by Julie Kagawa
As I stepped through the Veil, a small cluster of trees greeted me, and a breeze smelling of leaves and bark ruffled my hair. The birds against my back fluttered wildly, as if sensing freedom and open air beyond the confines of the plastic, and I quickly gazed around for a spot to release them.
“Hey, you.”
I froze. Turning around, I saw a human in a police uniform walking toward me, a wary frown on his face. Beyond him, through the trees, I could see buildings and cars, and I realized this wasn’t a remote corner of the wilderness. This was a city park, and I had popped in out of nowhere, carrying three chirping, dripping, fluttering bags, right in front of a cop.
With a sigh, I drew my glamour to me, resigned that this day was going to continue to be strange. As the policeman strode toward me, I put my faery magic on like a cloak, becoming invisible to mortal sight. The human stopped short, mouth open about to speak. As he gazed around in utter confusion, I stepped past him and continued on, knowing he would forget all about me in a few seconds.
The doves were growing even more agitated. More had thawed, and though they felt sluggish, they were clearly not happy about being half-frozen and stuck in a bag with dozens of other frozen birds. I hurriedly made my way to the center of the park and, surrounded by evergreen and oak, set the twitching bags on the ground.
After a cursory glance to make sure there were no humans close by, I tore the bags open and stepped back. With an explosion of feathers, a host of white birds rose into the air with indignant coos and flapping of wings. Like a fluffy cloud, they swooped above the trees and scattered in every direction. I heard gasps and shouts as a few mortals caught sight of hundreds of doves spiraling into the air. A little girl ran forward, pointing at the sky, a huge grin across her face. I felt the ripple of her wonder and awe from where I stood and smiled to myself at her happiness.
Okay, that ridiculous mission is done. I need to get back to the wedding, now.
I jogged to where I had come through the Veil, passing the human cop, who was talking to someone in a parked car. He didn’t notice me, nor did he seem to have any recollection of seeing someone suspicious appear with a trio of wriggling bags thrown over his shoulder. I found the spot where the Veil was thin and quickly slipped back into the Between.
I still have time. Hang on, Ethan. I’m on my way.
I hurried forward, but I hadn’t taken more than a few steps when the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my instincts shrieked a warning. Reflexes honed from a lifetime of having my father for a teacher kicked in, and I dodged. Something small and bright zipped past my face, a sliver of razor-thin moonlight, and vanished into the fog behind me.
I drew my sword, glaring into the coils of mist and shadows, searching for an attacker but seeing nothing. The fog parted a little, and I found myself surrounded by ancient-looking stone ruins, pillars, and walls lying crumbled in the mist. I caught only glimpses of them before the fog swallowed them up once more, but I knew something else was out there, hiding in the shadows. Waiting to strike.
“Who are you?” I called, hearing my voice echo in the gloom. “By order of the Forgotten King, show yourself.”
Again, there was no answer. But this time, I wasn’t going to turn my back on an obvious enemy, even if I couldn’t stay there long. “What do you want of me?” I tried again. “You’re obviously not a wanderer, not with that aim. If you are lost, I can take you to the mortal realm, but if you just want blood, I’m afraid you’ve picked the wrong fight. I am Keirran, King of the Forgotten, and I will defend myself if necessary.”
“You are no king.”
The voice drifted out of the mist, low and feminine, curling around me like a predator. I turned slowly, unable to tell which direction it had come from.
“You are a human,” the voice said again, behind me this time. I spun and saw a section of mist curl away, revealing half a stone pillar. A figure crouched atop it, draped in a black cloak and cowl, features hidden. One slender hand gripped a curved, silvery blade that seemed to be made of moonlight.
“Humans cannot become kings of the Nevernever,” my mysterious assailant went on. “Only a few mortals can even see the hidden world. Faery would never accept a human as its king.”
