I hadn't thought about it like that. "But wait. Shouldn't the magic of the land keep me from raising zombies there?"
"It should, but there shouldn't be a case involving vampires there either," Pierette said.
"Why couldn't M'Lady have gone crazy and attacked people?" Sin asked.
"She is too controlled and far too old to risk everything for such indulgence."
"What would cause new vampires to rise in one of the cities there?"
"Nothing," she said, and seemed very certain.
"I need your word that you won't share anything I am about to tell you with anyone, Pierette," I said.
"I cannot keep any secrets from my master, for when he wakes he will know everything that I have experienced while he slept."
"Okay, then I need your word and his that this goes no further."
"You have my word, and my word is his, as is his to me."
I was a little puzzled by her sentence, but I accepted it. "I have your word of honor?"
"You have it."
One of the good things about the older vampires was that their word of honor really was good, because they still believed it really was their honor at stake, and that meant something to them. I told her as little as possible, but enough to let her know there were new vampires rising in Dublin nearly every night.
"That should not be possible," she said, and she looked perplexed as if she was thinking very hard.
"But it is what appears to be happening."
"If she did not create them, then that would be more true, but even vampires not of her making should be subject to her power."
"Is she lying?" Sin asked.
Pierette glanced at him and then down. "I do not know, but if she is not lying, then something has gone very wrong."
"What could that be?" I asked.
"When you slew the Mother of All Darkness, there were vampires that went to sleep at dawn that never woke that night. She was their power source and once that was gone they could not rise from the dead again. I would have thought M'Lady as her own bloodline would have been safe from any diminishment of power, but it is one possibility."
"We didn't have anyone that didn't rise here in St. Louis," I said.
"You and Jean-Claude are here. It is your seat of power and all the vampires blood-oathed to him would have gained in power from you eating the Dark Mother, but power comes from somewhere, Anita. You took it from the Mother of All Darkness and gave it to your vampires, your animal allies, but it cost others dearly to be disconnected from their power source."
"Why didn't they just keep going with Jean-Claude and Anita as their power source?" Sin asked.
"I do not know, but I have never seen a master vampire that was their own bloodline slain without costing the lives of some of their vampires, even when a new master has taken over the territory. The move from one source of life to another is never as neat and clean as modern vampires believe."
"Older master vamps still tell their little vampires that if the master dies, they won't wake up the next night, but I've proved that's not true."
"For a simple master vampire it is not, but Masters of the City can take some of their lesser vamps with them to the grave, and a sourdre de sang can take many of their creations down to death with them. When you slew the Lover of Death for well and good last year, many of his children died with him."
"I didn't know that," I said.
"Would you have cared if you had known?"
"Maybe, but we're not talking about vampires dying and not rising from their coffins. We're talking about more new little vampires rising," I said.
"The magic of the land itself should prevent such a plague of vampires in Ireland."
"According to the police there are more attacks every night," I said.
Pierette frowned and looked at the floor again, which apparently was what she did when she was thinking hard. "Are there any attacks outside the city?" she asked at last.
"Not that's been mentioned to me."
"If it's only happening in the city and not the countryside, then it could be that the wild fairy magic itself is beginning to wane. It's happened nearly everywhere else in the world, and it would start in the city if that was the reason. The countryside without all of mankind's technology and metal would retain its magic longer."
"How would they check to see if that's what's happening?" I asked.
"Ask the little people--they're still there and they deal with the humans. Ask the Fairy Doctors--they'll know."
"Literally fairy doctors?" I asked.
She gave a small smile. "No, they are humans who either gain their magic through the gentle folk, or are beloved by the Fey in some way. The Irish call them Fairy Doctors because in past times they would cure ill livestock or people like a doctor, but they did it through fairy magic, not medical science."
"Are they still allowed to use magic to cure people?" Nathaniel asked.
Pierette didn't seem to hear him.
"I'd think modern medicine would have done away with them," I said.
"They are not allowed to act as doctors, but they are still valued as a type of psychic ability," she said.
"Can they cure things that modern medicine can't?" Nathaniel asked.
Again, Pierette ignored him.
"Nathaniel asked you a question," I said.
She looked at me. "You are our queen and our conqueror. Sin is the young prince and is treated as such by our new king. But he"--and she pointed at Nathaniel--"is nothing to us. Not king, not prince, not Nimir-Raj, not Rex, not Ulfric, not a leader of any group. Why should I answer his questions?"
"He's my fiance," I said.
"No, Jean-Claude is your fiance. Nathaniel is someone that you will do an unofficial ceremony with that even your own laws do not recognize as a legally binding contract."
"The same is true of Micah and me."
"He is a king in his own right both of the leopards and of the Coalition," she said.
"I'm not a prince in my own right," Sin said. "I'm only that because Jean-Claude says so."
"And you are in the bed of the queen."
"So is Nathaniel," he said.
Pierette shook her head. "It is not the same."
"She's putting a ring on his finger, not on mine."
She shook her head stubbornly. "You act as a true moitie bete. He does not."
"Nathaniel is part of my triumvirate of power with Damian; why doesn't that give him more status?"
"Jean-Claude gains power through his triumvirate, but you seem to gain none through yours. He chose the most powerful necromancer since the Mother of All Darkness herself as his human servant, and the Ulfric of the local werewolf pack as his moitie bete. Nathaniel is one of the weakest of the wereleopards in the local pard, and Damian was one of the weakest of M'Lady's vampires."
"So you don't respect Damian either," Sin said.
"I pity him for what I saw him endure over the centuries, but no, I do not respect him. The Harlequin do not respect weakness."
"I'm in love with Nathaniel and would marry him, Micah, and Jean-Claude legally if I could."
"Which is more than she'd do with me if she could," Sin said. He didn't sound bitter, or angry; he was just stating fact.
"None of the other men see you as their catamount, my prince. You cannot marry Anita, because none of the other men see you romantically."
"Nathaniel and I actively share Anita."
"But you do not share each other," she said.
Sin glanced at the other man. "Help me out here, Nathaniel."
"I don't think I can, Sin. Pierette is right. I'm not a king or a prince."
"Some of the guards called you and Micah both my princes," I said.
"Not since Micah made the Coalition a power to be reckoned with, and Sin became the young prince."
"So unless someone is a leader, you discount them?" I asked.
"Not discount, but if they are not in charge of anything else, then they cannot be in char
ge of the Harlequin," she said. She said it like it was just a fact of life, a given.
"Nicky is in charge of the local lions, but you don't respect him as much as Micah, or Sin," I said.
"Scaramouche should not have used his claws today," she said.
"But in everyday dealings, you don't treat Nicky as well as you do me," Sin said.
She sighed. "I do not wish to insult anyone."
"Just tell us, Pierette," I said.
She nodded, but it was more like a bow from the neck. "If my queen commands."
"Yeah, I command."
"Nicky could have fought his way to be Rex of your local pride, but he could not have maintained the leadership without your backing. Everyone knows that if they challenge him, the might of you and Jean-Claude will be with him. If he did not have the other two male lions to help him run the lions, even that might not be enough. He is a good warrior, but not a good leader, and he is your Bride, which is less than an animal to call, or even a human servant. No disrespect meant to you, my queen, but Brides aren't meant to be kept this long. They are designed to please their Groom and be sacrificed for his or her safety as needed."
"No disrespect meant, but huh? You and your other two playmates that got beat up aren't usually this respectful even to me. What changed?"
"You showed that you noticed us and did not approve of our behavior."