by Julie Kagawa
He cocked his head at me, as if I was being deliberately thick. “Not want to see Scary Lady?”
“Well, yeah we do, but...” I sighed. “Fine. Let’s get this over with, but be careful.” Drawing my swords, I began walking toward the crumbling entrance of the ruin, Kenzie at my back and Razor scuttling over the walls. Creeping up the steps, listening for any sounds of movement, I felt strangely torn. On the one hand, I certainly didn’t want to fight my way through a horde of nasties to get to the trod, and I especially didn’t want to risk Kenzie getting hurt. On the other, I was curious to see if this new resistance to glamour would really work. I didn’t feel any different. Unless you counted feeling filthier than normal from being buried alive. If I was to go up against Keirran, and he casually tossed a lightning bolt in my direction, I would kind of like to know if I was really immune to magic before I was fried to a crisp.
But, it did seem the ruin was mostly uninhabited as we ventured farther in. Shafts of sunlight pierced the canopy overhead, spilling into an ancient courtyard with a rectangular pool in the center, shimmering in the sun. A pair of spotted deer raised their heads to watch as we came down the steps, and two piskies hovered over the water, blinking huge purple eyes at us, before zipping away with high-pitched giggles. Razor leaped onto a stone railing and bared his teeth at their retreating forms.
“Where to now?” I asked, as Kenzie gazed around the courtyard with large eyes. The gremlin didn’t answer, suddenly distracted by a large green-and-yellow spider crawling along a shimmering line of web. “Razor?” I prodded, and he jerked up. “The trod? Where is it?”
The gremlin blinked, then leaped down and scurried to where a pillar had broken in two, half the column resting against the upright part, forming an arch between them. “Here!” he exclaimed, pointing and bouncing up and down. “Trod through here!”
I glanced at Kenzie, and she smiled. “All right.” She shrugged and started across the yard, stepping over rocks and broken columns. “Back to Leanansidhe’s. Hopefully we’ll catch her on a good day.”
But when I followed Kenzie beneath the arch, nothing happened. I’d been bracing for instant darkness, for that clammy, spiderweb feeling of passing through the Veil into the Between. But there was no blackness, no tingle of magic as we went through the arch. We both came out on the other side, and Kenzie blinked in confusion, looking back at me.
“Huh, that’s weird. What happened?”
“Uh, Razor?” I stared at the gremlin, who looked almost as confused as we did. “I don’t think this is the right place. Did you forget where the trod actually is?”
“Noooo!” Razor flattened his ears and scurried forward, ducking through the arch. He appeared on the other side, same way as we had, blinked and scuttled through again. To the same effect. “Is trod!” the gremlin cried, leaping to the top of the pillars, glaring down at them. “Razor not forget! Is trod to Scary Lady’s house!”
“I am afraid the Iron abomination is correct,” said a new, sibilant voice, seeming to come from nowhere. I spun, raising my swords, as a tall, slender form turned out of thin air, smiling at me from across the pool. “That was the trod to Leanansidhe’s,” the Thin Man said, observing us from profile, his spiderlike hands folded before him. “Unfortunately, due to certain events, the roads to the Exile Queen no longer exist.”
* * *
“Hello, Ethan Chase,” the Thin Man greeted, raising one pale hand to wave at me. “We meet yet again.”
“Kenzie, get back,” I growled, as Razor bared his fangs with a hiss and leaped to her shoulder. “Grab your knife and any iron you may have. Razor, stay with her. Don’t leave her side for a second, understand?” The gremlin buzzed an affirmative, and I heard her scramble away, shrugging out of her pack, but didn’t dare take my eyes off the faery in front of us.
The tall fey blinked calmly, a faint smile on his narrow face, as if he thought I was being unreasonable. “You can relax, Ethan Chase,” he said in a cool, serene voice. “I am not here to fight you.”
“Yeah? Then you can leave.” I jabbed a sword toward the entrance of the ruins. “Right now. And don’t pull your damn disappearing act, either. I want to see you go.”
He sighed. “Well, you said he would be unreasonable,” he stated, to the empty air, apparently. I scowled in bewilderment. “I suppose I should have listened and let you explain things from the start.”
