by ERIN BEDFORD
Scrambling to my feet, I kept my eyes firmly planted in front of me and ignored the prickly feeling on the back of my neck telling me to look back. It wasn’t just the Higher Fae who could ensnare humans, I couldn’t imagine what kind of horrors it could wreak if it got into the human world. It made it that much more important for me to live so I’d never have to find out.
“Come on, this way.” Alice tugged on my hand, leading me down a corridor that we hadn’t been able to see before on the first time through.
As we made our way around the corner, the JubJub’s steps became faster and more aggressive. It cried out as it bashed around the corner trying to get to us. The corridor was smaller than the other one, and I doubted the bird would be able to fit its whole body through the entrance with much ease.
Taking a chance, I peeked behind me to find the bird had indeed gotten stuck at the entrance, its wings too big to fit through. It clawed at the walls around it and tried to squeeze through. It cawed, a sound that made my blood run cold, and I had to force my feet to keep moving. Luckily, after a moment, it decided we weren’t worth the trouble. It snarled at us and turned back the way it came. Or went to find another way.
An outcry from Alice had my vision jerking away from the JubJub and back to her, only I found myself alone. I searched the area but couldn’t see her anywhere. We were still in the cave and the walls didn’t really give any options for hiding. As I searched for her, I became more and more frustrated when there was just more and more wall in front, below, and above me.
“Alice? Where are you?” I took a step forward. My next words turned into a scream as the floor came out from under me.
Chapter 7
Tick Tock
THE FALL SEEMED to go on forever. After the first five minutes I quit screaming. The hole was so big that I wasn’t able to see the sides outside of my little ball of light that fought to keep up with my descent. I couldn’t hear Alice’s screams, meaning she had probably given up after a few minutes as well. Or she was dead.
I tried to not think about the last bit as I continued to fall further and further into the dark pit. My mind wandered to those who would miss me when I was gone. The amount of people on the list was kind of depressing.
The only one who would probably even care if I was gone were my human and Fae fathers. My sister might shed a tear or two but would get over it lieu of a new project. My human mother would do everything she was supposed to. Cry, wear black, and donate a huge amount to a charity under my name. But miss me? I wasn’t so sure.
Then there was Dorian. Would he even realize I was gone? Or was he too far gone to see anything other than his own pain? I had hoped to be able to pull him out of the darkness he had fallen into, but when I was gone would there be anyone to save him. To save any of them.
The only other person who had an inkling of a chance of defeating the shadows was Chess, but he was trapped himself and couldn’t help anyone. He definitely was not in any position to care whether or not I was alive, not like he would either way.
My train of thought was halted when my descent slowed. My vision began to clear, allowing me to see more than just darkness. The walls were becoming more prominent and visible.
Unlike the cave above, these walls weren’t just made of dirt and stone. There was a carpet like material coating the walls in a black and white zigzag pattern that made my stomach lurch. Besides the nausea inducing walls, random furniture stuck out of the sides. Chairs and beds, night stands and full dining sets. All as neat as could be, like it wasn’t unusual for them to be defying gravity.
The little ball of light I created began to flicker and die out as the hole grew brighter and filled with the overwhelming sound of ticking clocks. Just as the sound began to drive me insane, clocks of every shape and size appeared on the walls. Some coo coo clocks, some were old-fashioned grandfather clocks. All of them ticked incessantly.
“Lady!”
My eyes fell below me to where I could finally see the floor. Alice sat on top of a couch, waving her arm above her head. Finally!
As my feet touched the ground, I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and looked back up. The hole I had come from had closed up, creating a ceiling of the same pattern with the furniture stuck to the surface.
“Where are we?” I wondered out loud as I looked around the room. It seemed like everything I had passed on the way down was now cluttered into a circular shaped room with no windows or doors. The room was a junk picker’s fantasy, with more furniture than anyone could ever need, and more clocks than was sane.
“In my home.”
Alice and I turned to where the voice came from. There was a table and set of chairs stuck to the side of the wall. A tea set with four cups and steam billowing from one of them sat on the table, not a drop spilled even at the angle. A fox like creature sat at the table that wasn’t there the first time I had searched the room.
“You’re lucky I had just sat down to tea and saw you, or I wouldn’t have been able to slow down time enough to catch you. Then where would you be? Flat as a pancake on my living room floor.” A tutting sound came from it, proving it was the fox indeed that had been talking.
Nine long fluffy tails swayed in the chair behind the fox that was sipping tea from a cup. A sapphire blue vest covered his dark orange fur, and he had a dark blue tie with a shiny gold pin wrapped around his neck. Black eyes twinkled at us as his lips — did foxes have lips —curled up in an amused grin as we gaped at him.
“Well, don’t just stand there. I’m having tea, would you like some?” he gestured to the table with his teacup as if a talking fox was the most normal thing in the world.
“Um, excuse me,” clearing my throat, I passed a look to Alice before shifting my weight from one foot to the other, wanting nothing more than to take my glamour off. “Thank you for saving us, but as much as we’d really like to stay and have tea with you, we have to be going. If you could just direct us toward the palace, we’ll be on our way and out of your hair.”
