Ironside (19 page)

“Traitor,” Corny said.

Luis bent his head back, as far from Corny’s hands as he could get. He swallowed, his eyes wide. “Oh, shit. Neil, please.”

“Please what? With sugar on top? Pretty please, let me fuck you over?”

“They have David. My brother. He didn’t get on the train—he went to them instead. They’ll kill him.”

“Ethine is the only thing keeping us safe,” Corny said. “You can’t trade away our safety.”

“I can’t let them have him,” Luis said. “He’s my
brother.
I thought you’d understand. You said yourself that there was no safe for us.”

“Oh, come on. You thought I’d understand? That’s why you’re sneaking around in the dark. You seem
real sure.
” His bare hand clenched in a fist just inches from Luis’s throat. “Oh, I understand all right. I understand you’d sell us out.”

“That’s not it—,” Luis started. “Please.” Corny could feel Luis’s body tremble beneath him. “My brother is a fuckup—but I can’t stop wanting to save him. He’s my brother.”

Roiben’s words came back to him.
The more powerful you become, the more others will find ways to master you. They’ll do it through those you love and through those you hate.

Corny hesitated, bare hand shaking. Love made him think of Janet, drowned after following a boy out onto the pier. It made him think of being under the hill, kneeling at the feet of a faerie Lord while his sister gulped lungfuls of ocean. It made him think of water closing over his head.

Whatever you loved, that was your weakness.

That didn’t stop Corny from wishing he’d saved his own sister. He saw her sinking deeper and deeper, only this time as he reached out, her fingers rotted away in his hands.

If he’d had a chance, he hoped he’d have done whatever it took to save her. But he knew Luis would have. He looked down at the boy underneath him, at the scars and the piercings and the way his braids had started to fray. Luis was
good
in a way that Corny wasn’t. He didn’t have to force himself to be good. He just was.

Corny pushed himself off Luis, his cursed hand fraying the acrylic of the carpet. He felt cold all over, thinking what he’d almost done. What he’d become. “Go ahead. Take her. Make the trade.”

Luis remained wide-eyed, his breathing ragged. He stood hastily. “I’m sorry,” he told Corny.

“It’s what you have to do,” Corny said.

The key caught what little light there was, gleaming like one of the steel rings piercing Luis’s skin, as he uncuffed Ethine. She gasped, pushing herself up onto her knees and holding out her arms as if she expected to have to fight.

“Your people came for you,” Luis told her.

She rubbed her wrist and said nothing. The shadows made her face look very young, although Corny knew she wasn’t.

He bundled up her clothes with his glove-covered hand.

“I really am sorry,” Luis whispered.

Corny nodded. He felt a hundred years old, tired and defeated.

They crept down the hallway, to the front door. It opened with a creak to reveal three creatures standing in the dirty snow, their faces grave. The foremost of them had the face of a fox and long fingers that tapered into claws.

“Where’s Dave?” Luis asked.

“Give us the Lady Ethine and you shall have him.”

“And you’ll leave us unharmed once we hand her over?” Corny asked. “Dave and Luis and me and Kaye and all our families. You’ll go away and leave us alone.”

“We will.” The fox faery spoke in a monotone.

Luis nodded and let go of Ethine’s arm. She darted out in her bare feet and boxers, standing between the other faeries. One removed a cloak and spread it over Ethine’s shoulders.

“Now give us Dave,” said Luis.

“He is hardly worth your bargaining,” one said. “Do you know how we found you? He led us here for a bag of powder.”

“Just give him to me!”

“As you desire,” said another. He nodded to someone behind the side of the trailer and two more of them stepped out, holding a body between them with a bag over its head.

They set him down on the step. He flopped, head lolling.

Luis took a step forward. “What did you do to him?”

“We killed him,” said a fey with scales along his cheekbones.

Luis froze. Corny could hear his own heartbeat thundering in his blood. Everything seemed very loud. The cars on the road roared by and the wind made the leaves crackle.

Corny crouched and pulled off the cloth bag. Dave’s ashen face looked as though it were made from wax. Dark circles ringed his sunken eyes, and his clothes were wrinkled and filthy. His shoes were gone and his toes looked pale, as if frostbitten.

“My Queen wishes to inform you that your brother lived so long as you were her servant,” said the fox faery. “That was her promise to you. Consider it kept.”

A fierce gust of wind tore the fabric from Corny’s hand and whipped at the cloaks. He closed his eyes against the sting of snow and dirt, but when he opened them, the faeries were gone.

Luis screamed, running out to where they had been, turning. His screaming was raw, terrible. His hands were fists, but there was nothing to strike.

Lights flashed on in the windows of two of the trailers. Corny reached out his gloved hand to touch Dave’s cold cheek. It seemed impossible that they hadn’t saved him. Dead like Janet. Just like Janet.

