds the queen that she gave Merry her word before the court and even the queen must honor her word. (about any guard who went to the princess' bed is hers to keep)

Afagdu is one of the few magicians of the Unseelie who consider themselves Andais' equal in magic.

Andais removed the ring from a dead enemy's finger. She's no fertility goddess. While wearing the ring she saw sex, love, and obsession, but never children.

Merry says she has a chance to give the sidhe their first child in a century. Merry's only 33.

Queen Andais says that Galen is a disaster politically, but brave in that 'hero destined to die for a cause' sort of way.

Merry realizes that Andais knows about the prophecy that caused Cel to try to make sure she never had sex with Galen.

Lord Innis has to be dragged into the court. He gets dumped at Andais' feet.

Lord Kieran's house is led by Blodewedd. Merry explains who she is.

The Unseelie sidhe do not recognize marriage by force.

If you're fair with Blodewedd, she'll be fair with you, but don't betray her. Don't even do something she'll take badly. She does her own killing now.

When Blodewedd is described, Merry says she's the kind of woman men would create if they could.

Blodewedd can go for years without saying anything in court and then say something like what she says to Andais -- she'd never betray a fellow sister of the dark.

Blodewedd's voice can hold an edge of the purring darkness that Andais' voice can hold.

Medenn, wife of Lord Kieran, can't tell Blodewedd she's innocent, so Blodewedd declares she can't save her from her own actions.

Medenn won't leave her chair so Mistral and Hawthorne carry that chair to their queen.

Merry says Prince Cel's throne has been hers for only 24 hours.

Mistral gets to sit on Merry's 'consort of the moment' throne.

Kitto is helping Rhys guard the police. He's almost guaranteed not to bespell anyone by accident.

This is the conversation where Andais tells Merry that the earth moved for her, how charming.

Whisper is the only guard remaining at Andais' back. Is he the same guard as Silence (who speaks only to whisper in Andais' ear) from chapter 32 of Seduced by Moonlight?

Merry speculates that Andais must be puzzled if her greatest threat, exile, is no threat to the guards who choose exile with Merry.

Kieran tries to get Galen to challenge him. Galen hopes aloud that he was never that stupid. Merry sees a hardness in his face she's never seen before.

Something in Kieran's voice makes Merry want to quote Shakespeare about the lady protesting too much.

That purring edge to Andais voice means the person to whom she's speaking is about to have sex, or be really hurt, or both.

Madenn was once a goddess of youth, so she always looks as if she's 15 years old.

Madenn reminds Andais that she's said many times that she'd cleanse this court of the half breeds.

When Kieran protests about Crystall laying hands on his wife, Andais points out that if she's a widow, there will be no marriage vows to break.

Look here for the description of the charm Madenn wore to make her words seem sweet to Andais.

Andais rarely apologizes.

Dormath once looked like a normal sidhe, but centuries of human belief has made him look more like our image of Death (but not an actual skeleton). Innis and Siobhan are of his house.

Dormath had begged mercy for Siobhan.

Dormath bears the name of his own dog, but denies that he has shamed [his true name] anything.

Merry thinks Siobhan should be killed and an example made of Kieren, but hasn't thought yet how that example should be made.

CHAPTER 25:

Doyle and companions drag Gwennin into the court.

Gwennin was one of the last to be cast out of the Seelie Court and acts if he might return someday. He's no friend to anyone with pure Unseelie blood.
Merry reminds us again that the Seelie will accept back a sidhe who was exiled among humans, but not back from the Unseelie.

Mary's scared about the assassination attempts.

Andais says aloud what Merry was thinking about Gwennin. It makes her wonder if she's getting better at politics or her aunt is getting worse.

Gwennin says he acted alone and why he put the spell on Biddy. The reason probably isn't true.

Kieren is stupid enough to threaten Merry. Blodewedd won't protect him. She knows his wife has been his shadow, but doesn't believe he'd have involved Lord Innis if he could persuade anyone else of their house to aid him.

Andais orders Dormath chose which of the two traitor members of his house will die so his house will know he won't protect them. Dormath turns to Galen.

Galen talks about trying to be fair, just, and good, whatever that means. He says Siobhan once told him he should be at the Seelie court... they pretend to be human. Siobhan said it as if it were a curse.
Galen won't help the persons who tried to kill him.

Dormath tries to invoke Cel against answering Andais' question. Andais and Merry exchange words about that. Andais is pleased with Merry's answers.

Andais wants '...a child who values his people and their welfare before his own,' an admission that Cel values only himself.

