Ironside (16 page)

“But how did you choose her from among my other maidens?”

He took Kaye’s hand and turned it over so that the Queen could see the reddened half-moons where Kaye’s nails had dug into her flesh. “It was that, really. I don’t know anyone else with that particular nervous habit.”

Kaye looked up at him and saw only a strange human face reflected in his eyes.

She snatched her hand away, rubbing it against her skirt as if she could rub off his touch. “You’re not supposed to see me until I can solve your stupid riddle.”

“Yes, I deserve whatever scorn you heap on me,” he said, voice soft. “But what are you doing here? It’s not safe.”

His lips were still kiss-reddened and it was hard not to concentrate on them. “This is where I belong, isn’t it? This is where I came from. The other Kaye is home now, like she always should have been. With her mother, Ellen.”

He looked momentarily furious. “What did Silarial make you promise for that?”

“It must suck to love her, since you don’t trust her at all,” Kaye said, tasting bile on her tongue.

There was a silence, in which he looked at her with a kind of terrible desperation, as though he wanted very much to speak, but could not find the words.

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks of me or of you,” Silarial said, coming close to where Kaye stood. Her words were soft, spoken with great care. “Use his name. End the war.”

Kaye smiled. “I could, you know. I really, really could.”

He looked very grave, but his voice was as soft as the Bright Queen’s. “Will you rule over me, Kaye? Shall I bow to a new mistress and fear the lash of her tongue?”

Kaye said nothing. Her anger was a live thing inside of her, twisting in her gut. She wanted to hurt him, to humiliate him, to pay him back for everything she felt.

“What if I promise that I won’t use the name, won’t even repeat it?” Silarial said. “He would be yours alone to command. Your toy. I would just advise you how to use him.”

Kaye still said nothing. She was afraid of what would come out if she opened her mouth.

Roiben paled. “Kaye, I…” He closed his eyes.
“Don’t,”
he said, but she could hear despair in his voice. It made her even angrier. It made her want to live down to his expectations.

Silarial spoke so close to Kaye’s ear that it made her shiver. “You must command him, you know. If not, I would threaten your mother, that human boy of yours, your changeling sister. You would be persuaded. Don’t feel badly about giving in now.”

“Say you won’t repeat it,” Kaye said. “Not just ‘if I promise,’ the real oath.”

Silarial’s voice was still a whisper. “I will not speak Roiben’s true name. I will not bid him with it, nor will I repeat it to any other.”

“Rath Roiben,” Kaye said. He flinched and his hand went to the hilt at his belt, but it stayed there. His eyes remained shut.
Rye.
The word was poised on her lips.
Rath Roiben Rye.

“Riven,” Kaye finished. “Rath Roiben Riven, do as I command.”

He looked up at her, quickly, eyes widening with hope.

She could feel her smile grow cruel. He’d better do what she said, right then. If he didn’t, Silarial would know that Kaye had spoken the wrong name.

“Lick the Queen of the Seelie Court’s hand, Rath Roiben Riven,” she said. “Lick it like the dog you are.”

He went down on one knee. He almost rose before he remembered himself and drew his tongue over Silarial’s palm. Shame colored his face.

She laughed and wiped her hand against her gown. “Lovely. Now what else shall we make him do?”

Roiben looked up at Kaye.

She smirked.

“I deserve this,” he whispered. “But, Kaye, I—”

“Tell him to be silent,” said Silarial.

“Silence,” Kaye said. She felt giddy with hate.

Roiben lowered his eyes and went quiet.

“Command him to pledge his loyalty to me, to be forever a servant of the Seelie Court.”

Kaye sucked in her breath. That she would not do.

Roiben’s face was grim.

Kaye shook her head, but her fury was replaced with fear. “I’m not done with him yet.”

The Bright Queen frowned.

“Rath Roiben Riven,” Kaye said, trying to think of some command she could give to stall for time. Trying to think of a way to twist Silarial’s words or make some objection that the Bright Queen might believe. “I want you to—”

A scream tore through the air. Silarial took a few steps from them, distracted by the sound.

“Kaye—,” Roiben said.

A group of faeries pushed their way under the canopy, Ethine among them. “My Lady,” a boy said, then stopped as if stunned at the sight of the Lord of the Night Court on his knees. “There has been a death. Here.”

“What?” The Queen glanced toward Roiben.

