“What happens if a faery does not fit into any particular court?” Other Nyx wondered.

  “There are the wyld fey,” I answered. “The ones who live in the wyldwood, or in the Deep Wyld across the River of Dreams. They’re not part of any of the courts.”

  “But they still must obey the kings and queens of Faery,” Gilleas reasoned.

  “To an extent.” I shot a look at Grimalkin, who lay on a nearby rock with his feet tucked under him. His eyes were half-closed, and he didn’t look remotely interested in the conversation. “It’s complicated.”

  “Apparently.” Gilleas tapped his claws against his bony chin. “And what happens to a faery who does not wish to be part of a court,” he asked, “or who disobeys the king and queens?”

  “They’re punished,” Ash answered. “It depends on the act, and what the ruler is feeling at the time, but exile or banishment from the Nevernever is the most common sentence.”

  “Correction, ice-boy,” said Puck, holding up a finger. “They’re punished only if they get caught. The rulers can’t be everywhere at once, and what they don’t know can’t get you exiled. Thank goodness, otherwise I’d never be allowed back in.”

  “I see.” Gilleas’s voice gave no hint as to what he thought about all this, but I felt those hollow eyes fix on me again. “And have you ever banished anyone from the Nevernever, Iron Queen?” he asked.

  My stomach clenched. On the other side of the fire, Keirran had been sitting quietly, one knee drawn to his chest, staring into the flames. He didn’t look up or react as Gilleas asked his question, but a cold fist grabbed my insides and twisted them around until I thought I might be sick.

  “Yes,” I replied, unable to look at Keirran as I did. “I have.”

  Gilleas did not seem to sense the rising tension around the fire. “And what were their crimes?” he went on.

  “Starting a war in the Nevernever.” Keirran’s voice was flat. He didn’t look up as he spoke, continuing to gaze into the fire. “Siding with a usurper and attempting to bring her to power again. Killing a member of the royal family. Trying to permanently destroy the Veil, so that all humans could see the fey.”

  Silence fell, as Gilleas and the other Evenfey finally realized whom we were speaking of. Gilleas gazed at Keirran for a long moment, then turned and bowed his head to me. “My apologies,” he offered. “I did not realize... I did not mean to open old wounds.”

  I wanted to tell him it was all right, that he couldn’t have known the details of the last war, but I couldn’t speak. Instead, I rose and walked around the fire until I reached the edge of the cliff, where the stones dropped away into an endless expanse of mist. Overhead, the full moon peeked through a few wispy clouds, lighting the sea below and turning it silver.

  I heard the soft crunch of boots behind me, felt his presence step up to join mine. “I’m tired of this, Ash,” I whispered, gazing down into the churning sea of gray. “I want him to come home.”

  “I know.” Ash slipped his arms around my waist. “Me too.”

  “Eternal banishment is pointless,” I went on, leaning into him. “It’s just a slow death sentence. It’s a way for the rulers of Faery to not deal with a problem. Banish the faery responsible and forget they exist. But they do exist. And for countless fey, once they’ve been banished, that’s it. There’s no way for them to correct what they’ve done, no hope to ever return to the Nevernever. Unless they’re someone like Puck, who is too useful to banish forever. Or unless the rulers need them to save the courts. Again.

  “Keirran will never return to Faery,” I said, feeling a hollow despair as I spoke those words out loud. “He’ll never get to come home. Unless there is some crisis that needs him specifically. He and the Forgotten will stay in the Between, ignored by everyone. Why?” I clenched a fist on Ash’s forearm. “Because Faery doesn’t like change. Because the rulers are afraid of anything different, anything that doesn’t fit into their traditional version of normal. The Iron fey, the Forgotten, and now the Evenfey...but we are all fey. I just wish they could see it.”