Cel has been the apple of his mother's eye, the song in her heart, and the most precious thing in her world for longer than there's been a United States of America. Merry wonders what Cel has done to disillusion his mother.

Dormath doesn't know how to give his queen what she wants, but Maelgwyn says he can. He explains how Merry is what she wants.

Merry keeps telling us that the sidhe don't lie outright, but here she says that sometimes a lie can get one further with the queen. Andais' most beloved lie is that Cel is fit to rule. Only Prince Essus had had the courage to tell Andais that there's something wrong with Cel beyond being spoiled or privileged.

Andais admits to Merry and the court why she called Merry back. (Interesting, then, that Essus was able to father a child). During this admission Merry realizes that her aunt had loved Essus, her brother.

Andais has heard about Maeve Reed's pregnancy.

Andais brings up that 'We never lie" bit.

Kieren swears that what Siobhan told him about the green man isn't what Dormath says Siobhan told him.

Andais doesn't know if it's irritating or reassuring that prophets still speak in riddles here in very modern America.

Andais will deal with the traitors. She says she will give Merry a united court as her first and last gift to her. (But she's already given Merry the ring and her guards....)

Merry asks for a healer and names Hafwyn in order to save her.

Andais learns that Cel had forbidden Hafwyn to heal. She also learns that many of Cel's guards made no oath to him. She believed that Cel had offered Essus' guards the chance to serve him and they made their vows to him. Cel had told her that they chose to serve him. Hafwyn tells her that Cel had told Essus' guards that she had given them to him. He also told them that their vows had been made to a prince and he was a prince.

When asked, Biddy and Dogmaela tell Andais they never made vows to Cel. Andais screams and says she would never have given her brother's guards to anyone. Andais declares that any of Cel's guards who haven't made vows to him are free to leave his service. Halwyn asks if they're free to offer their service where they wish and Andais agrees, with a condition if those Cranes offer their service to Merry.

After Andais and Merry discuss the guards' (Ravens and Cranes) chastity and what Merry would do about it, Andais says Merry is so fair, so evenhanded, so like Essus. (If Merry never gets pregnant, she thinks half a dozen men, give or take a few, is enough for her.)

CHAPTER 26:

There's a bunch of demi-fey outside Merry's room because Queen Niceven is rightfully upset about not being notified of the murder of a demi-fey and that another is a suspect.

Doyle has a polite, empty voice for when he doesn't know what political storm he's stepped into.

The light in the hallway is almost as bright as electric lights now.

Flowers spring up in a small space of the hallway when the demi-fey attack, and they act like cats with catnip. It's Galen's work. He didn't know it was, though. Queen Niceven and a handful of her warriors are unaffected. Rhys, who had escorted the police outside the sithin, is impressed that Galen can manifest something out of nothing. The Unseelie have been unable to do that for a long time.

Has Galen forgotten he's over 100 years old since he's at least 70 years older than 33 year-old Merry? Here he says, 'For those of us under a century, what in the name of Danu is going on?'

Merry knows from Sage that when Niceven's wings blur with speed, she's angry.

Niceven is afraid to drink directly from Merry after what happened to Sage. Royal, one of the wingless demi-fey, is the first to volunteer to be his queen's proxy. His twin sister, Penny, is against it.

The wingless demi-feys' animals are described.

There are tiny, many-legged demi-fey on the wall.

The demi-fey have a custom of dividing a name between twins.

Merry agrees with Niceven that, at the least, she should have done her the courtesy of sending her a message. Frost doesn't think she should explain to the demi-fey, but Galen agrees with Merry and tells Niceven he's sorry. She's impressed that he apologized to her after what the demi-fey did to him. She's even more impressed when she finds out he did it because it was the right thing to do.

Nicca's wings belong to some long-lost European month from about 1,000 years ago, but Royal's tattoo is of an Ilia Underwing, a.k.a. the beloved underwing.

Royal is pleased that Galen is afraid of him. Rhys isn't going to share a bed with him. Royal calls Adair 'oak lord'.

Galen feels he can't pass on the scary parts if Merry still has to do them.

Galen tells Niceven that the only people who ever call him green knight tend to try to hurt him.

Demi-fey feed on fear as well as blood and magic.

After Merry's bit about bargaining for what Royal can and cannot do and not treating Niceven (or the demi-fey? the word was 'you') as less than the goblins, Niceven observes that Meredith isn't like other sidhe, she's tricksy.

Doyle says his memory is as long as Niceven (fear), which suggests a backstory.