“I am human,” I agreed, shifting around to get a better position should the figure decide to attack. “My human blood is from my mother’s side. But she is Queen of the Iron Court and rules the territory of Iron within the Nevernever. I am a king, as much as Oberon is King of the Summer Court and Mab is Queen of Winter.”
“Iron Court,” the figure repeated and shook its shrouded head. “Summer Court. Winter Court. What are these blasphemous claims I keep hearing? There is only one court in the Nevernever, ruled by one queen. What have you done with the true queen of Faery?”
“The true queen?” I repeated, frowning. “There are three queens of Faery: Queen Meghan, Queen Mab, and Queen Titania. Which one are you—”
My stomach dropped. No, she wasn’t talking about any of them. I knew who she meant, the one who had ruled the Nevernever before any of the courts existed. Before Summer or Winter, before Arcadia or Tir Na Nog or Mag Tuiredh, there had been only one queen of Faery. I had met her. I had fought for her, during the war when I had betrayed everyone.
“The Lady,” I whispered.
Amazement battled disbelief. If this faery thought the Lady still ruled the Nevernever, then that meant it had been a part of her court...before the rise of Summer and Winter. How old was this stranger? Did that mean it was a Forgotten who had faded away and then, somehow, been reborn into this age?
“The true queen,” the figure said again and rose, pointing at me with that curved silver blade. “The only queen. I will not believe these rumors that she is gone or that these strange new courts are ruling the Nevernever. Where is she, human? Tell me, before I cut out your tongue for speaking such lies.”
“I’m sorry,” I said as gently as I could. “What you’ve heard is the truth. The Lady is dead.” I paused, then added in an even softer voice, “I killed her myself.”
“You?”
For a moment, the figure appeared stunned. Slowly, it raised its free hand and pushed the hood of its cowl back.
My brows rose. The face beneath the hood was beautiful: a faery with twilight-colored skin and silver hair like the sheen of a polished blade. Her eyes were huge and golden, not blank and pupilless like the Forgotten’s but luminous in their intensity, the color of the moon hanging low on the horizon. Black leather armor sheathed her from head to toe, and my wariness grew. That was not the outfit of a simple messenger or handmaiden. Whoever this faery was, she was a trained fighter.
“You killed the Lady?” she repeated in a dazed voice. Her brow furrowed, and she shook her head. “Impossible. You are but a human, and the Lady is the most powerful being in the Nevernever.”
“She was very powerful,” I agreed. “I even served her for a time. But she was consumed with what she believed had been stolen from her. She wanted to reclaim her throne and rule the Nevernever again, and she was willing to sacrifice all of Faery to do it. In the end, I couldn’t support her plans of destruction. She died quickly. Even after everything, I didn’t want her to suffer.”
“Enough.” The black-garbed faery tensed, her eyes glowing and furious in the shadows. She gestured, and another silvery blade materialized in her hand as if conjured from moonlight. “I cannot believe a mere human, even one with faery blood, could defeat the queen I served for centuries.” Her eyes narrowed to golden slits as she raised her swords. “You will tell me what really happened, mortal. I will cut the truth from your lips if I must!”
She leaped toward me like a streak of lightning, those deadly swords sweeping down to take my head.
Chapter 5
Well, this was going to kill any hopes of making the wedding on time.
I twisted away on instinct as the
faery’s moonblades slashed through the spot where I had been. She was lethally fast. Her blades came at me again, and I barely got my sword up to block. Parrying the moonblades aside, I lashed out at her, and she leaped back, the sword missing her by centimeters. As soon as the blade had passed, she darted forward again, seeking to cut me down. But I had been trained by one of the best warriors in the Nevernever and had been educated in different styles of battle. Strong warriors often used different tactics learned from fast or very skilled fighters. Powerful warriors used their strength and endurance to batter their enemy down. Quick warriors like this one used blinding speed to dart within their enemy’s guard, often timing their strikes to deal a vicious blow and quickly leaping back to avoid the counterstrike. Knowing this, I didn’t carry my swing through but instantly swept the sword back again, cutting at the warrior even as she lunged forward. Immediately, she ducked, rolling under the blow, and coming up on her feet behind me. I spun and took a few steps back, keeping my sword between us as the faery turned and regarded me with appraising gold eyes.