“The palace you say?” the fox asked, setting his cup down before him and crossing one leg over the other. The gesture was peculiar to see on a fox, even one larger than average size. “Why would you want to go to a place like that? Especially, at a time like now.” He pulled a pocket watch from his vest and glanced down at the face before clucking his tongue. “Now is a not a good time to be at the palace. No matter the occasion.”
“I understand that…uh…sir.” Kill me now. “But we really don’t have much choice in the matter. So, if you could just point the way…” I trailed off, waving Alice off before she could start to argue.
We didn’t have time to get into theatrics, and every time she opened her mouth, we always ended up worse off. Not that I really had any room to talk, I’d gotten myself into my fair share of trouble because I couldn’t keep my smart ass comments to myself.
“Tick. You may call me Tick.” He answered, taking another sip from his cup using one hand as the pocket watch still ticked away in the other. The black lining of his lips curled around the edge of the cup, showing more finesse than one would suspect a fox to have.
“Really?” I couldn’t suppress my amusement. You’d think I would be used to the weird names in the Underground after all this time, but every new one just made me want to giggle. I swallowed the urge to laugh, assuming he wouldn’t appreciate it as much.
“Yes, really.” His voice dared me to say another word about it before he snapped his watch closed. He slid from his chair and landed on the floor with more grace than any fox I’d ever seen. Tucking his pocket watch back into his vest, he approached Alice and me.
“As you can tell, I have a thing about time.” He gestured to the clocks around the room, each one ticking their own little tune. “I keep the time here in the Underground and without me, the world as we know it would cease to exist.”
Well, someone was full of themself. The world would fall apart if he w
asn’t there to control the time? Like winding a clock was all that important. He could try fighting a whole horde of shadow Fae, and then we could talk about how important his job really was.
“That’s really interesting.” I tried to pretend to be interested in his job and not throttle him for wasting our time when all I really wanted was for him to shut up and tell us how to get out of here.
“Don’t be smart.” Tick wagged a finger at me, which was tipped with a long sharp claw. “I don’t appreciate your sarcasm, nor do I have time for it, or you. So I suggest you forget about going to the palace and be on your way.”
I exchanged a frustrated look with Alice, who urged me with a jerk of her head to keep trying. I was getting tired of having to convince people to help me. What happened to the good ol’ days when people helped each other just for the sake of being nice?
“We would be happy to get the fuck out of your way if you would just tell us how.” I was tired of playing nice, and if being polite wasn’t going to help me, I’d do it the old fashioned way.
“I don’t see how that is my problem.” He sniffed and turned his back on us. He pulled a golden key from his pocket and stood on top of a chair to wind a clock with a mahogany finish and brass fixtures.
A growl rumbled low in my chest and my magic prickled along my skin as it bunched up in my stomach. I was this close to making this fox into my new fur coat.
“What if we made a deal?” Alice offered, placing a hand on my arm. She gave me a look that said ‘calm the fuck down’. I glared at her but took a deep breath and let it out. The magic that had balled up inside me unwound and settled back where it belonged.
While Alice was right, I couldn’t just blow our only way out of here to kingdom come, we didn’t have time for any more bullshit. The last thing I wanted to do was make deals with unknown Fae. My previous deals had not gone well. One I was still avoiding, while the other had cost me twenty dollars worth of biscuits. No. A deal was not something I was eager to do.
“A deal?” the ears on his head twitched, giving away the interest he was trying to hide in his voice. He spun around, the key clutched in his claws. Tick jumped off the chair, placing his key back in his pocket as he approached us.
Oh no. This was not going to be good. Better beat him to the punch before I found myself on the wrong end of this arrangement.
“Fine. We can make a deal but within reason.” I reached up to flip my hair over my shoulder but paused when I realized I was still glamoured and didn’t have any hair to flip. Instead, I crossed my arms over my chest and tapped my foot. “What would be an acceptable trade for directions to the palace?”
The fox paced the room as he tapped a claw on his face. His brow furrowed as he thought about it. The sight of a fox pacing would have been funny enough a sight, but the fact that he was in a vest and tie made it hilarious. I must have given away my thoughts because Alice jabbed me in the side with a warning glare.
“I will do you one better.” Tick stopped pacing and came to stand in front of us, keeping his hands held behind his back as he stood before us. “I will personally lead you to the palace if you can answer a riddle.”
“A riddle?” My lips turned down in a frown. I didn’t like the sound of that. “And if we get it wrong?”
The fox shrugged a gesture that should have looked awkward, but he somehow made it look natural. ”Then you have to stay here as my guest for a hundred years. It gets awfully boring here all on my own and you two look like you could be entertaining.” His tongue sneaked out to swipe across his jaw as his eyes leered at us.
A shiver ran down my spine. Too many animal-like creatures had given me that look lately, and it always left me wondering if they were thinking about food or sex. I couldn’t decide which one was worse, bestiality or being eaten alive? The real question was did I really want to know?
“Agreed,” Alice announced before I could say one way or the other.
Grabbing Alice by the elbow, I dragged her a bit away from the fox and snarled, “What the hell are you doing? You can’t just agree to something like that!”