Corny’s mother came to the door. She had the portable phone in her hand. “You woke up half the—” Then she saw the body. “Oh my god.”

“It’s his brother,” Corny said. “Dave.” That seemed important. Across the street, Mrs. Henderson came to the door and looked out through the glass.

Corny’s stepfather came to the door. “What the hell’s going on?” he demanded. Corny’s mother started punching numbers into the phone. “I’m calling the first aid squad. Don’t move him.”

Luis turned. His face looked blank. “He’s dead.” His voice was hoarse. “We don’t need an ambulance. He’s
dead
.”

Corny stood and stepped toward Luis. He had no idea what to do or say. There were no words that could make things better. He wanted to wrap his arms around Luis, comfort him, remind him he wasn’t alone. As his bare hand moved toward Luis’s shoulder, he looked at it in horror.

Before he could snatch his hand back, Luis caught him around the wrist. His eyes sparkled with tears. One streaked down his face. “Yes, good,” he said. “Touch me. It doesn’t fucking matter now, does it?”

“What?” Corny said. He reached up with his other hand, but Luis seized that, too, fingers scrabbling to pull off the rubber glove.

“I want you to touch me.”

“Stop it,” Corny shouted, struggling to move away, but Luis’s grip was unyielding.

Luis pressed Corny’s palm to his cheek. His tears wet Corny’s fingers. “I really did want you to touch me,” he said softly, and the longing in his voice was a surprise. “I couldn’t tell you that I wanted you. So good, now I get what I want and it kills me.”

Corny fought him. “Stop it! Don’t!”

Luis’s fingers were stronger, pinning Corny’s hand in place. “I want to,” he said. “There’s no one to care what I do anymore.”

“Stop! I fucking care!” Corny shouted, then abruptly went still. The skin of Luis’s face wasn’t bruised or wrinkled where his bare hand touched it. Luis let go of Corny’s wrists with a sob.

Corny ran his finger reverently over the curve of Luis’s cheekbone, painting with his tears. “Running water,” Corny said. “Salt.”

Their eyes met. Somewhere in the distance a siren wailed closer, but neither of them looked away.

Kaye saw the flashing lights from a block away. She sprinted onto the gravel street of the trailer park just as the ambulance pulled out. Neighbors stood on their patchy snow-covered lawns in robes or coats hastily thrown over nightclothes. The door to Corny’s trailer was shut, but the lights were on inside. Lutie hovered above Kaye, darting back and forth, her wings beating as fast as Kaye’s heart.

It seemed to Kaye that there were no right decisions anymore, only endless wrong ones.

She pulled open the door to the trailer and stopped, seeing Corny’s mother pouring hot water out of a kettle. Her husband sat on one of the armchairs, a cup balanced on his leg. His eyes were closed and he was snoring faintly.

“Kaye? What are you doing here?” Mrs. Stone asked. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“I—,” Kaye started. A slight breeze signaled Lutie’s blowing into the room. The little faery alighted on top of a Captain Kirk bust, causing one of the cats to take a swipe at it.

“I called her,” Corny said. “She knew Dave.”

Knew
Dave. Knew. Kaye turned to Luis, who was gripping his cup so tightly that his fingers looked pale. Papers rested on the floor beside him, a scattered stack of photocopied forms. She noticed his reddened eyes. “What happened?”

“Luis’s brother overdosed on our steps.” Mrs. Stone shuddered, looking like she might be sick.

“They couldn’t pronounce him dead because they’re just volunteers, but they took him to the hospital.”

Kaye looked toward Corny for an explanation, but he just shook his head. She sank down on the linoleum floor until she was sitting with her back to the wall.

Mrs. Stone put down her mug in the sink. “Corny, can I talk to you for a minute?”

He nodded and followed her down the hall.

“What really happened?” Kaye asked Luis, her voice low. “He didn’t overdose, did he? Where’s Ethine?”

“I bargained with a faery to save Dave’s life a long time ago. After my dad shot him. I tried to take care of him, like a big brother’s supposed to—keep him out of trouble—but I didn’t do such a good job. He got into more trouble. That meant more bargains for me.”

Dread settled into the marrow of Kaye’s bones.

“When I called at that rest stop, he went right to them,” Luis said. “He traded where I was at for more Never. Even though he’s burnt up his insides with it. Even though I’m his brother. And you know what? I’m not even surprised. It’s not even the first time. So now he’s dead and I should feel something, right?”

“But how did he die—,” Kaye started.

“I’m
relieved.
” His words were a lash turned on himself. “Dave’s dead and I feel relieved. Now, what does that make me?”

Kaye wondered if everyone felt like there was a monster underneath their skin.

Corny and his mother walked back into the room. He had his arm around her and was speaking softly. Kaye cried out at the sight of his bare hand on her arm, but the cloth under his hand was neither unraveled nor discolored.

