The cursed towers 287
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change for indeed these cuts sting!"
Iseult only waited for the witches' barouche to come trotting up behind them. "Donncan, dearling!" she
called. "Come to mam. I'll feed ye and bathe ye this night. Let poor Sukey go and enjoy the fete."
"Och, thank ye, your Highness!" Sukey cried. "Are ye sure? I do no' mind tending Donncan first . . ."
"Nay, ye go," Iseult said. She caught up the little boy and ruffled his red-gold curls. "Come along, ye wee
ruffian! Ye think I did no' see ye trying to fly away from Sukey again. Indeed, ye're a wicked lad!"
The Lammas Congress was to be held before the feast and so once they were bathed and changed,
Iseult and Lachlan went along to the great hall where the prionnsa-chan were all gathered. There was a
warm buzz of conversation that ceased as the Righ and Banrigh came in, and then the silver and blue
room echoed with the sound of cheering and clapping.
"Long live the Righ! Long live the Banrigh!"
"Sldinte mhath!"
"To peace and happiness!"
The Lammas Congress that year was the most tranquil and harmonious in many years, and in many ways,
the strangest. As well as the prionnsachan and greater lairds, there were representatives from all of the
major faery folk except the Fairgean.
Cloudshadow was there and her grandfather, the Star-gazer. Sann the corrigan was there to represent
her people and a grove of tree-changers that had kept the servants busy sweeping up all the twigs and
leaves they dropped through the corridors. A Mesmerdean nymph hovered in one corner, his
multifaceted eyes transmitting all that happened to the elders back in the marshlands.
The seelie had ridden up to the palace gates on the horse-eel and had insisted on bringing the creature in,
despite the slimy puddles it left behind it. Hobgoblins, bogfaeries and brownies played chase-and-hide
among the furniture, and cluricauns entertained the crowd with an impromptu performance of music.
The nisses had all been banished outside after causing a rumpus with their tricks. They now caused havoc
throughout the fair set up in the gardens, overturning pitchers of bellfruit juice, snatching Lammas cakes
and stealing the flowers out of ladies' hair. Only Elala remained, swinging on Lilanthe's hair and making
mocking comments about the smelliness, hairiness and ugliness of the men and women gathered within.
Although none but Lilanthe and Niall could understand the little nisse, still the tree-shifter blushed crimson
and tried to shush her.
There was even the leader of the satyricorns, a wild-haired woman with a single, rapier-sharp horn and a
thick necklace of teeth and bones that hung between her three pairs of breasts. She had been kept well
supplied with bloody meat and had confounded the soldiers earlier in the day by winning the annual
wrestling match with ease.
Months had been spent negotiating the Pact of Peace and so the gathering tonight was really a formality.
Nonetheless, the herald read out the long scroll of terms and conditions, with the crowd cheering some
and calling out satirical comments on others. The borders between the lands had all been renegotiated
and agreed upon, with Brangaine NicSian, Gwyneth's niece, declared the absolute ruler of Siantan. The
Double Throne was dissolved with Anghus MacRuraich's blessing. Melisse NicThanach reluctantly
allowed her aunt, Madelon NicAislin, to again assume responsibility for As-linn, admitting her grandfather
had not really had the right to rule the land of forests simply because he had wedded one NicAislin and