  “Maybe you can show them,” said a soft voice. Keirran’s, as he stepped up to join us on the ledge. The wind gusting from below tossed his silver hair and ruffled his clothes, as he gazed down at the valley with somber eyes. “The rulers won’t listen to me,” he said calmly, “but if we somehow save this world, the Evenfey will need someone to speak for them when we go back to the Nevernever.” He exhaled, leaning against the rock wall and putting his head back, gazing at the sky. “I just wish I could’ve been a better voice for the Forgotten and the Exiles,” he murmured. “If I had, maybe the war with the Lady never would’ve happened.”

  My throat tightened. “Keirran...”

  He glanced at us with a faint smile. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I have my own kingdom to take care of now. The Forgotten are content in the Between—or they will be, if things ever go back to normal—and I take full responsibility for what I’ve done.” He gave his head a small shake, still holding my gaze. “I’ve never blamed you for having to exile me—I know that’s how Faery works. And if we can save Evenfall, I can return to my kingdom knowing that I did something worthy.”

  I’d started to answer when Ash suddenly straightened behind me. Puzzled, I turned to gaze over the valley again as Keirran did the same, and a chill crept down my spine.

  In the far distance, over the silver ocean of mist on the horizon, I could just make out a pair of towers. Tall and pointed, they rose out of the fog, gleaming under the light of the moon, where I was certain nothing had been a few seconds ago.

  “Mistveil,” Nyx breathed behind us. I hadn’t heard her get up and leave the circle, but she walked past me to the edge of the cliff, staring out at the horizon. “The Nightmare King’s castle. I remember now. We...” She paused, glancing back at the others, who had risen to their feet as well. “We were the king’s protectors,” she said. “We kept the castle safe from any that would threaten it and the fey who lived there. We weren’t assassins. We were...defenders.”

  “Protectors of the castle,” Other Nyx said, as if she too, had just remembered. “The Crescent Order...we were his knights, who kept watch on everything within the castle and the lands around it.” A frown creased her forehead. “How could I have forgotten?”

  “Perhaps the king did not want you to remember,” Gilleas suggested. “Perhaps he did not want you to come looking for him. Because if you were to find him, you might realize the truth of this world.”

  Puck walked up beside our Nyx, gazing out at the distant keep. “Well, at least it’s closer than I thought it would be,” he said. “I thought we’d have to wander aimlessly for at least a day or two.” He stared at the castle a moment longer, then wrinkled his nose. “I don’t suppose it’s going to cooperate and stay in the same spot until we get there, is it?”

  Nyx gave a tiny smile. “As I recall, it did like to disappear the second you took your eyes off it,” she said. “But the Order could always find their way to the castle. Maybe that still holds true.”

  “Let us hope so,” Grimalkin said. “I do hate walking in circles.”

  * * *

  The forest rose around us, thick and uninviting. It was impossible to see more than a few paces away, trees and bushes swallowed by opaque, drifting fog. Strangely, it wasn’t as dark down here in the valley, a flat gray luminance shining through the mist, turning things surreal.

  “Okay, we’re here.” Puck crossed his arms and looked at our Nyx. “So, where’s this secret, hidden path into the castle that surely avoids all the Nightmares and super nasty beasties that are prowling through the forest?”

  “I didn’t say it was a path,” Nyx replied. “I just said the Order could always find their way.”

  “Don’t worry, Neverfey,” Varyn chimed in, a faint smirk on his face. “The Order will keep you safe from the scary Nightmares.”

  “Me? Worried?” Puck scoffed. “That’s laughable. You have Robin Goodfellow with you, not to mention the Iron Queen and the son of Mab. I know you guys have no idea who they are, but really, we should be saying something like that to you.”

  Gilleas walked forward, gazing around at the looming trees and fog. “I remember this,” the Evenfaery murmured. “The last time I went looking for the king. I remember this forest. We are on the outer edges now, but farther in, there will be many Nightmares. I suggest we proceed with caution. And perhaps...” His deer skull turned in Puck’s direction. “A bit of discretion.”