“The human—,” one of them began.

“Corny!” Kaye yelled, pushing through the curtain of willow branches, forgetting Silarial, the commands, anything but Corny. She raced in the direction that others were going, ran toward where a crowd gathered and Talathain pointed a weird crossbow. At Cornelius.

The ground where he sat had withered in two circles around his hands, tiny violets turning brown and dry, toadstools rotting, the soil itself paling beneath his fingers. Beside Corny the body of Adair rested, a knife still in his hand, his neck and part of his face shriveled and dark. His dead eyes stared into the sunless sky.

Kaye stopped abruptly, so relieved that Corny was alive that she almost collapsed.

Luis stood nearby, his face pale. Her purple coat hung from his shoulders. “Kaye,” he said.

“What happened?” she asked. Kneeling by the body, Kaye slipped Adair’s knife up her sleeve, the hilt hidden by the loose cradle of her hand.

“Neil killed him,” Luis said finally, his voice low. “The Seelie fey don’t like to see death—especially not here, in their court. It offends them, makes them remember that even they will eventually—”

Corny laughed suddenly. “I bet he didn’t see that coming. Not from me.”

“We have to get out of here,” Kaye said. “Corny! Get up!”

Corny looked up at her. He sounded strange, distant. “I don’t think they’re going to let me leave.”

Kaye glanced at the gathering crowd of fey. Silarial stood by Talathain. Ethine watched as Roiben spoke with Ellebere and Ruddles. Some of the folk pointed at the body in disbelief, others ripped at their garments and wailed.

“You promised Corny would be safe,” Kaye told the Queen. She was stalling for time.

“He
is
safe,” said Silarial. “While one of my people lies dead.”

“We’re going.” Kaye walked away from Corny. Her hands were trembling and she could feel the sharp edge of the knife against her skin. Just a few more steps.

“Let them go,” Roiben said to Silarial.

Talathain turned his crossbow toward Roiben. “Do not presume to command her.”

Roiben laughed and drew out his sword, slowly, as if daring Talathain to fire. His eyes were full of rage, but he seemed relieved, as though the clarity of his hate pushed back his shame. “Come,” he said. “Let us make another corpse between us two.”

Talathain dropped the crossbow and reached for his own blade. “Long have I waited for this moment.”

They circled each other as the folk moved back, giving them room.

“Let me fight him,” said Dulcamara, dressed all in red, her hair in looping ropes stitched together with black thread.

Roiben smiled and shook his head. Turning toward Kaye, he mouthed, “Go,” then swung at Talathain.

“Stop them,” Silarial said to Kaye. “Order him to stop.”

Advancing and retreating, they seemed partners in a swift and deadly dance. Their swords crashed together.

Ethine took a step toward her brother and then halted. She turned pleading eyes to Kaye.

“Roiben,” Kaye yelled. “Stop.”

He went still as stone. Talathain lowered his weapon with what appeared to be regret.

Silarial walked up to Roiben. She ran her hand over his cheek and then looked back at Kaye. “If you want to leave here with your friends,” Silarial said, “you know what you must order him to do.”

Kaye nodded her head, walking toward them, her heart beating so hard that it felt like a weight inside her. She stopped behind Ethine. There had to be a way to get Luis and Corny and herself free before Silarial figured out that Kaye hadn’t used Roiben’s true name. She needed something she could bargain with, something she would be willing to trade.

Kaye put Adair’s knife to Ethine’s neck.

She heard her name echo in half a dozen shocked voices.

“Corny! Get up! Luis, help him!” She swallowed hard. “We’re leaving right now.”

Silarial was no longer smiling. She looked stunned, her lips white. “There are things I could—”

“No!” Kaye shouted. “If you touch my mother, I’ll cut Ethine. If you touch Luis’s brother, I’ll cut Ethine. I am going to walk out of here with Luis and Corny, and if you don’t want her hurt, you and all of yours are just going to let me.”

“My Lady,” Ethine gasped.

Talathain pointed his sword in Kaye’s direction, twisting it like a promise.

“Let the pixie and the humans through,” Silarial said. “Although I think she will regret it.”

With a wave of Silarial’s hand, the glamour was gone. Kaye found herself drinking the air deeply, suddenly tasting the green of the plants and smelling the rich dark earth and the worms crawling through it. She had forgotten the dizzying sensations of being a faery and the terrible weight of such a powerful glamour; it had been like filling her ears with cotton. She nearly stumbled, but she pushed her nails into her hand and stayed still.