“A common lament,” purred another, familiar voice, coming from the top of the arch where Razor had been a moment before. “And one that nobody realizes until it is too late.”
I grimaced. Well, you did wish he was here earlier, Ethan. This is probably your own damn fault. And the gremlin is going to start screeching right about...
“Bad kitty!” Razor wailed as I turned back. “Evil, bad kitty! Drown in lake! Shave off fur! Burn, burn!” Kenzie, wincing at the shrill gremlin voice two inches from her ear, pried Razor off her shoulder and told him to shush. Grimalkin blinked at us lazily, bushy gray tail curled around himself, looking smug. I eyed him and the Thin Man in turn, feeling utterly confused.
“What the hell is going on?”
Grimalkin twitched his tail. “I knew you would come here eventually,” he said, as Kenzie finally got the gremlin to calm down. “It was only a matter of time before you sought out the Exile Queen, and, as you have discovered, the trods to the Between no longer work.”
“Why is that?” Kenzie asked, coming forward as she frowned up at the cat. Razor mumbled something that sounded nasty and vanished into her hair. “Does it have anything to do with the Veil disappearing a few months ago?”
“We are uncertain,” the Thin Man said from across the pool. I glared at him; he wasn’t moving any closer, but all he had to do was turn his paper-thin body to face me head-on, and I would lose sight of him. And he knew how to move around so that it stayed that way, essentially becoming invisible. I’d been stabbed enough times with a crazy thin sword that appeared out of nowhere; I really didn’t want to go through that again. “We do not know what has happened to the Between, exactly,” the Thin Man went on, “but I suspect that is the case. You will not be able to reach the Exile Queen by trod. If you want to get to Leanansidhe, you must travel through the Between itself. But I don’t recommend you go alone.” He steepled long fingers in front of his face. “The Between is...not friendly to those who do not know the way. If you are unsure as to where you are going, you will quickly become lost and wander for eternity.”
“Let me guess,” I said flatly. “You can take us there.”
Atop the arch, Grimalkin yawned. “Do you have a better idea, human?” he asked, slitting his eyes at me.
“I’m not letting him take us through the Between,” I snapped, gesturing sharply with my blade. “We’re going there to find Annwyl, and last I checked, he was trying to drag her back to his creepy Forgotten town. Oh, yeah, and kill the rest of us.” I fixed him with a hard glare. “What’s to stop him from leaving us in the Between and then going to Leanansidhe’s himself for Annwyl?”
“No, Ethan Chase.” The Thin Man’s voice was suddenly quiet, lethal. “It is far too late for that. The damage is done. Taking the Summer girl would have no effect on the Iron Prince now. The prophecy has been set into motion.”
“What does that have to do with anything? You still tried to kill us.”
“I never personally wished you harm, Ethan Chase,” the Thin Man almost hissed at me. “I was simply trying to restore the balance, to prevent the rise of the First Queen. But you have started something that could tear the fabric of this world apart. Because of you, the prophecy came to pass. Because of you, the Veil is now weak, unstable. And after the First Queen eliminates the courts and takes control of the Nevernever, she will attempt to destroy it again. Permanently.”
A chill spread through my insides. Destroy the Veil, allowing all humans to see the fe
y. Forever this time. Meghan said it wasn’t possible to permanently rip it apart, but I’d heard enough to know we could never let that happen again.
“Could she really do that?” Kenzie whispered. The Thin Man raised his wiry shoulders in a shrug.
“I do not wish to find out,” he said solemnly. “I simply want the balance restored, the First Queen stopped and the Forgotten put to rest once more. But I cannot face the First Queen alone, not with the power she wields now. The Iron Prince is at the heart of the prophecy. He will be the one to unleash hell upon both worlds. He is the one who must be stopped.”
“And Annwyl?” Kenzie asked. “What do you plan to do, once we find her?”
“The Summer girl is the key to the Iron Prince,” the Thin Man replied. “She may be his only weakness. But worry not,” he added, holding up a hand as Kenzie glared at him. “I do not intend to threaten, kidnap, put her in harm’s way, or drag her back to Phaed. She is in no danger from me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I will not allow anything to damage the girl before we reach the Iron Prince.”