“You’re skilled,” she said, and her tone wasn’t surprised or mocking or angry, just matter-of-fact. “Whoever your teacher was, they were very good. Though, it won’t save you in the end.”
“Do we really have to do this?” I asked as she circled me like a wolf, graceful and dangerous. “Not to be rude, but I have somewhere to be right now. Can we perhaps put this on hold and come back to it in a day or two?”
“Of course.” The black-clad warrior shrugged and leaned back in a way that, oddly enough, reminded me of Puck. “Tell me where the Lady is, and I’ll let you go.”
“I told you,” I said wearily. “You won’t find the Lady in the Nevernever any longer. Her rule over Faery has ended. She’s gone.”
For a moment, the faery’s expression contorted, rage and anguish flashing through her eyes. Just for a moment, before she composed herself with a steely smile.
“Wrong answer,” she told me and lunged, coming in with a series of lightning-quick strikes that sent me scrambling back, desperately trying to avoid them. As I parried, I felt a shiver of glamour go through the air between us and saw an opening. My sword flashed out, cutting through the slender body, which instantly rippled into slivers of light and disappeared.
That’s not the end of it, Keirran! Reflexively, I spun to face the attack coming in from behind. As I turned, our gazes met, and surprise flickered through the strange faery’s eyes. She’d expected my guard to be down for the split second it would take to stab me from behind. Again, she didn’t know my teacher or the lengths he’d gone to to make sure I was prepared for every kind of battle.
There was no time to bring my sword up; those deadly curved blades were already coming for my head. I thrust my free hand out, palm forward, and sent a blast of Winter glamour through the air between us. There was a flash of blue light, and a wall of ice materialized in front of me.
The second it was up, I realized my mistake. I had blocked my assailant’s line of sight, but I had lost sight of her, too. Which meant that, as fast as she was, she was probably behind me right now, and I had a split second to make a choice.
I hoped I made the right one.
Something cold and razor-sharp pressed against my throat from behind. I stiffened and slowly lowered my weapon, feeling the faery’s slender body against my back, the edge of that curved blade barely touching my skin. Her breath was cool as she leaned close, her lips next to my ear.
“Now, human, enough games. I will have answers. What happened to the Lady? What happened to the Nevernever? Why...is everything so different now?”
“I promise you this,” I began and felt her surprise, knowing the power of those words in Faery. “Everything I am about to tell you is the truth. Please try to understand. It has been a long, long time since the Lady ruled the Nevernever. Long enough that most of Faery have forgotten about her. For many, many centuries, she slept, deep beneath the earth in a place called Phaed. Until one day, someone came along and woke her up.”
“Phaed,” the faery behind me repeated. “I... I was in Phaed, not long ago. I woke up there, I think. Or...was I always there? I don’t know what happened to me. My memories are gone. I just remember... I serve the Lady.” She made a tiny, frustrated noise and shook her head. “Why can’t I remember anything else?”
“You’re a Forgotten,” I told her gently. “It’s what happens when humans don’t remember us. They forget your name, your stories, everything about you. After a while, those faeries just...slowly cease to exist. And somehow, they all end up in Phaed. Where the Lady was, dreaming of the day she could return.”
“I know of the Forgotten.” The faery’s voice was breathless. “They were rumors. No one ever saw one, but we knew they existed. Has it...really been that long? Even the Lady has been forgotten?”
“Until the day she woke up and discovered the world had changed,” I said. “When she did, she couldn’t accept that the world and the rest of Faery had moved on. She gathered the Forgotten to her and waged war on the Nevernever, claiming that she was the one true queen and that the courts should not exist. I...was her champion, for a time,” I went on, as shameful memories rose up, seeking to drown me. “I turned my back on my court and my family to side with the Lady. I thought that... No, there’s no excuse for my actions. The Lady wanted to be as powerful as she was before, to rule with no opposition. She would’ve had me kill my own family to achieve that.”