“Not with my sister,” Roiben said. “Not my sister, Kaye. I won’t let you.”

“Rath Roiben Riv—,” Kaye started.

“That’s not my name,” he said, and there were gasps from the other fey.

Kaye looked him in the eye and put every bit of fury into her voice. “You can’t stop me.” She pushed Ethine toward Luis and Cornelius. “Try, and I
will
command you.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. His eyes were as cold as lead.

They marched past, making their way to the edge of the island. As they climbed into the ice boat they had beached among the reeds, Ethine made a soft sound that was not quite a sob.

They paddled to the far, snow-covered shore, past a young man standing as stiffly as a Christmas nutcracker, his gold and red scarf tucked into a toggle coat. His lips and cheeks were blushed with blue, and frost covered his chin like stubble. His pale, sunken eyes still stared at the waves. Even in death, he waited to serve the Seelie Queen.

Kaye could never run far enough or fast enough to escape them all.

The car was still parked in the ditch by the side of the highway, the windows on the passenger side coated with spattered slush that had frozen to ice. The door made a cracking sound when Luis opened it.

“Get in,” Kaye told Ethine. Kaye’s heart beat like a rattle and her face was as cold as her fingers; all the heat in her body had been eaten up by panic.

Ethine looked at the car dubiously. “The iron,” she said.

“Why aren’t they following us?” Luis asked, looking back over his shoulder.

“They are,” said a voice.

Kaye shrieked, raising the blade automatically.

Sorrowsap stepped out onto the road, black clothes loose and boots crunching on the gravel as he strode toward them. “My Lord Roiben was displeased with me for letting you go across the water.” There was a threat in his voice. “He will be even more displeased if you do not depart immediately. Go. I will hold whatever comes. When you cross the border into the Unseelie Court, you will be safe.”

“You must see that it would be madness to keep me against my will,” Ethine said, touching Kaye’s arm. “You are away from the court. Allow me to return and I will speak on your behalf. I will swear to it.”

Luis shook his head. “What is going to keep them from hurting my brother if we let you go? I’m sorry. We can’t. We all have people we love that we have to protect.”

“Do not let them take me,” Ethine said, throwing herself to her knees and taking Sorrowsap’s bony hand. “My brother would want me returned to my people. He seeks me, even now. If you are loyal to him, you will give me succor.”

“So I guess Roiben’s not such a villain anymore?” Kaye asked her. “Now he’s your loving brother?”

Ethine pressed her mouth into a thin line.

“I have no orders to help you,” Sorrowsap said, pulling his fingers from Ethine’s grip. “And little desire to help anyone. I do as I am commanded.”

Ethine rose slowly and Luis grabbed her arm. “I know that you are a great lady and all that, but you have to get in the car now.”

“My brother will hate you if you hurt me,” she told Kaye, her eyes narrowed.

Kaye felt sick, thinking of the last, terrible look he had given her. “Come on, we’re just going on a road trip. We can play I Spy.”

“In. Now,” Luis told her.

Ethine climbed into the backseat and skooched over the cracked vinyl and the crumbling foam. Her face was stiff with fear and fury.

Corny drew a swirl along the hood that turned almost immediately to rust. He didn’t seem to notice that he was standing barefoot on snow. “I’m a murderer.”

“No, you’re not,” said Luis.

“If I’m not a murderer,” asked Corny, “how come I keep killing people?”

“There’s plastic bags here,” said Kaye. She reached into the well of the backseat and fished them out from the piles of empty cola cans and fast-food wrappers. “Put these on until we get gloves.”

“Oh, very well,” Corny said with a lunatic half smile. “Don’t want to wither the steering wheel.”

“You’re not driving,” Luis said.

Kaye wrapped Corny’s hands in the bags and steered him to the passenger side. She jumped into the back, beside Ethine.

Luis started the car and, finally, they were moving. Kaye looked through the rear window, but no faeries seemed to follow. They did not fly overhead, did not swarm down and stop the car.

The hot, iron-soaked air of the heater dulled Kaye’s thoughts, but she forced her eyes open. Each time dizzy slumber threatened to overtake her, terror that the host were almost upon them startled her awake. She kept her eyes on the windows, but it seemed to her that the clouds were dark with wings and all the woods they passed were full of hungry wet mouths.