A demi-fey bobbing in the air is their equivalent of a stumble.

Niceven thinks what happened to Sage may have been because he continued to feed from sidhe blood. She'll tell Merry and men what she knows about the Seelie Court tomorrow, if she's fed off Royal and scoured their magic from his flesh.

Merry asks where's a stunt double when you need one at the end of this chapter.

CHAPTER 27:

Merry's bathroom in the sithin is larger than most modern bathrooms, but no bathroom short of Andais' would be big enough to contain Merry, Frost, Doyle, Rhys, Galen, Kitto, and Nicca with his wings. (No one is sitting in the bathtub, which one or more could be if Kitto weren't running the bath. Merry is sitting on one of its corner edges.)

Kitto plays the servant more and more these days. Andais offered servants, but Doyle refused on the grounds of Merry's safety. Also, they knew a servant would spy for their queen,

Rhys learned that for those FBI and police ouside the sithin, only a few minutes had passed between the time Carmichael was put outside and he escorted Major Walters and Dr. Polaski outside, although it's been hours between the two actions inside the sithin.

Faerie has been on the same time schedule as the mortal world since before the fey came to America. Time has been known to be off in faerie -- from a few minutes up to an hour -- but only in small pockets. This means that it isn't only the sidhe and demi-fey who are regaining some of their old powers.

Merry's bathroom has double sinks.

Merry was wearing jeans when they got soaked with blood.

What Merry learned about the sithin from asking her father questions: it's alive, but not a person; it's faerie, but not the totality of faerie.

The king or queen of a court could control the time difference between the sithin and the outside world, but that ability was lost long ago.

Galen is the one to figure out that the time difference is the opposite of what it used to be (hours inside faerie, centuries outside), they've accomplished a lot and have still more to accomplish -- is theirs the only sithin experiencing the time shift?

Merry finds out that it's possible that their sithin will take literally whatever she says, which scares her. If it's the queen who could make time change in the sithin and Merry can make the time change...

Merry learns the forbidden story that at one time a person who had fought his/her way to the throne or had been elected to the throne still couldn't rule unless the sithin accepted his/her right to rule.

Andais was not chosen by their current sithen, but none of the other nobles were chosen, either. (Not even Prince Essus?) Andais had agreed to step down if their new sithin had reacted more to one of them than herself. (I guess it didn't cuddle up to any commoners, either.)

Faerie is not just a physical location.

Merry's father didn't explain to her how the various courts came into being, but she knows that once their were dozens of courts that were more independent. Rhys explains that they fought among themselves until they agreed to a high king. Once there was only one high sidhe ruler. Merry knows that the first Unseelie ruler was cast out of the Seelie court. Refusing to leave Faerie, he went to the non-sidhe courts. They refused him entrance except for the Sluagh. From that time on, any sidhe cast out of other courts could petition the Sluagh.

At one time fey of a certain kind could become powerful or magical enough for the very stuff of faerie to acknowledge him or her and create a kingdom for that person. That's how the Unseelie Court came to be. The sidhe who had been part of the Sluagh followed their first king.

A court without a ruler begins to fade.

Taranis wasn't recognized by his new sithin, either, but he was worse than Andais. The new sithin chose Aisling and Taranis had him cast out. Only some of the Seelie know this. The Unseelie sithin did not recognize Aisling.

The Goblin court is less faded than the sdhe courts and the Seelie Court is less faded than the Unseelie.

They still don't know why Taranis was desperate enough to release the Nameless instead of just sending an assassin to kill Maeve Reed. (He sent assassins, too. See chapter 40 of A Caress of Twilight.)

Merry wants Aisling to be part of her guard when she attends Taranis' party for her because if he's refused admission, she can take insult and refuse the invitation. Unfortunately, Taranis has negotiated that only guards whom Merry has bedded may accompany her. Merry wonders if she's in true love enough to resist Aisling's magic -- and if the risk of having sex with Aisling is worth a chance to avoid whatever Taranis has in store for her.

Merry forgets about the sithin and uses the expression 'the night isn't getting any younger'. Dole tells her she must avoid expressions.

Rhys and two other guards leave to check on the other sithins.

Frost doesn't like the idea of a sidhe princess using her body as a bargaining chip. Merry points out that a royal woman's body has been used as a bargaining chip for thousands of years, and at least she's not having to bargain herself away in marriage, as a human princess might.

This is where Merry tells Frost off about making her feel like a whore for sharing her body with the lesser fey and he's too good for that.

Whoops, Merry mentioned what she needs to do before the dawn finds her.

