by Julie Kagawa
A few paces away, the Winter prince still knelt against the icy ground with his sword driven into the earth. Gazing at the frozen trio, a faint smirk crossed his face, until he spotted me perched atop one’s head. I let out a loud caw, flapping my wings at him, and his eyes narrowed.
Standing, he yanked out his blade, and the statue below me, along with the ice covering everything, shattered. The three Pucks instantly dissolved into nothing with the icy explosion, and I launched myself off the statue before I could be shredded by crystal shrapnel. Wheeling around, I circled the prince’s head once with an indignant caw, before swooping up and changing into my normal self.
Dropping to the ground, I shot a wide grin at the Winter prince, who was breathing slightly harder from the use of so much glamour at once. “You’re looking a bit tired there, ice-boy,” I observed. “Not much of a partygoer, then? Is this too much fun for you to handle?”
“I’ll show you fun,” the Winter prince said, and raised his sword. Smirking, I drew my weapons again as the ice faery stalked forward, and as he did, the ground shivered, a tremor going through the earth below us. For a split second, I could feel the cracks in the earth, the unstable crust of rocks and snow under my boots, like a layer of rotten, too-thin ice over a fathomless lake.
Uh-oh.
With a roar, the ground under our feet gave way. Rocks, dirt, and chunks of ice surrounded me as I plummeted, raising my arms and trying to keep debris from bouncing off my head. For a moment, I thought of turning into a raven and flying back up, but with the vast amount of rocks and ice chunks tumbling around me, I couldn’t get a bearing on anything. Glancing down, I saw a glimmer of black water rushing up at me and braced myself.
Dammit, this is going to be cold.
I hit the water, and unsurprisingly, it was really, really cold. I stifled the urge to gasp as I went under, the frigid water closing over my head. I floundered to the surface and looked for the shore. Rocks, dirt, and ice rained around me, plunking into the water, chunks of ice bobbing to the surface again.
Looking behind me, I gave a start, seeing a massive arm rising out of the water. After a momentary heart attack, I realized both the arm and the hand attached to it were made of stone and jutting out of the water at an odd angle. Gazing around, I saw other structures poking through the surface as well; broken stone walls and the tops of roofs. The massive head of a stone statue peered out of the water at me, only its eyes and the top of its skull visible. Part of its face was gone, but from what I could see, the statue itself had been massive.
Ash’s dark head broke the surface several feet away. Flinging his hair back, the Unseelie prince gazed around as I had, before his glittering silver gaze landed on me.
I shot him a grin, treading water, though the absolute cold made it hard to move my limbs freely. “Oh hey, princeling. What a surprise. Fancy meeting you here.” I forced my teeth not to chatter through sheer application of will. The fey of the Summer Court were not terribly fond of the cold, especially this fey. “You, uh, wouldn’t happen to have a boat in your pocket, would you?”
He stared at me, and then a smirk crossed his face. Raising an arm, he gestured to the lake, and with sharp crinkling sounds, a portion of the water froze, thickened, and became a floating plank of ice bobbing on the surface. The Winter prince heaved himself out of the water onto the plank, gave me a smug smile, and raised his arm. An icy wind blew in out of nowhere, taking the boat, and the Winter prince standing on it, toward the far side of the lake.
Well, I suppose I deserved that.
With nothing else to do, I began swimming.
* * *
I followed the Ice Prince, stroking through the ridiculously cold water until I finally reached the shore, a stretch of silver-gray sand surrounded by a sheer wall of rock stretching up into the darkness. Shivering, I hauled myself out of the water and staggered onto dry land, gazing around to get my bearings. The cavern that we had plummeted into was very large and mostly covered in water, though there were a few dry patches along the edges of the lake. Luminescent blue-and-white toadstools grew along the walls and on pieces of driftwood poking out of the sand, casting the entire chamber in an eerie glow.
Gazing up, I searched for the hole that we had fallen through, but saw only a ceiling of rock, with just a few tiny slivers of light peeking through the stone. Apparently, we wouldn’t be getting out the way we came in.