The faery at my back was silent for a long moment. When she spoke again, her voice was nearly a whisper. “You betrayed her.”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “I did.”
The knife at my throat moved a hair toward me, not enough to draw blood but definitely uncomfortable. “Why shouldn’t I kill you, then?”
“Two reasons,” I said, quietly drawing on my glamour, feeling the energy of the Between swirl around and through me. “One, the Lady would’ve destroyed the Nevernever to become queen again. She didn’t care about the Forgotten or the lives lost. All she wanted was her throne back. I was oblivious to her ruthlessness at first, but if you really served her before, you know what she was capable of.” No answer from the faery behind me, and her silence spoke volumes. The Lady had never been a kind and sympathetic ruler; even when she had been queen of Faery, she’d ruled through fear. “The Lady would have destroyed us all,” I went on, releasing my glamour into the mist. The Between stirred at my touch; tendrils of fog broke off from each other and slowly coiled around us like snakes. “She would have let nothing stand between her and her throne. You served her—you know that what I’m saying is the truth. Furthermore, you also should’ve realized that attacking a king of Faery in his own territory is a very dangerous proposition.”
Smoky white hands suddenly appeared in the mist, grabbing the faery’s arms and legs and yanking her into the air. She jerked in their grip, twisting and slashing through several, even taken by surprise. I could appreciate how very fast and skilled she was, but not at the cost of her breaking free and attacking me again. I raised a hand and swept it toward the struggling faery with a burst of Winter glamour. The coils of mist and the hands holding her captive instantly turned to ice, suspending her like a fly caught in a spiderweb.
She slumped, silver hair hiding her face as she bowed her head, then looked up at me. Surprise filled those golden irises, along with a weary resignation. “Kill me quickly, then,” she said, her voice soft but unafraid. “I have nothing to return to, anyway.”
“I’m not going to kill you,” I told her. “I know you’ve been through a lot, and I know everything is confusing. I just want your word that, right now, on this spot, you won’t attack me when I let you go.”
She blinked. There were a lot of loopholes in that promise, which was the reason I’d phrased it that way. I wouldn’t try to make her swear to something she would never agree to, like promising to never kill me. All I asked
was that, as long as we stood here, in this one place, she wouldn’t come after me again. It was an easy promise that would end as soon as we both stepped away, and after a moment of consideration, she nodded.
I waved a hand, and the ice shattered into tiny pieces with sharp tinkling sounds. The faery dropped, landed gracefully on her feet, and straightened, still appraising me with her golden eyes.
“You should’ve killed me,” she said after a moment. “That would’ve been the smart decision. If you are a king, leaving an enemy alive is a costly mistake.”
“I make a point not to kill people when there’s no need,” I replied solemnly. “Besides, I was under the impression that we didn’t have to be enemies.”
She didn’t say anything to that, just regarded me impassively. I sighed, feeling time slipping ever further away, but loath to turn my back on this deadly and beautiful killer. If I took one step, the terms of the promise would be met, and she’d be free to attack me again if she chose. “I have to go,” I told her. “I have my own promise to fulfill. You are welcome to find me again in Touchstone, the capital of the Forgotten Court. You’ll be safe there, and I can explain everything.”
She thought about that for a moment, then shook her head. “I appreciate the invitation,” she said softly, “but... I can’t accept it quite yet. I can’t accept you quite yet, Forgotten King. I have to discover some things for myself.”
I nodded. “Understandable. Still, if you find out what you need, Touchstone will be there. Hopefully I will see you again.”
“That is not something you should hope for, King of the Forgotten.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I replied, which made her frown. “What is your name, by the way?” It was clear that she was ready to depart, and once she did, I doubted I would ever find her unless she wanted to be found.
