He beat the faery’s head with his fists, and the cat-thing roared. Reaching up, she yanked the gremlin from her neck and slammed him to the ground, crushing his small body between her bony fingers. Razor cried out, a shrill, painful wail, and the Forgotten’s hand started to smoke.
With a screech, the cat-faery flung the gremlin away like he was on fire, shaking her fingers as if burned. “Wretched, wretched Iron fey!” she gasped, as I stared at the place Razor had fallen. I could see his tiny body, crumbled beneath a bush, eyes glowing weakly.
Before they flickered out.
No! I turned on the cat-faery, but she hissed an order, and the two Forgotten holding Kenzie forced her to her knees with a gasp. “I will give you one chance to surrender, human,” the cat-thing growled, as the rest of the horde closed in, surrounding us. “Throw away your horrid iron weapons now, or this girl’s blood will be on your hands. The lady will decide what to do with you both.”
I slumped, desperation and failure making my arms heavy. Dammit, I couldn’t save anyone. Keirran, Todd, even Razor. I’m sorry, everyone.
The cat-faery waited a moment longer, watching me with hateful eyes, before turning to the Forgotten holding Kenzie. “Kill her,” she ordered, and my heart lurched. “Slit her throat.”
“No! You win, okay?” Shifting my blades to both hands, I hurled them away, into the trees. They glinted for a brief second, catching the moonlight, before they fell into shadow and were lost from view.
“A wise move,” the cat-thing purred, and nodded to the faeries holding the girl. They dragged her upright and shoved her forward, as the rest of the Forgotten closed in. She stumbled, and I caught her before she could fall. Her heart was racing, and I held her tight, feeling her tremble against me.
“You all right?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” she replied, as the Forgotten made a tight circle around us, hemming us in. “I’m fine. But if they touch me again, I’m going to snap one of their stupid pointed legs off and stab them with it.”
Jokes again. Kenzie being brave because she was terrified. As if I couldn’t see the too-bright gleam in her eyes, the way she looked back at the place where Razor had fallen, crumpled and motionless. I’m sorry, I wanted to tell her. This is my fault. I never should have brought you here.
The circle of Forgotten began to drift forward, poking us with bony talons, forcing us to move. I looked back once, at the shadows that held the limp body of the gremlin, before being herded into the trees.
* * *
The Forgotten escorted us through the woods, down a winding path that looked much like every other trail in the Ramble, and deeper into the forest. We didn’t walk far. The narrow cement path led us through a dense gully of boulders and shrubs, until we came to a strange stone arch nestled between two high outcroppings. The wall was made of rough stone blocks and was a good twenty or more feet high. The narrow arch set in the middle was only five or six feet across, barely wide enough for two people to pass through side-by-side.
It was also guarded by another Forgotten, a tall, skeletal creature that looked like a cross between a human and a vulture. It squatted atop the wall, bristling with black feathers, and its head was a giant bird skull with blazing green eye sockets. Long talons were clasped to its chest, like a huge bird of prey’s, and even hunched over it was nearly ten feet tall. Kenzie shrank back with a gasp, and the cat-thing sneered at her.
“Don’t worry, girl,” she said as we approached the arch without the giant bird creature noticing us. “He doesn’t bother humans. Only fey. He can see the location of a single faery miles away. Now that the park is virtually empty, we’re going to have to hunt farther afield again. The lady is growing stronger, but she still requires glamour. We must accede to her wishes.”
“You don’t think the courts will catch on to what’s happening?” I demanded, glaring at the Forgotten who poked me in the back when I stopped to stare at the huge creature. “You don’t think they might notice the disappearance of so many fey?”
The cat-faery laughed. “They haven’t so far,” she cackled as we continued down the path, toward the arch and its monstrous guardian. “The Summer and Winter courts don’t care about the exiles on this side of the Veil. And a few scraggly half-breeds are certainly below their notice. As long as we don’t bother the fey in the Nevernever, they have no idea what is happening in the real world. The only unknown factor is the new Iron Court and its half-human queen.” She smiled at me, showing yellow teeth. “But now, we have the bright one. And you.”