“What are we going to do now?” Luis asked.

Kaye thought of Roiben’s long fingers knotted in Silarial’s red hair, his hands pulling her down to him.

“Where are we even going?” Corny asked. “Where’s this safe place that we’re in such a rush to get to? I mean, I guess we have a better chance with Roiben than Silarial, but what happens when we give Ethine back? Do you really think Silarial’s going to leave us alone? I killed Adair. I killed him.”

Kaye paused. The enormity of how isolated and helpless they were settled into her bones. They had taken a hostage that both of the courts wanted back, and Silarial needed something that only Kaye knew. There was no secret weapon this time, no mysterious faerie knight to keep her safe. There was only a crappy old car and two humans who hadn’t deserved to get dragged into this. “I don’t know,” she said.

“No such thing as safe,” said Corny. “Just like I said. Not for us. Not ever.”

“There’s no safe for anyone,” Luis said. Kaye was surprised at how calm he sounded.

Ethine moaned in the backseat.

Luis glanced at her in the rearview mirror.

“It’s the iron,” said Corny.

Luis nodded uncomfortably. “I knew it bothered them.”

Corny smirked. “Yeah, watch out. She might puke on you.”

“Shut up,” Kaye said. “She’s sick. She’s not even as used to it as I am.”

“‘Welcome to New Jersey,’” Corny read off the sign. “I guess we can pull over at the next rest stop. Get her some air. We should be in Unseelie land by now.”

Kaye scanned the skies behind them, but there was still no sign that they were being followed. Were they going to be bargained with? Shot with arrows that would burrow into their hearts? Were Silarial and Roiben working together to get Ethine back? They had left the map of what Kaye knew, and she felt as though they were about to fall off the edge of the world.

A gust of fresh, icy wind woke her from her reverie.

They had pulled into a gas station and Luis was getting out. He headed toward the station while Corny started filling the tank. His bag-covered hands slipped, thin plastic tearing. He staggered back in surprise, gasoline splashing the side of the car.

Kaye stumbled out. The air was heady with vapors.

“What happened back there?” she asked him quietly. “You killed Adair? Why?”

“You don’t think I just did it because I could? I killed Nephamael, didn’t I?” Corny shoved the nozzle back into the car.

“Nephamael was already dying,” Kaye said. Her head hurt.

He pushed bag-covered fingers through his hair, hard, like he wanted to tear it out. Then he held his hand out in front of him. “It all happened so fast. Adair was talking to me, being scary, and I was trying to be scary back. Then Luis walked up. Adair grabbed him—he was going on about how Silarial made no promise about Luis being unharmed. He said he should put out Luis’s other eye, and he put his thumb right up against it. And I just—I just grabbed his wrist and shoved him. Then I grabbed his throat. Kaye, when I was in middle school, I got my ass kicked pretty regularly. But the curse—I didn’t have to press very hard. I just held on to him and then he was dead.”

“I’m so—,” Kaye started.

Corny shook his head. “Don’t say you’re sorry. I’m not sorry.”

She leaned her head against his shoulder, breathing in the smell of his familiar sweat. “Then I’m not sorry either,” she said.

Luis walked back from the small store with a pair of lemon yellow dishwashing gloves and flip-flops. Kaye looked down and realized that Corny’s feet were still bare.

“Put these on,” Luis told him, avoiding looking either of them in the face. “There’s a diner across the street. We could get something to eat. I called Dave and he’s going to hide out with a friend in Jersey. I told him to get out of Seelie territory—even if the city is mostly just full of exiles.”

“You should call your mom,” said Corny, pulling out his cell. “Battery’s dead. I can charge it in the diner.”

“We have to get some other clothes at least,” said Kaye. “We’re all dressed crazy. We’re going to stand out.”

Luis peered into the car. Ethine watched him with her knife gray eyes.

“Can’t you guys use glamour?” he asked.

Kaye shook her head. The world swam a little. “I feel like shit. Maybe a little.”

“I don’t think some T-shirts are going to make up for the fact that you’re green,” Luis said, turning around. “Get her out. We’ll take our chances with the diner crowd.”

“Do not presume that you may give orders.” Ethine stepped carefully onto the asphalt and immediately turned to vomit on the wheels. Corny grinned.