I looked around and saw the Winter prince a few yards up the beach, taking off his cloak and draping it over a twisted branch poking out of the sand. Wrinkling my nose, I started toward him, pausing to gather twigs and pieces of driftwood that were scattered about the beach.
He gave me a cool stare as I joined him, dumping the armful of wood in the sand between us. “What are you doing, Goodfellow?” he asked as I knelt and began scooping out a pit. “Do you wish to fight right here? I am ready to continue.”
“Well, you’re just going to have to discover your patience, princeling,” I muttered, not looking up as I arranged the twigs and sticks into a pyramid. “I know you Winter fey don’t feel it, but right now I am cold, I am wet, and I am generally uncomfortable. Also, I make it a habit not to fight duels in soaked undergarments. I hate it when I start to chafe.” Holding a hand over the wood, I sent out a pulse of glamour, and a tiny flame flickered to life, slowly creeping up the twigs. “If you want to be helpful, prince, you could try finding us a way out of here. Otherwise, you’re just going to have to wait until I’m dry to start any more duels.”
He gave me a flat stare, then turned away, gazing out over the water. His stare lingered on a domed roof a few yards away, covered in glowing fungi that gave off a soft green light. “I don’t recognize this place,” he muttered. “I wasn’t aware that there was once a city down here. I wonder what happened.”
I peered up at him, frowning. “What? You’ve never heard of the Lost City of Frozen Skull Forest? What kind of Unseelie are you, prince?”
“The Lost City of Frozen Skull Forest vanished centuries ago,” the Winter prince said, a bit defensively. “No one knows what happened to it. There are no stories that claim it sank into the earth. This might not be the same place.”
“Frozen Skull Forest is right above us, ice-boy,” I pointed out. “I’d say the mystery is solved, unless you have evidence that the lost city somehow grew wings and flew away.”
He glared at me but didn’t say anything to dispute my claim.
I grinned and returned to poking the fire. “So, who lived here, anyway?” I asked, adding a few driftwood sticks to the growing flame. The dry branches ignited almost immediately, but when the flames reached the lichen growing along the wood, they sputtered and flickered blue and green for a moment. “I’ve never heard of a city in Winter territory that wasn’t Tir Na Nog, have you, princeling?”
Ash shook his head. “No. But there were fey who existed in the Nevernever before us,” he said thoughtfully. “Before the courts, at least according to legends. Though almost nothing is known of them.”
“Well, maybe we should remedy that.”
“What are you talking about?”
I waved a hand at the massive stone arm coming out of the water. “There is a lost city all around us, prince! One that hasn’t been seen since before the formation of the courts. Aren’t you curious? I think we should do a little exploration. Who knows what treasures are buried down here?”
For a moment, I could see the spark of intrigue in his eyes. He was curious, just as curious as me. That thirst for excitement, to explore and uncover new things, to push himself and see what was really out there, was even stronger than his hatred for all Summer fey. I sensed a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, even as his eyes clouded over and he turned a sneer in my direction.
“I have a better idea, Goodfellow. Why don’t I kill you right here, and then take all the treasure back to the Winter Court, where it belongs?”
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“Well, that’s just impractical, ice-boy. How are you going to carry it all yourself?”
A splash echoed somewhere out in the water.
We both stopped talking. When I glanced back toward the lake, a chill that had nothing to do with temperature skittered up my spine.
A pale, unearthly form hauled itself out of the black waters a few yards away and rose, staring at us with empty, glowing green eyes. It might have been a dwarf once; it had a tangled beard that was full of algae, and it was shorter than either of us by several feet. Much like the rock dwarves of the mountains or even the deep dwarves that lived far below the earth and hated sunlight. But there was one massive difference between them and the figure staring at us now.
It had no skin. Or organs, or blood. A skeleton stared at us from the edge of the black waters, clad in a dented breastplate with a rusty helm perched on its skull. A decaying battle-ax, clutched in one bony hand, scraped over the pebbles as the creature took a few shambling steps forward, its eyes burning with malevolent green fire.