“Sorry,” she said, realizing how loud she’d been.

Luis looked around as though he’d just woken from a dream. He got awkwardly to his feet.

Corny’s mom rubbed her face. “I’m going to wake up Mitch. You three go on and get what sleep you can.”

Kaye stopped Corny in the hallway. “Is she okay?”

He shook his head. “We missed Christmas, you know. My mom’s been going crazy thinking about Janet and not knowing where I was. I feel like an ass. And now this.”

Kaye thought back to the handful of unopened presents sitting under the tree at her grandmother’s. “Oh,” she said, and caught his warm, dry fingers. He didn’t pull away from her. “What about the curse?”

“Later,” he said. “War council in my room.”

Kaye flopped on top of the tangled sheets of his bed, kicking her feet off one end. Luis sat on the floor and Corny sprawled beside him, close enough that their legs touched.

Lutie flew in, landing on Corny’s computer. Luis must not have noticed her before, because he jumped up like a snapped cord.

“It’s just Lutie-loo,” Kaye said. “Don’t freak.”

Luis looked at the little faerie with suspicion. “Fine, just…just keep it—her—away from me right now.”

“Kaye, here’s the summary-in-ten-seconds version of what you missed,” Corny said quickly. “The Seelie Court wanted to trade Luis’s brother for Ethine. We traded, but Dave was already dead. They’d killed him.”

“And the curse?” Kaye asked.

“It got…accidentally removed,” said Luis. He looked down at the threads of the carpet, and Kaye could see a worn patch that she didn’t remember.

She nodded, since clearly neither of them wanted to talk about it. Lutie had crawled down onto the keyboard and was perched on a cell phone cradle.

“It’s weird,” Corny said, resting his head on his knee. “Silarial was looking for Ethine but not you. She could have sent her people to swoop down out of the sky and grab you, or at least try.”

“Maybe Sorrowsap is still watching over Kaye,” said Luis.

Corny made a face. “Okay, but if you were the Seelie Queen and your plan was to use Roiben’s name, would you waste your time getting one of your courtiers back?”

“He’s right,” Kaye said. “It doesn’t make any sense. Killing Dave…” She glanced quickly at Luis. “It’s like she’d already gotten everything she wanted. She had time for pettiness.”

“So Silarial needs Ethine? What for?” Corny asked.

Luis frowned. “Didn’t you say that Ethine would get the throne if Roiben won the duel?”

Kaye nodded. “He said something about how his sister would probably just hand back the crown, since she’s so loyal. Maybe Silarial needs her to do that? I mean, it was odd that Silarial agreed to that bargain in the first place.”

“I don’t know,” Corny said. “If there was even a chance I had to forfeit my crown, I’d be pretty happy if the person I had to give it to went missing. Of course, my crown would have lots of rhinestones spelling out ‘tyrant’ so not everyone would want to steal it either.”

Kaye snorted. “Idiocy aside, you’re right. You’d think she’d
want
Ethine dead.”

“Maybe she does,” Luis said.

“So, what, Silarial kills her and puts the blame on us? I don’t know….”

They sat in silence as the moments ticked by. Corny yawned while Luis stared at the wall, bright-eyed. Kaye imagined Talathain dueling Roiben, his sister grim-faced on the sidelines, the Queen smiling as though she’d eaten the last tart off the tray, Ruddles and Ellebere watching. There was something she was missing, something that was right in front of her.

She stood up with a gasp. “Wait! Wait! Who is Roiben fighting?”

Luis squinted up at her. “Well, we’re not sure. I guess Silarial’s knight or whatever courtier she thinks can kick his ass. Whoever’s going to wield her secret weapon.”

“Remember what we were talking about in the diner—how it seemed like Roiben had a good chance at beating Talathain? How it all seemed too simple?” Kaye shook her head, the thrill of discovery fading to a jittery nausea.

Corny nodded.

“I don’t think there is a secret weapon,” Kaye said. “No armor, no unbeatable swordsman. Getting his true name out of me—she never needed it.”

Luis opened his mouth and then shut it again.

“I don’t get what you’re saying.” Corny said.

“Ethine.” Kaye said, feeling like the name was a slap. “Silarial’s going to make Roiben fight Ethine.”

“But…Ethine’s not a knight,” Luis said. “She couldn’t even get away from us. She can’t fight.”

“That’s the point,” said Kaye. “There is no contest of skill. If he doesn’t murder his own sister, Roiben dies. He has to choose between killing her and killing himself.”

She wanted to stay angry with Roiben, to hang on to the feeling of betrayal so that it pushed back all her hurt, but at that moment she couldn’t help pitying him for loving Silarial. Maybe more than she pitied herself for still loving him.

“That’s…” Corny stopped.