“Watch her—she could try to run,” Luis said.

“I don’t know.” Corny frowned. “She looks pretty sick.”

“Wait a minute,” Kaye said. She leaned over to Luis and reached into the pocket of the purple plaid coat he wore—her coat. She pulled out handcuffs lined in fur. After slapping one on Ethine’s wrist, she clasped the other one onto her own.

“What is this?” Ethine objected.

Luis laughed out loud. “You do
not.
” He looked at Corny. “She does
not
have a pair of handcuffs handy in case she happens to take a prisoner.”

“What can I say?” Corny asked.

Ethine shivered. “Everything reeks of filth and iron and rot.”

Corny shouldered off his leather jacket and Ethine took it gratefully, sliding it on over her free arm. “Yeah, Jersey pretty much blows,” he said.

Kaye concentrated, hiding her wings, changing her eyes and the color of her skin. That was all she had energy for. The car ride and the Queen’s ripping off of the human glamour had left her sapped. Ethine had not even bothered to make her own ears less pointed or her features less elegant or inhuman. As they climbed the steps, Kaye considered saying something, but bit her tongue when Ethine shrunk back from the metal on the door. If Kaye felt bad, Ethine probably felt worse.

The outside of the diner was faux stone and beige stucco with a sign on the door proclaiming
TRUCKERS WELCOME
. Someone had sloppily painted the windows with reindeer, Santas, and large wreaths. Inside, they were seated without a second glance by a stout older woman with carefully groomed white hair. Ethine stared at her lined face with undisguised fascination.

Kaye slid into the booth, letting the familiar smell of brewed coffee wash over her. She didn’t care that it stank of iron. This was the world she knew. It almost made her feel safe.

A cute Latino boy handed them their laminated menus and poured their water.

Luis drank it gratefully. “I’m starving. I pretty much finished all my protein bars yesterday.”

“Do you really have more power over us if we eat your food?” Corny asked Ethine.

“We do,” Ethine said.

Luis gave her a dark look.

“So I—,” Corny started, but then he opened his menu, hid his face, and didn’t finish.

“It fades,” Ethine said. “Eat something else. That helps.”

“I have to make a call,” Kaye told Corny.

Corny leaned down to plug the cord into an outlet sitting underneath a painting of happy trees and a moose. He sat back up and handed the slim phone to Kaye. “As long as you don’t jerk it out of the wall, you can use it while it’s charging.”

She dialed her mother’s number, but the phone just rang and rang. No voice mail. No answering machine. Ellen didn’t believe in recorded messages that she would forget to check.

“Mom’s not home,” Kaye said. “We need a plan.”

Corny put his menu down. “How can we make a plan when we don’t know what Silarial’s going to do?”

“We need to do something,” Kaye said. “First. Now.”

“Why?” Luis asked.

“The reason that Silarial wanted me to come to the Seelie Court is because I know Roiben’s true name.”

Ethine looked over at Kaye, eyes wide.

“Oh,” Corny said. “Right. Shit.”

“I managed to deceive her about what his name is for a while, but now she knows I played her.”

“What a typical pixie you are,” Ethine said.

She might have said more, but at that moment the waitress walked over, taking her pen and pad out of her apron. “What can I get you kids? We have an eggnog pancake special still going.”

“Coffee, coffee, coffee, and coffee,” Corny said, pointing around the table.

“A strawberry milkshake,” said Luis. “Mozzarella sticks and a deluxe cheeseburger.”

“How would you like that cooked?” the waitress asked.

Luis looked at her strangely. “Whatever. Just cook it.”

“Steak and eggs,” Corny said. “Meat, burnt. Eggs, over easy. Dry rye toast.”

“Chicken souvlaki on a pita,” Kaye said. “Extra tzatziki sauce for my fries, please.”

Ethine looked at them all blankly and then looked at the menu in front of her. “Blueberry pie,” she said finally.

“You kids been to that Renaissance Faire up in Tuxedo?” the woman asked.

“You guessed it,” said Corny.

“Well, you all look real cute.” She smiled as she gathered their menus.

“How horrible to be dying all your life,” Ethine said with a shudder as the waitress walked away.

“You’re closer to death than she is,” Luis told her. He poured a line of sugar on the table, licked his finger, and ran it through the powder.