Doyle doesn't want to tell Merry why the demi-fey don't like him. Unless she needs to know why, Merry will let him keep it secret.

Frost says aloud that he does love Merry.

Doyle isn't going to try to compete with the way Frost took leave of Merry. When she says it's not a competition, he uses a mortal expression.

It's at the end of this chapter that Merry tells the readers that naked in a bathtub won't solve everything, but naked with someone you love doesn't hurt anything, either.

CHAPTER 28:

Kitto has begun to anticipate Merry's needs in the way of a good servant, unobtrusive, quiet, just there when needed. No friend or lover of Merry's has ever been unobtrusive.

Kitto is one of the oldest of Merry's men and the oldest among the fey don't always like being thanked, so she doesn't thank him.

Kitto often strips to just a thong when he's going to do something messy to save his clothes, he says. Merry feels he owns more clothes now than he ever did in the goblin court.

Kitto's hair has grown. A few inches longer and it would be punishable by torture for a non-sidhe fey.

Confidence has not come to Kitto with his new power.

Look here for nasty things that have been said to Kitto. (He's surprised about the whore sharing her bed with him comment because it's not the fey way to call another a whore. That didn't stop one of the nighthags from calling Merry a corr -- slut -- in chapter 10 of A Kiss of Shadows.)

Kitto is the first non-sidhe to be brought into his power in centuries.

Galen makes a apt observation about why those nasty things have been said to Kitto. Galen's just learning how oblivious everyone thought he was.

Kitto knows that Cel's people will still want to hurt her. He hears things because no one notices him. He overheard some sidhe saying they didn't believe anyone of Andais' line could bring life back to the Unseelie. They saw him and he thinks they would have hurt him if King Sholto and some of his Slaugh hadn't been coming down the hallway. Shoto had one arm in a sling and a bandage on the side of his face and head.

A goblin or another sluagh could hurt Sholto. Who did?

Merry wonders when the Unseelie stopped welcoming any child, when two arms, two legs, and human beauty became the ideal. Kitto says it was long before she and Nicca were born.

We learn that Kitto looked almost sidhe when he was a baby. He thinks his mother kept him for a few months before the scales around his spine appeared and his fangs came in with his other teeth.

Among goblins, there is very little touching done that is only for comfort, not sex.

Kitto tells Merry that goblin-sided babies who looked less than pure sidhe were left to die outside the goblin mounds. (So Merry was wrong when she told Sholto that until he came along, aside from the odd pointy ear, sidhe genetics won out no matter who the sidhe mated with in chapter 11 of A Kiss of Shadows -- or Kitto is talking about goblin-sided sidhe born after Sholto.)

The goblins sometimes rear goblin-sided sidhe babies only until they're big enough to eat. Kitto loved because he was so small that he was talking by the time he'd grown big enough and his goblin wet nurse had grown fond of him. She saved him, but when she needed him, he was too small and weak to save her.

Kitto repeats an insult a sidhe said to him today and wonders about it because he thought Merry and her father were the only ones to visit the goblin mounds. Galen tells him they guessed his past.

Those two sidhe lords told Kitto they'd see Merry dead before they'd let a goblin-sided sidhe sit on the Unseelie Throne.

Galen will sleep in big puppy piles, but won't share sex. (Merry told us that the sidhe sleep in big puppy piles in chapter 2, so why wouldn't Galen join in that?)

CHAPTER 29:

Kitto tells Merry of word that's come from Kurag -- Holly and Ash will challenge and kill any goblin who does anything to become Merry's king before they've had their chance.

Holly and Ash are among the most feared warriors of the goblin court. Goblins thrive on violence, but Holly and Ash have a reputation for viciousness.

Holly and Ash were raped by Goblin females until they were strong enough to fight them off.

In the goblin court the one who gives oral pleasure is seen as the inferior being.

Merry really likes giving oral sex.

CHAPTER 30:

Because this is going to be Nicca's last sex with Merry, he wants it to be exactly as he wants it. He tells her what he wants.

Nicca also tells Merry, 'I remember a time when marriage was not the end of such joys but the beginnings of them. The sidhe never cheated on their partners, but if we agreed then others were brought into our beds.'

Nicca is talking about before Andais was queen and before Christianity was anything but a heretic Jewish sect. That was when the sidhe weren't outnumbered by humans and they married for love and not for children.

Nicca says the sidhe adopted monogamy because the humans outbred them using it. Merry suspects that's not true. She speculates that the ring her aunt gave her is a ring for a fertility deity.