Ash drew his sword with a flash of blue light, and I leaped to my feet, pulling my daggers. “There’s your answer, Goodfellow,” the Ice Prince snapped as the skeleton let out a chattering noise that raised the hair on the back of my neck. “If you want to stay and explore the city, you’re welcome to it. I don’t think you’re going to get very far.”
Behind the shambling creature, the waters rippled and more skeletons began lurching out of the blackness. “Oh look, ice-boy,” I said as we retreated up the beach, putting our backs to the cliff wall. “The whole city has come out to greet us. Don’t you feel important?”
He shot me a sideways glare and raised his weapon. “If we get out of this,” he growled as the first wave of skeletons reached us, “I’m going to kill you.”
“Pfft, bet you’ll never say that again, ice-boy.”
* * *
The undead hordes were endless. I lost track of how long we stood there, side by side, fighting the skeletons that crawled out of the lake. There were hundreds of them, maybe more, and they came at us with single-minded purpose, unflinching and unswayable. They swung at us with rusty swords and axes, poked at us with broken spears, or sometimes just grabbed at us with clawed, bony hands. That they could shamble at us from only one direction made it possible to stand our ground, but there were still so many of them. If it wasn’t for the solid rock wall at our back, we would’ve been swarmed in seconds. But even with our combined skills and magic, there was no end to the horde rising from the lake.
“I think a tactical retreat is in order, ice-boy!” I panted, blocking the broken haft of a spear thrust at my face. The skeleton wielding it rattled its skull at me, and I kicked it in its bony chest, shattering the rib cage and flinging it back. “Personally, I’d rather not stand here and fight the entire city, if it’s all the same to you.”
Ash swatted aside a double-bladed battle-ax, then returned with a quick swipe across the skeleton’s neck, cutting the skull from its body. “There is no visible way out, Goodfellow,” he snapped, slicing another undead in two with the snapping of bones. “Where do you think we can go?”
“Well, I would suggest up.” Something flew by my face, hitting the rocks with a clink and leaving a stinging gash across my cheek. “Ow, dammit, now they’re shooting arrows. We should leave now, ice-boy! Just keep them off me for two seconds and I’ll find us a way out of here.”
Ash snarled. Taking a step back, he gestured sharply and with a flare of glamour, a wall of ice rose from the ground between us and the undead. Immediately, the skeletons on the other side began clawing and hacking at the frozen barrier.
Ash, standing with his arm raised and his jaw set with concentration, shot me a split-second glare. “I can’t keep this up for long, Goodfellow,” he warned.
“And yet, you still have the strength for talking.” Turning to the cliff wall, I put a hand against the cold, damp rock and closed my eyes, calling up my glamour and searching for what I needed. Even in the cold, hostile lands of Winter, I could still find aid with my Summer magic.
Hello, trees, roots, plants. Would you mind doing us a favor?
Buried deep in the earth, the roots of the forest above responded sluggishly, frozen in eternal hibernation. I poured my glamour into the land, trying to thaw it with the warmth, thinking of sunlight and crackling fire and hot tea, everything not cold.
“Puck!” Ash’s voice rang out behind me, though it seemed to come from a great distance away. “They’re breaking through!”
Sorry, trees, I can’t be polite anymore. I need you to respond now.
I pulled, and with rumbles and the cracking of stone, roots and vines broke through the cliff wall. They slithered and curled into view, forming handholds and a ladder of sorts all the way up the rock face.
“Let’s go, prince,” I called, but as the rumbles of shifting rock faded away, a new tremor shook the ground beneath us.
The water parted, and a massive head rose from the dark surface, looming high in the air. An enormous reptilian skull with horns and spikes and teeth the size of your boots, but as skinless and skeletal as the undead around us. Rearing up, the undead dragon opened its jaws and roared, green flames blazing to life in its eye sockets, before turning a terrifying gaze on us.
“Okay, it is really time to go, prince!”