“But a hundred years is nothing.” She cocked her head at me, her glamoured hair falling in a curtain over her shoulder. “Besides, I doubt any riddle he could give would be hard, he’s too cute.” Alice waved a little hand at him with a smile. Tick wasted no time grinning back at her, an eager gleam in his eyes.
“To you maybe. But I’m still human.” I growled and then dragged a hand through my hair, yanking on the short ends, wishing for the glamour to be off and done with. “In a hundred years I will be dead! Then who will save the Underground?”
“Oh.” Her lower lip popped out in a pout as if she hadn’t thought that her actions could affect everything we both held dear. We couldn’t just do what we wanted all willy-nilly. Fuck! I could just strangle her right now.
“While your conversation is quite interesting,” Tick stepped in, drawing our attention back to him. “The young lady has already agreed and thus the deal can begin.” His eyes and the anxious movements of his hands as they fidgeted behind his back said there was more to it than he was letting on.
“All right, let’s get this over with,” I muttered and then pointed a finger at him with a growl. “But I’m not doing a blood oath. I don’t need your help that badly.”
“No, no, no.” he shook his paws in front of him. “I wouldn’t dream of asking such a deal.” Tick placed one pawed hand behind his back and used the other to cover his mouth as he cleared his throat. “Here is your riddle. Now think wisely before you answer because there are no do-overs.”
No do-overs my ass, I wanted to say but kept my mouth shut as he began to speak once more.
“I am never silent but have no mouth. I couldn’t shake your hand though I have two. A body I have but not a mind. I cry every hour, though I feel no pain. What am I?”
I was dumbstruck. That was his riddle? How stupid was he? There were so many around us, why would he use something that was right in front of our faces as the answer? I mean, even an imbecile could figure out the answer was a —
“Baby!”
That was the final straw. I was going to kill her. I didn’t care if she knew about the Bandersnatch; she was too much of an idiot to be helpful right now. It would have been better for everyone if she had just stayed at home.
Anger swirled in my stomach, and I had to force the crackling of my magic along my skin to calm down. Now was not the time to lose control, no matter how much I wanted to unleash all kinds of hell on her.
“The answer is not a baby.” My voice was low and dangerous, portraying exactly how much I was straining to keep my magic in check.
“It’s not?” the innocent bewilderment on her face proved she didn’t know how close she was to being plant food.
“Then what is your answer, dear?” the fox watched me, an impatient bored look on his face as if he didn’t care one way or the other if I answered the riddle right. But I wasn’t fooled, and I wouldn’t be wrong.
“A clock. The answer is a clock.” I shot daggers at Alice, who still looked confused. Why was I surprised? This was a girl who got easily tricked by the shadows.
“Is that your final answer?” Tick’s lips curled up in a mysterious smile like he knew something we didn’t. His tails whipped back and forth behind him with just as much enthusiasm.
“Yes, that’s my answer.” My voice was confident and not at all uncertain. Good for me.
“You are right!” he cried out, startling me at his sudden outburst. He grabbed my hand in his paw, shaking my hand with quick jerky motions. “Well done. In all my years as timekeeper, no one has been able to answer the riddle correctly.”
“Great,” I withdrew my hand from his clutches, trying to discreetly wipe it off on my pants. “Well then, I answered your riddle, let’s get going.”
“Quite right.” He turned away from me and pulled out the key he had used to wind the clock before he
stepped up to a floor length grandfather clock. Sticking the key into a keyhole on the glass door on the front of the clock, he turned the key and the door opened with a click. Holding the door open, he turned back to us, gesturing us in.
“Thanks.” I moved toward the door, waving a hand over my shoulder for Alice to follow. “Let’s get out of here.” Before I could step into the clock, he held his hand up, stopping Alice in place.
“No, no, no.” he waved his paws with a shake of his head. “You can go, she stays.” Tick pointed a claw to me and then to Alice.
“But we got it right!”
“No, you got it right.” He shook his head not even trying to hide the glee on his face. “She didn’t.”
My hands gripped my short locks in frustration. It wasn’t fair. They kept changing the rules! At this rate, we’d never get to Chess before my mother got back from visiting Mab.
Maybe that was my problem. I kept expecting them to play fair. They’re Fae, they didn’t have the same rules as humans and even humans would screw you over if you let them. It was time I started thinking more like a Fae and less like a human.
“Fine. How about double or nothing?”
He tapped his chin with his claw, thinking on it and then waved his arms in front of him with a jerk of his head. “No, I already have her I don’t see anything in it for me.” His eyes lingered on Alice’s glamoured form, a little too long for my liking.
“Fine.” I snapped drawing his attention back to me. “If you get it right we both stay, if you get it wrong we both get to go.”
Tick’s eyes widened and then a broad smile covered his face. “That’s more like it.” He leaned against the clock’s side, crossing one foot over the other. “All right then, what is—”
“No,” I cut him off. “You answer my riddle this time.”
Frowning, Tick stood up straight, no longer seeming so relaxed and certain he would win. Good. I held all the cards this time and I didn’t intend to lose.
“Go on then. What riddle do you have for me? I will have to warn you, though I have never been beaten. So, don’t think you can beat me with something short and simple.”