Kenzie crossed her arms. “I want a promise,” she announced. “Can you swear to me that you mean Annwyl no harm?”
I smiled at her, surprised. Getting a faery to promise anything was a big deal, as They absolutely could not break Their vows, even if They wanted to. I was amazed at how fast she had learned Faery’s many quirks and idiosyncrasies; navigating the fey world was tricky to say the least, but Kenzie had pulled it off all on her own in a matter of months. She would, I realized with a flicker of both pride and regret, be just fine when it came to the invisible world. She didn’t need me to handle Faery for her; she was more than capable of dealing with it herself. Put a sword in her hands and teach her how to fight, and she would be unstoppable.
The Thin Man made an annoyed gesture with his hand. “Oh, very well.” He sighed. “Stubborn humans. If this is what it takes.” He straightened, putting both spiderlike hands on his chest. “I, elected mayor of Phaed and caretaker of the Forgotten, do swear to aid Ethan Chase and...friends—” he eyed Razor, peeking out of Kenzie’s hair, and curled a lip “—in the search to find Annwyl, the former handmaiden of Queen Titania. I also do swear not to threaten, kidnap or physically harm the Summer girl in any way. This I swear, on pain of death, unraveling and nonexistence.” He paused and stared at Kenzie in defiance. “Is that sufficient enough for you, my girl?”
Kenzie glanced at me. I shrugged. There was probably some hidden faery loophole in that promise, some funny turn of phrase I wasn’t seeing, but it sounded good enough for now. “Okay.” Kenzie nodded, looking back at the Thin Man. “I guess we can accept that.”
“Finally.” Grimalkin sat up and stretched, arching his back. “Then, if we are quite finished babbling at each other, perhaps we can get on with saving the Nevernever?” His half-lidded eyes fixed on me. “There is a group of Forgotten converging on this area right now. I suggest we hurry, unless you think you can talk them to death.”
I straightened. “The Forgotten are coming? Now?”
“I do find that human habit of repeating everything they are told so very endearing.” Grimalkin scratched an ear and looked to the Thin Man. “But perhaps we can speed things up a little? I assume you can get to the Between from here.”
“Yes,” the Thin Man said, and disappeared. I jumped, looking around for the sneaky faery, but he reappeared on the other side of the pool, walking toward us. “Though the trod to the Exile Queen no longer exists here, the Veil between it and the Nevernever is still quite thin. So we should be able to enter the Between fairly easily.”
Reaching out, he stuck an arm between the pillars, and his fingers vanished into empty space as I’d seen Keirran’s do several times before, parting the curtain between worlds. The Thin Man eased the Veil aside, and a dark tear appeared through the archway, mist boiling out of the opening. The Thin Man smiled. “After you, humans. Oh, but a word of warning.” He held out his remaining arm, stopping us. “The Between, much like the Forgotten, is an empty space that can be shaped and re-formed into whatever it needs to be. Mansions, towns, even whole kingdoms—all can be created out of nothing, if one has a strong enough will and desire to see it born. Of course, without some kind of anchor, these embodiments of will simply vanish into nothingness again, but many things have been created in the dark spaces between worlds. And at the moment, the Between is quite sensitive, unstable even. Do not let your emotions get the better of you, or you could will something into existence that might prove...problematic.”
Well, that sounded awesome. Sheathing one of my swords, I reached out and took Kenzie’s hand. She laced our fingers together, squeezing hard, while Razor peeked out of her hair and bared his teeth at the cat peering down at us.
“Bad kitty,” he growled, as Grimalkin yawned and very deliberately raised a paw to lick it. “Evil bad kitty. No like. Go ’way.”
Kenzie looked up, as well. “Are you coming with us, Grimalkin?”
The cat gave a slow blink. “I am curious as to what has happened to Leanansidhe’s mansion,” he replied. “She has proven most elusive to track down, and it is uncertain if she and her minions are even alive after the destruction of the Veil. So, yes, humans. I will be accompanying you. That was part of the bargain.” Grimalkin sniffed and curled his whiskers at me. “If you ever get started, that is.”