Kitto talks about the goblin way of marriage. Among other things, 'husband' is their term for the dominant partner, no matter that partner's sex.

Galen and Nicca smell spring flowers because they are spring energy. Kitto is summer energy. Merry is autumn energy.

CHAPTER 31:

Merry has begun to notice that the hardest thing about having this many men in her life isn't figuring out what position for sex that night but how to keep from hurting anyone's feelings or making anyone feel left out.

Nicca points out that Merry followed Galen around like a puppy when she was so young she didn't even realize why she found him so compelling. Merry blushes for the 14 year-old girl she had been, a girl who would have been mortified to know that her 'secret love' was no secret.

Kitto talks about the Goblins and their lack of subtlety when they lust, but they can hide their feelings if they must, if the lusted-after person would find that lust an insult.

Then there's a sex scene.

CHAPTER 32:

When the sex is over, it's time for Galen and Merry to talk about their feelings. Galen tells her what his last thoughts were when he was being killed.

Nicca talks about it being his last night with the largest breasts in the court.

More sex.

CHAPTER 33:

Changing of positions for more sex. The orgasm causes physical damage to the bathroom. The far wall is gone. Beyond the hole is a garden with a dry pool in a cave of stone.

Doyle and others feared Merry was being attacked. There's a circle of debris around Merry, Galen, Kitto, and Nicca, so they figure Merry and her sex partners will be okay -- but not the furniture or walls. Ivi has a head wound from when the door exploded. Shards of wood were sent all over the room and a healer is tending the wounded.

There's mistletoe in Merry's hair though it was Kitto's seed before. Brii points out that mistletoe was once considered the seed of the god.

Merry considers the demi-fey who were in her room her people. Ivi considers using a sidhe healer to heal demi-fey a waste. Merry prays that her power won't be their doom. She hears a voice like a warm wind telling her that grace can never be doom. She smells roses, too.

CHAPTER 34:

The Nile monitor lizard is dead.

Hafwyn is performing triage on the demi-fey, but she's surprised that Merry is willing use sidhe healing on lesser fey. Merry tells the readers that some sidhe healers won't willingly touch a lesser fey as if they thought it was contagious.

Doyle is going to ask the queen for more healers, as Merry wishes, but it's Galen who doesn't think anyone should go anywhere alone until they're back in L.A.

Doyle picks Hawthorne, but Galen wants him to take Brii, too, because if he were making a first strike, Doyle would be the one he'd kill.

CHAPTER 35:

Royal is dying and wants Merry to kiss him. There's some pleasure.

This is where the demi-fey's injuries are healed and they get their wings. Merry and those demi-fey are in agony during the process.

Merry sees that she has a beloved underwing moth on her stomach before she faints.

CHAPTER 36:

Merry awakens to find herself in Queen Andais' bedroom. Galen and Nicca are in the bed with her.

Doyle and Ivi aren't in the bed, but they are in the room.

Rhys comes out of the queen's bathroom.

The lower half of the moth on Merry's abdomen is embedded in her flesh. It flicks its wings twice.

Nicca has a white flower in the hollow between his shoulder and chest.

Galen has a butterfly on his right arm, just below the shoulder. It has yellow and black-stripped wings that flex.

The moth, butterfly, and flower are the beginnings of marks of power. They will end up as tattoos.

Some sidhe were born with such marks and some acquired them as they entered their power in adolescence or adulthood.

Merry remembers her father telling her that's why their people painted themselves for battle. Doyle explains that once those marks on their bodies did protect their followers. It was a conduit to the power of the sidhe they invoked.

The sidhe thought they were gods, but when their gods departed, they learned better. Their followers still painted themselves, but died because the sidhe couldn't protect them.

There's more talk about the marks. Rhys was one of the first to gain the marks. It was very bloody for the first few sidhe who gained them.

Royal insisted on staying to see that Merry is all right. He's outside the door with Adair and Hawthorne.

There's a new rule that there will be three of Merry's people together at all times.

Time is running oddly for only their sithin. Rhys has his arm in a sling because he and the two with him were attacked by three Seelie armed with cold iron.

Rhys knocked out the sidhe who attacked him with his death touch. (The Seelie didn't die.)

The Seelie attacked because one of their women has accused Rhys, Galen, and Abloec of raping her.

Most of the Seelie Court believe that being in the dark [of the Unseelie Court] corrupts 'us'. They think the Unseelie have tails, hooves, and monstrous penises. [even Unseelie women???]