  “You are wasting your breath, I am afraid.” Grimalkin sauntered past with his tail in the air. “Asking Goodfellow to be silent is like telling a dragon not to hoard gold, or a fish not to swim. It is simply not in his nature.”

  “Yeah, like a cat not disappearing whenever something scary pops in,” Puck added.

  Grimalkin didn’t even turn around. “Do not be ridiculous, Goodfellow. That is simply common sense.”

  We ventured into the forest, which grew more tangled and eerie the farther we traveled. Tendrils of mist hung in the branches, reaching out to us like they were alive. Our footfalls made little eddies that swirled through the thick carpet at our feet before writhing away on the air. Sound was muffled, and sight was nearly nonexistent. The shapes in the fog played tricks with my mind; it was hard to tell if what I was seeing was the base of a trunk or the legs of some monstrous creature standing in the trees.

  “Huh. You know, this place isn’t so bad,” Puck commented, after we had been walking for several minutes without running into anything that wanted to kill us. Thankfully, he kept his voice relatively low. “Misty, quiet, creepy. A lot of places in the Nevernever are like this. Oh hey, remember the forest where that coven of witches lived, ice-boy?”

  Grimalkin sighed from where he appeared atop a fallen branch. “And my point stands. However, now that we are in the forest proper, I believe I know the way to the castle.”

  “Oh, of course you do, cat. And you were going to tell us...when?”

  “Wandering about aimlessly was never the answer, Goodfellow,” Grimalkin said, as if it was obvious. “Nor does the castle move around, as is the common thought. No, when you leave the forest, you leave your memories of how to reach the castle behind in the mist. That is why no one can remember how to get there once they depart the valley. The mist takes those memories and the forest holds them here, until the time when you return.”

  “Oh,” Puck commented. “Well, that’s pretty devious. Effective, I suppose. So, how do we reach the castle? Because, unlike some of you, I have no memories of this place.”

  Gilleas folded long fingers beneath his chin, thinking. “When I first came through,” he mused, “I didn’t use the front gates. They were guarded by Nightmares that would tear me apart as soon as they spotted me. But I remembered there were other ways into the castle.”

  “The passage,” Other Nyx said suddenly. “I remember...a passageway underground. It led past the gates into the courtyard. The Order would use it when we wanted to get in and out of the castle unseen.”

  “In the ruins by the great tree,” Nyx added. “But...wasn’t that passage guarded by something?”

  “It was,” Varyn said. “But the Forest Sentry never bothered the Order. It knew us. And it’s a better plan than trying to fight our way through the Nightmares at the gates.”

  “I think I might’ve hit my head or something,” Puck said, “because I like that plan. That plan makes a lot of sense to me.”

  I looked at Gilleas and the three Evenfey. “Do you remember where this secret passage is?”

  “I believe I do,” our Nyx replied.

  * * *

  We continued through the forest. Gradually, the mist began to disperse, though it never went away completely. Stone ruins began appearing in the fog; towers that had fallen, crumbled stone archways, and half-erect walls soon littered the landscape. Trees had grown over many of the structures, moss and roots crawling over the stones, branches pushing out through roofs and windows. But even more eerie than the ruins and the fog were the dozens of children’s toys lying scattered through the dirt. Dolls, wooden swords, jump ropes, toy trains, balls, and numerous stuffed creatures lay abandoned and forgotten by their owners.

  “I remember these ruins,” our Nyx said. Even her soft voice echoed in the absolute stillness of the forest. “Fey lived here, once, even before my time.” She bent and picked up a cloth figure with yarn for hair and button eyes.

  Puck let a yelp. “Nyx, what are you doing? Everyone knows you don’t touch the creepy little dolls in the haunted forest. That’s just begging them to come to life and start popping up everywhere.”

  “It’s fine, Puck.” Nyx gently placed the toy against a broken wall. “As long as you respect the forest, you’ll be safe from the guardians within its boundaries. Or, that was the case when I lived at the castle. I’m not sure how much has changed.”

  “Right, so that means we shouldn’t touch creepy dolls in a nightmare forest, just to be safe.”