“Oh, shut up. We’re going.” Taking a deep breath, I raised my weapon, tightened my grip on Kenzie’s hand and stepped through the tear, feeling that cold, spidery tickle that was absent before. The Thin Man stepped behind us, holding open the curtain, and Grimalkin trotted through the crack, tail held high. Then the Thin Man dropped his arm, the tear swooshed shut, and we were trapped between the real world and the Nevernever.
And it was just as creepy and uninviting as before. There was no light, no sky, no shadows. Everything was a flat, muted gray, the fog so thick you couldn’t see ten feet in front of you. There were no sounds or smells. Or any signs of life. Nothing but mist and fog and emptiness.
Pretty damn depressing, actually.
A nearby patch of fog suddenly roiled and curled back, revealing a gnarled, withered tree, drooping branches bent under the weight of large, pulpy fruit. I frowned, certain nothing had been there a moment before. The tree looked...angry, somehow. Maybe it was because the fruit, hanging from the limbs, looked eerily similar to human heads. Scowling human heads.
I felt a jolt and stumbled back, nearly bumping into the Thin Man. One of the ugly fruits had shifted a bit, and I saw that it was me. My head, my face, twisted into a grotesque scowl as it dangled there on the branch. The Thin Man looked over and let out a sigh.
“I told you, boy. Don’t let your emotions get the better of you.” He waved a hand at the tree and the mist beyond. “The Between is quite sensitive right now. It will latch on to any strong emotion and turn it into an embodiment of will, and you might not like the results. So let’s try to keep those nasty negative feelings to a minimum, shall we?”
I’ll show you a nasty negative feeling, I thought, but behind me, the tree branches rattled, shaking the fruit, and I took a deep breath, trying to control myself. The Thin Man sniffed.
“This way, please,” he stated, turning in a seemingly random direction. “I have a general idea where Leanansidhe’s mansion is located, but I’m not entirely certain how long it will take to get there. I advise you to stay close. Wouldn’t want any of you getting lost.”
I’m sure you wouldn’t...no, stop it Ethan! Happy thoughts, remember? I looked at Kenzie, who made an exaggerated scowling face, as if she knew what I was thinking. I rolled my eyes, and she grinned.
With the Thin Man leading and Grimalkin’s tail poking up from the mist like a fuzzy periscope, we started into the fog.
CHAPTER TEN
CARNIVAL OF HORRORS
I lost track of how lo
ng we walked. Maybe minutes, maybe hours or days, it was impossible to tell. It was bad enough in the wyldwood or the Nevernever, where time was completely screwy and you had no way of knowing how much had passed. At least the wyldwood still had a day and a night. Here in the Between, there was nothing. I felt like I’d been dropped into a vacuum, with no way of knowing if we were still on track or walking in circles. If I’d been alone, if I hadn’t had Kenzie, Grimalkin, even Razor’s disturbed mutterings from Kenzie’s shoulder, I’d probably have started to go completely nuts.
As I strode through knee-high mist, my foot hit something solid and unyielding, hidden in the fog, and I tumbled forward with a yelp, barely catching myself.
When I looked up, the world had changed.
The nothingness had disappeared, as had the dull gray light that muted everything, though the mist was still there, drifting in ragged shreds along the ground. Straightening slowly, a chill crawling up my spine, I wished I had the foggy emptiness back.
I stood at the edge of a carnival, abandoned and silent, red-and-white tents flapping limply in the breeze. The area was muddy and littered with trash, popcorn containers, deflated balloons and empty paper cups rolling along the ground or floating in puddles. The silhouette of a Ferris wheel loomed in the distance, and the entire scene looked like it could’ve come straight out of a horror movie.
“Oh, blast it all,” the Thin Man said, stepping up beside me. “Someone has found an anchor.”
I frowned at him. “A what?”
“An anchor,” the Thin Man repeated, gesturing impatiently. “Something that exists simultaneously in the Between and the real world. Generally, nothing lasts in the Between. You could will an entire town into existence, only to have it fade away and vanish within the hour. Nothing created here is permanent unless you have an anchor, a tie to the real world. It is how Leanansidhe built her mansion, how she forged her own realm in the Between when there should be nothing.” He looked around the creepy carnival and shook his head. “How very annoying.”