Queen Andais has seen the new marks and is thrilled. Nicca and Biddy may have sex as soon as he's well enough. The wall and door exploding, etc. seems to have excited Andais.

The entire sithin has been dark but Merry wants a little more light, the lights come back on.

CHAPTER 37:

Maggie May knows Merry's favorite dishes and stew thick with beef, dark of broth, heavy with a faint of some meaty ale to offset the sweetness of the onions has been on the list since before she was 6 years old.

Merry will never be able to send Rhys away again without wondering if she's sent him to his death.

Merry and Rhys kiss. While their bodies are pressed together, she feels pins and needles. Rhy's stomach has a bloody version of Merry's moth on it.

Doyle thinks it's a calling. Merry will have only to think of Rhys and her mark will guide her to him. Some [callings] could alert the bearer of the mark if the one called was in danger or injured.

There hasn't been a true calling in centuries.

Doyle gets the mark on his chest.

That Merry can mark others means she is a power. Read on for Rhys past with marks.

Some have always believed that the marks were signs of servitude.

Frost and Kitto get the mark on an arm.

Marks start collecting people only when there is great need.

Ivi isn't interested in being marked. Adair volunteers, but doesn't get marked. The guys figure it's the lack of sex with Merry, so sex it's going to be.

Hawthorne doesn't like being called Whitethorn.

There's some talk about Merry being willing to ask her men and using the word 'please'.

Andais and Ezekiel are busy torturing Lord Gwennin.

CHAPTER 38:

Ivi says he's the power that makes the seed burst forth from its prison and reach for the sun. He tells Merry she's the earth. Merry says Amatheon is the earth. Ivi says Amatheon is the plow.
There's more such poetic talk.

There's sex. They aren't in the queen's chambers anymore. Doyle, Frost, and Rhys stand and watch over them.

Amatheon is back. Merry is doing both at once, which causes her aunt to tell her brava.

Merry finds out what her blood-covered aunt is using for a leash holding the bloody ruin of a person who is at her feet. It's repulsive.

CHAPTER 39:

We find out who killed Beatrice and why, assuming the torture got the truth and not just anything said to stop the torture.

Merry talks her aunt into having the person healed enough for a press conference.

Amatheon, Adair, and Merry have longer hair now. Amatheon's hair had been cut above his shoulders, now it's down to his calves. Adair had only a stubble, now it's around his face though not to his shoulders. Merry's hair falls below her shoulders now.

After a good, successful torture, Andais is as happy as Merry ever sees her. She guesses everyone needs a hobby.

Merry and the two As wound up in the entryway to the throne room. There's a spring where they had their three-way. The sithin moves at Merry's thought.

Andais wants a deep reflecting pool. Merry wants a happy, bubbling stream, as Andais asked her. That's what they get.

If Adair is oak lord, Amatheon is earth man.

Andais wants formal gardens. Merry wonders what Adair and Amatheon want. Amatheon wants a meadow. Adair agrees. They not only get a meadow, but a sky and a sun.

Interesting that Andais refers to the woman accusing three of her lords of rape as a 'Seelie strumpet' if the fey don't normally use such words.

Andais forces Merry to kiss her. What Merry learns from that kiss is gag-worthy. There's a most unpleasant conversation between them about Andais wanting Merry in her bed before giving her her throne.

There's a scent of wild rose.

Doyle and Andais have an interesting conversation about why Essus didn't take the throne and what Doyle once felt for Andais.

Kitto followed his mark to lead Galen and others to Merry.

Onilwyn begs forgiveness of Merry and offers himself to her service. What he says about Cel is a reminder why Merry should be on the throne instead of her cousin.

Merry figures he's a spy or a toadie, but she lets him come with them. ( )

A Stroke of Midnight begins with Merry and the Ravens attending a press conference in the sithen. This is highly unusual as the home of the sidhe is usually off-limits to the human press. However, it is felt that it is more secure than holding the conference elsewhere. This opinion is challenged almost immediately by the deaths of Beatrice, one of the lesser fae, and a human reporter. Merry, assigned to solve the murders by her aunt, Queen Andais, opts to bring in human forensics in the hope that science might be able to succeed where magic has so far failed--and bring a murderer to justice. ( )

The 4th book of the Merry Gentry series. Good intrique, fascinating world and developments, but.... sometimes (well, quite often...) I have a feeling that the plot is nothing more than mere placeholder between two random sex scenes. I'm not prudish or something like that but this is illogical and for its own sake.... ( )

Re-reading and catching up while sick, good mindless reading.