  * * *

  Ducking beneath an archway, we came to a small grove that the fog didn’t seem to penetrate. An enormous tree stood in the center, twisted as if in agony, its trunk and branches bone white and barren of leaves. The ground beneath it was thick and mossy, a verdant carpet that stretched across the ground, covering ruins and tree trunks and several huge boulders scattered throughout the grove. Fat white toadstools grew everywhere, and the bones of several animals lay in bleached, broken piles in the moss.

  Beneath the tree, being actively strangled in vines and the twisted, snakelike roots rising from the ground, an archway with a flight of stone steps led down into the unknown.

  “Well, there’s the entrance to the passageway,” Gilleas said, gazing warily around the grove. “And it doesn’t seem to be guarded.”

  Puck gave a mock gasp. “You mean we might actually get to do something easy?” he asked in fake disbelief. “Something that’s not going to cause us intense bodily harm? Wow, this is a first. We might actually get to the castle without having to fight our way—ow!”

  Nyx, standing quietly beside Puck, drew back an arm and smacked the back of his head. “If you finish that statement, I am going to stab you,” she said calmly.

  Ash’s quiet laughter surprised us all. “Never let her go, Goodfellow,” he chuckled. “For all our sakes.”

  “If the gate to the underground is clear,” Gilleas said, coming forward, “we should proceed. There is no point standing around waiting for any number of forest guardians to arise.” Looking around the deceptively peaceful grove, he shook his head. “Additionally, I wonder if some of our fights could have been avoided, had we simply been quieter.”

  “Do not waste your time wondering about that,” said Grimalkin, appearing on a nearby log. “You will drive yourself to madness, knowing a thing can be accomplished but will simply never come to pass.”

  Puck blinked. “You can stop looking at me, Furball. We all know who you’re talking about.”

  “And yet it never seems to change anything.” Grimalkin sniffed and looked across the grove. “Well, shall we go, then?” He sighed. “The castle is not far now. Let us see how many fights we can avoid before we manage to find the Nightmare King.”

  24

  THE HALL OF HEROES

  The stone doors groaned horribly when we pushed against them, but they gradually swung back to reveal several wide, mossy steps down into the darkness. Stone pillars formed deteriorating archways every few feet, and the narrow recesses in the walls held aging skeletons, rags, and the occasional glint of ancient coins.

  “Oh, that’s great,” Puck exclaimed as we came down the steps, pausing at the bottom. “A dusty crypt is totally where I wanted to be today.” Several shiny beetles scuttled across the floor at the sound of his voice, and he winced. “Complete with bugs and spiders, my favorite.”

  Gilleas rubbed the top of his head and looked at Grimalkin. “I see what you mean,” he said flatly.

  Grimalkin sniffed. “It is wearying, to always be right.”

  “Okay, professors Gloom and Doom, you don’t have to rub it in so hard.” Puck crossed his arms, then looked at our Nyx. “What am I missing? What is this place?”

  “These are the Catacombs of Heroes and Kings,” Nyx explained, gazing down the stone passageways. “The tunnels run under the whole castle. The dead sleep here, but many are restless. Loud noises have been known to wake them up.”

  “Oh,” Puck said in a much quieter voice, and frowned at Grimalkin. “You know, some of these facts could have been related a little earlier, if someone didn’t feel the need to be an ass just to prove a point.”

  Grimalkin yawned. “It would have been proven regardless.”

  “Well.” Gilleas gazed around the passageway and sighed. “I remember this passage,” he murmured. “The memories are coming back now. I believe this is the route I took the first time I tried to find the king.”

  “Do you remember enough to get us to the throne room?” Ash wondered.

  “Yes.” Gilleas scanned the tunnel once more and nodded. “Yes, I remember the way. Follow me, but do know...” He raised a slender finger. “Not only are the dead restless, but the crypt keepers also prowl these halls. They do not take kindly to the living roaming the spaces of the dead.”