Ash didn’t argue. He turned, flinging himself at the cliff face, just as the wall behind him shattered. Undead poured in, and we fled up the roots, scrambling for handholds and branches. The skeleton army followed, swarming the rock wall like ants, using their own bodies and numbers to start the climb. The horrible undead dragon heaved itself onto the beach, water and algae dripping from stark white bones, and began a slow, ponderous walk toward the cliff face.
“Keep going, ice-boy!”
We kept climbing, grabbing for whatever exposed roots and vines we could, ascending higher and higher until, at last, the stone-and-ice ceiling loomed above us.
“Goodfellow.” Ash glared down at me, and several bits of dirt showered me in the face. “There is still no way out. We’re still trapped down here.”
“What did I say about discovering your patience, princeling?” I sent one final pulse of glamour into the air, and overhead, the rocks began to shudder and crack. Gnarled roots broke through the ceiling of ice and stone, coiling about like snakes, and shafts of sunlight pierced the clinging darkness.
A bony hand clamped onto my heel. I yelped and kicked the skeleton clinging to me in the face, sending it clattering back down the cliff. But there were more behind it, a swarm of pale ants moving toward us up the rock face. “Move, prince!” I snarled, and the Winter faery grabbed onto the roots above him, pulling himself up through the hole. I followed on his boot heels, wriggling through dirt and stone, until my head broke the surface and a blast of fresh, cold air hit me in the face.
On our knees, we both turned and peered down into the hole, but quickly jerked back as a bony arm reached up and latched on to the edge.
“Seal it, Goodfellow!” Ash’s voice rang in my ears, sharp with authority.
“I can’t do that, prince!” I scowled at him. “I can talk to plants and cajole trees into doing a little jig. I can’t move solid rock.”
“Then I’ll take care of it. Keep them from reaching the hole.”
As one, we knelt and pressed our hands to the icy ground, ripples of both Summer and Winter glamour going through the earth beneath us. On the cliff wall, the horde of undead had nearly reached the ceiling when a shudder went through the rock, and all the vines, roots, and branches that had poked through the stone suddenly began flailing and whipping about like maddened tentacles. They flung the skeletons away, smashing them from the cliff wall, and the bony attackers went clattering to the ground in waves. At the same time, a layer of ice spread from the edges of the hole, crawling over the ceiling and down
the cliff face, turning everything slick and treacherous. Even more skeletons lost their grip on the ice and fell, bouncing off stone and their fellow undead, before smashing to pieces at the bottom.
I looked down, and a chill went through me as I stared into the glowing eyes of the undead dragon, peering up at us from the ground. As skeletons rained around it, shattering into bone shards, it opened its jaws, and a baleful green glow ignited between its fangs.
“Uh, prince?” I glanced at the Unseelie; he still knelt in the snow, eyes closed in concentration as he worked his Winter magic. “Not to rush you, but if you’re going to seal this thing, now would be a good time.”
The dead dragon roared, and a column of green fire exploded from its jaws, racing up the cliff face. Where it touched the plants, instead of bursting into flame, the vines, roots, and branches instantly withered and died, blackening into shriveled husks. As the fire came at us, I tensed, ready to leap back and drag the Winter prince with me if I had to. True, he was the enemy, and we still had a duel on the horizon, but I would much rather face Ash the Unseelie prince, not Ash the undead monstrosity.
But just before the column of flame reached us, just before I was ready to tackle the Winter prince, there was a final flare of glamour, and a thick layer of ice appeared, plugging the hole and freezing the snow we were kneeling in. There was a flash as the dragon’s baleful green flames hit the ice in a flare of dark glamour, causing the earth beneath us to tremble. Then there was silence, and an eerie calm descended on the woods, as suddenly as if someone had dropped a blanket over it.
Ash and I both fell backward, landing on our backs in the snow, panting in relief and from the intense amount of glamour we’d spent. Far below us, through the snow and rock and layers of ice, I thought I could just make out a roar of frustration, and I hoped the bony reptile and all his little friends would return to their nice black lake and go back to sleep. They wouldn’t be disturbed by me, that was for certain.