“And if he’s gone, there’ll be no one to stop Silarial from doing whatever she wants to whoever she wants,” Luis said.

“And charm an army of endless people,” Kaye said. “Scores of frozen sentries.”

“You were a distraction,” Luis said. “A red herring. Keep Roiben looking at you, wondering if Silarial’s going to get his true name, so he doesn’t notice what’s right in front of him.”

“Neither fish nor fowl,” Kaye said softly. “Good red herring. That’s right, isn’t it? Kind of funny. That’s what I was. A good red herring.”

“Kaye,” Corny said. “It’s not your fault.”

“We have to warn him,” she said, pacing the room. She didn’t want to admit that it bothered her that she wasn’t going to be carried off for the Tithe, she wasn’t the key, she wasn’t even important. She’d just made things worse for Roiben, distracted him. Silarial had played them both.

“We don’t even know where he is,” said Corny. “The hollow hill in the graveyard isn’t even hollow anymore.”

“But we know where he will be,” she said. “Hart Island.”

“Tomorrow night. At this point, basically later today.” Corny walked over to his computer and jiggled the mouse, then typed in a few words. “It’s an island off of New York, apparently. With a giant graveyard. And a prison—although I don’t think it’s in use. And—oh, perfect—it’s completely illegal to go there.”

All three of them slept squished into Corny’s bed, with him in the middle, his arm over Kaye’s back, and Luis’s head pillowed on his shoulder. When he woke, it was late in the afternoon. Kaye was still curled up beside him, but Luis sat on the rug, speaking softly into Corny’s cell phone.

Luis said something about “ashes” and “afford,” but he shook his head when he saw Corny watching, and then turned to the wall. Padding past, Corny went out to the kitchen and turned on the coffeepot. He should have been worried. They were hours from heading into danger. Still, as he measured out the grounds, a smile spread over his face.

He immediately felt guilty. He shouldn’t be so happy when Luis was mourning his brother. But he was.

Luis liked him. Luis. Liked. Him.

“Hey,” Kaye said, scrubbing her hand through her tangled hair. She’d stolen one of his T-shirts and it hung on her like a dress. She grabbed a blue cup out of the cabinet. “Here’s to the sweet balm of coffee.”

“By the grace of which we’ll accomplish the task before us.”

“Do you think we will?” Kaye asked. “I don’t know if Roiben will even listen to me.”

The coffeepot gave a death rattle, and Corny poured three cups. “I do. He will. Honest. Drink up.”

“So…you and Luis?” Her mug almost hid her grin.

He nodded. “I mean, not now with everything happening, but yeah.”

“I’m glad.” Her smile faded. “You don’t have to go tonight. I’m not trying to be a martyr; it’s just that with Luis losing his brother and you guys having something…This is my problem. They’re my people.”

He shrugged and put his arm around her shoulder. “Yeah, well, you’re my problem. You’re my people.”

She leaned her head against him. Even just risen from bed, she smelled like grass and earth. “What about your fear of megalomaniacal fiends? I didn’t think our recent trip was the ticket to getting over that.”

He felt crazy with confidence. Luis liked him. His curse was gone. Everything seemed possible. “Let’s get the fiends before the fiends get us.”

Luis came out of the bedroom, closing the phone against his chest. “I saw your mom this morning. She said that she wanted to talk to you when she got home from work. I didn’t tell her anything.”

Corny nodded, reminding himself to seem calm. Reminding himself not to kiss Luis. He hadn’t brushed his teeth and it didn’t seem like great timing anyway. Luis was probably feeling grim.

“I’ll leave a note. Then we’d better go. Luis, if you have to stay here and sort out stuff—”

“What I need is to stop Silarial from hurting anyone else.” He looked Corny dead in the eye, as if daring him to act pitying.

“Okay,” Kaye said. “We’re all in. Now what we need is a map and a boat.”

“Hart Island is in the Long Island Sound, off of City Island, which is off of the Bronx. But it isn’t exactly within paddling distance.” Corny held out a mug to Luis. When he took it, their fingers brushed, and he felt a different kind of power.

“So we could get a boat with a motor,” Kaye said. “There’s a boating store on Route 35. I could turn a pile of leaves into money. Or we could find a marina up there to filch a boat from.”

Luis busied himself adding sugar to his coffee. “I’ve never steered a boat or read a navigational chart. Have you?”

Kaye shook her head, and Corny had to admit that he hadn’t either.

“There’s mermaids in the East River,” said Luis. “Probably in the Sound, too. I don’t know much about them, but if they don’t want us to get to Hart Island, they could pitch us into the water. They’ve got vicious teeth.”

Corny shuddered at the thought. His mind went to Janet, held underneath the waves by a delighted kelpie. “We could trade them something, maybe,” he said. “They might drag us there for a price.”