We’d come to the opening in the wall, directly below the huge bird-creature perched overhead. Beyond the arch, I could see the path winding away, continuing between several large boulders and out of sight. But as the first of the Forgotten went through the arch, the air around them shimmered, and they disappeared.
I stopped, causing a couple of Forgotten to hiss impatiently and prod me in the back, but I didn’t move. “Where does this go?” I asked, though I sort of knew the answer.
The cat-faery gestured, and the Forgotten crowded close, making sure we couldn’t back away. “Your Dark Muse isn’t the only one who can move through the Between, little boy. Our lady knew about the spaces between the Nevernever and the real world long before Leanansidhe ever thought to take over the courts. The cave here in the park is only the anchor—it exists in the same place, but we have fashioned it to our liking. This isn’t the only entrance, either. We have dozens of tunnels running throughout the park, so we can appear anywhere, at any time. The silly faeries that lived here didn’t even know what was going on until it was too late. But enough talking. The lady is waiting. Move.”
She gestured, and the fey behind us dug a long talon into my ribs. I grunted in pain and went through the arch with Kenzie behind me.
As the blackness cleared and my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I looked around in astonishment. We were in a huge cavern, the ceiling spiraling up until I could just make out a tiny hazy circle directly overhead. That was the real world, way up there, beyond our reach. Down here, it looked like an enormous ant or termite nest, with tunnels snaking off in every direction, ledges running along walls, and bridges spanning the gulfs between. The walls and floor of the cave were spotted with thousands of glowing crystals, and they cast a pale, eerie luminance over the hundreds of Forgotten that roamed the cavern. Except for the thin faeries and the dwarves with killer hands, I didn’t recognize any of these fey.
The Forgotten escorted us across the chamber, down a long, winding tunnel with fossils and bones poking out of the walls. More passageways and corridors wound off in every direction, bleached skeletons staring at us from the stone: lizards, birds, giant insects. I saw the fossil of what looked like a winged snake, coiled around a huge column, and wondered how much of the cave was real and how much was in the Between.
We walked through a long, narrow tunnel, under the rib cage of some giant beast, and entered another cavern. Here, the floor was dotted with large holes, and above us, the ceiling glittered with thousands of tiny crystals, looking like the night sky. A burly fey with an extra arm growing right out of his chest stood guard at the entrance, and eyed us critically as we approached.
“Eh? We’re bringing humans down here now?” He peered at me with beady black eyes and curled a lip. “This one has the Sight, but no more glamour than the rocks on the ground. And the rest of the lot are all used up. What do we need ’em for?”
Staring at them, my nerves prickled. There was something about this group that was just…wrong. Sure, they were ragged and filthy and had probably been captives of the Forgotten for a while now, but no one came forward to greet us or demand who we were. Their faces were blank, their features slack, and they gazed back with no emotion in their eyes, no spark of anger or fear or anything. It was like staring into a herd of curious, passive sheep.
Still, there were a lot of them, and I tensed, ready to fight if they attacked us. But the humans, after a somewhat disappointed glance, like they were expecting us to be food, turned away and shuffled back into the darkness.
I took a step forward. “Hey, wait!” I called, the echo bouncing around the pit. The humans didn’t respond, and I raised my voice. “Just a second! Hold up!”
A few of them turned, regarding me without expression, but at least it was something. “I’m looking for a friend of mine,” I went on, gazing past their ragged forms, trying to peer into the shadows. “His name is Todd Wyndham. Is there anyone by that name down here? He’s about my age, blond hair, short.”
The humans stared mutely, and I sighed, frustration and hopelessness threatening to smother me. End of the road, it seemed. We were stuck here, trapped by the Forgotten and surrounded by crazy humans, with no hope of rescuing Keirran or Annwyl. And Todd was still nowhere to be found.